victory day
well.... F1 is over (and yes, there was a big concert happening in taksim
square in honor of F1 while i was writing my last post!). the closest i
got to F1 was at a restaurant on istiklal... i was eating some iskender
kebap when some men came in dressed in F1 uniforms (from germany,
i think) and ordered some kebaps. that's close enough for me though!
i am currently at an internet cafe a block away from my apartment
in cihangir. it is a sublet for 3-months and seems to be working out
OK. there is a crazy cat and a roommate that i rarely see (i like to
think of her as my "virtual" roommate....) and it is cockroach-free.
the 3-month part is good because i am afraid my time in istanbul,
in this city of cities, is coming to an end....
for now. i feel extremely
conflicted about leaving, but i also feel like going back to the US is
a good idea for me at the moment. i miss my family, i miss my
friends, i miss a lot of things that seem inconsequential (tacos? sushi!
24-hour longs drugstore, the freedom of driving my own car,
cranberry juice, fudge, american slang & joke-telling, malls). oh my
god. did i just type "malls"?? ugh. sad.... and yet....
true. (note: they have malls here. it's just that the shopping experience in turkey is difficult and not very fun. people who work in stores follow you around and i never feel relaxed or that i'm having fun shopping. this may explain why i never go shopping here.)the things i will miss about turkey could fill an entire book, but i
don't think i will be leaving forever. i was thinking tonight in the
dolmuş (aka minibus) that i am really proud of living here. i really
love it. am i crazy to leave? no.... i don't think so. am i crazy to
think i'll come back? hmm.... no.... again, i don't think so.
but offffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff.....
istanbul.
i think once istanbul is in your blood it will never leave you.
at least, that's what i'm hoping.
tamam
something happening in taksim square.... i am in an internet
cafe and can hear a man's voice booming and the sounds of a
keyboard playing. i think it's for F1 (formula 1 races are here
for the 1st time at the new
istanbul park.) i don't understand
the big draw, but that's no big surprise.
******
i'm still thinking a lot about joe ranft. i remembered the first
time i met him... it must have been in 1999 or 2000. teddy
and i had gone up for teddy's friend's 30th birthday. we went
out on the san francisco bay and then that night, they had a
"black tie" party at the house. teddy told me about joe ranft
and i was so excited to meet him that night... i was a huge "bug's
life" fan and so to meet one of the artists
and the voice of
heimlich was a thrill for me. he was kind and gracious, making
everyone laugh....
i feel lucky that i was able to work with him, even if it was
for a short time. he did some voices for us on "the incredibles"
and it was always a joy working with him.
(although in truth,i always felt like a goofy fangirl around him....oh my god! do heimlich! i hope he just says something in the heimlich voice!)hmm. i think i will look at my "incredibles" DVD tonight....
wish i had "a bug's life" here, but this will do.
a sad day
i just found out that
joe ranft died yesterday in a car accident. joe was
the one of the heads of story at pixar, a cornerstone of the creative team
there, and was a funny, gregarious, warm-hearted man. it's so sad, i
really
can't believe it. i read the article on the
hollywoodreporter.combut it's just not sinking in. it's so f-ing tragic and sad.
holiday thoughts
well, i'm back from a week in kalkan... it was difficult extracting
myself from the mediterranean sea, and now that i'm back in
istanbul, all i want is to take one more swim...
kalkan is a very cute town, was once a greek village, but could
now be called a very british city. in fact, i would liken it to a
"little london" or perhaps the name should change to
kalkanshire.
the city is overrun with british tourists and on one hand, i could
care less about that, but on the other hand, it lacks "turkishness."
it could easily be a little beach town anywhere in the world... it's
strange being in turkey and being used to turkish ways of life,
then going somewhere else in turkey and feeling like i'm in
santa barbara.
i think the times i enjoyed most were outside of kalkan, at patara
beach, at saklikent gorge, or having a fresh trout lunch up in
the hills behind kalkan. ok... fresh trout
and the local delicacy of
fried goat cheese and butter.....
we sat up there and chatted for hours, eating and drinking chai.
then ilhan's former boss, ismail, got his
saz and started playing
and singing turkish songs. gaelle and i agreed that it was a perfect
"turkish" moment. this is a photo of ilhan and his former bosses,
birol and ismail (but birol is playing the saz here, not ismail):
saklikent gorge was absolutely beautiful. it is the longest gorge in
turkey and runs for.... 18 km? i might be making that up. anyway,
it is the source of an ice-cold river that you have to walk through
to get anywhere in the gorge. it may have been 100 degrees F
during the day, but that water is freezing. i thought my legs would
break off by the time i crossed the river!
i don't know.... now i'm back. i'm feeling sick, like i'm getting a tonsil
infection or something. ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
other random observations and thoughts:- i will never understand the "don't use your mobile phone" signs
on the buses here. if you use your phone, people go crazy and shoosh
you and "tsk-tsk" until you turn it off. supposedly, cellular phone
technology somehow interferes with the braking system of the buses,
but i personally think that's a load of crap.
- taxi drivers are the root of all evil.
- my favorite body of water in the world is now officially the
mediterranean sea. swimming in kalkan was ridiculous-- the water
was so clear you could see the bottom and all the fish swimming around,
without goggles. i felt like
ariel from
the little mermaid. (yes, i am a
complete dork!)
- knowing a little turkish goes a long way, especially when you're
trying to haggle over the price of silver.
- i felt like every restaurant or store i went in to in kalkan was playing
rod stewart sings the classics.... what the hell?!
-
note to self: do not tell sensitive, 17-year-old british boys that you
did
NOT know who
robbie williams was before coming to turkey. also,
do
not insist that
robbie williams is not famous in the US to anyone from
the UK.
- is it wrong that i'm excited for the english-language
tarkan album....??
