Türkiye kazandı!

Wow, it has been a busy weekend indeed. I spent my first night in Ankara willing myself to stay awake to see Turkey beat Croatia in the Euro Cup quarterfinals. Truly an amazing match, a 0-0 tie until the 119th minute when Croatia scored, only to be followed by a goal from Simih two minutes later. This is the first time Turkey has reached the semifinal in Euro Cup. The semi against Germany will be Thursday, I encourage you all to watch it, if you are in the states it will be on ESPN sometime in the late afternoon.

Aside from that my host family and I are getting along swimmingly. It is a single parent household in Çankaya, which is close to downtown. The mother´s name is Firgen Ereş and she has a son, Kansu who is a 22 year old law student who is doing an internship at a nearby practice. Also, Firgen has her brother and his family, wife and 3 year old son, in town from Antalya for the weekend. Last nıght we all had dinner at Firgens Aunts restaurant with two of her cousins, one of whom is about to be engaged. The Turkish engagement is a two part process. Onoe small get together where the father of the husband-to-be asks permission on behalf of his son to marry. This will happen this evening. A month or so from now, there will be a proper engagement party, called nişan, with many more people. While I will be going to tonights festivities, Im afraid I will be on a trip to İstanbul for the nişan.

Class starts tomorrow, so I may not post again until midweek, probably after the match Thursday.