Tuesday, 20 August, 2013; 10:30 PM; living room, host family
Today has been
long and
exhausting. We woke up early to leave by 9 or 9:30 (which is two hours earlier than we've been waking up previously). Then we went off to the pharmacy where Hülya (the mom) works. There, we ate breakfast. Genesis had her fortune told by Hülya in the dregs of Gen's Turkish Coffee. The way you do it is to flip the cup over when you're done with the coffee and wait for the bottom to go room temperature. Then you look at what's on the cup's bottom and what's on the saucer.
After some inspection of the cup and a bit of translating, Gen learned that in six months, she will meet her true love on a long train ride. They will share a romantic moment on a rainy night where the moon is a crescent. Gen will also lose a close friend and will need to get two Evil Eyes, both of which are going to break. Her mother also needs to be cautious about men her own age.
We concluded that Gen needs to be cautious around her friends and plan train rides around the lunar calendar.
I'd be more willing to do this sort of thing if it did not involve taking the caffeine equivalent of a double shot of espresso. I can barely handle a single shot of espresso.
After that, we took a walk and several metro rides to THE GRAND BAZAAR.
Lemme tell you something: that place is
HUGE. THere are several different areas: the spice area smells really good, the ceramics area is an explosion of color and pattern; the jewelry area, obviously, glitters; the scarves are obviously just as bright as the ceramics. we didn't really see the carpet area, because if the four of us pooled together our available amounts of Lira, we'd probably be able to purchase something the size of a small placemat (or a table runner, if we haggled a
lot, and only in Turkish, because they double the price for English-speakers, since 1:2 is about the dollar-to-Lira exchange rate). I spotted some really cool notebooks, too, in one of the stores. I had Buse ask the price of them; 45 Lira is apparently a bit expensive for notebooks of that size (admittedly, when I went further notebook shopping, since I want to get one for my boyfriend, I found out she was right, but still. I didn't see any Evil Eye notebooks anywhere else). If I get a chance to go back, I'm getting a notebook. If not, then my apologies to my boyfriend; he's going to get the standard, boring gift of Turkish Delight.
Apparently, just outside the Bazaar, which is closed-in, is an open-air bridal/ wedding area, which is also
huge. (Keep in mind that when I say 'area,' I mean several blocks worth, both inside and outside the bazaar). Not only is this an area for dresses, it's also like the Buy Stuff From the Wedding Registry Area. You'd think that a country where 99% of the citizens identify as Muslim would be kind of modest about some things, but lingerie is just as openly hung here as anything else. we also spent at least an hour in a cheap jewelry shop. I didn't buy anything.
In all, all my purchases before 2:00 included one mug. It's a very nice mug. I like it a lot.
Then we went to lunch. The thing about the US is that, when doing 'ethnic' food, they only do it one way. Kebaps are only served on a skewer and disregard the kind we had today. It was mixed meat, build-your-own into toasted Pita bread. As always, it was delicious. We sat on the second floor and had a nice view of the street and the Golden Horn.
While we were there, one of the sisters called someone on the street a 'f*g,' as she was pointing him out in the conversation. Gen and I were both surprised; that's not a term that LGBTQ friends hear lightly, at least in the US. The sister said it wasn't as bad here; she, at least, greets her fiends in a joking, 'hey, asshole/ whore' sort of tone, and calling someone by that term she had just used was just a way to point out someone slightly different from the rest. Sure, this guy was a tourist with the ends of his hair bleached, but that was the first time I'd heard her use the term.
It could be a cultural difference in connotation, but I feel like it could be something else, just by observing the way that she and her sister (and Gen, to an extant, by hanging out with them al summer) talk about themselves - eating until they're full and calling themselves 'fat' or 'glutton' or things like that. Sometimes I want to talk sense into them when they say that. IT'S FOOD. YOU HAVE A FUNCTIONING DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. YOU CAN EAT UNTIL YOU ARE FULL, UNLIKE BILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. I'd feel like I was crossing some sort of line if I actually said that, though.
After lunch, we visited the New Mosque, which was pretty cool. I didn't have as much context for it as some of the other mosques we've been to, so I couldn't appreciate it as much as the others, but it was still cool.
Then we walked to Taksim, where, after almost an hour's stop in Starbucks, we went on a Quest for Notebooks. It was fun, and took us to small stores dedicated only to notebooks and pens (of the drawing sort, too), which is AMAZING. We also went to a small bookstore. I was tempted, but the danger in remaining there would be that I would later have a full capacity to speak Turkish and also an empty wallet from ALL THE TURKISH BOOKS I would buy. I wound up with two notebooks; sadly, neither of them are any that James would appreciate.
Then Buse and I headed out to meet Hülya; Bergüm and Genesis stayed on to do some more shopping and meet up with Buse and Bergüm's dad later.
In all, today was fun. Another slow day ahead, but I'm looking forward to it. :)
