Traditional Dress - Special Occasions - Bridal Outfit

Though it's now common to wear the white wedding gown like in much of the world, the outfits shown here are the traditional wedding garments worn by women-a robe type thing, with the fancy belt and hat. They come in a variety of colors, virtually any one you could imagine, and are often embroidered.




I especially like this orange one. In fact, I think it's my favorite out of all the ones I've seen since I've been here. I took a picture of it also to point something out. The embroidered emblem-NOT the embroidered border along the edges of the robe-you see on the sleeves, the hip, around the knee area, and just outside the breast is very famous. It is the symbol of the sultans.

Traditional Dress - Special Occasions - Circumcision Outfit

Below you can see a variety of circumcision outfits.


That's right, it's a big event with much celebration, much like a bar mitzvah (though I guess I wouldn't really know since I never had one. By the way, did I spell that right?) As you can deduct from the models, the boys are often not circumcised at birth. I know someone who waited until nine years old in order to have it done at the same time as his younger brother, who I believe was four or five.



The outfits are very elaborate and often consist of a white tux, embroidered cape, a hat of some sort, a staff thing, and a sash with "Maşallah" written on it, which roughly translates into "everything is good."

Covered Pazar

Here is one of the many corridors of the covered pazar. It is not uncommon to find pictures of Atatürk hanging from the ceiling, like in this photo, but it is not normally as decorated as this with flags and balloons. I'm just guessing here, but I think it may have something to do with Victory Day. The staircase leads to an underground corridor that runs the full length of the one pictured here. It is said to be one of the best places to find the most inexpensive scarves. It's quite easy to get lost wandering around the many niches and corridors of the covered pazar or continuing your shopping through the winding outside streets lined with vendors and shops.



One of my favorite little niches is the antique pazar. Quite small, but has some of the most interesting stuff.

Happy Victory Day everyone!

A bittersweet Saturday evening, because I got to spend it with so many great folks. We had a get together at the Latin Force because so many trainees will be leaving in the next week or two. A few of the trainee alumni graced our presence, too. We had lots of tasty food, fun, and fabulous folks. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself.

On Sunday I decided it was time for a little adventure. My plan: to explore the area around Suuçtu waterfall. Sounds simple enough.

• Phase 1: Metro to Küçük Sanayi. No problem. Phase 1 complete.



• Phase 2: Bus to Mustafa Kemal Paşa. I happen to wander in the right direction, so it takes me almost no time to find the correct bus and I look like I know exactly what I'm doing. I sit on the bus next to a nice woman who I manage some small talk with, limited due to my Turkish, but I did learn she works for Bursa Spor and lives in a small village on the way to where we are headed. The woman gets off at her stop, and shortly thereafter we arrive at Mustafa Kemal Paşa. Phase 2 complete.



• Phase 3: Dolmuş to Muradiye Sarnıç. There is not a dolmuş in sight, this could be a problem. I ask a few folks about it, and one older gentleman explains that there is no dolmuş, only taxis. Whereas a dolmuş is like a big van that is usually pretty inexpensive, the taxis in comparison are pretty darn expensive. And I'm not going to pay 30ytl (haggled down from 50ytl) to be driven to a spot and shown around like a tourist when what I really want is to just get there so I can venture out on my own. The man insists on finding someone who speaks German or English so that we can make sure everything is straight, even though at this point I've already decided I won't be seeing any waterfalls today unless I go home and turn on the bathroom faucet until the sink overflows. At this point everyone at the stop/small terminal is well aware of the yabancı, as the man is walking up to every person there asking them if they speak another language. Our search terminates when we come across a very friendly and helpful Aussie named Mustafa, who is from Turkish decent and immigrated to Australia from Greece. Interestingly enough, him and some members of his family are en route to a funeral having just come from a wedding. A busy day for them, and unfortunately, not leaving them much time to relax and enjoy either event. So the older gentleman, Mustafa, and I continue to discuss while the audience of Turks stands around each putting in their two cents in Turkish. Quite a funny scene. Further discussion reveals the dolmuş to Muradiye Sarnıç only runs on Thursday and Friday. If you're asking yourself why at this point, you are obviously not well-seasoned in the order of operations in Turkey. Don't ask questions like that, just appreciate the fact you learned something and go with the flow.

So although I didn't quite have the experience I was looking for, I did have an adventure. You have to admit that. Also, I'm glad someone went and figured all that out. Could you imagine if a big group of us went one Saturday or Sunday and were stopped dead in our tracks like that? Uhhhh.

