46 Ha 811 is the license plate number of Semih's car. It was a new Hyundai diesel white- the brand and that it ran on diesel I had to be told- in order to find it I memorized the number. Eventually I started to believe that we really did have 46 Ha's (laughs) and then 811 more.

Breakfast: Gül or Gülan told me, one morning that they grew up with Semih making them eat the hard-boiled egg and that eventually they rebelled and refused. Yet it seemed like everywhere else we went this was the breakfast that was served.

Semih's English 'accent' – very late in the visit Semih revealed that his English teacher was from Scotland, which went a long ways towards explaining some of the little pronunciations that threw me when he spoke.

Toilet--- VERY late in the trip I revealed that I didn't understand why no one understood me when I asked where the toilet was. I had read, before leaving Seattle, that you could tell which bathroom to use by looking for Bay = Men, or Bayan = Women. I took this to mean that Bay meant men's room and Bayan women's. When I explained my difficulty to Semih he started laughing, the word for Toilet is toilet and Bay means Mr. and Bayan means Mrs. So when I've been seeking the bathroom and saying Bay no wonder no one understood what I wanted.

On the trip to Nemrut---Pistachios – on the way ( I think) we stopped and bought a bag of fresh pistachios- they are red at the end and green/tan at the other. This is a skin and peels off to reveal a shell which you then split to get to the nutmeat. Completely different experience from the dried nuts and it was hard to stop eating them.

Turtles, goats, cat, trout, feudal landlord, dangerous, restaurant. As we approached the Tigrus over the mountains we drove into an area controlled by a landlord who was more of a Feudal Lord/Crime-boss than a farmer. He had called Semih at the University to come and plan a grove of trees for him.

Semih didn't return the call “Because if one tree had died- he might have killed me!”

Even so when we came to a reservoir and a restaurant controlled by this man we stopped for lunch/dinner (I can't remember which it was). There were two goats on the steep hillside rolling down to the 'lake' and they were eating the weeds and STUMBLING. There were at least 2 feral cats that were stalking food from us and down at lakeside to try to catch either the baby turtles or the trout swimming in the shaded part near us.

Şalgam**** sugar, salt, vinegar, red carrots, turnip, hot spice (Adana).