A New Path

It's hard to believe that I have not touched this blog in so long. In fact, it was 4 years ago today that I last made an entry, and that to signify the end of my experience living and studying abroad in Istanbul, Turkey. So much has happened since then. I have since graduated with my M.A. TESOL, and have been a teacher for the last 3 years and counting. Now I'm getting ready to embark on a new journey, this time to Japan. Still so much to do, so many details to get squared away, but it promises to be a grand new adventure. So stay tuned!

T-minus 10 days and counting...

...until I leave my now-beloved Istanbul. It only seems like yesterday that I was stepping out of that taxi in front of the dorm, knowing barely a dozen words in Turkish, blinking away the near-tears of amazement and fear, and now, I am only a week and half from leaving. I'm far from fluent, but now I can carry on a simple conversation in Turkish - enough to express the basics of my feelings and desires, how to order food, and lots of fun Turkish curse words. I have walked, head-scarfed and socked feet, over the carpeted floors of Sultanahmet. I have swum in the cold-blue Mediterranean. I have sat and stared up at the Library of Celsus at Ephesus. I have strolled the halls of the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market. I have climbed the ancient fairy chimneys of Cappadocia, and listened to the midday call to prayer from the highest point of Uçhisar. I have explored the shadowy nooks and crannies of the ancient underground city of Derinkuyu. I have scrambled over the backs of ruins that are older than Christ. I have acquired the Turkish "no". I have had an amazing time here, and I know, I know, that one day I will return.

Now I sit in my dorm room, glancing up at the calendar occasionally with both a pained look and hope in my eyes. It's an odd place to be. I love it here and I want to stay, but at the same time, I miss my home in California, my friends and family, and most of my, my Russ. I can't have one without the other. In order to go back home, I have to leave my Turkish home. To say hello, I have to say good-bye. Yes, yes, I'm being melancholy and overly dramatic. Shut up. I know. But if you spent four months in one of the most magical cities in the world, with some of the best people that this world has to offer, some of the tastiest cuisine, some of the most spectacular views and histories, then you would understand. I am going back home, but I cannot take the simits, the hamams, the lokum, the call to prayer, the tangled crowded bazaars, or any of it home with me. I will take the language that I know, the recipes that I have learned, the nazarlık, the scarves, the photos and music, and of course, my memories.

I will miss you, Istanbul.

Recap!

Okay, I've been a bit scarce around here. So here's a quick recap (aka procrastinating another ten minutes or so before diving into hardcore studying for my Turkish final)

School: Busy busy busy! The workload here is heavily weighted towards the end of the semester here, so while this is technically "the last day of classes", I still have four more classes in the next two weeks. And three finals and three projects still to go. So cue the caffeine. I need to conduct original research for all three projects, do a ton of reading and writing, and then studying. My Turkish final is tomorrow morning (on a Saturday!!), and then I have two more finals in my grad classes, which is unheard of back at home at CSUS. Who does finals for a MA TESOL??

Istanbul: Spring has arrived and everything is in bloom, especially the tulips for which the city is famous. The weather is warmer for sure, but is still fickle. One day it's cool and grey, and the next bright blue skies with a bit of humidity. I hear summer here is rather nasty, but now it's nice. It reminds me of home actually (Virginia, that is), and while I can't wait to go back to California, I'm not looking forward to the heat. Plums are in season, and the fresh fruit here is so delicious. I am going to miss Turkish cuisine.

Work: I'm still debating applying to a summer teaching camp in July in Poland, as well as one at the UCDavis Extension back at home in Sacramento which would overlap with the first week of school in the fall semester. Both are tempting. Now I just have to convert my résumé into a proper CV. Any tricks or tips from those academic types out there??

Travel: I'm still not yet sure at this point when I will be back to the US. (See above re: camp in Poland) When I do get back to the US though, my roommate here has invited me to visit her in Boston, a city I've not yet seen, and then of course, I want to spend at least a couple weeks in Virginia to see my best friend and her new baby daughter as well as my other friends and family.

We've made the plans for Russ' trip here to Europe, and booked the tickets, and will be getting the hotels soon too. We both arrive in Amsterdam on June 12, spend a week in the eastern Netherlands and Germany, and then two days in Amsterdam itself, and then head over to Dublin on June 21 for a few days there before Russ heads home on June 24. I will be heading down to Cork for a few days after that to visit a friend, her husband and her handsome little boy. After that? It's still up in the air.

Spring Break: Awesome! I will write more details later, promise, but for now, let me just say that southeast Turkey is absolutely gorgeous. It reminded me at points like California meets Virginia meets Germany meets Italy. If you guys ever want to travel somewhere international, I highly recommend Turkey - no, seriously. The country is beautiful, it's cheap (check the Turkish Lira against the dollar, yo), the food is delicious, the people are so friendly and hospitable, and you really can see and do a lot - and *touch* things! I climbed through an ancient city, Termessos, which Alexander the Great couldn't conquer, I explored the grand amphitheatre - seats for you and 25,000 of your closest friends! - of Ephesus, I scrambled over the mountainside with the ancient Chimera, naturally-burning fires that predate Christ, I swam in the cold blue Mediterranean, I strolled the pebbly beach of Konyaaltı in Antalya, and drank tea with Kurdish carpet sellers in their shop while playing with genuine Van kittens.

Aka Turkey = f*cking amazing. Come here. You will not regret it. Photos will get posted to my Flickr sooner or later (the Flickr loader is way slow), but they are all up on my Facebook. (If you can't find me there, let me know).

