Turkish Play Date

Today we had our play date at the apartment of Huri, the Turkish girl I met at the playgroup where I take Baby S.

First of all Huri's apartment is in the center of town. I mean like RIGHT in the center of town. I had no problem finding her because she's like in the magnetic, polar center of our town's square. We arrived in the afternoon and Huri was waiting by the gate for us to be sure we could find it. Piece of cake.

About Huri, well, physically she's just a little stick of a thing, just a wisp really, with very large, pretty doe eyes that sparkle mischievously. Her light brown hair hair is streaked a punky blond so I can tell she has a quirky side to her even though she's kind of demure in her appearance, no makeup or trendy accessories. She's has a very likeable face.

Our tea time was fine. I did feel a little claustrophobic in her apartment because it's tiny with about two windows on the one side and none on the other. I had the feeling that circumstances were difficult for her and her husband because they were supporting her parents or some other relatives in Turkey. I gathered from her stories that money was tight, and this is probably why they're living in such cramped quarters. To top it off, her mother will be coming to visit with them in a few weeks and will be staying for six months. That will be four people in what I figure to be about a 45 square meter apartment. I promise never to complain about our cramped house again after seeing hers. I'm very fortunate.

We ended up settling in at her dining room table and we talked in what was a somewhat pidgin sort of French while the boys played. My French is far from perfect, I have crappy pronunciation (vury Amurican), and Huri's French although not terrible, needs the improvements of someone whose only been in the country for two years. Actually she's much more advanced in the language than I was after my first two years. She seems really dedicated to studying French on her own and she'd been studying grammar (of all things) when I arrived. The books were still open and I cringed at the thought that I had not even cracked open a French grammar book in three years. I was finding it really difficult to settle in and relax in her apartment because of the TV. I think she likes her TV very much and must keep it on for company, but it was loud. I mean LOUD. I hated to do it but I had to ask her if she minded if we turn it down. What I really meant was off, but she turned it down to a reasonable level. I felt terrible asking but it was a very loud foreign language broadcast and it was wrecking my concentration. I have terrible TV intolerance and I'm aware of this but this was like my 85 year old neighbor's TV volume, deafening. Anyway after the TV was turned down we had a nice little chat and there were some trips of the tongue and misunderstandings that we laughed over and brushed aside. I really love meeting people from other cultures so I don't really care how well they speak, I just want to savour their stories.

I have to say that Huri's little boy, 'Double M' is a TERROR! I feel much better about Baby S now. I think he's pretty normal and not as much of a terror as I'd originally thought. Her son was in everything! For example, and this is just ONE of about fifteen, as we were talking he stole off with her tea tin, full of some really yummy Turkish tea her mom had just shipped to her. He then proceeded to climb on the sink with a chair and fill the tin full with water. Then he dumped the entire contents, tin and tea onto the floor. All this while her back was turned talking to me. I just glimpsed this little determined devil-child out of the corner of my eye just as he started pouring. It was too late. There was also a broken microwave sitting on the floor that he'd evidently deposited something into earlier in the week, I think Huri said it was a packet of cigarettes or a lighter, and he'd caused it all to explode and shorted out the microwave. I'm kind of fearful of the day he comes to our house to uh, "play." I may be interested in borrowing Cassandra's baby cage after all.

Huri also read my fortune in the remnants of a very strong cup of coffee. I think she didn't understand when I said "non merci" to having a cup of coffee because there she was making this ripping cup of Turkish coffee and placing it in front of me. I of course drank it because a) it was a new experience and b) it was coffee and I love the stuff. You see I'm on a caffeine 'diet' so to speak during my treatments and so after about six cups of her really good tea I was worried. But I drank it and she read my fortune. My fortune was pretty generic: I'd be getting a gift, I'd have a tough time with something I truly wanted, and my husband was on a dead end path somewhere. I thought it was fun that she offered to read my fortune, and it's an interesting Turkish custom that apparently almost everyone does nightly. I loved how she just kept studying the complicated coffee patterns in the interior of the cup with her brow all wrinkled, just looking and searching for connections. She doesn't even know about my secret passion for Tarot cards so hopefully one day I can read for her too.

I'm not sure if Huri will become a "friend friend" or just a "mom friend." You can never really say when you first meet someone. We didn't strike any immediate chords with each other but we were very comfortable in each others company. We don't really have a lot in common though except for our kids and the fact that we're both from other worlds. I guess time and circumstances will tell if we strike up a friendship. I'll call her next week for a play date at my house. And I'll definitely be stashing my things from Double M, but he's bound to find something to get into, the crafty, little demon.