Yay!!! I spent my birthday in İstanbul!!!

This week I have three papers due and a Christmas party so even though I have yet to share about Georgia, I won't really have time to blog about all the happenings in Ankara until next week.

The good news is I spent my birthday in İstanbul!!!! Best birthday ever!!

So here I'll leave you with a photo tour of my trip to İstanbul! It's hard to capture the beauty of İstanbul, it's just such a breathtaking city.


Jake and Caro on our lovely night train.


View from the amazing Haydarpaşa train station of the ferrys on Marmara Sea! Haydarpaşa was formerly the train station of the Orient Express. Also so many seagulls!


Caro and Jake on the ferry across the continents! Haydarpaşa station in the background. It's literally on the water.


The Blue Mosque on the left and the Aya Sophia on the right across the Sea of Marmara. Get ready for a lot of mosque photos.


Oh hey look I'm in Turkey, there's the flag! Haha, in the background of the flag is the Bosphorus Bridge which goes from the European side (on left) to the "Asian" side (on the right).


The New Mosque with all the ferrys in front of it.


This is for everyone who's ever taken a ferry in Seattle. See how the boat just bounces up to the dock? Yeah that's how people get off, they just walk straight from the front of the boat onto the dock. No fancy waiting for a passenger bridge, just walking/jumping off the boat.


So many photos of the sun over the New Mosque on Galata Bridge.


Hey there's me on Galata Bridge.


The fishermen of Galata Bridge.


Turkish delight?


Ahh the only place I really wanted to go on my birthday was the Aya Sophia, so much history, so much religion. Very very unfortunately we were too late. NOOOO. Guess that just means I'll be going back to İstanbul soon!


Aya Sophia as seen through the gates to the Blue Mosque.


The inside of the Blue Mosque. Totally doesn't capture it, try googling it to really see what its like. Also side note, if you're not Turkish they make you walk through the side door haha. Oh man.


Beautiful sunset near Galata Tower.


Yay! All my lovely friends who came to İstanbul for my birthday. So so wonderful of them and I'm so grateful I met them! Somehow I managed to not get any good photos of us during the evening so here's us at the hostel looking weird.
(from left to right: Jake leaning over, Martin, Kamila, Caro, and me with my chest seeing daylight for the first time in Turkey)


Sunsetting behind the New Mosque.


Some of the many fishermen on Galata Bridge.


This is not doing justice to the fact that I literally couldn't move my arms in this CROWDED underground sidewalk.


Lantern shop in the famous, very old, very cool Grand Bazar.


A peaceful side street.


Overlooking the Bosphorus.


Caro and I enjoying çay, the swing and the Bosphorus.

It's days like these that make me love being in grad school. Today I had a wonderful Sociological Theory class on Durkheim and his idea of collective consciousness, the idea that a society shares a set of moral beliefs and values which binds them together. (Side note--if you're reading this Professor Carbine, Ways of Understanding Religion was extremely helpful in this!) According to Durkheim there is no right or wrong, it is only when someone, or a group of people, deviate from their society's class consciousness that they are considered immoral or wrong. So our class discussion was about how there can be either two existing sets of class consciousness (see: a white American class consciousness and a simultaneous large American-Hispanic class consciousness) or a class consciousness that is imagined but not a reality. (see: Americans seeing themselves as "real Americans" or living in the frontier when in reality that is a teeny tiny portion of the population)

It was one of the best classes I've had since I've been here and, as always, the cultural differences made it even better. Eventually the class started talking about the Turkish version of Oprah and how even though she claims to know what everyone loves, she is not representative of the whole society, not even a minority of the society. Then we started discussing race in the US which is always fun when you're the token American in the conversation. Mostly it was about how minorities can fit into a class consciousness that doesn't properly represent them.

The whole thing was very very interesting and it continued into my lunch time conversation with my friends Martin and Dan. One of the best things about being here is the constant multicultural interaction I get from my friends. Martin is from Germany and Dan is from England so when we talk about major issues it always seems to fall back into our culture. Another example of this is when we play the game where you put a card with a famous person's name on your head. Literally every time our GeTMA group has played this game we end up with people who are only culturally relevant to one's own country. Example: I was Michael Schumacher a famous German Formula One race car driver... um what?

