Misadventures in Istanbul

An old friend at the Archeology Museum

2010-11-17T17:37:00.003+02:00

Five years after my first trip to Istanbul I went back for a week-long vacation with my fiancée. Naturally, I regaled her with stories of my previous adventures in the city and took her to many of my favorite spots.
At the archeology museum I found a pleasant surprise, the very friendly, fluffy cat that I remember from all my trips to the museum was still there.

Here he is in 2005,

and in 2010.

If you make it out to Istanbul, head over to the archeology museum and say hi to him for me.

Happy Travels!
Alex

Third and Final Installment of the Wedding in Batman

2006-08-10T21:18:00.000+03:00

And this makes all twelve. To keep the quality high and your experience worthwhile the files are fairly large, be prepared to wait a few minutes for the downloads. The links below take you to their pages on the internet archive, the actual downloads are one click away.

Chapter 09 - 3 min 23 sec
Chapter 10 - 4 min 10 sec
Chapter 11 - 11 min 12 sec
Chapter 12 - 7 min 26 sec

Second Installment of the Wedding in Batman

2006-08-09T00:36:00.000+03:00

Again, these are some large files, be prepared to wait. The links below take you to their pages on the internet archive, the actual downloads are one click away.

Chapter Five - 13 min 39 sec
Chapter Six - 12 min 01 sec
Chapter Seven - 6 min 39 sec
Chapter Eight - 5 min 17 sec

First Installment of the Wedding in Batman

2006-08-08T10:06:00.000+03:00

These are some large files, be prepared to wait. The links below take you to their pages on the internet archive, the actual downloads are one click away.

Chapter One - 7 min 40 sec
Chapter Two - 7 min 17 sec
Chapter Three - 7 min 59 sec
Chapter Four - 2 min 33 sec

The Rest Will Have to Wait for Next Time

2006-07-31T12:51:00.000+03:00

And so the fairy tale draws to a close, thank you for being my audience through these misadventures. It's hard for me to put into words what being in Istanbul feels like. For me moments would come where I felt inspired and adventurous, up stairways to hidden vistas or leaning against the rail of the ferry, straining to take in all that passed. There's something magical about this place, or maybe it's part of human nature, something awakens in us when we take root to different soil.

Here's a young cat enjoying a bit of shade. The humidity and heat have struck again, this weekend all we managed to do was lie around the apartment complaining about the weather before working up the strength to spend the afternoon in the mall. Soulless box of consumerism aside, Cevahir is air conditioned. For this reason (I think) I see many women sporting the incredibly conservative black drapes doing their shopping in the mall. Mecidiyeköy isn't exactly that conservative, even in the neighborhoods that have a much more religious feel I don't see the voluminous black garment. But my guess is when the shopping needs to be done a drive across town is totally justified by the air conditioning that awaits. Having spent high school as 'super goth' with a black trench coat in the summer months, I can sympathize. But enough flippant remarks about the benefits of air conditioning.

Cevahir mall is if nothing else, full of stores and I had a little mission in mind before leaving Turkey. Because so many cloths are made here, and cloths tend to be really cheap. I thought, "Gee Alex, time for that suit. You might find yourself in situations where a Utilikilt won't be appreciated as formal attire." I've got to put in my full recommendation on doing this, with a lot of help from one of the ladies I came to something that makes me look like I'm paying attention. Textiles are inexpensive in Turkey, particularly wool, compared to the US and so deliciously soft.

I have been given an open invitation to return to Turkey, an offer I will take repeatedly I know. But, my plane leaves at sunrise, it's time to put away these misadventures. I hope you enjoyed reading, see you later. I'll post video projects as they are completed, so check back in a week, you might see something.

Four Days Left, Yikes

2006-07-28T12:34:00.000+03:00

Unfortunately the vacation up to the Black Sea didn't get off the ground. No seaside fish cookout and evening hikes this time. But that means one more weekend in Istanbul, and I have a partner for the excitement. The ladies returned from the South coast and one hopped on another flight a less than a day later! Crazy ladies, they can't seem to stay in one country for more than a week.
Last night, in the spirit of Western decadence, we ordered Pizza from Little Caesar's and watched a movie. I've seen many chains that I really didn't expect to see, not just Little Caesar's, Quiznos and El Torrito surprised me when I saw them.
That's something that startled me as soon as I arrived in Turkey, all these companies that I thought of as a subset of 'American' actually have a much larger scope. But rather 'American' is becoming subordinate to these entities, buying a hamburger wrapped in paper without leaving your car isn't a uniquely American thing. I guess just wasn't expecting to see so much that was the same when other flags were flying. Some more naïvety left behind I suppose. That said, the pizza was so delicious, they put sesame seeds on the crust, kind of like a simit. And you can order lamb on your pizza, which sure beats slimy pork sausages.

From the Ferry

2006-07-26T10:20:00.000+03:00

What a view, enjoy.

Last Weekend in Istanbul

2006-07-24T14:26:00.000+03:00

Saturday was a bit of a blow-out. The morning concerts I was thinking of actually only run through May. I don't think anything was playing that day, the box office was closed. But since I was in Taksim I figured I would take a look for a new pair of sunglasses, my old scratched up pair I lost somewhere in the wilds of West Istanbul. The main street of Taksim is under repair, again. Not that there was anything wrong with the old job, but the minister or whoever came out to take a look at the finished product of months of labor crews and torn up concrete and decided that he didn't like how it looked. The large paving stones are being replaced by some that have a grid on them.
Everyone has their own opinion of why this is being done. A friend of mine told me that she thinks the roadwork and hassles are being kept as long as possible because Taksim is where the youth go to relish in debauchery and the man wants to be a buzz-kill. The place is packed with clubs, the music plays all night, and everyone is drunk. Others just think it's as simple as the person calling the shots likes making people subject to his or her whims. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened in Istanbul.
Regardless, the construction was fairly concentrated so once I was past it I was free to enjoy the old new flagstones for a bit longer and scope out some good sun glasses. I started feeling concerned, where did I get sunglasses in Turkey? I didn't remember seeing a large rotating display stand at the supermarket. Fist I came to a store titled Optik something-or-other and I thought, great I'll find a nice pair on the cheep side and I'll stop squinting outside. Buuuuut, on the cheep side here meant 350 YTL, about 220 bucks. A chunk of plastic, wire, and glass perched on the front of my face can only make me look so cool so I thanked the lady, confirming her initial suspicion I was an underfunded vagabond, and went in search of more questionable merchandise sold with no questioned asked.
Smaller streets branch off from Taksim's main street at regular intervals, either sloping a bit uphill on the left hand side, or downhill on the right. But this sometimes changes... I headed along one of these side streets, merchants selling silly hats to tourists, check. Merchants selling fish with hopeful cats gathering, yup. Found my man, a rack of sunglasses, some watches, a mirror to admire yourself in, and some flashy lighters. Fake or stolen, this guy's prices were right, fifteen for some spiffy, unscratched sunglasses.
The crowd in Taksim seemed kind of sparse for a Saturday afternoon, but that could just be from the heat. I'm sure the street was packed to overflowing by 8 pm. But I took the shadiest route I could to the metro and got home for an evening of recuperation to prepare for Sunday.

Sunday, I think it was my last trip to Sultanahmet, and maybe my favorite. A bit of a bummer here, I forgot to charge my camera battery and it died right after I took a picture of the palace, Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque from the ferry, I'll put that up in a bit. As always the ferry was a bit hectic to board and exit, but the trip is great after getting settled. A few simits on the way over made breakfast, and something was not entirely normal when I arrived in Kadıköy to change ferries. Police blockades circled the entire square that's normally home to fish sandwich and shoelace salesmen. A police boat even guided the ferries in, making sure there was no funny business. Police barricades aren't exactly common and a huge police force was also deployed. Nothing was happening yet, but a stage was being set, some patriotic/anthem type music was playing, and huge banners were strung up in corners of the stage. I caught words like Imperialism. It couldn't have been a normal protest. Heck, I was part of one that involved burning torches in public and there weren't barricades or a quarter as many police!
My guess is a government official was giving an address in the square, a few people in street cloths were being let through the police wall after some questions, but most folks just steered clear of the entrance. Why the quay in Kadıköy? I never found out since I had to hike up my kilt and make for the ferry before it set out for Eminonu. On my return trip I saw the banners were all down and while the barricades hadn't been taken away, they had been turned to the side and foot traffic came and went as it normally does.
I arrived in Eminonu and struck out along the waterfront road that outlines the peninsula. This road sees lots of use from the locals who picnic in the Topkapi courtyard. Merchants along the road sell helpful picnic additions like melons or bananas. The courtyard is filled with beautiful, tall trees and park benches to enjoy them properly. I stopped to rest my bones and take in the breeze and while I was under that great green canopy the stresses and worries of every day were set aside and the summer day felt great. After a bit of this communing with nature (zoning out) I walked through the rest of the gardens, up a street with a few hopeful merchants with bead necklaces and airsoft guns and made my fifth visit to the archeology museum.
In the winter this place was deader than any museum I had ever visited, but things have changed and crowds of people made their way through like Istanbul was a foot race.
"Woosh, got through all the halls, wow, what do you remember about it?"
"There was a museum full of old things."
After a deliciously long time in the ancient civilization museum with the tablets I love so much, I finally was able to have tea in the park with all the catalogue pieces that didn't make it to a spot under a roof. While walking to the snack stand I saw the same huge cat that I made friends with back in December. This cat is bold and affectionate, when I was taking pictures months ago it would jump at my hands and rub it's head against them. Holding a camera still was impossible, the only option was to pet the cat. After finishing my tea I spent some time watching this cat try to convince a woman to part with her sandwich a few benches down from me, everytime she took a bite it would put it's paw down forcibly on the bench as if to say, "My turn now, sandwich over here."
My feline induced trance was broken by a snatch of conversation that was music to my ears. A woman was saying she didn't want something, but it was in Persian! My entire time here I haven't heard a single person speaking Persian (Farsi) A couple walked by and sat down nearby, chatting merrily. After a few minutes I resolved not to let this opportunity slip by, got up and introduced myself. A great conversation followed, the woman was actually a fantastic English speaker and was visiting Turkey to hopefully get a visa to the United States. Judging by the little golden crucifix and her fashionable western appearance and stylish makeup, she was living it up away from the Ayatollah. We said our farewells and wishes of good luck and I continued to the antiquities museum.
The display of coins from the mint was back and another hall that had been cordoned off was open as well. In the hall on the ground floor that holds most of the Hellenic and Roman marble statues extra displays had been placed, plaster copies of the statues were garishly painted, "as they might have been!" Fortunately they didn't make a bozo the clown version of Marcus Aurelius. It was sad thinking this will be my last visit for a while, but I was able to spend the day in homage of the ancient world. I recommend this museum to anyone going to Istanbul, over the mosques, over the belly dancers, over the hookah cafes and Efes beer. If you're in Istanbul, go to the archeology museum, admission is also cheeper than a hamburger and cola.

Istanbul Shuffle

2006-07-20T11:06:00.000+03:00

Spent a night in Baçeşir after an odyssey involving missed chances, public transportation, climbing down embankment walls, thorn bushes, and a bathroom door that only knows how to lock. Whew! But I'm back in M.köy and it's a beautiful day in Istanbul. After a hot as blazes weekend things have settled into partially cloudy and very pleasant summer days. Another night along the great western frontier and I'll be back in the city for the weekend. This weekend I have a few goals, the limits of my stay coming to bare in my mind. One more trip to Sultanahmet is a must, cheesy tourist grabbers and rip-off carpet salesmen aside I haven't actually been inside the palace yet. Besides, I have a back way so I can avoid most of those who would put their culture on display for a dollar. I'll return to the antiquities museum for another go at my old favorites. Maybe the garden cafe is open and I can sip some tea next to marble statues from two millennia ago. Saturday I'll see about going up to Taksim and seeing what's on the menue at the AKM. This is going to be an action packed weekend! And that video of Hasankeyf ain't making itself either!
A trip to the black sea for my last weekend (that's the weekend after next) is in the works. Hopefully I'll make it up that way, I hear nothing but great things about it. Being able to hike in mountains and then enjoy a seaside dinner of fresh fish is a rare opportunity. Don't stay in the same place too long!

Another Multimedia Departure

2006-07-18T13:57:00.000+03:00

The hills outside Hasankeyf, feel the vastness of Asia looming!

Cats of Batman, in Video

2006-07-18T13:28:00.000+03:00

Cats enjoying a bit of pilfered sheep meat back in Batman. They're so adorable hiding behind all those leaves. The big one knew I was there and kept giving me the evil eye. The movie is about 5 megabytes.

I'm now editing film of Hasankeyf to bring you something pleasing and devoid of my heat-induced babbling.

We're the Socialist Workers' Party! or was that the Socialist Peoples' Platform... People's Socialist Party? United Workers Platform?

2006-07-18T11:48:00.000+03:00

I suppose part of my Istanbul experience was lacking, but no longer. In all the months I've been in Istanbul I hadn't marched in a single political demonstration or protest, so when the opportunity came, I jumped on it. The event was in protest of Israel's actions in Lebanon, something I oppose. But let's not break into political diatribes, the actual parade and learning about the left wing parties in Turkey was more interesting than the speeches I couldn't understand. You can read about why killing people is bad elsewhere, on to the parade.
I was told eight-thirty was the time to be in front of the AKM, the cultural center on Taksim Square where I saw a ballet back in December. So a quick ride on the metro and I showed up a few minutes early, just to be safe. At first it seemed like nothing was happening, the usual people hanging out on benches, some beggars, and the tides of humanity flowing down into the packed streets housing Istanbul's night life.
Then my eyes caught about eight or nine people with flags were walking towards the AKM with flags, DSP "Democratic Socialist Party" They seemed to know what was going on, so I followed. More people carrying bundles of flags began converging on the sidewalk in front of the cultural center. Friends greeting each other and embracing, a few water sellers wove trough the crowd trying to make a lira, marchers get thirsty after all. I noticed people were standing in groups, circled with their backs to everyone else, little movement on talking seemed to be going on between these circles. The reasons for this I didn't learn until later. I spotted some friends and joined them, chatting and watching the procession prepare. More flags started to come out and a few minutes later chanting began. The number of parties represented that day must have been near a dozen, and as explained to me later, that was probably only half of the leftist political scene. Not even the entire antiwar movement was represented, nor any labor unions.
Why didn't everyone show? As was explained to me before and during the march, there is no umbrella party that all, or even most of, these small splitter groups can feel comfortable joining. When a demonstration like this one organizes, everyone who gets wind of the happenings sends some people with flags, and then they find out who organized. If they are very opposed to that group, they leave. I saw a couple of people walk off as the march began, bundles of flags under one arm. The march was apparently organized last minute which probably meant the unions did not have time to organize if they would have taken part anyway. From what I was told, union membership in Turkey comes with a requirement to march.
Back to the march, right after sundown we began walking. The megaphones switched on and anti-war anti-imperialism chants began echoing off the surrounding buildings. The police stationed on either side watched the procession and passers-by stop and watched, some clapped, most just watched without getting too close. I was strolling next to the DSP which, despite their small attendance at the parade, is one of the largest left wing political parties in Turkey, ahead of us were tall red banners of Che mixed in with the DHP, far ahead marchers carried torches (not British flashlights, but burning sticks covered with pitch) giving the night parade a really neat feel. Behind us were some anarchists waving black flags and carrying a large banner.
We made our way slowly down to Dolmabahçe Palace and gathered on the quay next to it, the parade circled and stopped, more chanting and then the speeches began. In all, the route that was chosen was perfect for nice downhill easy walking combined with a magnificent view of the Bosphorus at night. It was also a strange decision because they chose to march there rather than, say, the Israeli embassy to protest.
There are also a few concerns with protesting in Turkey, nothing happened that night, but there are apparently anti-terror laws on the books that allow police to forcibly break up and arrest all members of a protest if they feel it is a threat to security. It is also now illegal to spontaneously protest and march, anything of this sort must be registered with the authorities. After the march I had a good dinner at the apartment of some friends I made during the demonstration and caught the last metro back to Şişli. Whew, what a night.

A Weekend Without Internet Doesn't Mean I Don't Write!

