Sunday, September 15, 2013
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Friday, September 13, 2013
"I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts." - Herman Melville, "Moby Dick" (Entry 21, Day 13)
Once again, college. I'm sorry.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
"Not I - nor anyone else, can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself." - Walt Whitman (Entry 19, Day 12)
10:46 PM; car
Yes, I know, I switched pens. I lost the other one , somehow, in the last five minutes.
Anyway, the museum we went to was really cool. It had to do with various technological developments - from the printing press and typewriter to the progression of planes, trains, and cars.
(pause for Friday planning)
We saw a video about the NASA trips to Saturn and its moons. we were the only ones there for the film, which was in Turkish without English subtitles, so Begüm had to translate for me. The rest of the museum had English sides to the info cards, so it all worked out fine after the film.
We left the museum around 1:00 or 1:30, and went to the Miniatürk museum. We had lunch at the cafe there, and then we walked around to see the displays, which were really cool. They were all laid out outside, and they're all plastic scale models of the major sites in Turkey with audio descriptions available. There are places like Maiden's Tower in the Bosphorus, but also like Cappadochia and Ephesus and stuff. It was really cool. Paths connected each of the 'sites,' which are on plots of grass and blocked off with rope, like in normal museums (except for the water-based ones, like the Maiden's Tower; they have a pseudo-Bosphorous - an actual body of water - where the Maiden's Tower was place).
My apologies for my atrocious handwriting. ....this, will write when we get back.
Yes, I know, I switched pens. I lost the other one , somehow, in the last five minutes.
Anyway, the museum we went to was really cool. It had to do with various technological developments - from the printing press and typewriter to the progression of planes, trains, and cars.
(pause for Friday planning)
We saw a video about the NASA trips to Saturn and its moons. we were the only ones there for the film, which was in Turkish without English subtitles, so Begüm had to translate for me. The rest of the museum had English sides to the info cards, so it all worked out fine after the film.
We left the museum around 1:00 or 1:30, and went to the Miniatürk museum. We had lunch at the cafe there, and then we walked around to see the displays, which were really cool. They were all laid out outside, and they're all plastic scale models of the major sites in Turkey with audio descriptions available. There are places like Maiden's Tower in the Bosphorus, but also like Cappadochia and Ephesus and stuff. It was really cool. Paths connected each of the 'sites,' which are on plots of grass and blocked off with rope, like in normal museums (except for the water-based ones, like the Maiden's Tower; they have a pseudo-Bosphorous - an actual body of water - where the Maiden's Tower was place).
My apologies for my atrocious handwriting. ....this, will write when we get back.
"Make voyages! Attempt them... there's nothing else." - Tennessee Williams (Entry 18, Day 12)
Thursday, 22 August, 2013; 10:30 PM; Waffle Line
Yep, we're standing in line to get waffles, because we're cool. it's way after dinner, so this is dessert, I guess. I'm excited. I'm splitting one with Genesis, though. I don't think I can handle she sugar otherwise. (change: I'm stealing bits of others, because splitting won't work).
So this morning, we went to Istanbul with Hülya. I don't recall the name of the museum we went to, but it was really cool.
Yep, we're standing in line to get waffles, because we're cool. it's way after dinner, so this is dessert, I guess. I'm excited. I'm splitting one with Genesis, though. I don't think I can handle she sugar otherwise. (change: I'm stealing bits of others, because splitting won't work).
So this morning, we went to Istanbul with Hülya. I don't recall the name of the museum we went to, but it was really cool.
"Make voyages! Attempt them... there's nothing else." - Tennessee Williams (Entry 17; Day 11/12)
Thursday, August 22, 2013; 12:46 AM; our room
I fear that this must be very brief, because we have to wake up before 9:00 tomorrow. Well, today. Whatever. This etry is for the 21st of august, so... yeah. I might not hit the page count; if I don't, I'm sorry. I'll make up for it at some point.
This morning was fairly uneventful. I woke up at around 9, had cereal for breakfast, painted my own nails, hung out on the balcony with my iPod for a while. I was the only one awake, so it doesn't count as being antisocial.
I woke Gen up at 11:00 ish, just so I could have someone to talk to after a while.
After she was properly awake and showered and stuff, we hung out in the living room for a while. Buse was up by 1:00; Begüm was up around 3:00. At 4:00, all of us except Buse went to the pool and swam around a bit. I remained radioactively pale. It's rather unfortunate.
After that, we came back and made fried chicken and salad for dinner. Buse and I played piano for a little bit. I had a flashback to a piano recital when I was 7 - one of Buse's books has Bach's Minuet in G. Muscle memories die hard, especially when established young.
When Hülya arrived, we all had a brief, joking discussion on how we should make sure to get the ferry back from Princes' Islands when we go - apparently (jokingly) there are vampires and werwolves on the islands. We decided that Buse would be the bodyguard, because she's seen the most episodes of True Blood, so she knows best how to fight them.
Starting at around 11:15, Günay, Hülya, Gen, Buse, and I had a really intense game of 51. We didn't play the full 11 hands - we only gout to around 8 before we decided we were tired enough to want to go to bed.
I WON! The point is to have the fewest points, and I had 150. Buse had 160; Günay had 168. It was all really fun.
I was established in the first round as the biggest competition, because I made Gen, Buse, and Günay all get the 100-point penalty for not opening their hand by the time someone closes. Günay is really competitive in n amusing sort of way. He calls the Joker "JoJo" and ill frequently say something along the lines of "Where's my JoJo? Where's my friend? Hülya, do you have my JoJo? Are you split between JoJo and me?" (that last bit was only once or twice, and definitely in a joking manner). He frequently would talk as he inspected his hand, his cigarette wagging in his mouth and everything coming out in a really amusing manner. It was hilarious.
In all, I think this evening has been one of the most memorable, because this evening we laughed the most. It was the first time I've hung out with the whole family together, and it was great.
Now, sleep.
I should have written before. Oh, well.
I fear that this must be very brief, because we have to wake up before 9:00 tomorrow. Well, today. Whatever. This etry is for the 21st of august, so... yeah. I might not hit the page count; if I don't, I'm sorry. I'll make up for it at some point.
This morning was fairly uneventful. I woke up at around 9, had cereal for breakfast, painted my own nails, hung out on the balcony with my iPod for a while. I was the only one awake, so it doesn't count as being antisocial.
I woke Gen up at 11:00 ish, just so I could have someone to talk to after a while.
After she was properly awake and showered and stuff, we hung out in the living room for a while. Buse was up by 1:00; Begüm was up around 3:00. At 4:00, all of us except Buse went to the pool and swam around a bit. I remained radioactively pale. It's rather unfortunate.
After that, we came back and made fried chicken and salad for dinner. Buse and I played piano for a little bit. I had a flashback to a piano recital when I was 7 - one of Buse's books has Bach's Minuet in G. Muscle memories die hard, especially when established young.
When Hülya arrived, we all had a brief, joking discussion on how we should make sure to get the ferry back from Princes' Islands when we go - apparently (jokingly) there are vampires and werwolves on the islands. We decided that Buse would be the bodyguard, because she's seen the most episodes of True Blood, so she knows best how to fight them.
Starting at around 11:15, Günay, Hülya, Gen, Buse, and I had a really intense game of 51. We didn't play the full 11 hands - we only gout to around 8 before we decided we were tired enough to want to go to bed.
I WON! The point is to have the fewest points, and I had 150. Buse had 160; Günay had 168. It was all really fun.
I was established in the first round as the biggest competition, because I made Gen, Buse, and Günay all get the 100-point penalty for not opening their hand by the time someone closes. Günay is really competitive in n amusing sort of way. He calls the Joker "JoJo" and ill frequently say something along the lines of "Where's my JoJo? Where's my friend? Hülya, do you have my JoJo? Are you split between JoJo and me?" (that last bit was only once or twice, and definitely in a joking manner). He frequently would talk as he inspected his hand, his cigarette wagging in his mouth and everything coming out in a really amusing manner. It was hilarious.
In all, I think this evening has been one of the most memorable, because this evening we laughed the most. It was the first time I've hung out with the whole family together, and it was great.
Now, sleep.
I should have written before. Oh, well.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." - Lao-Tsu (Entry 16, Day 10)
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. :)
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. :)
Monday, September 9, 2013
"If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears." - Glenn Clark (Entry 15, Day 9)
Monday, 19 August, 2013; 10:40 PM; Host family's living room.
Today, I learned several things.
1. Turkish soap Operas are... interesting. I'm still trying to figure out whether I like this show or not. It's a formulaic plot of "who slept with whose former fiancée/ spouse, who is this girl in love with, who is feeling guilty for stabbing the FMC in the uterus" type of shows (though I don't entirely understand why someone stabbed the FMC in the uterus). I also don't get why the girl's former fiancée keeps bringing her flowers. You'd think he'd get the hint after the third time he saw her put them in the dumpster. Wait... no... she's keeping them this time. Also, the ad break went during the Epic Romantic Stare on the Balcony. The funny bit was that it was an ad for a set of fried eggs that were placed kind of like eyes.
2. Supermarkets are a good place to learn languages.
3. Ketchup is spelled similarly in Turkish.
4. 51 is a fun card game. It involves trying to get rid of all one's cards in a manner that is difficult to explain. It's called 51 because you have to have the cards you're trying to open with add up to 51. You can open with 3/4 of the cards of a certain number (three eights, for example), but if it doesn't add up, you can't open. You'll frequently need to open with multiple sets. The other way to do it is to have a streak of numbers in the same suit. Jokers are used if necessary, though if someone clears their hand and you still have one in your hand (aka not on the table), then you get a penalty. You also get penalized if you discard a card that someone else could use (like the fourth eight) and if you start to open and then realize you can't. Also, Ace of Spades (incurs a penalty if you have it in your hand). All of those are a 25 - point penalty. If you don't open by the time someone else clears their hand, then you get penalized 100 points. The game uses two decks of cards; everyone gets dealt 14 cars; the person to the left of the dealer starts. There's an upside-down pile that you draw your cards from. The discard pile is face-up; you can draw from that, but only if it means you can open something with it. That doesn't apply to the first person, who starts with the card face-up.
5. Apparently, the adults in the house can get super competitive over a game of 51.
6. Bergüm, we learned, can play computer games until four in the morning, and then sleep until almost four in the afternoon.
7. Coca-cola has way less sugar here than it does in the US. In a 330 mL, there's 37 grams of sugar; in the US, it's at least 45.
That's basically what we did today. Gen and I woke up at around 11and had a breakfast of Nutella and bread. We tried to put honey on it, too, but Gen accidentally dropped the jar. Since it's glass, it broke. We cleaned as best we could, but we still had to tread with caution for the rest of the day (Part of the issue is that it's frequently considered impolite to wear your shoes indoors, so we normally go barefoot).
