Taksim, Balat and surprises, oh my!

The past few days have been a big rough, but I'm getting through all right. Mostly I've been keeping myself busy so I cannot dwell too much. There is a lot going on at home too that I'd like be involved in or take care of, but I cannot so instead I preoccupy with life in Istanbul. Saturday I broke one of my preset rules for living here and decided to venture by myself into the downtown. (I said before that I wouldn't go anywhere off the campus alone but well, since the "campus" is actually four separate campuses here, I suppose I do that a lot actually). I rounded up my 1.40 lira fare, checked the schedule, boarded the 559C bus, and rode an hour or so down to Taksim, studying my phrase book on the way. I met my new friend Charlotte in front of Burger King (yes, there's a Burger King in Taksim Square. There is all kinds of American food here, but that's another post). Charlotte is a friend of a friend, and is just all kinds of nice. She's a lovely human being, witty, intelligent with a dry snarky sense of humor that just delights me. She is here in Istanbul teaching English kindergarten, and she lives on the Asian side, which I have incidentally not yet had to the chance to visit.

She and I wandered Taksim, ducked into an English-language bookstore there, happily pored over a decent selection of the "classics" (Poe, Shakespeare, Faulkner, Austen, etc), admired the bigger selection of books about Turkey, and drooled over the books about language and linguistics. I didn't see anything that caught my eye to purchase this time, but I noted the store for future trips because I miss reading and it's not easy to find a lot of great English-language books here. (While I know that I'll likely have plenty of reading for my classes, I do love to read other things during the semester, especially right before bed, because that's *my* time to read things that have nothing to do with my degree work. I did bring a couple Bill Bryson books, and don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore Bill Bryson, but a girl needs a little more variety over the course of five months.)

Charlotte then led me to a little restaurant that's off the main street, and tucked in a little side street that I probably would not have found by myself. Parsifal's is a lovely vegetarian restaurant, a snug homey spot which maybe could seat twenty-someodd people, with worn wood floors, classy art on the walls, and rickety wooden chairs and tables. Needless to say, I loved it immediately. (ooh, look, and they have a website! It's all in Turkish but you can still look at the photos.) The food was a bit pricier than other places that we've eaten at already, but it was so good that I didn't care. Charlotte and I got the same thing, a broccoli and cheese au gratin dish, with tea, bread, water, and the bill came to about 42 lira (about $25), so in hindsight, no, not really that expensive. We lingered there for a few hours, slowly sipping tea and chatting. She and I have a lot in common, and we already get along quite well. She told me how she came to be in Turkey, what she loves about it here, what she misses from home, and we discussed our respective educational backgrounds. Come to find out, it may be easier than I thought to actually get a teaching job if I wanted. (more about that later)

Charlotte and I split ways when she went to meet her boyfriend for Valentine's Day dinner, and I braved the rush-hour traffic home. Traveling alone isn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I know which bus to take, I know where my stop is, and I know how much it cost, so I was okay. As much as we are riding the buses, the other international students and I have been figuring out which ones go where, and exploring quite fine all on our own.

To that end, a group of us decided to brave a couple new routes and find Balat, the Jewish quarter of the city on Sunday. It was bitterly cold, far different from the balmy first couple of days that greeted us a couple of weeks ago. I have a winter coat with me, but I didn't bring any gloves, hat or scarves with me to Istanbul. I do have a plan to rectify the situation with the scarves, but so far I've been dealing with lots of layers and keeping my hood up in lieu of a hat. We took a bus down to the tram station, and walked a good distance over one of the bridges to an area called Eminönü (which I keep wanting to pronounce as "E-min-o-yu" instead as "E-min-o-nu" for some reason). There we actually were able to purchase akbils! What is an akbil, you ask? Well, as for most major metropolitan public transportation systems, Istanbul has an extensive system of buses, trams, and trains, and they all use this little tab button thing that hangs on your keychain called an akbil. You purchase one for 6 lira, preload it with money, and then you just touch it to a sensor when boarding, and it beeps at you. This way you can avoid carrying around pockets of change to pay for the bus or tram. (Hey, look, akbil info!)

