Hey folks! It’s been awhile since my last post, sorry, but it’s the home stretch of my summer program; inshallah things’ll quiet down in a few weeks. Last weekend I was quite the tourist: I headed down to Sultanahmet with Robin to see Aya Sofia. Last time I was here, I was put off by the steep admission fee, but I figured to actually live here and not see the Aya Sofia of all things would be pretty inexcusable. We found the entrance, and were a bit nonplussed to see the middling-sized line of tourists waiting to buy tickets and get in, but we got in the line and waited, fending off would-be guides as we waited. We had been told that we’d get the Turkish student rate, which is the only discount offered by Aya Sofia, but apparently our summer Bogazici student ID cards weren’t convincing enough to the ticket sellers, so we had to pay 20 YTL instead of 10. I was pretty put out, and wish I would’ve thought to bring my old ODTU ID with me, but I suppose that’s the way life works. We walked into the Outer Narthex and just stopped, stunned: Aya Sofia is devastatingly beautiful. I’ve seen a good number of mosques, and even a fair few churches here in Turkey (not to mention the churches-turned-mosques), and they’ve been incredible, but for the most part they pale in comparison to the Aya Sofia. We wandered from the Outer Narthex to the Inner Narthex, checking out the architecture and mosaics, and then entered the main part of Aya Sofia. It’s simply cavernous. The Blue Mosque was built (roughly 800 years later) to have exactly the same size central dome, but Sinan had to support his dome with four huge pillars, which takes away from the floor plan and the cavernous feeling. It’s really almost impossible to describe, so I’ll direct you to my photostream, where I’ve uploaded the ridiculous amount of photos I took (Aya Sofia pics are currently on pages 3-7):



After we left the Aya Sofia, we met up with Callie in Sultanahmet and went over to the Yerebatan Sarnici (Basilica Cistern), where our student IDs were perfectly fine. It was amazing; I think it may be my favorite place in Istanbul, from a tourist perspective.


It's incredible to think that the entire complex was undiscovered for centuries, until sometime in the last century someone tried to expand their basement and got quite a surprise. There are even fish in the water, apparently before the Cistern was discovered, people in Sultanahmet used to be able to drop fishing lines through their basements and catch fish. Not too shabby a setup. My photos from the Cistern aren't completely organized/labelled yet, but inshallah they will be by the end of this week.

After the Cistern, we headed to the Spice Bazaar for some shopping; Callie and Robin leave next week, so it was serious souvenir time for them. I was just along for the experience, since it's definitely not my souvenir-shopping time yet, but I really didn't mind because I enjoy the Spice Bazaar. It's hands-down better than the Grand Bazaar, much fewer touts and salesmen and desperate sales tactics, although those all can be found at the Spice Bazaar as well. We wound our way through the main bazaar, where I bought some delicious, delicious red pepper paste (it's like tomato paste, but spicy and made with peppers, it's nearly impossible to find in the US), and then through the side streets, which are also filled with bazaar vendors. We spent a good few hours there. Finally, after a last stop at a kitchen goods shop, we made our way back towards the light rail, stopping at Yeni Cami en route. I toured Yeni Cami last time I was here, and I just find it really charming; it has incredible tilework, which separates it somewhat from the other similarly-sized great mosques of the city, and it's generally quieter than the other tourist mosques. And of course, I love a short opportunity to wear a scarf. From there, we walked over the Galata Bridge and hopped on the light rail to Kabatas, where we grabbed a bus back to the dorm.
That night, the collected residents of room 201 headed over to Cat's, a friend of mine, house to catsit her kitten and use her kitchen. After a kitchenless summer, I was amazingly excited to cook again, and Callie was pretty darn excited to bake chocolate-chip cookies. I made a chicken-vegetable sauce with pasta, which was refreshingly non-greasy compared to the Turkish food we'd all been living off of, and I boiled some peaches and served them with brown sugar. It wasn't at all my best effort, but it was amazing to cook again; cathartic even. The cookies turned out incredibly good, and we ate them while watching Ratatouille with Turkish subs for Callie's bf. It was a needed night off/night in. And the kitten is adorable; he has the biggest ears proportionally I think I've ever seen on a cat.

This week has been generally full of class, afterclass Turkish activities, and homework; the positive part of this is that my spoken Turkish is getting noticeably better. Yesterday I went to a lecture on Modern Turkish State and Society, which was right up my alley, and pretty darn interesting. The professor had some interesting points on the progressiveness of the early Turkish Republic. Sadly, he only got completely through the 1950s, before having to rush through the rest of the 20th century in 10 minutes, but it was definitely a worthwhile talk. Today, my class went to a sweet shop for our conversation session, and it was really nice; I just got profiterol (a nice, safe choice for chocoholics like me), and avoided the chicken-and-gelatin dessert (although I think I will have to try it at some point, bilmiyorum). Over the weekend, I'll be studying and packing, as finals are next week and I must leave the dorms midweek. After that, I'll be anchorless for a few weeks til I get settled in over in Ankara, which I'm excited about. Finally.

In non-my-life news, Today's Zaman had an article about Turkey's role in the management of complex conflicts in the Middle East, which is pretty much what my thesis discussed and which is part of what I'm researching this year. The article is here for your reading pleasure. It briefly mentions quite a few issues I've been following closely, especially the shift in relations over Cyprus, so I was pretty pleased to see it.

On that note, I'll leave off til next time
-R