Seattle Cumhuriyet Bayram

Seattle-area RPCV's can once again give themselves a collective teşekküler for a well-attended and very successful Cumhuriyet Bayram dinner. We got together on October 28th at the home of Ruth and Dale Hultengren in Shoreline, a north Seattle suburb. Several dozen volunteers and friends of Turkey attended.

RPCV's attending were Pat & Patty Anderson (T16), Sandy Anderson (T-13), Dick Denda (T-13), Ed Elenbaas (T-8), Hanna Eulenberg (T-15), Bob Ewing, Albert Hall (T-12), Dale Hultengren (T-15), Phil Konkel (T-15), Dana Marmion (T-15), Arleen Ryan (T-8), Barbara Van Dyke Shuman (T-8), Chris & Ann Smith (T-4), Alden Stewart (T-15), Dave Vandergrift (T-8), and Danny & Joanne White (T-4). Just barely, T-15's win!

Also attending were Kent Breidenstein, Margaret Hall, Ruth Hultengren, Tom Ryan, Tom Snoeberger, Patricia Stewart, Nancy Tosta, and Elinor Vandergrift.  Our special guests were Yasemin San, director of the recent and very successful Türkfest festival in Seattle, and her daughter Rana. (Yasemin's husband, Ali, a Turkish instructor at Occidental in 1968, was in Turkey on business and unable to attend this year.)  Our other special guests were Oğul Koçer, an AFS (American Field Service) high school exchange student from Ankara, and his host-parents Tom and Rhoda Lawrence.

Following a variety of meze was an amazing selection of dishes, including mücver, dolma, köfte, salata, imam bayıldı, karnı yarık, cacık, pilav, ıspanak, iç köfte, börek and Adana kebab. We were also treated to fesanjan, a Persian delight of chicken cooked with pomegranate syrup and ground walnuts. Uhm, uhm good! And, for those who planned ahead and left a little room, there was lots of baklava to follow.

Our local Turkish restaurants may or may not rival those of other cities where bayram festivities were held, but I suspect no one left our dinner thinking the food was better elsewhere.

We missed the many local RPCV's who were unable to attend and hope that they will be with us next year.  We, also, unfortunately missed getting everyone together for a picture at the start of the evening.  So apologies to those not pictured.  And thanks to everyone for making it such a wonderful evening.

Dale Hultengren

T-15