2006-07-17T07:14:00.000+03:00

Saturday

A pick up has been driving up and down the street today, billowing clouds of white smoke. Calm music plays and a reassuring voice repeats a simple message in Turkish which I can't understand. It might have something to do with the huge numbers of mosquitoes and other nasties that lurk around this city in the summer. I'm back and Istanbul is swinging. My first weekend back and I've already run around two malls, ridden the metro three times, and eaten Turkish fast food. Ah! Civilization!
I'm back in M.köy, no more great western expanses for me. At least not for a few more days. I'm house sitting for the ladies while they're enjoying the coasts of Italy, and I feel so lucky, they have a wonderful house that's very well situated half-way up the hill surrounded by small shops. I unwittingly repeated a shopping blunder that's probably going to get me a few more times before I learn. There are innocently marked green plastic bottles that say "Uludağ Gazoz" making me think, "Score cheep mineral water." but on the side in tiny letters it lets me know it's "Karşik Meyve Aromlı Gazoz" Which means it tastes like weak 7Up, pronounced 'zoop' here. Look at a can, you'll know what I'm saying. Mineral water almost always comes in little green glass bottles, so you'd think I would learn.
Anyway, back at the apartment things are slamming, laundry, shopping, and still no internet. Nothing quite lets me down like joining an open wireless network only to find it connected to a modem desperately in need of resetting. Laundry is progressing into those final stages of, "Well, I don't have room to take this back to the States with me." And planning my wardrobe for the next two weeks.
One of the neighborhood cats must love the ladies, because while I was hanging laundry I bumped into a very fresh kill. Looking up I saw a large tabby looking back, expectantly. I threw the rodent back, I had other dinner plans. A short walk and I was at Cevahir mall and up to the food court for a couple funky pizza things from a Turkish fast food joint. I'm hooked on these things, but they're dirt cheep so it's all good.
Earlier I went shopping in Kanyon mall, wheee this place is so fun to look at, too bad all the stores are super expensive designer merchandise. I went there for one shirt actually, at the OttomanEmpire.

Gotta give it up for that.
Kanyon has impressive and pleasing architecture. While Cevahir feels like being in a huge air-conditioned aqua-blue box with shiny gold pillars everywhere, Kanyon feels like you're in well, a canyon, but a neat industrial vibe. Or like some scene out of Star Wars...

Sunday

Hot and humid are good words to describe mid-July in Istanbul and I'm spending as much of the day as I can inside. I have lots of packing to do since I need to move around a few more times before my departure in two weeks. It's wild just to think of leaving this place. I've become so accustomed to Istanbul and Turkey, what's it going to be like going to a country where everyone is speaking English? Egads. Well today when I muster up the drive, I'm heading down to Haci Baba's, my old yemek-ing spot, for lunch.
I'd take the computer to an internet cafe and hook up for a minute, but I'm determined to finish encoding this DVD of the Wedding in Batman. If anyone wants a copy, I'll provide at cost of materials and shipping, email me and we can work out details. Over 100 minutes of sheep butchery, dancing, and people getting hitched!

Batman, it's a Town Too (Lots of Pictures Ahead)

2006-07-13T10:55:00.000+03:00

My plane arrived in the early hours of Wednesday and a very frustrating, internet-less day later I'm back to posting.

Wow folks, it's been an action packed week. I'm still exhausted from an evening flight that turned into a very late night, but all is well and I'm back in lovely Istanbul. This city has really grown on me, as beautiful as the countryside is and as much as I already miss the friends I made there, Istanbul's streets and clutter feels very welcoming. I'll sing this city's praises another time though, I'm sure you're more eager to hear about Batman.
Where to begin? Batman is fairly large, it's certainly not a collection of shacks with donkeys tied outside, it has a real downtown and everything. The town seems to be placed in a bowl, golden hills circle Batman along the horizon. When I arrived, one of the first things of the actual town I saw was the refinery. A high concrete wall topped with razor-wire, along with signs declaring the area a "special security zone" sends a strong message to any who would interrupt the flow of fossil fuels. Most of the people in Batman just seem to ignore the refinery, it's off to one side as it is, though some I talked to felt the town wasn't receiving a fair shake of the profit from the oil. Though it might be that Turkey isn't either.
We stopped along the refinery wall and crossed the street, taking a crumbling side street and immediately drawing a crowd of children. From then until I left my ears were filled with "hello! hello!" eager children enjoying a bit of attention. Walls, and parts of buildings, were composed of cinderblocks but one thing stood out to me in particular, nearly all houses had grape vines making canopies over gardens or even roofs.

Batman also receives very little wind and a lot of sun, the heat was debilitating, I'm still recovering from sunburns. When we spent our days at home everyone would shift around as the day progressed, moving into patches of shade when the formed and staying in the cool parts of the house. But people knew how to deal with it, around the house children scurried with pitchers of water and at most stores where you paused for a few minutes, a glass of water was offered.
Having said that, the second day I was in town we forsook the shade and wise precautions, took a minibus to Hasankeyf and hiked up the cliffs to ancient cave dwellings and the castle built into the cliffs overlooking the Tigris. Enjoy the photos!

I'll write more about Hasankeyf in my next post, now I'm going to take a nap!

And That Makes Two Weddngs in One Week

2006-07-10T16:44:00.000+03:00

(another frantically typed non-spellchecked internet cafe post for your perusal. I will return to Istanbul tomorrow night.)

Last night was the final night of wedding festivities. The parlor where events were held was really amazing. We entered a dreary, empty carpark and went up four flights to where suddenly bright lights, rows of tables, and a band greeted us. The entire level had been converted (or intentionally designed that way) with tile flooring, a kitchen and even a stage for the band. The windows gave us an uninterrupted view of the city and sunset behind distant hills. The carpark conversion was a stroke of genious, not only could several hundred guests be accomidated comfortably, but the bride and groom were able to arrive onto the dance floor by car!
I didn't know what to expect and one shared tradition that made me smile was the bride and groom feeding each other a bite of cake right after cutting it. It's shallow and weird of me I know, but seeing little unexpected similarities makes things seem closer.
Having said that I don't really know how to prepare myself for returning to my home in America, it's been such a long time. But I never really fit in anyway, so no loss.

Update From the Eastern Front

2006-07-08T11:54:00.000+03:00

(Please forgive my spelling and general organization issues, I`m on a borrowed machine with a Turkish keyboard and operating system.)

This is my third day here in Batman, so much has happened already. One of Apo`s brothers owns the local internet cafe, so I`ve got a moment away from the wedding preparations to post. That`s right, one of the family is getting hitched and there will be non-stop dancing and feasting for the next two days. The video camera has been rolling for it all, so the southeast of Turkey will come alive for you after editing has been completed and I`ve found suitable music to cover the inane comments I make while filming.

Yesterday four of us took a dolmuş to Hasankeyf and after a hike through the hills overlooking the Tigris river we made our way up onto a plateu far above the river where the ruins of a mosque bake in the sun. Tall dry grass and thorny plants cover the hillsides broken by protruding rock that, when viewed from far away, appears to fall along the hills in bands, much like layers seen in canyons worn over the millenia by the rivers flowing through them.

In the clefts of these rocks previous inhabitents carved their dwelling, complete with stairs and shelves. One we entered turned several corners and a staircase in the rear of the cave took us up through darkness to a cave overlooking the river. The mouth of the cave had been carved into an arch and the floor made level.

Towards the castle and town the cave buildings took on a more developed look, incorperating hinged doors and roads paved in stone removed from the hillside. Looking East I felt the great expanse of Asia, the enormity of the land and man`s history enacted upon it.

Expect a lot more when I return to Istanbul on Tuesday. Well, I`ll probably need a day to recover before I can kick into high gear with photo and video processing. So make that Wednesday!

Wedding, Round Two

2006-07-03T06:06:00.000+03:00

(Written last night 10:32)
So tonight was the second night of the wedding party. That or this place is booked solid for midsummer night weddings. Sunday night meant nearing the end of my it's-the-weekend-so-I-have-to-pay-for-food fast so I was feeling a bit hungry, and the smells drifting in weren't helping my trying to sleep at the absurdly early hour of eight thirty. So I hesitated, waited for the music to really increase in volume (I'll talk about the music in a bit) which probably meant most people had been served and were now dancing, and I headed out towards the smell of delicious food. This had to be the longest I've waited and the most fun I've had getting a meal that I shouldn't legitimately be having. Walking over to the line was simple enough, as I suspected most people were on the dance floor, I just strolled along (barefoot I might add) looking like I had every reason to be there. Any eye contact was met with my best I-know-these-people-and-I'm-so-happy-for-them smile and I got into line next to the cooking station, a line of charcoal cooking bins with skewers over them and a table for making wraps with lettuce and seasonings.
So far so good, I just waited, three older men were talking in front of me, I kept picking up numbers along with names of currency and units of length, meter and kilometer. So I still don't really have a clue what exactly it was about. This line was moving slowly, I mean slow! There was some cooking difficulties, the charcoal didn't seem to be hot enough or something. That didn't stop my smiling, no sir. Two Turkish girls on cellphones joined the line after a bit, your usual ultra-cute bourgeoisie Turks. They figured out right away I didn't belong and kept tittering to each other about it.
Somewhere around two meters being covered in half an hour one of the men in front of me decided to throw sobriety to the wind and approached the nearby bar. A glass of red, followed by four glasses of white ensued over the course of our time together. He kept turning to me (especially when his buddies started getting bored with his quickly becoming inebriated) and asking me little questions, or making jokes. Now, I've said it before but it's really worth saying again, 90% of communication really is nonverbal. I just laughed when I should, and agreed the rest of the time. When he asked where one of his buddies went I pointed vaguely towards the beverage shack and said "Bira" then grinned. Another half hour follow of the girls behind me very keen on my ploy and this fellow enjoying me as a conversation partner.
Then he asked something I had no way of responding to that I knew. And he asked again. Then in a soft voice he asked, "You don't speak Turkish, do you?" My jig was up! I confessed with a grin and he started laughing, asking me where my home was, what I was doing in Turkey the usual things. As it turns out he is a science professor at Baçeşehir U. Then he turned to his friends and explained to them how this whole time he thought I spoke Turkish (much to my credit I suppose) by only answering him simply.
After another not so short wait in which I was introduced to his wife and all his friends, given business cards for spare auto part salesmen and the usual conversation about football the food was ready! I had a steaming hot wrap in my hand, prepared by a cook who made some ornate speech where I only understood "Turkish" and "English" while the girls laughed. And one of the bourgeoisie girls even worked up the party spirit to go ask the bartender for two cans of beer. Good on them, it was a fun evening to get a bite to eat. It's just past eleven now and I should sleep but the music is still going strong despite the steady trickle of exiting guests.

Let's Talk About Equality

2006-07-02T13:18:00.000+03:00

It was a pretty wild one last night, at least I assume from the blasting music that lasted past the early hours. The activity center next door was host to a wedding! Guests began showing up at the dormitory entrance asking me (I assume) where the wedding was. Besides being a filing cabinet for people with connection to Baçeşehir U who're out of a place to sleep, this facility has some tennis courts, grass, waiters, and a pool that the surrounding community plays in during the day, bless them. And last night a couple decided they wanted to be hitched, pool-side. Well, it was just the reception I think, though the whole affair might be rolled into one super party out here. I will be attending a Kurdish wedding when I'm out in Batman, so at least we'll see how it's done out that way.
But this lazy summer, post-wedding Sunday afternoon I've got other things on my mind. Those things that everyone just says, "Well that's how things are." I mean gender inequality, and people's apathy towards it. Looking around myself I notice these dormitories post a curfew, in your rooms, light out kind of curfew. And it only applies to the girls in the dormitory ( which is why it's posted at entrance of the Kız instead of Erkek hall) The other university I visited while in North Cyprus had the same issue. They can't tell all the 17-19 year olds what to do, just the girls.
There are also the little taboos that only apply to women, no smoking while walking, no leaving your home with wet hair. (implies you're a prostitute, and that you've just been making it.) Or the staggering percentage of Turkish men (80% was the number I heard) who feel it's their right to beat a wife or daughter who misbehaves. It's really frustrating to hear the excuses given of how that's just how society works. So remember, when falling back on approval from ages past, no matter what your actions, they aren't excused or respectable.
To clarify, it's not an Islam thing here. Turkey can hardly be called a religious place, the spectaular mosques are all empty. It's just people are very used to a chauvinistic system. Remember, American women couldn't vote until a mere 86 years ago and not after a lot of effort to change the "way things are."
But hey, it's a nice day, got a nice cool breeze today. Tomorrow I'll be back at the prep school, the cafe is a deliciously cool two floors underground and comes with free food and internet. Combine that with a lack of students and it's a little slice of paradise.

Çok, Çok Sıcak!! Save me!

2006-07-01T16:02:00.001+03:00

The heat has me too tired to compose anything substantial after a long night of mosquito bites and indigestion. Best luck to everyone out there trying to beat the heat. A little trick I like is to put on a CD of recorded rain and thunderstorms, no matter if it's 30 degrees I feel a cold rush. Here are some photos from today.

Bad news takes many forms. Nice house, but I don't live there. I live across the street here.

This Mama kitty

and Kittens came to investigate me while I ate lunch, the mother was the only one really brave enough to come up for a petting and ear scratching session.

A Change In Scenery

2006-06-30T09:37:00.000+03:00

Well, the big move out of the apartment is complete. I've moved from crowded yet hospitable Mecidiyeköy to the distant Baçeşehir (for which the university is named) Where I'm staying reminds me most of St. Louis, Missouri. Humid, lots of mosquitos, but some well-kept grass, a few unoccupied benches dotting paths through the grass, and no one going outside without good reason. I can't say the change is unwelcome, despite the bug bites. No internet access except the in building's foyer, I would have traded the TV and mini-frige in every room for an ethernet jack or wifi signal. But the majority of residents probably wouldn't agree with me, judging by the number of blaring television sets being watched by kids drinking cold beer.

To get to my new temporary home I board a minibus from the campus here in M.köy and go for a thirty minute trip down the highway that skirts Istanbul, along the highway are high-rise apartments, built in clusters, or nice homes splattered over a hillside, great empty spaces between them. Close to the city everything is concentrated, and buildings near the freeway are draped with advertisements. But further away it looks like some sudden growth along highway five or eighty in California. All the buildings are uniform in design and age, laid out in a logical pattern of regularly intersecting streets with sidewalks. It just doesn't feel like the lawless Turkey I've come to love.

Then we have these folks, in exactly the same spot as I saw the super right wing party from the country side of Turkey, they have also come apparently to tell the dwellers of Istanbul how they should feel about culture and politics. But they're so adorable in their dresses and hair ribbons! Greeks and Turks, oh my! There were lots of Turkish flags and pictures of M.K. "Can't Touch This" Atatürk so perhaps this was more of a cultural heritage, reconciliation thing than a political rally. It did seem to be drawing the tourists. (overweight people with cameras, they stand out more than they think.)

Waiting for the minibus outside the Campus in Baçeşehir

Sheep being herded while I wait

Camouflage

Multimedia Can't Replace My Negligence

2006-06-25T21:00:00.000+03:00

But it's a good distraction from my lack of updates.
Here is a video I shot while dazed in the glaring sun. Something I found hard to find in the shops here, sunscreen. There are tons and tons of sun milks and oils for tanning, but I need a bit more than SPF six to not look like a lobster after being left out in the sun for an hour. The video is of the third daily prayer call " العصر " I staked out a good spot where I can usually hear two mosques very clearly, but the wind had picked up that day (thankfully) and only one came through very clean. It's also a great overview of my neighborhood, taken from the top of my favorite staircase. Enjoy!

I'm getting ready to move out of this apartment, hopefully I won't be spending the last month of my stay here on someone's back porch, but then again, the nights are very mild and pleasant after 10pm.

Salt and Scurvy

2006-06-19T18:09:00.000+03:00

Today I learned the Turkish method for removing soon to be stains from fabric right after it has been dirtied. There I was, chowing down on my rice and some topping involving ground meat, tomatoes, and french fries when splat, got a drop of delicious juice on my sleeve. "Fast fast, salt!" Apo nearly shouted at me.
"What?"
"Salt!"
So I went for the salt, rubbing it on the stain apparently wasn't was I was supposed to do because Apo took over, emptying a packet of salt on top of the stain and giving it a slight press to make it stick in a clump. I was instructed to leave it. After several minutes I became curious and brushed the salt off my cuff. I can't really tell if it helped, there's only a slight discoloration on my cuff now, it'll come out in the wash. Maybe the magic worked, maybe it would work better if I had gotten on it immediately. This is why we should all carry those little paper packets of salt in our pockets.
An insult I've been hearing people call at one another is 'Şerefsiz' which actually means, 'scurvy.' I guess calling someone a scurvy dog is still being done away from pirate-themed parties at college frat houses. One of the students always has a little insult match with Apo whenever she goes down to the cafe. They switch between calling each other the English names of animals, and traditional Turkish insults like 'stupid villager'.
School is near empty now, many of the few remaining students actually have finals tomorrow so those numbers will plummet further by the end of this week. The Turkish students have some strange habits, being rich many don't seem to have a problem with spending money in ineffective ways. Such as, one student, who I didn't actually recognize, told me he only comes to class once a week, but he hired a night tutor, so it's alright. If he (or his father probably) is going to pay for him to learn English, he might as well go to the first before considering a second. But often have I been ridiculed here for such thinking. "Why do you want to do everything in an efficient way?"

Here is a political rally I went past in a taxi. It wasn't very high energy, the guy on the megaphone kept taking long pauses to squint at his notes. Baby, if you're reading your politics from notes you ain't feeling it!

And here's a cute kitty.

