The Facts of Life

It’s a little hard for me to believe that I’ve been in Turkey now for just over two months. Sometimes it feels like we only got here a couple weeks ago and other times it feels like I’ve been living here for months. I settled into a comfortable routine: sleeping until my body wakes up on its own, breakfast/lunch, reading for classes, keeping up with the world on the internet, classes in the afternoons Monday-Thursday, grocery shopping, exploring the city, making dessert with friends, tutoring Turkish students in English, sipping tea at cafes while studying Turkish homework, meeting friends for dinner any number of places in the neighborhood, just enjoying life. All the while learning Turkish, speaking Turkish, eating Turkish food, hanging out with Turkish friends, buying and wearing Turkish clothes. Lots and lots of Turkish.

I’ve had several blog entries just banging around in my head for a while now, slowly composing myself as I get settled in and figure out Turkish life. I’ve been meaning to post about life in Istanbul, about my classes and what they are like compared to classes at CSUS, about Turkish food, about seeing places around the city, just lots of stuff. So quite a lot of it is overdue. I know that a couple of you reading my blog are planning on coming to Istanbul next semester, so hopefully a lot of this is good food for thought for you two. For others who may wish to visit Istanbul (or anywhere in Turkey), hopefully I’ll provide some good advice and things to consider. For the rest of you, if nothing else, interesting reading. 

Okay, so Istanbul. What is it like to live in Istanbul? Maybe I could entitle this blog entry “Facts of life for living in Istanbul”. I wouldn’t want to say “Turkey” because really I’m sure that way of life in Istanbul would not apply to the way of life for all of Turkey. It’d be like saying that the way of life in New York City can be applied to the rest of the United States. So what is it like to live here? I’ll start with the basics in no particular order.

Time – Turks use the 24 hour clock, just like the military (24-11 = am, 12-23 = pm). So 15:30 is 3:30 pm; if it’s a number over 12, just subtract 12. Most Turks tend to say what the time as non-military time though, so 15:30 is “3:30”.

Metrics - Turkey, like almost every other civilized nation in the world, uses the metric system. I have a handy-dandy little conversion chart that I carry nearly everywhere I go just in case I need to convert something. So temps are in Celsius, distance is in kilometers, and you buy food in kilos and grams.

Money - Turkish currency closely echoes American/Canadian/European currency. Their currency is the Turkish Lira (TL), and they have 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 TL bills. The coins are called kuruş, and come in 5, 10, 25, 50, and 1 TL. The currency changed back in 2005, so there are various different kinds of coins floating around.

Food – I could likely write a whole blog entry about food. Turkish food, in a word, is delicious. I thought before coming to Turkey that it would be like a blend of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern, and some of it is, granted, but it’s quite different than I expected. There are a key few staples of the Turkish diet, namely bread, rice, tea, yogurt and meat. Chances are you will be served some kind of bread with every meal, and after every meal, you get tea. (As I believe I said before, it’s fascinating living in a country where you pay for the water and the tea is free). Rice is also very popular, both white rice and bulgur pilav (pilav being the Turkish word for rice, so now going back to America, I’m going to laugh every time I hear “rice pilaf” because it’s basically like saying “rice rice”.) Pasta is popular to eat as well, especially mantı, which is like mini raviolis. Pasta, by the way, is quite cheap here, and oh, pasta is also a Turkish word but it means “cake”. So a pastanesi is a cake shop, not a noodle shop. :) As you may have guessed, shish kebabs (or şiş kebap) are also very popular. While there are plenty of vegetarian dishes, Turkish cuisine tends to be a bit meat-heavy in my opinion. It’s rare to find pork, but there is also plenty of chicken, beef, lamb, and fish to be had, fish especially in Istanbul and along the coast. Fruits and veggies are plentiful, and foods are well-spiced, but not spicy. People drink lots of tea (obviously), milk, bottled water (drinking the tap water isn’t advised here), juice, rakı (a traditional liquor that’s flavored with anise), and ayran, which is about the only thing that I’ve tried here and didn’t like. Ayran is a drink that’s yogurt mixed with water and often salted. It’s supposedly good for an upset stomach, and is a quintessential Turkish thing, but none of the Americans have liked it (I think primarily because we’re not used to drinks being salty). Oh, and then desserts. The Turks know their dessert. Baklava is very popular here, as is sütlaç (rice pudding), helva (think sweet grits with pinenuts in it – sooo good!), künefe (it’s made of phyllo dough, but its texture is very similar to shredded wheat and it’s sweet and syrupy like baklava), and many others. And of course, there’s lokum otherwise known as Turkish delight. This is quite yummy too and especially delicious when covered in chocolate. You just haven’t eaten Turkish until you’ve had lokum. Oh, I could go on and on.

