This past weekend we had a double party that we had been planning for over a week in advance! We celebrated Adnan’s birthday (his girl friend Amber organized it) and Selim being sent off to the military (I made sure this celebration happened). This entry is more or less a few pictures. The whole evening was great. My flight from the Ukraine was delayed so much that I went straight to the restaurant from the airport, which was a pain in the ass, but it was worth it.
A note about the Turkish military: military service is mandatory. This seems to be the one thing in Turkey that money cannot get you out of. Everyone goes. The service is one year. If you have a college education you can only serve six months as a soldier or one year as an officer. In general the military is described as boring, depressing and incredibly inefficient (I explained the oxymoron ‘military intelligence’ to my friends here and they all thought this was very funny and very true). The worst part about the military is getting sent to the east where the PKK (the Kurdish terrorist organization) is very active and has been fighting against the Turkish military for 30 years. Many people are afraid of being sent to this part of Turkey.
This was the group at the party. From the left starting with those people that are sitting down: I don’t know, I don’t know, Sedef (Ant’s girl friend), Ant, Izel, Tahsin, Erman, Me, Selim, Mieria (sp?)(Selim’s girl friend), don’t know, don’t know, Dilek (Ali Emre’s girl friend) and Ali Emre. Standing up from the left is Mehtin, Amber (Adnan’s girl friend), Adnan and Izzy. The place was perfect for a nice dinner party.
The men of the hour, Selim and Adnan at the center. Mehtin is on the right and Adnan’s girl friend Amber is on the left.
The top of this cake says something along the lines of “our great soldier Selim.†The bottom says “Happy birthday Adnan.†This cake was bought by Izel, Mehtin and Izzy, who have one thing in common; they are all Jewish. They were very proud of the fact that they were able to buy only one cake with both messages on it. It was pointed out to them that they should have stood one plate up in the middle with writing on both sides to save even more money. They love to joke about the Jewish stereotype.
After the dinner party we ditched the girls or they ditched us? Only Ant’s girl friend Sedef came with us. Tradition told us that we had to drive around honking our horns (didn’t actually do this), get Selim very drunk, sing “Em buyuk asker bizim asker†(Our great soldier is the best soldier?), and carry him on our shoulders. It was so much fun! (from the left, bottom row: Izel, Selim, Me, Izzy, top row: Ant, Erman, Tahsin).
From the left: Izel, Selim, Me, Erman and Izzy (Erman and Izzy are my usual running crew. They live really close to each other so I seem them all the time. Izel and Selim I met through gaming.
From the left, Izzy, Izel, Selim, Erman and Tahsin.
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