Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Other Side
I think I had one of the best days of my life this past Sunday. I'm not sure why we are all in such good moods, it couldn't have just been the weather, but for some reason we were in a state of unwavering bliss. A group of us took a ferry to the Asian side of the city and spent the day there. We immediately fell in love with the side streets flooded with young locals. The fresh produce markets, buckets of flowers spilling onto the sidewalks, and the most inexpensive and delicious baklava we've had to date. After exploring a bit and eating a lot, we sat by the water and soaked up the warm sun and the positive energy of the crowd around Ataturk's statue (half of whom were dressed up like zombies/dancing to techno music and we still don't know why). We found a great residential area with incredible cafes (where I had the best Turkish coffee since arriving here and two scoops of pistachio and blackberry dondorma for 2 lira) and some backstreets lined with tiny bars stuffed to the brim with men in jerseys watching soccer. We stopped for an afternoon Efes and managed to fall even more in love with this city. I can't wait to go back.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Here comes the sun
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| Golden Horn |
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| Leighanne visits! |
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| Steep trek to Bebek |
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| Bogazici campus |
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| At our favorite restaurant in Bebek |
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| Afternoon between classes |
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Loophole
Turkey recently banned blogspot after one person posted some copyrighted materials. Thus the reason that I haven't updated you all in a while. However, after midnight the site seems to work perfectly fine (thankfully, or else I would have to go far too long without my usual dose). So, I'm writing a quick post before the government can stop me (aka the morning).
It's snowing in Istanbul, can you believe it? Still, I'm over the original, overwhelming feeling that there is too much to see, too little time to see it, and that I have too little knowledge of Turkish or public transportation to figure it out. Despite the cold weather, I've been exploring different neighborhoods and trying them on for size. I really like the Galata area and found a delicious Turkish restaurant there that is essentially a woman's kitchen where you go and point to the pots of food on the stove to indicate what you'd like to eat. I thought I had asked for four different things on one plate and ended up with four plates of food (as you can tell, the language barrier is still an issue). Honestly, I've never been so well fed in my entire life. There are also a ton of antique shops and small cafes that look wonderful that I can't wait to poke around more. I visited the modern art museum and saw, for the first time, modern Turkish artwork (something that's understated in a land of ancient ruins and Ottoman palaces). Basically, I've just been getting more comfortable with Istanbul. It seems impossible to start, it is so easy to think that you could ever know something so big, so intimately. But I just had to begin pushing into it. One restaurant/bus route/museum/coffee shop at a time.
So there you have it, all that time without a post and nothing earth shattering to say, but this is the most important part. This is where the most work must be done. Becoming familiar with a place that only a few weeks ago seemed so utterly impervious. Making it my home.
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p.s. I apologize for not posting photos. I haven't taken my camera out because I feel like an uber tourist, but I will try my best to change that.
It's snowing in Istanbul, can you believe it? Still, I'm over the original, overwhelming feeling that there is too much to see, too little time to see it, and that I have too little knowledge of Turkish or public transportation to figure it out. Despite the cold weather, I've been exploring different neighborhoods and trying them on for size. I really like the Galata area and found a delicious Turkish restaurant there that is essentially a woman's kitchen where you go and point to the pots of food on the stove to indicate what you'd like to eat. I thought I had asked for four different things on one plate and ended up with four plates of food (as you can tell, the language barrier is still an issue). Honestly, I've never been so well fed in my entire life. There are also a ton of antique shops and small cafes that look wonderful that I can't wait to poke around more. I visited the modern art museum and saw, for the first time, modern Turkish artwork (something that's understated in a land of ancient ruins and Ottoman palaces). Basically, I've just been getting more comfortable with Istanbul. It seems impossible to start, it is so easy to think that you could ever know something so big, so intimately. But I just had to begin pushing into it. One restaurant/bus route/museum/coffee shop at a time.
So there you have it, all that time without a post and nothing earth shattering to say, but this is the most important part. This is where the most work must be done. Becoming familiar with a place that only a few weeks ago seemed so utterly impervious. Making it my home.
