Election Night with the Losing Party

I really was a little disappointed by my home stay in Izmir. I was expecting a wonderful night with a family eating Turkish food and talking about Turkish culture, but once we got to the home we were staying at for the night. I realized it was gong to be a boring night. Unfortunately the family was gone at their summerhouse and it was only the daughter that was home to host us. She is 25 years old and graduated from school in Finance and Economics. She works with her father and brother in their family company but she did not expand much more on that. Their house was very nice, although more of an apartment, but much nicer than the average Turkish family's house is, I think. Although she was very sweet, for example offering to wash our clothes and order us food, it just did not turn into the night I was expecting.

One thing that made the night more and less exciting than maybe it should have been was that is was election night. Unfortunately CHP lost and the AKP won, as we all expected. However, the girl we were staying with wanted CHP to win and was very upset by the fact that they lost. Izmir went to CHP but the majority of Turkey went to AKP. She said although the AKP is doing good things now, they are afraid of what might happen in the future because they are pushing more Islamist ways. Many of the younger people in Turkey, like our host, want the country to become more Democratic, which is what the CHP supports more.

I did enjoyed our dinner of ordered in pizza and fries, because I am a picky eater. But I think of that food being much more of an American meal in my mind than Turkish, and I was expecting a Turkish feast! However, this morning she did make us a very extensive Turkish breakfast, which always includes chi tea, tomatoes, cucumber, and lots of breads and cheeses. We appreciated all of her kindness in hosting us, the problem was that because it was only her and not her whole family it was hard to talk to just her. This was more of a prominent problem especially because her English, although it was pretty good, was not that good so it was hard to ask very in depth questions because she did not always know what we were talking about.

I would love to stay with another family for a night, or stay with an actual family instead, but it still was interesting to be with a Turkish person the night of the election when the results were rolling in to see how they react to losing the election. It was much in the same way Americans do, but they seem to be more contained because I do not think they have all of the freedoms that we have. It was interesting because in Turkey about 86% of the population voted in this election as opposed to in the US where only around 50% vote. Seeing how important this election was to a Turkish person opened my mind to think that I should become more involved in our elections back home. Hopefully in years to come Turkey can become more democratic to help their people progress into the more Westernized country that the younger generation wants to become.