Sex, Religion, and Politics

The three things we're not supposed to talk about at the dinner table happen to be three of the most interesting things to discuss when in a new country. People have asked me what I've found to be different here with respect to the US, and honestly I've been surprised at the number of similarities. I particularly thought sexual attitudes would be different here, or at least spoken about differently. But no, just as in the US, young people date who they want, have premarital sex, have access to several birth control methods, and can get an abortion if a mistake happens. That last one surprised me the most. The women I've spoken to viewed this as a very normal thing; this is a right that is guaranteed to women and not controversial at all. When I told them that this has been a contested issue in the US for as long as I could remember, they were shocked. Surely such a progressive country would respect a woman's right to choose! Of course, this is exactly what the religious right would want to hear. Not only are Muslims blowing up buildings, they're killing unborn children, too.

This country is technically about 98% Muslim. I expected this difference in religion to be a pretty prominent part of life. Five times a day, the thousands of mosques throughout the city broadcast the prayer songs. However, I've never once seen anyone stop and pray at these times. We're in the midst of the month-long major Islamic holiday of Ramadan, and yet I've only met one person who is actually fasting. I must say, I feel safer being an atheist here than in the US. Thanks to Atatürk, the national hero and founder of "modern" Turkey, public displays of religion are highly discouraged, so no one is going to get up in your face (*cough* evangelicals) about not being religious. In fact, those full Islamic veils are actually illegal here, though the rule is not strongly enforced. Religion is not supposed to play a role in politics at all around here, and any politician with a perceived "Islamist agenda" is fiercely criticized, or even imprisoned.

Politics are still a huge mystery to me here. Turkey has a prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. I haven't actually met anyone who likes him. This is partly due to his general conservativism and partly due to that perceived Islamist agenda thing. He was imprisoned for a few months a while back, after saying some things that seemed to threaten the separation of religion and politics that is so beloved here. I probably don't have a very neutral view of the political sentiment in Turkey, considering I work and live near a university, and as in the US, universities tend to have pretty progressive views. In a few weeks there will be an election on some constitutional referendum. I don't know the details, and it seems like they are less important than the fact that Erdogan's party (AKP) supports it and the opposing major party (CHP) opposes it. Throughout the city there are banners saying "Evet!" or "Hayır!" ("yes" or "no"). The university area is decidedly a "Hayır!" dominated place.

That's enough serious talk for now. Oh, hey- remember when I posted about that district in Istanbul that I loved? Well, I moved there today, and it's everything I wanted, plus more. I'd be glad to share the details about the reasons for my move in a less public medium, so shoot me an email or IM if you're curious.  I'll definitely miss the old place, but I'll be back up there for work everyday anyway. I'll especially miss little Maya, even if she did poop in my shower all the time.

Weekend Excursions

This weekend brought a much-needed drop in temperature, thanks to some very strong winds from the North. Of course, I chose to celebrate by sleeping most of Saturday. I did manage to get over to the our local bazaar, where I bought some clothing and shoes. I've noticed something interesting: there is a threshold of money under which I think I am physically incapable of turning down something I want. I think it's generally around 5TL ($3.30), though it varies per item. So when I find a comfy, nice-looking pair of shoes for 5TL (a strangely common occurrence), I basically have to buy them. I hate being the type of girl who loves shoe shopping, but I totally love shoe shopping now, thanks to these prices. Here's the local bazaar, which is like a block from my house:

On Sunday I decided I should actually take advantage of the nice weather and headed down to Taksim for a day of shopping and tourist-ing. I think everyone else had the same idea, because it was ridiculously crowded everywhere I went. I had a great time walking along Istiklal Caddesi again, basically following the same route Ferda took me on, but with many stops to check out stores and take pictures. I considered going up in the Galata Tower this time, but the line was crazy long. I walked across the Golden Horn to the old city area, where I impulsively decided to hop on a boat tour of the Bosphorus. The cruise was very nice, especially as the sun was setting. It was also shockingly cold out on the water. Pretty picture time!