------
p.s. I apologize for not posting photos. I haven't taken my camera out because I feel like an uber tourist, but I will try my best to change that.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Burasi Turkiye
Today was the coldest day of my life. It was entirely my fault, we were going to Sultanahmet to visit Topkapi palace (I would not advice this until the spring, when the tulips are in bloom and the cold doesn't knock the wind out of you), Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque, and I didn't dress appropriately at all. It wasn't until we stopped for some famous köftecisi (meatballs) after seeing the palace that I began to feel my limbs again.
Although I've never felt colder, nothing knocked the wind out of me like walking into the Hagia Sophia for the first time. It was unreal how overwhelmingly beautiful it is. Every last detail of the church/mosque/museum was stunning, and I felt the same way about the Blue Mosque. I'm not sure which one is more breathtaking, I think it must be whichever you see first. I can't wait to go back once it's warm out and the sunlight is nice, but here are some photos in the meantime :)
'A heart in love with beauty never grows old.' - Turkish Proverb
Although I've never felt colder, nothing knocked the wind out of me like walking into the Hagia Sophia for the first time. It was unreal how overwhelmingly beautiful it is. Every last detail of the church/mosque/museum was stunning, and I felt the same way about the Blue Mosque. I'm not sure which one is more breathtaking, I think it must be whichever you see first. I can't wait to go back once it's warm out and the sunlight is nice, but here are some photos in the meantime :)
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| Byzantine mosaics |
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| the molding was my favorite part |
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| Lillie |
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| Hagia Sophia |
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| Blue Mosque |
'A heart in love with beauty never grows old.' - Turkish Proverb
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Sharpen your pencils...
Coming back to Istanbul is when the culture shock, or whatever you'd like to call it, set in. And fast. English is not spoken here (outside of the university, at least), and, more importantly, I don't speak Turkish. Registration was a disaster, for all students (but is basically over now, phew). And I still can't figure out public transportation. But each day I learn a little more, and then a little more. Here are the things I do know:
1) How to say hello, goodbye (only two of the three ways), please, thank you (all three different ways), excuse me, and numbers 1 to 7
2) How to order chicken kabob, spiced beef kabob, soup, bread, tea, and water at restaurants.
3) Where the nearest Starbucks are. I vowed that I would never go to Starbucks abroad, but here it is the cool place to go. It's very strange, very trendy, and very expensive, but the Turks love it! And there is the most beautiful Starbucks in Bebek, the neighborhood down the hill from the university (my dream neighborhood lined with tiny shops and restaurants), that presses up against the Bosphorus, so you can sit outside by the water while drinking your coffee.
4) That you should NOT pet all stray dogs, but cats are generally fine, and will sit in your lap during class.
5) That all exchange students want to take the same classes, and therefore none of us can get into any.
6) That the best Baklava is along the Syrian boarder, but there is a nearby pastry shop that will suffice.
7) That 'Carey' is my favorite Joni Mitchell song now.
8) That everything is cheap, except for laundry and alcohol (Efes not included).
9) That hearing the call to prayer when sitting along the Bosphorus is very different from hearing it anywhere else. It becomes the soundtrack to your existence. It follows you, instead of lingering quietly in the background. Garance wrote that she cried every time she heard the call to prayer during her time in Istanbul. I haven't yet, but I think that I may cry in its absence, which is sure to be the loudest sound of all.
In the first class that I attempted to get into, the professor read off a list of names and harshly commanded "if your name isn't on the list, go home and immediately drop this course" (my name was not on the list). Though my experience with him was brief, this professor actually reminded me of why I came to here, instead of any other place in the world. After forcefully rejecting almost every student in attendance, he told us that we were free to stay for the rest of class. He was going on and on about the importance of geography in history and modern day international relations for Turkey. About the warm water ports, and the meeting of East and West. Then he paused, looked out the open windows beyond the chalkboard at the Bosphorus, softly separating the Asian and European sides of the city, and said "I think this is the only classroom in the entire world where you can look out the window and see, for yourself, Turkey's precious geography."
So, at the end of the day, after all the frustration and discomfort and emergency chocolate, all that matters is that I am here. In Istanbul. And there is no where that I would rather be.
