Christmas and New Years in Ankara

Christmas - I know Stacy and I have been a little lax in our blogging, but since we just got back from a very eventful trip we now have many things to share…so get pumped!!!  To back track a little here is how we spent Christmas and New Years.  About a week or two before Christmas Stacy began hinting she wanted a tree.  I was a little less keen on the idea, but once we saw some very affordable baby trees and ornaments, I relented and we spent a lovely evening decorating for Christmas.  We also watched numerous Christmas movies to put us even more in the spirit and as luck would have it, it snowed on Christmas day.  This was a little more exciting than usual as neither of us had seen snow for over a year, so we enjoyed the light dusting.  We spent Christmas day with our friends Rose and Amy at a lovely hotel with a Christmas buffet.  It was not as amazing as last year but Champagne was included, though we didn’t know until we left or we would have had more than just a glass each.  Stacy and I then returned home to open gifts and indulge in some junk food.

Then on Tuesday Carl, the other foreign teacher, and I were gifted with a special two hour lunch in our director’s office, complete with the music teachers serenading us and the portion of the Koran on the Virgin Mary.  It was a very thoughtful gesture complete with gifts and we also each received a 20 lb turkey.  Then before I left for the day all my female co-workers had gifts for me as well; they wanted me to feel at home on this very special time for me in my country.

Also about two weeks after Christmas, Stacy and I both received our care packages from home, better late than never!  We feel very blessed to have such loving families and it was nice having an extended Christmas by receiving gifts from home!

New Years - We spent New Year’s Eve in Ankara. We joined our friends Mark, Pricilla, Amy, Rose and Mary.  We ended the evening on a roof top bar and saw the fireworks show, which consisted of only four fireworks.  Though we had been anticipating a little more of a celebration, considering everyone was walking around in Santa hats and Halloween masks, we had a really nice time.   We then spent New Year’s Day at home and went all out and made no bake cookies, a nut and candy mixture, Turkish cookies, and Chicken wraps.  So basically we spent the whole day eating and watching movies on the couch: a perfect way to relax and recharge before starting work again on Monday.

~ Randi