Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Koltuk Armchair Over our ten months of living in Turkey many people have asked us, “has culture shock hit you yet?” Culture shock tends to surface in the first few months of life in a new country. This is the time when the “honeymoon phase” of being immersed in a new culture wears off, and all those little differences don’t seem so cute anymore. While we seem to have escaped any extreme ends of the culture shock spectrum, there is one instance that comes to mind: Sadly, for the first six months or so in our İstanbul apartment Rebecca could not sit on our second-hand couch without sneezing. The natural conclusion was that we needed a new allergen-free couch. After testing out countless couches, we finally settled on a simple, black, artificial-leather, brand new couch and two accompanying armchairs. Here is where the culture shock part of the story begins. When the pieces were delivered one of the armchairs had a small rip on the side. Being the silly Americans that we are, we thought

Evde At Home Existence here means making a life for ourselves in this culture while simultaneously missing what we consider to be “home.” This tension of settling into a host country while never abandoning one’s home country is tug-of-war we constantly play. Phillip’s mom, in particular, has helped us through that process by brining us jars of Jif peanut butter, BBQ sauce, and real corn tortillas. Yes, we absolutely love Turkey—the people, the food, the festivities, but sometimes a good ol’ American bowl of chili helps us to feel not so far away from home. What is really fun is allowing both of the worlds we exist in to meet, which we did just the other day. Our friends Kaan and Nuray have invited us over several times to enjoy Turkish feasts with thier family. The fresh baked bread, roasted red peppers, börek (savory pastry), vermicelli soup…we could go on. But this time we decided to return the favor by making food for them—American food. We determined that a good American meal tha

Kappadokya Cappadocia In the autumn lull between the warm excitement of summertime and the frosty cheer of the holiday season, we find ourselves going through a life that seems somewhat normal and settled. School, homework, grocery shopping, mopping the floors, visiting neighbors, navigating our new language. To think that just a few months ago we were doing fairly extensive “wanderings” throughout Turkey. Looking back, one of the most fascinating places we were lucky enough to pass through was Kappadokya (i.e. Cappadocia), a region in central Turkey, known for its extraterrestrial-like terrain, ancient hidden dwellings, and pottery artisans. The landscape in Kappadokya is one-of-a-kind, hosting jagged pumice stone towers topped with a ‘mushroom cap’ of harder rock. These “fairy chimneys,” as they are called, were created through centuries of volcanic activity and weather erosion. As if the top of the land isn’t interesting enough to see, a great surprise lies underground as well. Or