Our Temporary Home, Malatya

 

     Have you heard of Malatya? Malatya is a state in Eastern Turkey and it is famous for Apricots . It is quiet where we live because we live in the country side. There are not many cars here so, the pollution is lesser. There is a giant hospital near my house and a lot of people go there. My mother is working there for 3 months. She is an Anesthetist and she came here to learn liver transplant.

    Turkey produces a lot of apricots and is one of the worlds largest apricot producer. Malatya is the highest apricot producer in Turkey. Apricots have one big seed in the middle of the fruit.  We see apricot trees everywhere. When I go jogging I will see many apricot trees. This fruit can be orange or red. The red apricot will be the sweeter one so if you happen to buy apricots remember to find red ones. They also have dried apricots. Dried apricots have two colors one in dark brown and the other is orange. My parents prefer the orange dried apricot rather than the brown one because it is sweeter. 

    

    Well, there are some differences between Malatya and Malaysia. There are electric buses here.  The buses have an electric line on its surface to connect to the electric cable which is connected to the poles at the side of the street. The food is completely different. My sister and I don’t like the food in Turkey because they eat either bread alone or kebab with bread. Mostly the meat will be beef, lamb or chicken. They don’t eat fish or pork. Not many shops have rice so we rarely eat outside. If we happen to eat outside, we will just eat bread and chicken. If they sell pasta with chicken or plain pasta, my parents will buy that meal for my sister and I.

    Malatya doesn’t have a sea so it is less windy here. Guess what season is Malatya now?  It is summer! The temperature can go up to 39 degrees Celsius during a day. Today it went up to 37 degrees Celsius.  

    There is a mall in town which is far away from my house. We take an electric bus to go to town every Saturday and Sunday. The mall is called Malatya Park.  I feel the mall is big but, not as big as Sunway Pyramid. The malls in Turkey aren’t like the malls in Malaysia. It is very different. They don’t have Toys”R”Us, or Padini or H&M. They have a big indoor playground to go and play in but, my sister and I didn’t go there because it is very expensive and because in Malaysia we already have indoor playgrounds. They also have LC Waikiki. We mostly go to the LC Waikiki mall or the LC Waikiki in the mall because that is the only shop we know from Malaysia in Turkey.

There are apricot statues in town too!

    My house in Malatya doesn’t have an air conditioner, it only has a stand fan. But, the fan leg has spoiled and it can’t stand properly. The house has a heater so when it is winter you can use it to warm yourself up.  Beside the hospital is a supermarket. We first went to that supermarket before discovering the mall had a bigger supermarket. 

    When we went to the supermarket near my house on the first day of our arrival, my mother saw some plates. She bought four plates so that each of us could have one. After reaching home we checked the receipt and saw that the plates were actually…. Frisbees! My mother, father and I laughed while my sister was wondering what happened. We are now using the frisbees both as plates and as frisbees. 

    On our first weekend here we went to the Malatya Tabiat Parki for a picnic. We took an electric bus to the park and surprisingly, the park had a lot of people went to have a picnic. We saw people paddle boating on the lake and saw someone coming to take a wedding picture. We walked along the park to find a picnic spot to eat our food. After walking to our picnic spot we sat and ate our lunch. We didn't stay for long and after our lunch we walked along the park then took the bus back home. 

    Few weeks later, we went to Arslantepe. Arslan in Turkish means lion. Arslantepe is an ancient city on the Tohma River.

We saw some drawings that the ancient people left for us to see.

 The houses in the city have some broken pot pieces that were fixed by the archeologist that found those pot pieces. There was this display of 7 ancient swords used by the people who lived in the city.

    I didn’t go to many places in Malatya. I only go to the mall or walk around in town during the weekends so I don’t have much to talk about Malatya. I liked Arslantepe and the park a lot. My next blog has nothing to do with Turkey because my mother asked me to come up with a topic to write for my next blog. So, the next blog will be for you and your kid or kids to read.