On Saturday, I started working on my pepper dragon. It took hours, but the base is pretty much complete. When I have art class I'll start colouring it. And this is a statue.
It took too long to make. Too long.
After lunch, we got in the car, and started driving to Beypazarı. The company my parents work in was having a dinner there.
On the road we listened to Radyo ODTU because it was working until we got too far away from Ankara. Since the sun sets earlier now, it was dark, but the sky wasn't its usual black. No, it was a different colour that blended with the snowy hills, and it looked like there was no horizon.
While we entered the city, I saw a statue of a carrot. Amused, I pointed it out, and my mother told me of how there were food statues everywhere around Turkey.
The restaurant we were to have dinner in was already filled with acquaintances and friends when we arrived. We sat down and everybody was chatting with whoever was sitting nearby. Soon two men appeared in this corner, with microphones and musical instruments. I though Oh, not again! Bad live music.... But it wasn't like that. At first it was a little awkward. They played a few songs, and then another man came. He was the owner of the restaurant, and he told us his father—age 85—would sing for us, and then dance. Before that, he gave a long speech about citizens of Beypazarı, their habits, traits. It was interesting. He said the people of Beypazarı liked saving and were thrifty. He told us some jokes, then they danced and sung, and it was fun. We ate delicious food. Before the main dishes, they called a few women from our group to a place in the back. Then together they acted out a 'Kına Gecesi". One of the men—I think his name was Mustafa?—told us the story of his life. He said he was in a car crash, and he woke up one month later in a hospital. His left eyes was blind, his right eye couldn't look to the right. His arm was 6 cm shorter than the other, and so was the leg. But somehow he made us all laugh. All of us. And then he said "I'm happy!". Thank you for making me more optimistic, and letting us have a wonderful night. May the stars watch over you.
The next day, we were still in Beypazarı. We had a wonderful "köy kahvaltısı", and then went outside with other people to shop and look around. We saw a sing that read "Yaşayan Müze" which means "The Museum That Lives", basically. Curious, we walked to the museum. No one was at the entrance, so we just went inside. We climbed some stairs, and this man greeted us. We bought our tickets from him, and we faced a door. In front of us was standing a girl, dressed like a cliche Turkish village woman. She spoke in a cliche accent, and then switched to her actual accent, and introduced us to the museum. This wasn't a usual museum with artifacts, here their purpose was to show visitors the Turkish culture and things done in Beypazarı with demonstrations.
We were led inside. First we went to a room where two women were doing "kurşun dökmek". I'm not sure what it is in English, but they boil lead and pour it into water over your head so the 'nazar' goes away. Nazar means "look". If someone looks at you intensely—it can be a bad or loving look—you get nazar. She did the process for us, and said I had a lot of nazar!
In the next room, we did ebru (you put paint on water and then put the paper on it...) and then designed out own t-shirts/handkerchiefs/etc.
We travelled to the upper floor. A man made me and my mom perform a Hacivat and Karagöz skit (shadow puppetry!), then taught us some old Turkish board games.
The next room was a normal room, with wooden floors and old pillows. In the corner another girl sat. She told us an old tale about Keloğlan (who is a popular Turkish character...who is bald and a kid). She was just amazing. She wasn't even talking to us in her normal voice. She was a wonderful storyteller.
Well, we exited the museum and walked to the "Gümüş Çarşısı" (Silver Market) to buy jewelry. I got myself a bracelet out of amethyst, because it's a pretty stone and it's the only one I believe in.
That's pretty much it about Beypazarı. We went home after lunch.
Monday was uneventful, I just spent my afternoon preparing my friend's birthday present. I hope he liked it. Aaaaand a happy birthday to him!
Tuesday. Today. Hm, it was surprisingly exciting—Tuesday's are always slow and boring. Sometime in the morning, Ezgi came to me and said "I need to buy that cupcake!". We agreed to go to Starbucks again. In Spanish class, out teacher was absent, so we went up to the German classroom. We watched a movie until the teacher got bored and realized we weren't actually watching. She told us to quietly do other things like homework. My friend Denizhan asked to use my Nintendo DS for some reason, and I let him. So he had his own and I had mine, and they were connected over Wi-Fi, and then the teacher said "Okay kids put away everything and I'll give you assignments". We hadn't saved, so while doing our assignments we were secretly pressing some buttons with our DS' in our bags. It was kind of funny.
Anyway, after school we went to the bus. Some eight graders had turned on the radio, so we were listening to random pop songs and fake-dancing along the whole way. We got near Starbucks, and I shouted over to the bus driver to ask him to drop us off here. He apparently did not hear us. So there was just confusion and a lot of screaming, but we finally got off and had to walk a little longer. Oh well. Ezgi got her cupcake.
There's this man at Starbucks. Ezgi once stepped on his foot, and ever since then, whenever we come, he jokes about something and we chat. It's really cool.
Then I came home, finished my homework before even looking at the computer, and I've been free since then. I wrote a bit more, and I'm finishing this blog entry now. I'll write a lot more today (hopefully). Even if I don't, I'm planning to discuss the story and the characters with my friends/advisors.
Um, Mr. Dale, a little note to you: When I saw the length of that comment you wrote on Cem's blog, I felt rather upset and envious, because I value your feedback so much. So when I post my first chapter, I'd be more than overjoyed if you told me your feedback not just on grammar and naming, but on the plot and the characters as well.
The post seems so long, I'll edit it later. I really want to post some drawings...Um, here's Ellyn and Edmund, drawn after my Art Final:
I should scan this.
Chubby Pigeon Out.
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