Yesterday, I departed from Istanbul and arrived by 6.5 hour bus ride to the small, western city of Balikesir. The funniest part of the voyage was when I woke up half-way through the trip and saw the sea all around me out the window. Groggy and confused, it took awhile for me to comprehend that I was on a ferry!
Tonight I cooked my first meal in Turkey: Moroccan vegetable stew with couscous, grilled eggplant with garlic, baked French Fries, and Peach Cobbler for dessert. I had plenty of helping hands from my new, temporary flatmates: Ana from Sevilla, Kata from Hungary and Tati from the Ukraine. Another multi-cultural dinner with guests from Turkey, France, Latvia and Estonia...all volunteers here at the University of Balikesir. We had an impressive abundance of red wine and played silly games that I borrowed from summer camp...very fun!
I heard a wise quote from a Latvian girl tonight, which was "Shit happens in life, even a bad experience is an experience." I found that attitude very reassuring!
I also heard a Turkish saying which was tossed my way as a compliment from one Turkish guy to the other, hours after dinner was served and I pulled a tray of hot, homemade fries out of the oven as a late-night snack at about 3am. He said, "May God bless Cara's hands."
And somehow, it made me chuckle to myself, remembering that in Portuguese, my name means "face". In other words, "May God bless the hands of face."
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