Taksim and Galata Tower, from the water:

The clouds were not nearly as imposing as they seem in these photos. Here's Yeni Mosque (New Mosque):

Topkapı Palace:

After the cruise I decided to try some balık ekmek (literally "fish bread"), which are cheap fish sandwiches from freshly caught and cooked fish. They cook them right on the boats:

I bit into my sandwich and got a mouth full of bones. Not just a couple small ones, as I had been warned about, but a full spine and all. I looked around and didn't see anyone else having as much trouble eating their sandwich, so I think I was just unlucky or totally inept. The non-bones part of the sandwich was totally delicious, though.

I tried to take some pictures of the area at night, since it was quite pretty, but I'm still really bad at using my camera in night mode. So far "night mode" has actually meant "colorful squigglies" mode. I took the tram back toward Istiklal Caddesi and explored the nightly Ramadan celebration at the square, featuring some more Turkish bands. I took the bus back to my place afterwards and promptly collapsed. All of this walking is good for me, though, and will hopefully combat the three-times-a-week Burger King (you'd do it to if it was cheap and delivered to your door!).

Taksim

Yesterday I had an exciting night out on the town, exploring the hip and bustling Taksim Square area. After a long bus ride due to epic rush-hour traffic, I met up with my Turkish teacher from Brown, Ferda, and walked along İstiklal Caddesi. The street is closed off to cars and lined with shops, so it's a great place to walk along. I didn't take many pictures, unfortunately, but I'll definitely be back soon (mm, shopping), possibly this weekend. The main street has tons of little side streets off of it, which have lots of cool, smaller shops and many places to drink and dance at night. After some excellent dinner (mm, risotto), we walked over to Galata Tower, a famous Istanbul landmark built back in the 14th century:

It supposedly has some pretty epic views from the top, but unfortunately we got there just when it was closing. Afterwards, we took a walk across the bridge over the Golden Horn to the "old city", where Sultanahmet and such are. The views were so beautiful, but unfortunately I fail at taking pictures at night, so nothing turned out nice enough to post here.

We hopped on a tram to take us back to Taksim Square, where we wandered around a vibrant Ramadan celebration, filled with booths selling jewelry, clothings, etc and some bands playing. We watched a band called Ayna for a bit, as they are apparently a famous Turkish rock band:

 

One of the coolest features was a booth doing ebru, or paper marbling. Paint is carefully manipulated on top of water or other fluids to produce beautiful pictures, which are then transferred onto paper:

It was a pretty excellent evening, and I look forward to exploring the Taksim area some more. I guess there's a reason that all the locals name it as the top place I should visit.

Legendary Istanbul

On Sunday I went to the nearby Sabancı Museum, which currently has a "Efsane İstanbul" ("Legendary Istanbul") exhibit, detailing the epic history of this city. Some of the items on display are about 8000 years old, recently uncovered in an excavation project to build a new subway. Needless to say, it was a pretty awesome exhibit. There was no photography allowed within the exhibit, sadly. The museum grounds were gorgeous, though:

After dinner I walked down to Bebek, which is a cute little neighborhood on the water. It's full of boats, trendy clothing, beautiful houses, and ice cream shops:

A man just appeared in my room and installed a window screen. I can finally open the window at night! Yay!

More shopping!

I had a very eventful (and exhausting) weekend. On Saturday I decided to take a trip down to Beşiktaş, which is a district a bit south of here, on the water. The experience was a little overwhelming, but very fun. It's packed full of stores and people:

I could probably explore this place for days and not see everything. I bought way too much (I bargained successfully, so that means I earned it, right?) and then settled down to enjoy some tasty izgara köfte (grilled lamb meatballs) and a cold beer. I took a nice walk along the strait, which was a pleasant contrast to the bustling streets:

When I got back to the apartment, the roommates and their friends invited me out to dinner, where I learned that I'm not supposed to tip at anything that isn't a classy restaurant. I've been tipping everywhere I go, since it's the American way. They were shocked to hear how much we give in tips and urged me to stop wasting my money like this. I'll probably follow their advice, though it will feel weird. Afterwards, we took a nice walk over to Etiler (the place with the big shopping mall) to get some dessert and had some nice discussions about the US education systems and the craziness that is Brown. They all want to go to the US, but unfortunately Turkish English teachers are not in very high demand there. Interestingly, many people I've talked to have said that they would love to travel in the US, but it is very difficult for a Turkish person to obtain a visa to even vacation there. I wasn't aware that there was such an obstacle, and now feel incredibly lucky that I'm coming from a place where I can travel nearly anywhere.

