Hi All and Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Jim!
It’s 9:38 PM and I’m tired! But it’s a good tired so that’s okay. Here’s the story.
Ru
A Very Full Tuesday
It was a bright and sunny morning and the forecast was for sun all day. A good day to do laundry. When we were here in August, everyday could be a laundry day, but not now. So when the sun shines, do laundry! But Tuesday is also Turkish Lesson day at Deks. The lessons begin at 10:30, but I like to walk the almost two miles and I wanted to get there especially early to finish my sketch of the Ayios Thrysos church just next to Deks. It came out, “not bad.”
About 10:25 Pete cycled up. Pete rides his bike from the marina where he and his wife Sue have their sailboat Rock Hopper. This is Pete’s 7th lesson and I’m really impressed and proposed that during the week we could meet once and I would buy him beer and he would teach me what he already knows. Sounds like a fair exchange to me. We will hopefully start that this week. Our homework had been to find a word beginning with each of the letters of the Turkish alphabet. It was fun to learn new words and to learn what words were important to each of us. Most of Pete’s words were boat related. Mine were food or hiking related and Evelyn had a variety, but her A word was at which is Turkish for horse because she loves horses as does my niece Jessica. That led to a discussion about what you call someone who rides a horse which is jokey and seyis (with no dot over the i because an i with a dot is a different letter and different sound) which is the person who takes care of the horse. And very importantly I learned that to be polite one asks for the lavabo which means sink in Turkish, rather than the tuvalet which means toilet though it’s what you see written to indicate where there is a public bathroom. My K word was kitaplik which means library or really anything that holds a group of books, kitap means book. I’m also learning how to make words plural and a bit of grammar which Denise thinks is easy once you get the hang of it.
Deks Entrance
Giris (with a squiggle) also means the noun login. Girmek is the verb to logon.
I noticed all of the church doors were open and a women sweeping inside. Evelyn said there is a Greek Orthodox holiday tomorrow and Thursday to celebrate the day of Saint Thrysos whom the church is named for. Not sure if we’ll go see any of the service, but maybe.
.
Pete, Evelyn and Rustam.
Pete has his laptop, his Turkish dictionary of boating terms and a small general dictionary with tiny print.
Evelyn had her Polish/Turkish dictionary and her Turkish lesson books and her Turkish husband who was born in Turkey but relocated here after finishing university here. His grandfather was born in south Cyprus but was relocated after the “troubles.” Evelyn was in Cyprus in university studying archeology. I have a Berlitz Turkish phrase book and dictionary and my google translate which can be good or wrong, depending. My Roanoke library has an online language product that I think I am ready to try again. I had tried earlier, but now with the lessons from Denise I think I can use it and it will make sense.
The class really is a lot of fun and I’ve never thought studying any language has ever been fun. So that says something!
A discussion of ‘minced meat” led to these words… ground beef, lamb,…. which is fitting because the board is usually used for Deks specials!
Denise, our teacher and also our Thursday walk leader.
We often have quesitons about word stems and how to make them plurals or possesives, etc. My knowledge of English grammar is at times shakey as is my spelling so this is all a wonderful learning experience. And we have tea as you can see from the pots and cups.
Rustum offered to drive me back to the marina, but he an Evelyn were going to stay for lunch and though it was tempting to join them, Randal and I had planned on a bike trip to Lamar Grocery Store for “our essentials” that we can’t get in the village shops. Raisin Bran cereal for Randal and Diet 7UP for me so I can avoid the caffeine in Coke Zero. We did get a few other things too, but most items we really can get in Yenierenkoy shops or the Monday market. Good thing too because it took us an hour to go the 40 kilometers – 24 miles from the marina Lamar. We had left the marina about 2 PM in the sun and I was pretty comfortable for the trip to the market; but the sun was going down on the way back and I got pretty chilly. Randal even got cold and he doesn’t usually. I bought some tam yagli beyos peynir which is “full fat white cheese.” I’ve left out the vowel marks and added i dots where they don’t belong as I haven’t figured out how to change my the type yet. I’d tried to buy some white cheese the other day in our favorite local market but somehow confused the owner so I ended up with mozzarella. When I used Google Translate to see what I’d gotten it translated it to fresh parmesan! Luckily I like all cheese so it’s just a fun learning experience.
I have to mention too, a local artist, Heidi Trautmann. www.heiditrautmann.com is her website. I’d found it and emailed her asking if she knew any local artists in the Yenierenkoy area who could give me lessons. Unfortunately she didn’t but has written several times offering pointers. I love her artwork and her philosophy of creating art. Unfortunately she lives in Girne, too far for me to join the Thursday art group that has met at her home for the past 6 years. Hopefully one day we will visit Girne and we can say hello. She and her husband are sailors and have sailed the entire Mediterranean.