Last night Emre and I took his parents out to dinner at a restaurant owned by the parents of a former student of Emre’s mom (who used to be a teacher). The dinner began at 8pm and didn’t end until 12am. This is one of the things I absolutely LOVE about European culture and I dearly miss when in the U.S. When it comes to dining here there is no such thing as turnover and rushing to get as many tables in and out of a restaurant as possible on a given night. Instead, you sit, you talk to the owners, you are often served extras and surprises and always encouraged to drink the local fire water. Here it is called Raki, an aniseed flavored refreshing liqueur that you drink with ice and usually with seafood. The meal last night began with a large bottle to share for our table and then all of the amazing Mediterranean meze followed. It’s basically like a Spanish tapas..a lot of little sample dishes that you eat with bread. Then the live music started and as the Raki flowed easily at each of the 10 or so tables in the cozy place, everyone began singing at their dinner tables! I sat back and reveled in one of those moments where I think 'how did this small town South Dakota girl get so lucky to end up here at this very moment?’ In a room full of people truly enjoying life at that precise minute…no rushing, just eating, drinking, singing and loving those around them. Emre’s dad even got up and danced at one point, ah great life!
I must also go back to Wednesday night. Emre and I met up with some of his friends from high school here. We went for drinks and ended up at a Turkish Karaoke bar. Quite and experience. Please see pictures :)
We found out on Friday that Emre has been pre approved for his Cyprus visa. This means in about a week we will fly to Athens to get his Cyprus visa, then on to Cyprus to apply for Spain visas. It’s looking like the adventure has just begun..keep you posted :) In the meantime, I will add some other random photos here of these past two weeks in Izmir, Turkey.
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