Souvenirs: I'm getting lots! Shopping here is cheap and lots of fun. So! What do y'all want? (Please be in mind that bringing back rugs and nargile would be at best challenging, so please don't ask for one of those, and please remember that I am a poor grad student living on my savings right now too.) What can I bring you that's cool from Turkey? Well, Turkey is known for its textiles (scarves, peştemal aka towels for Turkish baths, clothes), ceramics, tea, spices, nazarlık (aka the "blue eye" charm which wards away the evil eye - google it), and lots of other stuff. The chocolate here is also very good, so I'll be bringing a bunch of that home. Just let me know. I do already have a few things picked out for people, so you might be surprised. You can always email me privately too at mercurialmagpie at gmail dot com.

Oooh.. I should go study now. Fret fret fret.

*love*

Spring Break

Is it spring break already? I guess it is. Wow! Amazing how quickly time flies. In just a few minutes, I'll be heading out of here to join my friends Alex (from Chicago) and Lessa (from Oklahoma) on a 10 day tour of southwest Turkey. We're flying into Antalya, spending a couple days there, heading down the coast to Olympos, over to Fethiye and Ölüdeniz (one of the most beautiful beaches on the Mediterranean), and then several hours north to Selçuk to see Ephesus, the House of the Virgin Mary, and the basilica of St. John the Apostle. From there we'll make a day trip to Pamukkale and Hierapolis, and our final stop will be in Izmir before heading home. I promise to take lots of photos, get lots of sun, get my Powerpoint presentation finished, and generally have a good time and practice my Turkish! I'll talk to you all soon! :)

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?

Amerika Birleşik Devletleri

So Obama came to visit Turkey as the last stop of his first international trip as President after attending the G-20 economic conference in London. He spoke to the Turkish Parliament in Ankara and came to Istanbul briefly, where he visited Sultanahmet (the Blue Mosque), the Aya Sophia and the Islamic Arts Museum. While it was rumored that he'd be coming to Boğaziçi University, he didn't. So no, I didn't get to see our President while he was here. And really, other than it being on the news, I would not have even known that he was here. Istanbul is a very *big* city. I'm nearly an hour's drive away from where he was staying, and that's only going a couple miles. I did listen to his speech on the Hürriyet website though (Hürriyet is a popular newspaper in Turkey), and I liked what I heard. I was more pleased to hear though that he made an unannounced visit to Iraq and visited with several hundred troops there in Baghdad. It's a great PR gesture, and I think it means a lot to the brave men and women serving there.

Speaking of our fearless leader, Obama's being president has been the subject of some interesting discussions I've had with other students here, not just other Americans, but also Europeans and Turks as well. For the most part, I would say that the Turkish response to our new President has been positive. A lot of people approve of him and have high hopes for the future, our respective countries' relationships as well the military goings-on in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been some who have expressed negative opinions of Bush, but then I'm not surprised. Still it's been very interesting to discuss America outside of America, or should I say, ABD as the Turks call our country (USA = ABD = Amerika Birleşik Devletleri = America United States).

I also had the chance to observe an American Studies class here at Boğaziçi in which I was the only American student with about twenty-someodd Turks. The teacher is from Boston and discussed American politics as well as immigration and how they are regarded in America. It was fascinating to learn about my own country from the other side, as it were. (I'll definitely be going back to observe again; it's really neat to be able to offer perspective for the class as well.) A very interesting article that he read out loud to the class was about an old mom-&-pop ice cream joint that had been around for decades in a neighborhood outside of NYC. It was the kind of place that people had grown up with, that they remember going to as kids, and now their kids go to it and eat the same kind of ice cream they had eaten years before. It was the place people gathered on hot summer nights, and sat outside on the sidewalk, cones in hand, and hung out. America is full of places like this. We've all had something like that in our own neighborhoods. But now the ice cream was closing and was going to be torn down, and a company run by Indians (as in from India) were going to build a hotel in its place. The story is familiar to me. This sort of thing too happens all the time in America, and it's really sad. This story is particular hit home for me because it was in a neighborhood just outside of NYC (Brooklyn, I believe), and my family is from there originally. What's sad about it are the things that people were saying about the Indians who were coming in to tear down their beloved neighborhood icon. People who years ago were immigrants themselves, or their parents were, people with names like Hernandez and Ching, criticizing this new group of immigrants who take over their blocks and put in Indian supermarkets and Vietnamese dry cleaners. It's sad. It's America all around, and it's very sad. Somehow I just don't think that these Turkish students appreciated the story quite like I did. The teacher later told me after class that he sometimes struggles to make these stories real to the students, but it's hard because they've never been to America, and they have nothing to really compare it to. In a way, it truly makes me appreciate my country.

It's odd, really. There's nothing quite like leaving your country for a few months to make you realize how much at times you loved and hate the place you come from. Yes, I'm proud of my heritages. I'm Germany, Irish, English and French - mostly. I'm sure that there are other nationalities blended in my family's background, but I'm those four mostly. I'm proud of my German names, my Irish blood, all of it. In some ways, it defines who I am. Mingling with other Germans especially here, I feel a kinship with them. I was born there after all, and spent the first few years of my life there. Even though I haven't been in Europe in years, I feel still a part of it in some odd way. But really, when it comes right down to it, I'm an American. I speak American English, I have an American accent, I look, sound, and act American. And I'm damn proud of that too.

"Where are you from?" I hear this all the time from people here. And I always smile when I tell them.

"ABD." :)

West Meets East

"Some people have asked me if I chose to continue my travels to Ankara and Istanbul to send a message. My answer is simple: Evet ('Yes' in Turkish). Turkey is a critical ally. Turkey is an important part of Europe. And Turkey and the United States must stand together – and work together – to overcome the challenges of our time." ~Barack Obama

Obama's Speech to the Turkish Parliament

Our President is in Istanbul tonight. I feel rather proud. :)