Ramazan

I just wanted to share my interesting day with you all….
Today is the first day of Ramadan. This is the Muslim cleansing period where they fast and don’t indulge in anything they enjoy during daylight hours. So at about 4 am men coming through the street with drums waking people up, to eat something before the sun rises. So they do that and then they start the fast with a prayer and washing themselves. So then all day they don’t eat or brush their teeth or drink anything, even water. At when the sun sets you have to break the fast with dates or something like that and then there is a big feast.
This goes on for like 30 days or so. No one sells food in the streets like normal and people (who aren't fasting) aren't supposed to eat in public in the daytime because you aren't supposed to eat in front of those who are fasting.
It is supposed to clean your mind and body but eating in the middle of the night and in large portions really only makes people gain weight! But anyway…that is the Turkish style…eating a lot….it originally wasn't supposed to be that way.
ANYWAYS…I decided for the first day to fast, today. I prayed to my God before I slept last night (and DID NOT wake up with the drums for a snack) ;-) Most people are really surprised I am doing it, because no one really does it! Only the religious people, which as I have told you, is a very slim amount in Istanbul.

Also, today is the first day we are starting to receive technical calls from the UK at work. So besides taking US calls, now we will be getting UK calls as well. I have gotten 3 so far today in the 2 hours I have been here and they are freakin me out. Soooo hard to understand over the phone and they have all different processes that US customers and different warranty stuff, and I don’t know anything yet!

So a stressful but challenging day for me, to say the least ;-)