The Rain brings the Snails and Makes Everything Green

2006-06-14T19:52:00.000+03:00

Hello from sunny Istanbul, where it's been pouring rain the last few days, something I haven't equated with summer for a long time! We dearly miss Ayeshah, who has left for Canada. With the end of the school year the team is breaking down and people are going on to other projects. Finals for the school are on June 26th, though most students have already finished and left, or have given up and stopped coming to class. Learning English is difficult, the world might be better off with Latin as the lingua franca. Facio Liberis ex Liberos Libris Libraque, anyone?

The beautiful Bosphorus, seen from Beshiktash. This ship was swarming with tourists, several navel ships like this one were anchored with ferry boats going up to them. I suppose some sort of holiday was in the works. We already had the 'Conquering of Istanbul' holiday, and the 'Beat the English at Sea' holiday, and Ata Turk / Founding of the Republic holiday (that one was huge, May 19th)

And this bird was sitting in front of my door looking menacing and cawing at me when I came home. It seemed to have an injury and fell off the stairs after this. It probably didn't make it out of the garden alive. (lots of big cats on the prowl) Many birds look different from their counterparts in the western hemisphere. Also the plants look different too, maybe some wild mammals (like squirrels and foxes) as well, but I just haven't seen any living in Istanbul.

Viva Melli!

2006-06-11T21:42:00.000+03:00

Sorry about the lack of updates, everything seems to be winding down this month. Friday afternoon I went to see a football (that's soccer) match between some faculty and students from the school. I taped the match for them which gave me a good chance to practice using the new video camera. They all demanded CD copies of the match and I think I can oblige. A funny thing happened as I came home, it was right before sunset which comes about 8:30, and my neighborhood seemed waaaay too quiet. I knew the second I walked in the house and flipped the light switch, no electricity. I started laughing, this was something you just heard about happening in far away foreign cities, it's normal for them not to have power, right? It was totally weird, looking at other apartment buildings you could see people moving around with flashlights, having a later dinner by candlelight, or just sitting near the windows taking in the last few sunbeams like I was doing. It was like someone hit the breaker on my entire neighborhood, the night was deep and dark and light showers fell on our quiet neighborhood. I hope everyone slept as well as I did! The power came back sometime early Saturday morning.
Yesterday I hit the Beshiktash clothing bazar again and picked up a few more dress shirts, they may be imitation or stolen, but they've got good stitches and all the buttons, that works for me. Later that night I went to eat and Haci Baba's and found myself chatting with the cook and his friends for a good hour after dinner. This man was amazing, and really gave me proof of a discussion I was engaged in back in America. "Do good societies produce bad people?" This man has never been to school, works seven days a week, and came at me in six languages. He only speaks three fluently, but WOW. Turkish, Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish, English, and Russian. He has to be much more resourceful than an American in the same social economic situation, so is he a better person because his life is harder? Does having a society on the top of the list make us fat and lazy because we know by the end of the day we'll probably still have Air Conditioning and a Coca Cola? He told me his dream was to move to Holland and make kebabs there. So, more power to him.
And today, lovely Sunday. I learned a valuable lesson, namely why I hadn't shaved my beard for two years. I look terrible without one! Well, two weeks and my beard shall be back, more powerful than your could imagine. And the big let down, my boys Team Melli lost their debut game in the World Cup. Buck up, there's still two more matches!

The Empire Strikes Back

2006-06-07T16:55:00.000+03:00

The other day as I walked home I was enlisted by three young boys to pick berries from a tree that hangs over the stairs near my flat. Because of my hight I could pull the branches to where they perched on a cinderblock wall. They picked the plump ripe berries, eating some and putting others in a grocery bag. The fruit they called 'tut', the Persian word for mulberry. They looked like mulberries, except instead of being crimson like those I remember in America, they were white, large, and squishy, like maggots. Now, I've noticed many plants and their fruits looking different here, (heck, here sumac is a spice and not a poisonous weed) but I'm still hesitant to eat that, especially when it's growing out of the city streets. But hey, maybe next time.
A new mall opened in Levent last week, the good Apple people have opened a store there and told me to come visit. This mall is something else, it feels like a canyon (it's called 'Kanyon' actually), the center is open to the sky and it snakes around a bit with four levels. I should take some pictures, its architecture reminds me of something see in San Francisco, much more appealing than Cevahir. Most of the stores were specialty boutiques with only a very few items, like handbags, or shoes, or t-shirts. Like the Ottoman Empire, a t-shirt company that makes some really fun designs. I don't see myself paying sixty for a t-shirt, but there was this one shirt featuring the silhouette a mounted rider about to throw a spear, it read "The Empire Strikes Back." Maybe...

The Great Clothing Bazar

2006-06-04T19:19:00.000+03:00

Now anyone who has visited Istanbul has heard of the Great Bazar, or the Spice Bazar. Places where you can find lots of carpets and other novelty items mixed in with clothing, furniture, and a bit of everything else. It's less expensive than stores, but if you look foreign you'll probably be finding your deals a bit more believable after some truth comes to light. But this isn't about the Great Bazar, it's about a crazy press of Turks every Saturday taking full advantage of the fact that Turkey produces a staggering amount of designer clothing in it's textile factories.
The whole thing is a loop of one block, facing a fairly busy street, I noticed it before when I was taking a cab back from Beshiktash one day but I never ventured into the crowd. The number of people packed into there was insane, and you couldn't see more than ten meters ahead, not only because of the crowd, but merchandise was hung in the narrow channel to the point where I was ducking to pass some of it! This was anarchy, the merchants were up standing on chairs, tables, wherever they could be seen as merchants, many were partially stripped down because of the heat and yelling out their prices, "hepsi, hepsi! iki buçuk! IKI BUÇUK!!!" meaning everything was two-fifty, this guy was standing on a table, throwing cloths in the air like they were tossed salad! I saw a man with a tray of sandwiches, wrapped in cellophane, balanced on his head, weaving through the bedlam, selling them to people as they bumped into him. Absolute chaos, underwear stretched out on hoops, suggestive phrases on the crotch, milk crates overflowing with perfume bottles, bathing suit and towel merchants, a chinese couple selling knock-off hello kitty merchandise along with a bunch of more traditional items and bath products. There was one very sullen looking merchant without a single customer. His entire stock consisted of shirts, purses, and backpacks with what looked like Queen Barbie printed on them. Poor guy must have thought he had the next big rage.
The crowd was mostly women trying to get at the latest and greatest finds from the merchants. Now Turkish women might be a bit short and even a bit scrawny, but, as my companion that day pointed out, "they eat only meat and bread, they're butch." And she was right! I had a respectable looking old lady elbow me in the kidney when I wasn't moving fast enough for her tastes and was shoved out of the the way more than once, yikes!
But the deals were worth the stifling heat. Most of the clothing was women's (understandable considering who was doing most of the shopping there) but I found a few stalls selling men's fashion. Now, most of Turkey's textiles are shipped to places like America and sold at the nice high prices we're used to paying or they show up in stores in Turkey, where they are sold at noticeably lower prices, but some of them find their way through various channels to places like this. Isn't much point in making knock-off Levis when the factory is up the street, eh? But I wasn't there for jeans, not in this weather! I found some great summer dress shirts at about a tenth of the price they would be in America. I'll be heading back next Saturday for a couple, or several, or half a dozen, more.

A Brush With... The Countryside

2006-06-02T11:58:00.000+03:00

I think I've previously mentioned the villagers, the non-urbanized Istanbul dwellers from the Turkish countryside who come to Istanbul mostly to find work. I've heard plenty about them from the native Istanbulians, such as all villagers are slow-witted, their speech is hard to understand, and other broad prejudices. But one of the more interesting criticisms I've been told is that the villagers are responsible from keeping Istanbul from being one of the great international cities of the world, such as Paris, London, New York, or Tokyo. (I always thought Istanbul ranked up there, but apparently I've been mistaken) The nineteen eighties saw large immigrations to Istanbul from the villages, and supposedly the resulting over-crowding is what has kept Istanbul from going big-time.
This is a strange view to take, but it might have some merit. I don't know much about Istanbul's reaction to villager migrations, the official population of Istanbul is around 15 million people, though migrant villagers push the number closer to twenty million. Government money for public works and the like is given to areas by population and most villagers work on a temporary basis, returning home for the census. So perhaps the person who spoke to me meant Istanbul was being 'worn down' so to speak by the villager population.
Or perhaps the person meant the villagers were keeping the appearance of Istanbul in poor light. One person was expressing their anger to me that when the earthquake in 1998 struck Istanbul the international media reports only showed poor families (probably villagers) who already lived in rubble by local standards. The villagers are the people leading horses through the streets selling watermelon, or pushing the carts calling out for people's discards, or just trotting down the street pulling a large sack mounted on a hand truck, filling it with cardboard. I can't help but see the villagers as occupying a place in Istanbul where they trade their work to keep the city functional, similarly to how many Turks from the countryside travel to Europe and work in industry and other jobs no longer wanted by the native populations. So, if this is damaging to Istanbul on the international scene, I see it as a result of inadequate response to a population influx. Not the fault of people migrating to find work.
That said I had a very interesting brush with the countryside last Sunday, coincidentally Sunday was the celebration of the fall of Constantinople. (For more information on this see "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"[1, 2]) This is normally celebrated in Sultanahmet with plenty of dancing in traditional garb, and lots of tourists being sold carpets and fez caps. Out in Mecidiyeköy things ran a bit differently, to set the stage it's important to know the geography of where I was. There is an expressway that runs around Istanbul and cuts through the city to cross the Bogazici Koprusu, the southern of the two suspension bridges that cross the Bosphorus. Just next to the school is a gigantic intersection, where a large city street or two meets this expressway in a tangle of concrete and asphalt and at the center is a large triangle where no traffic goes, the occasional simit cart is parked there, maybe a guy selling bus tickets and cigarettes. But that night the intersection was packed, traffic was stopped, and the center was packed with busses. Our destination lay immediately past them, so we took a route through the bus camp.
For starters, I think Islam is fantastic, and living in a muslim country for six months now has been wonderful, this is a description of a political ruckus and not an attack on any religion. As we approached we couldn't see what was going on, at first traffic just seemed to be worse, but standing on one of the crosswalk islands were a couple young boys wearing blue and white cardboard hats decorated like the Turkish flag, but an extra star and some stripes. The boys were blowing horns like it was new years, and they were crossing the streets recklessly or incredibly hesitantly. (a sure sign they weren't from Istanbul) We got among the parked busses and I had a pretty good idea what this was about, busses named after suras of the Qur'ran, men in thobes and kufis and the ladies peering out from their abayas from the busses. We'd walked into a rally for the far right wing, islamist party in Turkey. I was with two Turkish friends of mine, proud to be muslim, but spaghetti straps draw some harsh looks anyway. It was later explained to me they were from the country and every year come to celebrate and make a political statement. After we made our stop we passing through again on our way home. The busses were pulling out, it seemed they were making a whistle stop tour of Istanbul, or maybe they were just heading back to the countryside.

Still Having Computer Problems

2006-05-30T18:20:00.000+03:00

But this time it's just a matter of waiting. The computer is up and running beautifully, the Apple technicians here are great. Just we're waiting for confirmation that my computer is still protected by it's one year plan. (never mind the applecare plan we bought with it) Since this model is less than a year old, it's more than a bit frustrating to hear that I'll be a few more days without a computer. "Look, it can't be more than a year old! A year ago this model was still on the drawing board!" At least they're letting me visit it in the shop

While You Sleep

2006-05-30T18:19:00.000+03:00

Beginning the hike, my favorite stairs.

Today was awesome, I hiked to a part of town I had been meaning to visit, the rich neighborhood. I've been driven through, or road busses, or walked along some of the main streets, but I hadn't yet hiked it's hills and explored its paths, or taken any photos. There was one juxtaposition shot I had been meaning to take for some time. It's not in the richer neighborhood, but at the base of one of the high rises around where I live, but north towards... Levent and Ortaköy, but still in Mecidiyeköy. (I'm really in Şişli I think, well, at the fringe between the two where mail delivery is unreliable) Here is the building from distance.

It was really a perfect summer day. And there was a nice cool breeze that made walking everywhere really great. But back to this building. This requires a bit of explanation, there are two photos, the first is my back to the high rise and I'm looking across the street. People live here, and there is a market.

And this is the face of it.

The fellows were just hanging out next to this monstrous building, what it's there for, what justifies its bigness and their smallness, maybe someone is asking these questions. You see a junk cart pulled up on the side walk in the picture of the houses, fresh finds on it.
Another bit of social consciousness before we get to the pretty pictures, bear with me. I wasn't the only people out an about this Sunday afternoon, most people work on Sunday, it's not a particularly special day, after all, Friday is the day especially reserved for prayer here. As I walked I noticed ahead a family, mother pushing a stroller and two children walking on their own with her, one with a burlap bag over her shoulder. They were generally ignored, police didn't glance at them twice, pedestrians just stepped around them. And they seemed to ignore everyone else for the most part too. They were working and all.

I quickened my pace to stay with them, curious what they were after, they crossed the street to the hotel and went right to the dumpsters. Something I've seen plenty of times before, our school dumpsters are like gold, rich with recyclable plastic water-bottles. Parent lifts child into dumpster, child begins tearing open bags and throwing out anything of value. But this was noticeably different in one way, behind this hotel they went to the dumpsters, but there were biohazard placards up on the walls. Security gave them a glance, but nothing else.

(I couldn't get close enough without being really conspicuous about taking pictures of people I'm supposed to be ignoring so I popped up there this morning to get a closer picture of the dumpsters. They probably don't contain what's kept behind the orange door, but children are doing the sorting here.)

And now the rich neighborhood, only the finest vistas for your viewing pleasure! I hiked the steep paths between the houses and found the walls to climb for the best views, all for you, dear viewer. I wouldn't mind to one day live here, it's a beautiful part of Istanbul.

And these are from my return trip.

The mosque is the one silhouetted by the morning sun in my title graphic. Ya know, in case it looks familiar. And now, something a bit special. This picture is super huge, larger than my normally annoyingly large images. Much larger, 'Where's Waldo' larger, in fact I had to host it on OurMedia.org. Take care when viewing this one, you're best bet it to download it and look at it in a separate viewing application. Here we go. It's a panorama shot of my neighborhood! I live off to the right at the bottom of the big hill. Majestic and marvelous, Fulya Avenue, seen from the roof of Champion Supermarket.

A Taste of What is to Come

2006-05-28T20:51:00.000+03:00

Bandwidth runs thin when you like paying the minimal amount, so the photos I took today must wait for tomorrow to be posted, along with their blog entry about hiking around the city. But, there is one deliciously huge panorama shot I uploaded today. Fulya as seen from above Champion Supermarket Be careful with this one, it's absurdly large (you can see all the little details!) so you are probably better off downloading it and viewing in a separate application. Enjoy, dear viewer!

(ourmedia.org is getting a bit annoying with all the media I upload dissapearing the day after I post. I'll find a new way to host my panorama photos. On the upside all the old media that seemed to have dissapeared has resurfaced)

MayFest 2006

2006-05-27T14:05:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was the large student music festival at Baçeşehir University, I knew a student whose band played, and all the students were there, how could I refuse? So I showed up in the late afternoon sporting the kilt, all the way to Beshiktash I enjoyed the ruckus, people pointing, staring, school had just been dismissed so I found myself in mobs of high school students all asking me where I was from and how old I was. I ran into Mehmet on the street, he played guitar and sang at the cafe on Thursday nights, we greeted and chatted about music before parting.
After breaking from the bustling market and crossing the main street (only 15 seconds is given to pedestrians to cross five or so lanes, so you gotta run!) I arrived at the university campus. Security let me through with out the usual questions, it must have been the kilt, and I walked out back to the green along the Bosphorus. Quick re-acquaintances were made with the students I knew, I was introduced to more, and I settled in to watch the bands. My favorite song played was probably 'Love Song' by the Cure, I love hearing which English songs make the set lists for live performances. And Love Song performed by a Turkish woman with a heavy accent is not something to be missed. Between two bands I was asked to take the stage, I was introduced and asked a few questions, then asked to sing a Scottish Song. (Kilt again) The song I picked was Irish actually, but the crowd enjoyed "Whisky, You're the Devil" all the same.
But towards the end of the band with which my student played the weather began to turn sour, I abandoned my sudoku puzzle and started the walk home, hoping it wouldn't start pouring before I got under some shelter. I ran into two more students at the intersection waiting for the fifteen second sprint and they convinced me to come have dinner with them. I had something delicious, and I knew what it was and it was still delicious, something they told me non-turks feared. I had a spicy intestine sandwich and oysters, it was so good. It was your usual bread smeared with spicy tomato sauce, basil, sheep meat, and chopped cow intestines. Delicious!
We parted after eating and I struck off for Mecidiyeköy. Shortly after I arrived home I began to hear the pouring rain along with the occasional thunder clap, so I guess I left just in time!

