Quite a while ago I wrote the Expat Glossary to help describe the wide variety of expats we’ve encountered on our Turkish escapade. The glossary includes the pre-eminent expats I call vetpats. These are veterans who have been living in Turkey for many years, have picked up the lingo and are better informed and more integrated than many of their peers. Today, I’m adding a couple more categories to the expat lexicon, both of which are vetpats of a unique kind. Please give a warm hand to the:
Bodrum Belles
The Belles are single ladies of a certain age with rollercoaster pasts and plucky presents. Some may once have been VOMITs but, unlike many of their sisters, they have learned from bitter experience and now live quiet and contented lives with a refreshing insight into their lot. To qualify as a Belle you must live in Bodrum Town. Anywhere else just doesn’t cut the mustard. Interestingly, we’ve yet to bump into any Bodrum Beaus. Middle-aged male singletons are thin on the ground round here. So, if you’re a solvent unattached straight man with your own teeth and working tackle, book your passage on the next emigrey express.
Emiköys
A rare breed of seasoned pioneers, Emiköys have forsaken the strife of city life and deodorant for the real köy mckoy and eek out a life less ordinary in genuine Turkish villages. They get down, dirty and dusty with the locals, contribute meaningfully to their small rural communities, keep chickens, get unnaturally close to nature and talk Turkish to the trees (well not always, but I’m sure some do).
The Expat Glossary has been duly updated. Any further suggestions gratefully received.
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Perking the Pansies 
Having lived in Jamaica for 23 years I guess I would qualify as a vetpat! What a lovely expression. The Bodrum Belles sound pretty cool, but it’s a shame there aren’t any Beaus to go with them.
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You definitely qualify as a Vetpat. The Belles have to make do with a couple of old gay boys for male company, more’s the shame!
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Well, perhaps they are quite happy with that situation… Keeps life simple.
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Brilliant, utterly brilliant. Emiköy seems to be the term of choice for the archers of Okcular folks, eh?
Our triangulated view of Turkish life on Bozcaada supports the presence of the Emiköy type.
I respectfully ask you to turn that wit of yours to finding some good names for youngish to middle aged women married to Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir-bred Turkish men in business and industry…all of those expat Harem women, etc.
Never a dull moment in Pansyland.
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I’ve yet to meet an expat harem woman. We don’t seem to get many of them down this way. The term ‘Expat Harem’ does seem to fit perfectly though. Also, they’re the women who follow their high-flying husbands around the world, nomadic vetpats, perhaps?
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Shuuushhhh! The neighbours (or neighbors) will will start to talk!
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Wel I guess I’m an Emiköy. I’m glad you came up with this one as I didn’t really fit in to any of the other categories. However, I don’t keep chickens, I want to but my dogs already chase the neighbours chickens from our garden so it won’t work. I don’t talk Turkish to the trees…yet…give it time!
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I tend to think the Emikoys are the best of the crop!
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Yes, we could definitely do with some decent single males and not too old either. I am a young(ish) widow with a daughter at primary school.
Since my Turkish husband died I have had two serious relationship’s both with Turkish men. My husband was Turkish too, but a nicer guy you could never meet. So are there any nice single males out there? By the way, I am not seeking to get married again!!
Jack, what category will you put me in?
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Sorry to hear about your loss. It can’t have been easy. Some people are simply unique and can’t be categorised. That’s a good thing.
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. . terrible generalisations, Jack! Comes from your bureaucratic days in local government, no doubt – you town hall wallahs are all the same!
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Bean counters, every last one us.
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The reference to expat harem triggered my memory to ask if you’ve read the book ‘The Expat Harem’? Very American biased but some interesting stories in there.
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I’ve heard of it but not read it. It’s on my reading list when I finally finish the bleedin’ book!
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I’m reading through some of these posts and thinking “Wow…he’s so much braver than I would be.” There is absolutely no way with what’s going on with the world today that I would have the courage to venture from the safety and security of my homeland–no way!–albeit your stories are interesting and it must be exciting to experience new things all the time. Nope, Pissy will sit near her litterbox in Iowa and watch and experience new things from her television set. That and cold beer is about all I need to keep me interested. 🙂
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It’s a shame we’ll never be able experience Pissy’s unique brand of humour and forthright views in the flesh while sinking a beer or two in old Bodrum Town. I guess I’ll have to travel to Iowa instead, after I’ve looked it up in an atlas 😉
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I’m right dab in the middle of America, Baby! No, literally…. I’m right in the heart of it, surrounded on all sides by it, and am so American it’s oozing out my pores. Ha..ha.. It’s probably a good thing I can’t go anywhere and have to remain on this acreage. Turkey couldn’t handle the likes of someone like me. Don’t they stone women, or some shit? I’d be in big trouble cause I don’t have a problem running my mouth or showing my shit off. I think it’s the biker babe in me! 😉
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My dear Pissy.
You ought to get out more. No, we’re not subject to Sharia Law, no, homosexuals aren’t routinely lynched by rabid mobs of mad mullahs and no, women aren’t forced into marriage as infants and dressed head to toe in black poly-cotton sheets (well, not in Bodrum anyway).Turkey isn’t Saudi Arabia.
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See…that’ll tell ya how backwoods I am. I didn’t know the difference!
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You’re forgiven. Excuse my rampant plugging but if you buy the book (due out at Christmas) you’ll find out all about our little corner of the world. By the way, Yankieland is my second favourite place (after good old Blighty, of course). I never got to Ohio though.
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