Dressing up the Digs

Hello, everyone!

All right, so, first off I would to offer a most sincere apology for the radio silence that characterized most of November. After the Antalya and birthday extravaganzas, many more exciting things continued to transpire, but the time/will/internet access to document them online did not always present itself at the correct times.

And, unfortunately, this post is not actually to catch you up on all of that. There is some serious photographic evidence that I believe is essential to presenting the delightful and individually entertaining tales of a late Thanksgiving celebration spent in Amasya and the Hamsi Festival of last week that we were fortunate to be able to share with another visiting American. So, those posts are to come, I promise. But Ali is in Istanbul this weekend playing ultimate frisbee with her peeps, and with her goes access to her camera...which has all of said photographic evidence on its memory card. Sooooo...feeling guilty and also full of Christmas spirit, and remembering that I have never shared the details of my accommodation (which, God-willing, will not be my accommodation much longer)...I bring you a delightful interlude all about my humble abode and how I have tried to bring it Christmas!

So, let's begin with the tale of how we three ETAs from America (haha, get the Three Kings reference? No? Eh...that's okay...there was very little buildup and no music...) ended up staying at the lovely Koru Tesisleri, the old university guest house. Oooh, you know, I really should take a picture of the outside...but that would mean getting up and going outside, and since I've already spent an hour this morning taking photographs of things pertaining to this oh-so-interesting documentary on where I live...I may just have to share an exterior photograph with you later. I DO, though, have pictures of the exterior of where I will be living--hopefully--within the month.

Now, don't let the phrase "guest house" fool you. The Koru Tesisleri (the old one; the new guest house is ALSO called the Koru Tesisleri...yeah, that's not confusing at ALL for taxi drivers/bus service people...) is a hotel, not a house. Rooms have beds, a private bathroom, a desk, a wardrobe, a television, and a refrigerator. Initially we heard we'd be staying here for a month, then moving somewhere else, whether that would be an apartment nearby or the housing for Erasmus (international) students that they're refurbishing nearby. Well, Ali and I decided that this Erasmus place sounded like a pretty good deal, since where we live right now is super convenient for getting to classes, and the Erasmus building is LITERALLY next door. In fact, from my room on the corner of the Koru, I have a great view of the construction:

View out one window...doesn't look finished, does it?

View out another window.

Yes, so, though this was originally supposed to be finished in October...the construction company's contract goes until the end of December. So, you know what that means. Turkish Time. Now, there's something you have to understand about Turkish Time. Sometimes, when hard deadlines are involved, people might spend the first weeks, even months of something like this sitting around smoking and drinking tea. That is, in fact, exactly what these guys spent a lot of their time doing back in September and October. But now someone has lit a fire under their butts. At the beginning of December, things still looked pretty dismal. There was NO way, we said, that we would be moving into this place by the new year. And yet...I have learned something about Turkish Time:

It sometimes produces Turkish miracles.

I woke up one morning last week to see that suddenly all of the empty, post-apocalyptic-looking windows had suddenly been filled with frames. The tiny balconies had suddenly been tiled. Wait. Something was actually HAPPENING! Within the next couple of days, the roof had been completely covered. There were wires sticking out of the holes in the walls. Then window frames went into the stairwell. Men were sanding things, scraping scary-looking vines off of the outside walls.

NO WAY THIS IS TURKEY HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING COULD WE REALLY POSSIBLY MOVE INTO THIS PLACE AFTER CHRISTMAS?!!!

Call me optimistic, call me naive. But I never lost hope. I longingly checked up on the progress of the building next door for so long, all the time keeping my fingers crossed that maybe, just maybe, the construction guys would come through, and we would have ourselves a bonafied Turkish miracle. Well, as anyone who's ever procrastinated can attest, putting things off 'til the last second doesn't mean it doesn't get done. In fact, sometimes, in those wee hours of your all-nighter, you realize that you've actually had a stroke of genius, and you owe it all to your half-dead, sleep-deprived brain. The paper you get back is the best you've ever written, and you treasure that grade for the rest of your life.

Of course, sometimes what you slap together is absolute poop, but let's keep with the optimism, okay?

So that's where we're headed. But what about where we are?

After the first month had passed, I was getting pretty antsy. I had more than one breakdown because of my inability to cook my own food, what with having no kitchen. Ali and I consulted one another, and decided the time had come. We caved and bought a hot plate. That little electric stove top (eh...really an imitation of a stove top that can't actually live up to the real thing) has been a live-saver. We began with toast. Then we cooked some tuna mac and cheese (with Turkish kaşar cheese, not with cheddar, unfortunately). We began to slowly branch out...egg sandwiches...sauteed chicken, salami, peppers...and now it's like we're really hitting our stride in terms of food. 

