Hey folks,
I'm in a cafe on Istiklal Cad in Istanbul at the moment, working with definitely-not-enough Internet time, so this'll have to be brief til I get to Ankara and stable Internet, inshallah tomorrow. So my summer program ended last week, and it was kind of bittersweet to see most of my Istanbul companions head for home. But, it also was nice, because it meant I had time for travel. Wednesday night, Alyssa, a friend from class, and I took an overnight bus to Ankara, en route to Antakya. We planned it to have a one-day layover in Ankara, which worked well for me because it meant I could bring my huge suitcase and leave it at the Fulbright Ankara offices. We got in pretty darn early after a decent bus--we took Metro to Ankara, which is a more than decent bus company (spendy, to my cheap student sensibilities, but great value. They also have female bus attendants, which pretty much noone else has). We found the Fulbright offices (they're in a really pretty neighborhood), dropped off our bags for the day, were able to shower at the Fulbright office, and headed out to explore my city. We first headed to Anıtkabir, which was even better not ensconced in snowdrifts, as it had been last time I visited. There were a scattered few other tourists there, and the mausoleum part was very pretty and quiet. We then went to the museum part, which is awesome/. It's such a glorification of Ataturk; they have ll his books, and his guns, and his bathrobe, and even his dog, which they stuffed after it died. The next part of the museum is all paintings of the formation of the Republic and portraits of early Republican figures, in between re-created battle scenes, complete with ambient battle noises, of Ataturk's major battles. The final part is row after row of dry clippings and documents about the early Republic, and Ataturk, and Ataturk's aims, all set to overbearing Republican anthems. They sound like the soundtrack to those Soviet propaganda clips shown in high school history classes. It's excellent, although the anthems are a little headache-inducing after a bit.
After fully appreciating Turks' love for Ataturk, we headed over to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, which I appreciated quite a bit despite them no longer offering student admission. From there we made our way through Ulus, down to Kizilay, and over to Cankaya to pick up our bags before the Fulbright office closed. Heavily laden, we tried to find a restaurant listed in Rough Guide as being "eccentric", but it was shut down, so we went to this fantastic brasserie instead: I had a chicken caesar salad, and it was fantastic and delicious, and a strawberry daiquiri, which was similarly excellent. I think I shall have to remember that restaurant for while I'm in Ankara...
After dinner, we made our way to the bus station to catch our night bus to Adana. We were going to Antakya, but had been told that we'd have to switch busses in Adana, so we bargained tickets down to 25 lira and were set. Or so we thought. While loading our bags on the bus, two soldiers guarding a prisoner in chains got on the bus. We were a little nonplussed. We were even more nonplussed to get on the bus and find one of the soldiers and the prisoner in our seats. They wanted to switch seats with us so that the second soldier could be closer to the prisoner, which we were more than fine with. The bus attendant, however, was not, so we got to play musical chairs a few times and finally ended up sitting directly in front of the prisoner, the 2 soldiers, and some sort of military commander who had joined them. The commander I don't think had bathed in the past week or so; still, he was a comforting presence because the soldiers looked all of 16 and both had huuuuge, foot-and-a-half-long guns, and we figured with an authority figure along there'd be less of a chance of an accidental discharge.
Once we got that sorted out, we figured out that our bus actually went through Adana to Antakya, which was where we wanted to end up, so we asked the bus attendant if we could extend our tickets through Antakya, and he said we could, but wanted to charge us an exorbitant sum to do so, so we decided to just get a new bus in Adana. On the way out of the Ankara otogar, the bus engine quit. Luckily the driver got it working again, but on top of everything else it was less than auspicious.
I drifted off a bit, but woke with a start when the bus attendant started the movie for the trip: he chose a Turkish film about demon possession and a Greek Orthodox priest. So the speakers (the mute buttons were broken, of course) were full of demonic roars, and screams, and random Turkish. I think I understood the whole movie though, so that's a bright side there. :P
When we got to Adana, the bus driver didn't want to pay the otogar fee, so they dropped us off on the side of the highway, at 5 am, to take a servis vehicle to the otogar. We got to share the servis with a family who was transporting literally hundreds of pounds of fish food, so much so that we couldn't get out of the vehicle at the otogar til they'd unloaded a good deal of it. It was bizarre. We found a much, much better bus to take us to Antakya thank goodness, and arrived there with no more issues, but that Ankara-Adana bus ride was I think the craziest bus ride I've had here. A note to the wise: avoid SAS bus company. Like the plague.
-R
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The last few days at Boğazici
My summer program is done! I took my final exam and my final oral placement test today, and tomorrow will take the final written placement test and move out of the dorms. The next few weeks are going to be a little interesting, as I don't really have housing yet, but inşallah everything will work out nicely: I'm heading on a bit of a vacation down to Antakya tomorrow night, via Ankara, so I'll be off gallivanting in southern Turkey for a bit before returning to Istanbul, grabbing my luggage, and moving into ARIT's guesthouse in Ankara while I apartment-hunt. Tentatively, I'll be in Ankara next week.
