"Turkey" Day

One of the most important aspects of living abroad is sharing your cultural traditions with new people, and embracing the traditions of others. Luckily for me, I got the chance to share one of Americans' most important and time-honored traditions with my new Turkish friends. The opportunity to share Thanksgiving--a tradition the very purpose of which is to share food and culture--was too good to pass up. So about eight of the Americans whom I've been spending time with invited their Turkish roommates and friends to our feast, which we the Americans (and two Canadians) organized and prepared. One of the American girls' father owned a home right off campus overlooking the Bosphorus. It was huge and offered stunning views of Bebek and the Asian shore. You can tell from the pictures that Thanksgiving was definitely a success. After being in Turkey for almost three months, it was a good way for to reconnect to home and show my Turkish friends that there are some good things to share from across the pond.


The plate that almost did me in.

Erin and I are posing with our beautiful and tasty creation.

The gang of Turkey Day.
from left to right: Alex (got cut off), Adam, John, Kendall, Jill (hidden), amy?, Erin, Alex, Amy J., Onur, Rachel, Greg, Dean, Adam?, Max, Gorkan.

Me, with my haunch of meat that could feed a family of four.

The starting line-up.

No Thanksgiving is complete without football (American).