People
People are very friendly and very curious. They are always asking about your life and your plans. Also, they are saying that it's in their culture to be very hospitable. While visiting some family, you can be sure that they are welcoming you as you would be their family member.
Sometimes it's a bit annoying if they are so curious. I'm just feeling bad if they look me strange sometimes (because I haven't eaten so much or I just do something differently). Also, their greetings are different. I'm used to hug all my friends when I see them, but over here people are just shaking hands and giving small kisses (on cheeks of coursee). Even if you say goodbye, then they are doing the same.
Relationships
Ofc people over here like to ask a lot about your relationships, but they don't speak about it so openly. On the streets you can't see couples kissing, they are just walking normally. Sometimes they are holding hands (but it also happens rarely), and that's all.
On the other hand, family relations are here very important. Usually youngsters are living together with their family until they are getting married. If people are going out, they are always letting their parents know where they are going and especially girls are going home early.
Weddings
It happens in villages that parents are organising their daughters marriage (forced marriage). In Diyarbakir it's not so common to have those forced marriages (or maybe I just haven't heard about it over here so much). Also, before getting married, boyfriend is always asking permission from his girlfriend's father. The weddings are celebrated very widely (for ex. Lise is going to a wedding next week and there should be 500 guests). The party is not so long, it usually lasts until midnight and then the happy couple is going home. What I especially like is that they are all dancing in the weddings. In addition, the weddinggift is always money or gold. Nothing else! They just don't give anything else to the newlyweds. Now imagine how much money and gold the family gets whose wedding Lise is going :D
Houses and streets
This is the most surprising thing over here. Buildings are usually built side by side and there are very small streets between them. I can say that the quality of the house depends on what part of the city you are living. For example, the house where I'm living is very near to the city center, but the houses in this district are very old. They don't have elevator and every time when you're going up the strairs you have to push the light on. Sometimes it switches off and then it's always very awkward, when I'm in the middle of stairs, trying to go up and find the switch again :D. Also, there are no windows in the corridor and apartments don't have their own letterboxes. There are some newer houses (with elevators :D) in the other part of the city and they also look very modern. Nevertheless, sometimes it feels that the houses have very strange construction. On the outside they seem very normal, but the rooms in the apartments are strange.
Streets are usually very narrow and full of trash. Although we have trashbins over here (small ones), people are still throwing everything on the ground.
Some random things too:
* They have a lot of mosques everywhere and 5 times per day you can hear the invitation for praying (my house is also basically next to the mosque)
* When there are some demonstrations in Diyarbakir, they are BIG. There are police everywhere and they are checking people. In some strange reason, the demonstrations are also usually in front of Sümerpark, the place where we all work :D
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