Unfortunately, we tried following this “45 walk around the Balat and Fener neighborhoods” but ended up getting more than a little lost. We did however find the St. Stephen Church, which is a beautiful Bulgarian Orthodox church that is famous for being constructed entirely of iron. It was actually colder inside than outside, but exploring it (it was free!) was definitely worth it. I'd like to come back when it's warmer – and I find myself saying this about several things actually. There are a number of sites here in Istanbul that I haven't seen yet either because I'm waiting for the weather to get better and/or I'm waiting for my student id so I can get in either cheaper/for free.

After leaving St. Stephens, we walked even more, getting a bit more lost, and the weather just got worse. Just cold, grey and windy. After we finally got back to the dorm, I curled up in my room to warm up for a little while. But the best was yet to come. Not even half an hour after coming inside, I heard a strange sound at my window, and I looked over and saw that it was snowing! Not only snowing, but it was sticking! Big old fat snowflakes, the perfect white fluffy snow that I love so much, and despite the late hour, I just had to dash outside and play. So after a flurry of messages on Skype and Facebook to locals here in the Superdorm, I threw on my coat and ran outside.

So yeah, never the fact that I'm nearly 30, I went outside and played like a kid all over again. But you can't blame me – the snow was just so beautiful. After a few minutes, a number of other students trickled out and we amused ourselves by throwing snowballs at each other, rolling up a couple snowmen and even making snow angels on the Superdorm lawn. On a lark, a few of us decided to walk down to the South Campus. I slid a few times (note to self: smooth-soled Chucks are not the best to wear in the snow), fell a couple times, but seeing the snow was worth it. Well, to make a long story short, the snow truly transformed the campus. Everything was coated in fluffy white snow – the perfect “snowball” snow, might I add – and the Bosphorus looked lovely. A lot of the Turkish students were out playing when we got to the South Campus. We stayed out for a while, my feet got completely soaked, and I was cold and wet, but very happy. All in all, we got about two inches of snow. Sadly, by morning, it was almost all gone, and by the afternoon, you wouldn't have even known it had snowed. According to the Turks, it was pretty rare to see such weather, so we felt very lucky to have experienced it. It was very ephemeral, but at least we enjoyed one beautiful night.

So close, yet so far

Today hasn't been a very good one for me. Well, yes and no. Let me back up. The past couple days have been great actually. Yesterday, despite the chilly weather and intermittent rain, friends and I ventured out to the Book Bazaar in downtown Istanbul. The bus ride was bumpy and abrupt as usual (the public transportation is pretty good, granted, if crowded at times, but the bus rides are rather erratic at times, and you really have to hold on to keep your balance most of the time), but we arrived in one piece, had lunch and set off to explore. Most of the books we saw were in Turkish of course, but there was a goodly amount of English books, as well as bilingual dictionaries and how-to-learn-English books, which pleased me to see. We found some lovely posters of local sites (anyone want a 18x24 photo of the Blue Mosque or the Hagia Sophia? Only 3 TL), admired the beautiful Korans, and then lo and beyond, came across one of the many entrances to the Grand Bazaar itself.

Now the Grand Bazaar, let me tell you, is quite large. It's also quite a maze, and one street (yes, it's divided into streets and "districts" actually) can look quite like the other. How the vendors themselves don't get lost, I don't know. There are so many vendors selling the staples: silk and "cashmere" scarves, multi-colored glass lanterns, ceramics in all shapes and sizes, Turkish delight and traditional sweets, leather goods, hookahs, backgammon boards, and of course, the famous Turkish rugs. There is just so much to see, and of course, because it's as plain as day that we're not natives, the vendors step out in droves to invite us into their shop and look at their wares, and as one grinning young man put it, "help us spend our money". The vendors are a funny bunch too, tossing out all kinds of comments and "compliments". "American? Washington? New York? No, Texas! Anyone from Texas, y'all?" We were a group of 6 women with 1 man, and poor Alex got all kinds of teasing once they figured out we were all with him.

