>O zaman ben de Turkce yaziyorum :)) .(sende Turkce klavye olmadigi icin ben de kullanmiyorum. Bu arada sizin dilin en sevdigim yani sen-siz ayriminin olmamasi. Bu cok sikinti verici birsey emin ol) .

Reading Turkish again is a challenge. I read the second sentence as " In the meantime, your language is my favorite as you do not have to separate the 'sen-siz'. This is really a 'pain in the neck' ( Inglizce deyimi )

Does 'sen-siz' mean the familiar and formal as in 'istersen' vs 'istersiniz' ?

Yes, but English has a lot of strange things. It is much easier to spell Turkish words. ( one of the big reasons I have that picture of Ataturk on my wall :-) and also a reason Turks seem to be far ahead of Arabs and Iranians in computer technology. ( the advantage of an alphabet that can be easily rendered on a keyboard with common ASCII sets. )


>
>> ( my room mate in college was Cem Kozlu and we continue to be close friends )
>Cem Kozlu gercekten cok onemli biri.

I call him a 'buyuk peynir' ( another English idiom ) He's also a very nice guy. His English is better than mine. Robert Kolleji ( oh, sorry, Boazci Universitesi ) Denison and then Stanford. ( and his wife is a yabanci - but you would be amazed at her Turkish - and she now speaks English with a Turkish accent ) When we were in college Cem won creative writing competitions. His son Bulent just graduated from Harvard. Gercekten cok akilli bir aile.

>
>Istanbul is one of my favorite places in the world and Turkish food is, of course, the best in the world. ( I wish I could have dinner tonight at Korfez or just Hacibaba or someplace in the Cicek Pasaji. I remember the OLD Galata Koprusu - the one that burned - and many nights I in the fish restaurants that hung out over the water ... )
>Bunu duyduguma sevindim. Genelde yabancilar bizim yemekleri sevmez. Siz genelde Cin yemeklerini cok seviyorsunuz. Ama ben Cin yemeklerinin kokusuna bile dayanamiyorum.
>

I really like Chinese food - at least I do in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore. But Turkish food ( which Americans most often think of as Greek, Lebanese, Morrocan, Israeli filan filan ) is really my favorite. When I lived in Izmir, I remember there were a lot of American military at NATO headquarters who would buy fruit and vegetables from the American commissary that had been imported and never understood the tomatoes and oranges in the local market were better than anything they could get at home.

I still prefer American beef, but I can take pretty much any American to a simple kepabci when they have sut kuzu and he will be very impressed. My wife knew nothing about Turkey before we went and now she can't stop talking about how wonderful everything was - especially the people and the food.

There were two doner kepab places I particularly liked on Ataturk Cad in Ankara ( I think they were called Bursa and Iskendar )

But of course the best thing was sitting out on the waterfront with good friends, drinking raki and eating meze for hours and hours before the fish was served...


>>On my last visit ( 1999 ) I was impressed with the very nice blend of the old and modern in Istanbul and Izmir ( but of course I didn't recognize Izmir and I miss the dolmuslar. ) ( sorry, still using the yabanci
>Dolmuslarin nesini ozluyorsun. Ben nefret ediyorum. Istanbul'da hala fazlasiyla var.
>

:-) I thought they were fun. ( of course I was very young and crazy ) I am not surprised you hate them. Most of my Istanbulu friends did. But in Ankara and Izmir they were a lot faster and even less crowded than the bus.

>Eger tekrar Turkiye'ye gelmeye niyetlenirsen haber ver. Hicbir turizm acentasinin soylemeyecegi yerleri soylerim. Onlar genelde parayi dusunurler ve bakir yerlerden bahsetmezler. Mesela gecen sene Antalya-Cirali'ya gittim. Kaplumbaga yuvalari olan sessiz harika ve cok ucuz bir yer.

I will definitely let you know when I am coming back to Turkey. I would love to see Istanbul through the eyes of a fellow Fox-head. Turkey is such a wonderful place to find peaceful beaches and quiet places outside the cities. I remember Antalya. The last sentence : I got "a wonderfully quiet and inexpensive place" but what is the part about Turtle nests? (Turtle shells? kabugu ? )