Bureaucracy is Not an Obstacle, it's a National Pass-time

Yesterday was the great excursion around Mecidiyeköy and Bebek to fist find the Telecom office and then buy DSL service from them. The weather has been just incredible the last few days. Abdul and I strolled along in the sun, talking lively within our shared vocabulary. Passing Galatasaray stadium we walked and walked until we were sure we had missed our destination, but shop keepers urged us on and we eventually came to the gates of Türk Telekom. The bureaucracy is a spectacle to behold, the building itself seem like something out of a Thirties spy movie, or the police offices in Bladerunner, we found the correct office and was told by a very friendly woman who was with us right away that we needed to visit another office across the district first and file some kind of residency bit.
This might seem like a hassle, but the weather was perfect and being outside is a real treat after a cold winter. The bureaucracy there wasn't the unfriendly, no volunteered information, California DMV type. I met one of the worker's children who had just gotten out of primary school where he is learning English. With some encouragement from his father the young boy spoke a few sentences with me, asking my name and bidding me welcome to Turkey. The whole process took a relatively short time, no lines, just lots of desks with very specific functions. If I had to sum up the comparison in a meaningless analogy I would say my bureaucratic experiences up until now have been wood grain pattern laminate while this was polished oak.

Today is another low key day at school, the students are gone for the most part, and those remaining have more opportunities for conversation with me