Last weekend was pretty great. Since almost everyone else in the summer program is leaving, everyone's been keen to get some last shopping and sightseeing in. On Saturday I headed sown to Sultanahmet with Abby, to check out a palace. We first grabbed lunch at a restaurant abutting the Aya Sofia, and impressed the waitstaff with our mad Turkish skillz. That's the nice part about the touristy areas of town, that they're so amazed by any amount of Turkish proficiency, as almost all the yabancı tourists speak not a word of Turkish. Anyways, we finished up our lunch and headed over to Topkapı, where we waited in an epicly long line only to find out that they wouldn't accept our student ID cards for the student discount, and that the regular cost of admission came out to 35 YTL each. As that's ridiculous, we decided to not see Topkapı and instead headed down Eminönü through this really gorgeous park to the Galata Bridge, which we took over to Kabataş, and from there walked over to Dolmabahçe Sarayı (Palace). It was closed by the time we got there, but their clock-tower cafe was open, and was serving slushy iced beverages (a rarity in Turkey), so we grabbed a Bosphorous-side table and enjoyed our slushies.
On Sunday, Abby and I returned to Dolmabahçe Sarayı, and after waiting in another epic line (they shut down the ticket booths because the palace reached its maximum capacity at one point) got our 2 YTL students tickets. Dolmabahçe Sarayı is gorgeous; its courtyards and gardens were just beautiful, as were the rooms and halls of the Selamlık and Harem. I generally just got photos of the gardens, as I didn't buy a camera ticket, but I did get a photo of the room where Ataturk died-- Ataturk lived in Dolmabahce for his final years, and had his own suite of rooms in the Harem. His bedspread was a giant Turkish flag representation. It was pretty darn neat. The palace itself was a glory of conspicuous consumption: everything that could be decorated, was decorated, and the furnishings were all red plush, or gilded, or crystal. The ceilings were all gilded and painted with cringeworthy floral motifs. The main palace had a 4.5 ton Waterford crystal chandelier in the hall used for official government business. It was a wonderful celebration of gaudy excess. I loved it.
After Dolmabahçe, I headed back to Superdorm before meeting most of my class to head to one of our professor's house. Betül (our professor) and her rommate and neighbor had made all kinds of Turkish food, and we came equipped with ingredients for a wide variety of American foods, so it was a pretty amazing night of cooking, dinner, and talking. We had these amazing lentil,parsley things wrapped in lettuce leaves, and macaroni salad Turkish-style (no eggs, made with yogurt instead of mayo), eggplant salad, and this sweet wheat-type dish that is hard to describe but kind of like a crumb crust. We students made brownies, a nectarine pie, a boiled peach dish, and this amazing mushroom-garlic-onion dish. It was a really great night; Betül is just adorable, as are her friends, and we talked and laughed for hours in Turkish and English. We really had a good class of folks this summer, so şt was nice to have a bit of a send-off.
The early part of this week has been a flurry of packing, studying, making travel and luggage arrangements, and so on. I'm really looking forward to Antakya: it was originally part of Syria until it was given to Turkey in a referendum, and is the only part of the country that eats hummus (Turkey, although partly Mediterranean, does not do hummus or falafel, as a general rule)ç It also is a hotbed of early Christianity: it's where the term 'Christian' was first used and the site of the first cathedral. The province also is home to the last surviving Armenian village in Turkey. So it's pretty cool. It takes forever and a day to get there though, so we're taking a bus overnight to Ankara, hanging out in my city for a day, and taking another overnight bus to Adana, where we'll grab a dolmuş to Antakya. My travelling companions are returning through Cappadocia, so I may return via Konya or Antalya, depending on whether I'd rather see beaches or religious conservatism and derviş orders. It should be really fun, and I'm sure I'll have scads of photos to overload my Flickr account with when I get back.
Hope you all are doing well,
-R
Last weekend was pretty great. Since almost everyone else in the summer program is leaving, everyone's been keen to get some last shopping and sightseeing in. On Saturday I headed sown to Sultanahmet with Abby, to check out a palace. We first grabbed lunch at a restaurant abutting the Aya Sofia, and impressed the waitstaff with our mad Turkish skillz. That's the nice part about the touristy areas of town, that they're so amazed by any amount of Turkish proficiency, as almost all the yabancı tourists speak not a word of Turkish. Anyways, we finished up our lunch and headed over to Topkapı, where we waited in an epicly long line only to find out that they wouldn't accept our student ID cards for the student discount, and that the regular cost of admission came out to 35 YTL each. As that's ridiculous, we decided to not see Topkapı and instead headed down Eminönü through this really gorgeous park to the Galata Bridge, which we took over to Kabataş, and from there walked over to Dolmabahçe Sarayı (Palace). It was closed by the time we got there, but their clock-tower cafe was open, and was serving slushy iced beverages (a rarity in Turkey), so we grabbed a Bosphorous-side table and enjoyed our slushies.
