Oh yeah...

We have some new friends in town. I've mentioned them before. They are the ones who lived with us while they searched for a new apartment. Having people new to the area reminds us of how it feels to be new. Watching them learn culture and have new experiences has been fun. Here are a few of their stories with our own blasts from the past...

1. The other day they took a trip to the zoo. While visiting the chimpanzee cage they observed some young people throwing nuts into the cage. The chimp picked them up and ate them. Then another person lit a cigarette, took a couple of puffs on it, and threw it into the cage. The chimpanzee picked it up and smoked it. Judging from the cigarette butts in the cage and the expertise the chimp showed in smoking the cigarette it was obvious that this wasn't his first time.

This reminded me of our first time to the zoo. The same thing happened when we were there. A man threw a cigarette into the cage and the chimp smoked it like he had been doing it all his life! I couldn't believe it! Sad and funny at the same time!

2. My friend had a neighbor from her building visit her the other day. After having a seat in the living room the neighbor cautioned my friend about having too many windows open in her house. There was a balcony door and a window open in the living room. According to the neighbor this was unhealthy. Each room could only have one window or door open at a time or people could get sick. My friend thanked her neighbor for the advice and told her that in America we don't often open our windows so she hadn't heard that before. The funny thing about this is that the neighbor's husband is a medical doctor.

Not long after arriving in Turkey we had our next door neighbors over for dinner. The couple was quite concerned that we were walking around barefoot in our house. They warned us that we would get stomachaches from walking on the cold floor while barefoot. They were mostly concerned about the girls because walking around barefoot could cause our ovaries to freeze. We all put on socks or slippers so that we wouldn't worry them too much. The craziest part of it all is that our neighbors are both doctors. And one of them is an ob/gyn. I wonder if he asks his patients who are having trouble conceiving if they walked around barefoot as a child!

3. During a language lesson our friend was asked to come up with a sentence about what he planned to do after class using the verb "to make/do". After carefully constructing his sentence it was his turn to share. What he tried to say was "I want to (make play) with my children". What he said was "I want to make children".

Brian has had numerous funny language mistakes as well. He has asked if he could "use" his wife. He once said "I am licking myself" when trying to say "I'm just joking". One of my favorite times was when a language helper of his learned he was from California. He said "oh, California...I love that song Californication." Brian trying to explain the difference in the two words was fun to watch!