fish meat
well, i learned something interesting last night from my students.
we were browsing through a magazine from england and we came
across a photograph of kate winslet...."ohhh she's beautiful! she's
balik etli..." i paused for a moment, because i know "balik" means
"
fish" in turkish, and that "et" means "
meat."
"wait.... she's
fish meat?" i asked. i was sitting with a couple of the
advanced students and they started laughing..."it doesn't translate
into english!!!"
they then explained to me that "balik etli" does indeed mean "fish
meat" -- but in turkish, it means a woman that is neither fat, nor
thin -- she's curvy, she's a "turkish delight." it's a compliment!
anyway....
planning a trip to ortakoy on friday with a couple of the turkish girls
from my school (a fellow teacher and a couple of students). i think
if the weather is nice, we'll head for ortakoy and then take a cruise
on the bosphorus. if the weather doesn't cooperate (highly likely!
the weather has been schizophrenic this week!) we may just end
up in a cafe in taksim. either way, it should be fun!
a perfect day
i am so happy tomorrow is my day off! i went to work this morning
and it was raining a bit, but by the time i came back to sultanahmet,
the weather was absolutely perfect! i walked up through the tourist
area and stopped by one of the restaurants where a friend of mine
works, had a
turkish coffee, and just enjoyed the fresh air, the warm
conversations surrounding me, and had a good laugh with some
tourists here for
anzac day.
i think tomorrow will be even more beautiful than today, so hopefully
i can get out and enjoy it. i have a ton of work to do on my website (not
this one.... the
soon-to-be-launched, semi-secret business website).
i have a chat date in the morning with two of my best friends via
AIM or Messenger... the only thing better would be actually going
out to breakfast with them in the morning! (or fixing breakfast here!
i make a
mean turkish breakfast!)
and at school....last night, my last class was a discussion with some of the upper-
level students at my school. we basically ended up having a fiery
debate on internet dating, cross-cultural marriages, and whether
or not the internet is a good thing for humankind. it's so interesting
to hear what my students think about these issues, and it's great to
see them get so passionate and expressive--
in english!
ugh
taxi drivers in istanbul are an interesting breed of people. i have
been overcharged, taken on the lonnnnng way to various places,
and been grumbled at because my destination was not the airport
or some other distant location in istanbul. the other night i had an
entirely different taxi experience, one that actually left me a little
bit frightened and
extremely angry. i took a taxi from bakirkoy
(where i work) to sultanahmet because the bus route traffic was
terrible and i didn't want to take the train at night.
one of the male students helped me get a taxi, saying "we need to
make sure it's an old taxi driver." i figured this was just an over-
protective measure since turkish men are... well...
overprotective.
found an old man, who then promptly hailed another taxi, whose
driver was young. my student shook his head, but i said not to
worry, i'll be fine, blah blah blah. the driver took me to sultanahmet,
and i gave him directions to get to the hippodrome (by directions
i mean "ok, right. left. right. ok."). he then asks me to have turkish
coffee with him-- which in itself is not a surprising or shocking thing.
they ask, i refuse, we're even.
however.....
this guy would
NOT take "no" for an answer. i said, "tamam, dür
bürada lütfen!"
(ok, stop here please!) but he keeps repeating
"just 10 minutes, just 10 minutes, please...." i'm repeating "hayir!
dür!"
(no! stop!) but he keeps rolling forward, past where i wanted
to get out and go home. at this point, i am extremely angry and
i just want to get out of the taxi. he keeps asking and asking and
i must have said NO, STOP NOW about 20 times. i ended up
getting out of the taxi and having to walk about 1/4 mile back to
where i originally wanted to be let out. UGHHH. what a f***ing
a**hole.
so anyway.... i guess my student was right. i'll take the old taxi
drivers over that crap any day.
damn you, borek
prior to my trip to bulgaria, i suffered from a terrible case of food
poisoning. before i went to work one afternoon, i stopped at one of
the local restaurants and picked up some "borek" -- borek is a
pasta-like turkish food with cheese or meat in between layers of boiled (?)
pasta. i really don't know how they make it, but it hardly matters:
the borek i had was full of
evil and
wrongdoing bacteria. i taught
that night, felt a little "off," but assumed it was just fatigue or the
weather..... well.... let me just say that the next 48 hours were among
my least favorite 48 hours of my life. bedroom-bathroom-bedroom-
bathroom-bedroom-bathroom.............ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.........
and
then i had to get on the bus to bulgaria.
