Life: Idiotropic

Tonight the Turkish women created an evening of creativity and beauty as they modeled traditional dresses from Ancara. For two days they practiced walking down the catwalk in their colorful clothes, then the show began and dazzled us with their beauty, poise, and the intricacy of each gown.
Aşkın Yeşilbaş led a group of ladies in a traditional Turkish dance and we all enjoyed delicious doerners and sweet desserts.

Many lucky ladies went home with hand embroidered gifts. And the night owls among us stayed late to dance and enjoy the endless Turkish hospitality.

For photos and descriptions of the dresses, click on the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=65038&l=0bba3&id=674507268


If time would allow, I would happily expound upon this evening of amazing fashion from Ancara - each dress completely handmade, hand embroidery, hand beading... a work of art with only the best fabrics and silks available...

The dancing, the fun, the food...

And the little things that made this night unique from all the others...

But... I'm running away again - this time with my husband and kids... to a new place for us: Prague and Krakow - 10 days total.

Really, really, I'll catch up one of these days... one of these days I'll find time... still have so many photos and trips to share...

Turkish night is always popular, may be because Turkey is the most unique of the IWC countries, but also because they always have something very special planned.

This year they were supposed to have whirling dervishes which many looked forward to, but for some reason they didn't show. Still, they made up for that with art and belly dancing.

Strong cheese, sesame covered biscuits, and little sweet bits of candied fruit sat on our table for us to snack on while we watched an artist create beautiful marbled papers right in front of us. He worked quickly, yet precisely making his work look easy. A Turkish man from Roermond, NL sat for almost an hour churning out one beautiful marbled paper after another. Applying color to the opaque water surface, moving it around, adding more, then laying the paper on top and pulling it up for us to see. The backgrounds didn't have the traditional marble look like I would have expected - these definitely weren't the Italian designs I'm more familiar with. But he did lovely, simple florals on various colored backgrounds.

I am getting better now after a couple years to remember to snack a little before these events. You never know how much and when you'll be fed. Tonight we ate very well, but only after the long paper marbling demonstration. After that we had absolutely delicious doerners (Turkish gyros) and a anise flavored liqueur mixed with rosewater from the earthy smelling Terra cotta pitchers sitting on our table. It smelled delicious, but even with the rose water, no one at our table could finish it. It was much to strong.

Food was followed by belly dancing both by a Turkish woman and then by some unsuspecting ladies who were brought up for lessons. Then dessert -- a crunchy donut shaped dessert and a mild lemon cookie with coffee.

The door prizes were very nice with a lot of winners of traditional foods. Everyone left with a little gift as well - a small figure of a whirling dervish. I didn't win with my tickets, yet I went home with two prizes due to the generosity of my Turkish friends - one gave me the pistachios that she'd won and another let me take home one of the earthy Terra cotta pitchers that they used to decorate and serve that night.

This place has changed me - and for the better. When I got here I was terrified to dance. It wasn't comfortable and I was horribly self conscious. I won't lie and say that I feel completely at ease, but thankfully, from the beginning of my time here, I've pushed myself out of my comfort zone realizing that one of the best places to meet and connect with these ladies regardless of any language barriers is on the dance floor. I still feel strange and a bit aware of how awkward I must be, but these ladies can teach a lot in their confidence and the way they embrace their femininity. All sizes and shapes come together to dance in all different ways. They laugh, they act silly, they act sexy, and they have fun. Tonight Dilek and Hale pulled me to the center of the circle to dance and I did and it felt great. Until 11 we sung and danced to Turkish rock and roll - myself, a couple Italians, and a couple French Canadians the only ones left in the group of Turkish at the end of the night. It felt like we were lucky participants in a private party. I'll miss this most of all when I go.

April 23rd is the day on which the Republic of Turkey was founded and it is also celebrated as children's day. Attaturk, a Turkish commander and elected president at the time, loved children and declared the day a holiday where people exchange gifts. It is much like Christmas for the children, but they also celebrate cultures from around the world. It is a day of peace.

So, each year on the base, the Turkish here put together a celebration for all the children and their families. Luci, with her dance school, performed two times. Now Luci is perfectly capable of dancing. If she wants to dance, she looks fantastic and knows the movements better than most of the girls in her class. But, she's stubborn and hasn't wanted to dance these last few weeks. She especially didn't want to dance today on the stage, so while she was up there, and she did all the movements correctly, she was very robotic and performed a very emotionless, flat performance. Still, I have to be the silly mom taking photos. So, the first dance, she wore a colorful skirt and did a really fun jazz dance. The second dance she wore the white tutu and did a nice little ballet. Both times she was adorable in spite of herself. And... the photo with the thumbs up? Yes, that was on stage in front of a packed auditorium, during the performance, looking right at me.




