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!

Visiting the Buford Highway Farmer's Market

Yesterday I visited the Buford Highway Farmer's Market for the first time. I typically shop at Your Dekalb Farmer's Market for international products and food, but decided to try out another one for variety.

I was so impressed with the quantity and scope of international products available there! The market is generally arranged by region of the world, and includes aisles of products from Brazil, Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, the Caribbean, and more. Everything at the market, too, is very reasonably priced.

Almost all the products are labeled in another language; it's sometimes difficult to find the English translation on the product label, and even when I did find it, I was often still left clueless to the contents or use of the product. I always am intrigued by packaging in other languages-- I'm not sure why this is; perhaps it's because it's something representing the quotidian life of people of another country that gets past the touristy images; or perhaps it's because it shakes my ideas of what's "normal" for a soft drink bottle or bag of candy to look like.

The market also includes an extensive produce section with fruits and vegetables from all over the world. I bought longans, a fruit popular in Thailand that I'd never heard of before. Longans are small, grape-like fruits that you have to peel before eating. The flesh of the fruit is similar to that of lychees, but longans are somewhat less flavorful. In any case, it's fun to explore the market and try new fruits and vegetables.

Even if you're not shopping for international food, the market is worth a trip for the people-watching opportunities-- I definitely heard more conversations in foreign languages than I did in English! Outside the market I picked up newspapers in Spanish, Chinese, and Korean.

Here's a short photo slideshow to see some photos from the market.

The market is located at 5600 Buford Highway, Doraville, GA 30340. It's worth the trip!

Greetings!

Thanks for checking out my blog! 

This will be a work constantly in progress, but I thought I'd begin with a little background about the evolution of the idea behind it all...

Sitting in my office, I often long to be traveling and exploring new places, meeting new people, experiencing new tastes, smells, and noises. With limited vacation time and limited funds, my options for international travel are fairly limited. 

I try to keep up my French and stay in tune with international stories through French podcasts. I've been listening lately to one in particular, Au detour du monde, produced by France Inter.  It's a varied program and includes travel advice, music from around the world, and a feature from another country. Recent topics have included a film festival in Burkina Faso, the experience of living in a yurt in Mongolia, and traveling across Finland in the middle of winter. 

While listening to the podcast the other day, I started thinking about how great it would be to be a reporter for Au detour du monde and for my job to be to explore new places and learn about other cultures...when I realized I can do just that here in Atlanta. At that moment, I decided to make it a personal project to get out and explore all the international cultures, food, and activities that Atlanta has to offer, and I hope my adventures inspire others to do the same--to get out of their comfort zone and try new foods and go new places...without even having to leave Georgia. 

I plan on using this blog as a means of documenting my experiences through text, photos, and videos. 

Enjoy!