tuesday morning in cihangir
well, it's a fine tuesday morning here in cihangir. the water is off, as per usual, but at least it isn't volcanically hot inside the apartment. i am hoping that somehow, the water will magically come back around the time i need to get ready to go to work. i highly doubt this will actually happen (i'm betting that the water is off until tomorrow, for whatever construction reason or problem). so.... looks like i will be heating up some water on the stove for a good, old-fashioned sponge bath. awesome.
been a good week.
went out on sunday night with arzu and didem, had dinner around the corner from my house, then ended up having a beer at besinci kat (5th floor). it's a trendy, over-priced restaurant down the street from my house, but it has a gorgeous view of the bosphorus (see photo) and
(and!) if you are in the mood for an overpriced cocktail, their mojitos are quite delicious.
in other news, on saturday, my friends courtney and hoon were married in san francisco.
congratulations, courtney and hoon!!! i have only seen 2 photos of the wedding but they were both gorgeous. wish i could have been there to celebrate with my friends, but i am sending them good thoughts and happy wishes from here. all the best to the both of them and their amazing life together!
what an interesting couple of days i've had.... firstly, my eurovision
band of choice did indeed WIN eurovision. "hard rock hallelujah." oh
yeah. selin and i even saw lordi on MTV yesterday-- which was indeed
shocking and a bit hilarious, in my opinion.
2 nights ago, i got a phone call from my old friend fred, from france.
i hadn't spoken with him in ages but last month decided to try my luck
with the turkish/french postal services and sent him a postcard with
my GSM number on it. well, it arrived and he called me! it was great
to hear his voice and get caught up. his daughter is 16 months old now
and i am expecting some photos from him via email. we talked about our
friend verena (from germany, who is currently pregnant and due in
october) and kazumi (from japan, who lived with my family in colorado
for a year).... who i haven't heard from since last year. talking with
fred motivated to email verena and kazumi, so hopefully i will hear back
from them and find out what's been going on in their lives.
on the job-front, it looks as though i have indeed been promoted at my
job and will become the manager of the school i work at. this is both
exciting and slightly terrifying. i started meeting with my boss about
it yesterday and i'll go in early today to talk more about it, start
learning what it entails, etc. the turkish girls i work with were really
excited when i mentioned that i was starting to train for this, saying
"ohhhh you'll be great!
just as long as you're not too bossy!" they
are great though-- they were very happy that a woman is going to take
this role (i am too!). so, we'll see. it will take me a good month or
two to get adjusted (and learn all of the things i need to do!).
other than that, not too much is going on. summer has arrived in istanbul
and it has been volcanically hot the past couple of days. i have to
take the metro to work and i
hate that they never use the air conditioning.
it's possible to turn it on and cool down the tunnels (which get hot and
swollen from humidity) but in typical turkish fashion, they do not use
AC unless it's 800 degrees outside. this is true for most places in the
summer-- malls, restaurants, etc. places that, in america, i just assumed
would be a perfect 72 degrees (22 celsius) at all times of the year. so,
as of this week, there has been a return of the sweaty american girl.
watch
out, istanbul! just be thankful i am an ardent supporter and wearer of
deoderant.
eurovision, i love you
i would just like to express my love and appreciation for the
eurovision
contest. sweet jesus! as an american, i didn't grow up watching this
program, but tonight i watched all 24 entries and i even VOTED! yeahhh!
i voted for the finnish band,
lordi. yes, i voted for a metal band whose
members dress up like GWAR. awesome. i
had to vote. it took 10 konturs
(i.e. 5 text messages) to vote, but damn. i feel like i'm participating
in a european tradition.... hee hee. albeit a tradition of bad songs and
mullets, but whatever.... i love it!
i am awaiting the results. i don't think my finnish band will win,
but i would be really happy if they did. or if turkey won, even though
i wasn't hugely impressed by their entry.
who can say? who can know the
mysteries of eurovision? i just want
lordi to win.
istanbul, as seen from above
took some interesting photos of istanbul yesterday, from the inside of onur flight 99 from dalaman to istanbul. this one is my favorite, of the golden horn. the water nearest the camera is an inlet (and forms the golden horn, where the aya sofia and blue mosque are situated) and you can see in the background where the bosphorus begins. the large body of water that goes on and on is the marmara sea.
it was a lovely little scenic tour of the city by air.
tuesday morning
gunaydin.... good morning! it's tuesday morning in cihangir and i am sitting here with the cat (
note: we have still not decided on a name for him, i feel bad.... sometimes he's
siyahkedi, sometimes he's
pony or whatever we decide to call him that day. i think he's having an identity crisis!).
he's staring at me now. i think he'd like to surf the net if he could just figure out how.....
looks like another lovely day outside. spring has finally appeared and the heat of summer is creeping in. tulips are blooming everywhere and the trees are all green and beautiful. winter in istanbul is so grey and cold that you forget what the color green looks like. i welcome the change.
