hoşgeldin yasemin!

this was the scene after dinner last night at midnight--a little kitty joe salad and a little turkish dessert.
four years ago, when i first landed in istanbul, my plane was delayed. by the time i made it to the balik household, it was past one in the morning. i expected to find a dark house, but instead, i walked into dinner just put on the table, everyone waiting to eat. and oh my god, what a dinner! i sat there overwhelmed by the kindness of emre's family and shyly uttered my first heavily practiced words in turkish to emre's mother--eline salik--which means health to your hands--a compliment to the cook.
in this country i am known for my hospitality, yet i could never dream of coming close to the level of spoiling that is showered upon me by my turkish friends. though we begged yasemin to bring nothing for us this time (my entire wardrobe already comes courtesy of the balik family visits) she nonetheless showed up with an enormous suitcase of vacuum packed cheese, olives, turkish delight, porcelain plates, turkish coffee, jewelry, and of course, a trove of uncannily perfectly fitting clothing.
yasemin has this incredible talent (in addition to her acting skills). if i walked into a store and brought these 15 items into the dressing room, maybe 3 of them would fit. yet with yasemin, who hasn't seen me in 4 years, every piece fits like it was tailored to my body. crazy. and the same goes for what she brought for haley. below, she bejewels haley with wedding jewelry, an emerald set.
it was quite a beautiful reunion, the first time yasemin had seen her little brother emir (left) in four years! they're not a bad looking set of siblings....
yasemin casually announced over breakfast that she will be getting her masters degree on full scholarship by a private university that approached her due to her fame on turkish television. i told her she can relax here in new york where she is unknown. it'll be just like when angelina jolie goes to france. totally incognito.

look at emre's little sis go!

congratulations are in order for emre's too-beautiful-to-be-so-nice sister, yasemin, who just landed the lead role in turkey's newest hit primetime television show, 'pusat' (which translates to 'weapon' in old turkish). yasemin plays the eponymous boxer's ex (and future) girlfriend. let's see her in action, fretting over the possibility of danger in the boxing ring. by the way, this modest kiss on the cheek scene is quite scandelous, as depictions of physical affection on tv in turkey are let's say, not as liberal as they are here in the U.S. of 'i can't believe they did that on tv' A. their formerly super-strict father, the elder mr. fish ('balik' means fish in turkish) is now suppressing urges to pass out, even though yasemin is 27 (?) years old.

by the way, yasemin's part is the first and last minute. in between is an oh so interesting boxing scene. time to fast forward!



in a totally unrelated yet favorite yasemin story, when emre was 2 years old he pointed to his pregnant mother's tummy and said, "you have a yasemin inside of you". turns out the baby was born a girl, and emre was right. he then proceded to abuse this fact hundreds of times as a child, enlisting yasemin in a kind of servitude to her "name father". did i ever give thanks that i have sisters instead of brothers? though, what am i talking about? "you owe me 30 minutes of tickling on my left leg" is still ringing in my ears, sister christian! and i still haven't forgotten that set-up "kitty said the f-word!" sure abbie, i'm on to your tricks....