Antalya'da

After leaving Misa and Robin in Manavgat, I went to Antalya and from there took a bus to Kumluca in the southwest of the Antalya region. The bus ride there was absolutely amazing. There were mountains that ran right into the sea. However, I did not want to be that guy who just takes tons of pictures of everything so I just enjoyed it. When I got to Kumluca I met up with my friends Deniz and Cengiz. They were visiting relatives. They have a lot of uncles and we were visiting them one or two at a time.

Something about Kumluca... It is a city filled with farmers because it is where a lot of the fruit in Turkey is grown. We stayed for a short while at one uncle's house, which was a small farmhouse. I found it to be very cozy. Sure it was a simple place but it had its charm and was to me very comfortable. I found myself thinking it was the kind of house that I would like to live in one day. Anyway, since I was a guest, my friends' relatives constantly wanted me to sample various fruits, which by the way were all delicious. I was only in Kumluca at nighttime, but I could tell that it was a lively place; it was southerly, but with almost no tourists in the summertime for lack of a good beach. Anyway, it is definitely a place I would like to see again.

When we returned to Antalya, I met more relatives of Deniz and Cengiz, including their eight year old cousin, Alp. He was shy at first but then he went and got his English practice booklet and I helped him with some of the word games and exercises in it. The next day, Alp had soccer practice at the local Antalyaspor training ground. In the picture, Alp is the goal keeper. While he was playing, I was on the sideline where there was a small practice goal. A little boy named Berke asked if I would play with him. We played several mini soccer matches. He was really cute and called me Abi. Also, as a way of passing the time at the soccer place, Deniz and I made up a chant to show our support for Alp. It went like "Alp!.....Kalk!.....Oyna!...Kurtar!, senin için atar.... bu kalp!....Alp!...." Of course we were the only passionate supporters present at these scrimmages between different teams of single-digit-aged kids.

I met many of my friends' relatives and friends. In fact, I even met the father of one of Deniz's friends, Zafer. I had met Zafer maybe a month or two earlier and I never thought I would meet his dad in Antalya, but that happened.

My days in Antalya were days that I heard more Turkish than any other time in my life. For a couple of days I was tagging along to family reunions of sorts and I tried to maintain a low profile by not trying to find a place in the conversation and just listening. I mention this though because the feeling of hearing a different language all day long was sort of eerie at times. Don't misunderstand me, I enjoyed it very much. In many ways it was comfortable as well because I was not expected to follow along or contribute. At no moment would someone ask me a question with the expectation that I knew anything relevent to the conversation leading up to the question. I found relaxation in hearing Turkish around me but just being able to listen. These days while I sit at my apartment back in the states and recall all of this I find myself seeking refuge from the monotony by playing Turkish music and occasionly television shows in the background to help recreate the comfort of that environment.

One other thing that I want to address here is something that people have asked me a lot about since my return, which is how I was received abroad as an American. Really, it was no different this time (with Obama about to take office) than last time (when America's reputation abroad was probably at an all-time low). People treated me the same, but I have to mention that people were interested in my opinion of Obama. One of Deniz's uncles (the one in the photo on the left) asked me if I voted for Obama. I said "of course", to which he was very pleased. Then I thought, any American that you meet at a family reunion dinner at your brother-in-law's house in the south of Turkey in the winter who was born before 1990 will have voted for Obama. Anyway, I found myself wishing I had made the shirt I thought to make before my trip. I wanted to sew a shirt that said "Obama'ya oy verdim." ...which of course means "I voted for Obama." It would have told anybody in Turkey who saw me wearing it just about everything they might want to know about me (that I'm American, and that I voted the way they would have voted if they could have).

After a few days in Antalya, I said goodbye to Deniz, Cengiz, and their family and took a bus northward through the mountains to Aydın, one of my favorite cities from the trip last year.