And the Good News is it's Free

2006-05-25T21:52:00.000+03:00

After some computer troubles I was blaming on faulty RAM I discovered at the shop today this computer's motherboard desperately needs repair. Well, it's still fine enough to work, but it's not recognizing one of the slots for RAM or the audio-in port. Fortunately Steve Jobs loves me for choosing Apple since 1983 and the repair is free. This is also because the one year warranty is still in effect. So come Monday, dear powerbook o' mine goes under the screwdriver and solder iron.

But today we have photos from my walk to school this morning. I've been leaving a bit earlier to enjoy the cool morning air. After the winter months of never seeing the sun, I wouldn't have guessed I'd purposefully be avoiding it, but the summer heat isn't something I want to climb hills in, even at seven-thirty in the morning. So six-thirty it is!

Well, it's Friday tomorrow, school might be almost done, but some of us still get up before dawn! Good night!

The Heat's On

2006-05-24T11:35:00.000+03:00

Wow, these last couple days we've seen a steady rise in temperature. No doubt about it now, summer is here. The bright sky and warm nights are offset by the terrible humidity. Not American midwest levels, but it's still enough to necessitate two showers every day and keep sleep away until nearly midnight.
A new snack is being peddled on the streets of istanbul. Those gas grills for roasting hazelnuts in the winter have been refitted to boil pots of water for corn on the cob! I haven't seen anyone standing around eating it yet, but maybe it's a quick lunch for people on the go. Besides the large number of flags for sale on May 19th it's just been the usual men sitting next to open suitcases filled with wallets and belts (all genuine Italian leather, honest) or popular novels, or now Galatasaray Champion 2006 flags. Really, almost all shopping can be done on the street. Now fruit and vegetable vendors have hand drawn carts, wooden bins displaying their produce and scales and weights ready to portion them out for you. You can buy bus tickets, lighters, and individual cigarettes from a man sitting on the median. Another hot item sold on the streets is a screwdriver that comes with changeable heads, only four lira, baby.
From the children, yes there are children vendors, the most common thing is packs of tissues, which are given more like how candy is given by salvation army Santas. Give more than 50 kurush and you'll probably get some tissues. You also might get an insult yelled at you if you don't give an amount befitting a westerner. That boggles me. Children also sell suras printed on a hearty card stock. The first time I encountered this I thought he was just handing out fliers. What a child might be handing out fliers for never crossed my mind, but the way eye contact was made fleetingly and a paper was pressed to my hand provoked my usual post rock concert reaction, pick it up and look at it. Then I realized he was murmuring over and over, asking me please mister for some money. Ack! I had a fifty, but no change, I apologized and handed it back to him. It's embarrassing, and probably didn't look very good, rejecting Islam and charity in one blow. I walked for a week with a couple lira coins in my pocket hoping I'd see him again, but he's moved off these streets.

Why did the Bureaucrat Cross the Road? To get to the next window!

2006-05-22T17:57:00.000+03:00

But seriously, folks. Today I made my third monthly trip to the Telekom office to pay my Telephone and ADSL bill. The grandeur of Türk Telekom's bureaucracy is an awesome spectacle, there are easily five floors open to public, many lines, and desk after empty desk, their occupants taking smoke breaks in the stair well. This visit was different, after having my ADSL cut after a few months with no bill (which required a visit to telekom and the paying of late fees) I was determined to have the balance paid, even though I held no bill for the service. And to get a receipt! This actually turned out to be easier than I thought. After paying the telephone bill for which I did have a receipt, the tea man was able to make sense of my gibbering, "Ben telefon ve ADSL var, ama ADSL fatura yok. Bu numero telefon ADSL var."

And he lead me around to another room where a man sat in front of a screen saver, talking on the phone. I thanked the tea man, he went on to complete his rounds and I waited for the telephone call to end. The phone call never ended, at one point he placed his hand over the receiver and asked me what I needed. I pointed at my phone bill and repeated my gibberish. The screen saver disengaged, he typed in my phone number, on my bill he wrote the number that appeared on the screen, and pointed back at the line I had just cleared.

As I stood waiting to reach the man who would trade me a receipt for my money I got to wondering why exactly the second man was needed. But I had best not raise this question, Turkey has a very austere, dignified bureaucracy with offices of wood paneling and frosted glass. They sip their tea, offer you one, and push at their keyboards, keeping a relaxed pace. This works well with other elements of Turkish society, the ones that cut as many lines and try to circumvent as many hurdles as possible. I am sure there are those, on both sides, who make a game of these interactions inside the giant filing cabinets of Turkey.

A fun bit of Faux Pas in Turkey, and one I didn't notice until it was told to me a few nights ago. Turks love to smoke, heck, probably four out of five people in Turkey over the age of 15 smoke. Smoking is everywhere, in every restaurant and every club, but only men smoke while walking down the sidewalk. It's not a public thing, women will sit on cafe patios and puff away, or they will lean against a rail and puff. But they wouldn't be caught dead smoking while walking. Why? I'm told that women who smoke and walk look like prostitutes. Now, I've never looked into it much, but the prostitutes I've seen tend to stand around on corners, not moving while they smoke. So yep, one of those inexplicable Faux Pas to avoid in Turkey if you're a women who enjoys her tobacco.

Well, so long from the land where my laundry detergent smells vaguely like the gummy candy, swedish fish.

The Istanbul El Torrito

2006-05-21T11:24:00.000+03:00

I had a dream a few nights ago. I was cutting into a warm flower tortilla wrapped around beans and guacamole, it was so good, everything I wanted right then. But right at the hight of my illusionary food experience I awoke, hungry and dismayed. Turkey doesn't have mexican restaurants, there isn't even taco bell. But the dream was gone quickly, and it doesn't re-enter this story for several paragraphs.
What happened last night was a long time in bringing about. One of the teachers and I have been meaning to go out and chat and spend some time together. We talk at school, sure, but that's always the passing and momentary kind of chatter. We seem to talk well with each other, always having stuff to make each other laugh, so why not magnify it into an evening? But we didn't leap at this, no, it must have been two months ago we decided to have a little adventure together, sometime.
On to this weekend, a three day weekend from school, the perfect time! Now, I love walking and seeing new parts of Istanbul, and we did plenty of both yesterday evening. Swapping stories about adventure in Istanbul, the prejudices we both had coming here, what we think of Turkish lifestyle, etc. Our mission was a restaurant, but our selection was limited, no Turkish food, no fish. Why no Turkish food? You ask. Because we've both eaten so much we're growing sick of it, that's why!
The exciting places weren't open yet, and as we walked I began to feel a bit desperate, would we find a non-Turkish, non-fish establishment walking along the Bosphorus? The options were places like Blackk, one of the hippest places, where everything inside is black, even the washroom. It's so hip that you bump into furniture, destroy your eyes trying to see where you were walking, and must navigate the bathroom by smell alone. We didn't go to Blackk.
As we walked my heart sank lower, maybe we should just hit a kebab place, but my companion turned to me. "Hey, do you like mexican food? There's an El Torrito's here." Music to my ears, the dream came rushing back bringing with it waves of saliva. It was decided, El Torrito, the franchise mexican restaurant I remember going to a few times in Sacramento near the Arden Fair Mall. There is one in Istanbul, in fact it is right next to T.G.I. Friday's. Now, it was fun hearing the Turkish waiters try to pronounce Spanish words, (Tortilla and Fajita get mangled) but the food was the same as in my dream. And it was delicious!
Good exercise, good food, good company, heck it was an excellent evening.

National Windmill Day: In Theaters Now

2006-05-20T11:04:00.000+03:00

So I've finished composing, editing, and uploading this five minute beast. The feline board of directors have passed it, Gokçe watched it all, it's ready for your discriminating audio/visual palate. Uncle Kit, if you're reading this, I think I know why you chose video editing as a career, it's so fun! Composing this little video has been fantastic, expect more coming.

It's page on the Internet Archive.

Oh, Those Summer Nights

2006-05-19T20:49:00.000+03:00

On many of the trees in my neighborhood small white flowers are blooming, they hang in bunches like grapes and have a strong sweet fragrance. When the sun sets and the breeze washes down the hill, their perfume is carried into my room on waves of cool air. With the warm nights and dependable weather the night life has really gone full-tilt. The entire dynamic of this city has shifted since the winter.

Today is also May 19th, a National Holiday in Turkey, where the city is draped in red flags. On Cevahir Mall a four-story banner of the man himself, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, covered the face of the building where people entered. Now, some people may speculate huge religious tension at this point, heck, this year the big National Holiday falls on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer. And one of the republics foremost judges was assassinated by a man calling himself a warrior of Allah. There is some shake up, but I didn't see anything out walking today that seemed out of place, no crowds avoiding other crowds or such. There may be some shake up coming soon in the political arena.

The current government (prime minister, et all) has roots in being more Islamist than might be expected in a secular republic. After all, when bird flu hit, his comment was that the issue would be brought up in Friday's prayers. So we're seeing some calls for resignation coming from opposition parties. We'll see how this one goes, it's probably just going to be politics heating up with the weather, but who knows?

Bugün Funky Cafe Çok Boş

2006-05-18T15:47:00.000+03:00

I'm feeling especially Turkish today. Maybe because I'm counting the minutes in an empty cafe with no one but Gokçe and Apo to keep me company. We have fun and joke around in our hybrid language, but today I felt a bit more confident speaking Turkish to them. One of these days I'm sure I'll get the hang of this language. After al, they all say it's easy! Apo's English has increased phenomenally in these last few weeks. I guess the classes he's been attending have born fruit.

The hottest new music video in Turkey is called www.bombabomba.com it is played almost every hour on PowerTurk, our music video station. If you go to bombabomba, you'll see it's an online dating service, I guess the song is about the luck the singer has had through this website. Meeting people over the internet seems to be incredibly popular in Turkey, or at least in Istanbul. Most emails I see sent by the workers sat the cafe are replies to personals, and many hours are logged oogling profile photos. When I hear my name urgently repeated I know it's time for me to do some computer magic, send email, upload photos, or change their MSN picture to something sexier than a flower.

We have no more news about the shooting, but the investigation may reveal larger mechanisms at work, one friend told me.

Tomorrow the school will be closed, so we get to say "iyi tatillar" early.

Just in

2006-05-17T11:12:00.000+03:00

We're gathered around the televisions, in Ankara there has been an attack on the highest court in the country, the Danıştay. We're not sure if anyone has died, but the television is saying two judges were severely injured, BBC says one killed.

Update: The shooter was a lawyer born in the east of Turkey. He used a gun that was undetected by the x-ray machines so he was able to enter the court without raising suspicion. The shooting took place in a 5th floor meeting salon, one judge was killed, five wounded. The assassinated judge had made a controversial ruling to further restrict public employees (school teachers) from wearing hajibs. Turkey's EU bid certainly lost points because of this, it makes the country seem unstable with many security problems. There is still doubt whether this is motivated by and extremist perspective of Islam or by far right nationalism.

Thanks to my friend Ozan in Ankara for giving details and analysis.

Tea and ...Pickup Lines?

2006-05-17T10:52:00.000+03:00

I don't know if I've directly stated this. There is so much tea in Turkey, wherever you go tea is served and some of the people drink upwards of twenty cups a day. Tea is made by mixing hot water with very strong tea that is left brewing. This way people who want light tea just get less concentrate and more water, dark tea is made with more concentrate. Sugar is added in abundant quantities, most people stir it into their tea, but some place a cube in their mouths and sip their tea letting it mix that way. Wherever you go, if you have to wait a moment you will be offered tea, be it at the Telekom office, booking a flight, or just hanging out waiting for a package to be delivered.

A bit of entertainment for you. I found this page in Apo's practice conversation booklet. I couldn't stop laughing! Especially the, "No, let's remain friends," line. Wheee! ESL doesn't get better than this!

Ceylin's Picks

2006-05-16T21:10:00.000+03:00

A good friend of mine in Istanbul, Ceylin, has saved my butt so many times when it comes to knowing how things work in Turkey, or getting an idea across in Turkish. She also adores animals, cats in particular, and collects pictures of the cutest ones. Here I will be posting a collection of her favorite pictures. New link on the sidebar to make checking it easy!

16 May 2006

Championship Aftermath

2006-05-16T13:18:00.000+03:00

Two nights ago the championship was decided. Galatasaray is on top of the league after beating Fenerbaçe at the stadium near my house. Sleep was impossible, football is the most important thing here and the hometown was engaged in an all night celebration/riot, fireworks and everything. The next day at school tensions were high, there are very loud supporters for both sides and one of the workers in the cafe started playing bedlam-inducing Galatasaray victory music. But today the jerseys are off and people have larger problems over which to worry, like final exams.

National Windmill Day, Recap

2006-05-15T07:56:00.000+03:00

((I wrote this over the corse of my trip back to Istanbul, and posted today to use the University bandwidth for uploading.))

Thirty something hours after arriving on the train platform I am back in Schiphol airport with an hour to kill before boarding time. National windmill day certainly lived up to expectations. I was told by one miller that seven thousand windmills were turning at that time in the Netherlands, pretty impressive given its size. The town I stayed in, Schiedam, has the tallest old style windmills in the country (perhaps in the world.) Here is one I went in.

The wind was really blowing that day and the sun was bright, perfect windmill weather I assume. All these large windmills were built next to canals, which in itself doesn't say much, most of the Netherlands is built next to canals. It was beautiful though, seeing the water lap against the base of the windmills, all lilly pads and glistening ripples. This photo was taken through the planks of the windmill deck.

The miller in the first mill was a really excellent guide. He told us the different types of wood used in the gears, how long (sixty years) a set of gear teeth would last with daily use, and other fun little things about production capacity and operation. This is a picture of him stopping the windmill sails.

And this is when he took us around to the front of the windmill and showed us how the sails are removed or fettered for high winds. Looking up at the sails is dizzying, which is made even more so by standing on a deck of widely spaced beams.

And here is the super tourist, one day in the Netherlands and I'm wearing wooden shoes!

These are the stairs inside the mill, worn down by generations of millers with wooden feet.

This is (supposidly) not how people dress everyday in the Netherlands.

This windmill had a choir singing outside. The sign says "Spider House Street"

And here is the rail station on Sunday morning, saying goodbye to Scheidam.

Soon to come, National Windmill Day, the movie. I'm assembling and editing right now, preparing only the best multimedia for your vicarious living needs!

The Netherlands Trip: Part One

2006-05-13T09:22:00.000+03:00

Starting things off, I'm off the planes quicker than I imagined, so I get to type this while I wait for my train. Schiphol Airport is like a small city, this place actually has buildings with their own roofs and everything about the hand railings, and lighting made to look like street lamps gives the impression that whoever designed this wanted to make an outdoor train station / shopping mall that would also hold out the rain.
Obviously some things here have already struck me as odd, like the giant hanging banner declaring a set of benches to be a "Meeting Point," Like saying, by the arrivals, or by the Burger King wasn't good enough. All you have to say now is, "I'll see you at the meeting point." And this is understood. Moving on, the number of smashedtogetherwords that are borrowed from English, like creditcard, which will probably be canonized by the MLA in a few years. And my train ticked which gives me a special discount because I'm a Weekendretour which we just assume is short for, I'm going to return on the weekend. So this is more like smashing English 'weekend' and French 'retourner' into one word. Things only seem to be getting stranger from here. But it's all strange in a fun, non-threatening way, I'm just chuckling to myself saying, "I'm here, this is what the Netherlands are like."
Now some horrible noise is pumping through the plaza, it sounds like a train stuck in neutral, maybe it's a friendly reminder that trains are about to depart. But no one seems to notice it, so I'll just pretend like I know what it means too. On second thought I think they start this sound around ten thirty (it's been going on for twenty minutes now) and keep it playing all night to make it absolutely impossible to fall asleep in the terminal. As droning as this noise it, it's about as relaxing as flushing bags of gravel. Maybe the speakers are just broken and they're supposed to be announcing train departures.
So, about the trip here... I love the Havash service in Istanbul. For about seven dollars (10 Lira) I took the metro to Taksim and hopped onto a very posh bus that drove me right to the international departures. This beats 40 lira in a hot, smelly cab any day. While waiting for the bus to take off in Taksim I saw a façade being done for a new pub, "TaXimus." I only assume they're playing on "Maximus" trying to inspire some whirling aura of Russell Crow and all things maXimum and eXtreme. But soon the bus was moving and I was bouncing along the familiar route I took in February, when I last flew from Istanbul, that time to Cyprus. Only this time I was doing it in the daylight and Istanbul is in full bloom. Around the mosques were green trees, making the domes and minarets appear to float above the lush foliage. As usual the bus passed through the old aqueduct, once used to carry water, now conveniently divides traffic lanes.
The terrible noise belching through the plaza just stopped. I feel somehow let down now that I can hear footsteps and people talking. It's now eleven, perhaps it's just some kind of half hour test of the PA, (gotta make sure they can really grate and annoy!)
More about the flight, Zürich is a beautiful city, it was just gorgeous to land there. Fields of some yellow flower, and stands of trees that weren't leveled to make way for more apartment buildings and strip malls. It's like the entire city was landscaped by a giant who liked those Lionelle model train villages. Swiss airlines is great fun too! They have good cheese and cucumber sandwiches and all announcements come in English, French, and German making half the flight seem to be announcements. Oh, and they give you chocolate!
My train leaves in fifteen minutes now. I just downed an largesoftdrink so I think I'm goodtogo for another few hours. We'll see how National Windmill Day goes tomorrow, and maybe I'll get fitted for some wooden clogs!