At around 2:00, I learned to play 51. I'm terrible at it - once we played with penalties, it quickly became clear that I would lose miserably (I kept putting away usable cards and not being able to open my hand before Buse cleared all of hers) (A/N: I would like to point out, for the record, that this has as much to do with Buse's being excellent at 51 as it does with my noob status). In all, I as around 300 points behind Buse by the end of it all.
As previously mentioned, Bergüm woke up at around 4:00. After she arrived in the living area and we wrapped up the card game, we all sat around and didn't do much. I did a bit of reading, messed up my samurai sudoku, and did a little bit of writing. For some reason, I was able to start in a new world (writing-wise) today. Normally I stick to the ones I've already created, but this was a weird and unexpected combination of dystopia (not really) and DnD classes. The setup is one of the darker things I've written. The speaker is being hazed into this organization by participating in this underground revolution. It has to be underground because if they get found out, they'll be found guilty in a ten-minute trial and wiped from existence. Like, each of their names will be erased from the ledgers of their landlord, their grocer, the brothel, and the public library. All debts will be erased, and mages will remove them from the memories of everyone except their mothers, who will be forbidden to speak of them.
I don't know where I'm going to go with this, but I like it. I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that it kind of reminds me of 1984. (I wasn't a huge fan of the work at the time I read it. The only things that got me through it were patience and half a pound of jellybeans).
Ah, well. It's not as bad as the time I had to read 80% of Wuthering Heights in a day. That wasn't fun. Wuthering Heights is obnoxiously dense. At least Jane Austen has some sort of adaptability! And Jane Austen, if experienced as an audiobook, is actually pretty good!
Conclusion:
If you ike dystopia, read George ORwell.
If you like character developmment in your romance novels, read Jane Austen.
If you want a super-massive brain fart, read Wuthering Heights.
Today, I learned several things.
1. Turkish soap Operas are... interesting. I'm still trying to figure out whether I like this show or not. It's a formulaic plot of "who slept with whose former fiancée/ spouse, who is this girl in love with, who is feeling guilty for stabbing the FMC in the uterus" type of shows (though I don't entirely understand why someone stabbed the FMC in the uterus). I also don't get why the girl's former fiancée keeps bringing her flowers. You'd think he'd get the hint after the third time he saw her put them in the dumpster. Wait... no... she's keeping them this time. Also, the ad break went during the Epic Romantic Stare on the Balcony. The funny bit was that it was an ad for a set of fried eggs that were placed kind of like eyes.
2. Supermarkets are a good place to learn languages.
3. Ketchup is spelled similarly in Turkish.
4. 51 is a fun card game. It involves trying to get rid of all one's cards in a manner that is difficult to explain. It's called 51 because you have to have the cards you're trying to open with add up to 51. You can open with 3/4 of the cards of a certain number (three eights, for example), but if it doesn't add up, you can't open. You'll frequently need to open with multiple sets. The other way to do it is to have a streak of numbers in the same suit. Jokers are used if necessary, though if someone clears their hand and you still have one in your hand (aka not on the table), then you get a penalty. You also get penalized if you discard a card that someone else could use (like the fourth eight) and if you start to open and then realize you can't. Also, Ace of Spades (incurs a penalty if you have it in your hand). All of those are a 25 - point penalty. If you don't open by the time someone else clears their hand, then you get penalized 100 points. The game uses two decks of cards; everyone gets dealt 14 cars; the person to the left of the dealer starts. There's an upside-down pile that you draw your cards from. The discard pile is face-up; you can draw from that, but only if it means you can open something with it. That doesn't apply to the first person, who starts with the card face-up.
5. Apparently, the adults in the house can get super competitive over a game of 51.
6. Bergüm, we learned, can play computer games until four in the morning, and then sleep until almost four in the afternoon.
7. Coca-cola has way less sugar here than it does in the US. In a 330 mL, there's 37 grams of sugar; in the US, it's at least 45.
That's basically what we did today. Gen and I woke up at around 11and had a breakfast of Nutella and bread. We tried to put honey on it, too, but Gen accidentally dropped the jar. Since it's glass, it broke. We cleaned as best we could, but we still had to tread with caution for the rest of the day (Part of the issue is that it's frequently considered impolite to wear your shoes indoors, so we normally go barefoot).
At around 2:00, I learned to play 51. I'm terrible at it - once we played with penalties, it quickly became clear that I would lose miserably (I kept putting away usable cards and not being able to open my hand before Buse cleared all of hers) (A/N: I would like to point out, for the record, that this has as much to do with Buse's being excellent at 51 as it does with my noob status). In all, I as around 300 points behind Buse by the end of it all.
As previously mentioned, Bergüm woke up at around 4:00. After she arrived in the living area and we wrapped up the card game, we all sat around and didn't do much. I did a bit of reading, messed up my samurai sudoku, and did a little bit of writing. For some reason, I was able to start in a new world (writing-wise) today. Normally I stick to the ones I've already created, but this was a weird and unexpected combination of dystopia (not really) and DnD classes. The setup is one of the darker things I've written. The speaker is being hazed into this organization by participating in this underground revolution. It has to be underground because if they get found out, they'll be found guilty in a ten-minute trial and wiped from existence. Like, each of their names will be erased from the ledgers of their landlord, their grocer, the brothel, and the public library. All debts will be erased, and mages will remove them from the memories of everyone except their mothers, who will be forbidden to speak of them.
I don't know where I'm going to go with this, but I like it. I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that it kind of reminds me of 1984. (I wasn't a huge fan of the work at the time I read it. The only things that got me through it were patience and half a pound of jellybeans).
Ah, well. It's not as bad as the time I had to read 80% of Wuthering Heights in a day. That wasn't fun. Wuthering Heights is obnoxiously dense. At least Jane Austen has some sort of adaptability! And Jane Austen, if experienced as an audiobook, is actually pretty good!
Conclusion:
If you ike dystopia, read George ORwell.
If you like character developmment in your romance novels, read Jane Austen.
If you want a super-massive brain fart, read Wuthering Heights.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
"It's where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are." - Joyce Carol Oates (Entry 14, Day 8)
Sunday, 18 August, 2013; 9:49 PM; Host family's iving room.
Well, I've finally made it to my host family's house and met everyone. They're all super nice. genesis was an exchange student on a summer program a few years ago; she's from New York - she and I are the same age (she just finished her first year at NYU). Buse and Begüm are the two sisters (and I just got Buse to spell their names so I didn't mess them up); Buse is going to start high school soon (she's hoping to go to a German school, since it focuses on sciences), Begüm is finishing up at an Italian school (that might be one that focuses on the humanities, but I'm not sure).
That's the interesting thing about schooling in Turkey: high school is almost like undergrad college in the US, and University is like getting grad degrees. Turkey produces some of the youngest doctors in the world because of this system - they're done with their essential relevant sciences by the time they go to college, so they can go to their specialty right when they go to college. Sometimes I wonder why the US doesn't do that, but Gizem said yesterday that some students could say the same about the admissions process in the US. Maybe if the two could get meshed together, it would work out for the best.
The major events of today have mostly been coming to this house and having dinner here. All the people are really nice. The girls keep going on a bout this card game called 51. Apparently it's addicting. I'm just waiting for my tutorial on the matter so I can see for myself.
Right, Gen is back from showering, and Bergüm brought in water... I think we're waiting for Buse to go shower before we start. Or maybe w're just waiting for Buse to finish watching Teen Wolf and... never mind.
I apparently just made up a new word - 'creepertude.' It's when people are being very creepy. Maybe. I dunno.
Also, Genesis spoiled what happens at the Red Wedding (Game of Thrones). I have been told that revealing the Red Wedding events is revealing the events of the Super Mega Epic Spoiler of the series. Now I know the Super Huge Twist at the end of the series, and I'm not even a real 20 pages into the first book yet. Thanks, Gen.
(If any readers want to know who dies, it's EVERYONE YOU LOVE AND CARE ABOUT AND EVERYONE YOU HATE AND EVERYONE YOU ARE AMBIVALENT ABOUT. THE REST OF THE SERIES IS A LIE. That's the most spoiler-free spoiler I can come up with in the Game of Thrones universe).
I really need to get into GoT more. It would save me a whole lad of hassle, like having to go "BLAH BLAH BLAH" and plug my ears whenever Alex and Sean go on about GoT, or getting kind of mad at Genesis about spoiling the Red Wedding. (If your'e reading this, Gen, I'm still working on forgiving you about it).
I'm not sure what to say right now. The four of us are hanging out in the living room. I've taken a few breaks (from writing) to talk to people about stuff (like talk to Gen about the spoilers), but not much of consequence happened today. Boring, I know.
Well, on the way, we stopped at one of the largest malls in Istanbul. Gizem and I didn't get anything except some water at Starbucks, because we were waiting for her dad to pick something up.
We did stop at one place before that. We went to a smaller mall that's open-air (the top level is, at least; all the shops have glass windows and roofs, but there's no universal ceiling to the walkways). We didn't do much shopping there, but Gizem did stop at this one place called Watson's. I'd call it a pharmacy type place, but it's not, really, because you can't fill meds there, and places like CVS have snacks and stuff, too. Watson's is basically the entire personal care area of CVS, but a lot bigger. Soap, shampoo, cosmetics, nail polish, toothbrushes, lip balm, all that sort of thing. They have way more of it than CVS would ever stock, because it's a specialty store. I didn't think you could have that much of those specific items in one store. Obviously, there's the places like Bath and Body Works, which do just the lotions and some air fresheners and stuff, and there's the outlets just for cosmetics, but this is like... this is not either of those. Really, it's like personal care in CVS exploded into a premises bigger than it ever would have at CVS.
Right, enough about Watson's. We didn't even do that much there. Why did I spend so much time describing it? I think I'm just trying to fill space, at this point.
To summarize:
1. my host family is really nice.
2. my host cousin makes really good crepes.
3. don't ask Genesis what happens at the Red Wedding.
4. Istanbul has rally big malls.
5. Some of these malls do not have proper ceilings on the top floor.
6. Watson' is basically the Personal Care Store of Everything You'd Possibly Need To Take Care Of Your Body (except maybe tampons. Didn't check for those).
Wit that, I'm going to conclude this entry. Goodnight.
P.S. Gen and I are on the top floor. It gets kind of warm, but the view from our balcony is great.
Well, I've finally made it to my host family's house and met everyone. They're all super nice. genesis was an exchange student on a summer program a few years ago; she's from New York - she and I are the same age (she just finished her first year at NYU). Buse and Begüm are the two sisters (and I just got Buse to spell their names so I didn't mess them up); Buse is going to start high school soon (she's hoping to go to a German school, since it focuses on sciences), Begüm is finishing up at an Italian school (that might be one that focuses on the humanities, but I'm not sure).