Transportation – Let me just say - traffic in Istanbul is horrible. I grew up in the DC area, and this is worse. Drivers here are crazy. If they can get through a space with an inch around their vehicle, they will. You think cab drivers in NYC are bad? The taksi drivers here are ruthless, and I’m being polite. They get you to where you need to go and quickly, but you may worry about speed limits and hitting pedestrians along the way. Drivers in general are more than a bit scary. They honk at everything, drive fast, and there have been more than a few times that I seriously thought that someone was going to get hit. The cars here are smaller, and there are plenty of models that you’d never see in the States: Fiat, Renault, Citroen, Daewoo, Daihatsu, and of course, in our area, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes. (Boğaziçi is in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Istanbul, btw, so it’s a bit high dollar around here, but still not quite what you’d think of in terms of high-dollar back home in the States). Mopeds and scooters are also quite popular, especially for delivery guys, and few drivers wear helmets, which scares me. I have seen very few bicycles which makes sense when you consider how crazy the drivers are.

The public transportation here however is quite good. There are lots and lots of buses, of courses, and trams, funiculars (underground metro trains), metro trains, metro buses, and vintage trams. Needless to say, the public transportation system here is extensive. I think you could live in this city for years and years and never ride on them all. But then, Istanbul is huge. Turks drive on the right hand side of the road, and the traffic signals and signs are very similar to those at home, save written signs are in Turkish. One of the first ones you learn is “DUR”, which is “STOP”. The lights are basically the same too, which means red is “fine, I’ll stop”, yellow “hurry the hell up! I can get through this!” and green “move, you &#%%$!”.  Walking is a fabulous if slightly hazardous way of getting around the city. As long as you keep in mind the idea that pedestrians don’t always get the right-of-way, you should be fine. Turks do a LOT of walking around Istanbul; sometimes it’s the only real way to get to a place. So accordingly, if you come to Istanbul, be prepared to do a lot of walking, aka wear comfortable shoes. Sidewalks here aren’t the smoothest either, so how the Turkish women wear high heels and don’t break their ankles, I just don’t know. 


Fashion – This is fascinating to me because I love people-watching, and I’m a girl, so I like fashion. I’m a jeans and t-shirt type of person myself, but admittedly, I’m still a bit of a girly-girl. Fashion among the students at Boğaziçi is rather varied. Most of it is European-influenced obviously, with lots of American brands being popular, and a healthy dose of the 80s mixed-in. Clothes from Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, Levi, Guess and others can be seen, as well as many Turkish brands too. If I had to sum up Turkish fashion in only a few words, it would be “jeans, boots, and scarves”. Everyone wears jeans, everyone wears scarves – men and women, and boots are very popular with the women. Guys wear a lot of sports-inspired clothes, and women often wear skirts and dresses with tights and legwarmers. Women often wear pantyhose or tights under shorts too, and while in the warmer weather, they wear short sleeves, they don’t bear a lot of skin. Apparently tank tops, baring the midriff, and open-toed shoes aren’t very popular here. Tattoos btw aren’t either. I’ve gotten a lot of looks when mine is bared, some curious, some not-so-curious, and lots of questions from my Turkish friends. (For those of you who don’t know, I have a good-sized tattoo that covers most of my upper right arm and is very noticeable when I’m wearing short sleeves. There are of course a lot of women who wear the headscarves, long skirts and dresses, and beautiful long coats as well, keeping with Muslim tradition. It’s an interesting blend really – old and new, traditional and modern. All in all, Turks really seem to care about what they wear, and dress well, in clean neat lines.

People – Oh, the Turkish people. Turks are friendly, polite, gracious, patient, and overall, a very handsome people. Most Turks are dark-haired and dark-eyed, but certainly not all, though blonde and red hair isn’t very common at all. Most of the young men are rather good-looking and the women are beautiful. They will often go out of their way to make you feel welcome, appreciate people attempting their language, and will invite along to join them for meals, tea, and shopping, and don’t even offer to pay; they just take the check and pay! I’ve laughed over this with a few Turkish friends, and told them that they have to let me pay sometimes too, since it works as a two-way street in the American culture. They appreciate gifts, so I share the candy that I brought with me from the States, and they like to try American food. Religion is ever-present and important in the Turkish culture of course, and it affects a lot of the attitudes here. But they are some of the nicest people I have ever met too. I will not leave this city without crying because I’ll be leaving behind some fantastically sweet and generous people.

Religion – This is another thing that you can’t get away from being in Istanbul. It’s everywhere. As 99% of the population is Muslim, there are understandably mosques all over the place. They are very distinctive with their domes and towers, and several times a day you see the faithful going into the mosque to prayer. I’ve had the chance to see a few on the inside, and they are absolutely beautiful and definitely worth seeing. When it is not prayer time, you can go inside and explore them. No shoes, of course, and women must cover their heads. (Yet another reason scarves are so popular here likely.) Another fantastic thing about Istanbul is hearing the call to prayer several times a day. It is like a blend between a chant and a song, and is all at once eerie and beautiful. I’ve gotten used to hearing it, and it’s funny because when you hear it, you know about what time it is. It’s something that I know that I will miss hearing when I leave.

Music – Oh, Turkish music. Like many things here in Turkey, it’s a mix of old and new. On the older side, you can go and listen to traditional music played in cafes and restaurants in the city, and a lot of it is instrumental. On the new side, it’s a lot like what you hear out of America and Europe – pop, rock, haunting vocals, stirring rhythms, just an interesting blend. Some of it I think it is cute and peppy, and some of it I will definitely be leaving here in Turkey when I go. :) I’ll have to find a few samples online for y’all to hear.

So what else? What do *you* want to know about living in Istanbul?