Some Interesting Things About Turkey
This is a short list of things that I have found interesting or noteworthy so far about living in Turkey:
1. There is no temperature regulator on the hot water. You will burn your skin off of your body when you wash dishes or take a shower.
2. There is no such thing as peanut butter in the grocery stores. You can get Nutella, you can get almond butter, you can get other, strange, yeasty spreads for your bread, but you can not get peanut butter in the grocery stores. You can, however, get fresh peanuts ground into a paste at the nut shop... This is nothing like my Adam's no-stir creamy at home.
3. There is no such thing as chocolate chips. Thank god they have good chocolate bars and I have a knife. I can make my own chips!
4. "Toast" is something like a pannini, and it normally comes with a white melted cheese, like a mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich. This is okay, because I can't get peanut butter anyway.
5. You will pay to use the bathroom at most places. It's not much, and it normally goes to pay the person who keeps the bathroom clean, but I have gotten use to paying 50 kurush to 1 YTL to use a potty when traveling. This means you need to take your wallet to the toilet so you can get out.
6. It takes three hours to do a load of laundry. Seriously, I'm not an idiot. I can use a front-load washer. The washers here do microscopic loads and take nearly 90 minutes to run a cycle. The dryer, if you care to chance it, also takes 90 minutes, but you chance shrinking all of your clothing to doll sizes. We normally choose to air dry.
7. Shoes don't come in my size. I wear a 10. That's not that big of a size in the states! Normally, it is a size that every store stocks. Here, I wear a 41. Most ladies shoes only go to a 39, and the 40 runs a bit small. I have had store clerks stifle a snicker when I asked if a shoe comes in a 41. I miss you Nordstrom and DSW!
8. Loaves of bread are not made for toasters, or sandwiches. You can get wonderful french bread, tasty pide, a type of flat bread, and some good round loaves of light bread, but you can not find bread sliced for a toaster, or anything like a hearty wheat bread from the states. Dad, you know your love for the 12 grain bread? They don't make it here.
9. If you don't see what you want to eat on a menu in Tarsus, ask the shopkeeper for it. He will go find it at another restaurant or magic it out of the air for you to eat. He will not tell you "yok", that it is not available, he will make it exist for you.
1. There is no temperature regulator on the hot water. You will burn your skin off of your body when you wash dishes or take a shower.
2. There is no such thing as peanut butter in the grocery stores. You can get Nutella, you can get almond butter, you can get other, strange, yeasty spreads for your bread, but you can not get peanut butter in the grocery stores. You can, however, get fresh peanuts ground into a paste at the nut shop... This is nothing like my Adam's no-stir creamy at home.
3. There is no such thing as chocolate chips. Thank god they have good chocolate bars and I have a knife. I can make my own chips!
4. "Toast" is something like a pannini, and it normally comes with a white melted cheese, like a mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich. This is okay, because I can't get peanut butter anyway.
5. You will pay to use the bathroom at most places. It's not much, and it normally goes to pay the person who keeps the bathroom clean, but I have gotten use to paying 50 kurush to 1 YTL to use a potty when traveling. This means you need to take your wallet to the toilet so you can get out.
6. It takes three hours to do a load of laundry. Seriously, I'm not an idiot. I can use a front-load washer. The washers here do microscopic loads and take nearly 90 minutes to run a cycle. The dryer, if you care to chance it, also takes 90 minutes, but you chance shrinking all of your clothing to doll sizes. We normally choose to air dry.
7. Shoes don't come in my size. I wear a 10. That's not that big of a size in the states! Normally, it is a size that every store stocks. Here, I wear a 41. Most ladies shoes only go to a 39, and the 40 runs a bit small. I have had store clerks stifle a snicker when I asked if a shoe comes in a 41. I miss you Nordstrom and DSW!
8. Loaves of bread are not made for toasters, or sandwiches. You can get wonderful french bread, tasty pide, a type of flat bread, and some good round loaves of light bread, but you can not find bread sliced for a toaster, or anything like a hearty wheat bread from the states. Dad, you know your love for the 12 grain bread? They don't make it here.
9. If you don't see what you want to eat on a menu in Tarsus, ask the shopkeeper for it. He will go find it at another restaurant or magic it out of the air for you to eat. He will not tell you "yok", that it is not available, he will make it exist for you.
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