Anyways back to my intellectual discussion ha. So Martin, Dan, and I start talking about this idea of competing class consciousnesses and eventually our conversation morphed into how one plays their gender role. As a woman living in Turkey, many people have these assumptions that I'm constantly being harassed or discriminated against and interestingly enough its much much more subtle than that. I think of it as "delicate flower syndrome" on one hand I'm treated like a princess--not paying for cabs, getting offered free seats on the bus, waiting for me to go first out a door, avoiding touching me. On the other hand people blatantly stare, ignore me, talk about me in my presence, cat call on occasion, and I get the feeling that only pushy women are taken seriously in classroom settings which means that when I'm not angry about an issue I feel like no one's taking me seriously. Being a delicate flower is a doubled edged sword.

Dan made an astute observation that is so striking and fitting. He said, people here are constantly playing and reinforcing their gender. Ah and its so true! Every time a man lets me walk out of a door first, or gives me a seat on a bus, they're playing the gentlemanly man role and letting me be a delicate woman flower. An interesting part of this is what Dan and Martin were saying that they've never felt so male in their life. Everywhere they go they are reminded that they are male and therefore must represent that clearly. Dan says he feels it all the time when he's sitting on the bus and women would rather stand than to sit next to him because he's a male. But its totally not just a Turkish thing, its just that gender manifests itself in different ways in the US. I mean how do we define our gender in the US (and England and Germany)? I think the West defining gender intertwined with either not acting like the other gender or being in a relationship with the other gender. It's just our Westernized class consciousness of gender that makes Dan, Martin, and I think of this public genderfied of the world as totally weird.

All in all, I just had a really good class and day and it reminded me why I love traveling, meeting foreign people, class discussions, and school.

Thanks Durkheim!

Georgia! I'm going to Georgia!

This coming Monday is Kurban Bayramı, the commemoration of Abraham's devotion and obedience to God for almost sacrificing his son Ishmael (yeah, not Isaac like in Christianity). So there's a big feast and its a really family oriented holiday and I was going to go with Tugba to her hometown of Gaziantep, but Tugba got a call from work on Tuesday that she was going to INDONESIA for work.

So for a while I was going to be stuck in Ankara while other people traveled around Turkey, but I lucked out and joined my friends on their trip to Georgia! Whoo hoo! In Georgia, a Christian country, we plan on eating lots of pork and drinking the excellent wine that Georgia is known for. We're going to Batumi on the Black Sea(!), formerly the largest beachfront resort in the Soviet Union. Then we're heading to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, for lots of old churches and excellent Georgian food.


(click photo to expand, from http://www.map-of-turkey.com/map-of-turkey2.jpg)

Yay! I'm really excited to get out of Turkey for a little bit and see some of the surrounding countries. What's really cool about Turkey is if you look at it on a map it really is the center of the world. It's almost in Europe, Central Asia, Russia, and the Middle East. I'm going to country that speaks Russian, but right next to it is also Armenia, a Caucus country. Then there's Iraq, Iran, and Syria AKA the Middle East, bordering Turkey as well. And you can't forget that Turkey also borders Europe. What's really cool is that Turkey used to own many parts of these surrounding countries when it was the Ottoman Empire.

Before I came to Turkey I heard over and over again about how it's a mix of East and West, but seriously there is no where else that is so clearly located at the crossroads of so many different cultures.

Türkçe, Türkçe, Türkçe!

(Just so everyone knows, I'm usıng a Turkısh keyboard so ınstead of usıng the 'i' I'll be usıng the 'ı' sımply so I don't have to stop every three seconds to fıx my spellıng)

So every language ıs hard to start wıth but Turkısh requıres throwıng away anythıng you ever knew about language. Sınce I fınally learned how to form sentences I thought I'd gıve everyone a lesson ın Turkısh. Whoo.

Fırst there there are sıx new letters ın Turksısh consıstıng of ğ, ü, ö, ş, ç,and ı. The ğ makes basıcally no sound lıke my roommate's name, Tuğba, whıch ıs pronounced "too-baa." The ü and ö are lıke theır German counterparts and sımply make a dıfferent "ooo" sounds. Ş ıs a "shh" noıse and ç ıs a "chh" sound. The ı ıs a lıttle confusıng, ıt ıs a guttural stop so ıts lıke "uhh."

Now knowıng what these sounds make and beıng able to pronounce Turkısh words are quıte dıfferent tasks. Words lıke 'iyiyim' are pronounced "eee-mm" and 'teşekkur ederım' ıs "tay-sheck-ur e-dir-um"

Another ımportant rule ın Turkısh ıs thıs ıdea of vowel harmony ın whıch certaın vowels must go together wıth thıer counterparts. So there are two sets of vowels that are ın any gıven word. If words break thıs rule ıts because they are ımportated from Arabıc or Persıan.

