Turkish TV, Tea and Coffee

Today I did a 9 minute Internet safety segment on EBRU TV, a Turkish owned and operated satillite TV station in Somerset. It was a trip!

Merideth Parker, the host of Daily Connections was articulate, inquisitive, friendly and charming. When the interview airs, it will be available on the web. I'll write a little bit about it in my 3DWiredSafety blog and post a link here to the program when it airs on the web in about 2 weeks. For this post, I want to tell you about my experiences at the station.

As Educational Technology Director for WiredSafety, I get a pay check of $0.00 for the charity work that I do, but I do get the cool title and a few perks, one of which is appearing on TV shows.

I've been on all of the major stations, but I always enjoy visiting smaller stations. This company is a relatively new satellite start up. They've been broadcasting for about a year and have their studios in Somerset, NJ. When I walked into the offices, there were no security guards, sign in sheets or bureaucracy. It was refreshingly unlike the major stations, which understandably have such procedures.

Oscar greeted me and directed me and another guest to the "green room" and pointed us to the cafeteria where we could have coffee, tea, cookies, and other goodies. It was there that I found another distinct departure from the major studios. In the coffee room there was a considerably more emphasis on tea. There was a large tea making unit, on the top of which sat carafes of Turkish tea. Below it was a hot water spout for diluting the concentrated tea. I probably should have asked what proportions are best, but I didn't and for my first cup of Turkish tea and used about 1/4 water. In retrospect, I probably should have gone about 50-50. The resulting tea was about the color of my usual morning coffee. I figure it will be 2-3 days before I get any sleep. LOL

The show is taped in unedited 9 minute segments in a very comfortable and relaxed atmosphere. Guests are followed by a cooking segment done by Arzu. In yesterday's segments she showed viewers how to make Turkish coffee and baklavah. The crew and guests get to chow down on her cooking between shooting segments. They offered me the coffee, but considering I was already walking about 2 inches off the ground, I passed and just had some of the heavenly baklavah.

Between the tea and the coffee I know what puts the whirl in the Dervishes. Add to that Arzu's cooking and might also explain why everyone in the studio was so chipper, but I really think it was just a very friendly work atmosphere and genuinely nice people.