thursday night
sick again.... i think if someone coughs within a half a mile from me,
i get sick. i think it's just because i'm experiencing a new city, new
climate, new buildings, new people.... hopefully my resistance will
grow and i can get over this streak of sniffles.
went to a mosque with h. and his mother.... saw this strange 17th century
grave with a tree growing
out of and
around the gravestone. odd.
this is galata tower, as seen from a cab driving from eminonu.... grey
day, lots of people... ahhh.... istanbul....!
the curse
two days of full-time teaching down and i am exhausted. it's fun
and i am enjoying it, but i haven't figured out a good schedule for
myself yet. i stay up too late (hmmm.... it's almost midnight right
now.....
sigh), wake up too late, and go to work too early. i haven't
mastered public transportation in istanbul, so i give myself WAY
too much time to get to work.
i went to the eczane (pharmacy) today to buy h. some medicine
(he's really sick) and i had a moment of clarity. well, not really
a moment of clarity but a realization of sorts.
men, you can stopreading now, as the following paragraph deals with feminine
issues of a monthly nature.
tampons are really, really difficult to find in istanbul. every time i
go to a market, i do a quick scan of the shelves to see if maybe,
justmaybe they have some. usually, the answer is no. there are big
pads, little pads, pads for thongs, black pads for black underwear,
etc. i was in a market the other day and they had a really small
side area that had a few packs of OB tampons. "YES!" i did a little
inner rejoicing for my find, but then i started wondering why no
one else seems to buy them. what do turkish women do? do they
have some turkish secret that i need to find out? is it a cultural
thing? what's up with the 'pon?
well, today i went to work and decided that i needed to know. the
only turkish girls i see on a daily basis work there, so before one
of my lessons i got a cup of coffee and sat next to kubra, who is
one of the receptionists. "kubra, i have a personal question that
i need to ask that has absolutely nothing to do with work." she
smiled and told me i could ask her anything. "ok, well.... good! i
have to ask you....
why don't turkish women use tampons? i can't
find them anywhere!" she laughed and said, "it's because of
virginity." really!? i told her that most women in the US use
tampons (virgin or not!) and i was just surprised that they aren't
more easily available here. hmmmm. different.
movies in istanbul
last night, h. and i went to taksim to go see "the aviator." it was opening
night here in turkey, so i thought it might be fun to go see a movie. we
like to watch movies in english with turkish subtitles, so we both can
enjoy the film. i've been watching a lot of turkish TV and movies (on TV)
that have been dubbed in turkish... it's good to listen to, but i did like
seeing a movie on the bigscreen in english.
in turkey, when you buy a ticket for a movie, they assign you seats,
which is completely different from the US. i'm used to showing up
early to get good seats.... so last night, i kept asking h. "should we go?
should we go to the movie now?" we arrived very early, but i didn't
know we already had seats..... h. laughed when he realized why i was
so anxious to get to the theater..."but we already have seats!" ohhhh...
ok......
an usher shows you to your seat, someone is selling popcorn and
sodas inside the theater, and lots and LOTS of turkish commercials
are shown. tooooo many.
the biggest difference, however, was the intermission that came out
of nowhere. i guess they just pick a halfway point to stop the film,
but the lights came up in the middle of a scene and at first i thought
something was wrong. did the film break? is something happening
outside? nope... just an intermission. people got up, got more drinks
and popcorn, and everyone came back in 5-10 minutes. very
bizaare! i personally don't like intermissions since they break the
flow of the film, but who knows? maybe a snack break is nice.
we've got big macs
yesterday i saw a man on a bicycle delivering mcdonald's to
who knows where.... it was an official "mcdonald's delivery"
bicycle, which i had never seen before. i don't really enjoy
fast food to begin with, but doesn't it just seem worse to have
to have your big mac and fries DELIVERED??? i'm just
imagining ordering a big mac and waiting to have it delivered
to my house. no-- maybe they should just deliver it straight
into my mouth, or heck-- they can put it in a blender and
feed it to me through a tube. just put it directly into my
stomach so i don't even have to
chew....... yuck.