That's the interesting thing about schooling in Turkey: high school is almost like undergrad college in the US, and University is like getting grad degrees. Turkey produces some of the youngest doctors in the world because of this system - they're done with their essential relevant sciences by the time they go to college, so they can go to their specialty right when they go to college. Sometimes I wonder why the US doesn't do that, but Gizem said yesterday that some students could say the same about the admissions process in the US. Maybe if the two could get meshed together, it would work out for the best.
The major events of today have mostly been coming to this house and having dinner here. All the people are really nice. The girls keep going on a bout this card game called 51. Apparently it's addicting. I'm just waiting for my tutorial on the matter so I can see for myself.
Right, Gen is back from showering, and Bergüm brought in water... I think we're waiting for Buse to go shower before we start. Or maybe w're just waiting for Buse to finish watching Teen Wolf and... never mind.
I apparently just made up a new word - 'creepertude.' It's when people are being very creepy. Maybe. I dunno.
Also, Genesis spoiled what happens at the Red Wedding (Game of Thrones). I have been told that revealing the Red Wedding events is revealing the events of the Super Mega Epic Spoiler of the series. Now I know the Super Huge Twist at the end of the series, and I'm not even a real 20 pages into the first book yet. Thanks, Gen.
(If any readers want to know who dies, it's EVERYONE YOU LOVE AND CARE ABOUT AND EVERYONE YOU HATE AND EVERYONE YOU ARE AMBIVALENT ABOUT. THE REST OF THE SERIES IS A LIE. That's the most spoiler-free spoiler I can come up with in the Game of Thrones universe).
I really need to get into GoT more. It would save me a whole lad of hassle, like having to go "BLAH BLAH BLAH" and plug my ears whenever Alex and Sean go on about GoT, or getting kind of mad at Genesis about spoiling the Red Wedding. (If your'e reading this, Gen, I'm still working on forgiving you about it).
I'm not sure what to say right now. The four of us are hanging out in the living room. I've taken a few breaks (from writing) to talk to people about stuff (like talk to Gen about the spoilers), but not much of consequence happened today. Boring, I know.
Well, on the way, we stopped at one of the largest malls in Istanbul. Gizem and I didn't get anything except some water at Starbucks, because we were waiting for her dad to pick something up.
We did stop at one place before that. We went to a smaller mall that's open-air (the top level is, at least; all the shops have glass windows and roofs, but there's no universal ceiling to the walkways). We didn't do much shopping there, but Gizem did stop at this one place called Watson's. I'd call it a pharmacy type place, but it's not, really, because you can't fill meds there, and places like CVS have snacks and stuff, too. Watson's is basically the entire personal care area of CVS, but a lot bigger. Soap, shampoo, cosmetics, nail polish, toothbrushes, lip balm, all that sort of thing. They have way more of it than CVS would ever stock, because it's a specialty store. I didn't think you could have that much of those specific items in one store. Obviously, there's the places like Bath and Body Works, which do just the lotions and some air fresheners and stuff, and there's the outlets just for cosmetics, but this is like... this is not either of those. Really, it's like personal care in CVS exploded into a premises bigger than it ever would have at CVS.
Right, enough about Watson's. We didn't even do that much there. Why did I spend so much time describing it? I think I'm just trying to fill space, at this point.
To summarize:
1. my host family is really nice.
2. my host cousin makes really good crepes.
3. don't ask Genesis what happens at the Red Wedding.
4. Istanbul has rally big malls.
5. Some of these malls do not have proper ceilings on the top floor.
6. Watson' is basically the Personal Care Store of Everything You'd Possibly Need To Take Care Of Your Body (except maybe tampons. Didn't check for those).
Wit that, I'm going to conclude this entry. Goodnight.
P.S. Gen and I are on the top floor. It gets kind of warm, but the view from our balcony is great.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
"The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Michael Proust (Entry 13, Day 7)
Saturday 17 August, 2013; 10:59 PM; Host family Family's house
Today was quite interesting. Gizem got the day off from her internship (she's studying architecture and is doing an internship in that field), and she went around the city with me. It really makes a difference to go around a city with someone who actually knows something about it. For example, we spent a good amount of time on the street where we were on Tuesday (the one that leads up to Taksim) (A/N: actually, this is what most of the locals actually call Taksim. That is the street name. When people asked me, 'have you been to Taksim?', they meant to inquire as to whether I had been to this market street), but Gizem and her friend, Aja (sp?), didn't go to any of the major stores - they knew where to turn for all of the small offshoots of shops of small trinket-type items that are still cool.
Today was also nice because I got a solid ten hours of sleep, and it was completely okay. Of course, that and the post-dinner coffee will mean that I probably get a solid four hours tonight, but it was worth it.
Anyway, at breakfast I learned an important way to eat bread and eggs. If the eggs are fried but the yolk is still gooey, EAT THE YOLK WITH THE BREAD FIRST, so it won't get all gross all over your plate. I saw Gizem doing it this morning, and I realized just how genius it actually was.
THe way to eat bread, aside from with egg yolk, is with this Turkish milk-based spread and honey. It's really good. I wish Americans had Turkish food. REAL Turkish food. Can't we all just move to Turkey? (Actually, no, I'm pretty sure the Turks would hate it).
Anyway, we went to the same street where the group was on Tuesday to meet up with Gizem's friend whose name I can't spell but is really nice. After we met up with her, we passed a school (the one that Can and Mert described as a high-school Turkish Harvard, because you need practically full marks on the entry exams to get in), where people were staging a nonviolent protest. Gizem's friend explained that it was a protest of the jailing of some people from the Taksim Square protests.
She also explained why people were doing the Taksim protests in the first place. Apparently, the government is favoring a select number of people for benefits of some sort. They say it's because these people are good Muslims (or something to that effect), but there are enough people who are equally fit under those terms that people are starting to get fed up with the whole thing (as in, "I DO THOSE THINGS! WHERE ARE MY BENEFITS?"). Initially the protest started with just some people in the square, tying to draw attention to it. That happens a lot with political protests in Turkey, apparently - people try to draw attention to things, but it dies down after a few months. The difference this time is that after the protesters went to their tents and square and went to bed one night, the police came and set fire to the tents. Not many people died, thankfully, but still - there were kids in some of those tents.
Anyway, that's what made this not just another protest, I think - people aren't liking what's going on. As far as I know, the people in jail weren't acting too far outside of the law, if at all.
After the protest explanations and the small shopping, we went to a cafe to get a snack. Even lentil salads are really good here! It's ridiculous!
I think I've been more daring with food since I've ben here - if you told me two weeks ago that I'd be having a lentil salad and enjoying it, I'd give you a weird look and tell you to keep telling yourself that. But today I had a lentil salad, and it was great.
After we paid, Gizem and I left her friend and went to Istanbul Modern - a museum for modern art. Some of the pieces were actually really cool. There was one really long textile that had a photo of cigarette smoke woven onto it (for lack of a better term). There was also a film with two tapes running side-by-side - one of the daily comings and goings of home life, and the other of news footage of protests and bombings. It's kind of saying 'people are oblivious' and 'life goes on' at the same time.
After the museum, we took a ferry to the Asian side and back again. We saw the Maiden's Tower and Princes Islands on the way. Gizem said that she didn't know why the Islands were called that, and the guidebook didn't say. the story of the tower is kind of interesting, though.
So a king learns from a fortune teller that his daughter is going to be killed (A/N: some say that it was a prophetic dream that she will be killed on her eighteenth birthday). What does he do? BUILD A TOWER ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RIVER. (okay, not in the middle, but but far enough away that if an assassin were to swim out there, they'd be too tired to do much except wheeze and groan upon arrival, and then they'd probably wouldn't have the energy to get back). Anyway, the princess lives in the tower for a few years and doesn't die from direct assassination. In a true twist of fate that normally only happens in tales like these, she does die, because someone manages to hide a venomous snake in the fruit bowl that was her meal one day (they took food out to her every day). The moral of the story is that you can't escape fate, because Fate will find a way to stick a snake in your fruit if it has to. If Fate has to stick a snake in your fruit, it probably means you're going to die alone in a tower in the Bosphorus.
On that happy note, I'm going to bed.
Good Song: The other woman? By...???
Today was quite interesting. Gizem got the day off from her internship (she's studying architecture and is doing an internship in that field), and she went around the city with me. It really makes a difference to go around a city with someone who actually knows something about it. For example, we spent a good amount of time on the street where we were on Tuesday (the one that leads up to Taksim) (A/N: actually, this is what most of the locals actually call Taksim. That is the street name. When people asked me, 'have you been to Taksim?', they meant to inquire as to whether I had been to this market street), but Gizem and her friend, Aja (sp?), didn't go to any of the major stores - they knew where to turn for all of the small offshoots of shops of small trinket-type items that are still cool.
Today was also nice because I got a solid ten hours of sleep, and it was completely okay. Of course, that and the post-dinner coffee will mean that I probably get a solid four hours tonight, but it was worth it.
Anyway, at breakfast I learned an important way to eat bread and eggs. If the eggs are fried but the yolk is still gooey, EAT THE YOLK WITH THE BREAD FIRST, so it won't get all gross all over your plate. I saw Gizem doing it this morning, and I realized just how genius it actually was.
THe way to eat bread, aside from with egg yolk, is with this Turkish milk-based spread and honey. It's really good. I wish Americans had Turkish food. REAL Turkish food. Can't we all just move to Turkey? (Actually, no, I'm pretty sure the Turks would hate it).
Anyway, we went to the same street where the group was on Tuesday to meet up with Gizem's friend whose name I can't spell but is really nice. After we met up with her, we passed a school (the one that Can and Mert described as a high-school Turkish Harvard, because you need practically full marks on the entry exams to get in), where people were staging a nonviolent protest. Gizem's friend explained that it was a protest of the jailing of some people from the Taksim Square protests.
She also explained why people were doing the Taksim protests in the first place. Apparently, the government is favoring a select number of people for benefits of some sort. They say it's because these people are good Muslims (or something to that effect), but there are enough people who are equally fit under those terms that people are starting to get fed up with the whole thing (as in, "I DO THOSE THINGS! WHERE ARE MY BENEFITS?"). Initially the protest started with just some people in the square, tying to draw attention to it. That happens a lot with political protests in Turkey, apparently - people try to draw attention to things, but it dies down after a few months. The difference this time is that after the protesters went to their tents and square and went to bed one night, the police came and set fire to the tents. Not many people died, thankfully, but still - there were kids in some of those tents.
Anyway, that's what made this not just another protest, I think - people aren't liking what's going on. As far as I know, the people in jail weren't acting too far outside of the law, if at all.
