Holiday Hussle and Bussle, No Refunds, and Hunting for Snow

Tis the season to be crowded.
I went to our mall today with the Anti and the Botanist. The Anti has recently learned to drive a stick shift and was willing to drive us out there. They were going for a movie. I was going for some Christmas shopping. The place was absolutely packed! You'd think it was the last weekend before Christmas. Oh wait... It is! With the holidays fast approaching, everyone was out picking up those last minute stocking stuffers. Or not.

Yesterday was probably the biggest single day in the Islamic year. It's called Kurban Bayram here, the Sacrifice Holiday. Every family buys a sheep and kills it to help them draw closer to God. It's in rememberance of Abraham sacrificing his son on the mountain. Everyone travels home to be with family, sacrifice the sheep, and eat a big meal complete with the freshest of meats. It's a huge holiday and most people had the day off yesterday. Judging by my quick estimate, about half the city had today off too... and they were all at the mall. Add to the mass of people crowding the stores the constant heat that was pumping out of only God knows where (Turks are deathly afraid of the cold.) and the many frustrations that come with living here (examples forthcoming), and I think you can understand why it brought back all the worst memories of holiday shopping.

You check the cheese. I'm going to get some dinner.
With that said, I can remember how difficult it is to shop in America around Christmas time. I remember the long lines, walking for hours in the mall, trying to figure out how much you should spend on someone based on how much you guess they will spend on you, etc. But there are some things which happen in this country that just don't make sense. Even though I understand that these people are extremely busy on days like today, there's just no logic behind it, and that adds to the frustrations of the HOT, crowded mall.

Case #1 I'm trying to return a jacket to the store I bought it in two days ago. The man says that I can exchange it for whatever I want. But I don't want an exchange, I want a refund, I tell him. He goes into a long explanation which, due to my limited knowledge of the Turkish language (esp retail vocabulary), the extremely loud Euro-Pop being played over the speakers, the low roar of the other 1500 people in the shop, and the fact that I am sweating profusely and trying to remember if I wore deodorant or not, I don't understand. I simply ask, "Can't I get a refund?" His simple answer, "No, it's a holiday." I clarify, "So, if I want to buy something, I can. If I want to exchange it for something else, I can. But if I want a refund, I can't have it." "No, the banks are closed. It's a holiday." I glance over and notice that the 12 credit card machines are all working. Yes, he assures me, I can buy anything I want. But I can't have a refund. "Come back Monday," he says. And adds, "Merry Christmas."

Case #2 I go into the supermarket just to get a Coke and something sweet to eat. I find some pretty good little doughnut-esque goodies called "Berliners" and the coldest Coke in the cooler (to offset the 120 degree [Celsius] heat coming from the vents) and head to the row of registers. Just like at Wal-Mart back home, there are numerous lines to choose from, but twice as many lines not open. Why places like this feel the need to have 100 registers and only 8 employees to run them is beyond me. But I spot the express line and jump in line behind two people. The man directly in front of me just has some blank CDs and some sort of electronic wire. But the man in front of him seems to have exceeded the 5 item limit. He looks to have close to 10 things on the belt in front of him. I furrow my brow and wonder if this atrocity will be allowed and as I am trying to put together a mild rebuke in Turkish without coming across too condescending, yet forceful, I notice a young child to my right. The bright eyed youngster is holding, excitedly, two packages of chocolate pudding mix. Dad with double the allowed number of items already waves him in to bring the total up to a cool dozen. Then, as the lady behind the register starts to explain to the man that he can't have that many items, his loving wife shows up with an armful of other assorted goodies. The register lady says what I assume is the required and rehearsed speech in this situation and then proceeds to ring him up like nothing was wrong. I was appalled that a man with close to 20 items would try to check out in the "express" lane, more appalled that the company representative manning the retail goods and services invoice calculating station would allow such a travesty, and even more appalled, flabbergasted, really, that the man would have the nerve to pay for his quadruple the limit purchase with a stinkin credit card.

Case #3 The Anti and the Botanist bought a bunch of groceries at the same time (and went through the appropriate lane). But, for whatever reason, the bar code on the cheese they wanted to buy wasn't recognized by the scanner. So, what to do? Punch it in manually? Trust the consumer to tell you the stated price? Or, wait for five to ten minutes, then call a stocker from the warehouse, wait for him another five or ten minutes, explain to him the problem, send him to find either a new pack of cheese or the proper price, ring up the next three customers, continue to wait, close down your register, leave on your dinner break, and leave the foreigners waiting indefinitely for a strange warehouse worker to come back with the cheese that the foreigners haven't actually paid for yet? If you guessed the last one, you'd be correct. The only positive that came out of that whole deal was that I got to break open the Berliners a little earlier than I would've otherwise.