that's one thing that's nice about turkey. everything is fresh.
tomatoes are fresh, fresh bread is delivered every few hours
to the stores, and since i don't have a car, i have to buy what
i want to eat that night (or the next morning).
speaking of which, lunch is ready.... tomatoes, cucumber, onions,
fresh cherry jam, eggs, and chai. mmmmm......
exhaustion
i am exhausted today. possibly because i bought a phone card
yesterday and called so many people, possibly because i wasn't
able to sleep. either way, i'm at work right now and i am completely
exhausted. i used my little "tam" key to get 2 coffees (one coffee is
the size of a dixie cup) but i'm really feeling like crawling under this
desk and sleeping.
i'm going to teach a lesson tonight with my boss watching me, so
i really need to get revved up and ready to go!!!!!
bought 2 books earlier today at the bookshop near amedros. i
went in last night and perused their selection and spotted 2 books
that sounded amazing. they seemed overpriced, however, so i
went home and looked them up on amazon.com. both were
unavailable!! so needless to say, i woke up this morning and
rushed over to buy them. one is a book by lady mary montagu,
who was married to the english ambassador to turkey and lived
in istanbul in 1716. i started reading it on the bus and i already
know it's going to be great. i can barely wait to get back to it!
it's called
the turkish embassy letters, i believe.
the other one is called
strolling through istanbul and looked too
good to pass up.
sunday night
today i went to work and co-taught another lesson. i think
the training wheels will come off tomorrow and i will teach
alone, while being observed! scary! i think it will be fine,
but it's nerve-wracking being watched. yargghhhhhhhhhh!
i'm planning on putting in a full day tomorrow to hopefully
get through most of the training. i have 4 lessons i need to
teach while being observed, so i figure i'll go in early and
see how it goes. i'm thankful for my bus ride to bakirkoy,
actually, as it gives me 30-40 minutes of silent prep time.
i can listen to my iPod, work up my confidence, and just
have a moment to myself.
h.'s mom made us asure -- "ah-shoo-ray" -- and i've actually
found a link about the recipe on the internet! it's wheat
pudding,
"...one of the oldest and most traditional dessertsof Turkish cuisine." it's also quite tasty!
how much for a shrimp tempura roll??!?!
for those who are curious.... 75 lira. that's approximately 50
dollars or so (1 lira = 1.4 dollars). the other sushi selections
were farily reasonably priced; unagi for 10 lira, california roll
for 15 lira. more expensive than i would pay for in oakland,
but i'm in istanbul and sushi is hard to come by!
sushi does not agree with the turkish palate, unfortunately!
h. enjoyed the miso soup, but beyond that i think he was
enduring the sushi more than enjoying it. poor guy! he was
so cute though-- had never used chopsticks in his life so
watching him try and use them was heartwarming. the
waiter even tried to help by rigging up this "chopsticks for
dummies" system.... put a matchbook on the top end and
wrapped it with a rubber band, so he could use them more
easily. (h. didn't use this system though, but he thought
it was funny!)
pants update:pam, my new american friend who works in taksim, stopped
by last night and i told her of my woeful trip to carousel in the
hopes of buying pants. she laughed, asked how much i spent,
and told me that she gets all of her pants
made here.... for
half the price i spent on one stupid pair of pants!!!! i told her
she needs to hook me up because i needed professional
couseling after that shopping trip. tailored pants, here i come.
ok.... i'm off to help h. with breakfast and then i'm leaving
for work.
sushi in the 'bul
tonight, h. and i are going to a very posh restaurant in
ulus (a part of istanbul i have never been to or even really
heard of) to eat at the
sunset bar & restaurant. according
to
time out istanbul, they have the best sushi in turkey.
