I slept eleven solid hours the night after the scavenger hunt and the past two days have been a hodgepodge of activities.
Thursday we met for an official class the first time. Alright, who can say they've had a class sitting on an Ottoman style divan in a renovated school built by the great Ottoman architect Sinan in the 16th century? Yeah, that's what I thought. The building is now an Ottoman arts center complete with a tasty cafe in its courtyard and right next to the Hagia Sophia. We were served tea while we lounged, talking about why the Ottoman Empire fell among other things? Best class room ever? Def.
Kristina, Amanda, and I got separated from the others after we stopped to watch some kittens sleeping in a flower pot and then got berated by a Turkish artist for not knowing more of the language. We mad friends though by assuring him we've only been here for four days and then making sure to listen as he gave us a quick rundown of Anatolian nomadic art. After that, we decided we needed to have some baklava. Four/five days in Turkey and still no baklava? Good thing we fixed that problem.
Kristina also tried some Turkish coffee for the first time while having baklava. There's nothing more to be said here than to go watch my video on the ordeal (it's on Facebook).
Afterwards, Kristina and I came back to the flat to chill on the terrace and get some work done. AKA blogging and video uploading. In other news, I finally got some more videos uploaded by just leaving my computer on while at class. Holla.
That night we went up to Istiklal (the main shopping/bar street in our neighborhood) and after strolling around a bit, settled on some cheap sandwiches and beer for our supper.
The past few nights we've been meeting up on the terrace with a couple of Turkish film school students. One of them lives in our apartment complex and he brings a couple of friends up each night. None of them know English very well, but as they drink, smoke, and sing, we're able to get the basics of conversation down through their attempts at English, our attempts at Turkish, and of course, a lot of hand gestures. They have apparently invited us to their film school graduation party on a yacht on the Bosphorus and its suppose to be an all-day affair. It looks like this party is going to be happening while we're traveling Turkey though. Bummer.
So we spent last night with the Turks, earning our Turkish names, taking a sip of the famous Turkish raki (their famous alcohol that is nasty; you mix it with water and it tastes like liquorice. No thanks.), and listening to Turkish music.
Turkish music. Wow. Where to begin? Of course they have some American stuff, but its mostly older music that we get a kick out of. "Jenny from the Block" anyone? They also have their own pop/rock music and of course some techno beats. This popular music we have dubbed Power Turk after their MTV-style music video station. Weird stuff, ya'll, weird stuff.
Today we met with Sarah and William at the Covered Bazaar. This place is huge; with over 3500 individual shops and thousands of employs to go with it. Sarah took us to her old friend, Hasan Semerci who owns a carpet store. Hasan is a very respectable and very knowledgeable about his rugs. He's been running his business for over twenty years and unlike other carpet sellers, he works on word-of-mouth alone without the haggling and harassing we're so used to at this point. We learned about kilim, cicim, and other versions of carpet and essentially what makes a good rug. If I ever need a Persian-style rug, I'll visit him and I'll tell you to do the same
Apparently the other carpet sellers in the bazaar are quite envious of him because if you show them his card, they'll tell you he died. Hasan seems to be amused by this. Too bad I don't have a spare $3000 lira lying around. Sorry mom and dad!
These rugs have been so essential to the culture of this area of the world for so long, and its a shame to see its art form slowly dying out.
After spending an hour and a half with Hasan, we went for lunch and then traveled back to the Ottoman arts center that houses our classroom. Instead of going to our class, we met with a calligraphy artist, Efdaluddin Kilic.
Talk about an interesting day, we went from one art to another. Calligraphy is beautiful, but it's beauty lies in the precision and skill of the artist. After talking a bit about his skill, he painted each of our names. Much to my surprise, mine came with two forms! Yay! If I can get them home in one piece, I definitely want to frame them.
Afterwards, William took us out for ice cream. We had the craziest ice cream server ever. And I do mean ever and like in the entire world. I don't even know how to describe it, but hopefully I'll have a video up on Facebook of it soon. In the words of Amanda, "This is a joke."
As Amanda would say, with complete affection though, "Turkey is a joke." But we'll just hope the military doesn't hear that and deport her. Of course, almost getting run over by cars everyday, and seeing some truly surprising things, "Is this a joke?" is a good immediate response.
Right now, I'm enjoying the breeze off the Bosphorus from the open window in our flat and waiting for supper. Kristina is cooking again tonight (yum and cheap) and later I think we're going out to Istiklal. Time to start the weekend!
