classic culture

I realized yesterday how little time I have left in Istanbul. A few months ago i thought my countdown wasnt enough, now I feel guilty for not packing my day full of activities and most importanly cups of tea, and great turkish cuisine. One thing that has been noticed in all my travels as well as commented on by many other travelers is the lack of food culture in the US. I think only little bit of "food culture" we have backyard barbeque, which is something I really miss. However, we dont have the tea coffee culture. they have special cups, speacial customs, Everyone participates, There are no orders like " one coffee hold the milk, add the sugar but not too much sugar, shake it three times, then i will enjoy" It's simple, tea, bitti, fishined finito. Food orders can not be changed, and we accept that. "You want more mushrooms? IMPOSSIBLE" I understand how people change the dish to make it more delicious for themselves, but its also kind of rude I think. I like the long dinners, the many courses, the everyone has a fork and you all eat out of one bowl, SOmething the germ concious Americans would never do. What is funny is that, we are germ concious in that no one will share a drink, yet here they are germ conscious as in "teacher you must not sit on that cement! You must not sit on the grass!!" It entertaining really, their deserts arent as sweet but still delicious, I was excited to eat lots of cakes and actually lose weight. Fun fact, my turkish teacher brought me a cake his grandmother made for me. It was delicious, He said he likes to do things like that for people that dont have the luxuary of grandma cooks. I love that. Its like in college in America.