The Rhythm project has met three times and you can begin to hear the group coagulate by the unity of the beat. It's beginning to sound like one pair of hands playing each beat instead of forty. There are still three more meetings next week. We decided to leave our weekend free, so there may be hope of me getting home before 10 in the evening one of these days-don't want to jinx it though. Aside from a solitary snare drum, the instruments in the picture (I play one that is like the big glass jar) and hand-clapping are all we are working with. The beats are pretty simplistic and range from classic "We Will Rock You", latin, and arabic style rhythms. It feels really great to be involved in something outside of work and aiesec, with really great people, and especially involving playing with instruments!

All of this working and playing isn't leaving me much solitary time to read my book. When I come home at night I attempt to read until I pass out, and usually only make it a chapter or so if I'm lucky. Now I know what it feels like to read a book at an average pace-good because it makes it last longer, but bad because I'm always thinking about the damn thing!

In other news a new trainee has joined the Bursa trainee ranks. She is from Japan and I have yet to meet her. This weekend is another one of those famous reception tours, this time it's the Troy Tour. Though the thought of gettin' rowdy with a bunch of aiesecers is tempting, I decided not to join it. I've seen a lot of the historical places associated with that area-Chanakkale, Gallipoli, etc. I'm glad to have seen them, but once was enough for me.

I'd rather use this weekend as an opportunity for some qt with my friends who will be going in the next week or so.

Since TOM I think things here have been the average sort of never-having-enough-time busy. I honestly can't remember where last week went and what exactly I did, except I do remember having to say goodbye to some really great people. So it is when the end of the summer draws near and all of these foreigners trapsing all over the planet have to scurry back for thesis writing, job getting, and school starting. This Saturday will be more of the same, as we are having a gathering at the Latin Force (the apt. where all the Latino trainees live) for food, fun, and farewells.

This past weekend was also pretty uneventful, as I was taken completely by surprise by one of those small, annoying colds that turn your nose into a faucet and leave you just exhausted enough to not do anything outdoors or too physically active, but not exhausted enough to stay cozied up at home. I think my body is still a little pissed about me shoving meat and bread down my cake hole instead of sweeet sweeeeet vegetables, packed with all their vitamins and nutrients..mmmmmm. Well, that was the last straw. I've made a solemn vow to really make a consolidated effort to my health, ground breaking I know, for who would consciously want to take care of themselves? Complete madness.

As my Sunday plans of exploring a nearby waterfall were replaced with observing my nose as a leaky faucet, I've decided to make this Sunday the big day. By taking a series of dolmuş and the metro through various towns and villages, you are supposed to end up about 3-5kms away from Suuçtu waterfall. I think it sounds like a jolly good adventure and am really looking forward to it.

Last night was the first night of something called the Rhythm Project organized by local ngo Local Agenda 21. They had an idea to do something for World Peace Day (Sept 1st), and wanted to gather people from different countries to play music together. The grandiose vision is proving that even individuals from different backgrounds, who don't even speak the same language, can come together through music. They approached Aiesec because the grant the ngo applied for to get funding to bring foreigners to Turkey was rejected, and so what better place to look? At the moment the trainee tally is two German, a Taiwanese, Tunisian, two Ukrainian, a Costa Rican, and me. I think there are about ten to fifteen Turks. But don't picture the Boston Symphony, think more like Stomp. We're using no authentic musical instruments, only pots, jars, keys, jugs, etc. I think it could turn out to be pretty cool, and at the very least I meet some pretty cool new people, whose crazy Turkish names I'm doing a pretty good job of learning if I do say so myself, and I get to play with "instruments!"

There is another meeting tonight for the Rhythm Project, but first priority goes to Indian Culture Night at the Aiesec office! I'm quite excited about it, because even after having my share of Indian friends, one can never learn enough about a culture. Plus maybe they'll have samosas! Wishful thinking, but a girl can dream, can't she?!

A Proud Day

I indeed felt a great sense of pride when I coincidentally came across this post. Thank you, Anis. Sweet home, Chicago!!

I thought it mighty strange that something as interesting as Mars appearing larger and brighter in the sky than Venus to evade my attention quite odd. I especially found it intriguing something like this had been bypassed by major news sources, at least to my knowledge, so I did a little digging and here's what I came up with. Believe what you will. The truth is out there..

Top of the Mountain (TOM)

First I want to say how cool my mom is because she surprised my bro this past weekend. Well, I'm sure she surprised the whole Brunetti family down there, but especially brother Joe. Why's that? Because of his BIRTHDAY!!! August 14th, month of the Leo, day of that magical, mystical number 5, and also day of the hairy man we know and love, brother Josepi. She arrived very late at night, just before the witching hour, and bro Joe and Sara had to do paper-rock-scissors to see which one would answer the door and which one would stand behind it with a weapon ready to strike. Things back to normal, all moms/grandmas back in place, and butcher knives safely locked away in the proper drawer, the family gets a short break before the Brunetti herd heads down for my nephew Joey's birthday in September.