But the vendors are polite, just persistent. We did step into one shop for a cup of tea, and Lessa was treated to a free glass by the waiter, who also took a photo of all of us. We mostly did window shopping, and I kept my eyes open for potential souvenirs. Right now, I'm looking for a few scarves for myself (it's still cold, so this is a practical desire!), but also I'd like a nazar or two, which are the blue glass "eyes" that ward against the evil eye. They're very popular here and you'll see them hung on the walls in restaurants and stores, wore as jewelry, keychain charms, you name it. Like baklava and tea, they are a quintessential part of Turkey.

Yesterday evening, we went out to Taksim again to experience a little of the nightlife there. Again despite the weather, people flooded the area. It's one of the most popular areas in the city, so supposedly no matter the time of the day, it's always busy. We passed a couple hours in a local bar, trying the Turkish unofficial national drink, rakı, which is anise-flavored (think Sambuca), and is traditionally drunk mixed with water, which causes it to turn a milky-white color. It's strong, and not sweet, so I didn't particularly care for it.

So all of that was well and fine. But I am still reminded that one of the hardest parts of going away to a foreign country is just being so far away from your home and your loved ones. I mean, we aren't nearly as "far away" as we used to be. Modern technology allows me to tap into the Internet any old time that I like when I'm in my room and sitting at my laptop, and with a few clicks of my mouse, I can even make a phone call through the internet and see people on my webcam and "talk" with them that way. And then there's emails, IMs, blogs, Facebook, so you'd think that you couldn't possibly feel alone with all that at your fingertips.

But I'm not home, and when it comes right down to it, I'm not there in person, and especially now when I want to be. .. Russ (my other half, my boyfriend, my partner, for those of you who don't know him by name) left me a message last night, so I walked into my room around 1:30 in the morning to find out that he had our cat put to sleep yesterday. Shadow, our 14 year-old grey lady, had gotten sick over the past couple of days, and he didn't think it was too serious, but had taken into the vet just in case as she had some bad sores in her mouth. He found out that the sores were the end result of kidney failure, and she was dying. There was nothing that the vet could do. So he decided on the humane option, instead of letting her suffer, and he let her go.

It's hard for me to accept this. I want to think that she's still at home, maybe curled up on the couch with him as he watches TV, and when I come back to California in July, she'll be there to greet me. But she won't be. I only really knew her for the 3 years I've lived with Russ, but he had had her for 14 years, since he adopted her as a young cat from the SPCA. She was "as dumb as a box of rocks", as he liked to call her fondly, but she was the sweetest, gentlest cat I've known. So tolerant and lovable. She was my cat, I guess. When I moved in with Russ, she adopted me as "her" human. When Russ and I were curled up on the couch, she'd come up, popping her grey fuzzy head over the edge of the cushion, meowing. Sometimes she'd jump right up, other times she'd hesitate and judge, hesitate and jump, then then hop up. She had arthritis in her legs, so she didn't move especially quickly, but usually ambled through the house in her wobbly slow gait. But she'd always manage to find a little corner of room on the couch with us, and often, on my lap, where she'd flop down and purr, blinking at us with those lazy golden eyes of hers. And sometimes, when I'd get up from the couch, I'd come back and she'd have slipped into my spot, curling up where it was warm. I'd lean in close to her sometimes, and touch my nose to hers, and she'd sniff at my face, and sometimes, I'd very gently lay my head on her warm body and listen to her purr. I'd skritch around her ears and under her chin, and stroke along her whiskers. She loved that.

This is hard. I cried for a couple hours last night, and today tried to get by as best as I could, but now as I'm alone, writing this, too late at night, I'm crying again. It's hard to be away from home ordinarily, especially when you're a stranger in a strange place, but this makes things even harder. I can't be home to mourn in my own home, the space I shared with her. I can't comfort Russ, who I know is mourning the warm fuzzy ball of fur that we both loved and miss. I'm just here, alone in my grief. My roommate, Katie, asked me if I believe if things happen for a reason, and I do. Shadow got sick, she was an older cat, and I knew that some day she would leave this world to cross the Rainbow Bridge, but I just wasn't expecting it to be so soon. But then I guess that we're just never really expecting it, nor are we ever really ready. Maybe somehow it's better this way. Her death isn't so.. immediate, I guess you could say, because I'm not there.