When the long kick-off talent portion of the day finally ended, we all headed outside into the sun. Food was cookin' -- burgers, hot dogs, and cotton candy. Large inflatable jumping toys were set up with kids crawling, jumping, and climbing all over them. A simulator had a long line of kids waiting for their turn to try it, and the adults of all nationalities stood around in clumps visiting with each other.

A karate demonstration began and Kirk was happy to show the martial arts to the girls. Arianna, especially, was really excited about it and now wants to sign up. After that outdoor demo, a group of young German carnival dancers came out to do a silly dance dressed as animals and the 7 dwarfs from a very popular German comedy. Then, came my favorite part - the Turkish fold dancers. They wore the same costumes as last year and did the same dances, but it was still beautiful. The women danced well, but calmly. The true "bam" of the dancing came from the men, whirling, jumping, and dancing with such flare. I watched from behind my camera clicking constantly to capture as much of the movement as possible. (Check out the guy in this first photo - both his feet are above ground and the long part of his jacket is flying! The girls in the wedding dresses did most of their dancing on their toes wearing silver high-healed mary-janes.)







(The colorful costumes of the women in the second dance somehow looked absolutely brilliant. Looking closely, you can see colors and pattern juxtaposed that you'd never dare set foot from the house wearing, but somehow, they worked and looked terrific. Truly, it was a little bit of Turkish embroidery mixed with a few oversized florals from the 1960's grandma's closet. Add some crazy bright wool socks and you've got it. The young girl looking over towards me in the photo above was so sweet and fun to watch. Every time I had my camera poised near her, she'd look at me and smile.)

After the dancing, the food, lots of jumping, and a lot of play, we took the small train ride around the base hoping that it would lead us to the AWACS that was open. It didn't. Instead, we just did a big boring circle and missed the plane except for a brief view as we drove passed it. The kids still enjoyed the ride although Luci was so hot, she leaned her head on the train car door and starting absentmindedly licking her salty arm. Just before we left the girls got cotton candy - a sweet end to a fun, but exhausting day.



During the the entire post-dancing fun, Tiara had been having big girl fun at an ice-cream shop with one of her friends. We picked her up and the kids played for a bit on the trampoline before we left for the night.

I'm never really quite sure what to expect at International Women's nights. Will I be force fed unpalatable food by a blindfolded Italian, line up with other women with our noses sticking through a sheet to be identified, or get pulled onto the dance floor wearing jingly coins around my hips?

Tonight, my belly was covered, but I did do a little dancing.

The Turkish ladies put together a beautiful evening showing us parts of a traditional Turkish wedding- parts that were very similar to our own mating ritual, and others that are very different.

The first skit showed the girls walking in the town and catching the eye of some "handsome" men. Nagihan dropped her scarf as she walked away as a sign that she was interested and like a high school boy, he eagerly picked it up. In the next scene we saw the meeting of the parents to arrange the wedding complete with nervous bride-to-be and the commanding mother-in-law. When they seemed to agree, the prospective bride and groom were given rings tied together.

Then - it got interesting. The told us of the tradition of painting the girl's hands the night before the wedding - the Henna night. Nagihan walked in veiled and dressed in a beautiful red gown. She was surrounded by women carrying candles. As she sat down, the "mothers" stood behind her with the tray that would have held the henna. The other ladies surrounded her in a circle placing the candles on the floor and began dancing. The tray was brought forward and one women wrapped the hand the would have been painted completely in cloth. Then ladies took turns bringing gold bangle bracelets and putting them on Nagihan's other arm while she sat there the entire time quiet and veiled. Then the groom came in. She stood and they danced - he on the outside of the candle ring and her on the inside. After a few minutes of dancing, he picked her up and carried her off.

Afterwards, there was a lot of dancing. The ladies all wore beautiful coined scarves around their hips that jingled when they danced. The room had quieted down a bit after the wedding skit, then the music started and Mel came over, took off her scarf, and tied it around my waist, so she and I danced in the middle of the room. She called the other Turkish ladies over and I waved for my mom to join us and pretty soon there was a very nice crowd all dancing to the music. After that, the ladies took back their scarves and put them on to perform for us. They did a lot of dancing and it was all beautiful.