On Saturday I got to play hookie from work because of the TOM-Summer version tour. Those that have been avid readers from the beginning before this blogger was even a nomadlifer, might vaguely remember TOM-Winter version during the MMF project. The summer version consists of camping, bbq-ing and a lot of lounging about. It started on Saturday with a city tour of some historic places in Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, including a Turkish bath, hamam. Since most of the trainees were familiar with these famous sites, some of us met later in the afternoon to catch up with the group so we could head up the mountain together. The bus ride up to the campsite took about an hour on the winding mountain road.

The campsite is not chosen at random. The place is one of the first the Ottomans set up camp, so it is historical as well as beautiful-a small clearing surrounded on three sides by evergreen forest and leading out to the mountain road. The surrounding forest is not dense with brush like the woods I think most of us are used to, but the pine trees are so big and tall that there are only branches with needles up at the very top where they can actually get enough sun. The ground is entirely comprised of pine needles, and overall it's a very spacious area with a pine tree canopy providing spots of shade.

Once we arrived everyone scurried off the bus to say hellos and claim a spot on the blankets. I made a b-line directly toward the German shepard there named Ralf. He was a great dog and was as happy as I was to be playing fetch. Someone sparked the grill, others found out where all of the beverages (beer and non-alcoholic) were, and the bbq officially began. The night consisted of plentiful food, drink, and song around a campfire. The music provided was from two acoustics some folks had brought, and an international group of campers, who should all stick to their day jobs as none of us had what I would consider a particularly lovely voice. It still blows my mind to throw a bunch of people from different countries in a group, tell them to sing, and be totally surprised at the number of songs they actually can sing together. Most of them in English, though there was an attempt at La Bamba. Funny enough, none of the Latinos seemed to be around at that particular time, so there was a lot of, "shruchusasugue...LA BAMBA! suudsdfdusdfs...LA BAMBA!" After talking, laughing, and a short astronomy lesson (the stars were incredible), we attempted to sleep. A few people I think had a problem with the chilly night-mountain air, though I was grateful to finally be able to sleep with a blanket on, but I believe most people were being kept awake by Esteban's snoring! Thankfully, I've had years of practice building up a tolerance to the chain-saw symphony(brothers, dad, even my dog!) because I was sleeping right next to him.

On Sunday, as much as I wanted to just sleep in, most people who like to camp will agree that you tend to rise with the sun whether you like it or not. Well, I suppose I rose with the sun, but not all the way. I definitely spent all of the morning and a good portion of the afternoon lounging on a blanket, moving only to get back into the shade once that rascal of a sun found a way to peek through the trees. There was paintball for anyone not too worn out or hungover from the previous night's festivities, and most of those folks came away with various welts, bruises, and injuries from it.

After cleanup and packup, we hopped back on the bus to head back down the mountain. There was considerably much less excitement in the air on the way back as I think most people were passed out. Being one who could never really sleep in the car, I just looked out the window and began to think horrible, nasty thoughts about the bus driver every time he would turn off the precious little air vent and I thought that I would die. Now I truly believe I know how it feels to die from being locked in a hot vehicle, and I would never wish it upon anything.

That (Sunday) evening, I came home to Bensu hiding a present behind her back, and Berna cooking pudding! The present was a matching panda bear change purse and keychain made of sequins and beads, and the food was everything I could ask for after a weekend of bbq sandwiches. After stuffing myself with mushrooms, eggplant, and spicy rice type stuff called kısır, which I picked up at the store on the way home because it's one of my all-time favorite things here, I couldn't even make it to the pudding or the shower, and I passed out on the couch.

So, there's quite a little buzz about the air with Top of the Mountain (TOM) fastly approaching. The overcast skies have retreated, and it's back to sunny, hot, and muggy. Yay, I think. Regardless, the top of the mountain will be a tad chilly because of the altitude.

Yesterday I went to an NGO here, Local Agenda 21, to get some more information about a project they are organizing. It will consist of one week of workshops (next week) to learn how to play different instruments, culminating with a small performance in Bursa's one-day festival on September 1st (World Peace Day). I'm thinking of participating in it, simply to get the opportunity to play with instruments. Yipee!