After the protest explanations and the small shopping, we went to a cafe to get a snack. Even lentil salads are really good here! It's ridiculous!
I think I've been more daring with food since I've ben here - if you told me two weeks ago that I'd be having a lentil salad and enjoying it, I'd give you a weird look and tell you to keep telling yourself that. But today I had a lentil salad, and it was great.
After we paid, Gizem and I left her friend and went to Istanbul Modern - a museum for modern art. Some of the pieces were actually really cool. There was one really long textile that had a photo of cigarette smoke woven onto it (for lack of a better term). There was also a film with two tapes running side-by-side - one of the daily comings and goings of home life, and the other of news footage of protests and bombings. It's kind of saying 'people are oblivious' and 'life goes on' at the same time.
After the museum, we took a ferry to the Asian side and back again. We saw the Maiden's Tower and Princes Islands on the way. Gizem said that she didn't know why the Islands were called that, and the guidebook didn't say. the story of the tower is kind of interesting, though.
So a king learns from a fortune teller that his daughter is going to be killed (A/N: some say that it was a prophetic dream that she will be killed on her eighteenth birthday). What does he do? BUILD A TOWER ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RIVER. (okay, not in the middle, but but far enough away that if an assassin were to swim out there, they'd be too tired to do much except wheeze and groan upon arrival, and then they'd probably wouldn't have the energy to get back). Anyway, the princess lives in the tower for a few years and doesn't die from direct assassination. In a true twist of fate that normally only happens in tales like these, she does die, because someone manages to hide a venomous snake in the fruit bowl that was her meal one day (they took food out to her every day). The moral of the story is that you can't escape fate, because Fate will find a way to stick a snake in your fruit if it has to. If Fate has to stick a snake in your fruit, it probably means you're going to die alone in a tower in the Bosphorus.
On that happy note, I'm going to bed.
Good Song: The other woman? By...???
Friday, September 6, 2013
"I sought trains; I found passengers." - Paul Theroux (Entry 12, Day 6)
Friday, 16 August, 2013; 10:53 PM; Host Family's House
Okay, that heading is a bit of a lie. Im really at the Host Family's Family's house - that of their uncle, aunt, and cousin, Gizem (not sure I spelled that right). Anyway, they're all really nice. The mom kept giving me extra food during dinner - that's the culture here. Pace yourself. Being told you eat well is a compliment, but's also one of those things that you get asked about by inquiring family members. Gizem's grandma called during dinner and apparently asked whether I ate well.
(later, after hanging laundry)
Anyway, Gizem and her parents are really nice. Gizem, for example, just brought me some tea. The idfficult is, of course, that Gizem's third language is English (her second is French); she and her dad have to translate for her mom. In all, it's worked out all right.
But now t tell about the rest of the day.
We woke up at 6 AM with six hours of sleep. We had to rush to make sure everything was where it should be by 7:00, but the bus was still haf an hour late. Most of the ride to Edirne was spent asleep or trying to imitate it. It's a three-hour ride, so we were able to catch up well enough.
The first place we went was founded in the fifteenth (or maybe sixteenth) century as an affordable hospital and med school. They even offered free meds on certain days of the week. They also had inpatient care for people with mental or physical issues ranging from epilepsy to depression to melancholy to lunacy, and designed the inpatient area to be avery acoustically sound - the hospital used a lot of music therapy as treatment. They even used different styles of music to treat different things. I wasn't familiar with all the styles, so I can't say which belonged to which issue (I also can't remember any of the names of the styles).
After that, we had lunch at a meatball place. Sean had liver, which I don't totally get; it's not necessarily that the liver is bad, it's just that the meatballs are really good.
(Also, just wanted to say again how SUPER AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL the family is. Just had the whole discussion of What Time To Wake Up Tomorrow. We decided on the 9-10 range. I can work with that. Also, Gizem said that she just read the host family letter I had to write in April and she said she really liked it. That makes me very happy :) ).
Right. After our 2:00-ish lunch, we went to two mosques. I don't recall the name of the first one, but it was interesting for two reasons (that I recall):
1. there were a lot of domes in the courtyard and they were ALL PAINTED, and they were each different from the ones on either side (I think they matched from across the courtyard, but it was still really cool).
2. There were a lot of domes inside, too, and THOSE were all unique, too, as well as the corners of the dome (well, the corners in the space below the dome). Some were honeycombed, some were fluted, all were really coo. There are also carvings on the wooden shutters (for lack of a better term) on the windows in all the niches; those were all variations on the same pattern as well.
Backtrack for a second: before we went to this mosque, we went to a small bazaar (we went to one before lunch, too, and I got YARN. It's all acrylic, but still). At the bazaar after lunch, I got two head scarves and some bracelets for some friends. Mom had a mixup with the seller of the bracelets. She wanted to buy a keychain; she thought he was asking 15 Lira for it (about $7.50), when he was really asking 1.5 Lira ($.75). Obviously, $7.50 is a bit pricey for a keychain, so she tried to bargain it to 10 Lira. He seemed really confused, and eventually he had to pull out the exact amount from the change drawer to show her that 10 Lira is not what he'd take for a keychain.
Back to later. The second mosque we visited was called the Old Mosque. It was built in 1414 and was one of the original mosques in Turkey. In style, it actually resembles some of the mosques in Egypt and that area. It's really cool because the names of Allah and the prophets are written right onto the stone, not painted onto tile and hung up.
After the Old Mosque, we went and dropped Alex off at the place where she would meet her family. However, the guide seemed to have thought that both Sean and I were going to the Asia side, so he said both of us would be dropped off with Can at the ferry. We met Can, and he said Cemre told him that he only needed to handle Sean's passage (I thought that too). After making a few calls, he sorted it all out, and we figured out what was going on and whom we had to meet where, and there I met Gizem and her dad, and it all worked out fine. HUZZAH!
Okay, that heading is a bit of a lie. Im really at the Host Family's Family's house - that of their uncle, aunt, and cousin, Gizem (not sure I spelled that right). Anyway, they're all really nice. The mom kept giving me extra food during dinner - that's the culture here. Pace yourself. Being told you eat well is a compliment, but's also one of those things that you get asked about by inquiring family members. Gizem's grandma called during dinner and apparently asked whether I ate well.
(later, after hanging laundry)
Anyway, Gizem and her parents are really nice. Gizem, for example, just brought me some tea. The idfficult is, of course, that Gizem's third language is English (her second is French); she and her dad have to translate for her mom. In all, it's worked out all right.
But now t tell about the rest of the day.
We woke up at 6 AM with six hours of sleep. We had to rush to make sure everything was where it should be by 7:00, but the bus was still haf an hour late. Most of the ride to Edirne was spent asleep or trying to imitate it. It's a three-hour ride, so we were able to catch up well enough.
The first place we went was founded in the fifteenth (or maybe sixteenth) century as an affordable hospital and med school. They even offered free meds on certain days of the week. They also had inpatient care for people with mental or physical issues ranging from epilepsy to depression to melancholy to lunacy, and designed the inpatient area to be avery acoustically sound - the hospital used a lot of music therapy as treatment. They even used different styles of music to treat different things. I wasn't familiar with all the styles, so I can't say which belonged to which issue (I also can't remember any of the names of the styles).
After that, we had lunch at a meatball place. Sean had liver, which I don't totally get; it's not necessarily that the liver is bad, it's just that the meatballs are really good.
(Also, just wanted to say again how SUPER AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL the family is. Just had the whole discussion of What Time To Wake Up Tomorrow. We decided on the 9-10 range. I can work with that. Also, Gizem said that she just read the host family letter I had to write in April and she said she really liked it. That makes me very happy :) ).
Right. After our 2:00-ish lunch, we went to two mosques. I don't recall the name of the first one, but it was interesting for two reasons (that I recall):
1. there were a lot of domes in the courtyard and they were ALL PAINTED, and they were each different from the ones on either side (I think they matched from across the courtyard, but it was still really cool).
2. There were a lot of domes inside, too, and THOSE were all unique, too, as well as the corners of the dome (well, the corners in the space below the dome). Some were honeycombed, some were fluted, all were really coo. There are also carvings on the wooden shutters (for lack of a better term) on the windows in all the niches; those were all variations on the same pattern as well.
Backtrack for a second: before we went to this mosque, we went to a small bazaar (we went to one before lunch, too, and I got YARN. It's all acrylic, but still). At the bazaar after lunch, I got two head scarves and some bracelets for some friends. Mom had a mixup with the seller of the bracelets. She wanted to buy a keychain; she thought he was asking 15 Lira for it (about $7.50), when he was really asking 1.5 Lira ($.75). Obviously, $7.50 is a bit pricey for a keychain, so she tried to bargain it to 10 Lira. He seemed really confused, and eventually he had to pull out the exact amount from the change drawer to show her that 10 Lira is not what he'd take for a keychain.
Back to later. The second mosque we visited was called the Old Mosque. It was built in 1414 and was one of the original mosques in Turkey. In style, it actually resembles some of the mosques in Egypt and that area. It's really cool because the names of Allah and the prophets are written right onto the stone, not painted onto tile and hung up.
After the Old Mosque, we went and dropped Alex off at the place where she would meet her family. However, the guide seemed to have thought that both Sean and I were going to the Asia side, so he said both of us would be dropped off with Can at the ferry. We met Can, and he said Cemre told him that he only needed to handle Sean's passage (I thought that too). After making a few calls, he sorted it all out, and we figured out what was going on and whom we had to meet where, and there I met Gizem and her dad, and it all worked out fine. HUZZAH!
"Tip the world over on its side, and everything loose will land in Los Angeles." - Frank Lloyd Wright (Entry 11, Day 6)
Friday, 16 August, 2013; 4:23 PM; bus
Just got done being a tourist in Edina; heading back to Istanbul and the host families now.
Anyway, finishing yesterday:
After the Topkapi (did I mention it was huge?), we went to the Archaeological museum. They have things from Mesopotamia, including the world's oldest love poem (also, nobody who has seen fragments of Cuneiform is allowed to call my handwriting small ever again); also, they had sarcophagi from Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as things like headstones and statues from the latter two (And the Alexander Sarcophagus! That was pretty cool). I kept trying to translate the Greek, but it wasn't really working. What I found interesting is that they translated chaire/ chairete as 'farewell,' when I've always learned those to mean 'hello' or the singular/ plural imperative of 'rejoice.'
After the Archaeological museum, we went to the Hagia Sophia, which was really cool, if only because it's housed two different faiths. You can kind of tell in the artwork - it's hard to get rid of the Christian mosaics, especially the ones on the ceiling, but there are places where crosses have been painted over with Muslim Iconography (I assume it's Muslim - Islam was the next faith to take up there). Also, the Muslim influence is evident in the Arabic calligraphy hung up there - I think they're the names of Allah and the Prophets, and they show up in almost every mosque. It's impressive in the fact that the idea, at least, of the Hagia Sophia has been on that spot for at least 1500 years (the building burned a few times).
