Monday was a full day for us. We met at 10:30 at our medresse for class discussion, this time on the current problems in Turkey and its modern history.
With three coups and one soft coup in the past 50 years, you can imagine that Turkey has a few problems. The military has stepped in each time, but unlike in Latin American countries where they rule supreme, each time the military has stepped aside after the country has resettled. But what is the deal? Why has does this happen?
We’ve discussed quite a few theories on such political instability; these are a few of them:
1) The military has “babied” the country by stepping in each time there is a problem.
2) Obsession with Ataturk and his ideals that prevents true democracy because the country is wrapped in maintaining secularism
3) Economy and corruption
Regardless with the possibility of EU membership, Turkey can’t mess around anymore.
It also needs to fix such ridiculous things as the import tax it’s trying to put on the camera Kristina shipped from home. It’s ludicrous, but this is another problem in and of itself.
After our class discussion and grabbing quick lunch, it was time to meet the Grand Mufti of Istanbul. Hello, important person.
This guy is in charge of religious affairs in Istanbul so, you know, no biggie. We met him with two other student groups from the US whose professors know our professor. Awkward sentence, sorry. Anyway, I don’t know if I’m just anti-other-US-college-student-groups or what, but I was not feeling these other two groups. Plus some of their questions were irrelevant to the mufti’s position, and on top of that, one of them was really rude to Yekta who was doing an awesome job translating. Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch? Really, dude in the orange shirt, really? Your ugly shirt is not helping your accusations or my opinion of you.
Ahem, my apologies; obviously I still have some resentment to this guy, even two days later.
After the Grand Mufti meeting which ended on a plus note for our group with Edward’s question, we had to skedaddle over to Yildiz University, back on the other side of the Golden Horn and a ways away from our location at the time. So what is the logical solution?
Fit all ten of us inside two taxis! (Minus Kevin who was feeling ill)
Yay, lax Turkish laws on transportation! With Yekta riding up front, Kelly, David, Amanda and I had the spacious back seat to ourselves. Which meant that I was spent the time riding on Kelly’s lap with my head awkwardly bent to fit inside; oh and David held my purse. Perfect.
After our fun filled ride across Istanbul, we found ourselves at Yildiz University where graduation was taking place. So with dramatic music playing in the background, we met Professor Gulap, a sociologist and political scientist. I got to ask one sociology question about current ethnic relations in Turkey before the poli-sci questions took over. We essentially revisited our topic from that morning, this time with Professor Gulap’s opinions. It was quite interesting as he thoroughly denounced some of our thoughts while encouraging us. Overall, I think we gave a good impression.
It was late at this point and we were mentally exhausted from having to showcase our wits all day. So it was time to head over to Prof. Sarah and William’s flat for another delicious William-made supper. But first we had to get there. So what is the logical solution?
Fit all ten of us inside a dolmus! (A dolmus is a van that carries groups of people to the same place for a cheaper price than a taxi)
Add four Turks to the equation and you have quite a full dolmus. The driver was cracking up at us the entire time. We ended up with Yekta and I crammed into two small seats with Kristina in my lap. Amanda, Kelly, Edward, and Zoe were in some crazy position sharing the backseat with two of the Turks. Clayton ended up on the floor, Prof Shields had the console to sit on, and David shared the front seat with another random Turk.
We were like a bunch of clowns when we arrived back at Taksim with American after American piling out of the Dolmus. I’m sure it made for quite a sight.
Unscarred and unscathed, we made it to flat for beef-stew and mashed potatoes. Yum, American food. I like Turkish food, but I’m kind of over it at this point. I’ll stick with my pork tenderloin and cheese grits thank you very much.
After supper it was back to our flat for some much-needed R&R.
Tuesday began with misplacing Kevin at our meeting point. After finding him and enjoying some fresh squeezed orange juice while waiting, it was time to hit up Clayton and Yekta’s site presentation on Kariye Camii. BTW…I will miss fresh-squeezed orange juice. I wasn’t much of a fan of store bought orange juice to begin with, but now I know I’ll never be able to go back.
Fruits in general in Turkey trump American fruits on any day. Fresh cherries, huge bananas, juicy apricots…need I go on?
Back on track now. We had to take a long-distance dolmus (more of a short bus or big van than a small van) to get to Kariye Camii, which was some distance away and in a pretty conservative neighborhood. At this point, I think we are getting close to mastering the Turkish transportation system, at least for Istanbul.
