Randy and Alice Live in Turkey: Visiting Old Friends

We were happy to connect with several people we had not seen in a long time this past week. First we met Orhan and Tahir Dengiz at our favorite Ankara mall - Panora - to shop for a new laptop for Alice. We visited the Sony and the Apple store and narrowed down the search to a couple of models. Then we had dinner at one of the several upscale, international restaurants in the mall. We downed Efes beers (so refreshing) and had a relaxing time.

Tahir and Orhan Dengiz - two smart and handsome Turkish men!

Toasting with Efes - always a good idea!

Dinner at Midpoint at Panora Mall

Next was Mehmet Kurt and his lovely wife Baris. She is an English teacher and we converse so easily with her. Mehmet is a career Army officer who was also a student (M.S.) at University of Pittsburgh when I was there. He has been a part time Ph.D. student at Auburn and aspires to come full time when he retires from the Army, perhaps in 2014. They took us to a nearby restaurant with an enormous menu and I had a new kind of manti that is fried and in tomato sauce. It is spicier than the regular (ev) manti and I liked it a lot.

Mehmet Kurt and Randy

The new kind of manti - little dumplings in a spicy tomato sauce with yoghurt on top - yum!

Alice and Baris

Finally, the generous and friendly Sakinc family arranged another mangal dinner with the Kulturel family - Mamila and Mustafa. They are parents of my student and now Penn State professor Sadan Kulturel-Konak. They were about to head for Isparta but took time from their preparations to have dinner with us. This was an even better dinner because it included along with the amazing kofte and chicken piyaz (a bean salad that is one of my favorites), yoghurt and coban salad (shepherd salad which is onion, tomatoes and cucumbers). Again, my Turkish got a workout and it is humbling to know how elementary my Turkish is after four plus years of study. Well, it gives me motivation to keep working on it. Warning - the pictures below will make you hungry!!