needless to say, i will not be partaking of the borek any time soon
(although some of my students have now made it their personal
mission to cook
really good borek for me).
the positive side of food poisoning is that it is making me evaluate
what i am eating much more than i had been. i need to stay away
from strange restaurants serving questionable items-- i need to eat
more fresh foods, and in general, just be a little more thoughtful
when it comes to eating. this is a good thing.
must....get.....on....bus........!!!!
i'm still in bulgaria.... well, the bus to istanbul will be leaving in
about 45 minutes, so i will be out of varna and out of bulgaria
fairly soon. i can't wait. this morning has been nothing but
headaches.... had breakfast, got ready to check out, and then
they informed me at the front desk of the hotel that they don't
take credit cards-- it's cash only. wha--!?! i made my reservation
online with my credit card, so i was confused... i mean, what
kind of hotel doesn't have a credit card machine?? ugh. so after
the lady yelled at me, told me i should go to a bank, blah blah
blah... i told her i was sorry, but i HAVE to catch a bus back to
istanbul this morning. i don't have time to take a taxi into varna,
go to a bank, go back to the hotel, back into varna, buy a bus
ticket, and hopefully get on a bus..... so.... they gave me their
bank information and i am supposed to transfer some euros
to them to pay for me room. ughhhhh.
and now i'm waiting for the bus and checking my email in the
most bizarre internet cafe i have ever been in. it's called
"cafe
doom" and i don't even know how to begin to describe it. there
are two floors of computers-- about 100 teenage boys playing
doom, really bad paintings of barbarians and dragons all over
the walls.... it's dark, lit only by computer screens and black
lights. this is good, old-fashioned nightmare fuel, if you ask me!
so... here i am, surrounded by adolescents playing doom, yelling
things in bulgarian, with a big dragon looking down at me from
the wall. please, please, please..... i need to get out of here!!!
after a 9 hour bus ride....
i'm writing this from varna, bulgaria..... i have thankfully located one of
the few internet cafes here.
thoughts on bulgaria:
firstly, i know nothing about bulgaria. i don't understand the language, i
can't read anything (they use the cyrillic alphabet), and i am completely
ignorant about the country's history, culture, politics, etc.
(i'm completely sidetracked: 'lowrider' is playing on the radio right now)
riding the busummm....... 9 hours on a bus from istanbul isn't my idea of fun. the only
savng grace is that bus service here is 1,000 times more civilized than
in the US. they give you snacks, come around with water and soda, and
lemon oil so you can keep your hands clean. but it's still 9 hours on a
bus.
bulgarians eat the swinei ate pork last night. i've never been a huge pork fan, but when you can't
get something (try finding pork products in turkey.... i dare you!) you tend
to crave the thing you can't have. i didn't think much about the fact i could
have pork here, until i opened the menu last night and saw a whole page
of strange bulgarian pork dishes. the waiter recommended a pork dish
with mushroom sauce-- it was
delicious. this morning, they had bacon at
breakfast, but it wasn't the really tasty, thick, pepper bacon i like. oh
well. i will have to go to the US for that, i'm sure!
and now..... i am wandering around aimlessly, attempting to do some
shopping, and not having too much luck i will get on the bus back to
istanbul tomorrow morning and i can't wait. sorry, bulgaria, but i just
want to get back to turkiye!
beautiful day......
pictures are worth a thousand words, so i'll spare you my thousand
for the day and provide you with photographs from istanbul (all taken
today):
the blue mosque, framed by tulips:
the aya sofia & some visitors:
i can't get enough of tulips:
and finally, the simit man:
lovely
just a brief note.... tonight is the first night it feels like
summer. i spoke with my parents
(hi mom & dad!) and
then headed out to the tramway street to have some
salad and wine at amedros cafe.... sat outside with a
flower, a candle, and a glass of red wine. it must have
been at least 65 degrees.... beautiful! met a guy who is
establishing some kind of english school here, offered
me part-time work if i want it... continued drinking wine
and chatting with the guys who work at amedros. ahhh...
a perfect evening!
it's midnight now, so it's time to sleep. goodnight!
a good friday for wandering...
yesterday, i paid my first visit to the american consulate here in
istanbul. it is wayyyyy out in the suburbs, a good 20 YTL cab fare
from sultanahmet (normally i pay 3 to 5 YTL for a taxi ride). there
are many consulates near taksim (like the british consulate that
was
bombed in 2003) but the americans have chosen to build a
huge, fortress-like consulate on the outer perimeter of the city.
