Çay with Music

Across the main road running perpendicular to Gaziantep University near my apartment is a fairly sizable outdoor cafe. Now, the first thing you have to understand about Turkish cafes is that they really aren't so much about coffee. You go there to drink tea, out of small glass cups with no handles. Frankly, I've learned to love it, and I will usually have several glasses a day. I was really excited when the cafe at Zirve opened up to serve çay. It was the perfect complement to a day spent trying to plan for lessons without knowing if we would have books or copies or what have you.

At any rate, last night at the Tea Garden, as it's called, they had live music. I knew that they did this on the weekends, but apparently it's much more frequent than that. In fact, I believe there may be some going on right now, but I'm too wiped out to go now, and it's about 9:30 PM anyway, so a little late. The live music was great in and of itself, but that wasn't the highlight. I'd seen somewhat similar live music before, although last night's performers were quite talented.

The highlight was the impromptu Turkish folk dance that broke out. I have been hearing for weeks about Turkish folk dancing, even had my colleagues offer to teach me "sometime" which may mean never, but this was the first time I had seen it. The first involved several men in a circle, and consisted primarily of simple steps, but the circle grew and moved around the area of the dance as long as it lasted. The second involved only two men, circling each other and making winglike gestures and martial (to borrow Devon's term) advances towards each other. My first thought was that this must not have the same connotations of similar dances elsewhere, which are all symbolic courtship rituals. But as it continued I saw that Devon was right. This was a symbolic contest of masculinity, not entirely unlike the dance floor showdowns to be found at nightclubs everywhere in the States.

The whole experience was really amazing. And today, after work, I told my colleague Hasan about it. He told me again that he will teach me sometime. There is supposed to be an "office" party soon, so that may prove a fertile time for learning. I'll show it to you when I get back home!