On Sunday, Abby and I returned to Dolmabahçe Sarayı, and after waiting in another epic line (they shut down the ticket booths because the palace reached its maximum capacity at one point) got our 2 YTL students tickets. Dolmabahçe Sarayı is gorgeous; its courtyards and gardens were just beautiful, as were the rooms and halls of the Selamlık and Harem. I generally just got photos of the gardens, as I didn't buy a camera ticket, but I did get a photo of the room where Ataturk died-- Ataturk lived in Dolmabahce for his final years, and had his own suite of rooms in the Harem. His bedspread was a giant Turkish flag representation. It was pretty darn neat. The palace itself was a glory of conspicuous consumption: everything that could be decorated, was decorated, and the furnishings were all red plush, or gilded, or crystal. The ceilings were all gilded and painted with cringeworthy floral motifs. The main palace had a 4.5 ton Waterford crystal chandelier in the hall used for official government business. It was a wonderful celebration of gaudy excess. I loved it.
After Dolmabahçe, I headed back to Superdorm before meeting most of my class to head to one of our professor's house. Betül (our professor) and her rommate and neighbor had made all kinds of Turkish food, and we came equipped with ingredients for a wide variety of American foods, so it was a pretty amazing night of cooking, dinner, and talking. We had these amazing lentil,parsley things wrapped in lettuce leaves, and macaroni salad Turkish-style (no eggs, made with yogurt instead of mayo), eggplant salad, and this sweet wheat-type dish that is hard to describe but kind of like a crumb crust. We students made brownies, a nectarine pie, a boiled peach dish, and this amazing mushroom-garlic-onion dish. It was a really great night; Betül is just adorable, as are her friends, and we talked and laughed for hours in Turkish and English. We really had a good class of folks this summer, so şt was nice to have a bit of a send-off.
The early part of this week has been a flurry of packing, studying, making travel and luggage arrangements, and so on. I'm really looking forward to Antakya: it was originally part of Syria until it was given to Turkey in a referendum, and is the only part of the country that eats hummus (Turkey, although partly Mediterranean, does not do hummus or falafel, as a general rule)ç It also is a hotbed of early Christianity: it's where the term 'Christian' was first used and the site of the first cathedral. The province also is home to the last surviving Armenian village in Turkey. So it's pretty cool. It takes forever and a day to get there though, so we're taking a bus overnight to Ankara, hanging out in my city for a day, and taking another overnight bus to Adana, where we'll grab a dolmuş to Antakya. My travelling companions are returning through Cappadocia, so I may return via Konya or Antalya, depending on whether I'd rather see beaches or religious conservatism and derviş orders. It should be really fun, and I'm sure I'll have scads of photos to overload my Flickr account with when I get back.
Hope you all are doing well,
-R
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
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
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
Friday, August 01, 2008
The AK Parti, the Constitutional Court, and me
Hey folks,
As many of you know by now, earlier this week the Turkish Constitutional Court voted to dock the AK Parti half of their funding from the state. This is pretty good news, as the banning of the party, and the removal of many of its political leaders from politics for several years, seemed more likely. It was a close vote: the Court came within one vote of banning the party.
The AK Parti was under scrutiny because of what the chief prosecutor termed threats to the secularism of the state. The AK Parti made headlines internationally this year when its politicians passed legislation ending the ban on headscarves in public universities. This is a little misleading though, as they had to amend the Constitution to do so. That whole arrangement caused quite a bit of excitement here, but ultimately the Constitutional Court reversed the changes. This played a large part in the indictment against the AK Parti, as it was used in arguing that the AK Parti was influenced by Sharia law, or had allowed religion to influence its governance of the secular state (clearly there's much more to the issue, I just wanted to give a little background).
Had the AK Parti been banned, Turkey would have had to hold new elections, as the AKP is the majority party at the moment, and one can only speculate on who would have emerged with the majority. There was even speculation that the aftermath of such a ban would have resulted in such turmoil as to 'necessitate' a military coup; many arrests have been made here this summer of suspected members of a secretive group allegedly attempting to bring about illegitimate change in government via instability and intervention. It's all a little Agatha Christie-esque. There's still speculation that the secretive group, Ergenekon, might still be up to something; I guess we'll see. In any case, it's been a fascinating week here on the political side.