This post is long and I'm tired of writing, so here's a picture of a cat and I'll talk about my Sunday adventures tomorrow:

Shopping

I finally decided to hop on a bus and see some other parts of Istanbul. I went over to the nearby super-trendy and expensive Etiler neighborhood to check out their giant upscale shopping mall. It was a really fun experience, even though most stores were way out of my price range. I always have fun wandering around malls, regardless of how much I buy. They also have a huge food court filled with Turkish and American food. I had some delicious KFC, possibly one of the best things America has given to the world. I wish I had pictures to show you all, but the place was swarming with security guards and I feel like they would have looked at me funny for taking pictures of a mall. The entrances all had airport-style security, with the bag-scanners and everything. I guess since terrorists have targeted shopping malls in the past, they don't want to take any chances.

I went back to the kebab place for lunch yesterday, and things were okay. No more flirting. Very businesslike. And get this- my kebab meal is now 2 TL more expensive! I can't complain, because I realize now that I was getting a discount before. Oh well.

I pipetted some things today! That's been about the extent of my contribution to lab. Hopefully I can do more on Monday, once everyone is back from vacation.

To keep things pretty, here are some pictures from the park near by house:

The park is sitting at the top of the big 15th century fortress along the water, which you can walk around in. Probably more pictures of this later.

I'm not sure if I can continue to have cute kittens in my posts forever, but I'm certainly going to try:

Unfortunate/funny discovery of the day: The Istanbul bus system has a very excellent interactive map system for planning your route. However, it uses Google maps, which is banned here. Good job, guys.

The First Week

Life continues to be pretty slow. I usually have intentions of going out shopping/sight-seeing after work, but it's so sticky and hot out that I just collapse on the couch and take a nap. Yes, I have a 3000 year old city at my fingertips and I'm spending my afternoons napping.

I've now been here for a full week. It's been great so far, and I suspect it will only get better when I explore more of the city. Apartment is beautiful, roommates are wonderful, work is interesting, food is delicious. Everyone should worry about me less!

Kebab guy asked me on a date yesterday, in adorable broken English. The conversation went like this:
Me: Ah, nasılsın? [How are you?]
Him: Oh, şimdi Türkçe konuşuyorsun? [Oh, you speak Turkish now?]
Me: I am learning! Uh, ögreniyorum!
Him: Maybe we...uh, how you say...practice some time?
Me: Yes, some day we should talk.
Him: Bu akşam [tonight]...uh, this night...you and me...maybe get coffee?
Me (shaking head): Oh, sorry, benim...erkek arkadaşım...var? [I have...a boyfriend?]
Him: Ah, yes, tamam [okay]. See you later.

At the time I felt like I had successfully shot him down, but I realized later that my shaky Turkish could have very easily been interpreted as "you are my boyfriend?" and thus kebab guy might have been waiting for our date last night. I suppose I'll find out next time I run into him. I was flattered by the whole experience, though a little frustrated. Can't we just keep it platonic, kebab guy? That's my favorite place to eat and now it might be awkward.

Ramadan started today! As I am in a 95% Muslim country, I thought this would be a bigger deal. However, Istanbul doesn't seem to care much. I've only met one person so far who is observing it, which entails fasting from dawn to dusk for the next month and never imbibing alcohol. As a post-doc in my lab said, "In Istanbul we love our food and our alcohol. Why give it up?" I wholeheartedly support this way of life. Secularism rocks

Here's one of the views from my kitchen. Be jealous.

AND A KITTEN:

Back at the Bench

I had my first day of work in the lab today. It was mostly like my first days at other labs- exciting, confusing, disheartening. There's always this sense that there is too much to know, and that I'll never be able to actually contribute to the work rather than being a burden. But I've gotten over it before and will hopefully do so again. It's a genetics lab, which is definitely not my area of expertise. Understanding terms like EcoR1 and yeast 2-hybridization is hard enough and is complicated by heavy accents. The lab itself is wonderful, though: very nice equipment, nice people, and a glorious common room with cable TV, couches, tea, and air conditioning, which felt like heaven itself. Everyone keeps apologizing to me about the weather, as if it is their fault. Again, it's nothing I haven't experienced before, but not being able to open the windows at night is still killing me. I decided to risk it and opened the window very early this morning to get in some less-sweaty sleep, and woke up with four new mosquito bites.

