Expat Entertainment

I'm happy to say that most of my expat life here in Turkey is very Turkish. My in-laws, my colleagues (most of them, at least), and many of my friends are all Turkish; my conversations with the grocer and my kuaför take place in Turkish; I eat homemade yogurt and don't worry about death by mystery bacteria.

And every so often when the foreigness of it all gets to be just too much, I have my circle of expat friends that saves me.

Lately, though, I've been feeling perfectly at peace in my adopted home -- new baby and the best winter weather ever (except for several rainy days lately, it's been 18 degrees Celsius during the day, with cloudless turquoise sky and snow capped mountains in the distance).

So I was surprised by how deeply affected I was by last weekend's murder mystery dinner. My husband and I joined five of our foreign friends for ''A Taste of Wine and Murder.'' I'd never been to a murder mystery party before, and was excited for days beforehand. My husband thought I was a little crazy each time I mentioned it, wondering why my friends and I would want to play a childish game, but went along with it. We dressed up, donned foreign accents, and played up our characters' types. I was a money-loving maneater on my fourth husband, the previous three having all died or disappeared!

The evening was thoroughly good-for-my-soul and otherwise restorative; it was also without a doubt thoroughly non-Turkish. Which made me realize that nothing can replace one's own culture and one's deep need for it every so often.