Perhaps the most interesting part of our day at the park was when we were approached by a big group of pre-teen school girls. They were hanging out together jumping rope and chatting. Then they spotted us. Uncle Kia Hwa wanted to take their picture. What 13 year old girl with a bunch of friends would not be flattered?
What I wanted was a picture of KH taking their picture and showing them.
I said a few things in Turkish to them, then the frenzy broke loose. They all (and there were close to 30 of them) began talking to me. All at once. All in Turkish. All loud. All giggly. It was so much fun! But I was struck at how they were 'feeding' off each other. The more of them who tried to talk to me, the more excited they got, the louder they got, the sillier they got. They were all just precious. Then they invited us to jump rope with them. I grabbed hands with one of them and we jumped in. Roller skating or jump roping? I'm your girl. They begged Annika to jump with them. Pairs, triplets, alone, in a huge group. She did it all. She was the Rock Star of the day, getting up to 70 something jumps. When others would jump in, I kept hearing, "NO! What's the matter with you?! Let the foreigner do it. We want to see the foreigner jump!"
And then we took pictures of them. They took pictures of us. Then I told them they were all beautiful. Then they told me I was beautiful (I love this country!). And then we returned to our pavillion. Then they came back and brought us food they wanted us to have. So sweet!
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