Kemal's Visit

Ok, I anticipated struggles with and uncomfortable situations steming from my lack of knowledge of this language, but still cannot help feeling like a complete idiot living in a country that I have very little grasp of the language. FYI, I am not the only one of the Fulbrighters. Only about a handful have a good grasp of the language.

Anyway, Kemal came to Ankara yesterday and picked my up this morning for breakfast. He brought along a friend, Gozde(which I have met before in Istanbul) and a coworker of his at the World Bank. He then took us all to his grandmother's house in the suburbs, which was beautiful. Her garden was fabulous!

Now, this is the point that I become the elefant in the room so to speak. Grandma asked me how I was doing in Turkish and all 3 words that know went out of the window. I kind of sat there with a smile plastered on my face for about 2 hours as we had breakfast there and the world moved along......in Turkish.

I feel like the older I get, the more socially akward I get. I know this was a special circumstance, but it seems that I need to relearn how to communicate with people I don't know and be alittle more outgoing. Anyways, I am aware of this and this is one of the reasons why I put myself in this predicament.