So I've known all thıs for a whıle now and I just fınally learned how to form sentences. Heres an example of how the sentences are formed.

Questıon
Kalsiyum nede?
Lıterally: Dairy whıch has ın ıt?
(Kalsiyum = dairy, nede = whıch has)
Normal transiatıon: Whıch/what has daıry ın ıt?

Answer
Kalsıyum sütte ve peynirde.
Daıry mılk ın and cheese ın.
(süt = mılk, te at the end of süt ıs the possesıve of süt. Sütte ıs the possesıve mılk, ve = and, peynir = cheese, de = the possesıve of cheese. The reason süt ıs sütte and peynir ıs peynirde has to do wıth the vowel harmony thıng)
Normal translatıon: Mılk and cheese have daıry ın them.

More? Okay!

Halam Parıs'te yaşıyor.
Traslatıon: Aunt (Halam) Parıs (Parıs) ın ('te) lıvıng (yaşıyor).
Normal traslatıon: My aunt ıs lıvıng ın Parıs.

Another?? Yes!

Çıçekler sakıda.
Translatıon: Flowers (çıçekler) pot (sakı) ın (da).
Normal translatıon: The flowers are ın the pot.
Thess magıcal two whole words form an entıre sentence ın Englısh. Every word has endıngs and add ons that make the word mean 100 dıfferent thıngs

Confused yet?

Yeah learnıng Turkısh has been quıte the experıence. I don't doubt that I'll eventually get the hang of small words and phrases, but ıt takes sooooo long to get used to formıng senteneces dıfferently. All I can say ıs I greatly apprıcate German, ın all ıts crazıness, now.

A very important list of things unique to Ankara

Or perhaps unique to my experience in Ankara.

NUMBER ONE: Wild dogs/cats

So like many places, Ankara has a lot of wild dogs and cats running around. On campus this is normally pretty adorable because cats are cute and they wander into the dorms and it feels like you have little pets everywhere. People are really loving of these street animals and a friend of mine saw a man buy a sandwich for a cat before. On the other hand, the dogs are HUGE--imagine about 3 inches taller than a normal lab. These dogs can be harmless, but when there's more than two it gets a little worrisome when you're walking alone. I've seen people get big rocks and yell in order to scare them off. Now I live in a really busy area where cars are always driving by at all times of the day and there's never wild dogs because there's so much traffic. So flash forward to Friday afternoon when I was walking home and I turned a corner (of a very busy major street, mind you) and there were 5 (FIVE!) wild dogs looking menacing and blocking the side walk! Ah! Usually there's a bunch of people walking on the street, but at the time there was no one but the dogs and me! I'd already paused and I'm sure they sensed by weakness so needless to say I was bullied by 5 dogs into adding 10 minutes to my walk home in order to avoid them. I have this theory that because its starting to get cold these dogs are banding together in order to share human flesh. Or not, but seriously what are they doing scaring people all the time?!

((interesting/horrifying side note: speaking of animals I saw a spider THE SIZE OF MY FIST the other days))

NUMBER TWO: The magical dolmuş

Dolmuş are independent bus companies that are defined as shared taxis. They're basically the best bet for getting around Ankara, but they are quite the experience. These short buses have a specific route, but no real stops. People wave them down and when you want to get off you just say "Here!" or other people say "Someone wants to get off the bus" for you and then they'll slow down just enough for you to get off. This is extra fun for people who don't speak Turkish who just yell "Blahh help! This place!" until the driver gets the hint. They will literally stop anywhere along their route to let you off. Better yet is the fact that "dolmuş" actually means "stuffed" in Turkish because these buses are always always packed. I sometimes feel like the moment I step on a dolmuş I just feel the need to completely topple over or run into other people. In addition to the squished feeling in the dolmuş, if you're near the front you get caught having to give everyone change from the bus driver who's counting out coins as he's changing gears. Quite the experience. If anyone ever visits me in Ankara the first thing we're doing is getting on the dolmuş.


