Saturday Update
By the time I was walking off the Beshiktash campus to find a Taxi the sun was shining in a bright blue sky. There is a busy divided street that runs in front of the ferries. It's prized space for storefronts I'm sure because mobs of people always clump there waiting for busses or just going about their business in the large Beshiktash market. This makes it a horrible place to catch a taxi; at least five other people had the same idea as me and I ended up walking towards home keeping an eye out for one. But the walk was wonderful, Beshiktash has really turned into a fun place to be, a bit of salt in the air and bright sun.
I eventually caught a taxi and returned to Mecidiyeköy, dropped by the Funky Cafe to say hi, and walked home. The day was so perfect I sat outside and played guitar where I began to take more notice of the foliage. I can already tell Istanbul is going to become very humid in the summer, it's so lush and has many plants that I have only seen in the United States midwest. Ones that look like miniature bamboo shoots that stick to your pant legs and other funny burrs of all shapes.
Because I don't speak Turkish well enough, news by word of mouth rarely reaches me and I hadn't checked the RSS feeds in a bit so I just found out about yesterday's big event.
It's strange having a car bomb explode in a city where I am living. I'm not really sure what to feel, I guess that means I'm shocked. For anyone worried, it exploded about as far away from me as it could and still be in Istanbul. I live in the very North bit of Istanbul, Kocamustafapasha is very far South.
I hear a lot of racist remarks against Kurds and I'm sure this event won't help anyone breath easier. Just today someone was telling me he could tell just by someone's face if they were a criminal, "if they looked Kurdish." Similar to how people who do not come from the large cities are thought of as idiot peasants. I do not know very much about the history of Kurds in Turkey, so I'm going to avoid any conjectures and go research this for myself.
My sympathies go out to all hurt in this conflict and to their families, Kurds and Turks.
I eventually caught a taxi and returned to Mecidiyeköy, dropped by the Funky Cafe to say hi, and walked home. The day was so perfect I sat outside and played guitar where I began to take more notice of the foliage. I can already tell Istanbul is going to become very humid in the summer, it's so lush and has many plants that I have only seen in the United States midwest. Ones that look like miniature bamboo shoots that stick to your pant legs and other funny burrs of all shapes.
Because I don't speak Turkish well enough, news by word of mouth rarely reaches me and I hadn't checked the RSS feeds in a bit so I just found out about yesterday's big event.
It's strange having a car bomb explode in a city where I am living. I'm not really sure what to feel, I guess that means I'm shocked. For anyone worried, it exploded about as far away from me as it could and still be in Istanbul. I live in the very North bit of Istanbul, Kocamustafapasha is very far South.
I hear a lot of racist remarks against Kurds and I'm sure this event won't help anyone breath easier. Just today someone was telling me he could tell just by someone's face if they were a criminal, "if they looked Kurdish." Similar to how people who do not come from the large cities are thought of as idiot peasants. I do not know very much about the history of Kurds in Turkey, so I'm going to avoid any conjectures and go research this for myself.
My sympathies go out to all hurt in this conflict and to their families, Kurds and Turks.
posted by Alex Gray at 21:34
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