Photos: 1.) Big group is our team 'owners' and the team, at a post-game dinner. 2.) Me and teammates at post-game dinner. From the left: Nazli, Yasmina, me, Mine, Ilkim, Elif. 3.) Team celebrating on ice after winning.
Well, its been a week again, and aside from the day to day, the only thing of somewhat interest that has happened is that my hockey team won a big game. Without me.
As with most things in Turkey, I've learned, rarely is anything done on time or correctly. And so in the week leading up to the biggest game of the season, rumors started that my playing license had not been done on time, and that i would not be able to play. This game had been scheduled back in October, a few days after I arrived, but postponed until now because our opponent was out of town during original game. Long story short, my team owner didn't get my license before that game, and thus, even though the game happened this weekend, since I didn't have my license before the original date, I could not play. Of course everyone thinks this is a stupid rule, but the opposing teams manager made sure to look into it to make sure that I would not play, since he knows that with me on the ice, his team wouldn't stand a chance. My problem with the whole thing is that my owner should have taken care of my license, especially since this was really the game i came here for in October the reason I HAD to come when i did. Its over now, but still, not a good situation. Even though, as usual, people here just say 'well, that's Turkey'.
So instead of playing, I was on the bench and coached, and the team pulled out a dramatic 3-1 win! Very sweet, especially after all the trouble the opposing manager went to to make sure I couldn't play. We saw him quickly leave the rink after the game, going on vacation a day early.
This week, the whole country is on Bayram vacation, but more about that later.
After the game, the 'owner' (its actually just a family, with a kid on the team, who has enough money to sponsor our team, and pay my salary...) took us all out to dinner. It was fun, and all of the girls were extremely happy, as this was the first win against this team (Polis Akademi), and it almost guarantees that we will be champions. We play another game against them, but if we squeaked out a win without me playing, its almost a for sure win with me playing.
After dinner, we went back to the rink to watch the men's game, and then the festivities continued at the local bar, which we kept open much later than the proprieter wanted to! But, as usual, we had a large group of good friends, our team and a bunch of men's team players, and so it was a nice night all together.
The next day, yesterday, I met up with the three other foreigners, and we went to the mall to look for Christmas decorations! One Target-like store in the mall had one small pathetic aisle with very cheesy over-priced Xmas decorations. But hey, what can we really ask for in a muslim country? So, we sticked up on pretty much one of each small ugly trinket, had some lunch, strolled around some more, and headed home. I plan to move into my 'new' apartment this week, and also plan to have a Xmas dinner there, so decorations are a must.
To be continued.. off to practice...
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