Gobble gobble

I got to Turkey just 2 days ago. I had to go to the airport with my birthright group at 1030 pm on august 7. After saying goodbyes to family after 10 days and potentially strangers for the rest of my life, I hope not. Wellll speaking for mostly everyone in my group haha. It was one of those moments that reminded me that opportunities only happen once (for the most part) and that you need to take advantage of them when you have them because that opportunity or moment will pass no matter if you want it to or not so you might as well give as much of yourself as you can. I feel like I did that for the most part, only sleeping 4hrs almost every night after a 10 hr time difference and waking up every morning and hiking asking questions and paying attention to speakers. However if it werent for the bus rides sleep I might not have made it.

Anyways after goodbye I had to wait for my flight at 4:30am. 6 hrs to pass, super tired, and in the middle of sleeping hrs. It was a bad decision to blow up my nillow (neck pillow) bc I soon woke up to an empty terminal. I wuickly grabbed my bag and ran on the flight right before take off. I then had a 10 hour delay in Istanbul but I met a kurdish guy who I might stay with when im in Istanbul. One of his first questions was "is it true that when you turb 18 you live separately from your family? " I soon found out how family oriented Turkish culture is.

After getting odd the plane I thought everyone spoke English.  Some signs were in English, thsy had announxements on th e flight in English, and the first few short convos I had were in English.  But I soon realized that ppl did not know much besides hello how are you and how to say numbers. This was suprising to me but had continued to be thid way everywhere ive been.

Meeting yussuf in the airport was surreal. Being the only white guy on the plane it wasnt hard for him to spot me. Flying in was beautiful to see as a mountain range separates him and the Mediterranean. Throughout the valley that he lives in I saw scattered villages filling in space between lots of agriculture. Flying in I was thinking how I only knew yussuf in Eugene.  I considered 27 and emerald as his home and the turf fields bars and other spots as our hangout areas. But now I was going to be able to actually see what shaped yussuf. Now he wasnt just from Turkey but I wss going to get to be with yussuf in Turkey.

Here is  is the dessert that is famous in Hatay, kunefi ( sp) it is a perfect blend of soft and crispy. Wow was it amazing, youll have to come try it for yourself!