selin is back from almost 4 weeks in france, visiting her mother (who had surgery) and various other friends and family members. it's nice to have her back! the old man downstairs (aydin bey) invited us over for dinner one night, on the condition that we teach him how to make turkish coffee. aydin bey's wife died about 2 months ago (he misses the turkish coffee she used to make) and he's a really sweet old man, always looking out for us and everyone else on our street. i have ABSOLUTELY no idea how to make turkish coffee, but selin does.... so i think selin will be giving aydin bey and i a turkish coffee lesson.
traditionally, in turkey when a man and woman are getting engaged, the woman has to make turkish coffee for the man's parents. it has to be perfect because it's one of these "tests" that demonstrate what a good wife she'll be. i'm trying to think if there's a similar cultural thing in the US, but i don't think there is...? correct me if i'm wrong.
anyway.... it's tuesday. it's my day off. i'm going to see some jazz singer tomorrow night with a bunch of people from the bakirkoy branch of wall street. should be interesting, although i've been thinking for the past 2 weeks that we were seeing "dinah shore" -- but then i thought, "it can't be dinah shore... she's dead, isn't she?" well, yes...after a little internet research i discovered that dinah shore passed away in 1994, so i don't think i'm going to see her in concert tomorrow night. instead, i will be seeing
diane schuur. hopefully she's still with us.
Light comes through...
Today was my day off and I spent it having a buzlu latte (an improvised iced latte) at an adorable cafe in tunel, walking around taksim, poking around the cheap clothing alleys.... discovered some sources for H&M items....AHHAHHA! H&M may not exist in istanbul, but i have managed to locate their cheap, designer knock-off fashions. there is a fashion god.
i also discovered a lovely old bookstore that had so many treasures... if i had more money, i would have loved to buy some of their antiquairian books about turkey. there was one book, i believe it was published in the 30's or 40's, called "my turkish adventure." it looked fascinating and i would have loved to read it. perhaps another day....
also found myself wandering into some of the old churches that exist off of istiklal caddesi. they're so beautiful and i just never have time to see what they're like. i even went into this greek church (see photo) that i have walked past day after day after day. they weren't even supposed to be open, but the caretaker let me in while the priests (?) were chanting and doing some kind of ceremony. it was interesting and beautiful, and the light coming through this window captured the moment for me.
i came home, took a nap, and am now just hanging around. i have to work a long day tomorrow, so i think tonight will be an early one.
weekend in istanbul
on friday night i went to see "mission impossible 3" and enjoyed it quite a bit, despite the fact that the lead actress bore a striking resemblance to katie holmes. i found that a little bit odd, but whatever-- the effects were good, the footage in china was beautiful and interesting, and hey.... as much as i think tom cruise is bizarre in real life, he's still appealing and i generally like his films.
saturday i worked, then met up with my girl friends in taksim at viktor levi. it was a much-needed night out for us all, so we enjoyed viktor levi's delicious mezzes (their calamari is to die for!!!) and their homemade wine. mmmm. mezze. wine. good friends. the photo above is of my good friend didem and myself. didem and i taught together in bakirkoy, she's turkish but was raised in jolly old england, so she has a nice british accent (and can tell some pretty cheeky jokes!).
we went out to araf after this and then the girls wanted to go dancing at this "i love the 80's" party. unfortunately, i was working on sunday so i had to call it a night, but they went and apparently had a great time!
now it's monday..... yarghhhhhhhh..... i stayed up entirely too late last night trying to catch the rerun of "24" (didn't make it, was on at 3am) and i woke up really late this morning. that's a rarity for me, so it's kind of nice! time for me to get my coffee....
pancakes on a wednesday morning
this morning, i attempted to make pancakes from scratch. they were
edible, but i do wish i had delicious bisquick mix.... i found a
homemade bisquick mix recipe, but it requires buttermilk powder.
it may be possible for me to find buttermilk powder, but i can pretty
much guarantee i won't find it at the corner store. buttermilk
powder will require a field trip to one of the giant carrefour
supermarkets. to get to one of those requires buses, trams, or
a boat ride. perhaps another day!
but you know, i'm fairly certain that putting butter and maple
syrup on
anything will make it delicious.
mmmm. pancakes.
the ADSL at home has finally been connected. honestly, i can't
believe it.
1) the electrician came and told me that the 2nd phone line (which
selin had installed 7 or 8 months ago) didn't exist.... soooo....
had to call the turk telekom people. (BTW - this was the 2nd time the
electrician had come to do this)
2) waited. waited. turk telekom man came, did something with a
scary box of wires and made the 2nd phone line work. (the line
existed, but who knows what the problem was!?)
3) then the ADSL modem did not want to work with my computer.
this required diligent internet research in turkish, thankfully
done by my friend deanne. she figured it out. and now.... it
works!
it doesn't sound too traumatic now that i am typing it out, but
believe me-- i felt like i needed to invite everyone in the
neighborhood over for a celebration. yeah ADSL! yeahhhhhhh!!!!