I'll miss her, my sweet grey lady.

Days 3, 4, and 5

I really need to keep up with this blog, so I don't let time slip away from me. So much is happening so quickly, and I want to keep record of it all. Day 3, Friday, a large group of us went down to Taksim, which is one of the busiest shopping areas in the whole city. First we had lunch at a local shop (we've been trying new places every time we eat out, and each one is better than the last, it seems). The place was a little mom & pop type shop, and we all had tavuk ve pilav (chicken and rice). I adore rice, but I love the way that they prepare it here, buttery, light and very flavorful. The owner also had us try ayran, which is not unlike buttermilk, frothy and often salted. I've found that I much prefer süt, which is regular milk.

We took a bus down to Taksim, and I ended giving up my seat to a little old lady halfway there. On the way, we saw many banks, stores and restaurants, including a Starbucks and a TGIF right across the street from each other. There is, incidentally, a decent amount of American stores and restaurants here in Istanbul, and they seem pretty popular if a bit more expensive than their Turkish counterparts. Public transportation is also popular here, and before long, the bus was packed with people. Traffic too in Istanbul is an adventure, let me tell you. Drivers go for every inch that they take on the road, they drive fast, aggressively, honk constantly, and sidewalks and pedestrians are fair game. At least the famous Turkish courtesy often does prevail, and drivers will stop abruptly to let people cross the street.

Taksim was a deliciously chaotic area, jammed with people swathed in scarves and dark colors, with vendors on the corners selling chestnuts and simits (like a cross between a soft pretzel and a bagel, covered in sesame seeds. I tried one - very tasty.) We quickly found the Turkcell store, and after a frenetic exchange of jumbled Turkish, English, passports, and lira, we all had new cell phones and simcards. My American cell doesn't work here, but now I can at least keep in touch with my new local friends and I don't feel quite so alone without a line of communication. After this, we wandered through Taksim and the adjacent neighborhood of Tünel, and window shopped, drooling over pastries and candies, delighting over Alex's purchase of a Harry Potter book in Turkish, sharing Verena's pistachios, and snapping photos like the silly tourists that we are. Hey, if we're gonna be tourists, we may as well as be tourists.

We did visit two Catholic churches, St. Anthony's and St. Mary's. Both were just beautiful and peaceful, and I definitely want to return to these for a good second look. We also found the Galata Kulesi (Galata Tower), which stands nearly 200 feet high and dates back to the 6th century. A few of the group went up into the tower, and the rest of us continued exploring, saving the tower for another day. I don't want to do too much touristing too early so I'll have things to see later. Dinner and grocery shopping (an adventure in of itself, I assure you) finished out our day.

Saturday, my roommate and I went off and did a little exploring and shopping around the immediate area. To give you some perspective, the Superdorm, where we live, is about 1.5 miles from the Güney Kampüs (South Campus) where we have our classes, and includes a good-sized hill, so yeah, I'm going to be doing a lot of walking. Between the two campuses are a variety of restaurants and stores, including ATMs, pharmacies, pastry shops, grocery stores, etc. We've eaten in a number of places and each one is just lovely. If you've never had Turkish food, you're missing out. It's not exactly vegetarian-friendly, but I'm pretty pleased.

We wandered around for a few hours to figure out where things were, and to our delight, found a great Saturday market, chock-full of all kinds of produce, fresh cheese, eggs, seafood, and even clothes, towels and linens, toys, and household products. It's just the way I imagined a market here would be: men and boys behind the tables hollering out invitations to buy their things, women in scarves and long skirts chatting together and bargaining good-naturedly, vendors handing out samples of their wares to try, just beautiful chaos. Together we bought stuff for salata (salad), lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, and apples, oranges, a quince, cheese. My roommate and I had a fun time fumbling through our very basic Turkish to make our purchases. It's frustrating not being able to express ourselves, nor understand the Turks, but we're learning quickly. Every day we pick up new words. What's even better is overhearing others, and understanding what they're saying. Ne kadar? Beş lira? Tesekkür. (How much? 5 lira? Thank you.)

