One of my new, and rapidly very dear, friends here, Nermin, is in charge of American Corner at Atatürk Üniversitesi. To avoid the risk of insulting my employer, the State Dept, I will not go into too much detail about my feelings about the Corner. I’ll just say though that it is a room in our Foreign Language Department stocked with books about Broadway musicals and Barack Obama and DVDs narrated by Ken Burns. It’s where my weekly “English Music Club” takes place and as well as various speakers, and different events that either we or Embassy visitors host. Anyway, the greatest downside of the Corner in the eyes of those who operate on the daily are the reports that must be written to the Embassy about its activities (and really all activities involving Americans and Turks in Erzurum) on a frequent basis. Nermin has taken to outsourcing this task to me and I’ve been happy to oblige. Here are parts of our last two reports on Thanksgiving (which actually took place in Elizabeth’s and Emily’s apartment, not the Corner) and our Halloween Party for our students.
Thanksgiving in Erzurum
This Thanksgiving, the American ETAs living in Erzurum celebrated Turkey Day with turkey in Turkey. Although the turkey (affectionately named Hank Hindi) was certainly the centerpiece of the feast and the source of many jokes and shameless puns, the heart of the celebration was the people. Nine American Fulbrighters from Eastern Turkey descended on Erzurum for Thanksgiving weekend to celebrate with the Erzurum ETAs and their new Turkish friends. On Saturday, a group of 25 gathered for a feast of mashed potatoes, stuffing, börek, corn, quince compote (cranberries could not be found), sauteed eggplant and of course, the turkey. Hank (thanks to the determination of Erzurum ETA, Elizabeth Dratz and the kindness and resourcefulness of a fellow English lecturer at Atatürk Üniversitesi, Alper) was alive only about 12 hours before he was eaten. Hank belonged to Alper’s friend who was willing to give him up to help the Americans in town celebrate their holiday. It was Elizabeth’s first time she cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving without her mother’s help and her first time she had seen one slaughtered. Before Hank was enjoyed, all the guests said what they were thankful for this year. Many of the Americans were thankful for the generosity that they had encountered in the short three months they had been in Turkey and for friendships they had begun to form. The Turkish guests were also grateful for their new American friends and for the opportunity to share in this celebration. The dessert selection was symbolic, revealing that this night was not about one culture passively displaying their tradition to the other but was an organic merging of two cultures celebrating together. Since the Thanksgiving Party fell close to Aşure Günü or the day to celebrate the landing of Noah’s Ark, aşure pudding, a delicious, sweet hodge podge of rice, dried fruits and nuts was prepared in abundance by one of the guests and enjoyed by all. Along with the aşure, the guests indulged in apple pie, baklava, pumpkin pie, Gumuşhane pestil and köme, and chocolate chip cookies.
Halloween in Erzurum
On October 31st, about 35 students of Atatürk University attended the American Corner Halloween Party. The night was was filled with games led by English lecturers and Fulbright ETAs, dancing that spilled out into the hallways and of course, lots of Halloween candy. Students bobbed for apples with a competitive zeal that the ETAs noted far surpassed what they had seen at Halloween parties in the States. Some students opted to be blindfolded as they played pin the nose on the jack o’lantern while others wrapped their classmates in toilet paper to mimic mummies. As the sounds of “Thriller” and “The Monster Mash” drifted around the room, students laughed and poked fun at those that struggled to eat donuts off a string. Not many attendees donned costumes but there was a cheetah, a witch and even the late Bariş Manço in attendance. The climax of the night was certainly the dancing. Trading off between the hustle and other dances led by the Americans and traditional Turkish dances by the students, students participated in a spontaneous dance exchange. Needless to say, many are counting down the weeks until Thanksgiving and the next large American Corner event.
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