My week was perhaps not quite as fascinating; I've already written about the first part of the week, and the second half has been pretty relaxed. On Wednesday I played Turkish Monopoly with my class; it was strange because the game used Turkish Lira instead of Yeni Turkish Lira, and evidently had been produced sometime in the middle of the rampant inflation of the late 90s/early 00s, as I think 20,000 lira was roughly equivalent to the US version's $200 (in today's adjusted currency, that'd be 20 YTL). Our TA had never played Monopoly before, but somehow quite handily beat us all; we're pretty sure she is secretly a ninja. After that, I headed back to Superdorm before heading down to Cat's apartment in Bebek for some pie-baking; her boyfriend was flying in on Thursday, so she wanted to make a peach pie for his family. As I am a fan of baking and currently kitchenless, I was more than willing to head over with one of my roommates for a communal pie-baking effort. Thursday was mainly given over to class and such, although I did find time to reread Pride and Prejudice and order in bruschetta with one of my roommates. Today was pretty nice as well; Callie and I walked down to Cat's after class briefly before walking over to Bodrum Manti in Arnavutkoy (best manti in the country, I'm positive of it) and then heading to Besiktas for some shopping. I picked up some DVDs (feeling just a little foolish for the number of romantic comedies I requested), and then we hit up this huge bookstore, so Callie could look for Turkish childrens books. I browsed around and found the English-language novel section, which comprised 2 shelves. I was pretty excited, as I'd somehow neglected to bring any books with me other than the one I read on the plane and some tomes on foreign policy and the middle east. Sadly, a good half of the English books they had were ancient Greek and Roman authors, and I just didn't think that Aristotle would make light summer reading. Just as I was about to give up on having any fresh reading material, I saw a volume by Mungo Park, who I immediately recognized as the Scotsman who, in the late 18th century, discovered Niger. I didn't know that his journal was in print, but apparently it is, and thus I am now slowly working my way through his Travels in the Interior of Africa; I think it'll last me a decent while.
This weekend I'm really excited to finally see the Aya Sofya, which I disn't see last time I was in Turkey because I wasn't fond of the idea of paying admission, and the Cistern, which should be just awesome, before heading through the Spice Bazaar. My roommates and I are jointly catsitting for a friend, so we'll be spending Saturday night cooking and baking up a storm in the cat's apartment (the joys of kitchen access, let me tell you).
It's a bit hard to believe that I have only a week and a half left of this summer program; I still need to figure out when exactly I'll be moving to Ankara, and how exactly I'll get my stuff there. The program has been really good so far, although the grammar has at times been more of a review than a new lesson for me. I think my vocab has vastly improved, so perhaps I am at a Turkish elementary-school kid's level, rather than a preschooler's level in my speaking ability. Maybe by the end of the year I'll be at middle school level--I'd be pretty content with that.
On that note, I'm off to bed,
-R
As many of you know by now, earlier this week the Turkish Constitutional Court voted to dock the AK Parti half of their funding from the state. This is pretty good news, as the banning of the party, and the removal of many of its political leaders from politics for several years, seemed more likely. It was a close vote: the Court came within one vote of banning the party.
The AK Parti was under scrutiny because of what the chief prosecutor termed threats to the secularism of the state. The AK Parti made headlines internationally this year when its politicians passed legislation ending the ban on headscarves in public universities. This is a little misleading though, as they had to amend the Constitution to do so. That whole arrangement caused quite a bit of excitement here, but ultimately the Constitutional Court reversed the changes. This played a large part in the indictment against the AK Parti, as it was used in arguing that the AK Parti was influenced by Sharia law, or had allowed religion to influence its governance of the secular state (clearly there's much more to the issue, I just wanted to give a little background).
Had the AK Parti been banned, Turkey would have had to hold new elections, as the AKP is the majority party at the moment, and one can only speculate on who would have emerged with the majority. There was even speculation that the aftermath of such a ban would have resulted in such turmoil as to 'necessitate' a military coup; many arrests have been made here this summer of suspected members of a secretive group allegedly attempting to bring about illegitimate change in government via instability and intervention. It's all a little Agatha Christie-esque. There's still speculation that the secretive group, Ergenekon, might still be up to something; I guess we'll see. In any case, it's been a fascinating week here on the political side.
My week was perhaps not quite as fascinating; I've already written about the first part of the week, and the second half has been pretty relaxed. On Wednesday I played Turkish Monopoly with my class; it was strange because the game used Turkish Lira instead of Yeni Turkish Lira, and evidently had been produced sometime in the middle of the rampant inflation of the late 90s/early 00s, as I think 20,000 lira was roughly equivalent to the US version's $200 (in today's adjusted currency, that'd be 20 YTL). Our TA had never played Monopoly before, but somehow quite handily beat us all; we're pretty sure she is secretly a ninja. After that, I headed back to Superdorm before heading down to Cat's apartment in Bebek for some pie-baking; her boyfriend was flying in on Thursday, so she wanted to make a peach pie for his family. As I am a fan of baking and currently kitchenless, I was more than willing to head over with one of my roommates for a communal pie-baking effort. Thursday was mainly given over to class and such, although I did find time to reread Pride and Prejudice and order in bruschetta with one of my roommates. Today was pretty nice as well; Callie and I walked down to Cat's after class briefly before walking over to Bodrum Manti in Arnavutkoy (best manti in the country, I'm positive of it) and then heading to Besiktas for some shopping. I picked up some DVDs (feeling just a little foolish for the number of romantic comedies I requested), and then we hit up this huge bookstore, so Callie could look for Turkish childrens books. I browsed around and found the English-language novel section, which comprised 2 shelves. I was pretty excited, as I'd somehow neglected to bring any books with me other than the one I read on the plane and some tomes on foreign policy and the middle east. Sadly, a good half of the English books they had were ancient Greek and Roman authors, and I just didn't think that Aristotle would make light summer reading. Just as I was about to give up on having any fresh reading material, I saw a volume by Mungo Park, who I immediately recognized as the Scotsman who, in the late 18th century, discovered Niger. I didn't know that his journal was in print, but apparently it is, and thus I am now slowly working my way through his Travels in the Interior of Africa; I think it'll last me a decent while.
