Video of Turkish Dance

Turkish Wedding

Hi everyone! I went to Dwayne and Shebnam's Turkish wedding last night. It was more of a reception. The only formal part of the ceremony was where the family tied a sash around the bride's waist indicating she is a virgin and the father of the bride tied a necklace around the bride's neck bestowing wealth on their marriage. The rest was just eating and dancing. There is a traditional Turkish dance where people dance in a circle holding pinkies. There seems to be no set steps, you just have to follow the person beside you and hope for the best. At one point, some of the wedding party threw little bags of money on the bride and groom while they danced, then the kids ran around and picked them up. I'm told by some of the Turks, this wedding was extremely lavish when it comes to Turkish weddings. Enjoy the pics.

The Kemeralti and the Wedding Coin

Michelle and I went down to the Kemeralti this weekend to scout out some Turkish treasures. Just as we were done shopping we happened to run into Mustafa. If you recall in a previous trip to the Kemeralti, we followed Mustafa into some strange alley ways and ended up on an awesome tour of a Mosque and then happened on a "great price" for a couple of Turkish rugs back at "his" rug store. It was a nice surprise to see him and he helped us find a merchant to sell us a gold coin for a wedding I'm attending in October. It's customary here to pin a gold coin on the wedding dress of a new bride as a gift. Later, when the bride and groom need money, they can return the gold coin to any gold merchant and sell it back for only a 2 YTL loss ($1.80). Of course the coins are expensive and super tiny. You can tell it's size compared to the penny but it is also super thin. BTW, in case you were wondering, attached to the ribbon on the coin is a Nazar Boncuk or "Evil Eye". After the gold merchant, Mustafa carried us back to the carpet store...luckily they didn't try to sell us any rugs. Anyway, just thought I would share.

Liberation Day Parade - Air Show - Fireworks

Here's some pictures of the Turkish Liberation Day Parade and the Air Show. The Fireworks are part of the Liberation Day events and the pictures are shot from our balcony.

Promotion Ceremony

Hey everyone. We just thought we would post some pictures of the promotion ceremony. It turned out great. The cake was a little different (banana chocolate) but everyone ate it. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for your kind emails/myspace posts and support. We miss you all.

Izmir

Michelle and I went to the market a couple of weeks ago. I think my Turkish needs a little work, I ended up with a half a kilo of Jalapeno peppers. Am I crazy, or is that a lot of peppers?

We took the bus to the NATO garrison today and I showed Michelle my office. We also went to the Izmir International Fair. Not much was open yet but we did sit and watch a Salsa Dancing Competition.

Sardis Trip

Michelle and I went on the Sardis Trip. Funny story because we always thought that the seven churches of Revelations were actual churches. Wrong. They were actually just congregations that met at the houses of one of the wealthy members. Anyway, Sardis was the sight of one of the churches mentioned in Revelations chapter 3. After the temple of Artemis, we did an hour hike up the side of the hill to see Acropolis. Michelle hurt her ankle about 3/4 of the way up and had to go back down. There's wasn't too much to see except a few remaining walls and a nice view. After Acropolis we went to lunch at a Turkish restaurant famous for it's köfte, or meatballs. Then we went to the Roman baths and gymnasium. You can see remains of the old roman shops and the jewish synagogue located at the same site. We were a little disappointed to find that some of the structures had been rebuilt in the 70s. They took some of the original materials and reconstructed the sight to give you an idea of what it would have looked like. The gymnasium is actually a large empty field where the guys would workout in the nude. I spared you the visual in the picture though. Michelle thought the sign for the toilets at the restaurant was pretty funny and I have to admit that I laughed too. The trip was great but we were exhausted by the time we got back to Izmir.