After a couple dances to the music, the drummer came out and the ladies danced with little square glittery clothes in their hands. The drummer was a petite lady wearing a classy short black dress and black spike heals.
The turnout for the wedding was amazing, so they had to add tables before they could start. They served chicken and rice with curry powder and a nice green salad. For dessert they made baklava which was wonderful for me, but too sweet for my Spanish friends. Mom and I spent the evening at the Spanish table and had a wonderful time. They are all very friendly. Pepi has learned German, but not English and brought a German friend who speaks a little English, so it was interesting talking to them, saying one thing in Spanish to Pepi, then translating it into English for her friend or trying to use a few German words here and there.

At all IWC dinners there are door prizes. This night the line for raffle tickets was unusually long as the gifts were unusually beautiful. Sennur (one of the Turkish ladies) designs and makes beautiful jewelry, so she brought beads and supplies from Turkey and taught her friends to make them and they all made matching necklaces and earrings to give away. Some of them were absolutely stunning. And I didn't win... but I know Sennur and am hoping that she'll teach me too!

So far, this was the best IWC dinner of this year - the cultural exchange was amazing and we were given a lot of information about the ceremony. Next month is Italian night and they're serving pizza! (We're forced to economize for these events or the food would be much more extravagant.)

Kirk was off of work today and we needed to get out and do something, so we took Mom down to Aachen. She'd never been there before and it's a really nice little town - not too much history - it was only the capitol of Charlemagne's empire.

The potentially rainy day was absolutely beautiful, so we enjoyed the walk around the city. We started out in the square by the rathaus as usual where they were setting up the cute little wooden buildings for the upcoming Christmas markets, then we walked down one of the main shopping streets towards the Dom where Charlemagne just so happens to be buried. We've been to Aachen quite a bit, but it hasn't gotten boring. It is still a beautiful city and the Dom is so detailed that I still see new things each time I visit it. The cathedral is immense which always makes me curious since I've only seen a small part of it. It was built over hundreds of years too, so the architectural styles vary quite a bit from one part to another as is common in European cathedrals and castles.
From there we walked back around towards the market and the rathaus. Cut Christmas trees lined many streets leaning on light posts ready to be set up. The market on the back of the church had been mostly done and some vendors were already setting out there things, but a huge stack of trees lay in the middle not yet decorated. The youngest two girls kept trying to climb them.

Kirk enjoys the architecture and loved the gargoyles on the Dom. My mom and I enjoyed looking around and ducking quickly into shops to see what was there. We saw a beautiful tweed jacket that was a mere 600 Euros (and that was 50% off!) and a beautiful purse that would fit my camera perfectly - just "coffee money" at 990 Euros. The shop windows are all decorated for Christmas and the printen shops, especially, were inviting with foot and a half stacks of different flavored printen cookies filing the windows - some covered in different shades of chocolate and some not - it was hard to walk away without buying a bag of it. Tiara moped until I let her get her camera out and take her own pictures.
But the little ones, I think had an even better time than anyone. Instead of whining about being bored, they skipped along to the movable fountain where a man played the accordion and a older lady danced with her grandson, then searched the sidewalk for really big leaves. Then, as we got closer to the church, they found a sweet little grey pigeon to chase. Arianna was following it carefully trying not to scare it away, then Luci and Elise would run up and watch it flap, raise a foot of the ground, and land just a couple feet away. Then the process would begin again. Those three always manage to stay entertained.

Standing on the steps of the Rathaus we could see Starbucks over the tops of the little wood stands, so we went there for coffee. This the the only place where I break my rule not to go to American fast food... I still haven't gone to Subway, McDonald's, or KFC, but Starbucks is good and reliable. I know I can find spacious seating for myself and the girls, a clean bathroom, and really decent food. The food at Starbucks here is much better than anything I've had there in the states anyway... with a lot more healthier choices too! It was nice to have a small snack and relax before heading home. The girls know where the kid corner is too, so when they were done eating, the "older" people got to chat without wiping chocolate cookie off of anyone's face.

Both before and after our Aachen adventure, we let the kids have 15 minutes on the slide. It's great. The REALLY tall slide is just by the parking garage that we use, so they can climb up the narrow windy staircase to the top, then slide down the big tunnel. They figured out that they went faster sliding down on their coats, so the coats came off and they slid fast. Luci slid right off the end of the slide and then Tiara came flying off the end right after her with Elise on her lap. Last night Luci asked if we could go back to the slide again... it always leaves an impression.
So my kids, after living in Europe, will not remember the historical stuff at all, but they'll remember that Europe has cool slides and fun playgrounds. I guess that's ok.