it's h.'s birthday today, so i thought we should go do
something different and special. i think he's a little nervous
about the sushi part, but he's up for it! i told him he doesn't
have to eat much, but just try a little. the food at this
place is supposed to be amazing, so i think we'll be trying
more than turkish sushi!
yesterday we saw this insanely amazing apartment in
cihangir, which is a hip, bohemian neighborhood across
the golden horn. it's a beautiful neighborhood with funky
little cafes, bookstores, markets, and so on. it's also where
a lot of ex-pats live, so it's very international. we wandered
into an 'emlakci' (real estate company) and chatted up a
guy who is renting out a duplex. he took us to this place
and it was incredible. it was the apartment of the future...
a videocamera security system, automatic blinds for all
the windows, a stereo system (!!) in the
shower, etc.....
i-n-s-a-n-e!!! it's small, but it's also fully furnished. the
catch is that it costs 500 euros a month. that's a lot.
sooooo the search will most likely continue. i loved
cihangir though, so i think i may just stick to looking
around there.
buying pants in turkey sucks
ok.... i'm generalizing a bit. buying pants
anywhere sucks
when you're shaped like a pear. if they fit around your
bum, they're wayyy to big around the waist. and if they
fit around the waist, they're ridiculously snug around the
bum.
i found out my job has a dress policy, which is no big deal,
but i can't wear jeans. seeing as i am living out of 2 suıtcases,
i have a fairly limited wardrobe. 'dress pants' were not
part of the massive horde of clothing i brought from the
U.S.
so basically, pant shopping in bakirkoy was a traumatic
and defeating experience this evening.
1) figuring out turkish pants sizes is like trying to figure
out the the mystery of the sphinx.... it's impossible.
2) turkish saleswomen are stalker-esque.
3) there is an arby's in that mall. that's funny. arby's in
turkey is pure comedy to me.
thursday in bakirkoy
well, i'm at work now. it's very slow but i am so so
so so so so happy to leave the house. i was getting
serious cabin fever! every time i wanted to go somewhere
it seemed like it would start snowing more and the wind
would pick up, thus thwarting my plans.... lounging
around is fine sometimes, but there's too much to do
and too much to see here. i don't like being stuck at
home.
on the ipod on the way to work:
'smack my bitch up' - prodigy
'night and day' - frank sinatra
'more than this' - the cure
i'm sneaking out of work at some point and going over
to carousel. carousel is a mall nearby (or so i'm told)
that i spotted last week but wasn't sure what it was.
i did't make it to taksim to buy h. part II of the
birthday gift, so i should do that tonight.
random thought of the day:
turkish news is, generally, more upbeat and happy than
news in the US. every night i watch the news and they
show a lot of interesting, fun things... kids playing
in the snow, interviews with men selling sahlep (a tasty
hot beverage) on the streets, and so on. sure, there's
the serious and depressing news of the world, but i
like that they temper it with positive things. :)
the first post of many
apparently i have successfully set this new blog up....
oh happy day!
i have been in istanbul for a little over three weeks
now. it has been snowing for the past 3 days and it is
COLD. blood-chilling, ice-in-your-lungs cold. the snow
was falling in huge puffy clusters today, so by the time
i went to the grand bazaar and back, i was soaking wet.
it was miserable!
i've also had 3 days off of work, which is strange since
i've only been working for a week! the snow shut down
schools, the government, and the school where i am
working. after 3 days of hanging out around the house,
i'm looking forward to the bus ride to bakirkoy tomorrow
morning! i don't care if it takes 3 hours to get to bakirkoy
from sultanahmet.... i just want to get out of the house and
interact with people!
plus, h.'s 27th birthday is on saturday so i need to go find
part II of his birthday gift. part one is cooking related
(he cooks a lot!).
ok..... i'll write more soon, but for now i'm just happy this
is working (kind of).
interesting turkey-related links:
http://www.mymerhaba.com
http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com
