Not satisfied with wrecking havoc over our weekend, Yusef’s hateful little sedan decided to ruin Monday morning for me as well. This time it wouldn’t even start for us. Andrew’s hypothesis was that the radiator had cracked on Sunday night. I didn’t care. I would never be getting anywhere near that God-forsaken automobile ever again. In order to get into school I sat on a rock in a field for 30 minutes waiting for dolmuş #50 to wander past. I was 50 minutes late for class. Moral of the story: never buy a car, trust the bus.
Speaking of antique equipment breaking down at inconvenient times, our washing machine bit the dust this weekend too. It is refusing to drain the water out of the wash basin, and being a side-load washer, the floor will flood if we open the door. Nuri was made aware of the problem and said he would fix it, but if it is not repaired by Saturday I will be doing my wash in the bathtub.
Despite the rough start, this week has been rather uneventful by Turkish standards. I go to Tömer in the morning, Paul’s Place in the afternoons, and back to çallı for the evening. The Tömer clases thus far have been wildly successful, I am learning Turkish very quickly. (translation: çok hızlı Türkçe öğreniyorum.) I can only hope that I can retain all of this language in the future. When I am not slaving away conjugation Turkish verbs Andrew has me addicted to a new ABC show called “Eli Stone” that we have been watching on his computer.
I have also been making the rounds in Turkish supermarkets. Acre-sized grocery stores are all the rage right now in Antalya. There are around seven of these stores spread across the city and they are essentially the same thing as Family Fare or Kroger. Once I have made it past the metal detector, I feel closer to America than I have felt since I got off the plane. There are two such stores occupying the same city block are about 5 a minute walk from our apartment and Andrew and go there often to scavenge for food. The fresh foods pale in comparison to what you can purchase at the local baazars but it is a great place to go and grab some chips and Schweppes Bitter Lemon to snack on before bed.
The free time has also given me the opportunity to cultivate my Tavela (backgammon) skills. Turkey loves Tavela like Americans like hamburgers. All you need to open a café in Turkey are tables, chairs, çay (tea) and a big stack of Tavela boards. I have discovered that there is a certain finesse involved in playing Tavela. You can tell how good a player is by how quickly and gracefully they rearrange the pieces on the board. Anna Kate Bultema is one such player. Even though I managed to win the one game I played against her, I felt like I had hit a lucky hole-in-one against the Tiger Woods of Tavela. Next time we play I will undoubtedly loose, but at least I won’t look like a novice in process.
This weekend I have nothing planned save a cookout at the Reynold’s place on Sunday. I hear Yusef’s car is still sitting disabled along the road in front of the house. If I keep 10 meters away from it at all times I am hoping it will not cause me any more trouble.
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