the love of a parent on a foggy day

It's amazing...the love of a parent- they can work 12 hour days on their feet with barely enough energy for the drive home and yet given the choice they would do it all again for you...for their child....but let me start this story where it belongs....from the beginning.

Suprise suprise, i wake up in the morning and the sky is clouded over and the entire city of Istanbul looks like one giant gloom town. I shuffle out of bed and into the shower with barely enough energy to open my eyes. but somehow, perhaps divine intervention i make it through the monotony of my early morning readiness ritual and find a seat in the front lobby of my dorm.

The plan: to meet up at noon and go with Fatih to meet his cousin and tour the Asian side of Istanbul.
The Catch: Fatih does not show up for 20 minutes
The problem: I am impatient
The Result: I call my friend Maja and decide to visit the Christmas Bazar with her at the German School on Istiklal street

I set off with Maja, cursing Fatih's name for making me get up before noon only to stand me up, and we make our way to the German School for our own pre-glimpse of Christmas.
The first sight we see is hot dogs and some manner of potato salad...not appetizing and not what i was expecting.
However this is traditional German Christmas food so we dig up Maja's German friend Sabrina and she gives us a tour of the festival while feeding up delicious german Christmas treats. I actualy find myself getting cheerier as i walk through room after room of mistletoe, wreaths and gingerbread cookies. It was fantastic, not to mention the hot Apple-cider wine was just what i needed to get into the spirit.

I leave Maja to go check on my friend Sara who has been ill...and we cruise Istiklal for a while to find food but we only find a budding protest with the police gearing up and ready to follow cautiously and make sure nothing gets out of hand. We decide that nothin's doing and we split.

I rush back down to my dorm to find my friend Nuri and inform him that i cannot go to Pendik in the Asian side of Istanbul with him because he has recently been ill with what i possibly deem as Swine Flu and i dont want to be sick.

However i have a real soft spot for patient people because i am so so very far from patient. Nuri has been waiting for me for about an hour with his little brother and i quickly agree to go to Pendik with him

Yes, i am glad that i made that decision

Pendik is this town that has very few tourists and very friendly open people. I find myself sitting in Nuri's father's shop that sells Borek and Pasta(cake) and other baked goods, including Baklava. When i think of hosiptality, from now on i will think of my time here in Turkey because they would not let me lift a finger to do anything while i was in the shop. They brought me tray's full of food and they kept my tea cup filled and they brought me napkins because i inevitably spill like an infant, all over myself. Not to mention they turn on the tv to keep me entertained when customers enter. And ever person who stops by seems to be a friend and they introduce me and i am greeted with shy smiles and cute attempts at english speaking.

A little boy who works at the shop next door visits frequently during my stay and he is definatly a womanizer in the making, but he has a winning smile and the most adorable lisp...and when he mimicks my words... his english pronunciation is perfect, despite the fact that he speaks no english at all.

All day i sit at the shop with Nuri, his brother and his mom and dad, who are in the back of the shop cooking and cleaning up a storm. By the time i leave at 10 pm.. they are obviously exhausted, so much that they merely wave feebly before climbing into the car and driving home.

A full day of baking and cooking, to send 4 kids to college and make sure they don't have to work another job on the side. These are parents that will give their every last breath to make sure that their kids will succeed and not have to work so labouriously. I can admire parents like that because i see the same actions in the U.S. and proves to me that parenting....the kind that smothers the kids until they feel like they can't even breath anymore, but in reality is just simple love...is also universal.

A word on the Asian side of Istanbul...newer...cleaner...more friendly....calmer....IN short, it felt like an actual town and not a massive city...it felt like the Colorado as opposed to New York. Each has its high points, but when it comes down to it, i like friendly people that will say hi to you and ask your name when they meet you...i like the people who treat you like family and ask you to sit down and have tea and who force you to eat until you think you might burst. That was my impression of the Asian side, but i'm sure i'll get more information on it as i continue to explore it in my last few weeks.


On the late drive home it becomes apparent that those clouds that were hovering gloomily in the sky in the morning, have now lost their energy and are sitting heavily and drearily directly on the city...in the form of fog.

Now i hear that the drive over the Bogazi bridge is breathtakingly beautiful and on a sunny day the gleaming water gives the illusion of flight, but i was lucky to see the taillights of the car in front of us as we crept along the rode back to Tophane. The fog had set so heavily on the city that even the lights of the bridge were extinguished from 10 feet away. but i didn't mind in reality, because i was sitting in a car with two Turkish guys who were listening eagerly to their football team winning an important match. they were shouting and whooping and stuffing chocolate into their mouths like they didn't have a care in the world. And suddenly, neither did i...