I was also pleasantly surprised yesterday to find out that two new lads from the Netherlands came to Bursa and will stay until next Tuesday. They are here as Aiesec LC (Local Committee) ambassadors, meaning they travel to every LC in Turkey for about a week, give culture nights, meet with Dutch companies, have lots of fun, and I'm sure have to write a ton of reports, too. David and Mindert (sp?) are two of twenty Nethelandians around the world in nine other countries-that's 20 people traveling in pairs to 10 different countries. Pretty cool if you ask me.

And some really wonderful news.. Nicola, the very same Nicola from the MMF project will be in town earlier than expected and be joining TOM!!! She is going to be in town for one month doing a CEED in Aiesec Bursa. It will be nice to have one more familiar face around, and of course, to perhaps practice some of that German that's going down the tubes as I write this.

b day

Nope, that is no type-o, yesterday was my birthday! So what wild n' crazy, rootin' tootin' adventure hath ensued on such an occasion? Well, to be quite frank, none really. I went to work as usual, but was pleasantly surprised with a delectible cake with whip cream frosting topped with fruit (fig, cherries, bananas, etc.) and a blouse type shirt from my co-workers. Quite nice. All of my family and friends of course were sending emails, SMS's, well wishes, cards, calling, and so on and so forth so that warm fuzzies were a plenty. My good friend Masha gave one of the best presents (second only to music) one could give, which was food, Lokum (turkish delight) to be exact. mmm. I also got a necklace from Emin, who I heard spent two hours picking it out!

After work, I met Lee and got a quick bite of some pideli köfte (silver dollar sized hamburger patties on flat bread smothered with tomato sauce, melted butter, and Turkish yogurt which tastes uncannily like sour cream. Oh, don't forget the tomato and pepper slice for decoration, and because you have to get those vitamins!) Then we, Masha, Emin, and Urmi went to see Land of the Dead. My choice, of course. Who doesn't like a zombie flick? When we were there, I saw a poster for Sin City as well, which I don't know much about, but a lot of people seem to want to see it so that makes me curious.

So that was it. All in all a pretty good day. I'm going to save the hard core celebrating for this weekend. What's that? "What's this weekend," you ask? Why, Top of the Mountain reception tour by Aiesec Bursa! Two days with fun options like a city tour, Turkish bath, paintball, and bbq. Esteban, who just had his birthday on the 3rd of August, and I will be using it as our own personal birthday party. Aside from that, I'm really looking forward to it simply because it's the first time I've been camping since I've been in Turkey!!! I really started getting itchy once summer and nice weather rolled around, and I've been patiently awaiting this tour for the opportunity to get out there all summer long. I hope the past two days are no indication of the weather this weekend-though nice and cool compared to normal weather at this time of year, it's been ominously overcast. I'm wondering if it's just waiting for us to get out there before the monsoon hits. That's okay by me, though, all the more fun for mud slides!

Cappadocia skinny..

I promised the full scoop and nothing but the scoop on the Cappadocia tour awhile back, so I thought I should finally get around to posting it. It started late Thursday night/Friday morning, 21st/22nd of July, with the seven hour (I think) bus ride to Ankara. We arrived in the morning and after waiting for a few more delegations from Eskişehir and Izmir to come, we head off to check in to the dormitories. In the afternoon we visited the Ataturk mausoleum and museum. Afterward, we went to the museum of Anatolian civilization and walked up to the Ankara castle. That evening we had the "official opening" of the tour at a cafe, where we ate dinner and had lots of tasty wine. Then it was off to another place outside the city where there was bbq and global village. Then, to everyone's disappointment, we had to get on the bus back to the dormitories to rest up for the jam-packed weekend ahead of us.

Early Saturday morning we hopped on the bus to Cappadocia, stopping at the ginormous salt lake on the way. Once there we headed directly to the Derinkuyu underground city, which was really quite nice as it was quite cool 8 levels underground. Then we had to check in to our hotel superquick in order to make it out to the point where we were going to watch the sunset from, again complimented with wine. After that amazing view, there was dinner at a very famous restaurant called Yaşar Baba Cave. It was really fantastic, because all throughout dinner there were various dancers from all regions of Turkey. Also there was rakı and wine. At one point the whole restaurant formed a conga line, dancing out to the courtyard where there was the biggest bonfire I have ever seen. The heat eminating from it was almost unbearable, and it seemed like you had to dance around just to keep moving so one side of you wouldn't be cooked to a tender crisp. One of my favorite moments of the evening is when Serap, who had been enjoying the wine a little too much, was trying to throw away a paper towel in the bathroom in one of those garbage cans where you press on the pedal and the lid opens; but, she was stepping on the complete opposite side of the can! I had to be like, "Serap, honey, uhhh," and point her in the right direction. After the aiesec tour group danced its heart out, we were the only ones left in the restaurant at the end of the night, we headed back to the hotel, only everyone was so wired that we couldn't sleep, and it just so happened there were several bottles of wine waiting to be tapped...