This weekend I'm really excited to finally see the Aya Sofya, which I disn't see last time I was in Turkey because I wasn't fond of the idea of paying admission, and the Cistern, which should be just awesome, before heading through the Spice Bazaar. My roommates and I are jointly catsitting for a friend, so we'll be spending Saturday night cooking and baking up a storm in the cat's apartment (the joys of kitchen access, let me tell you).
It's a bit hard to believe that I have only a week and a half left of this summer program; I still need to figure out when exactly I'll be moving to Ankara, and how exactly I'll get my stuff there. The program has been really good so far, although the grammar has at times been more of a review than a new lesson for me. I think my vocab has vastly improved, so perhaps I am at a Turkish elementary-school kid's level, rather than a preschooler's level in my speaking ability. Maybe by the end of the year I'll be at middle school level--I'd be pretty content with that.
On that note, I'm off to bed,
-R
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Hamam mi? Tamam.
So now that it's quieted down somewhat here since my last post, I've been enjoying the culture and such. Ever since I found out I was returning to Turkey, I've been really looking forward to one thing: the hamams. I am a fan of the hamams. In Ankara, we'd go to these wonderful ancient little neighborhood hamams, somewhere in the order of 500-700 years old, filled with little old Turkish ladies (and younger Turkish women as well, but they were pretty popular among the septuagenarian crowd). For under 30 lira, I could get an amazing relaxing break, scrub, and massage, all in this gorgeous marble chamber with scalding-hot water and steam everywhere. It was fantastic.
In Istanbul though, there are tourist hamams, which cater to both Turks and foreigners. I'm sure there are neighborhood hamams, but they're not at all publicized, and I've no clue where they'd be. So, given that Istanbul in the summer is pretty darn hot and sticky, I figured I'd give a tourist hamam a try.
On my roommate's and the Internet's recommendation, I decided to try Çemberlitaş Hamamı, a hamam built by Sinan and right next to Sultanahmet. A friend of mine, one of my roommates, and two friends of my roommate came along as well, as hamams are quintessentially social experiences (that sounds confusing; there were 5 of us). We took the Light Rail to the hamam, which was handy, as it stops literally right in front of Cemberlitas. After a brief and surprisingly fruitless search for an ATM (seriously? We couldn't find an ATM in Sultanahmet??), we entered and paid the receptionist for the "Traditional Bath". It was definitely pricier than my Ankarali neighborhood hamams, but we got a student discount (being a student in Turkey is awesome; so many perks), so it was 35 YTL each. After that, we turned to the women's side and stripped down to our bathing togs and wraps (in hamams, women are traditionally nude, while apparently on the mens side men always keep their underwear/towels strategically on; in tourist hamams like Cemberlitas, some women choose to wear swimsuit bottoms--everyone is given a cotton wrap to stretch out on though), before entering the main part of the hamam. In the main hamam room, there's a huge heated marble slab in the middle, where you start your hamam experience by stretching out and sweating while chatting. It's not unlike a sauna. Around the walls are marble semienclosed chambers for secluded washing/rinsing, and open faucets/basins also for washing/rinsing. It's a decently large room, with a gorgeous vaulted ceiling with small globe-shaped glass windows that kind of looked like stars.
So, we hung out on the marble slab for probably half an hour, 45 minutes, just relaxing and chatting and steaming. After a bit, the bath attendants motioned that it was time for our scrubs. This is probably my favorite part of the hamam experience: hamam attendants are goood, and when they finish scrubbing you down it feels like you shed your old skin in favor of a brand new one. It is awesome. The ones at Cemberlitas had this pretty nifty soap method: they had a pillowcase in a dish of soapy water, and they'd open up the pillowcase, trap air inside it, then wring it out, forcing out cascades upon cascades of bubbles. I may need to try this with my own pillowcase some time. As the attendants scrub, they exfoliate, and scold you for not going to hamams more often (they're like Turkish versions of Norwegian Grandmothers). They really knead your muscles; I can't imagine getting a massage in addition to the scrub, but some people do-- I think my muscles would melt were they subjected to both a scrub and massage. Anyway, the attendants scrub all over, then take you to one of the secluded chambers to wash your hair. They left us there so we could rinse off a bit before going back to the marble slab to chill a bit more. It took a while for all of us to get scrubbed, as there were 5 of us, so I think we were in there almost 3 hours. After we were done, we rinsed off once more at one of the marble fountains, and then left. It's tradition to cool down after hamaming by sitting and having tea for another hour or so, but members of our party were pretty hungry, so we wandered off to find this amazing kofteci right in Sultanahmet (Kofte is kind of the Turkish version of meatballs, but more unhealthy), where we sat, ate, and people-watched before taking the Light Rail back to Kabatas. Cat, Abby and I decided to walk from Kabatas to Besiktas to catch a bus back to campus, so we set off and got distracted by a number of things. First, we wandered by the Basiktas Iskele, which was fortuitous, as we needed to fill up our Akbils (Akbils are Istanbul's version of Charlie Cards, but there are not so many top-up machines). From there, we got to the Besiktas district, where I showed Cat and Abby the DVD shops where I'd stocked up on bootleg Scrubs episodes and various movies; we spent a good 45 minutes going through the DVD selection of one of the shops and they both ended up with a decent amount of Turkish cinema to tide them over. After that, we finally got on a bus to Etiler, and got back to our dorm roughly 6 hours after we'd started out, exhausted but really clean.
