4-29 through 5-1

4/29:

The adults went out for a very fine meal tonight

delicious appetizers, starting at the top and moving clockwise (by the way, with all the digital clocks nowadays,"clockwise" is a term young people don't understand): spicy tomato paste like stuff that you can put on everything, an eggplant dish, hummus, stuffed eggplant, a white fish dish, another spicy tomato dish, yogurt with garlic (like a tzatziki), stuffed grape leaves, and a green bean dish in the middle.

stuffed zucchini flowers

When we were visiting our pen pal school in Antalya, we noticed that all the teachers wore lab coats. Alicia, Eli and I thought it would be so cool to have lab coats when teaching back at Evergreen School. So the chaperones surprised us tonight by buying us our very own lab coats. These are the best chaperones ever. 

4/30:

In the afternoon after our class meeting with the sharing of the parent letters, we had our last free afternoon in Cappadocia (I just found out today I had been misspelling it all along). It went with a group that decided to hake to the next town and Uchisar Castle. We walked through the same valley were we had the morning class meeting. 

On the way up to Uchisar, in the middle of nowhere, we ran into Hassan and his tea shop. We promised to drink tea on the way back.

People still live in these stone dome cave structures. 

Laundry shot in Uchisar.

Uchisar Castle - all carved inside this stone mountain.

Our group at the top of the castle.

This was a tasty peanut in cracker snack.

We stopped at Hassan's tea shop on the way back to Goreme. He asked my students questions, and when they got it right, he gave them each a little present. Here, Quinn bought a hat from Hassan. 

5/1:

 Hot air balloons just after sun rise. Our last morning was beautiful. I counted more than 40 hot air balloons in the sky. It was quite a sight.

Cappadocia is a difficult place to leave. But I am also excited about Hatay. It is the only place on the itinerary that I had never been to. 

After a little over 8 hours, we arrived in the town of Antakya in the region of Hatay. Though I knew it would not be a village experience, I did not imagine it would be such a large, developed city. 

Vegetarian plate at Leban: rice with yogurt, mixed vegetables, spinach and eggplant dishes.

 Tansule was met at the hotel by her very good friend. They had first met when Tansule was a child living in Saudi Arabia. Her friend (I forget her name) lives in Antakya and has helped with arrangements here. We will visit the Mayor tomorrow, as well as another pen pal school, and then a village school the next day. She also knows the restaurants, and took us to Leban, where we had a most delicious meal. 

And the most delicious hummus I have ever eaten. They serve 4 different types of hummus. this one is with pine nuts. So rich and creamy! Yum.