On the train. I love the sound of a quiet train, I'm sharing this car with one other person, it makes me a bit nervous, hoping I picked the right train to hop, but it seems to have all the markings and appearance of a Sneltrein and left from the right platform at the right hour to be the one I want. Now I'm rocking back and forth as the train plows into the night. When I landed at Schiphol every building seemed have it's own personal lake, there is even a body of water right before the tarmac that reflects the image of the landing planes.
From the air, this section of Amsterdam seems to consist of oil refineries and warehouses, built up from the water on little interconnected islands. Everything seems to be a string of islands more than it seems land interspersed with water. The water make the necessary borders. To plug one of my favorite electronic artists this train ride reminds me of Chessie's album, 'Overnight.' It's a cool double LP that I didn't really get from my train travel in America, but here with more track switches and in general more textures and noises added to the rocking motion of the train, while I can enjoy it in silence... it's quite a rhythmic experience.
I'm beginning to wonder if anyone is going to collect the tickets. I'm sitting in one of the first cars, but every thing about this experience has made it seem this train is running itself, right down to arriving and leaving right as the second hand reaches twelve. Yes, everything except prior experience and reason.
And now something is coming over the intercom in what I can only assume is Dutch. Having never been exposed to the language in such a closed environment I can only say it makes me think of German being pronounced like French. We're stopped again, Leiden Centraal, tonight's destination is slightly less than half an hour down the tracks. This is incredible exposure to The Netherlands. Arriving in the middle of the night and navigating through a world that seems populated only by a janitorial staff, late night food places, and a few quiet travelers wearily turning newspapers lets me sit back and look at the environment that will (presumably) be crowded in a few hours. The trains run on time, Burger King doesn't have extra large drinks, there was a duty free store selling tulip bulbs that was still open at 10:15 PM. How's this for first impressions?

So, it's now 9:22 AM the following day. (wait, 8:22 local time, I'm still running on Istanbul time) After being picked up and driven back to my friends' home we stayed up talking nearly until dawn. It's amazing how much three people can find to speak about with each other. Holland doesn't have very much space, houses are all built touching, circling their entire block. The cool upshot of this is everyone has a back yard that seems nice and secluded from traffic noise. Their house dates back from the nineteen-thirties which is a bit of a rarity as much of the region was bombed to rubble in the second world war. And just down the street from us there is an old windmill we will be going to tour in about an hour. I hopped an open wireless network that I found to post this update. Lots of pictures coming in the next!

Details, details

2006-05-11T07:29:00.000+03:00

Tomorrow I fly to Amsterdam for a weekend vacation, trading one city built around a water way for another. My final stop will actually be Rotterdam, were I will be visiting friends. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post my Misadventures in Rotterdam, as short as they may turn out to be.
It's funny, I tell myself that by traveling and seeing more of the world I break down stereotypes and such. As it turns out, this Saturday is 'National Windmill Day' in The Netherlands, so much for idealism! Regardless, this trip is going to be a bunch of fun, I'll tell you all about it when I return on Sunday.

And take a look at this half-time footage from the big Galatasaray/Beshiktash match. This sort of police phalanx is completely normal, along with people setting the stands on fire and police guarded barricades being put between fans of rival teams. To reiterate a statement I made months ago after watching my first match in Turkey: "Now you might think sports are big in the US, but matches in Turkey are more important than Politics, War, and Sex combined."

See you Sunday!

Update in Photos

2006-05-09T09:26:00.000+03:00

Hi folks! Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, but to make it up to you, here is an exciting photo collection!

Cat View

Two Cats

Three Cats

Here's Gokçe playing the fabulously addictive game N.

This is one of the buildings on the hill, and it's streetlight. I really wonder how the mail is delivered here. The paths around here are are narrow and steep.

Conversations are very animated in Turkey, even while talking on the phone Apo will gesture furiously and even pound the table. A photo simply wouldn't do this justice, behold!

I'm Ready for the Week! Wait, it's Friday?

2006-05-05T07:21:00.000+03:00

Hello, happy Friday! Yesterday I had one of these moments that don't attract a second glance here (even if they're a bit rare) but would make the papers back in California.

Buy some fresh produce, right off the cart. He was just leading his horse along and every few meters stopping to shout his prices for all to hear. I took some pictures trying hard not to look like a tourist.

But the cats knew, they could smell the wowed tourist vibe. This one, usually running up for petting, offered me tea and tried to sell me a carpet that was drying over a near-by rail. Failing that he tried to give me folk dancing lessons.

So, after a full night's sleep, I'm ready... for the weekend!

Me Alex. Me like Turkey.

2006-05-03T19:07:00.000+03:00

I realized walking home the other day that I've been in Turkey for over five months now. It's become very normal for me, I haven't seen a Del Taco in nearly half a year and no nervous breakdowns have resulted. When I was in the club 'Numb' I had a brief encounter with another American, from Indiana, he had recently arrived in Istanbul and was still coping with the shock of how things worked. He was 23, recently finished higher education in restaurant management and seemed enthusiastic about the possibilities ahead of him in Turkey. I never caught his name, or gave him mine.
There is something funny about being in an expatriate community as large as Istanbul's. People become much more involved in their conversations with each other, as speaking English casually and freely with someone outside an immediate circle of friends is something of which many people here do not have the luxury.
Fortunately great mother internet has provided me with a rich bounty of communication in my first language and I haven't regressed into Conan the Barbarian speak.

And now, Cats!

Happy Birthday Gokçe!

2006-05-01T08:51:00.000+03:00

It's May first and that means today Gokçe, the one woman at Funky Cafe, turns 19! She does all the mundane, thankless work involved with ordering and keeping products in stock. She also sits with me during the boring stretches and plays video games and practices using English. Tomorrow is her mother's birthday and they celebrate with cake together. I suppose this makes Gokçe the best birthday present her mother ever had. Happy Birthday!

Monday's at Funky Cafe are always quiet. The weekend schedules still weigh heavy and most people aren't quite ready for anything beyond class. So this means more English practice and video games for us.

In this damp air is a Saturday morning

2006-04-29T15:22:00.000+03:00

I woke late to the sound of falling rain. It's cold in Istanbul, not a harassing cold, but that nostalgic cold that reminds us of the good parts about winter. It was perfect weather to sit inside and drink coffee.
Last night was a rock concert put on by students from the school, I showed up at the 'Numb' rock bard around six PM to be greeted by many familiar faces urging me to play some music, right then, on stage. I was trembling, but I managed to mangle a few rock songs on an acoustic guitar with the support of a bassist and drummer. Then, to my great relief, the students took the stage! I was expecting much the usual Turkish rock songs I hear at live recitals, but this band was playing Guns and Roses and Metallica songs! The singer had phonetically memorized the songs and had watched enough live performances on video to know some of Axle's knee bends and thrusts and other poses. It was fantastic watching these kids rock, and they had put lots of practice into this event, it seemed a shame they were only playing for thirty people. But that just made me more nostalgic over the olden days of helping the "Beat Officers" with their shows back in Sacramento. Those venues no one seemed to care about, and those long pauses between acts setting up where the cigarette smoke and sweat overrides everything in the room.
The hours the group played at were not ideal hours for the Taksim nightlife, they played until about 9pm, but it was perfect for me and my habit of rising early.
The afternoon is just spreading out and traffic sounds make a steady din outside my open window, the damp air brings in rich earthy smells along with the smell of soaked dogs and cats who shelter behind the apartment building. I just hope my sheets can dry on the line in this air.

Vibrant Walk Home

2006-04-28T07:26:00.000+03:00

Here are two pictures from yesterday's walk home, the flowers were blooming here for the first time this year.

Morning Hikes Are the Best

2006-04-27T10:29:00.000+03:00

When I'm out walking in the morning for the most part I am sharing the sidewalks with three kinds of people, children waiting for the minibuses to take them to school, young professionals who don't have cars, and these really great old Istanbul men. These guys are great, they usually wear three piece suits that match in a peculiar, grandfatherly way, and they all have bushy mustaches. They stroll the sidewalks in the morning, greeting eachother, buying newspapers and bread, or simply walking along quietly, clicking prayer beads between their fingers or jabbing a thumb at a cellphone. They are one of those first indicators that say to me every morning, "You're in another part of the world! This isn't America!"

Of course I know I'm not in America when I wake up, but those little reminders, like the call to prayer before I hop in the shower every morning, really make this experience exciting. If people, streets, buildings, and trees are all you see composing a place, you've been in the same place too long.

Everyone go read these dispatches from Azerbaijan and Afghanistan written by Ben Barrows, an old friend of one of the uKnow ladies who I had the pleasure of meeting when he came to Istanbul for vacation.

Four Cats

2006-04-25T22:00:00.000+03:00

Four cats hanging out on the porch. The cats here always regard me cooly, as if expecting me to make a show of what I can do for them before they consent to letting my onto their "turf."

After the Weekend

2006-04-24T21:39:00.000+03:00

Here's the music site Apo showed to me: http://muzik.turksitesi.com/index.html On the pull-down menu, under "Yerli," is all the Kurdish music, give it a try.

We are having some good nostalgia weather. After a few hot weeks it has suddenly become cool and cloudy in the mornings, never warming up completely. This is due to a wind shift, a North wind is hitting us instead of the friendly Southern one. So you can wear a sweater and reminisce about how great winter was, now comfortably in the past. We'll be back to a blazing summer soon.

Another Kilt Saturday

2006-04-22T21:10:00.000+03:00

Today was another fun kilt excursion, the amount of attention an article of clothing can draw is ridiculous, passing a school, a pack of girls leaning from third story windows cheered me and snapped pictures with their phone cameras. Most people just point and talk excitedly to anyone close at hand, makes me feel like a star. The fellows at Funky Cafe got a big kick out of my attire when I dropped by today to bask in air conditioning and free meals. Here are some pictures from my walk around the neighborhood as we go full tilt into summer.

This is widely believed to be the loudest mosque in Istanbul.

Tonight was a big one for Istanbul, Fenerbaçe versus Galatasaray playing in the Fenerbaçe stadium on the Anatolia side. It wasn't even close, 4 to nothing. (unless there was more scoring in the last minute, I left to beat the crowd heading out) And the boys in blue and yellow pull ahead in the division and Galatasaray fans get to find a rock to hide under. The first twenty minutes of the match saw two goals for Fenerbaçhe and the rest of the first half was defensive play, a third goal at the beginning of the second half and things were pretty well sealed. The last ten minutes were spent kicking the ball around while the crowd chanted, then when Galatasaray got too aggressive at one point, they whipped around and got goal four.

It's hard to cheer for either team when there doesn't seem to be any contest. I just hope next time they play there is at least the semblance of competition. Watching that match I think I'm back to having no team to cheer. "What about Fenerbaçe?" Well, rooting for them is like rooting for the Yankees in baseball or Red Wings in Hockey, but if things continue like this...

Just Go With The Flow, Slow Days Mark Summer

2006-04-21T10:25:00.000+03:00

With another set of finals finished Monday this week has been mind-achingly slow, yet as the hours drag the days evaporate in the growing summer heat. I suppose this doesn't make much sense since I spend most my days two stories underground, but it sounded good. More poignantly, this week has been dominated by a lack of activity. There has been no follow up to the bombing earlier this week, not even a claim of responsibility.
Apo has found a website with radio featuring Turkish and Kurdish music. He played a wedding dance song for me, really fast and wild music. We'll see what excitement the weekend brings. There are no plans right now, but in Istanbul that changes very quickly.

Oh Won't You Take Me to, Funky Town!

2006-04-19T16:32:00.000+03:00

Google Earth Locations for this Misadventure

Last night Cumhur took me out to Taksim with a friend of his. I thought I had my fill of crazy drivers in taxies, but last night was another experience all together. We went from steep climbs on one way streets to four lane sprawls with busses angrily cutting off taxies and men pulling hand carts of trash much larger than themselves. We were driving up one of the main lanes leading to Taksim Square when a friend who came along with us asked me, "Do you know this street?" Yes, I did, it leads to Taksim Square, the AKM was right ahead. He just laughed, "No no, this is where all the transvestites in Istanbul are. You be careful here."

The plan for the evening was to hear some Spanish guitar at the Rio Brave restaurant and bar. The place is all wood paneled with a real Godfather / mafioso feeling. And in every free corner and space on the walls a piece of American pop culture could be found. Most of it seemed to be from mid seventies and back, large pictures of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and older things like vintage adds for coca-cola and colt pistols. We sat next to that famous photograph of Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley shaking hands.

Taksim is under reconstruction after the first go at it, apparently the governing body did not like how the first renovation turned out, so the heavy equipment is back in action! The road we drove up to parking garage was all broken apart and everywhere crews were creeping along the broken paths, laying mortar and bricks, or raking asphalt. At least the main pedestrian street in Taksim is finished. The first time I went there it was a mud-slick.

Weekend is Over

2006-04-17T11:18:00.000+03:00

What a weekend, Sunday I went out with Ozan to try to find spices for cooking some traditional Iraqi treats. I found the recipe Is Something Burning?! Thanks River! The impossible item was dates and perhaps this is the wrong time of year to try to find them in Istanbul. I substituted dried figs and it turned out great. I recommend the recipe for anyone looking for some goodies that aren't just lumps of sugar.

It's hot! This is really something, summer is on the doorstep. People outdoors at cafes seek out the shaded spots and the plazas and streets are teeming with color. Yesterday was also a match day for Galatasaray, people were out in jerseys, some walked along beating drums and singing and everywhere street vendors are selling apparel in team colors.

There was also another explosion in Istanbul, thankfully no one was killed. It occured in Bakırköy, a district along the Sea of Marmara about half way between the old city wall and the airport. The Story on BBC

Sultanahmet in a Kilt

2006-04-15T23:22:00.000+03:00

(Apologies for some larger pictures today, I hope this isn't causing loading problems for anyone. If it is, let me know! Today's locations can also be found using Google Earth, Follow the Misadventures like never before!)

It was a day to shine, the visitors had seen the big mosques and palaces Friday, but today was the visit to the archeology museum, my favorites spot in all of Sultanahmet. (1, 2, 3) Today was going to be different, every time I have wanted to go to Sultanahmet I have simply walked to the corner, called a taxi and paid between 8 and 10 lira to go to the front of Tokapi palace. Today I was taking an incredibly round-about way, scouted out on Google Earth, to completely avoid any tourist predators. Today I was also wearing a kilt.

First I walked through the seaside Beshiktash market, things have changed in the spring, and many stores have moved a bit out onto the sidewalks, even though it was still midmorning when I passed through the market, the sun was coming on strong and it promised to be a warm day. Several streets wind through the market, branching and turning in a very organic way. I wonder why cars even try driving through, the traffic crawls bumper to bumper, down narrow, one way brick streets. Everyone on foot moves faster than the cars.

A rusting foot bridge draped with "Welcome to Istanbul" banners crosses over the busy street running along the Bosphorus, as I crossed over the top I caught the first hint of salt in the air. To me the sea here is not very salty, in places like California, or even Cyprus I could smell the ocean salts very strongly, maybe it is the pollution in Istanbul that keeps it from my notice. Across the footbridge and down past the Naval Museum is the Beshiktash ferry terminal. Ferries in Istanbul are always packed, so many people use them to commute because they are quicker and more reliable than buses, when getting from the Europe side to the Anatolia side is concerned.

This is the ferry I rode to Kadıköy, only two levels, unlike the second one from Kadıköy to Eminönü. But all ferries have refreshment bars where tea and toast can be ordered as well as soft drinks and chocolate candy.

Looking up and down the Bosphorus you will always see freighters like this one, it's a non-stop display of global commerce, reading the boats you see names written in Cyrillic, Chinese, even Arabic and Persian!

After the second ferry I was in Eminönü, crowded port and anyone who even remotely looked like a tourist was already being sucked up the streets into the sprawl of tourist shops that lie around the gems of Istanbul. This is where I crossed my fingers and hoped I wasn't just walking into more, down the busy road that runs next to the water things were looking good. The only other folks I saw seemed to be the gentle folk out enjoying a stroll next to the ocean on a Saturday afternoon.

As I neared the entrance to the palace grounds I crossed the street, now on the land side instead of seaside, and right over the wall I could see I was next to the train yard for the system of trams the run around the Southern blob of Istanbul West. Spring is in full tilt and beautiful vibrant greens were all over the place, shoots of grass coming up through the gravel and moss on all the rocks. What Istanbul's public transportation lacks in boggling complexity and flat screen televisions it more than makes up for with pleasant serenity and a deep sense of civility.