After the Hagia Sophia, we went to the cisterns, which was really cool. The columns are all lit from the bottom so it looks a little creepy and a lot of epic. There are always to go see through it, which is cool. there's one offshoot that leads to a column carved with Evil Eyes, and two more that each have a large carving of Medusa's face at the base. For some reason, I remember the whole place smelling like a Smithsonian Museum.
After that was an info session about the Blue Mosque, and then the Blue Mosque itself. We went to the info thing, partly because it sounded interesting and partly because evening prayers weren't done yet.
The mosque itself is enormous and is called the Blue Mosque for the simple fact that almost all of the 21000 tiles that decorate the inside have some little portion of blue on them somewhere. In terms of grandeur, it's for sure more impressive than the Hagia Sophia, but I think the Hagia Sophia has more impressive of a story.
Interestingly, the mosques haven't really started running together in my had yet. I know I had a major problem with the Italian Cathedrals, but I think part of it is that the mosques are far more individualized than the cathedrals. Also, I never really got any backstories for any of the places in Italy.
For example, a sample of a conversation in Italy:
Mom: we're going to St. John's Basilica Today!!
Me: okay... what happened at St. John's Basilica?
Mom: I don't know... but it's famous, so we're going.
Me: blargh.
Here, though, the backstory is more readily available, so the whole thing is a lot more interesting.
I'm done for yesterday. Will do today's recap tonight.
p.s. fish dinner last night = super good!!
Just got done being a tourist in Edina; heading back to Istanbul and the host families now.
Anyway, finishing yesterday:
After the Topkapi (did I mention it was huge?), we went to the Archaeological museum. They have things from Mesopotamia, including the world's oldest love poem (also, nobody who has seen fragments of Cuneiform is allowed to call my handwriting small ever again); also, they had sarcophagi from Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as things like headstones and statues from the latter two (And the Alexander Sarcophagus! That was pretty cool). I kept trying to translate the Greek, but it wasn't really working. What I found interesting is that they translated chaire/ chairete as 'farewell,' when I've always learned those to mean 'hello' or the singular/ plural imperative of 'rejoice.'
After the Archaeological museum, we went to the Hagia Sophia, which was really cool, if only because it's housed two different faiths. You can kind of tell in the artwork - it's hard to get rid of the Christian mosaics, especially the ones on the ceiling, but there are places where crosses have been painted over with Muslim Iconography (I assume it's Muslim - Islam was the next faith to take up there). Also, the Muslim influence is evident in the Arabic calligraphy hung up there - I think they're the names of Allah and the Prophets, and they show up in almost every mosque. It's impressive in the fact that the idea, at least, of the Hagia Sophia has been on that spot for at least 1500 years (the building burned a few times).
After the Hagia Sophia, we went to the cisterns, which was really cool. The columns are all lit from the bottom so it looks a little creepy and a lot of epic. There are always to go see through it, which is cool. there's one offshoot that leads to a column carved with Evil Eyes, and two more that each have a large carving of Medusa's face at the base. For some reason, I remember the whole place smelling like a Smithsonian Museum.
After that was an info session about the Blue Mosque, and then the Blue Mosque itself. We went to the info thing, partly because it sounded interesting and partly because evening prayers weren't done yet.
The mosque itself is enormous and is called the Blue Mosque for the simple fact that almost all of the 21000 tiles that decorate the inside have some little portion of blue on them somewhere. In terms of grandeur, it's for sure more impressive than the Hagia Sophia, but I think the Hagia Sophia has more impressive of a story.
Interestingly, the mosques haven't really started running together in my had yet. I know I had a major problem with the Italian Cathedrals, but I think part of it is that the mosques are far more individualized than the cathedrals. Also, I never really got any backstories for any of the places in Italy.
For example, a sample of a conversation in Italy:
Mom: we're going to St. John's Basilica Today!!
Me: okay... what happened at St. John's Basilica?
Mom: I don't know... but it's famous, so we're going.
Me: blargh.
Here, though, the backstory is more readily available, so the whole thing is a lot more interesting.
I'm done for yesterday. Will do today's recap tonight.
p.s. fish dinner last night = super good!!
Thursday, September 5, 2013
"Tip the world over on its side, and everything loose will land in Los Angeles." - Frank Lloyd Wright (Entry 10, Day 5)
Thursday, 15 August, 2013; 11:29 PM; Orient Hostel
We have to wake up early tomorrow, so I'll have to keep this as short as I can. I might go halfway through and finish in the morning.
Anyway, we started off today with walking. We went to the Topkapi Palace, which is now a museum exhibiting.... itself, really, because it's AMAZING.
Ways To Tell Your Empire Is Rich:
1. there are hand-painted tiles in everyone's room.
2. You have four thousand cooks in the palace.
3. The palace is not one but multiple buildings.
4. You inscribe the BLADES of swords, because the handles are encrusted with palm-sized emeralds.
5. The maces (the weapons, not the spice) are gold-plated and the spiky bits are semiprecious stones.
WHO CAN AFFORD THAT? The Ottomans.
Oh, yeah:
6. "What 20-something karat emerald? Oh, you mean my cigarette case?"
7. "What 87-karat diamond? Oh, you mean my headpiece's little embellishment?" (WHO HAS FREAKING 87-KARAT DIAMONDS? The Ottomans, apparently.)
For real, though, the Palace was really cool. It's MASSIVE, with a bunch of courtyards and different areas and buildings and stuff. We saw the treasury, where basically every gem under ten karats is called a trinket and stuck on as an accessory to something.
After the treasury, we went to the Harem. It's where all the wives, the concubines, and the royal family lived. The Sultan could have up to four wives, and whichever one bore him a son got some sort of special status. If they all bore him sons, they all got it, I guess. Or it could be the one that bore him the first son.
Anyway, the Ottomans didn't do primogeniture (A/N: for those who don't know, primogeniture is where the firstborn gets the throne), so if there were multiple sons, they did a lot of battling of politics and blood, and whoever came out on top was the Sultan. The Sultan Mother was actually very influential.
Later on, the custom changed from killing brothers to submitting them to cage life for life, so even if they outlived their sibling they'd be unfit to rule (because they wouldn't know squat about the goings-on of the world. Personally, I think this is worse than being conspiracied to death). It's brutal, but I feel like it might have worked a bit better. I could be wrong on that point, though.
Anyway, I'm going to bed. I'll finish up tomorrow on the bus, hopefully.
We have to wake up early tomorrow, so I'll have to keep this as short as I can. I might go halfway through and finish in the morning.
Anyway, we started off today with walking. We went to the Topkapi Palace, which is now a museum exhibiting.... itself, really, because it's AMAZING.
Ways To Tell Your Empire Is Rich:
1. there are hand-painted tiles in everyone's room.
2. You have four thousand cooks in the palace.
3. The palace is not one but multiple buildings.
4. You inscribe the BLADES of swords, because the handles are encrusted with palm-sized emeralds.
5. The maces (the weapons, not the spice) are gold-plated and the spiky bits are semiprecious stones.
WHO CAN AFFORD THAT? The Ottomans.
Oh, yeah:
6. "What 20-something karat emerald? Oh, you mean my cigarette case?"
7. "What 87-karat diamond? Oh, you mean my headpiece's little embellishment?" (WHO HAS FREAKING 87-KARAT DIAMONDS? The Ottomans, apparently.)
For real, though, the Palace was really cool. It's MASSIVE, with a bunch of courtyards and different areas and buildings and stuff. We saw the treasury, where basically every gem under ten karats is called a trinket and stuck on as an accessory to something.
After the treasury, we went to the Harem. It's where all the wives, the concubines, and the royal family lived. The Sultan could have up to four wives, and whichever one bore him a son got some sort of special status. If they all bore him sons, they all got it, I guess. Or it could be the one that bore him the first son.
Anyway, the Ottomans didn't do primogeniture (A/N: for those who don't know, primogeniture is where the firstborn gets the throne), so if there were multiple sons, they did a lot of battling of politics and blood, and whoever came out on top was the Sultan. The Sultan Mother was actually very influential.
Later on, the custom changed from killing brothers to submitting them to cage life for life, so even if they outlived their sibling they'd be unfit to rule (because they wouldn't know squat about the goings-on of the world. Personally, I think this is worse than being conspiracied to death). It's brutal, but I feel like it might have worked a bit better. I could be wrong on that point, though.
Anyway, I'm going to bed. I'll finish up tomorrow on the bus, hopefully.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
"When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable." - Clifton Fadiman (Entry 9, Day 4)
Wednesday, 14 August, 2013; 10:34 Pm; Orient Hostel
Today has been amazing. the last half-hour was the most informative and aazing for a personal level, some of which I probably shouldn't put here, or at least on the blog when I type this up.
STOP BLOGGING HERE.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blahblahblah bla blah bla bla bla blah blah. Blah. YOUR FACE.
START BLOGGING HERE.
Right, so this morning, we went to a synagogue, which was really cool. There's a ton of security you have to go through before you can actually go in - passport, metal detector, the works. once we were in, we had to wait around a little fora guide to show us around. We also had to wait because the Olympics Application Committee for 2020 was doing a little bit of filming there while we were there.
Once the guide arrived, he talked a little bit about the symbolism of the various things (which I don't really recall) and how the various ceremonies were held. He did the talking in Turkish, so Mert and Can had to translate.
Once we left the sanctuary-type area, we went out into a lobby-tpe place where he talked about kabbalah (spelling?), of mysticism and intellect and such. It was really quite interesting.
As we were leaving, we asked about where the guide was from. His family came from Spain during the Inquisition, as well as another place I can't recall. His family his been in Istanbul for over 600 years, and we learned, on the tail end of the tour, that he also spoke Spanish. (Of the group, not counting the Turks, 5/6 of us have a functional or better level of Spanish).
After that, we went to a museum aboutJews in Istanbul. It was interesting, from what I read. The Turks were very good about being a known haven for the Jews during the Inquisition, and provided refuge for many Jewish families who didn't want to convert and didn't want to die at the hands of the SPanish. I don't recall what it said about World War Two, but I think that was a bit of a different sort of situation.
We had a really good lunch of beans and rice and yogurt and bread and deliciousness.
We went to a mosque afterwards. It was enormous and beautiful. There's an intricate amount of tiling and carving, all the way up to the top of the dome (well the inside of it, anyway).
