Turkish Hospitality: A review of my homestay and the story of catching icecream across the street

Turkey is a beautiful country full of breathtaking vistas, archeological ruins, amazing cities, and much more.  While all of those subjects are interesting, and I could definitely write about them, I have to say the Turkish hospitality is great.  In fact this is my favorite thing about Turkey.  The attitude and demeanor of people in Turkey is what has impacted me the most on this trip.  

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Our smiling tour guide Cenk

First everyone smiles in Turkey.  Everyone is so happy to meet you.  During my homestay I roomed with Reuben, Eric, and Logan.  We were staying in a small apartment on the sixth floor in busy Izmir.  Our family welcomed us immediately.  Hal and his wife Gurl and their unbelievably adorable little girl Zenip were so excited to meet us.  Through a series of unfortunate events, we arrived much later than planned for our homestay.  Despite this the whole family had stayed up to meet us.  Hal’s mother had even come over earlier in the night and stayed just to meet the “Americans.”  The family had prepared an amazing home cooked meal for us and had kept everything piping hot. 

Hal was very open with us about his family; one of the first things he told us was the meaning behind their names.  Hal means eternal, Gurl means rose, and Zenip means treasure.  In our introductions Hal also told us that his wife was pregnant and due at the end of June.  These little details are so different from how Americans meet each other.  In the States when I meet a family for the first time, they typically go over their names and launch into a conversation about work or school or business of some sort.  The feeling I got from Hal and his family was that he genuinely wanted to get to know us.

Another great thing about the homestay was how Hal wanted to serve his guests to the Nth degree.  He didn’t want us to have to do anything.  He was always asking if we were satisfied and if there was anything he could do to make the stay better.  Towards the end of the homestay, I was running low on clean clothes.  I asked Hal to use his washer, he told me I wasn’t allowed to use it and that his wife would do it for me.  He also wouldn’t use my detergent because he wanted to serve me.  It was a humbling experience.  One little detail that I noticed at every meal was that he would serve his guests first, and he wouldn’t even serve himself until he saw us eating the food and had received verbal confirmation that we were all set and that the food was good.  He didn’t want us to do a lick of work.  The first meal he and his wife cleared the table, and it was only after we insisted that he allowed us to clear our own spots at future meals.

Our wonderful homestay family.  I already miss them.

During the homestay another fantastic thing that I wasn’t expecting was hanging out with Hal’s daughter Zenip.  She was hilarious and brought a smile to all of our faces.  Zenip and I had a blast. After we overcame the initial shyness, Zenip opened up into her crazy fun-loving self.  Zenip didn’t speak any English which made communication between me and her very limited.  Hal told me that she didn’t understand that I didn’t understand her; thus so she spoke fluent Turkish to me, and the only words I could respond with in Turkish were “very good,” and “Yes.”  So while I have no idea what she said, she ended up showing me her Barbies, playing with her plastic laptop and phone, playing catch with a stress ball, riding her bike (through the cramped apartment) and my personal favorite of drawing in my journal. 

Speaking of drawing, Zenip and I drew some pretty fantastic drawings.  Zenip’s favorite picture was a classic picture of my personal creation, the Smarmy Gator.  Through the homestay I did learn two new words, Timsahs satici .  Because there is no direct translation for the word “smarmy” Timsahs Satici translates roughly as Alligator Salesman, the closest I could get to smarmy gator.  Zenip would burst out laughing every time I said this.

Zenip drew a picture of me and her holding hands.  Her house is in the middle and her parents are the two floating "people."

This was my picture of what an "alligator salesman."  Zenip loved this picture.

On the first night in Istanbul, I had another encounter with Turkish Hospitality.  Taylor, Sarah, Jarod, and I were watching some locals light Turkish lanterns (mini hot-air balloons) and launch them across the Bosphorus straight.  We got caught up watching this spectacle and lost Dr. Ramey and our tour guide.  Turns out this wasn’t all bad.  The four of us ended up at Cold Stone Creamery.  Not only was I glad to see a Cold Stones but also the man running the icecream parlor turned out to be awesome.  When we walked in he asked who had the best reflexes amongst us.  Somehow I was nominated, I don’t think I have great cat-like reflexes but never-the-less I was nominated.  The man told me that if I could catch icecream from across the street I would win a free icecream.  I darted across the street, almost got my legs taken off by a mop head, and waited on the opposite sidewalk.  The man walked out with his icecream scooper and a huge scoop of icecream primed for launching.  He asked if I was ready and then lobbed a chunk of icecream over the busy street.  Holding the icecream cup in 1 hand I reached out…and totally snagged the icecream…but only for a few milliseconds.  Not remembering high school physics and Newton’s laws, the icecream hit the cup and then bounced out of the cup.  The shop keeper laughed hysterically and then called me over and offered me another shot.  He took another scoop of icecream and repeated the whole process.  This time I caught the icecream and triumphantly returned.  Now the shopkeep congratulated me and told me I was the 24^th person to catch icecream across the street.  Assuming I would eat the icecream I just caught, I got ready to dig in.  But the man swiped it from my hand and dropped it into the trash.  He then made me an icecream of my choice, and everything was better. 

I write this long story only to highlight that this kind of thing would not happen in the States for free.  This man gave away 3 ice creams for free.  He just wanted to have a good time.  People in the States just aren’t this friendly.  He then told me his name was Ahmet; he asked what I was studying and told me to enjoy Istanbul.  In return for his generosity, I gave him my Messiah College wrist band.  He was so happy with the gift, he immediately put it on his wrist and smiled telling me he would wear it all the time.  In a few days our group will return to Istanbul for a few nights, and I plan on stopping by and hanging out with Ahmet (P.S. I do have a video of this; however, YouTube is banned in Turkey, so I will have to wait till I am back to post the video).

Now I have all kinds of other crazy awesome stories of Hospitable Turkish people, but I will have to save some stories for when I return to the States in person.  I am loving every second of Turkey and had no idea it was so amazing.  When I get back, be sure to ask about the shopkeeper who thought I was a celebrity and the flesh eating fish pedicure I received.

A beautiful sunset over Kusadasi.

Another beautiful sunset, this time over Assos.

Daniel Postema