You would think things would wind down a little on Sunday, it being the last day, but you'd be wrong. Sunday was when we saw all the above ground stuff. We went to valleys, Zelve a christian church and village, and an open-air museum called Göreme where we saw homes, churches, yada yada yada. In one of the places there was a painting of a figure with a beard and a plant in front of it. Lee jokingly said it was him because of the fig leaf picture he took at the Anatolian museum. Only five minutes later the tour guide told us the story about this figure that was once a woman, then grew a beard to look more like a man (I forget exactly why). So now we're all a little unsure about the orientation of Lee. Anyway, then it was off to Avanos to see pottery made and hand-decorated. It was really quite interesting, and the potters still used kickwheels. Are you tired yet? Too bad! We're not finished! Then to the rug/carpet art gallery, museum, store place. And finally, one last stop to a wine store with, of course, free wine samples. Did I mention this region is famous for its wine? Outside of the place, there was a really cute stray puppy that I got to play with for a little while. It was following me all around, and I was running with it. It was really nice to pretend I had a pet for ten minutes.

After that amazing weekend, we still had the three or four (or was it five) hour ride back to Ankara, then the long haul ride back to Bursa. Sheesh. We arrived in Bursa Monday morning at about half past eight, I think. At that point I was a little out of sorts.

Did someone say photos?!

Urmi's photos. They are from various things-culture nights, trips, farewell parties, welcome dinners galore. The last six or so albums are the most recent ones, and her photos from Cappadocia aren't uploaded yet I believe. You can keep referring to that link, though, as she consistently uploads her photos there and the albums are always made public.

Even more Cappadocia photos to please your palatte. Enjoy Claudia's photos.

*sigh* Sometimes you just can't really appreciate what you had until you're sitting in your office waiting a minute for a page to load. *sigh* My dear Alma Mater.

More Cappadocia Pics!

These are Esteban's (Costa Rica) photos. In the first one you can see how well I've been doing on developing quite a Turkish belly! Hey, leave the fat kid alone.

The silver lining..

** the following was taken directly from Nomadlife **


The last few days have been very encouraging for Sofia, she went from being extremely sick in Monday 25th of July (and with very few alternatives to help her), to be much better with a notable improvement in her health through the week in a way she didn't need an air ambulance (lowering the cost in a huge way). Her later good progression this weekend also permits her to travel all the way back to Mexico City (also lowering the costs). While being an extreme emergency in the beginning the situation has positively changed and it's no longer a money emergency for the family. The family has contacted us to thank all the AIESEC support, they said that the money raised so far was going to be sufficient to cover hospitalizations costs, surgery, medical care and debts acquired so far by the family. I want to thank all AIESEC people who helped Sofia; thanks to you we were able to raise 5243.89 Dollars in four days. The paypal account now is closed. You help was crucial.

What about the countries who were organizing collects? We appreciate you help and support, fortunately it won't be necessary to keep the fundraising, we will be still receiving the money already collected and we will be posting final amount as soon as we have it but we kindly ask you to stop any further fundraisng activity from now on. All the money collected through Pay Pal and money transfers will be definitely useful to pay all the expenses.

Sofia, Sofia's Family and AIESEC in Mexico are deeply grateful for the incredible support given in the last days. Sofia's family just sent us a letter stating the following:

To the community in general
Through this letter we want you to know that yesterday, Sunday 31st of July, 2005, Sofia was authorized to be transferred to Mexico City where she will receive medical attention and probably surgery attention will be performed. The doctors who assisted her in Military Hospital No. 37 in Accra Ghana recommended her to go to Mexico after seeing the stabilization of her vital signals. Even though her health condition is still delicate, we have FAITH and trust that with the proper attention Sofia will recover,

We also want to take this opportunity to thank from the bottom of our hearts the help receipt from relatives, friends and community in general, because without your support and without your prayers, Sofia?s and my parents? transfer, wouldn't have been possible to do. Also, we want to mention and thank the collaboration of the media presenting our case to the public.

Finally, we just want to say that starting today and with God?s bless our family begins to walk a long road through Sofia?s recovery. We know that our lives will never be the same because we have known the kindness of God, our family, of our friends and of the community. Thanks infinitely

Mendez Vazquez Family

You can keep updated via Aiesec Mexico and Nomadlife websites if you wish.