Then it was across the bridge into the palace gardens, I did what I had thought impossible! I was inside the Palace grounds and no one had tried to sell me a plastic bowl or called me "brother" all morning! And it was spring, the gardens were in full bloom. At that hour the pace of visitors had yet not picked up and for the most part I was getting waves and hoots from workers engaged in maintenance on sprinkler systems and washing down the inner walls. (Kilt, remember) The gardens are filled with all colors of flowers, tulips and others I don't know the name of, traffic noise seems not to penetrate the gardens and as I walked along, all I heard were the songs of birds in the overhead branches.

The ladies had arrived and we turned our sites on the museum. The Istanbul Archeology Museum is actually two museums behind one gate, the smaller one is of truly ancient artifacts, including Sumerian tablets and statues of Egyptian gods. It has reliefs from the gates of Babylon and a pair of tweezers over 2500 years old. Though it is smaller than the classical museum, I find this museum more thought provoking. It contains artifacts that are on the dawn of remembered civilization, where people were first being driven to write their thoughts and pass this on to future generations.

The courtyard between the two museums is just stunning, it's filled with statues and sarcophaguses and pillars, like these pieces weren't good enough for the museum so they are left around outside to wet your appetite for what lies behind the doors. The larger museum was apparently designed by a German Architect and it screams, "Brandenburg Gate." Father down the courtyard is a mosque with the façade done in beautiful blue and white tiles. I have a great love of showing things to people and talking at length about them. Having pieces of history, beautiful and perfect, preserved in carved marble gives a sense of majesty and mystique to the ancient world. For instance, seeing what kind of world Alexander the Great conquered gives his life a whole new meaning. It simply can not be compared to conquests of today in impact, both for conquered and conquerer.

This statue of Cornelia Antonia is the most beautiful piece of sculpted marble I have ever seen. The sculptor uses the natural lines in the marble to give the impression of fabric folds underneath her shawl. It really looks as though she was sculpted nude and then dressed in layers. I will skip blasting you with more photos of the museum pieces as they wouldn't have changed much from those in previous posts. (1, 2, 3)

Tonight many conversations over Turkish dinner tables probably began with, "You'll never guess what I saw some guy wearing today." Inside the museum and everywhere I went people reacted enthusiastically to the kilt, with lots of pointing and, "Scott! Scott!". The fun had a few memorable highlights; inside the museum in one of the lower levels that displayed artifacts from surrounding regions, we found ourselves sharing the hall with two young girls who had apparently been separated from the large school-group that had been rampaging through the halls. The girls burst into fits of giggling seeing my kilt and began to film me discreetly as they could with their digital cameras. As we left the museum a group of Italians came up and asked if it was true that nothing is worn under a kilt. The Italian man was so excited and his family thought it was just hysterical that I was wearing a kilt in an Istanbul museum. And then outside the museum some students boldly asked me to pose for some photos!

We dropped by a nearby cafe called the Green Corner for lunch, prices were reasonable and we were right next to Hagia Sophia, little can beat that, kuzu shish and ayran for me! The ladies and I parted ways with the visitors and returned the way I came. Afternoon sun on the top deck, we were happy kids. This was just how Saturdays should go.

Last Night's Dinner

2006-04-13T11:22:00.000+03:00

Taksim is the place all the tourists in Istanbul go to see after Sultanahmet. It's also the place where the better part if Istanbul's night life can be found. From the Taksim square, which is a huge roundabout merged with a bus stop, one can either go to a variety of towering hotels, the AKM (Ataturk Cultural Center), or down the packed main commercial street. The crowds are serious here, most of the time you're caught in a quickly moving throng and the busy times you're packed in like sardines.
The street reconstruction has finished, at least for the time being, and with the warmer weather has come street performers. When a band begins a well known song everyone who knows it joins in signing. While we ate dinner, the table next to us was being serenaded and the patrons were all singing along, meals nearly forgotten as they sang tune after tune.
The place where we ate is this famous collection of restaurants that are in all tourist picture of Istanbul. It's a covered concourse made to appear to be a narrow alleyway between elegant old buildings. The chandeliers are filled with flowers and as you walk in waiters try to seat you, promising you the very best prices you'll find anywhere. Perhaps I do not have the most discriminating palate, and I stand by the phrase, "Hunger is the best spice." But the actual quality of food seemed the same as any home-style Turkish restaurant. And considering the location and fun atmosphere, the prices were not nearly as inflated as what could be attempted. It may change as tourist season picks up, but we were also the only noticeably (at least to me) foreign diners in the concourse.
I appreciate any restaurants with a strong local presence, and that's probably the best way to judge the food quality to price ratio in Istanbul. So if a place is charging twenty lira a plate and you don't see a single Turkish word on the menu... you might do well to try next door.

The ladies have been entertaining guests non-stop it seems, but this new group is the first I've interacted with for a few months. Having people looking around with wide eyes reminds me that I am really someplace different. When I first came to Istanbul things seemed so alien even crossing the street was an experience. When I arrived my first stop after the airport was a restaurant in Taksim, I still remember the feeling of total senory overload, looking around at how everything was different, my brain struggling to get oriented within the environment. Now I'm caught wondering at people's reactions a moment while I say to myself, "But that's the way things are..."
This Saturday we will visit the archeology museum in Sultanahmet. I'm looking forward to the changes spring will bring.

Out In Taksim, Kitten on the Sidewalk

2006-04-12T23:07:00.000+03:00

I had an amazing moment today, before dinner I popped into a now well known rug and china merchant to pick up a gift for visiting family. The owner wasn't there at first so I sat and chattered with two of the workers, a Turkish man and a Tunisian woman in a mix of French Turkish and English, it was this wild multilingual mash. It was so much fun, and very exhilarating to speak French again.

On my way home I found somehting... Now what am I supposed to do with this little one?

She's outside my window now, after a walk home and a saucer of milk we pretended it was going to last forever. Listening to her cry puts a damper on the evening, but the nights are warm enough to sleep exposed and I moved her from the street to the heart of a cat loving neighborhood. But still those tiny cries...

More about dinner in Taksim tomorrow, it's past my bedtime.

Monday Afternoon, Kicking it in Funky Cafe

2006-04-10T14:06:00.000+03:00

Good afternoon from the country where if you call someone a "peach" you might get hit. Every morning small bread treats called poğça (Poe-cha) are brought from a local bakery. These are either plain (sade) or filled with little bits of olives, or spicy potato, olives, or cheese. The owner of the bakery sometimes makes the deliveries. I always enjoy seeing him, not only does he speak English perfectly but as a result of living in Brooklyn for 10 years or so, he speaks in rapid fire with a very heavy accent. It's like having back a bit of off-the-textbook America; after months of being at a school of people wondering what America must be like I've begun to forget.
The weather has cleared up just in time for me to spend a week indoors, but with the weekend's rain and more showers predicted we are in for a lush summer. Today the students are holding a Play Station 2 tournament in the cafe. I'm sure video games are popular among youth everywhere there is electricity.

April Showers Bring Poor Drivers

2006-04-08T14:52:00.000+03:00

The good weather took a holiday today and the streets are full of rushing water. Walking up the hill this morning I brought hat, gloves, and a jacket, but half way to the top I found myself wishing for a scarf. When it rains or snow or the weather behaves in any unpredictable fashion the common sense of Istanbul's drivers takes a plunge into the abyss. Drivers will take roundabouts backwards to try to save time and all sorts of egregious driving errors become commonplace.
Walking up this morning I saw someone attempt to pass another car climbing the hill, obviously fed up with the other car's slow progress. But approaching the top of the hill the second car found itself face to face with three on-comers. What does a frustrated Istanbul driver do at this point? He pulls farther to the left and tries to drive around the three cars and still pass the first. Wow, I'm just glad there wasn't a collision. Not all are as lucky as me though, listening to an ambulance's sirens screech over honking traffic, motionless for five minutes, makes me hope whoever is in charge of traffic planning will consider widening roads to add emergency lanes.
Other than the chaotic conditions and din of honking the Saturday is perfectly normal, and even growing warmer as the afternoon deepens. Funky Cafe is vigilantly staffed by Gokçe and Apo and the flower lady greets all passersby warmly, her bouquets protected from the elements by sheets of cellophane. Tomorrow the sun is supposed to make a strong showing and the great throngs of humanity should be milling down the sidewalks again.

Wrapping Up The First Week Of April

2006-04-07T09:39:00.000+03:00

Here we are, it's Friday and the first work week of April is coming to a close. Jackets came off this week and the summer styles are beginning to show. The ladies of uKnow are waiting anxiously to take leads from the locals as to restrictions on spring fashion. Because my day is spent in air conditioning and I walk around the city only in the early morning and evening I'm still wearing sweaters. Though in another week or two I'm sure they will be stifling.

Because it's a Friday the school seems half-empty, more students skipping or leaving as soon as they can justify it to their parents. The school year in Turkey is constructed differently than in America. Different holidays are observed by the majority of the population but also, while the school year in America starts out with a long block of continuous instruction then breaks into smaller periods interspersed with breaks before finally letting out for summer, the Turkish school year does just the opposite. The breaks all come at the beginning of the year and after winter break (which comes in January instead of December) instruction is continuous until school breaks in June.

Good Weather, Counterfeit Coins

2006-04-05T11:21:00.000+03:00

Spring is in full tilt, the sky is bright blue and now there are blossoming trees like this one everywhere.

The Turkish Lira, like most currency has it's admirers who wish to flatter in the sincerest form. Counterfeit ten lira bills are the most common, the bill is obviously fake upon close examination but since tens are usually not scrutinized very closely, many are circulated. There are larger bills produced in counterfeit, though these are caught more quickly because of the intense scrutiny with which they are met.
But counterfeiting has a more humorous side, somewhere someone is producing counterfeit one Lira and 50 Kurush coins! Coins!! They aren't worth all that much really, the workers at the ferry and other places that deal with lots of small change spot them instantly and toss them back to you. One Lira can buy you a local newspaper or a couple bottles of water, nothing you're going to get change for say, covering the cost of minting coins. Maybe someone is just doing it for laughs.

Reactions and Analysis

2006-04-05T09:36:00.000+03:00

I finally ran into a friend of mine I have been meaning to ask about the protests and rioting. Ozan is an international relations student in Ankara and happily shared his thoughts on the tension with the Kurds in Turkey.
First he reminded me that this was not a new thing, the Kurdish Workers Party (PARTİYA KARKERA KURDİSTAN or PKK) has been active sine 1984 and more than 30,000 people have died as a result of this conflict.

Turkey's constitution has special rights for minority ethnic groups that the Kurds wish to have applied to them along with a federal state of Kurdistan in Southeast Turkey. Turkey refuses the first because it does not count Kurds as a minority, they are the majority in Southeast Turkey. Those opposed to applying the special rights claim the Kurds are seeking to pick and chose through the constitution to abuse the laws.

The second is refused because the Republic of Turkey wishes to remain unified rather than divide by ethnic groupings. They feel dividing populations ethnically and erecting walls runs contrary to democracy, though many see the prolonged struggle as a sign that democracy is failing in Turkey. There is also the strong possibility that if attacks like the ones seen from separatist groups continue Turkey will respond militarily, the normal police would not be able to investigate and make arrests in an autonomous Kurdish state.

The renewed conflict and recent rioting has caused more pressure on Turkey over joining the European Union and it seems the Prime Minister may be up for granting extra rights to allow Turkey to enter the Union as a whole entity.
BBC Story Here

More Violence In Istanbul

2006-04-03T12:53:00.000+03:00

The Story on BBC

Three dead and police are out in force. But nothing else seems different, at least in my district of the city. Most people don't seem to know about the rioting, or aren't readily expressing their opinions with me. I'll ask around and get people's reactions.

Update:
Cumhur tells me there was also rioting in Okmeydanı, a district adjacent to Mecidiyeköy and Şişli.

I still haven't gotten anyone's opinion on the situation. Even though I'm at a school that teaches English, my Turkish really should be better after 4 and a half months in country. I will keep asking people what they think, one of the workers at the cafe is Kurdish I believe, he might have a few insights if I can break the communication barrier.

Waking Up To The Nescafe

2006-04-03T07:33:00.000+03:00

The light has a different quality, more yellow it seems. As I walked up the hill this morning I admired the concrete skeletons rising over Şişli, they didn't appear so mottled and decayed in the April sun. In a few months I'm sure they will be glazed with windows and filled with people in suits. Even if work moves at a halting pace or seems neglected for months at a time, Istanbul still has a very strong feeling of building. Everywhere new apartment buildings are under construction and you can't help but imagine the junk men who haul away hand carts full of pipes, bricks, and discarded appliances are building something out of them.
April brings some other changes as well, the super boots worn by Turkish women are all but gone, one of the students who always wore stiletto heeled boots seems a full three inches shorter, I didn't recognize her until she was right in my face and rapidly greeting me. Apo tells me he's very tired today, he had been up all night talking on the phone with his new girlfriend! Hooray Apo, let's just hope you don't start neglecting your English lessons. I'm now joking around with Apo and Gokçe in our gibbering blend of Turkish and English.

Pomegranate Sunday

2006-04-02T16:03:00.000+03:00

Down the main street from me there is a whole bock that seems to have been turned into a covered markets. Canvas is suspended from steel cables overhead and the narrow streets are closed (at least in a de facto sense) to automobile traffic. Simit vendors and others with carts of merchandise pull up at the fringe of the crowd, adding a new layer to the scene. Everything seemed centered around a more permanent market that I had mistook in colder months to be a half-built parking structure. People admired antiques under strings of electrical lights, vendors there dealt in more substantial purchases it seemed, furniture and the like, while outside it seemed all the street vendors in Istanbul had converged and clustered in the one spot. Scarves and shirts, screwdrivers and sunglasses, it was a visual feast.
Street merchants are a funny thing in Istanbul, I am not really sure how legit they are. Some merchants are selling shoes out of a car trunk, books and jewelry from a suitcase, or just walking along with a dozen belts over one arm calling out, "Italian leather, five lira!"
Along with the Sunday cleaning and lying around I usually cook and try a few new things from the store. Along with my chick peas and rice I had a variety of drinks to sample. A week ago large, glass bottles of Pomegranate juice for very cheep began showing up at the market. I also bought one along with what appeared to be a can of pomegranate soda. The soda was a very strange experience, when I cracked it open it bubbled greyishly at me, like a can of Milwaukee's Best. I took a sip, Pomegranate alright! So I sipped and sopped and then I stopped, there was another flavor, malted barley I was sure of it. So I checked the ingredients and sure enough, malt something-or-other. But the can didn't seem to list an alcohol content and my Turkish is too limited to tell if there was only malt flavoring (for god knows what reason) or if I was drinking girl beer. Either way, the real pomegranate juice wins the taste test and the other will have to accept it's place on the shelf.
Staying home is always punctuated by the screaming neighborhood children kicking a ball around behind the apartment building. It's flat and level concrete, however it's also horribly narrow and many kicks send the ball bouncing off the bars over my window. It's not very nice of me, but sometimes I wish they would go play in the street...

Saturday Update

2006-04-01T21:34:00.000+03:00

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.

Watching The Freighters Pass By

2006-04-01T12:30:00.000+03:00

I've been watching the scene of the Bosporus underneath blanketing overcast skies. People stroll along the quays and large vessels of all sizes ply the waters. Behind the Beshiktash campus of Bacheshehir University are a few cherry trees blooming next to the docks and passenger boats that had moored for the winter now ferry about throngs out to enjoy the weather. It's Saturday and more people have free time, I'm spending mine sitting in the Akademi Cafe, and many groups of friends and couples are out enjoying lunches next to the water, or walking past swinging shopping bags.

And here is my istikan, my chai cup. Tea is made differently in Turkey than America, and I don't just mean using lose leaf as opposed to bags. Tea is made in large electrically heated pots filled with water containing a smaller chamber for tea leaves held in a cylindrical filter. This keeps the tea near boiling and makes for a very dark, concentrated tea. On the front of the tea cooker are two taps, water and tea concentrate. You mix to your liking, some people ask for their tea to be açik, or light, and others specify they want theirs to be siyah, black. I prefer mine a bit on the light side with two sugar cubes

As we approach noon (remember noon actually comes at 1 pm during daylight savings time) the sky is growing lighter and the clouds are drawing back. With a bit of luck we'll be sunbathing in an hour or two.

Bright April Days, The Cats Love Their Play

2006-04-01T00:38:00.000+03:00

This is it, April. Istanbul seems like a different place than when I arrived in the last days of November. The mood of the entire city has changed and the whole lifestyle has shifted to embracing the outdoors. It seemed dingy in the winter, but now that patios are swept and washed with restaurants serving more people outdoors than in, the city has a buzz and bustle entirely new to me.
To kick things off right here are a couple cat photos from my afternoon walk.

And here is an interesting one; it's an istikan, or glass tea cup. They are bulb shaped with the top flaring out, the bottom is flattened for them to sit in the saucers that always accompany them. This istikan is now a strange environment for many small forms of life.

April also brings a new look to the blog, enjoy!

