Groundhog Day: Part II

Turkish TV: Basically American TV with Turkish voices dubbed over it, which in itself is pretty hilarious. However the hilarity goes beyond the unmatched lips and voices.

Pretty much everyone and their grandmother has seen the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day—a painful comedy in which one man is stuck in time on Groundhog Day for an indefinite amount of time. He wakes up to the same radio announcers saying the same thing, interacts with the same annoying past acquaintances, and watches the same TV shows…over and over and over and over again. Well folks, I have developed a new sympathy for Bill Murray and his suicide attempts.

The TV is always on here. And it is always on Disney channel. Which is much preferable to most of the foul things on the tube these days. However, there’s a catch. Disney only airs 3 dubbed-over Turkish shows here: Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, and Wizards of Waverley Place. But wa-wa-wait…it doesn’t air all the episodes of these shows. No. It airs 1 dubbed-over episode of each of the aforementioned shows…over and over and over again. So basically what I am saying is, everyday Disney channel is on all the time, and everyday Disney Channel Turkey-style shows the same three shows continuously. It has a very strange effect on my sense of continuance of time…all the days kind of blur together in a mass cycle of Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, and Selena Gomez. I find myself pausing what I’m doing to watch for the line where I’ve painstakingly figured out what they’re saying through lip-reading (I’ve really become quite proficient at it…or maybe it’s just that Miley Cyrus opens her mouth really wide when she talks). Either way, I have a profound new respect for Bill Murray. They probably sent him to Turkey for a year before filming so that he could accurately play the part of a crazed man stuck in time. Just kidding. But seriously.

The really funny part is that the kids haven’t caught on. They still watch TV a TON. Meaning they still watch these three shows a TON. They sit on the couch, faces turned upward and cast with a slightly bluish electric glow, watching the shows in all earnestness. I haven’t even caught them quoting lines or looking bored yet. The amount they watch, it seems they should be able to quote each show from beginning to end. I’m sorry, but one can only take so much of any one show (except Princess Bride and Pride and Prejudice, both of which I CAN quote from beginning to end with sound effects and music). I just keep hoping that one day something will snap inside of them and they will sit up and look at me and start laughing and realize that they can end the Groundhog Day cycle whenever they want to by just turning off the TV. Until then, I guess I’ll continue to hone in on my lip-reading skills day by day, just as Bill Murray learned to play the piano day by day (although thankfully I don’t have to offer $1000 to some random lady to give me lessons—but that IS one of my favorite parts in the movie).

On a side, one of my favorite things now is my morning walks to the market with Oguzhan. He wakes up earlier than Zeynep and so he and I head off to the market for fresh bread and a newspaper. [I love the bread here…it’s gorgeous, fresh-baked loaves and buns and they sit in a cabinet and people feel and squish multiple loaves until they find the perfect one and grab it with their hands and take it to the counter where the gentle, old salesman puts it in a plastic grocery bag. And nobody sues anybody for germs or hygiene or anything ridiculous like that.] Anyway, I treasure these walks with Oguzhan. He’s more himself than during the day with Zeynep. He talks and teases and laughs in his broken English and asks me questions and teaches me Turkish. He leaves on Wednesday and I am really going to miss this chubby, enthusiastic 10-year-old. I learned today that he lives with just his mom, who sounds very…interesting, with no siblings and not many friends. I’ve got such a soft spot in my heart for this boy and hope I’ve been able to help him feel loved. It’s been a blessing for me to get to spend part of my time here with him.

As far as everything else goes, life is good, God is great, and we are all His children. It is so wonderful to interact with the gorgeous people here in Turkey and realize that there are beautiful children of God filling this wondrous earth and that every continent is brimming over with good people trying their best and touching the hearts of those lucky enough to bump shoulders with them, like me.