Especially since, a few days ago, Ali and I went to Forum (the enormous mall that's within walking distance) and to the Migros, the closet thing there is to Walmart or Target here in Trabzon (all-in-one stores are not big here; convenience is not the flavor of the week, but small businesses are!). There we found things I'd never dreamed I would be able to locate here: mozzarella cheese, "cheddar" cheese (eh...sort of tastes like a combination of American cheese and mild cheddar...at least it has flavor!), tortillas, marinara sauce, pesto sauce (Barilla--it's delicious), Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce...incredible! Last night I made "pizza" paninis with the mozzarella, marinara, fresh bread, and the hot plate. As I branch out, I realize that I'm learning valuable skills for surviving my intended five years of graduate school...yay life preparation!

So this is what the refrigerator corner used to look like:

And here's how it's been turned into the "kitchen:"

Complete with hot plate, kettle, and Nescafe wrapper.

This is where, last night, I brewed a recipe I found online for simple, hot apple cider...that didn't require cider as I Christmased-up my room. For all of you college kids and friends living abroad in lands of no apple cider, I share it here:

3 parts apple juice 1 part water cinnamon stick Kat Note: I used cinnamon power...about a teaspoon and a half for two cups of cider ginger, thin slice (optional) Kat Note: I used ginger powder...about a teaspoon for two cups of cider lemon zest, several thin slices (optional) several whole cloves – too many makes it bitter (optional)

1.  Pour juice and water into a tall pot with a lid and turn on heat to high.  You can see that a lot of the ingredients are entirely optional.  We like it that way because then we’re not limited to making cider only when we have everything at home.

2.  Prepare spices and add to pot.  We put everything but the cinnamon stick in a tea infuser.  Otherwise, you have to strain the cider or pick out small chunks one by one.

3.  When pot reaches a boil, turn to the lowest setting.  Let simmer about 15 minutes.  Add thin slices of lemon for decoration if desired.

4.  Remove infuser.  Ladle into mugs and enjoy.

I had no ladle, nor a tea-infuser. I didn't use slices of ginger or a cinnamon stick--I had powders, instead. But what I brewed up was hot, delicious, and tasted like the holidays to me.

Now, whilst I was creating this cider and toasting up some pizza panini action, I was also putting the finishing touches on my Christmas decorations. For my birthday, as I believe I related in that post, my mom sent me a tiny pre-lit Christmas tree and some ornaments to put on it. Well, the other day I broke out the tree and plugged it in. It was beautiful! Unnnnfortunately, I sort of forgot that the lights were intended for the lower voltage of the United States, and not the higher voltage of this part of the world...aaannnnnd I kind of blew the lights out.

However, never fear! The Turkish equivalent of Home Depot is here! Via reliable sources (i.e. my British expat friends living in Trabzon), I learned that one can purchase Christmas lights (well, here they're for celebrating the New Year, but that's another blog post) at this store, Koçtaş, which, truly, looks and even writes its prices like Home Depot. You know, with the big, chisel-point permanent markers? Yeah, and their logo is even an orange polygon. Whaaat?

So yesterday I got myself down to Koçtaş and observed my decorating options. These options were not very extensive. The only type of string light available was called a "rice" light, and it came in clear or multi-colored. I opted for the clear, paid my 20 Turkish Liras, and skipped home, giddy with excitement. The original lights that came with the tree were actually a pain to remove, since they were attached the branches with little green, horseshoe-shaped clips. I kept these clips, just in case, and I'm glad I did! I used them to artfully arrange the rice lights, which are actually perfect for decorating mini trees, in my opinion. Here's what a "rice" light looks like next to the lights I'm used to:

Another fun thing about these lights is that they were too long to just decorate the tree. So, I decided to use what I had available to me to string the remaining lights up to the tiny, sole picture that hangs on the wall behind the beds, and down to the socket next to the bed where I sleep. So, here's what the room looked like before...

Yes, these pictures were taken the day I moved in.

Should I have shared them before now? Yeah..sorry.

And this is what things look like Christmas-a-fied/with me actually moved in:

The tree!!

Not Christmas...but viva Trabzonspor!

Picture from last Christmas at Biltmore...birthday card and Christian Kane, too

My door...with a wreath!

 And, finally, no Alexander Christmas would be complete without some type of candle-related decoration in the bathroom. Well, luckily I stumbled across this guy in the market yesterday...and that was that.

You know you want one..

And here's what the bathroom usually looks like, sans Santa. Yes, I know you were dying to see.

So, Christmas comes to Trabzon, too. More to come on my upcoming winter celebration with other Fulbrighters in Muğla, Christmas Day, and however Ali and I spend New Year's as John flies away to Istanbul to be with the cool kids. Also, I promise that I WILL blog about what happened with Thanksgiving, and you simply must be in the loop with what went down at the Hamsi Festival. Until then, I leave you with the final component of my experience at the Koru Tesisleri...my key fob:

Yeah. It almost got confiscated at a Trabzonspor game.

Cheers for now!