You're not from around here, are you?

We are having fun in America! The other day we stopped at an Exxon to get gas in the car. Brian asked if I would run into the convenience store and buy him a cup of coffee while he pumped the gas. He used to love to get coffee at the gas station so I was excited that he could have some. They don't have coffee in gas stations in Turkey so it was a treat. I thought to ask him what kind of coffee he wanted since I expected a couple of different choices. He said he just wanted the regular kind. I walked into the store and just stopped. They had a complete coffee bar! There were about 10 different flavors of coffee...house blend, dark magic, special roast, mountain berry, caramel vanilla, irish creme, and several other flavors. And then the creamers...probably 15 different choices there. Then, of course, I had to decide which size cup Brian would want from the 5 choices. I wasn't sure what to do. I finally chose the dark magic since it sounded like dark roasted coffee and decided on a medium large cup. I went out where Brian was paying at the pump for the gas (something we can't do in Turkey) and told him that next time he wanted coffee from the gas station he had to go get it himself. It was too overwhelming for me!

Yesterday, we spent some time at my parents' house visiting with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Erica and two of my cousins were making brownies in the kitchen. My mom reminded them to grease the pan and asked if they wanted to use Pam or shortening to grease it. I looked at Erica and I could tell she was confused. I asked her if she knew what Pam was. She said no. I asked her if she knew what shortening was. Again, she said no. I started laughing! We use oil or margarine in Turkey because they don't have Pam or shortening there! New vocabulary!

Anna Grace has also learned some new vocabulary since she has been here. One of her new words is pantry. She had no idea what that was! When I asked her to get something out of the pantry she just looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. In Turkey we have some food in the normal kitchen cabinets and some food in another cabinet unit that we refer to as a dolap (dole-ahp) which is the Turkish word for cabinet. If I had asked her to get something out of the dolap she would have known exactly what I meant. Also, Walmart is a new word for her. We left Anna Grace at my parents' one evening while we ran to Walmart to pick up a few things. My uncle asked her where we went, and he said she just tapped her head and said, "what was the name of that place again". He said any kid raised in America would have had no problem coming up with Walmart. He could tell she wasn't from around here.

I'm sure there will be more things to share with you as we live the adventure here in the states. Thanks for reading!