Home to D.C. for a Bayram Thanksgiving

Turks know the importance of a good holiday, or bayram, in Turkish.  There have already been three holidays of different sorts since my arrival here at the beginning of September.  For the first Bayram, I went to the town of Alanya in the south, and the next two were consumed by work.  For the big Fall Bayram, my mom kindly offered to bring me home for an early Thanksgiving.

One cool thing about flying Westward is that the sunrise is following you, making it seem as if, well, the sunrise is following you....

Amsterdam was the point of connection for my flight home, and while there wasn't enough time to venture out into the city, I made due entertaining myself in the airport.  First I stumbled upon a grocery store, which of course intrigued me in the interest of observing culinary differences between Istanbul and Amsterdam.  And what did I find?  A diverse amalgamation of international cuisine, all very difficult to find in Turkiye...

bratwurst



Ayran, a slightly salty Turkish drink



Asian food!

 

a maple syrup section

peanut butter! a difficult find in Turkey...

mushy, not-very-appetizing-looking salads...

mmmm beer....

 


And then there were clothing stores...

 

my first Christmas tree of the season!

And then, back to D.C....

On the Amsterdam-D.C. flight, I sat next to a Turkish man going to Bethesda to visit his son and grandkids.  I was surprised at how happy I was to speak Turkish with him.  It oddly helped my transition from Turkey back to the U.S....

The first thing I saw as we came in to land were the beautiful Fall colors in the Virginia countryside.  Istanbul is rather pretty in the Fall, but I really miss the vibrant colors of the New England Fall, and was pleasantly surprised by just how vibrant the colors in D.C. were this Fall.

 

First things first, after unpacking, and by unpacking I mean throwing my bags on the floor and digging through them, I put one foot in front of the other, in a very jet-lagged fashion, to a concert that my friend Paul's band, Metrorail, was having at Chief Ike's in Adams Morgan.  The concert was awesome, or at least, what little I could process of it through my jetlagged-haze.



All should go check out a Metrorail concert. http://www.metrorailreggaerock.com
(photo by Austin Purnell.)

Another really talented and wonderful band to go see is the group "Ramzy and the Brothers Handsome".  Also based in D.C., three of my fellow Sidwell grads started the band, and I was lucky enough to be in town for one of their shows this week.  Their sound totally mellowed me out and I was blown away by how much they have worked on their musical craft since high school, not that they weren't amazing in high school!  Just check them out...they have pretty regular concerts on U St.

Second things first! After necessary trips to the Verizon store and a physical therapist to help me with my marathon-training injuries (yuck), I made another necessary trip to my doctor's office.  Now when I say doctor, I mean doctor, but I also mean pediatrician.  Yes, I still go to my pediatrician, and as much as you all may chide me for that, I tell you he has been in the business for 5 decades - he knows what he is doing.  And if his eyesight starts(continues?) to fade, he always has a peppy third year med student who is learning the ropes on call to assist with the check-ups.


On this particlar day that I had scheduled an appointment, my good friend Megan, (popularly referred to as "Mega" by our friend group) was that third year med student on call.  That's right, Mega, my friend who is always up for (always healthy) fun, was in charge of assessing my physical health.  She measured me, took blood, gave me a TB test, assessed my eyesight, the whole shabang.  And if you ask her who was a better sport about needles that day; me or the 9 year old before me, she will definitely say ME. no question. (and my nose grows bigger and bigger...)

I couldn't find a picture of Mega in her scrubs, so here she is after just having finished the Marine Corps marathon this year, which she ran to raise money for MS.  Doesn't she look responsible? Well, as giving as she is, she can be quite heartless.  She pricked my finger and stole blood. 


And then there was Barnaby...too emotional of a subject for me to get into in public :)

Moving on! For about a month before my return, my dear friend D and I had been planning a cooking-fest that would hail all things Americana Fall.  The menu was decided in advance of my return:

Spicy Squash Salad with lentils and Goat Cheese,



photo by Smitten Kitchen

Haricots Verts (string beans!)



photo by Smitten Kitchen

Cabbage, Kale and Mushroom Galette,



photo by Smitten Kitchen

Spiced Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Frosting Layer Cake



The meal was a great success, and it was much fun to cook with D, who accomodated my aversion to chopping onions and juicing lemons (due to a terrible cuticle-picking habit).  Thank you, D, and thank you friends for coming over and sharing the feast with us.

Aside from cooking with and for friends, we had a BIG, early Thanksgiving meal.  Twenty-two people were in attendance, which is quite a large group compared to our usual five.  Big Thanksgivings are officially awesome, and I never want a small one again.  We doubled tables, tripled recipes and quadrupled our belt buckles.  I was too busy cooking to take pictures, this will never happen again.

Having an early Thanksgiving also made me realize that it doesn't matter what day the Holiday is celebrated on, we had family come in and friends come over and celebrate as if it were the "real" day.  My grandparents drove down from Pittsburgh, and Tim, my honorary father flew from Cleveland just to be there.  Interestingly, the people on either side of Tim on his flight were both flying in for their own early Thanksgivings, apparently this is something people do....

One thing I was really looking forward to while being back were my hometown eats.  The usual hotspots were visited; my favorite and the best, cheap sushi place in D.C. - Yosaku, of course Chipotle was a designation.  Last but not least I went to Sweetgreen with my dear friends Andrea and Kirsten, who I spent a semester abroad with in Turkey - so they understood me when I expressed "Istanbul seviyorum, ama çok, çok büyükşehir!!!!"




Kirsten and Andrea, at Krak des Chevaliers in Syria


After our nice salads, Andrea and Kirsten introduced me to Baked and Wired, at which I felt instant pangs of jealousy towards the founder for setting up such a place before I could.  Baked and Wired is a very cool bakery and coffeeshop in Georgetown on Thomas Jefferson St., that makes delicious and wholesome treats.  They use my favorite, New Hampshire brand King Arthur Flour in all their products, and are very outspoken about their desire to well be "baked and wired".  You an read into it what you like...I got the vanilla cake with chocolate satin icing...

Besides indulging in all of the aforementioned food, a lot of activities involving nature were had.  Various lovely dog walks, bike rides, and runs took place.  On a lovely evening, Camila and I went for a walk with our pups around her neighborhood, and we suveyed the local real estate and Fall vegetation...

photos coming...

All in all, it was wonderful to be home, though definitely strange to encounter the culture clash so suddenly - both ways.  Coming back to Istanbul after the Bayram was actually quite tough for the first day or two, but I quickly realized that I have a home here too now.  so it's good to be home...weird...:)