On Friday night I ventured to Marino and Jeanette’s for dinner. Marino is originally from Italy, Jeanette from Honduras. They lived in many places around the world before coming to Mersin 3 or 4 years ago. Marino is involved in the fruit industry. His specialty is bananas, although in Mersin he deals in citrus. The oldest of their 3 children is about 13 years old and he can speak Italian, Spanish, Turkish and English. Guess who is envious?

Also there for the spaghetti dinner were Natalie from Ukraine and her son. Natalie is also in the fruit industry and works to send fruit back for her Ukrainian company.

With all of us together in the apartment, we definitely were the Ex-pat Central in Mersin this night!

Being with fellow expatriates is great for a change. There are perspectives, experiences and topics of conversation that one cannot share with locals. Mersin is not very accessible for foreigners. The novelty of being a foreigner here is great, sometimes. At other times, more anonymity would be appreciated. With the friendliness of the locals I can’t complain too much though.