Kariye Camii was fascinating. Behind Hagia Sophia, it is the second-most important example of Byzantine culture because of the beautifully crafted mosaics inside. Like all other churches, it was made into a mosque during 1453 and Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. Years later, it is now a museum.
The mosaics inside were second to none, though I would say they matched Hagia Sophia. This out of the way church/mosque/museum is definitely worth the trip it takes to get there.
Our next order of business was to take taxis to a small, everyday mosque, Kalenderhane Camii, for Zoe and Kelly’s site presentation. I know what you’re thinking, and no, we took three taxis this time – there were twelve of us. (We were plus William for the day.)
Zoe and Kelly talked about the building and typical plans for a mosque which I knew nothing about, so it was fascinating. They also talked about the role of sacred places and how churches were used for mosques, vice-versa and all around. We also got to color. Way cool.
After that, it was time for a late lunch. Then we started going our separate ways. David, Edward, and I accompanied Kristina and Yekta in their efforts to figure out what was Turkey’s deal with Kristina’s camera.
Unsuccessful, we made our way back to the flat for some chill time.
At about 7:00, we got ourselves out the door to grab supper on Istiklal. After wondering around for awhile we found a restaurant that ended up being a pleasant surprise. Though, I’m still puzzled at Turkey’s decision to make their ketchup really, unusually sweet. Chalk that up to another Turkish mystery.
After supper, a number of us met Sarah and William for happy hour at a café that was owned by our landlady’s American friend. Happy hour indeed. We each enjoyed a drink, spending, I think, about two hours at the café.
Oh, I need to mention the new game the group loves to play. It’s called the Make-Emily-say-words-that-have-‘ai’-or-the-equilvalent-of-in-them.
Apparently I have problems with such pronunciation of things like ‘mail’ or ‘snail.’
I don’t like this game.
Afterwards, we made the short-walk back up to Istiklal and headed to another bar to chill. There was no reason for us to head back to our flat anyway. Our internet was out. OMG the horror!
We eventually came back around 1:00 a.m. and after a shower I was in bed.
Kristina and I woke up fairly early this morning to meet Prof. Sarah to discuss our project. After some debate over the past week, I had finally decided to work with Kristina on women’s dress in modern Turkey. This is more than just fashion, but the different ways women in a heavily Islamic country convey their identity through their outward appearance. We plan to do a full-on multimedia project (text, photos, film) so it should be interesting.
I unfortunately woke up with all of Istanbul’s pollution in my respiratory system. Or at least that’s how it felt. After some green tea at Prof. Sarah’s flat, it felt a bit better.
Continuing the chronicles of Istanbul’s retarded customs, Kristina found out even worse news for her camera. I sent some e-mails to my contacts in Istanbul to figure out the problem.
We made it back to our flat at about 11:00 a.m., in which we found most of the group was awake. However, we were still without internet. As you can imagine, we were going slightly crazy, such as that when we spotted a bunch of fire trucks, ambulances, emergency boats, and helicopters heading to one place, we decided to a bit of ambulance-chasing. It turned out to be nothing important. No national disaster or anything. Bummer. I was ready to film it all Cloverfield-style.
Seeing as we were already halfway down Galata Bridge, Kristina and I decided to search for some comfy pants as they have so been dubbed. Basically breathable cotton or linen pants that would be perfect to wear outside of Istanbul where it’s a bit more conservative. Our search ended up being fruitless except for a hot pink pair that neither of us were partial to, though I did get some cashews. I don’t quite know why Istanbul sparks a craving of cashews. We made it back to our flat after grabbing a light lunch where I promptly collapsed into possibly one of the best naps of my life.
I didn’t wake up until 5:00 when Hande showed up for a Turkish-lesson. Afterwards it was a pasta supper made by Kelly and Edward. Still feeling a bit of Istanbul’s pollution in the back of my throat, I declined to go out with the rest of the group to Istiklal to watch the Turkey vs. Switzerland EuroCup game. Though I did really want to go, I don’t want my congestion getting worse right before we hit the road.
As of now, I’m watching Turkey lose to Switzerland at the half and partly contemplating the ferryboats crossing the Bosporus and just exactly what that huge building on the Asian-side is.
Update: It's a shame I can't share the shouts echoing around Istanbul when Turkey scored twice to take the victory. Especially when they scored the second goal for the win with a minute left. Turkey doesn't like to mess with its drama, haha.