Fındık Baklava, Nothing Short of Heaven

2006-03-30T13:30:00.000+03:00

Yesterday after leaving the school, I took advantage of the longer daylight to go around Mecidiyeköy and visited the bakery that supplies Funky Cafe with breakfast rolls. The whole business is family run, a collection of brothers, sisters, and cousins who seem to be split between Istanbul and New York City. We sat sipping tea from istikans watching the crowds move along the sidewalk outside.
The shop is much more than a simple bread bakery, they don't actually bake loaves of bread but have trays of small rolls with cheese, olives, and other delights in them. And in the display cases I saw all kinds of baklava and chocolates that had been shaped in moulds and decorated. I was given a piece of hazelnut baklava and wow. I really love the sweets here, they aren't just lumps of high fructose corn syrup and coco but gooey experiences wrapped in flaky pastry. But back to the shop.
This place was really amazing, it's next to the Türk Telekom building (which is how I found it in the first place, going to pay a bill) in a nice part of the district, wide streets and people with friendly faces going about the day. I bought a few things from a street vendor near the bakery and entered the shop. It was very beautiful in a classic and simple way, dark wood ceiling beams and canary walls with a tile pattern reminiscent of Ottoman designs. I chatted with one of the women who runs the shop, she had spent a year in high school as a foreign exchange student in America. We talked a lot about Istanbul and Turkey, she lives on the Anatolia side (it's not called the Asian side by Turks) in a district full of trees. I can see it across the Bosporus when I am at the top of the hill. It looks as though a whole forest has invaded the city, spilling over a rise and running down nearly to the water.
During my walk this morning a light, cool rain began to fall. It's a different kind of rain than what we had experianced up until
A few times today the power has gone out, but it's so momentary nothing besides the wireless router is disrupted in an annoying way. The students use it as an excuse to whoop and yell in the dark.

It's Really Just Easier to Walk

2006-03-29T11:03:00.000+03:00

The Cafe's absent worker has returned, a cast on his arm, but smiling. We are all very relieved to see him back safe. From what people tell me, traffic accidents are a fairly common occurrence in Istanbul, though I witnessed a handful in January when the roads turned to ice. People drive much slower here than they do in America, making it less difficult to jay-walk even on the busier streets. Traffic still has problems, and it makes me wonder what things might turn into if everyone started driving faster! Turn signals are used, but since "right of way" doesn't seem to be on drivers' minds, turns are still taken with near randomness.
This applies in all situations with lines
I count myself lucky to be within walking distance of everything I make daily use of as well as public transportation. In fact, I count myself lucky not to have a car to worry about, gasoline is about the equivalent of 5 USD for a gallon's worth. Tiny, glittering cubes of unswept auto glass also decorate many sidewalks near where I live. Auto horns and flashing lights are much more frequently used, some drivers will even go up narrow one-way streets after flashing their lights to warn whoever might think of traveling along established routes. You see people take roundabouts backwards to try to save time and end up causing traffic to halt. Despite noticeable mistakes made by drivers, everything blends to create a blend of pandemonium that rushes through Istanbul in all directions.
But unless I'm going father than Beshiktash, I find it just easier to walk.

Oh! Today is the big solar eclipse! Though I won't be frying out my retinas trying to see it, it will be broadcast on the television for those of us who stay in basements all day.

It should look something like this:

But we all really know it's a dragon come to eat the sun. So yell really loud at the sky to scare it away. Because a dragon that can eat the sun is afraid of loud noises.

Wherever You Go the Sky is Blue^2

2006-03-28T18:07:00.000+03:00

March has been really something in Istanbul. Back in California one day things would just switch and that was that, but Istanbul keeps us on our toes. We've fluttering between warm and cold, sun and rain and I started really seeing Turkish as a communication tool where before it felt like I was having to pass my thoughts through a complicated cypher. The warmer weather is bringing a whole different kind of lifestyle to Istanbul, the outside is no longer a place to move from one inside to another with as much haste as can be mustered. People linger and lounge outside, everyone's window is open. On walks I notice people leaning from their windows, enjoying the warm air and watching the pedestrians make their progress along the street. My manager at the coffee shop back in California once pointed something out to me, "If you wave at people, they will reflexively wave back." She might have added, unless they're shaking a rug out from a balcony, but that goes without saying really.

This the the back way I sometimes take to and from the school. I love the worn stones with green shoots slowly crumbling their edges. It's places like this that makes Istanbul feel still very wild and open. Like there are still so much that can happen.

March is Almost Over? When did this Happen?

2006-03-27T08:33:00.000+03:00

Günaydın and happy Monday from Funky Cafe, now with 33% more love than the next leading basement cafe. You are hereby commanded to watch This Video, it is apparently an accurate portrayal of Turkish men who go clubbing by themselves.

Daylight Savings means dawn is coming early again!

The students here often attempt to make English slang, shortening words and expressions into incomprehensible gibberish. But sometimes it comes out to mean something, and that something is funny. Like students referring to chewing gum as 'chew.'

One of the cafe workers was in a car accident this weekend and we still don't know about his condition, so send those good vibes this way.

Saturday is for Light Content

2006-03-25T17:52:00.000+02:00

Today I noticed something new, a plant with small purple flowers that I haven't seen since leaving the midwest six or seven years ago. It's strange that they should be in Istanbul too. The grassy hill near the apartment is covered with them.

Also while I was out walking I came across a pack of cats all playing around this tarp and scaffold. Aren't they adorable?

At home I have a new visiting cat. Here is a blurry picture, but there's not much of her to focus on anyway, she's solid black with those two white puffs.

Istanbul Goes to the Cats; Çok, Yok, and somewhere in between.

2006-03-23T18:17:00.000+02:00

Today we were greeted by the warm winds of the Mediterranean, the jackets have come off and windows are opened wide.

There are two words in Turkish that are especially useful but do not translate well into English, however the terms exist in slang. Çok and Yok, pronounced like strangling someone and a harness for an ox, deal with quantity in all it's forms. The closest English comes to çok is the expression 'Hella,' widely used in Northern California. But chok is used even more liberally than this! While it's possible to be hella sorry, you can not say "hella thank you" and make sence to anyone but the most faded stoners. But you can in Turkish! And on top of it, it's grammatically correct.

What does this mean? It means maybe one day the MLA will include "hella" as a combination adverb, adjective, and noun along with dropping either I or me as the confusion will have grown too great. Would you like to go to the store with Bob and I? Why not?

Yok expresses the opposite of çok, instead of quantity it means lack of quantity, but it's use is more limited to physical existence rather than extent and duration. However if someone asks you if you've seen someone, you can reply with his or her name and yok. If someone asks if you have a light, you can say yok.

And now, cats.

Have a good day!

Let's Talk about God, Baby

2006-03-22T11:48:00.000+02:00

One of the first questions people seem to ask me when I tell them about Istanbul is how the religious scene looks here. Do people hit the deck when the call to prayer happens? The flag is a crescent and star, Turkey a theocracy? Istanbul is the city were Islam meets Christianity, so it's about time I shared my observations.

Islam
In my neighborhood about one in four women I see walking on the street wear headscarves and I am yet to see a burka. Head over to to the district along the old city wall and the picture is almost reversed. The call to prayer can be heard from just about anywhere in the city proper five times a day, but I haven't seen anyone drop to the street in prayer. I assume people who pray do so in their homes or at the mosques. Apo leaves the cafe on Fridays in the middle of the day to go to the mosque for prayers.
But the city isn't divided, there isn't a social wall between devout and secular, people talk and laugh and walk together. Islam seems very foreign to many Americans, but as the major religion here it's not the first topic of conversation for people. In America I didn't know if my neighbors were Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Mormon, Jehovah's Witnesses or whatever. It's normal enough not to be an override conversation. I had an excellent example of this just the other day, on my walk home there is a flower lady and I sometimes stop and buy a small bouquet. She wore a headscarf, but as the weather warmed up she stopped. Has she rejected Allah and the Prophet? Probably not, it's just a bit warm. Many women here see wearing a headscarf as entirely optional.
There was a strange moment for me when a local described to me in hushed tones some amazing dish she was planning to prepare that involved pork. She spoke of it like a forbidden pleasure, as if ham dinner was bacchic revelry. Perhaps having a type of meat socially tabooed makes it more desirable and people think it tastes better. Maybe some people who move here miss pork but I'm glad I don't accidently get it in restaurants. I'm not Muslim, I just think pork is about as dirty as meat can get.

Christianity
Istanbul, or Constantinople rather, was the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and there are still Byzantine churches here in full swing. While many of the churches were converted to mosques, the religion was not stomped out of history. I see a few students wearing crucifixes, but whether it's done out of piety or because they listen to black sabbath is something I have bothered to ask. I have seen a few large Catholic churches as well, and they seem to fill their pews. The church I went to is also visited by many non-Christians who light candles and ask Mary for good fortune in the lottery. While nothing I have seen can be described as religious tension or discrimination, there is a bit of assuming that happens. When the topic of religion came up with people they instantly assumed I was a protestant of some type, being from America.

Judaism
I haven't seen anything that I took to be a Synagogue, and I have not seen anyone looking to be orthodox. Maybe I just haven't gone to the right neighborhoods, Istanbul is incredibly varied and will take years to explore.

By and large, religion is not a driving social force Istanbul. Football, music, and flashy consumption all take precedence in people's minds. Social responsibilities are separate from spiritual obligations, etc. Turkey is secular.

Monday is the Happiest Day of the Week

2006-03-20T09:22:00.000+02:00

School is back in full swing today, it's really interesting to watch someone's progression with acquiring a language. Like hearing someone say "You too" when you bid them a nice day after months of only receiving "Thank you" in reply. It's enough to make me giddy. This is also the week after midterm exams and everyone is able to let out their breath. By and large the students claim they did horribly. They may be overly modest, but that doesn't seem to be one of the prevailing traits of the young bourgeoisie here.

Turkish, like English, uses lots of exaggeration for humorous expressions. Some are the same, like saying that you are starving when very hungry but a few catch me off guard, such as when a friend of mine told me he was about to lose consciousness after we walked up a hill. He was actually referring to being very hungry, but I thought he had over exerted himself from the climb.

And now a never before seen photograph from Cevahir.

There is no escape. However it is comforting to know there are only as many Starbucks Coffees in Istanbul as there are in and around my home town in California. Then again, that number isn't exactly a low one.

Saturday Afternoon Non-Stop.

2006-03-18T17:23:00.000+02:00

Hello from the offices of Mavi Kedi Production, a small design and programming company in Mecidiyeköy. What am I doing here you ask? The founder, Mehmet, is a friend of mine and we share a geeky fascination with computers. It is apparently very rare for small companies like this to even start, let alone show some success. The guys running this are still in college, it's impressive what they've been able to do.

Today I ran all over the place, it was very exciting. Between Cevahir mall and the apartment are all sorts of hills and winding streets, I even stood under the skeletal beginnings of the new Mecidiyeköy high rises. They stand on the side of a hill that runs straight down to the water, making them tower over the district even more. I think walking all the stairs in Istanbul is a new consuming hobby for me.

Saint Patrick's Day, Where's the Irish Cream Coffeemate?

2006-03-17T15:29:00.000+02:00

Happy St. Pat's from Turkey, land of Nescafe. There is a distinct lack of Irish influence in the Republic of Turkey, in fact the only people in Istanbul wearing green on purpose might be Jess and Elsa. Yes, I forgot that today was St. Patrick's Day. But I'm not Irish, so keep your kisses to yourself!
Coincidentally today also happens to be a minor holiday at the school. Instead of the usual thousand or so students, only two hundred have to attend today. The result is having a lot of nothing to do. I spoke at length with a student who will be going April first to Washington D.C. As an international relations major the trip should be quite an experience for him. He was telling me that one day he hoped to be a journalist and travel to many countries, experiencing their different cultures. More power to him, everyone wish him luck.
Istanbul has grown cold again, not the bitter freeze and driving winds of the last two months, but enough to make spring still feel a ways down the road. Ceylin was telling me that this time of year is usually marked by perfect weather, pleasant and mild. This week has kept under 10 degrees centigrade (50 Fahrenheit) instead of the promised 20 degrees. (68) Combine that with rain and we're all happy to be working indoors, at least for the next few weeks before things turn really nice.

2006-03-14T09:11:00.000+02:00

Today I made enemies with four out of five Turks when I pointed at the newly installed "no smoking" signs. If there is a national vice in Turkey smoking has got to be it. The students are handling it as you would expect a pack of 19 year old kids to; after begging and then taking pictures of themselves posed next the sign with a cigarette on their lips they grudgingly accepted.

Last night instead of my usual trudge down the hill I took a winding route through the neighborhoods, down narrow stairways and hoped along sidewalks that were in the process of sliding down the hill side. The sun was approaching the horizon and I managed to snap this photo of some rooftops. This is back away from the roads where people have to take twisting paths just to get to their front doors, more eclectic styles can be seen here, people with garden sculpture made from discards and the like.

And here's a kitten who watched me from a distance, it had the cutest way of turning it's head to the side. Yes, behold the cuteness.

It's Another Happy Monday Down at Funky Cafe

2006-03-13T07:42:00.000+02:00

The Turkish pop music videos are blasting on screens mercifully out of my vision and the students are beginning to arrive at school. The students have little inclination to do any speaking, much less in English at this hour of the morning. On the way up to the Cafe this morning I ran into two very affectionate cats. The first followed me a whole block, even crossing a busy street to keep up with me. I lost him when a cloud of floating seeds like dandelions drifted across the sidewalk and he turned to chase those.

The second sat next to an apartment building's gate and made a funny gesture when I came over to pet it.

Give me some of that luck, lucky cat.

Cevahir be the Death of Me

2006-03-12T21:12:00.000+02:00

Today was another big crowded one. I met up with Jess, Elsa, Sam, and Kat for brunch and we seemed to be engaged to have an easy, laid back day but someone suggested, and everyone agreed, to go to the mall. Cevahir mall is huge as I have said before, but this was the first time I really roamed around. With an hour until regrouping and only one thing on my shopping list I plenty of time to see the place. The view from the bottom, while terrifying and enormous is nothing compared to the shear horror and majesty of viewing the mall from the sixth floor. I hope these pictures give you an idea.

We regrouped and headed into Koch Tash, the Turkish equivalent of Home Depot (right down to the same color scheme) and rounded up some gardening supplies and a new set of shelves for the ladies. With the warmer weather they have become determined to turn their now mundane back patio and patches of dirt into a paradise, and they're off to a great start! After a while in Turkey slang has developed where Turkish words are used (and horribly mispronounced) simply because they are everywhere on signs and become easier to use than translating them into English. For instance, as we searched for parking in the car park, we chose a spot because "that one's near the sikis." The word is actually pronounced Chikish but the letter for ch is a c with a cedilla under it, so it seems natural for and English (or French) speaker to interpret it as an s sound. Today I heard Sam referring to the money "New Turkish Lira" as yetles (rhymes with turtles) the abbreviation for the money is YTL, standing for "Yeni Türk Lirasi." I call them Lira, but in a way it makes just as much sense to say Yetle. Here's Sam in line, about to part with some yetles.

The entire mall was very packed today and the car park, while interesting and full of bright LEDs that showed you where there is free space, was also horribly crowded and congested. Finally we freed ourselves from the mall and returned to the ladies' apartment for a fine dinner.

Exotic is What's Shoved in Someone Else's Face Everyday

2006-03-10T11:01:00.000+02:00

And it was Fenerbache that got those bragging rights, two to one. But, as a guy from LA who pretends to be British once told me, "Never trust a player wearing white boots." I'm not entirely sure what all that implies, but I'm willing to bet you'll see more players wearing white cleats among Fenerbache.

Today is another normal Friday in Istanbul, I'm making the students listen to Bee Gees and the weather has improved. Despite predictions of rain it is supposed to be warm tomorrow, supporting my claims to Jess and Elsa that everything has been just peachy here while they were away. They will return tomorrow from their trip back to the States.

Last night, as every Thursday night, musicians came to the cafe and played for a few hours. During their performance they requested me to join and I played some folk songs for the students. I never thought these songs would ever be considered exotic, but as they say, "Exotic is outside the location of the locals." Now students are approaching me telling me how good I sounded, of course their vocabularies are limited and knowing how to compliment someone involves difficult word choices. What is the difference between sound and noise? Does the sentence, "I think I hear a noise," actually imply an offensive sound? So I was told that I made a great noise with my mouth, and I suppose I should be grateful for the compliment.

And now something I realized I never did, show you what the money looks like here! It comes in several fabulous colors and every bill has my man Mustafa on it. A side note, Turkish Lira coins have the same size and weight at Euros, though they are worth considerably less. (the .5 Lira piece resembles a 1 Euro coin and the 1 Lira resembles a 2 Euro coin. Exchange rate is about 1.6 Lira to the Euro.) As a result you can find Liras filling vending machines in Europe wherever Turks visit.

Tonight Someone Gets Bragging Rights

2006-03-08T17:00:00.000+02:00

Istanbul has three football (soccer) teams, Galatasaray, Fenerbache, and Beshiktash. Beshiktash has never been very good and their fans, while violently in love with their team, aren't really anywhere but right around the stadium. Also like the Oakland Raiders Beshiktash dresses in black and white. But today isn't about Beshiktash so they will not be mentioned again.