Ah the dolmuş in all its glory.
(Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmuş)

NUMBER THREE: Efes

A friend told me that Turkey used to have a lot of state monopolies on pretty standard products and beer was no exception. Today Turkey has a competitive economy with little to no state monopolies, but some products that were previously state monopolies are hugely popular to this day. That's where Efes comes in. Efes is the beer of Turkey. It's the best and delicious, but there's really no other options. There's the scary 1.5 liter beer that comes in a huge plastic bottle that even college students don't drink, Efes, or an expensive imported beer (I've seen a lot of corona). Still Efes is really good for how cheap its sold here. It's about roughly $1.20 for half a liter.



(Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efes_Beverage_Group)

NUMBER FOUR: Entering campus

Unlike college campuses in the US, METU has a closed campus and it means literally. METU is one of the best colleges in Turkey (it fluctuates between being number one and number two with Boğaziçi University in Istanbul) so it has an amazing campus that's literally 11,100 acres, 7,500 of those acres are just forest. Enclosing the campus and its huge forest is a fence with only three entrances. Security is a big issue and in order to get on campus one must have a campus ID or be with a student and receive a visitor pass. While usually the security guards are really nice, its just very different from the US where people come and go freely and many people don't even know the real boundries of their schools.

NUMBER FIVE: Midye = NOMS

Midye is the BEST street food in Ankara. Midye are mussells stuffed with rice and fresh lemon juice poured on top. Delicious! They sell them at these little stands at night and there are some midye guys who are so good there's lines to get served. Yet some midye stands are to be avoided because when there's a guy selling seafood on the street outside a popular bar at 4am it's probably not the cleanest midye in town. That being said, I LOVE midye! So delicious!


(Photo from http://aksam.medyator.com/images/2010/01/27/midye_dolma.jpg)

Yeah, I'm already pretty bad at this

Hmm I've gotten pretty bad at posting on here, but I promise to post soon. I changed the layout of this blog a bit so now I have to come back and fill up all this fancy space with stories. I even have a good (or HORRIBLE depending on your point of view) story of the first American I met here, but I have to read a bit on Turkish history so SOON I promise.

Anyways here's a video to keep you all intrigued and coming back to my blog.



I took this at the top of Ulus during the afternoon call to prayer. Here's the sounds of the muezzin as they echo through the city. I was trying to encapsulate the whole view here because I was sitting at the base of the castle of Ankara, but looking at it now it's a bit choppy and shaky. Oh well! Enjoy!

At 0:49 when the voice stops and starts again, there's this cacophony of different muzzin's all over the area chanting at different speeds. It creates this really awesome echo.

EDIT: So I can't figure out this blogspot video thing so here's the youtube version. Ooo I uploaded my very first youtube video.

It's been syllabus week here in Ankara, but that doesn't mean everything is boring. It means that I've had some extra time to get to know the people in my program! Hooray!

So on Wednesday, when our classes "officially" started, we only had class for about an hour. A few of us decided to check out Ankara castle which is a nice tourist image of Ankara because its a huge old castle fortress with a big Turkish flag on top of it.


Here's what it looks like from below.

So Martin, Jake, Dan, and I hiked up to the top of the castle which made for several very fancy looking photos. Inside the old castle walls is like a small village of what Ankara used to be like. It's super old and some of it is falling apart but people still live in the nicer houses.

One thing I learned from this experience is that Martin, Dan and Jake are hilarious. Dan is apparently deathly afriad of heights hahaha little old ladies were trying to get by him when we were walking up part of the castle. To Dan's credit there was a HUGE like 100 foot drop on one edge of the castle.

Here's some of the great views.

We took an ice cream break on top of the entrance to castle.


Martin walking underneath the grape vines.


Martin and Jake at the very top of the castle, on the right was the 100 foot drop.


Dan in his safe spot still next to the 100 foot drop.


Jake, SO SCARY, off the side of the 100 FOOT DROP.

Also through Jake I made friends with some girls named Diruba and Funda who are AWESOME! They're both students at METU too and we celebrated Diruba's birthday on Friday night. So fun! It was great to see how "real" students live here and, of course, it was just like students everywhere, AKA making due with what you have and drinking a lot of beer.

Then the next morning their neighbor friends invited us to breakfast and it was really great! We played trivial pursuit after breakfast which was an exercise in their English translation abilities since the whole game was in Turkish. Either way it was really great and later that evening we went to my very first dance club in Turkey! Horray! Haha it was literally a live band singing American pop music! Haha so good.

So yeah basically I feel way more settled in to living here now. I can (sort of) manage the crazy bus schedules, (sort of) find my way around, I (sort of) have a good sense of the city, and I can (sort of) count to ten in Turkish. I'm sure it'll get easier, slowly, but surely.