The Living Dictionary

Today Berna, Bensu, and I slept in, then went to visit Berna's parents' house. Right before we left, Gigi escaped from Bensu's room and we decided to let him have free reign of the house while we were gone, instead of trying to catch him and put him back in his cage. Anyway, Berna's parents' house is really large and beautiful and it's in a very peaceful subdivision. We had some tea and snacks, then walked around a bit.

After that, we went to a mall I had never been to here in Bursa. It was pretty much your average mall, except that it had a little ice skating rink in the center of it!! There was a little arcade area with a mini bumper car setup, so Bensu and I played air hockey, shooting and racing games, and a German version of the Terminator-Rise of the Machines pinball game.

Then we went out to eat at a kebap place..mmmm. One of Berna's friends, Murat, happened to be walking by and joined us later. The best part of the night was when we were discussing what the word "patlıcan" means in English, and Bensu insisted it was some word that I've never even heard of. I kept reiterating it was "eggplant", and then Berna said, "Okay, let's call Elif," who is a Turkish lady that teaches English. Well, that was too much for me. I said, "Hellooo! I'm an American, ya?! I speak English!! And this is called "eggplant!" We were almost driven to the point of me running out to the car to get the Turkish/English dictionary, but we decided to wait until after the meal. I guess I don't need to tell you who was right..count it!!

Coming home must've been quite a site, because we opened the door so cautiously and then ran in like cockroaches scattering when a light is turned on. We found Gigi on the keyboard, out of all the places in the house. I still claim he was checking his email. I think he's been receiving love mails from that bird outside our apt. I hear singing every morning.