Tis the Season...

...for international Christmas events in Atlanta!

A few interesting events coming up soon:

Tomorrow, Saturday, December 5th, the Atlanta International School will be hosting a German Christmas Market between 2pm and 7pm. The event includes traditional German food and drinks, music performances, and a market of European crafts. And best of all, admission is FREE! More information is available here.

If that's not enough of a European-Christmas extravaganza for you, you can also attend the Swedish Christmas Market on Sunday, December 13th. The event will be held at the Trolley Barn in Inman Park from 11am to 4pm. I'm especially looking forward to the Santa Lucia procession at 2pm. Admission is $5; 18 and under enter free. More details are available here.

If anyone has any suggestions of Russian events, markets, or restaurants, please let me know! I recently decided that I want to learn Russian, and am eager to try out my skills...

Atlanta Turkish Festival

I have been fascinated by Turkey ever since I read Stephen Kinzer's book Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds in college, and after attending the Atlanta Turkish Festival yesterday, I am even more intrigued by this country.

The Atlanta Turkish Festival is going on this weekend (October 17th-18th) at the Gwinnett Convention Center. The event is organized by the Istanbul Center and is well worth the trek up to Duluth. If you didn't make it to the festival but are interested in Turkish culture, the Istanbul Center has courses and events throughout the year.

I especially enjoyed the entertainment at the event. Over the four hours or so I was there, I had the opportunity to see

the Mehter Band (the oldest military band in Turkey), traditional folk dances from different regions of Turkey, a puppet show of Whirling Dervishes, the Teachers Chorus from Mardin, Turkey, and a Bosnian Folk Dance performance. I was surprised to learn that Turkish and Bosnian culture shared a lot in common, hence the Bosnian presentations.

It's hard to pick a favorite performance since they were all so unique and featured such talented performers, but I was especially struck by the Teachers Chorus performance. The music was so different from traditional American music; most of it featured complicated time signatures and rhythms not commonly heard in most American music. I'll work on putting some videos up soon.

Of course, no festival would be complete without food! Several Atlanta -based Turkish restaurants had booths at the event; I had lamb shish and Turkish tea-- both delicious!

Here's a full slideshow of the event:

Steve McCurry AND Upcoming Events

I'm heading off to work in a few minutes, but just wanted to put up a quick post about a few interesting things...

First, I had the amazing opportunity to meet and speak with renowned photojournalist Steve McCurry last night-- even if you do not recognize the name, you would probably recognize many of his iconic images from National Geographic, including one of an Afghan Girl with deep green eyes. McCurry has worked as a photojournalist around the world from Afghanistan to India to Myanmar, and has incredible talent for capturing the human spirit through his portraits.

McCurry's work is on display at Besharat Gallery in Castleberry Hill through November 1. Thanks to friends Katherine and Terry for knowing about the art opening and inviting me along! Terry will likely be posting pictures from the evening on his blog, Architecture Tourist, so definitely check them out! Thanks to Katherine, too, for prodding me to go up and speak to Mr.McCurry-- I was a little star-struck and first and needed a little encouragement to fight my way through the cluster of adoring fans to actually speak to him.

A few other international events going on this weekend:

--The Atlanta Turkish Festival will be at the Gwinnett Convention Center on Saturday, Oct 17th and Sunday, October 18th.

--For any francophones or aspiring francophones, come to La Madeleine in Dunwoody for the monthly French conversation breakfast on Saturday morning beginning at 10am!

--The Cumming Greek Festival in Forsyth County on Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 17th-18th).

--Last but not least, the Latin American Film Festival is going on at the High Museum through October 31.

I'll be at the Turkish Festival and French conversation breakfast and will post photos next week!

Atlanta Greek Festival

Opa!

Despite being an Atlanta native, I had never actually attended the Atlanta Greek Festival before this year. It was held a couple weekends ago at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Clairmont Rd. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap fall activity.

My favorite aspect of the event was the FOOD! So much delicious food to choose from! We started off with roasted potatoes and a lamb sandwich (there was even a fire pit where they were roasting a lamb), followed by a BAKLAVA SUNDAE! Brilliant! If you're not familiar with baklava, it's a pastry made of philo dough, honey, and chopped nuts. Hard to go wrong with those ingredients...The baklava sundae was just crushed baklava over vanilla ice cream. Delish!

As if that wasn't enough eating, we decided to follow up with Greek coffee and Loukoumades, doughnut-like fritters with honey and cinnamon (again, hard to go wrong!). Greek coffee is sweet and strong, a little too sweet for my tastes, but it went well with the Loukoumades. Watch out for the coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup!

There was, of course, plenty of entertainment at the event. They had a band (called Alpha-Omega, I believe) on the main stage and everyone was invited to get up and dance. You could definitely tell who was Greek, as the steps looked pretty complicated...I took a couple videos-- will post them later today along with some photos.

If you missed the Atlanta Greek Festival this year, never fear! There will be a Greek festival in Cumming, GA next weekend (October 17-18th): http://www.cumminggreekfestival.com/ . Should be a fun time!