It was just so nice to visit a hamam again, and I enjoyed the tourist hamam experience much more than I thought I would, although I still prefer the non-tourist ones back in Ankara. Cemberlitas was a really beautiful hamam, and I kind of wish I could have taken photos of the architecture. There are a few photos of the building at the hamam's website, which you should most definitely check out: Cemberlitas website
In other news, the court's still deliberating over the AKParti's fate, but folks are hedging their bets and starting to register new parties--one apparently is called the Hak Parti, wonder who's name they're playing off there. The Ergenekon case has been fascinating the last few days though; apparently this shadowy group has for 20 years been attempting to cultivate Turkish-Kurdish tensions to destabilize the country enough to semi-legitimize a military coup. It sounds crazy, and it may indeed be, but it's fascinating as it unfolds.
On that note,
-R
In Istanbul though, there are tourist hamams, which cater to both Turks and foreigners. I'm sure there are neighborhood hamams, but they're not at all publicized, and I've no clue where they'd be. So, given that Istanbul in the summer is pretty darn hot and sticky, I figured I'd give a tourist hamam a try.
On my roommate's and the Internet's recommendation, I decided to try Çemberlitaş Hamamı, a hamam built by Sinan and right next to Sultanahmet. A friend of mine, one of my roommates, and two friends of my roommate came along as well, as hamams are quintessentially social experiences (that sounds confusing; there were 5 of us). We took the Light Rail to the hamam, which was handy, as it stops literally right in front of Cemberlitas. After a brief and surprisingly fruitless search for an ATM (seriously? We couldn't find an ATM in Sultanahmet??), we entered and paid the receptionist for the "Traditional Bath". It was definitely pricier than my Ankarali neighborhood hamams, but we got a student discount (being a student in Turkey is awesome; so many perks), so it was 35 YTL each. After that, we turned to the women's side and stripped down to our bathing togs and wraps (in hamams, women are traditionally nude, while apparently on the mens side men always keep their underwear/towels strategically on; in tourist hamams like Cemberlitas, some women choose to wear swimsuit bottoms--everyone is given a cotton wrap to stretch out on though), before entering the main part of the hamam. In the main hamam room, there's a huge heated marble slab in the middle, where you start your hamam experience by stretching out and sweating while chatting. It's not unlike a sauna. Around the walls are marble semienclosed chambers for secluded washing/rinsing, and open faucets/basins also for washing/rinsing. It's a decently large room, with a gorgeous vaulted ceiling with small globe-shaped glass windows that kind of looked like stars.
So, we hung out on the marble slab for probably half an hour, 45 minutes, just relaxing and chatting and steaming. After a bit, the bath attendants motioned that it was time for our scrubs. This is probably my favorite part of the hamam experience: hamam attendants are goood, and when they finish scrubbing you down it feels like you shed your old skin in favor of a brand new one. It is awesome. The ones at Cemberlitas had this pretty nifty soap method: they had a pillowcase in a dish of soapy water, and they'd open up the pillowcase, trap air inside it, then wring it out, forcing out cascades upon cascades of bubbles. I may need to try this with my own pillowcase some time. As the attendants scrub, they exfoliate, and scold you for not going to hamams more often (they're like Turkish versions of Norwegian Grandmothers). They really knead your muscles; I can't imagine getting a massage in addition to the scrub, but some people do-- I think my muscles would melt were they subjected to both a scrub and massage. Anyway, the attendants scrub all over, then take you to one of the secluded chambers to wash your hair. They left us there so we could rinse off a bit before going back to the marble slab to chill a bit more. It took a while for all of us to get scrubbed, as there were 5 of us, so I think we were in there almost 3 hours. After we were done, we rinsed off once more at one of the marble fountains, and then left. It's tradition to cool down after hamaming by sitting and having tea for another hour or so, but members of our party were pretty hungry, so we wandered off to find this amazing kofteci right in Sultanahmet (Kofte is kind of the Turkish version of meatballs, but more unhealthy), where we sat, ate, and people-watched before taking the Light Rail back to Kabatas. Cat, Abby and I decided to walk from Kabatas to Besiktas to catch a bus back to campus, so we set off and got distracted by a number of things. First, we wandered by the Basiktas Iskele, which was fortuitous, as we needed to fill up our Akbils (Akbils are Istanbul's version of Charlie Cards, but there are not so many top-up machines). From there, we got to the Besiktas district, where I showed Cat and Abby the DVD shops where I'd stocked up on bootleg Scrubs episodes and various movies; we spent a good 45 minutes going through the DVD selection of one of the shops and they both ended up with a decent amount of Turkish cinema to tide them over. After that, we finally got on a bus to Etiler, and got back to our dorm roughly 6 hours after we'd started out, exhausted but really clean.