We stayed there fora while, and it was really nice. We hung around on the grounds as well, which looks like a college campus, if your back is to the mosque. The courtyard, on the other hand, is a place that no college campus can afford - unless they can afford a crap-ton of marble and a time machine to go back and replicate how the people back then did it. There are pillars all around the edge, and above them were blue and white tiles - large ones - invoking the various names of Allah (Allah all-loving, Allah all-powerful, etc) After the mosque, we made a quick stop by the hostel to drop off Katie, who wasn't feeling too well, and to maybe change shirts before we went to Batu's house for dinner. We left an hour late, but we wound up getting there half an hour early.
His house is SO NICE. the rooms are HUGE. The family is so nice, especially his mom. It's turkish custom to give gifts to a host as well as to a guest. Also, she made THE MOST AMAZING FOOD I HAVE EVER HAD EVER. The appetizers were stuffed grape leaves (not at all like what you might get at Lebanese Taverna - they too much olive oil on, and I can't stand olive oil), as well as these things where the outside was sort of like a croissant and the inside had melted cheese and Turkish bacon. Then was the salad. Then was THE BEST RICE EVER as well as this... I don't know what the outside was, but it was stuffed with meat and deliciousness (A/N Update: it was eggplant). Also, for anyone who says that rice is only good with salt or sauce has clearly never had Turkish rice. Seriously. I don't know what Batu's mom did to it, but I didn't know rice came like that. It actually has flavor. Who knew rice could have flavor?
Dessert was three types of baklava that were all homemade, and it was the most amazing baklava that I've ever had. You could tell that it was fresh because it wasn't super duper dry and flaky and hard, like you get a a grocery. It was a bit dry and flaky, but it was clearly not hard, and calling it 'dry' is a bit of stretch. it was so good.
On the way back to the hostel, we had an interesting discussion about politics after we dropped off Can and Mert at the transit they needed. I put in a little bit (the topics were gay rights and abortion), but it was interesting to see Alex and Sean go at it. Alex has done many debate tournaments, so she knows about current events, and Sean is Sean, so he knows a bit about everything. Also, Sean is used to discussing points at length.
Also, when we got back, Jim found his camera, and the case in which he had left an exorbitant amount of money. Huzzah!
Today has been amazing. the last half-hour was the most informative and aazing for a personal level, some of which I probably shouldn't put here, or at least on the blog when I type this up.
STOP BLOGGING HERE.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blahblahblah bla blah bla bla bla blah blah. Blah. YOUR FACE.
START BLOGGING HERE.
Right, so this morning, we went to a synagogue, which was really cool. There's a ton of security you have to go through before you can actually go in - passport, metal detector, the works. once we were in, we had to wait around a little fora guide to show us around. We also had to wait because the Olympics Application Committee for 2020 was doing a little bit of filming there while we were there.
Once the guide arrived, he talked a little bit about the symbolism of the various things (which I don't really recall) and how the various ceremonies were held. He did the talking in Turkish, so Mert and Can had to translate.
Once we left the sanctuary-type area, we went out into a lobby-tpe place where he talked about kabbalah (spelling?), of mysticism and intellect and such. It was really quite interesting.
As we were leaving, we asked about where the guide was from. His family came from Spain during the Inquisition, as well as another place I can't recall. His family his been in Istanbul for over 600 years, and we learned, on the tail end of the tour, that he also spoke Spanish. (Of the group, not counting the Turks, 5/6 of us have a functional or better level of Spanish).
After that, we went to a museum aboutJews in Istanbul. It was interesting, from what I read. The Turks were very good about being a known haven for the Jews during the Inquisition, and provided refuge for many Jewish families who didn't want to convert and didn't want to die at the hands of the SPanish. I don't recall what it said about World War Two, but I think that was a bit of a different sort of situation.
We had a really good lunch of beans and rice and yogurt and bread and deliciousness.
We went to a mosque afterwards. It was enormous and beautiful. There's an intricate amount of tiling and carving, all the way up to the top of the dome (well the inside of it, anyway).
We stayed there fora while, and it was really nice. We hung around on the grounds as well, which looks like a college campus, if your back is to the mosque. The courtyard, on the other hand, is a place that no college campus can afford - unless they can afford a crap-ton of marble and a time machine to go back and replicate how the people back then did it. There are pillars all around the edge, and above them were blue and white tiles - large ones - invoking the various names of Allah (Allah all-loving, Allah all-powerful, etc) After the mosque, we made a quick stop by the hostel to drop off Katie, who wasn't feeling too well, and to maybe change shirts before we went to Batu's house for dinner. We left an hour late, but we wound up getting there half an hour early.
His house is SO NICE. the rooms are HUGE. The family is so nice, especially his mom. It's turkish custom to give gifts to a host as well as to a guest. Also, she made THE MOST AMAZING FOOD I HAVE EVER HAD EVER. The appetizers were stuffed grape leaves (not at all like what you might get at Lebanese Taverna - they too much olive oil on, and I can't stand olive oil), as well as these things where the outside was sort of like a croissant and the inside had melted cheese and Turkish bacon. Then was the salad. Then was THE BEST RICE EVER as well as this... I don't know what the outside was, but it was stuffed with meat and deliciousness (A/N Update: it was eggplant). Also, for anyone who says that rice is only good with salt or sauce has clearly never had Turkish rice. Seriously. I don't know what Batu's mom did to it, but I didn't know rice came like that. It actually has flavor. Who knew rice could have flavor?
Dessert was three types of baklava that were all homemade, and it was the most amazing baklava that I've ever had. You could tell that it was fresh because it wasn't super duper dry and flaky and hard, like you get a a grocery. It was a bit dry and flaky, but it was clearly not hard, and calling it 'dry' is a bit of stretch. it was so good.
On the way back to the hostel, we had an interesting discussion about politics after we dropped off Can and Mert at the transit they needed. I put in a little bit (the topics were gay rights and abortion), but it was interesting to see Alex and Sean go at it. Alex has done many debate tournaments, so she knows about current events, and Sean is Sean, so he knows a bit about everything. Also, Sean is used to discussing points at length.
Also, when we got back, Jim found his camera, and the case in which he had left an exorbitant amount of money. Huzzah!
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - T.S. Eliot (Entry 8, Day 3)
Tuesday, 13 August 2013; 01:28 PM; room, Orient Hostel
Well, as predicted, I didn't sleep well last night - when I slept at all. I'm in for very deep sleep tonight, though. It's been a very long day.
I woke up at 7:15 and went to shower, change, and eat. We were ready to go by the designated time of 9:15.
First we went to the AFS offices to get the orientation of the office and to learn what we'll actually be doing ths week, before we go off to our host families.
We ate lunch at the office. I don't remember what exactly it was that we had, but it was good (also, spicy). There was also this yogurt lassi-type drink - basically, drinkable yogurt - and it was really good, but really salty. Lunch, in general, was good.
Then we went to the mosque of an Islamic sect that I don't recall the name of. They're the sect with the people who dance as part of their worship (they might be the whirling dervishes, but I'm pretty sure that's not right). Anyway, this particular sect is very open-minded and is willing to serve anyone who needs help. For some reason, I think they aren't seen as a "real" sect of Islam by the other sects (I don't recall why - maybe because during the prayer service, they pray in a circle, not facing Mecca). They also call the prayer leader the Dada, which I think translates to 'grandfather' or something. The title is hereditary. You are born a Dada, and I think it's always men who hold the title.
In Islam, theres a similar concept to the Christian idea of the Second Coming of Christ. In Islam, it's Ali's last grandson (I think). (Ali is the son-in-law of Mohammad).
After that, we went to St. Georg, an Orthodox Catholic population of Austrians who are funded by the Austrian state because of their mission for education. They're a very small population, with a core of about 30 people, but they have more when bigger groups come through and worship with them. I find it kind of cool that their patron saint is the guy who killed a dragon. Of course, the dragon is a metaphor for all evil, but whatever. The point remains.
Anyway, they're trying to channel a bit of Evil Fighting by being a part of an unofficial coalition of Christian churches unofficially helping the refugees (I think they're not allowed to officially help the refugees because of legal issues, maybe - something to do abut the separation of faith and state and sensitivity and social programs and... I don't remember a lot of it). They're not technically doing "mission" in terms of "missionary," but I think they're something close, but couldn't technically call it "mission" for the sake of getting funding.
They're also a school - private high school, to be exact. They teach in German but follow Turkish curriculum when necessary. That led to a really interesting discussion about the Turkish school system.
So, basically, the Turkish students have two placement tests: one for high school and one for university. If you get a perfect 500 on the test, you can get access to the top schools and get first pick when you go for schools - you can get early enrollment, in other words. If you get a lower score, you make a list of your top schools and hope that you're matched up well, based on the score you got. When testing for college, you can always wait a year and test again, but the downside is that you put your schooling off for another year.
While we were at St. Georg, we told our guide a bit about the walk-in mission and ASP.
Then our guide told us about an ASP-type thing that goes on in war zones in the Middle East (A/N update: not sure if it's actual war zones, but it's definitely areas where people's houses have been bombed or the residents have otherwise been displaced). When people's houses are bombed, the program - an interfaith one - will send a group of youth to rebuild the houses and also build faith relationships. It was a really spiritual moment - knowing that there are people on the other side of the world who also remember that Christianity is not all about ritual and "We're The One True Faith" and all of that - that Christianity is about Love Thy Neighbor and Help Thy Neighbor.
After St. Georg, we went to Galata Tower, which was once a warning/ lighthouse way back when. It's a great view from the top, but it was kind of narrow and crowded and the platform tilted down, so it did not agree with my heights and lack of affection for them.
After that, we went to St. Antoine, which is a complete antithesis in scale to St. Georg. I think the former is French, and Gothic style, and enormous (and Catholic, I think). It's all the classic things you think of when you think of old cathedrals - stained glass, vaulted ceilings, statues, a layout like a cross on the ground. St. Georg is, as previously stated, a core congregation of thirty, and the chapel space matches that.
Afterwards, Can, Mom, Sean, Alex, and I went to the main square where all the protests have been, while Katie, Mert, and Jim stuck around and didn't walk an extra 45 minutes.
Before that, though, we ran into Batu, completely by chance. Batu was an exchange student this past year to a school in southern Maryland, and he was on his way home from working at a museum, when we were on the street getting ice cream. The ice cream sellers always do this really big show of pretending to give you the ice cream before you actually get it.
Anyway, we're going to dinner at Batu's tomorrow. He lives on the Asian side, sooo.... FIRST TRIP TO ASIA!! WOOHOO!!
Well, as predicted, I didn't sleep well last night - when I slept at all. I'm in for very deep sleep tonight, though. It's been a very long day.
I woke up at 7:15 and went to shower, change, and eat. We were ready to go by the designated time of 9:15.
First we went to the AFS offices to get the orientation of the office and to learn what we'll actually be doing ths week, before we go off to our host families.
