We said goodbye yesterday and today to Ankara, our home for many months. We spent time with valued friends and acquired new lifelong friends. We ate an array of incredible foods and experienced history and natural beauty at is best. Thank you, Ankara! Thanks you, Bilkent University! Thank you, Fulbright! We hosted a potluck going away party last night (Friday June 14) for friends, old and new. This event overflowed our small apartment with food, laughter, drinking and a little sadness at saying au revoir (not good bye) to our adopted home and our special companions.
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| Halit Oguztun (METU Computer Science) and Carnot Nelson (Bilkent Psychology) get acquainted |
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| Osman Oguz and his lovely wife with Mustafa Pinar from the Bilkent IE department |
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| Haluk Yapicioglu (visiting from Eskisehir), Ali Haydar and Serin Sakinc and Sarpi Oguztun |
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| The Oguztun children with Fluff in the background |
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| Fulya Altiparmak from Gazi IE department |
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| Alice, Serin and Sarpi |
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| Ozge Sumer, Haluk and Ian, our friendly British neighbor from next door |
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| Tore Fougner (Bilkent International Studies and leader of Bilcat) holds forth with Alice Nelson, attorney wife of Carnot |
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| Ian and Tore share a beer |
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| Fulya and Cevahir Sumer with a family friend (on left) who will be visiting the U.S. shortly to attend a basketball camp in Los Angeles |
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| Alice and Christina Hamer share a giggle |
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| Two lovely ladies who love cats |
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| Alice warns this 15 year old of the dangers and pleasures of LA |
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| Ozge, Sofia and Tuncar Sahin, Haluk and Cevahir |
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| Sofia, Alice, Tuncar, Haluk and Cevahir - same place, same position |
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| Elif Ozgormus, Alice's doctoral student at Auburn who is now conducting research in Turkey, gets to know Mustafa |
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| Yasar Ozgormus (Elif's mom) |
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| Christina wonders how the wine she brought all the way back from Slovenia could be so bad |
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| Alice and Mehmet Gulsen |
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| Alice and the Ozgormus women |
Today, Saturday June 16, we had another very special going away event. The Dengiz's invited us and some others to a huge brunch/lunch in their enchanting garden. The weather was picture perfect and this was the best way to close out our visit to Ankara which began in January with cold and dark (also staying the first night at the Dengiz house) and is ending in summer sunlight surrounded by blooming plants and singing birds.
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| Dr. Kara from Baskent IE department and Mehmet and his son Selim at Casa Dengiz in Golbasi |
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| A laden table in the garden |
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| Waiting for the guests to partake |
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| Tahir gives us all each a cherry just off the tree - a revelation in flavor |
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| Orhan grilled kofte and chicken over a wood fire |
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| Randy and Mehmet admire the gardent |
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| Orhan shows off his new product that remotely controls things for businesses - he designed and built this circuit board himself (skills he did not learn from Alice) |
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| The garage includes an aged CNC machine which is being refurbished to machine the plastic housings for the product |
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| Dr. Kara, Berna, Mrs. Kara and Tahir admire the CNC machine (yes, we are technical geeks!) |
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| A plate of deliciousness including borek, kisir, eggplant and olives |
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| Even picky eater Selim found a lot to love at lunch |
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| The Karas enjoyed their lunch as well |
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| Mehmet, Randy and Tahir did their best to eat up the food |
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| Tahir and Alice |
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| Finished grilling, Orhan finally got to sit down to eat |
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| Fulya joined us after giving an exam at Gazi University. We all lingered at the table drinking tea and reveling in the great company and ideal weather |
