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| via gamze sonmez @Flickr |
The best way to learn a language is by immersion. In my case, I was stuck in a small fishing boat off the coast of Mersin with three people who laughed at my childish efforts. Well, that was only part of my training. The point is you have to be forced into it, without recourse to speak your native language. Be a fish out of water, so to speak. :)
Fishing is a big deal in Turkey, as with any coastal place. My Eniste (husband's uncle-in-law), Teyze (husband's mother's aunt) and dearest husband conspired to spend the weekend evenings of my first Turkish summer cramped into a tekne (rowboat). I couldn't understand anything on TV anyways, so... off I went.
I'm not so bad at fishing...with a rod. But when they gave me a small rectangle of wood wound in some fishing line and studded with multiple hooks at the end, things suddenly got hilarious.
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| via RedBubble.com |
Eniste baited the hooks with some shrimp and tossed my line overboard. And it came up empty. Again and again and again. Everyone else was catching fish, so I started to get desperate, tugging at the line in little jerks. When I pulled it up, there were fish hooked on alright. Some small fry Eniste called mercan (coral) aka sea bream, all about the size of a half-dollar coin. Hooked on by the gill, tail, fin, everywhere but the mouth! The little buggers kept nibbling my bait all night. (OK, so it was more than just the ONE night. I can't live this down! And here I'm telling you about it...)
I did much better at the seafood restaurant in Narlikuyu, a beautiful cove which managed to included in my MS. Yup! Seafood is important to Mediterranean life, but, if you ask the women there to cook some up, they point to the nearest restaurant. Fish dishes are relegated to the summer, when you can open the windows to air everything out thoroughly. If you cook it at all. (Sinks up the house and that's bad for visitors, apparently.)
BTW, Happy Valentines Day!
