Weird Weekend

Sooo much to say, where to begin...

Ok, so, I gave my last lessons to my 4th grade class today. All this week my lessons have been centered around the theme "My Favourite Animal" (yeah, British spelling). So all week my lessons were about what animals can do, and adjectives, and habitats. fun stuff. On Thursday, for our review, we watched the opening scene of The Lion King and I paused it every now and then to have them identify the animal and tell me abnout it. They absolutely loved that, of course. Then for the last day I had them create a "mini-book" about their favorite animal. It was fun, and the kids did a great job! I was so proud of them. :)

Ok, so, my host mom had gotten her rent money from me on saturday morning and said something about buying vodka for visitors that night. "Ok, sounds like they have a fun night planned," I thought. Well, I got home from classes and the cars had been moved out of the carport and there were two long tables set up. I went inside and there were boxes of candy, fruit, Pepsi and Fanta (I assume the vodka and cognac were already set aside). Then I went into the main room and there were a bunch of women there putting candy and fruit onto plates. I didn't recognize any of them. Finally my host sister came in and introduced me to her soon-to-be sister-in-law's sister. Whew! Soo...yeah, apparently my host brother was getting married! I don't really know how I missed that! For the past couple of weeks my host mom had been talking about him a lot, not necessarily positively, and there was a lot of talk about money, too. I guess she was concerened about the cost of this wedding!?

Anyway... fast forward to that night. So this girl comes in looking slightly uncomfortable and awkward. My host sister had to ask her several times for her name becasue she kept forgetting - yeah, they'd never met. My host mom was introducing her to everyone as her new daughter (and me as her American daughter - aw!). So yeah, it was a bit of a surprise to me. how did I miss that!? So a whole bunch of people came, and there was a lot of drinking and dancing! I gave several toasts throughout the night. Mostly to loving Turkey (my host family is Turkish) and America, and to a happy life full of love for Alihan and Raeela. Then I would slyly set down my cognac (yeah, they gave me the good stuff!) and drink my Pepsi. of course this would not suffice, so they all had to pour another round, have me toast again and... same thing. I drink Pepsi. This went on 4 or 5 times, then they forgot that I wasn't drinking their cognac and carried on. After awhile I excused myself, went in the house, and when I came back, I took my place at the Women's table - the guys were all quite upset about that and invited me back over to their table, but I had eaten enough lamb liver and was looking forward to eating the fruit and nuts on the women's table! Once all the women were up and dancing though, the men came over to me... and then I went to dance. My host mom cleared everyone out around 10:00, and that was that. Good times!

So then the next day I played soccer with my language group and kids in the community for our Community Project. That was fun! And then I headed back home to bannya. My host mom knew I was tired from being up late and playing soccer, so after I banyaed she told me to go and rest. Ok! Will do! Well I went into my room and read for awhile, and around 5:45 my host sister came and said she was going to close my door because visitors were coming. fine. I heard some men outside of my door, and my host brother talking about me, and then at about 6:00 things quieted down and to my surprise - Islamic prayers were being sung! What the what!? Not what I expected to hear. After awhile it turned to just talking and the then I heard the women come in and join the ceremony. It lasted until abut 7:00. Then I heard the eating begin.

All this time I'm sitting in my room, reading Rebecca. Once I realized what was going on I couldn't leave my room for fear of disturbing the ceremony! Plus I was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt and I didn't want to burst into the room looking grungy and dishevled! Then around 8:45 I hear my host mom say "Oi! My American! I forgot her!" And she ran into my room and started apologizing. I told her it was all ok, and I didn't need to go out there because I didn't want to be a problem and get in the way. She was very insistent. So I went out and ate plof (a rice dish) and made small talk (very small talk considering my limited russian) with the guests. I knew most of them already from previous visits, and the night before, so that wasn't too bad. But they were cleaning up as I was eating, so I stuffed my face quickly and then helped them clean and sat and chatted with them for a while longer.

Wow! So that was the wedding! Who knew? But then this is kind of funny. So we get everything cleaned up and we all sit down and watch some low-budget Russian movie on TV. It was slightly entertaining, but the most entertaining part... the bride, Raeela, and Alihan just sat there with us - and Alihan fell asleep to boot! So... you guys were just married! congratulations! let's watch TV! So random. Then at about 10:30 my host mom says let's go drink tea, but Alihan said he was tired and wanted to go to bed, so he went into the room the parents usually sleep in, and my host mom told Raeela to just go ahead and go to bed too. We stayed and watched tv for a little while longer while the tea was heated, and then went to drink. Now, note that the bedroom is next to the living room and without a door, so I don't know how they could sleep anyway with the loud TV. So then we went and had tea and a little, and all went to bed - the mom and dad sleeping in the small bed in the kitchen, me in my room of course, and Anela on the floor like usual. And that was Alihan and Raeela's first night as husband and wife. :) Awesome!

And there's a Turkish wedding for you. Pictures will come shortly. I borrowed my friends camera and I'm waiting on getting them on my flash drive.

So... next week I'll have counterpart conference, where we'll meet with the teacher we'll be working with for the next 2 years (luckily I already know and love mine:) ) and then the week after I'll be back in Issyk for 2 days of teacher training, and then on the 31st I'll swear-in as a volunteer, and then it's a 24 hour train ride to Kokshateu! Can't wait!

Well, thanks for reading... TTFN.