We ate lunch at the office. I don't remember what exactly it was that we had, but it was good (also, spicy). There was also this yogurt lassi-type drink - basically, drinkable yogurt - and it was really good, but really salty. Lunch, in general, was good.
Then we went to the mosque of an Islamic sect that I don't recall the name of. They're the sect with the people who dance as part of their worship (they might be the whirling dervishes, but I'm pretty sure that's not right). Anyway, this particular sect is very open-minded and is willing to serve anyone who needs help. For some reason, I think they aren't seen as a "real" sect of Islam by the other sects (I don't recall why - maybe because during the prayer service, they pray in a circle, not facing Mecca). They also call the prayer leader the Dada, which I think translates to 'grandfather' or something. The title is hereditary. You are born a Dada, and I think it's always men who hold the title.
In Islam, theres a similar concept to the Christian idea of the Second Coming of Christ. In Islam, it's Ali's last grandson (I think). (Ali is the son-in-law of Mohammad).
After that, we went to St. Georg, an Orthodox Catholic population of Austrians who are funded by the Austrian state because of their mission for education. They're a very small population, with a core of about 30 people, but they have more when bigger groups come through and worship with them. I find it kind of cool that their patron saint is the guy who killed a dragon. Of course, the dragon is a metaphor for all evil, but whatever. The point remains.
Anyway, they're trying to channel a bit of Evil Fighting by being a part of an unofficial coalition of Christian churches unofficially helping the refugees (I think they're not allowed to officially help the refugees because of legal issues, maybe - something to do abut the separation of faith and state and sensitivity and social programs and... I don't remember a lot of it). They're not technically doing "mission" in terms of "missionary," but I think they're something close, but couldn't technically call it "mission" for the sake of getting funding.
They're also a school - private high school, to be exact. They teach in German but follow Turkish curriculum when necessary. That led to a really interesting discussion about the Turkish school system.
So, basically, the Turkish students have two placement tests: one for high school and one for university. If you get a perfect 500 on the test, you can get access to the top schools and get first pick when you go for schools - you can get early enrollment, in other words. If you get a lower score, you make a list of your top schools and hope that you're matched up well, based on the score you got. When testing for college, you can always wait a year and test again, but the downside is that you put your schooling off for another year.
While we were at St. Georg, we told our guide a bit about the walk-in mission and ASP.
Then our guide told us about an ASP-type thing that goes on in war zones in the Middle East (A/N update: not sure if it's actual war zones, but it's definitely areas where people's houses have been bombed or the residents have otherwise been displaced). When people's houses are bombed, the program - an interfaith one - will send a group of youth to rebuild the houses and also build faith relationships. It was a really spiritual moment - knowing that there are people on the other side of the world who also remember that Christianity is not all about ritual and "We're The One True Faith" and all of that - that Christianity is about Love Thy Neighbor and Help Thy Neighbor.
After St. Georg, we went to Galata Tower, which was once a warning/ lighthouse way back when. It's a great view from the top, but it was kind of narrow and crowded and the platform tilted down, so it did not agree with my heights and lack of affection for them.
After that, we went to St. Antoine, which is a complete antithesis in scale to St. Georg. I think the former is French, and Gothic style, and enormous (and Catholic, I think). It's all the classic things you think of when you think of old cathedrals - stained glass, vaulted ceilings, statues, a layout like a cross on the ground. St. Georg is, as previously stated, a core congregation of thirty, and the chapel space matches that.
Afterwards, Can, Mom, Sean, Alex, and I went to the main square where all the protests have been, while Katie, Mert, and Jim stuck around and didn't walk an extra 45 minutes.
Before that, though, we ran into Batu, completely by chance. Batu was an exchange student this past year to a school in southern Maryland, and he was on his way home from working at a museum, when we were on the street getting ice cream. The ice cream sellers always do this really big show of pretending to give you the ice cream before you actually get it.
Anyway, we're going to dinner at Batu's tomorrow. He lives on the Asian side, sooo.... FIRST TRIP TO ASIA!! WOOHOO!!
Monday, September 2, 2013
"The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Entry 7, Day 2)
Monday, 12 August, 2013; 11:17 PM; Oriental Hostel
Right.
I think another think is that the merchants here aren't as loud as those in Cusco. At the same time, they don't need to be - at least, not on a night like this. Maybe because nobody's back from Ramadan. Maybe because tourism isn't the #1 industry in Istanbul. Maybe nobody in the Super Cusco-Loud Crowd is in this neighborhood, or in this city. Maybe it's a cultural sort of thing.
Okay, forget a little bit of what I said about the hooligans not being on this street. I forgot that the hostel is attached to a bar. The guys coming up now aren't loud, but they're audible, which is distracting. I took my meds before I set my watch forward, so I took them way later than I'm supposed to, so I'll have a lot of energy.
Okay, forget what I said about the barfolk not being obnoxiously loud. They're louder than the last lot that came up.
Guess who might not sleep well tonight?
Right.
I think another think is that the merchants here aren't as loud as those in Cusco. At the same time, they don't need to be - at least, not on a night like this. Maybe because nobody's back from Ramadan. Maybe because tourism isn't the #1 industry in Istanbul. Maybe nobody in the Super Cusco-Loud Crowd is in this neighborhood, or in this city. Maybe it's a cultural sort of thing.
Okay, forget a little bit of what I said about the hooligans not being on this street. I forgot that the hostel is attached to a bar. The guys coming up now aren't loud, but they're audible, which is distracting. I took my meds before I set my watch forward, so I took them way later than I'm supposed to, so I'll have a lot of energy.
Okay, forget what I said about the barfolk not being obnoxiously loud. They're louder than the last lot that came up.
Guess who might not sleep well tonight?
"The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Entry 6, Day 2)
Monday, 12 August, 2013; Oriental Hostel; 10:30 PM
Exploring was fun. We saw what was about and what we can do on the street. There are a lot of restaurants about, with the guys who come up to you in the middle of hte street to get you to go eat there. One of the guys asked me to dance. Since he's significantly older than me and I didn't want to randomly dance with a complete stranger in the middle of the street, I said no
Anyway, back to the recap.
At the AFS offices we met Cemre, who does host family coordination and Becet (Why did I call him that? We all called him Mert), who is also going to be hanging out wiht us this week - he, too, did a year in the US. He's from Ankara, the capital, which is significantly smaller than Istanbul, from what I understand.
Anyway, at the AFS office, we had dinner - Turkish pizza, or Pide. It's on flat bread and doesn't normally have sauce between the bread and the toppings. It's still really good - better than American pizza, anyway. Pide isn't cheese-based, which is different - like, the veggie ones were just veggies and pide and maybe some oil to hold it together.
Anyway, the hostel is really cool. The stairs are tightly winding and sort of steep, but not impossibly so. Since this is a hostel, the room is kind of small, but it works out well enough. We have four beds: one set of bunks (I'm on the top) and one set of twins. From the street, we have a really cool view of the Blue Mosque, or the Sultanahmet Cami (the computer doesn't do the 'i' right! Gah! The 'i' isn't supposed to have a dot on top). According to the guidebook, it was built to rival the Aya Sophia visually (well, it wasn't intended to, but it does anyway). There are 260 windows, and has the largest courtyard of any Ottoman mosque. The original stained-glass windows were Venitian.
Anyway, that's all for that.
When we wandered around tonight, I found it interesting how few people were out and about. Cemre said that it's even a good day for traffic because everyone is out of town to celebrate Ramadan, and are probably staying out a few extra days. Istanbul is definitely a lot more quiet than Cusco or Lima were. This is probably in part due to Cemre's hypothesis and also partly due to the fact that Cusco and Lima were in Super Celebration Mode when we were there. Also, I think Cusco is way more into tourism for he economy, so more people are trying to sell you stuff and yelling and honking and everything else.
Will pause now - need to bed prep. Write in a few.
Exploring was fun. We saw what was about and what we can do on the street. There are a lot of restaurants about, with the guys who come up to you in the middle of hte street to get you to go eat there. One of the guys asked me to dance. Since he's significantly older than me and I didn't want to randomly dance with a complete stranger in the middle of the street, I said no
Anyway, back to the recap.
At the AFS offices we met Cemre, who does host family coordination and Becet (Why did I call him that? We all called him Mert), who is also going to be hanging out wiht us this week - he, too, did a year in the US. He's from Ankara, the capital, which is significantly smaller than Istanbul, from what I understand.
Anyway, at the AFS office, we had dinner - Turkish pizza, or Pide. It's on flat bread and doesn't normally have sauce between the bread and the toppings. It's still really good - better than American pizza, anyway. Pide isn't cheese-based, which is different - like, the veggie ones were just veggies and pide and maybe some oil to hold it together.
Anyway, the hostel is really cool. The stairs are tightly winding and sort of steep, but not impossibly so. Since this is a hostel, the room is kind of small, but it works out well enough. We have four beds: one set of bunks (I'm on the top) and one set of twins. From the street, we have a really cool view of the Blue Mosque, or the Sultanahmet Cami (the computer doesn't do the 'i' right! Gah! The 'i' isn't supposed to have a dot on top). According to the guidebook, it was built to rival the Aya Sophia visually (well, it wasn't intended to, but it does anyway). There are 260 windows, and has the largest courtyard of any Ottoman mosque. The original stained-glass windows were Venitian.
Anyway, that's all for that.
When we wandered around tonight, I found it interesting how few people were out and about. Cemre said that it's even a good day for traffic because everyone is out of town to celebrate Ramadan, and are probably staying out a few extra days. Istanbul is definitely a lot more quiet than Cusco or Lima were. This is probably in part due to Cemre's hypothesis and also partly due to the fact that Cusco and Lima were in Super Celebration Mode when we were there. Also, I think Cusco is way more into tourism for he economy, so more people are trying to sell you stuff and yelling and honking and everything else.
Will pause now - need to bed prep. Write in a few.
"The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Entry 5, Day 2)
Monday, 12 August, 2012: 8:21 PM, Turkey time; Oriental Hostel
We made it without dying, getting hurt, or any other type of malady! WOOHOO! (I did have a weird dream, but whatever).
Istanbul is so cool. We passed through a bunch of different neighborhoods - the run-down areas where you can see that there once was a second floor that no longer exists, to the super-swanky office building areas - as well as several eras of history, from aqueducts to the Hagia Sophia (from the outside) (not actually sure that what we saw was, in fact, the Aya Sophia, but whatever) to various forts and modern architecture. It's a lot of history to cram into one city.
The scenery, as a result, is amazing. When we were heading to the hostel from the AFS offices, we crossed one of the rivers as the sun set. There weren't any clouds, so it was simply a perfect orange circle hanging over hills covered in buildings reflecting off of the water in a warm glow. The mosques, backlit, are so pretty.
