E.Deniz Sudas

The Thanksgiving Traditionalists        By  Perri Klass, M.D.  NYTimes        Nov. 25, 2019    In the article "The Thanksgiving Traditionalists", Perri Klass shares experiences about their Thanksgiving customs. According to Klass, traditionalists , who are about 80s now, pursue their traditional values about Thanksgiving.  One of them is  singing the hymn "We Gather Together" to kick off Thanks giving dinner , which is a Dutch Calvinist hymn of thanks for victory in 1597 over Catholic Spain. Second is big family meeting on Thanksgiving Day. She says that she lived in Cambridge with grand child  and every year their family came up frok New York and New Jersey. Other important one is Thanksgiving dinner menu, which includes such as  mashed patatoes, pumpkin pie, and Turkey.

Halloween was so exciting for us because it was my daughter's first Halloween. We don't celebrate Halloween in Turkey, but nowadays, in Istanbul, my friends begin to celebrate Halloween. We learned everything about Halloween, owing to my daughter, Betul. Preparations had started one month before Halloween. Everything, every mall, every street reminded that Halloween was coming soon. Early October, my friends and I participated with our children Halloween event for children in Lake Forest. Betul caught to chance to design her pumpkin. We took a lot of photos with princesses, heroes, and harry potter:). At the mid of October, my daughter and I went to Tanaka Farms to pick up a pumpkin with her school. It was a beautiful day. The children were so excited. Eventually, Halloween came, Betul dressed up. She was a little Elsa. In the morning, she visited houses with her teacher on a school trip. She collected a lot of candies and small gifts. After 5 pm, we began to visit ne...

 CALIFORNIA   Before we have moved to Southern California, we had been living New jersey, which is a little boring state, in winters too cold and snowy, in summers too hot and rainy, therefore we wanted to move to the different state in the USA. Both I and my husband love to travel. In 2018 we have got an east coast trip from New York to Florida for two weeks. Also, we visited CA three times before moving in 2017 and in 2018. We , also, got a short west coast trip from San Fransisco to San Diego. I can say honestly, California is the best state to visit and to live in the USA in many ways. First of all-weather is incredible. Most days of the years are sunny. Not only summers are not too hot but also, winters are not too cold. Secondly, I admire CA's beaches. I recommend walking through route 1 in Laguna beach where boutique shops, art galleries, beautiful restaurants, and cafes are located. Watching the sunset on Santa Monica pier with sounds of the violin and eati...

NOW SCHOOL UNIFORMS 20 YEARS AGO SCHOOL UNIFORMS      In the recent past in Turkey, men could not wear like pink and purple colors. In addition, they could not wear tight pants. Girls in schools could wear only a skirt.  Men crying was disgraceful. Girls playing football was very strange. Only girls had helped to mothers mundane housework. T hese were all actions to create gender identity.  while boys would not play with kitchen toys, girls would not play  with cars too. Baby dolls and kitchen toys had been related to girls. Today somethings changed. However, boys in Turkey still don't play with baby dolls. Parents believe that playing with baby dolls affects their son's behavior negatively. Also, while boys play football and basketball, girls usually prefer playing volleyball and tennis. Today also, this situation depends on parents. I and most of my friends who have children , do not do any restricts to their children. They can play everything what t...

    I have been living in the USA for almost 4 years.  When I came here, I can say that I have had a cultural shock. I always had thought that I had grown up under the influence of American culture. Because in Turkey, the structure of the economy and system of education are based on the American system. Also, there are many American famous Brands in Turkey such as Starbucks, Mc Donald, Burger King, and Tommy Hilfiger. Moreover, we had grown up with American movies and songs. Nevertheless, I saw that these were not enough for understanding culture.    On my first days in America, we had gone to Walmart. That day I had many opportunities for recognizing American culture. First of all, when we arrived there, I noticed that car parking spaces are larger than parking spaces in Turkey. Then, we entered in. While we were looking for something,  someone said to me '' excuse me! " to pass. After that I realized, everybody who wanted to pass someone said this phra...

  When I was 16.  We had been staying in Turgutreis, Bodrum every summer for 3 months. We had a house in a beautiful big community. I had a  lot of friends. Have you heard about Bodrum? Bodrum is the most famous entertainment city in Turkey. Although I lived in Bodrum, I didn't go anywhere after 12:00 am because I was turning into a pumpkin :).  My parents were not allowed to me.    One day my friends wanted to see the sunrise. If you want to see the sunrise in June, you should get up early at 4:30 am. So we decided to climb up to the peak of the community's hill, so we would have seen sunrise haha. When I turned to home, I could not say anything to mom; because I knew that she would not have allowed me to go. I would have been going to sneak out. When my friends came to pick up me at my home, I was sleeping. They had tried to call me quietly with my name and unfortunately, I couldn't hear them and they had decided to throw up a rock to the window. They ...