Sunday we woke up to rain, so it was bound to be a lazy stay-at-home type day. Still we ventured out to eat and pick up groceries. I'm still just getting over a bit of a cold, and I've been tired and not feeling my best, but I think that has to do with adjusting to the new environs and food. I think that we're all taking in a lot all at once - new country, new language, new people, so many names and faces and facts that we're all feeling overwhelmed, and my body is adjusting too to Turkish food. It's very good, but the Turks cook with a lot of oils, which I'm not used to eating as I tend to eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, salad, whole grains, fiber, and mostly vegetarian. Luckily, bread is a big part of the Turkish diet, and with newly gifted kitchen goods from a local friend of Katie's, we can make at least some things now in our dorm.

Last night one of the American girls held a tea party (since alcohol is verboten in the dorms), and I was able to meet a bunch of people all at one time. It appears that most of the international students are Americans, with a couple Germans, a couple of Dutch, a Chinese girl, and a French girl. I think that I've also figured out that I am the only graduate student, and likely the oldest of the international students, which in itself is odd, since I usually am one of the youngest of any group of my friends. It's a neat experience though being able to hang out with people from all walks of academic life, and spend time with people outside of the TESOL crowd. I miss the TESOL crowd at CSUS dearly, and I have a feeling that I'm going to have mixed feelings about the TEFL crowd here at Boğaziçi, especially as I have been forewarned that I may be the only non-Turk in the classes.

(Still haven't figured out my schedule too btw. I'm more than a little annoyed that they have decided to schedule two core classes to conflict with each other. I am also more than a little annoyed that both Turkish classes conflict with the rest of my classes so that at this point, I really am just not sure what all I'll be taking. I intend to speak with an advisor before registering, that's for sure. I know what I'd *like* to say, but instead I will think of my mantra ("patience, flexibility, this-isn't-America") and try to maintain my temper.)

Today Katie and I strolled over the campus to find the infirmary (where nearly none of the staff speak English, save the Chief Medical Officer himself, who saw us personally), and then we found an Eczane( pharmacy), did laundry (or should I say dropped our laundry off to the lady who does it for us for 10 lira for the two of us), found a little market in the basement (no more lugging big water jugs a quarter of a mile back to our dorm!), before heading to Turkcell for Katie to register her phone. It had started to rain, so we huddled under my umbrella and continued exploring south as we knew that we were near Akmerkez, which is a big fancy-smancy mall a kilometer or two away from the dorm. Along the way, we started at the Starbucks and I indulged in a Chai tea latte for a mere 4.25 lira. I know, I know, I've barely been away from the States for a week, and already I'm craving Starbucks. But it had been a running joke amongst my coworkers and me about how to order chai tea in Turkey since çay (pronounced the same way) *is* tea in Turkish. So is it "chai çay", we wondered? Turns out the Turks don't seem to drink chai, so I have to find it at Starbucks. And tea with milk... the way it should be.

Oh! Oh, but the best part! We had *Mexican* for dinner! In Istanbul, of all places, there is an *El Torito* restaurant. I absolutely couldn't resist, so Katie and I went to have MexiTurk for dinner. We split a chicken fajitas dinner for about 40 lira, so it wasn't too bad that way, but it is still a bit pricey so this will only be an occasional treat for us. But oh, a chai tea latte and chicken fajitas in one day! So happy. It was a very surreal experience eating Mexican food in Turkey. Our waiter spoke decent English, and we went back and forth in English, Turkish and Spanish, teaching each other new words. He ended up giving us his phone number and extending an invitation to take us to a local soccer game. Interesting. Oh, have I mentioned how handsome a people the Turks are? Some of the men *swoon*. :)

Tomorrow is our Orientation. Supposedly. It's not mandatory, but they "highly recommend us to take part in order to have a smooth transition and introduction to Boğaziçi University and Istanbul". The only problem is that they have yet to actually let any of us international students know when and where this Orientation is. So.... yeah. The lack of communication here is really beginning to get on my nerves. There a few other things that I have some serious reservations about here, but I plan on keeping a list to report back to my program advisor and global education office for when I return.

But hopefully we will find out more in the morning. More soon.