Cleopatra's Gate

At one time the city of Tarsus was on the sea. It was surrounded by seven (I think) gates. This is the only one still standing. It is in the middle of a busy street. It is called Cleopatra's Gate because it is here that Cleo would meet up with Marc Anthony and they would sail off together.


Here you can see some amazing detail of the gate.

These cute students followed us around the city as we took pictures. They wanted us to take pictures of them, too. They came up and said, "Hi!" Then they asked what hi meant. I said it meant "merhaba." Then they thought I spoke Turkish, but they were sadly mistaken.

Seven Sleepers Cave

The view from the top of the minuret.

Inside the cave.
The mosque of the cave.

Meghann and her classmates were able to get special permission to climb to the top of the minuret.

A Trip to Tarsus

The Tarsus train station and a gnarly tree near there.



Meghann's Turkish class took a fieldtrip, this time we went to Tarsus. We rode the train from Incirlik Village to Tarsus. You can see the train station, the guy who directs the trains and a lovely shot of the bathroom on the train. Meghann and one of her friends chillin' on the train.

Can They Do That?

Halloween was weird this year. Sydney came home from school and said that a couple people told her that Halloween was cancelled. I said "They must have been kidding, you can't cancel Halloween." A few minutes later I found out that due to imminent bad weather, the Base Wing Commander had decided to cancel Halloween or at least postpone trick or treating for two days. In fact, the weather turned out to be fine, but still the kids had to wait two days to collect their goodies. On the night of trick or treating all the folks on our street sat in a semi-circle at the end of the street to intimidate everyone, I mean to pass out candy. At one point the Base Commander came walking by in his green flight suit and some smarty pants yells out, "It's the Grinch Who Stole Halloween!!" Har har.
This year Sydney dressed up as a goth person. Meghann and her friend Kerstin dressed up like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Abby dressed up like a bulldog.
Happy Halloween!

Roses and Rugs

The roses in our garden are unbelievable, they are tall and beautiful and I am told they will bloom into February. This picture is a bouquet our gardener brought me. I think they are gorgeous.
The other two pictures are some beautiful machine made carpets we bought from Vedat. He has a great store and we love to hang out down there. His uncle, Nuri sells handmade carpets upstairs. We have yet to get any handmades from Nuri- they are amazing and amazingly expensive. If you want to check out Vedat's website go to www.dreamlandcarpets.com .

Horn of the Goat

We went into Old Adana one day with our Turkish friend, Vedat. He sells machine made carpets at Dreamland Carpets. He is so cool. He took four of us to town one morning. We went all over, he showed us some good deals. We were shopping and having fun. He then took us to lunch, but on our way to the restaurant, he stopped and we all got these long seed pod looking things. He said they were only available during certain times of the year and that they were fabulous. So while we were waiting for our food he wanted us all to try it. We kept asking him what they were called but he just kept calling them dried leaves. So I was brave and took the fist bite. He said they were sweet like candy, I thought not so much. I told him it was pretty good, but I was kind of exaggerating. Other people thought they tasted like raisins. Later we asked a different Turk if he knew what they were called and he said a Turkish word which translates to mean "Horn of the Goat." Yummy. Here are pictures of us at the restaurant trying this new delicacy. The picture that looks out the window is the top of a Turkish Bath. These are all over, I have talked to a few Americans who have tried them. Sounds like something I would be interested in passing on.

Fieldtrip to Incirlik Village

I got to chaperon a field trip in October with Meghann's Turkish class. We walked to Incirlik Village which is right out the front gate. We went to a mosque, a Turkish school, the Thursday Market (an outdoor fresh fruits and veggies market) and ended up at Moonlight Restaurant for lunch.
The Turkish school was very interesting. We went to their English class and the kids tried to ask each other questions. The American kids were very shy and quiet, they didn't talk much. During a break, some of the girls students came and asked us moms if the American kids hated them and that's why they weren't talking. We told no, they were just shy. In the ended the thing they all got interested in was music, who was cool, etc. Teenagers are basically the same everywhere I guess. This is a picture of Meghann with some Turkish kids at school.