It was just so nice to visit a hamam again, and I enjoyed the tourist hamam experience much more than I thought I would, although I still prefer the non-tourist ones back in Ankara. Cemberlitas was a really beautiful hamam, and I kind of wish I could have taken photos of the architecture. There are a few photos of the building at the hamam's website, which you should most definitely check out: Cemberlitas website
In other news, the court's still deliberating over the AKParti's fate, but folks are hedging their bets and starting to register new parties--one apparently is called the Hak Parti, wonder who's name they're playing off there. The Ergenekon case has been fascinating the last few days though; apparently this shadowy group has for 20 years been attempting to cultivate Turkish-Kurdish tensions to destabilize the country enough to semi-legitimize a military coup. It sounds crazy, and it may indeed be, but it's fascinating as it unfolds.
On that note,
-R
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Bombs in Istanbul
Hey everyone,
So again, I'm absolutely fine; two bombs went off about 2 hours ago in Istanbul, and so far the papers are reporting 13 dead and over 70 injured. It's really not good; this may be (if I recall correctly) the worst attack in Turkey since the HSBC bombs by the PKK in the early 2000s.
On a personal note, the bombs went off in Gungoren, which is about 8 miles as the crow flies from my apartment, so I'm not really near the site, although clearly still closer than I'd prefer to be. I'll be keeping a lowish profile the next few days (although this does not seem to have targeted foreigners--it was in a working-class, non-touristy neighborhood); as I mentioned in an earlier post, the decision on whether to close the AK Parti is expected to be made this week, so political tensions will be high, and this bombing will only exacerbate things. Jenny White speculated in her post about the bombings that they may have been orchestrated by Ergenekon, which frankly makes more sense to me at the moment than the PKK. I suppose time will tell. But for more info:
Jenny White's post, with a concise synopsis: http://www.kamilpasha.com/2008/07/27/bomb/
Turkish Daily News' story, with details: http://turkishdailynews.com.tr/excontent.php?htmlcon=explosionistanbul.htm
BBC's coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7527977.stm
It looks as though whoever did this timed the separate bombs so as to achieve maximum harm: by setting off a smaller "decoy" bomb and then detonating a larger, deadlier one once people had swarmed to help the victims of the first bomb. From the photos on TDN, it looks like some of the injured were children, which is just horrible. I really hope that morning brings more information to light, and hopeful prognoses for the 70+ injured people.
-R
So again, I'm absolutely fine; two bombs went off about 2 hours ago in Istanbul, and so far the papers are reporting 13 dead and over 70 injured. It's really not good; this may be (if I recall correctly) the worst attack in Turkey since the HSBC bombs by the PKK in the early 2000s.
On a personal note, the bombs went off in Gungoren, which is about 8 miles as the crow flies from my apartment, so I'm not really near the site, although clearly still closer than I'd prefer to be. I'll be keeping a lowish profile the next few days (although this does not seem to have targeted foreigners--it was in a working-class, non-touristy neighborhood); as I mentioned in an earlier post, the decision on whether to close the AK Parti is expected to be made this week, so political tensions will be high, and this bombing will only exacerbate things. Jenny White speculated in her post about the bombings that they may have been orchestrated by Ergenekon, which frankly makes more sense to me at the moment than the PKK. I suppose time will tell. But for more info:
Jenny White's post, with a concise synopsis: http://www.kamilpasha.com/2008/07/27/bomb/
Turkish Daily News' story, with details: http://turkishdailynews.com.tr/excontent.php?htmlcon=explosionistanbul.htm
BBC's coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7527977.stm
It looks as though whoever did this timed the separate bombs so as to achieve maximum harm: by setting off a smaller "decoy" bomb and then detonating a larger, deadlier one once people had swarmed to help the victims of the first bomb. From the photos on TDN, it looks like some of the injured were children, which is just horrible. I really hope that morning brings more information to light, and hopeful prognoses for the 70+ injured people.
