Lunch with my Language Teacher

Saturday, I was invited to my language teachers’ for lunch/dinner. Lunch is the big meal here. And they eat it at around 3PM. I went with my supervisor and his wife, because we all take language from her. She is actually living with her in-laws during the week, and her parents during the weekends, cause money has been tight. She is not happy with the arrangement. But this way, I got to meet more of her family. She is 28, and has 6 and 4 year old girls. We met her parents, her husband, her younger brother, and one of her sisters and her sisters’ fiancé.

I had tried to make thin mints to take, but they did not turn out too well. They tasted good, but did not look too pretty, so I picked up half a kilo of goodies from the local bakery/candy shop to take as a gift. We were greeted very warmly with the cultural 3 kisses and ushered into the living room, where the tv was kept on the entire time on the National Geographic channel, until later when the girls changed it to Disney! And after the girls warmed up to us, we played, and read a lot of books. Thankfully, there is not much of a language barrier when you play peek a boo with a 4 year old, or just obey all their commands to stand here, now stand there!

We were served water, and then juice before lunch. Then for lunch, they spread newspaper out on the floor, and we all crowded around on the floor. We were all given our own plates and spoon (which is better than some meals I had in Turkey). About half way through the meal we were served Pepsi. (they don't drink with their meals). We had a beef and rice dish that was really good, with some spicy salsa, and fried potatoes, hummus, pita bread, and salad. It was all really good, and thankfully, nothing was too exotic.

After the meal, they set out the sweets that we had brought, and they smoked. Then we had chi tea. Then a little later, they served us fruit! So we ate, and ate, and ate!

It was fun to see my teacher outside of class, and watch her interact with her children. It is comforting to see how she teases her girls and talks really loud with them too. That way I know when she is talking really loud in language that, that is normal for her and she is not mad.

It was a lot of fun! I am sure I learned much more about culture than I even realized that I learned from the outing! Can't wait to go again, and her mom really liked me, because of my "baby face," so hopefully, there will be a next time!