The flight over was very uneventful. They fed us at maybe 1 AM, as previously mentioned, and again at 7:30 AM (eastern time). I was able to get an okay amount of sleep. Nobody in front of me was leaning back, and I was able to lean my chair back because there was nobody behind me. I had a weird dream about swimming in clear blue water and teddy bears that change color based on one's celebrity status.
When we landed, we spent an hour (maybe) after the touchdown waiting to get through the passport checkpoint. Then we went to the AFS office with Jon, a returned student who had spent a year in Michigan.
Right, I nee to go unpack and brush my teeth and such. We're going to explore (maybe), so I'll write after that.
A/N: So the Turks spell some things differently from Americans. Jon's name is technically spelled Can, because C has a J sort of sound. That's not the only thing - ç is 'ch' and my computer can't type the "s" with the squiggly thing under that; it's pronounced as 'sh.'
We made it without dying, getting hurt, or any other type of malady! WOOHOO! (I did have a weird dream, but whatever).
Istanbul is so cool. We passed through a bunch of different neighborhoods - the run-down areas where you can see that there once was a second floor that no longer exists, to the super-swanky office building areas - as well as several eras of history, from aqueducts to the Hagia Sophia (from the outside) (not actually sure that what we saw was, in fact, the Aya Sophia, but whatever) to various forts and modern architecture. It's a lot of history to cram into one city.
The scenery, as a result, is amazing. When we were heading to the hostel from the AFS offices, we crossed one of the rivers as the sun set. There weren't any clouds, so it was simply a perfect orange circle hanging over hills covered in buildings reflecting off of the water in a warm glow. The mosques, backlit, are so pretty.
The flight over was very uneventful. They fed us at maybe 1 AM, as previously mentioned, and again at 7:30 AM (eastern time). I was able to get an okay amount of sleep. Nobody in front of me was leaning back, and I was able to lean my chair back because there was nobody behind me. I had a weird dream about swimming in clear blue water and teddy bears that change color based on one's celebrity status.
When we landed, we spent an hour (maybe) after the touchdown waiting to get through the passport checkpoint. Then we went to the AFS office with Jon, a returned student who had spent a year in Michigan.
Right, I nee to go unpack and brush my teeth and such. We're going to explore (maybe), so I'll write after that.
A/N: So the Turks spell some things differently from Americans. Jon's name is technically spelled Can, because C has a J sort of sound. That's not the only thing - ç is 'ch' and my computer can't type the "s" with the squiggly thing under that; it's pronounced as 'sh.'
"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey." - Babs Hoffman (Entry 4, Day 1/ 2)
Later, 12:54 AM
Well... the cheesecake was good. I'm pretty sure that's the best that can be said about plane food attempts beyond cookies/ pretzels/ peanuts - that the cheesecake is good, and that the cherry juice has an interesting flavor. It's definitely cherry-flavored, but it's cherry in the way grape juice is grape. You can definitely tell that it's grape, but it tastes a little bit different from the actual fruit itself.
Currently, Mother is watching (rather, zoning out from) a program on wildlife, it seems, that somehow involves epic mountain vistas and also baby ducklings. I don't know whether or not she's actually awake - she has the face mask on that they give you on long flights like this, and she has the blanket and the pillow too, but she also said "bless you" when I sneezed at the beginning of writing this paragraph. She may be playing the whole game of "Maybe if I cover my eyes and make it look like I'm sleeping, these hooligans will leave me alone." oN the other hand, it's after 1:00 AM now. She could be legitimately zoning out and trying to go to bed. I might try the same - no, I will try the same - once the tray is gone and the table can go up again.
But that shan't happen quite yet - right now they're coming around with after-dinner tea/ coffee/ etc, and also dried apricots in packages.
Man, for one flight from the US every day, the airline must go through a lot of waste. they have a dinner AND breakfast shift (though one would assume that people may try to eat before, but someone might have a connecting flight without food. You never know.)
Anyway, I've written enough, it seems, and Mom has sacrificed her cheesecake, so I'm stopping for now. Will write upon arrival at hostel/ end of day.
Well... the cheesecake was good. I'm pretty sure that's the best that can be said about plane food attempts beyond cookies/ pretzels/ peanuts - that the cheesecake is good, and that the cherry juice has an interesting flavor. It's definitely cherry-flavored, but it's cherry in the way grape juice is grape. You can definitely tell that it's grape, but it tastes a little bit different from the actual fruit itself.
Currently, Mother is watching (rather, zoning out from) a program on wildlife, it seems, that somehow involves epic mountain vistas and also baby ducklings. I don't know whether or not she's actually awake - she has the face mask on that they give you on long flights like this, and she has the blanket and the pillow too, but she also said "bless you" when I sneezed at the beginning of writing this paragraph. She may be playing the whole game of "Maybe if I cover my eyes and make it look like I'm sleeping, these hooligans will leave me alone." oN the other hand, it's after 1:00 AM now. She could be legitimately zoning out and trying to go to bed. I might try the same - no, I will try the same - once the tray is gone and the table can go up again.
But that shan't happen quite yet - right now they're coming around with after-dinner tea/ coffee/ etc, and also dried apricots in packages.
Man, for one flight from the US every day, the airline must go through a lot of waste. they have a dinner AND breakfast shift (though one would assume that people may try to eat before, but someone might have a connecting flight without food. You never know.)
Anyway, I've written enough, it seems, and Mom has sacrificed her cheesecake, so I'm stopping for now. Will write upon arrival at hostel/ end of day.
"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey." - Babs Hoffman (Entry 3, Day 1/ 2)
Monday, 12 August, 2013; 12:18 AM Eastern Time; plane
Okay, I admit, I didn't check up on a lot of history in the guidebook. To be fair, the guidebook is for current, not past, things to do.
Anyway, we've been on the plane for about an hour, and it's pretty standard, as planes go. It's one of those planes that have eight seats across (four in the middle and two on each side), which I haven't been in too often, at least that I remember. I know we had a plane seated like this to Switzerland, but I don't remember any other time.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've seen seats on a plane that are sea foam green. This is also one of the only flights I've been on that hasn't been completely freezing. I might just not notice it because I have a jacket on, but the last overnight flight I've done - the one to Switzerland - I was curling up in a ball under/ into my tie-dye sweatshirt and with maybe a blanket, but I still couldn't get to a decent temperature. I also couldn't get a proper level of comfort or leg room, period. (it might have been because the person sitting in front of me had leaned their seat back ALL THE WAY, which leads to crampiness). (A/N: also, planes.)
Also, the staff is ocming around with dinner. As stated in the Peru entries, I'm not sure how much of it I actually want to eat - it's all processed, packaged, and reheated, and also probably more man-made than chicken- or cod-based (those were the options).
Okay, I admit, I didn't check up on a lot of history in the guidebook. To be fair, the guidebook is for current, not past, things to do.
Anyway, we've been on the plane for about an hour, and it's pretty standard, as planes go. It's one of those planes that have eight seats across (four in the middle and two on each side), which I haven't been in too often, at least that I remember. I know we had a plane seated like this to Switzerland, but I don't remember any other time.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've seen seats on a plane that are sea foam green. This is also one of the only flights I've been on that hasn't been completely freezing. I might just not notice it because I have a jacket on, but the last overnight flight I've done - the one to Switzerland - I was curling up in a ball under/ into my tie-dye sweatshirt and with maybe a blanket, but I still couldn't get to a decent temperature. I also couldn't get a proper level of comfort or leg room, period. (it might have been because the person sitting in front of me had leaned their seat back ALL THE WAY, which leads to crampiness). (A/N: also, planes.)
Also, the staff is ocming around with dinner. As stated in the Peru entries, I'm not sure how much of it I actually want to eat - it's all processed, packaged, and reheated, and also probably more man-made than chicken- or cod-based (those were the options).
Sunday, September 1, 2013
"Stop worrying about the potholes on the road and enjoy the journey." - Babs Hoffman (Entry 2, Day 1)
Sunday, August 11, 2013; 10:12 PM; Airport
Had a nice talk with Alex and Katie at Starbucks until the Starbucks people threw us out because it's closing time for all the commercial places.
Anyway, Istanbul was named such in 1453, after much tribal and regional warfare. Obviously, I'm skipping over a lot of the history of the city, but we're maybe boarding soon, so I'm going to peace out, read the guidebook, and check back in later.
Had a nice talk with Alex and Katie at Starbucks until the Starbucks people threw us out because it's closing time for all the commercial places.
Anyway, Istanbul was named such in 1453, after much tribal and regional warfare. Obviously, I'm skipping over a lot of the history of the city, but we're maybe boarding soon, so I'm going to peace out, read the guidebook, and check back in later.
"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey." - Babs Hoffman (Day 1, Entry 1)
Sunday, 11 August, 2013; 9:20 PM; Airport
We're two hours from the departure time, and I'm really excited. I think I'm the sort of traveller who only gets really excited when they're actually at the airport, through security, and listening to the random little girls playing with their dolls and such. Or it could just be the fact that I missed about half the meetings because, you know, school. Anyway, we're here, and I'm EXCITED.
We're doing a different sort of adventure from in Turkey than the one we did in Peru. This is so much more of a culture/ history thing. It's not much of an outdoorsy, danger (ha), hiking type of thing. Of course, while the whole thing is an adventure, the history in Istanbul is recorded so far back, whereas in Peru there's no recorded writing from that far back. There's pottery from 8000 BC, but there's no alphabet type of thing.
Istanbul, on the other hand, has been a center of the Roman empire and the Greeks before them. It started as Byzantium in 667 BC, named after the leader, Byzas, of the colonists from Megara. The next name change happened in the reign of Constantine, in 330 AD, who named it Constantinople and the centre of the Roman empire.
(Starbucks run. Back later)
We're two hours from the departure time, and I'm really excited. I think I'm the sort of traveller who only gets really excited when they're actually at the airport, through security, and listening to the random little girls playing with their dolls and such. Or it could just be the fact that I missed about half the meetings because, you know, school. Anyway, we're here, and I'm EXCITED.
We're doing a different sort of adventure from in Turkey than the one we did in Peru. This is so much more of a culture/ history thing. It's not much of an outdoorsy, danger (ha), hiking type of thing. Of course, while the whole thing is an adventure, the history in Istanbul is recorded so far back, whereas in Peru there's no recorded writing from that far back. There's pottery from 8000 BC, but there's no alphabet type of thing.
Istanbul, on the other hand, has been a center of the Roman empire and the Greeks before them. It started as Byzantium in 667 BC, named after the leader, Byzas, of the colonists from Megara. The next name change happened in the reign of Constantine, in 330 AD, who named it Constantinople and the centre of the Roman empire.
(Starbucks run. Back later)
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