Me make fire. Me eat meat. Me man.
For all these, and a few other reasons, I really missed the mountains today. Yesterday, my two roommates and I took off for the hills. Since it was a holiday, none of has work to do, nor any family to spend the day with, we decided to do something. I talked them into going into the mountains to find snow to play in. We invited some other men, but in the end, it was just us. I was busy Wed night, so I just set my alarm for 9:30, expecting my roommates to wake me up earlier since, surely, we'd be on the road by then. In actuality, I had to wake up one of my roommates and the other was making himself breakfast when I finally got up. We didn't leave the house until after 10, giving us a short day to work with. But, no worries, we still had a blast in the time we had. The ride up was an adventure in itself. My roommate has a new car (twenty years old, but new to him) and had never driven it outside of the city. In fact, he had never driven any car outside of an urban setting. We might have fish tailed once or twice. We may have drifted dangerously close to the opposite shoulder after a turn or two. Special K may have let out a few of his patented wooooooooow's. But getting there is half the fun, right? It became obvious that the snow was just out of reach after we had been driving for almost 2 hours. I thought we would find it at the top of a pass and when we got there we noticed that the snow was actually on the next set of peaks. We were one valley away. But the roads were all dirt roads already, we didn't really know how to get there, and there was no telling how long it would've taken us to get over to it. So instead, we made a picnic.

We just pulled off the side of the road, parked, and made a fire in someone's plowed field. We made a small fire ring and collected firewood. I explained the basics of fire making to the guys and we lit'er up. All there was to work with was pine, so the fire burned fast and cool and made a lot of smoke. But it was good enough for us to cook some Turkish sausage, peppers, and tomatoes. We cut open some loaves of bread and had us a half meater sandwich (Get it? Half meter, meat. Oh well.). We sat around that fire for the rest of the day. We shared stories from our lives. We discussed what was going on in our lives today. We tried to solve the problems of the local church. We dreamed big dreams about seeing this city and this country reached with the Gospel. We told funny stories and some really personal struggles.

There's just something about sitting around a fire with other men that bonds you to them. I can't think of too many other times and places in life that you would just sit in one place and talk and yet never feel bored. Staring into the flames dancing around. Breaking twigs and feeding them to the fire. Poking at the coals with your stick, which you found and whittled to your own liking. It's nothing special, and yet at the same time, such a magical time. Up there in the peaceful countryside bathed in warm sunshine and being watched over by the majestic mountains, time stood still for a while. We weren't English teachers or Turkish tutors or out of work bums. We weren't the guys in church that everyone just laughs at. We weren't at home alone, bored and lonely. We didn't have to hear about how we were coming up short or what was expected of us next. There were no deadlines, no meetings, no place to be except there. It was wonderful.

Though we never found snow and I never got the solitude I was looking for, getting away with those two guys in that field is a memory that I will always cherish. It was a special time spent with two special men. They are incredible people, living incredible lives here, in an incredible place. As Christmas approaches, things have become extremely busy. I have every day planned until I leave for my long-awaited vacation to Italy (more on that later).

Happy Holidays to all of you! (Even if I don't remember which country you live in.)
I may not get to really take time to post my thoughts again like this, so I want you all to know that even though I miss my friends something terrible at times, I am happy. I am glad to be here and glad to be working, living, and worshipping with the people that I have been given. The family I have been given here (the Vs) can't be replaced. The team I get to work with is a great blessing. The church I get to serve with is truly a small and growing portion of the body of Christ. This Christmas is going to be one of the best ever for me. Though I miss Gouge and Paul. Though I wish I were sitting around Ginger's table. Though I wish I could get the apple and orange and peppermints that my Grandma always put in our stockings. Though I can only imagine how excited my little pup Allie is to get her new bone. Though I won't be listening to Dr. Winburn give one of his classic sermons. Though my Dad will probably still be working on Christmas Day again this year. And though I have yet to sing a Christmas hymn this year, in English, I am excited about the holidays. We have a lot of fun, exciting, and worshipful events coming up in the next few days. I hope and pray that you all have as much fun and laughter as I have over these few days. I hope and pray that you all are blessed and loved as much I as I will be over these next few days. And I hope and pray that you all will see God anew, and worship the Saviour who left His place in the heavens to be born a helpless babe in a dirty manger, as much I believe I will over the next few days.

God bless you all and have a Merry Christmas.

(Pictures from the snow hunt will be coming and I will try to have some holiday pictures to post too, since these pictureless posts are getting old. Also, flabber gasted, separately, is underlined in red as being misspelled. But flabbergasted together seems to be correct, in case you were wondering.)