As the title suggests tonight is a large match between the two most popular teams in Istanbul, Galatasaray and Fenerbache. All the students are decked out in the colors of their favorite team and many have asked me which team I support. (Galatasaray of course, Fenerbache is nothing but a bunch of mincing rich boys in blue and yellow, but this in no way effects my impartiality as an observer.) In celebration of this momentous event the winds decided to shift and pour freezing rain over the city. I suppose I spoke too soon when I claimed cold weather was a thing of the past. Hopefully the cold spell will pass before Jess and Elsa come back from the states and I will be able to pretend it was perfect the whole time.

When they can't go a-walking people get a-talking. (Oh no! Alex is launching into a lecture about language.)

2006-03-07T10:02:00.000+02:00

Late last night rain began to fall, a steady shower that pattered against the pavement and ivy lulling the neighborhood to sleep and driving the street animals to cover. Today I headed out in a light drizzle of rain, the air was clear of the usual traffic smell and the southern breeze was heavy with the smell of the ocean. But after my morning walk I joined the milling throngs and immediately my thoughts began to shift from weather to human interaction and language.

Apo is in formal English lessons now and was showing me his homework, practicing when to use possessive pronouns or their nominative forms. This isn't done in Turkish and seems to confuse many students. If you want to say my friend you say "doste ben" or the contracted form "dostam" incidentally this is the same as Persian:

دوستِ من، دوستم

"Duste man" is contracted to "dustam"
(This is not surprising both languages are Indo-European, not actually Semitic like Arabic or Hebrew, and despite the large amounts of borrowed vocabulary, the structure is far from Arabic. In fact I was told the higher, royal Turkish spoken around the palace resembled Persian very much and was near incomprehensible to speakers of vernacular Turkish.)

Coming back to Turkish and English, we see there are much fewer pronouns in Turkish because they make up for them with suffixes. Being told there is a difference between "I" and "me" is counter intuitive. After all, I am a single entity who who just takes a position in relation to other things, why should there be two words? Because there are in English, and we have "my" and "mine" to confuse us too. "But why?" you ask, "Why the confusion? Is their way better? Is the English speaking world at an evolutionary disadvantage?"

Of course not, our evolutionary disadvantages come from McDonalds and televisions in schools, all languages (at least all the cool ones) have ways to tell if you are doing something to something else or for it, or anything else for which you would use a preposition in English. Like Latin and Ancient Greek many have case systems as well as having the verb reflect it's subject: declension and conjugation. (Some like Sumerian have the verb reflect a whole lot more, but we're ignoring those!) As languages are used and grow and whatnot they go through phases between being complicated in grammar forms and complicated in syntax. So a language will develop a complicated grammar to explain itself, then people will begin slurring everything until it all sounds the same, (take French verbs for instance, parle and parles are pronounced the same.) later people will add new prefixes to their words and reintroduce a more noticeable grammar.

Think about Ancient Greek, you can use your words in just about any order you want as long as you have your ducks in a row as far as declining your nouns and conjugating your verbs in the right voice and person. But remember how confusing Socrates seemed to Meno? It was all the guy could do to reply "ουκ εμοιγε." Besides making philosophers drink hemlock people like Meno liked language very simple and made to fit into an order that required the least amount of thought, putting together the most immediately related words. Mountains of syntactical memorization were replaced by memorized sets of helper verbs and and prepositions, separated from their original structure to form a new one based more on word order and clauses.

Languages are doing this all the time: becoming more complicated in one way, and less in another. Some languages, like Chinese, seem to have no grammar and some languages, like English, seem to have no grammar designed to make communication easier. So where does Turkish fit in this grand scheme? Well, It's a living language meaning the rules are always changing and much that is against the rules still counts as communication. Turkish seems to be on the way out from a system that declined and conjugated everything, verbs are declined more thoroughly than English but many tenses seem to use "helper verbs" like English. Remember, despite how your head feels, learning multiple languages is fun!

Twice the Fun, Half the Time, and Laundry is not Neglected

2006-03-05T16:14:00.000+02:00

As chance would have it, yesterday did not end with returning from my after lunch walk, but that was only the beginning. Hasan called me up and I headed down to Beshiktash to meet him and two friends. The whole waterfront is beginning to wake up, more people are about in the warm night air and from many restaurants I could smell fresh fish being cooked. The plan was simple, because a housemate was studying for a law exam they were going to vacate the apartment and go find some dinner. But where to eat? We took a taxi to Taksim, the center of Istanbul nightlife.
The main affair in Taksim is a long twisting avenue closed to automobile traffic that is absolutely jammed with crowds day and night. Plenty of famous restaurants are there and we passed by several before deciding that if it was fish we wanted, maybe we should head down to the waterfront and see how things look. Getting there was an experience, I had only been on Istanbul's more recent metro line, but at the end of the Taksim avenue we entered a large building which turned out to be another metro station, the original Istanbul metro line runs 800 meters and was built shortly after the first London underground, making it the second oldest metro line in the world. The cars are electric now and the damp, stone tunnel is brightened by florescent lighting, but not much seems to have changed. The walls of the station we arrived at were filled with Iznik tiles, reminding me that this metro line, as primitive as it may seem in comparison to modern ones, was built during the time of the Ottoman Empire.
Between Taksim and the peninsula housing Old Constantinople (Sultenahmet) runs a bridge lined with restaurants. Along the road (which is above the restaurants) many people cast lines and fish all day, some have small grills set up and will sell you a fish sandwich right there, though most seem to be taking their catch home. The restaurants are right on the water and in the warm night air the view was incredible. All of Sultenahmet is laid out before you, with only the expanse of night time waters separating you from it. That's definitely the place to have a date on a summer night. And while the restaurants were by no means cheep, they weren't as pricey as you would expect for the view they offered.
After a good fish dinner we went back to Beshiktash, through the now quiet market, and down some residential streets to meet another friend and came back to Mecidiyeköy and played music into the night. My fondness for Turkish folk music is growing more every time I hear it and having a few skilled musicians over for company made this a great weekend before it was even half finished.
Sunday has turned into a blissful laundry day, letting me reflect on last night's excitement while the neighborhood children kick soccer balls against the bars over my bedroom window.

Saturday's Fantastic Photo Journey

2006-03-04T16:05:00.000+02:00

To celebrate this new lovely weather I headed out for a long walk around part of a neighborhood I hadn't explored much yet. It is on the other side of Fulya Avenue from me and seems very self contained with all sorts of little shops. It also has the least straightforward roads and most stairways of any neighborhood I've seen. To start the day out I had a great Kabob down at Haci Baba's then walked around the neighborhood until I saw a staircase leading up into adventure and the unknown.

And looking down from the top

This staircase actually has a name, it's "Gül Sokak" meaning "flower street." Along the stairway there are a few shops and a small restaurant. After a steep climb I came to the center of the newly discovered neighborhood, a very beautiful mosque which is probably one of the ones I hear from home every call to prayer.

Stairs lead down behind the mosque to a small patio facing south that gives a wonderful view of the city.

After emerging from around the other side of the mosque I explored the neighborhood a bit more. Because of the warm weather the children were out in force, running around everywhere kicking soccer balls around or just playing tag. This neighborhood seemed a bit more conservative than mine, more of the women wore headscarves and not every convenience store featured alcohol for purchase. I've come to appreciate Islam much more from living here and seeing the values in place within a society.

After a few hours of roaming the afternoon sun went behind the clouds and I turned home, taking as winding and confused route as I could find.

Tomorrow I think I will go see what Beshiktash is like in March.

Teetering on the First Weekend of March

2006-03-03T09:56:00.000+02:00

Friday, the great day for reflection upon the work week while tensely awaiting it's close. These last few weeks have seen great improvement in my Turkish, and now some of the students giggle with delight when I speak in a more familiar language. I have been told my accent is good, probably because I have learned phonetically though mimicking the cafe workers. Most communication is done in Turklish, a blend of Turkish and English. When Apo and I come to a halt in communication around a word we usually rattle off the word in as many languages as we know hoping for cognates. This method is yet to work, but we keep at it.
Computers are fairly new to the public in Turkey and they remain a great mystery to most. Think of it as an amplification of the situation in America, where many view computers as magic boxes they can barely control, except computers have been introduced more recently to the masses in Turkey.
The weather continues to be amazing and I have high hopes for exploration during the weekend.

March Does Not Disappoint

2006-03-01T08:30:00.000+02:00

The weather here has certainly gotten our spirits up for March. Something must have changed overnight because I went to bed amid drizzling rain and walked up the hill this morning under azure skies with the sun already shining brightly. Check it out:

The taxi in the road was flashing his lights at me trying to get my attention. The wind is warm and birds were singing in the trees as I walked this morning.

An interesting cultural tidbit for you folks back home. Turks play klondike solitaire but add a little something, when they begin a game they make a wish, if they complete the game, the wish will come true. I suppose it teaches people not to get their hopes up for miracles.

Goodbye February

2006-02-28T18:00:00.000+02:00

Hello from the twelfth floor of Istanbul Conti, which offers a beautiful view of the city from it's twelfth floor lounge. it's a spectacular finish to the mercifully short month of February. And what a month! I saw Cyprus, learned more Turkish than I knew existed three months ago, and the excitement keeps coming. Seagulls are circling around the window, catching the last thermals before night falls. Looking South I can see the sea of Marmara as well as the distinctive forms of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

Today was also a fairly exciting day down at the school, I got to speak with more students than usual and even said hi on the phone to Apo's little brother back in his home town in Eastern Turkey. Now, there is a funny story about Apo's hometown. It's name is Batman, as in the dark knight. So often as is the case I sit and listen to Turkish spoken by all the cafe workers at an accelerated pace and only pick up a few words. Words like "Alex" and "America." Then one conversation I heard Hasan and Apo talking about Bat Man, they talked on and on, I assumed they had gone to the cinema, but no. I had made some off handed comment about comic books and got blank looks in return. Only until many days later while watching a video of Turkish folk dances that featured the Batman dance did I realize they had been talking about a village.

The sun has set and the city lights are coming on, the call to prayer rise from the city below to meet the setting sun. Tomorrow is March, the season is changing.

Here's Thomas doing what cats do best.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Rambling Descriptions

2006-02-26T23:53:00.000+02:00

I went to Haci Baba's again for lunch today. I just can't get enough of their kabobs! Here is what I was trying to describe yesterday. My neighborhood is bounded by some some of Istanbul's most gigantic landmarks, Cevahir Shopping Mall, Galatasaray Stadium, and this bad boy.

Goodnight folks, my weekend is done.

Saturday means Light Exploration at a Relaxed Pace

2006-02-25T16:21:00.000+02:00

I took a different route to my favorite restaurant today, after looking at Google Earth I realized what looked like a back alley went right to my goal meaning I wouldn't have to walk along a busy street breathing car exhaust. True, the walk along the busy street is a very short one, it's also one I have been down many times. Leaving the apartment I turned right instead of left, it rained last night and this morning and the city streets and everything about them were thrown into a fuzzy shine under thinly overcast skies.
To my delight the alley was actually a very narrow residential street lined with trees. The buildings looked new, and I think that whole neighborhood has been getting a make over, many old building have scaffolding around them and the abundant trees all look very young. Kids were everywhere, either playing on the sidewalks and front porches or walking in packs down the street. Up a hill and down some stairs I approached the familiar door of Haci Baba - Lezzet Sofrasi from the opposite side.
My Turkish is still abysmal and besides telling them that I was well and ordering lamb shish I think I fumbled every other question they tossed my way. But to the questions I didn't know I just replied that the food was delicious and thanked them profusely. Haci Baba's is really a great place with some of the best home style Turkish cooking I've run into here. After a great meal wrapped up with a few cups of tea I wandered the neighborhood I had walked through to get there. Now facing the other direction I saw that framed between the narrow apartment buildings was the tower of steel and blue glass that rises above Fulya avenue. I'm not sure what that building is called, but it's big! When I arrived in Istanbul and had to tell a taxi where my home was I would just tell them Fulya and then gesture wildly with my hands to indicate a gigantic building. Worked every time.
In one of the small shops I picked up some coffee biscuit things and some mineral water, crossed the street, and I was home. Instead of a planned lay out with easily found addresses Istanbul feels much more organic, it's a mass of hidden neighborhoods and great tucked a way places run through by a few large roads that divide things up into neighborhoods. I could live here for years and find a whole part of town with it's own feel that I'd never seen before.

Home, most apartments in Istanbul are painted in more vibrant colors. Like the hall in Jess and Elsa's apartment that is painted bright, lime green. And here's a picture of the cat visiting window with my head in the way.

Today there is a new addition to my blog family, a Persian blog I have been meaning to make for a long, long time. (it's the funny squiggle under the links) If you know Persian (Farsi) take a look at it and then tell me where I've screwed up your beautiful language, I still have a lot to learn. And if you don't know Persian, still go look at it. You might get an idea for a tattoo.

Wake Up with Alex

2006-02-24T08:41:00.000+02:00

Today is another exciting multi-media day! To get you ready for the weekend and various holy days here is the call to prayer. This is what it sounds like to wake up early with me and open the window. My window faces a large concrete embankment and the calls to prayer ricochet up and down between it and my building, amplifying them much louder than can be heard on the street in front of the apartment. The embankment is overgrown with ivy which can be heard rustling in the wind. You can also hear a dog howling at the prayer call and Thomas coming over to visit. Despite the occasional passing delivery truck, Mecidiyeköy is very quiet in the early hours.

Click the Mosque to listen!

Here is an old movie clip I took in the rain. It's from early December when I was just beginning to explore my neighborhood. It's also during the call to prayer, double the fun!

And what post would be complete without a cute kitty!

Besides being a fun multimedia day, today is Cuma (Joo-mah) and that means more students than usual skip class and those that stay are more inclined to go someplace else when their classes finish, leaving Funky cafe nearly deserted. Jess and Elsa are also gone, taking with them a pack of students to let loose in the United States. This leaves Abdulselam, or Apo for short, as my only conversation partner. How far can a person's language skills regress from lack of practice? We shall see.

We're on a Roll with Good Weather

2006-02-23T12:00:00.000+02:00

The students have returned to school and the weather just keeps getting better. I notice more people outside, not just walking around, but standing around talking and sitting out in front of their apartment buildings, taking in sun and good conversation. Yesterday I stayed at home all day to wait for the Telecom workers, enjoying every minute of it with the windows open. The sun moved lazily across an azure sky and I just drank coffee at the window waving to passers-by and saying hi.
Tomorrow Jess and Elsa take a bunch of hopefuls across international borders to tour colleges in America. Good luck, ladies! And my friends back home, if you run into some Turks or really any other foreigners, make them feel welcome. Like that ancient greek saying we learned with the imperative voice, "Be kind to strangers because you will one day be a stranger."
And I highly recommend going and being a stranger. With nothing familiar and easy to grasp, I've been forced to explore and learn more about myself and the world. Yeah... go be an explorer.

Happy International Tourist Guide Day!

2006-02-21T11:31:00.000+02:00

Hasan, who among other things is a professional tour guide, has informed me today is an international holiday celebrating tour guides everywhere. You may think they're annoying and unnecessary, but think of all the times you've repeated something a tour guide told you to sound in-the-know. Give it up for the tour guides, people!

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

2006-02-21T10:38:00.000+02:00

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

Monday, Exams are Over and the Word is Relax.

2006-02-20T11:17:00.000+02:00

Most of the students are on another holiday, so Hasan and I are sitting around Funky Cafe watching videos of Bodrum folk dances. He seems very excited to return, though I have been assured he will be making regular appearances here in Istanbul. I suppose when you get used to a city pace of things, permanently leaving is never really possible. It makes me wonder, when I return to the states, will I spend my time in the cities I before shunned.
Last night I went to the little restaurant near my home, ordering can be hard when no one expects you to speak any Turkish, but things went smoothly and my Kuzu Shish came up with no worries. How should I describe the restaurant? It has no name visible on the building, though their card names the place "Haji Baba." Outside there is a cart outside loaded with vegetables and seasonings that signals to passers-by the building is a restaurant. Squeezing into the building no larger than ten meters by five, half of which is a kitchen, you sit at one of two tables, usually sharing it with a delivery driver taking a tea break. All the food is cooked over a grill of hammered copper on iron spits. There is an older man in his fifties who is the main cook, and probably the owner. He has several men in their late teens or early twenties who act as waiters and delivery drivers, and there are a few young boys who clean and serve tea. This is the kind of establishment I like because it forces me to act out of my element and I have to pretend I'm Turkish.
I'm beginning to think more and more that pretending is more important than knowing in languages. After I have corrected a page of bad grammar for a student and attempted to teach the student when to use who and whom, I always encourage them to just pretend they are using correct English since so few speakers of English actually follow the rules. Confidence bordering on arrogance is the big secret to communicating in English!