Ciao
1) How to say hello, goodbye (only two of the three ways), please, thank you (all three different ways), excuse me, and numbers 1 to 7
2) How to order chicken kabob, spiced beef kabob, soup, bread, tea, and water at restaurants.
3) Where the nearest Starbucks are. I vowed that I would never go to Starbucks abroad, but here it is the cool place to go. It's very strange, very trendy, and very expensive, but the Turks love it! And there is the most beautiful Starbucks in Bebek, the neighborhood down the hill from the university (my dream neighborhood lined with tiny shops and restaurants), that presses up against the Bosphorus, so you can sit outside by the water while drinking your coffee.
4) That you should NOT pet all stray dogs, but cats are generally fine, and will sit in your lap during class.
5) That all exchange students want to take the same classes, and therefore none of us can get into any.
6) That the best Baklava is along the Syrian boarder, but there is a nearby pastry shop that will suffice.
7) That 'Carey' is my favorite Joni Mitchell song now.
8) That everything is cheap, except for laundry and alcohol (Efes not included).
9) That hearing the call to prayer when sitting along the Bosphorus is very different from hearing it anywhere else. It becomes the soundtrack to your existence. It follows you, instead of lingering quietly in the background. Garance wrote that she cried every time she heard the call to prayer during her time in Istanbul. I haven't yet, but I think that I may cry in its absence, which is sure to be the loudest sound of all.
In the first class that I attempted to get into, the professor read off a list of names and harshly commanded "if your name isn't on the list, go home and immediately drop this course" (my name was not on the list). Though my experience with him was brief, this professor actually reminded me of why I came to here, instead of any other place in the world. After forcefully rejecting almost every student in attendance, he told us that we were free to stay for the rest of class. He was going on and on about the importance of geography in history and modern day international relations for Turkey. About the warm water ports, and the meeting of East and West. Then he paused, looked out the open windows beyond the chalkboard at the Bosphorus, softly separating the Asian and European sides of the city, and said "I think this is the only classroom in the entire world where you can look out the window and see, for yourself, Turkey's precious geography."
So, at the end of the day, after all the frustration and discomfort and emergency chocolate, all that matters is that I am here. In Istanbul. And there is no where that I would rather be.
Ciao
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
'pass the pinot'
Today I was rejected from my fourth class because Turkish students need it to graduate, so they got first dibs. Then I went to 'TURKISH FOR FOREIGNERS' a class designed to teach Turkish to the foreign exchange students, and they didn't have enough room for 50 of us in the class. Apparently the university wasn't prepared to absorb so many study abroad refugees from Cairo, but we all think it's some Istanbullshit. After our Turkish class, where the professor's English was the worst I've yet to hear from any teacher here (figures.... also, I'm running out of figs and need to go to the spice bazaar...) and we were totally lost, we walked back to the superdorm in the rain, feeling exhausted and hungry and much like the weather we were trudging through.
So, I napped. And then woke up to two things:
1) my roommate having a screaming match with her boyfriend over the phone... I slept so long I think she thought I wasn't here... So now I'm trapped in my cell-like room and want to make noodles so badly, but can't leave.
2) This message from my friend Lillie, who has the worst Turkish roommates who don't talk to her:
MY ROOMMATES STOLE MY ARUGULA. GOING TO GET FOOD. YOU ARE ASLEEP.
COULD THIS DAY BE WORSE NO BYE
It was one of those days that was so awful that it couldn't possibly be real, right? I laugh now, but let's just see if I make it into four classes before next week...
So, I napped. And then woke up to two things:
1) my roommate having a screaming match with her boyfriend over the phone... I slept so long I think she thought I wasn't here... So now I'm trapped in my cell-like room and want to make noodles so badly, but can't leave.
2) This message from my friend Lillie, who has the worst Turkish roommates who don't talk to her:
MY ROOMMATES STOLE MY ARUGULA. GOING TO GET FOOD. YOU ARE ASLEEP.
COULD THIS DAY BE WORSE NO BYE
It was one of those days that was so awful that it couldn't possibly be real, right? I laugh now, but let's just see if I make it into four classes before next week...
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