-R
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Life in this fair city
So life here in Istanbul has been fairly quiet since my last post; I suppose that's what happens when I update more frequently than every 2 weeks. On Thursday, I was supposed to go to a hamam with friends, but I've been kind of sick most of this week, so we postponed that til next Monday or Tuesday. I've been looking forward to going to a hamam again ever since learning I was coming back to Turkey: it is such an amazing and relaxing experience, and you feel so clean afterward, as if you'd traded in your old skin for a fresh one. Mmmmmm, it's nice... I think we're going to a touristy one this week, and I'll be interested to see how the experience compares to my fondly-remembered neighborhood hamams back in Ankara. I've heard some of the tourist ones require you to wear swimsuits, which would be very different.
Friday was my roommate's birthday, so we celebrated with cake in our room before heading out dancing. I should say rather, before everyone else headed out dancing: I was a little light-headed/passing out-ish, which was like a party only not, so I just made an appearance at the cake part and went to bed, hoping to feel better enough this morning to go to Bursa for a daytrip with Robin and Abby. Sadly, I was not quite up to that, so I slept in this morning and will have to get to Bursa sometime later. I need to get there, as Bursa is famous for its bathtowels and I am currently towelless. Anyway, instead of day-tripping, I had a leisurely morning and then headed over to Cat's (the other Fulbrighter) in the afternoon, as she was also sick, for a convalescing party. It was pretty much exactly what I needed: we had a late lunch of healthy vegetarian food, did some studying while watching my sick-day movie of choice, Pride and Prejudice, and chatted/gossiped/planned/commiserated. She's trying to convince me to do a 10k run in late August (it's called The Human Race, which is reason enough to do it right there), but I am pretty sure I am not yet at that stage in my feeble attempts to become a legit jogger. We'll see.
After returning from Cat's, I did a little more studying before indulging myself with a little American comfort food by ordering in an asian chicken wrap and a smoothie. They were wonderful, even if I do feel a little bad for not having real Turkish cuisine. I do feel all better, so I think tomorrow will consist of studying at Starbucks with a roommate and a friend, and doing a little waterfront exploring as a study break. Then, next week will bring the hamam early in the week and inshallah a daytrip to Edirne next Saturday, where Sinan's greatest mosque is located.
Next week should be just fascinating here, politically: the judge in the case to shut down the AK Parti begins considering the case on Monday, which means the verdict could come as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. If the verdict is to close the party, as it is pretty widely expected to be, it will make my research kind of interesting, and at a wider level will make Turkey very interesting, as they'll have to call new elections and many current politicians will be ineligible for office. The AK Parti members will have to re-form as a new party, which may not be as popular as AKP, so it could be a real power shift. Also, given the whole Ergenekon affair (a shadowy group apparently dedicated to effecting a coup, in the name of Kemalism; lots of arrests of supposed members have been carried out in the past few weeks), civil unrest and even a coup might not be unexpected. Kind of makes me wish I was already in Ankara...
On that note, I'll leave off til next time,
-R
Friday was my roommate's birthday, so we celebrated with cake in our room before heading out dancing. I should say rather, before everyone else headed out dancing: I was a little light-headed/passing out-ish, which was like a party only not, so I just made an appearance at the cake part and went to bed, hoping to feel better enough this morning to go to Bursa for a daytrip with Robin and Abby. Sadly, I was not quite up to that, so I slept in this morning and will have to get to Bursa sometime later. I need to get there, as Bursa is famous for its bathtowels and I am currently towelless. Anyway, instead of day-tripping, I had a leisurely morning and then headed over to Cat's (the other Fulbrighter) in the afternoon, as she was also sick, for a convalescing party. It was pretty much exactly what I needed: we had a late lunch of healthy vegetarian food, did some studying while watching my sick-day movie of choice, Pride and Prejudice, and chatted/gossiped/planned/commiserated. She's trying to convince me to do a 10k run in late August (it's called The Human Race, which is reason enough to do it right there), but I am pretty sure I am not yet at that stage in my feeble attempts to become a legit jogger. We'll see.
After returning from Cat's, I did a little more studying before indulging myself with a little American comfort food by ordering in an asian chicken wrap and a smoothie. They were wonderful, even if I do feel a little bad for not having real Turkish cuisine. I do feel all better, so I think tomorrow will consist of studying at Starbucks with a roommate and a friend, and doing a little waterfront exploring as a study break. Then, next week will bring the hamam early in the week and inshallah a daytrip to Edirne next Saturday, where Sinan's greatest mosque is located.
Next week should be just fascinating here, politically: the judge in the case to shut down the AK Parti begins considering the case on Monday, which means the verdict could come as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. If the verdict is to close the party, as it is pretty widely expected to be, it will make my research kind of interesting, and at a wider level will make Turkey very interesting, as they'll have to call new elections and many current politicians will be ineligible for office. The AK Parti members will have to re-form as a new party, which may not be as popular as AKP, so it could be a real power shift. Also, given the whole Ergenekon affair (a shadowy group apparently dedicated to effecting a coup, in the name of Kemalism; lots of arrests of supposed members have been carried out in the past few weeks), civil unrest and even a coup might not be unexpected. Kind of makes me wish I was already in Ankara...
On that note, I'll leave off til next time,
-R
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