this was my first visit to any kind of consulate, so i had no idea what
to expect.
before i set foot in the building, i showed a man my passport. i then
went inside, showed another person my passport, had to hand over
any electronic devices (i had to give them my cell phone and my
camera), then proceed through a metal detector. after that, they told
me to "follow the signs" and make my way upstairs to the consul
area.
i walked down a corridor-- note:
there were no other people around!i was feeling like i was in some strange sci-fi movie -- and eventually
i made my way to the consul area. again, it was empty, save for some
turkish people who worked there. i asked one of the turkish men some
questions, but it was obvious that i just needed to chat briefly with an
american who worked there. so they let me into
another room, telling
me to "press the white button on the wall." at this point, it's feeling
very alice in wonderland or matrix.... i'm expecting someone to tell me
to eat the red pill and then the consul will magically appear before me.
i go into the next room, which is, of course, empty, locate the "white
button" and press it. a girl comes up to talk to me, we have a good chat,
i register with the consulate (i wanted to register because they alert
americans to any strange activity -- for example, there was some bad,
homemade raki making the rounds in turkey and people were dying....
raki is really strong alcohol... anyway, they emailed all the americans in
istanbul and said "don't drink the raki!"). it's also good to register because
if there is an earthquake or terrorist attack (
god forbid) they know
where the americans are and can try and help you.
incoherent ramblings
some interesting facts:
tulips which country in europe is famous for tulips? holland! well, guess
where they got their tulips from? did you guess
turkey? you're
correct! tulips have been associated with ottoman and anatolian
designs for centuries. i believe that the ottoman empire gave
tulips to holland as a gift.
the continuing sightings of turkish girls stuffing their pants into their bootsyesterday, i got off the train in bakirkoy on my way to work and
almost ran into a young 20-something turkish girl. she was closed,
i.e. wearing a headscarf or
hijab, with a long, shape-concealing
coat. i looked down, however, and saw a rockin' pair of shredded
black cargo pants stuffed into startling white stilletto boots.
wow.
this is exactly what turkey is about!
ISO: apartment in istanbul
been busy.... went apartment hunting yesterday with my new friend
anna, her boyfriend nick, and hulusi. anna and nick are from tasmania
and are officially the first people i've met from that part of the world.
of course i know other aussies, but tasmania seems like a completely
different place to me. (
note: i do realize tasmania is part of australia
and so is technically
not a completely different part of the world, but
i digress....). basically, they're from tasmania. i think that's cool.
a note on apartment hunting in istanbul: it's not fun. i never liked
apartment hunting in california, but now it seems like a dream compared
to attempting it in istanbul. you see, in istanbul, you must go through
an emlak (aka real estate agent). you cannot find apartments without
an emlak unless you have an incredible amount of luck.
the emlak charges an additional 10-18% commission on top of the rent
and deposit, so i'm fairly positive most emlaks make a good living.
so we saw some good places, all of which were completely overpriced
and not worth the money. once emlaks and landlords find they are
dealing with
yabancis (foreigners), the price inevitably goes up. so we
saw some nice places and then we also saw some really terrible, dodgy
apartments. one place smelled so bad i think sleeping on the streets
would be a better alternative. ugh.
today i have decided to start the "detoxing from turkish desserts" diet.
i can no longer eat sut laç, even though i want to fill up a bathtub with
sut laç and drown myself in it. (did i just type that?!) it would probably
be good for the skin since it's just milk, sugar, and rice.... it's just not
good for the ol' saddlebags.
in other news....... i purchased the latest issue of
time out istanbul and
it is probably the most fascinating magazine i have read in months.
basically, the issue is completely about sex in istanbul-- which for cultural
anthropologists must be absolutely fascinating. if i can find some of the
articles online, i will post them. see, there's such a dichotomy here
regarding sex i don't even know where to begin.
wandered around taksim and into some art exhibitions.... this one was
a lot of fun because the artists were there working on new pieces:
this was my favorite piece-- i think it is a mixed media work with
oil paint and airbrush on textured fabric, but who would know?
the description was, of course, in turkish!
the buzz bar
heading to the buzz bar tonight for a birthday party. the buzz bar is
here in sultanahmet, next to the four seasons hotel. for those up on
their movie trivia, the four seasons hotel in istanbul is a former prison,
featured prominently in the film midnight express. good times.
so, a former prison is now a four-star luxury hotel.... go figure. maybe
they'll do that to alcatraz someday-- the view is impeccable!
ok.... off to partake in some efes light and merriment!