Since this shouldn't just be an image blog of cute cats (but seriously, how cute are they?!), here's some photos of the gorgeous Bogazici University campus. First, the view from it, which may be the best view in Istanbul:

The main campus green looks nice enough (and is full of kittens), but the real beauty is in all of the smaller buildings:

...and the wooded paths between them:

Having this serene paradise situated in the middle of crowded and bustling Istanbul makes it all the more awe-inspiring. And since it's so near to my apartment, I can (and will) visit any time I need to a quite, peaceful place to clear my head.

ALSO IT'S FULL OF KITTENS OH MY GOD HE'S SO CUTE AND FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE

Çok sıcak!

It means "very hot," and it's the phrase I've heard constantly over the past few days. Turkey is experiencing some abnormally hot temperatures right now, so my sightseeing has been limited to the area around my apartment. I haven't done anything too exciting, so this post will be dedicated to one of my favorite aspects of Istanbul: the stray animals.

I know that in many cities stray animals are regarded as a nuisance at best and a severe public health danger at worst, but in Istanbul (or at least my neighborhood) they are more like communal pets than pests. On the Boğaziçi University campus especially, the cats are well fed and love attention. The locals tell me it is perfectly fine to pet the stray animals, if they seem to want attention, as there isn't really a problem with them being diseased. Since I absolutely love cats, having adorable kittens running up to me all the time is paradise. They're much cuter than any strays I've seen in America. I have spent hours running around the neighborhood photographing cats, and I'll probably make an entire album devoted to them at some point. Most of them will simply look at you warily, waiting to see if you have food for them:

Others will be downright friendly, running over to you and rolling around on their backs so you can pet them. Most of the university stray cats were like this.

There also stray dogs, though definitely fewer in number than the cats. I am more wary of them, partly because I am decidedly a cat person and partly because they are more able to hurt me if they want to. However, they basically lay around sleeping and getting fed by locals and are very non-threatening. Today this dog walked up to me on campus wagging its tail and proceeded to follow me throughout my entire walk, stopping every time I would turn around to look, Boo-style:

I finally gave in and carefully petted him, after which he seemed to be in love. He followed me all the way home to my apartment and sat outside the door expectantly, which was a little heartbreaking. As an animal lover, I want to care for every stray that I see, but I have to just ignore them and hope they stay out of trouble. There are rumors, strongly denied by the government, that certain districts (especially my own) poison the stray dogs, leading to painful, slow deaths. I very much hope this isn't the case, because so far these dogs have been either friendly walking companions or merely peaceful residents of local parks.

I can see Asia from my house!

I really can, and it's awesome. Things have been excellent since I last posted, except for the mosquito bites. On my first night here I acquired 15 bites, and most of them are still very swollen and itchy. They feel very different from American mosquito bites, but I may just be having an allergic reaction to the new species. They hurt, and they actually make it kind of hard to move my hands and ankles due to the swelling. But hey, if some uncomfortable bites are all I have to complain about, life is good. No more open windows at night, though.

Yesterday was unfortunately rainy and cloudy, but I ventured out for a bit anyway to find food. I couldn't find any places in my vicinity that had English signs or seemed particularly foreigner-friendly, so I went into a döner kebab place that seemed promising. The cook was incredibly nice and asked me about myself in very broken English. I speak very little Turkish, so the conversation was a confusing mix of Turkish, English, and French, the other language that he speaks. The food was phenomenal. It consists of cooked lamb strips in pita, topped with tomatoes, french fries, and pickles. I was skeptical as he was making it, but it tastes fantastic. I went back there today to get more, and he remembered my name and was very happy to see me again. He told me that I am very beautiful, in a nice non-creepy way. I suspect I'll be back there quite often for the cheap and delicious food.

Once it finally cleared up, I spent quite a while walking around the area and trying to learn my way around. I got kind of lost in the winding residential streets, but always felt very safe due to the families and small children running around everywhere. Eventually I found the main street and stopped by a grocery store to pick up some food (Cocoa puffs, my comfort food). The milk comes in boxes that don't need refrigeration, but tastes pretty much like the milk I'm used to. Afterward I stopped in the park near my apartment, which overlooks the strait and the Rumelihisarı Fortress. The view is spectacular, but the cloudiness prevented me from taking any pictures that would do it justice. I took some better ones today, but I need to borrow my roommate's computer to upload them until I fix my stupid memory card fail.

