Once we arrived we were quickly shepherded into the dining room. For dinner there was interestingly seasoned rice (I asked what they did to it but never got an answer cuz my lil bros were talking too), a Turkish entree idk the name of, some failed attempt at American style chicken, tacos they learned to make from Mexican immigrants in Texas, some chai, and sushi they found at a store. Desserts they've served us include a really wet berry cake and mango lassi.

Initially there was a lot of conversation about our shared memories from Turkey. Which government's agents stopped us, finding out which old friends were banned from talking with us or died in accidents, etc.

I like their dad, he speaks English much better now that he has to, and seems to have developed a dark sense of humor over the years. Talk inevitably drifts to being about nationalism and war and divisions along every social line and after every point then he just starts chuckling a little. We reminisced about how bad that mafia landlord in Istanbul was, how we heard him beating someone upstairs right after the Pakistanis escaped our apartment, then about how our landlord in Gaziantep was the most antisocial person my dad's ever met. Their dad said the job was inherently, his words, "corrosive to humanity."

We talked about my older brother in Florida, the friends he's made. "All my kids are strange," Dad said. "They aren't American even though they look like it, so they attract strange people." I can't really care when they're chuddy and gung-ho about America since they spent over a decade trying to make it here. It's mostly their oldest brother, as they joked. My dad went "Maybe he does that to make the locals more comfortable with him" and their dad was like "No he seems sincerely moved by not needing papers to travel between states."

Their dad eventually got to talking about his homeopathic remedies being made illegal and legal in various parts of the world. My dad seemed more sympathetic and downright on board than I'd expect, and it's unfortunately prolly cuz both my parents got too deep in COVID conspiracy during lockdown. Their dad then offers temporary homeopathic remedy for my younger brother's recent frequent nosebleeds, a willing lab rat. No changes noticed.

He pointed at me and said "This one changed a lot. In Gaziantep you were loud and crazy and now you're quiet and polite." He later made the usual Jesus portrait joke people make when they see a long-haired man.