Saturday, June 15, 2013

Goodbyes to Ankara

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.

Halit Oguztun (METU Computer Science)  and Carnot Nelson (Bilkent Psychology) get acquainted

Osman Oguz and his lovely wife with Mustafa Pinar from the Bilkent IE department

Haluk Yapicioglu (visiting from Eskisehir), Ali Haydar and Serin Sakinc and Sarpi Oguztun

The Oguztun children with Fluff in the background

Fulya Altiparmak from Gazi IE department

Alice, Serin and Sarpi

Ozge Sumer, Haluk and Ian, our friendly British neighbor from next door

Tore Fougner (Bilkent International Studies and leader of Bilcat) holds forth with Alice Nelson, attorney wife of Carnot

Ian and Tore share a beer

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

Alice and Christina Hamer share a giggle

Two lovely ladies who love cats

Alice warns this 15 year old of the dangers and pleasures of LA

Ozge, Sofia and Tuncar Sahin, Haluk and Cevahir

Sofia, Alice, Tuncar, Haluk and Cevahir - same place, same position

Elif Ozgormus, Alice's doctoral student at Auburn who is now conducting research in Turkey, gets to know Mustafa

Yasar Ozgormus (Elif's mom)

Christina wonders how the wine she brought all the way back from Slovenia could be so bad

Alice and Mehmet Gulsen

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.

Dr. Kara from Baskent IE department and Mehmet and his son Selim at Casa Dengiz in Golbasi

A laden table in the garden

Waiting for the guests to partake

Tahir gives us all each a cherry just off the tree - a revelation in flavor

Orhan grilled kofte and chicken over a wood fire

Randy and Mehmet admire the gardent

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)

The garage includes an aged CNC machine which is being refurbished to machine the plastic housings for the product

Dr. Kara, Berna, Mrs. Kara and Tahir admire the CNC machine (yes, we are technical geeks!)

A plate of deliciousness including borek, kisir, eggplant and olives

Even picky eater Selim found a lot to love at lunch

The Karas enjoyed their lunch as well

Mehmet, Randy and Tahir did their best to eat up the food

Tahir and Alice
Finished grilling, Orhan finally got to sit down to eat

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

Parties in Ankara

We participated in lots of fun social events in Ankara this year.  Some of them are show below.  These are in more or less random order. 

Russian Manti at Sofia's House

Our chef for the evening

Russian manti is bigger (and perhaps better) than the traditional Turkish sized version

Manti happiness
Justin Allred got to enjoy this special treat as well

Ozge and Justin reminisce about days at Auburn

 Orhan Turns 35

Orhan's milestone birthday was a bar b que in the garden of Casa Dengiz in Golbasi

The flowers were in their full glory

More blooms

Even the trees and bushes were blooming

These are especially nice

Alice can't believe this kid she met in Pittsburgh in the 1990's is now 35

Randy, Tahir and Justin enjoy a brewski in the garden

Some of the super food which included grilled cheese and some pretty amazing kofte

Justin timed his visit to Turkey well to participate in these festivities

 Going Away Dinner for Alice and Claudio


The Bilkent University IE department chose this nice restaurant, specializing in Black Sea fare, for the going away dinner for Claudio Arbib and Alice

The guests of honor
Osman Oguz and Yigit Karpat

Claudio and Mustafa Pinar, his collaborator at Bilkent
Sad to be leaving but happy to have had this experience

Randy finally got his muhlama, melted cheese and butter which a specialty of the Trabzon area

The group at the table

Mustafa and his lovely wife

Emre Nadar, the other instructor of quality control, and his wife

Selim Akturk is the new department chair

Sarah Tate chats with Yigit's American wife

A typical banquet shot

Nesim Erkip, in foreground, led the festivities

The evening concluded with an amazing chocolate souffle

 Dinner and Breakfast at Casa Dengiz

Berna invited us and Sam Sockwell for dinner, spending the night and breakfast one weekend.  She cooked a Black Sea specialty - hamsi (anchovies) with rice

Also on the menu was kisir - Alice's favorite salad

Happiness at the table

The next morning Soraya (the home assistant) serves breakfast in the garden

Sam and Orhan enjoy tea to wake up

A full Turkish breakfast including the best fresh fruit
Kalkan at Casa Sumer

Cevahir cooked kalkan, a flat large fish, she had shipped in fresh from the Black Sea

In Black Sea style, it was pan fried

Justin was again fortunate to time his visit to get in on this exceptional evening

 Meeting High School Students at Casa Sumer

Cevahir arranged a get together of her former students who are now at different high schools around Ankara

These students are all interested in studying or at least visiting the U.S.
Alice enjoyed interacting with these fresh minds
Yunus Visits Ankara

Mehmet, Yunus's friend who lives in Ankara and Yunus Alp

Yunus was in Ankara for some training and stopped by on Friday evening to say hi.  We all reminisced about our amazing trip to the Batman area in April


 Dilruba and Haluk Visit Ankara

The group on the terrace of Bilkent University's 49 Restaurant

Dilruba and Haluk Yapicioglu on a visit from Eskisehir.  Haluk had a research project meeting at the university and Dilruba shopped

Haluk and Mehmet, fellow advisees of Alice's, finally get to meet

Using Up the Lunch Card Money at the 49 Restaurant in June

Tore Fougner and Christina Hamer ate with us at the 49 terrace along with Tore's partner Ayca

The lens got a bit blurred but it did not detract from the fun we enjoyed on this perfect summer evening