bir iki üç

For as long as I can remember I've heard stories about my dad and his family arriving in Turkey for the first time. My grandpa had been there for a while and then brought over the rest of the family to live in Ankara while he was setting up a new factory for Minneapolis Moline (for those of you reading this that were there, feel free to comment and correct anything). My dad was only 10 or 11 at the time and either before they left the US or sometime in route my grandpa taught my dad how to count in Turkish. So when they got to the immigration counter and the officer demanded to know if anyone spoke Turkish my dad confidently spoke up and said "bir iki üç". This seemed to lighten the mood and quickly my dad and his family were out of the airport about to embark on their two year Turkish Adventure.

When Colleen told me she was going to Turkey I couldn't pass up the opportunity to embark on my own Turkish Adventure, albeit for two weeks not two years. I'm all packed and just hours away from take-off and ready to impress the immigration officer with my expansive knowledge of the turkish language "bir iki üç"