Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Kasım November Happy Thanksgiving!  We were blessed to be able to spend this holiday with Rebecca's family. We continue our travels... With just a few snags in the itinerary...we had an encounter with a Wyoming deer on the road. But we are still safe, and having fun. Rebecca and the baby are still growing and healthy.

Kk Kebap, Kedi, ve Komplo Teorisiler   There are a few “k” themed prolific elements of Turkish life that we would like to discuss today: kebap (kebabs, or grilled meat), kedi (cats), and komplo teorisiler (conspiracy theories). Kebap : On the way home from language classes, in the brief three minute jaunt from the ferry to the bus, we would pass four or five kebap , kebab, stands at each of which you could buy a two to five dollar hunk of warm sandwiched goodness, with ever so thinly sliced chicken or meat (beef and/or lamb) slivers, lettuce, and if you’re lucky even french fries. Kebaps are everywhere, and in all kinds of varieties, from the sandwich to the shish kebap, to the gourmet plated version. Kedi : There is no way to explain how many stray cats there are, at least in İ stanbul. We would name the “regulars” in our neighborhood, like Sylvester, the one-eyed feisty hairball of a creature who just refused to die. We didn’t name the kittens that were born in ou

Jj Japonya, Jeton   Ages ago in the Central Asian Altai Mountains were groups of nomadic people, some of whom migrated west, others of whom migrated east. The westward migrants, as you might image, are today’s Turks. Along the journey they picked up elements of Arab culture, mostly in regards to religion, and also European culture, especially now in regards to proximity, but something about their Asian roots stick with them. A large aspect of this is the language-- their agglutinating, vowel harmonizing, verb ending language which, far from Arabic, is part of the Altaic Language Family. Many people are surprised to find out that Turkish is actually related to Japonca, Japonese, and Korece, Korean, the most easternly of the Altiac languages. Grammatically they share much in common, although being able to speak neither of these Asian languages, we are not aware of how much. The Korean people we have met in İ stanbul, however, do seem to learn Turkish quite fast! On the oth

İi İpek Yolu , İstanbul  One of the most famous historical facets of Turkey is the chain of ancient routes that weave through the land which are known as İpek Yol u , the Silk Road. These extensive trade routes date as far back as 206 BC, originating in China where valuable silk fabrics gave the Silk Road its name. Lucrative businessmen as well as eager religious thinkers made their journey along its path, trading precious stones, perfumes, textiles, and, of course, worldviews. One famous explorer, Marco Polo, took advantage of the Silk Road, traveling between Venice and Mongolia. For many travelers though, the ultimate destination was neither Venice nor China, but the glorious and wealthy city of Eastern Rome, or Constantinople, today’s İ stanbul. To prove the paths were really there, today, the entire country is dotted with large inns known as kervansaray , or caravan palaces, originally built by the Seljuk Turks, which have mostly been turned into outdoor shopping cente