We had to meet Hakan at 17:40 and pretty much had to power walk to catch the tram then ran to make sure we didn't miss our bus because the next one would've left an hour later. Luckily we made the bus so all was fine.
We found out that Turkish weddings are pretty much just a reception/open house with dancing because it started at 8:00 but people could show up any time. We got there at about 9:00 or 9:30 and Hakan's friend, Gülse, and her friends didn't get there till probably an hour or so later. There didn't seam to be a meal served to the guests, just a few plates of cookies at each table and bottles of pop or juice that people could pour in their glasses when thirsty.
The wedding itself was in a big room above a grocery store that seemed to do weddings all the time. Gülse's dad met us downstairs in the parking lot and insisted on shaking everyone's hand and seemed to be happy that we were there. It was his friend's son's wedding and I guess it wasn't an issue at all that we had no idea who the bride and groom were nor even their names.
So then we were about to walk up the stairs to the wedding and I remember saying, "shit just got real" because I couldn't believe we were actually walking into a wedding of a different culture for people we'll never see again and I suddenly got really nervous. But then we walked in, they found us a table right away and shook a bunch of hands.
Soon enough they played songs I guess just for us and we first tried the whole Turkish dancing and then one song we danced "the American way." It was fun and they seemed to eat it up. Especially the kids. I saw some kids trying to dance like we were so I went and danced with them and they had a smile on their face the entire time - and so did I pretty much the entire night because it was a bunch of fun and an experience I never would've guessed I would've had in my life.
Then we went to sit down because a different dance came on that was more traditional and involved clicking of spoons. While that was happening these two eleven-year old girls who knew about the same amount of English as I knew Turkish (if not less) were insistent on trying to talk with me. It was pretty much them asking Hakan how to say "what's your favorite color?" "your dress is beautiful" "you are beautiful" "how old are you?" and then they would repeat it to me. They were cute but the whole language barrier made it a bit difficult. Then they insisted on taking pictures:
And then they wanted to take pictures of me...or at least I think they did
And I had to do a few funny faces so they could play with my camera
Then I made them join me in the funny pics
Soon enough it was time to go back out there and dance. Turkish dancing is a lot of having your arms out and your chest open while moving your arms kind of up and down and snapping a little. It's hard to explain, I'm sure you could look it up online if you're really curious. Or I could start up some Turkish dance lessons once I get home because I'm pretty much an expert...not really haha
Centerpiece
At least one, maybe both were the sisters of the two girls.
Oh, and there was a professional photographer that took pictures and printed pictures right away that could be bought for 3 TL. Qianqian bought this one.
This picture made the wall of selected pics! So I didn't have the opportunity to buy it but thought it was a cool picture. I'm dancing with this girl because random girls, including her, would come up to me and do some sort of motion to teach me how to dance Turkish-ly like this move
They later had a huge cake for the bride and groom to cut but it seemed to be a fake cake because the actual cake was served soon after and we saw it stored in a room later. Then they had to give the gifts to the bride and groom which involved a bunch of people standing in a line presenting their gifts. And after a while we were able to dance one more time.
We eventually got back and wanted to go to karaoke night at Up n Down and that was a bunch of fun. There were many Turkish songs sung but also some known ones and in between people singing they played songs we could dance to more. Our American group pretty much tore it up when it came to dancing which was a ton of fun. Some of the guys then sang a Michael Jackson and soon enough the place was closing. We wanted to sing Bohemian Rhapsody but it either didn't make the list or we were too late in suggesting it.
It was an interesting night and made staying awake in class today pretty difficult.
Leaving for Olympos in 4 hours and I'm looking forward to it! It will be beautiful and relaxing and I'll have pictures to prove it :)
TTFN!
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