I spent the evening hanging out with my roommates, drinking wine and Turkish coffee and having good conversations about politics, religion, love, and music. They were surprised and saddened to hear that America generally has negative feelings toward the Middle East, and that my family was very scared that I was going to Turkey. My roommate recently went to Iran and said it was lovely and not at all like the Western world says it is.

Today was spent exploring the university and trying to get a feel for the campus, though the oppressive heat made this a difficult task. This evening I will hopefully go out with my roommates and explore the Istanbul nightlife. Right now there is a man measuring the windows in the apartment to put screens in them. My roommate was appalled by the swollen bites all over my body and called the guy as soon as she could. I told her that I can deal with it, but she says they had been considering it anyway. I'm excited, because making the decision between sweating all night or being miserably itchy all day is not fun.

I apologize for the lack of pictures. I'll upload them all this weekend. For now here's a picture of one of our cats, Maya (the other is Inca):

The Beginning

I have made it to my apartment in Istanbul in one piece, ready to start my hopefully exciting 5 months in this crazy place. I haven't done a whole lot here yet, but the area and the apartment itself are really beautiful. I wish someone would tell Turkey about window screens, though. I haven't seen a single one, anywhere. It's pretty hot overnight, but also pretty buggy, so this is an unfortunate cultural difference.

The journey here was about as planned- long and exhausting, but nothing crazy or unexpected. My first international flight was a very different experience, as I've only ever flown Southwest. Seats were comfy, food was good, booze was free. However, even a Benadryl and a gin and tonic could not knock me out for this flight. Regardless, it was a pretty enjoyable experience. The layover at Amsterdam was stressful, but only because I thought it was much more confusing than it actually was. I was able to walk directly from the gate of my first flight to the gate of my second, without any sort of passport control/customs stuff. I felt for sure that I was doing something wrong, but they didn't throw me in prison, so I suppose I was doing it just fine. Reports of European prices were not exaggerated. I paid $7 for a small drink at Starbucks. Ick.

The flight to Istanbul was fairly uneventful (still no sleep!). At the airport, I had to do do the whole visa/passport/customs stuff, which was lots of standing in lines in a very hot room. Afterward, I tried in vain to contact my mom and my boss, who both wanted a phone call upon my arrival. With no open wifi networks and no idea how to use the payphones, I decide that I should just buy a cellphone at the airport, since I was planning on getting one anyway. I decided to go with Turkcell, which seems to be the most popular and was advertising heavily throughout the passport/visa lines. This did not go so well. The employees spoke English fairly well, but not well enough to understand my exact questions about how to use the phone. I've never used a card with a SIM card before and the phone instructions and menu were in Turkish, so I didn't know when to enter the PIN and when to type the number to dial. The employees were very frustrated with my inability to do this seemingly easy task, and I ended up tearing up in front of them out of embarrassment. I felt completely isolated from the world, particularly the friends and family that I so desperately wanted to contact. Yeah, yeah, that's melodramatic, but I did have a mini-breakdown about my situation and the reality that this is just first of many problems I will encounter with language and cultural barriers. I decided that I needed the internet immediately, and went to a nice sportsbar/restaurant in the airport that had wifi. I had a pretty good meal and a delicious beer (Efes, a local beer), and felt a million times better with the internet at my disposal. I got my phone to work, contacted my loved ones, and saved the business of some young Swiss entrepreneurs who desperately needed to send off an email.

Everything went relatively smoothly from there. I took a shuttle to Taksim Square, where my roommate picked me up and put us on a bus to the apartment. The area is awesome. It's right next to the university, so it has a very college-town feel. It's also right near the strait that runs through Istanbul, which leads to some absolutely breathtaking views. The apartment itself is very nice, and has two adorable cats running around in it. Today I'm hoping to explore the area and find where exactly my lab is.

Protip: SD cards and xD cards, while having almost identical ports, are in fact not the same thing. There will be pictures once I figure out how to fix this fail of mine.