An American Life in Istanbul

For some reason Youtube is blocked as of today, again. No word yet as to why though… I’ll keep you updated.

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I recently got back from two weeks in the US. When I made the reservations I was planning to come back to my job. Since I am not working anymore, that was not the case. Instead I have been spending time with my friends planning my next step.

A lot of people asked the standard questions; was it fun? did you see your family? what did you do? where did you go? what did you miss most? One question in particular grabbed me. Someone asked me what I surprised me, or rather what grabbed me in the US that I had forgotten about, what was different from Turkey that I was now noticing after having been in Turkey for so long. I couldn’t think of anything that grabbed me about the US, but after two weeks in the US, I noticed something about Turkey: Istanbul is ugly.

I guess I never realized the extent of Turkey’s ugliness. After having visited various cities in the US, it really hit me when I got back. Once you get away from the really old parts of the city, all the building are really cheaply built, with bad architecture, cracks, peeling paint, tons of air conditioners hanging out of windows, tons of satellite dishes and antennas, the windows aren’t clean. It’s as if no one pays to upkeep the multitude of oddly colored shoddy buildings. On top of that, it’s dirty and nothing is green. Here’s a few pictures (I know this kind of comparison isn’t exactly fair, but you have to see for yourself how ugly it is when you get to the parts built in the last 20 years).

Istanbul (left) and Philadelphia (right). I went to Phily to visit my brother who is doing a masters degree at UPenn.

Istanbul (left) and Baltimore (right). I didn’t go to Baltimore, but I did go to another small town in Maryland where I visited my aunt, and her family.

In addition to having a good time I brought back some things that I felt were missing here in Turkey. I meant to get grill seasoning and good BBQ sauce but I forgot those. I did however bring a magazine listing cars for sale and apartments for rent (in Pittsburgh), which I gave to Alper. He is always asking me about how much things cost in the US so I figure those to magazines would answer many of his questions better than I could. I also brough back Beer:

From the left: Sawtooth ale from the Left Hand brewing company in Colorado, blackberry wheat ale from Long Trail brewing company in Vermont, Ruination India Pale Ale from the Stone Brewery in California, Hoptical Illusion from the Blue Point brewing company in Long Island New York (near where I am from), and the Yeti Imperial Stout from the Great Divide brewing company in Colorado. I only had limited space so I tried to grab a decent selection. Apparently, according to the only brewer I know in Istanbul, Harvey (he’s from California), the reason beer here sucks is because Efes - the leading beer distributor - won’t let anyone import, and the water here is not right for beer. There are too many unwanted salts and things in the water. He says he’s going to start using reverse osmosis to take everything out of the water, and then add what he wants, to mimic good beer brewing water. He said an IPA is on the way!

Girl Scout cookies! Of course. I can’t believe I never though of this before. My little cousin Olivia does the girl scout cookie fund raiser so my Aunt Beth (her mother) reserved a few boxes for me. I thought the best use would be to bring them to Istanbul and share them with my Turkish friends. I am planning to open them this weekend. In the US, there are boy scouts, and girl scouts. To raise money, the girl scouts have been selling the same cookies for years and years and years. They are very good, and very popular. Kind of expensive but it’s for a good cause right? It helps support the creation of strong, independent women with good leadership abilities. I used to buy a bunch of these when I was in university for $3.50 per box. I would buy some for my friends who would buy them at value. When they would run out, they would always come looking for more, either drunk or hungover. I would charge extortionist prices which they would begrudgingly pay. I think I sold one box for over 10 dollars one time.

I also brought back with me a bunch of out of print games that I want to play with some of my friends here. I unfortunately left them with Izzy so I don’t have a picture.

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Yesterday was international labor day, a day that celebrates the rights and achievements of workers around the world. In most places peaceful demonstrations are held during labor day. Yesterday here in Istanbul, it was a full out battle, with the police finishing way a head. There was teargas, fire houses, and beatings a plenty throughout the day. The labor parties head quarters was stormed by police and tear gassed, a hospital was tear gassed, numerous groups of demonstrators scattered through the city were gassed and beaten. Demonstrators wanted to hold demonstrations in the city’s historic Taksim square. However 20,000 police barricaded the square and refused to let demonstrators near the square. Entire areas of Istanbul ended up getting tear gassed to clear out protesters. Although I personally did not get there in time to witness any of the fighting (the governor ordered most of the strategic teargassing early in the morning, including the hospital), I did witness the huge police force. I would have my own shots and videos from Taksim square, but while I was on my way there (walking was the only way to get anywhere nearby), something very urgent came up and I had to run. So here are some of my pictures, and some other people’s pictures/videos that I pulled off of YouTube.

A random video I found on YouTube

Another random video I found on YouTube

Here are some pictures I took myself. I noticed the reporters, police and protesters all had gas masks.

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Here is a series of pictures - all from Turkey - that a friend sent to me. The ones posted here are the ones that I could easily see happening in Turkey

Debatebly better than a whole in the floor, which is quite common in Turkey.

I haven’t seen something like this personally but it wouldn’t surprise me if I did.

Looks a little dangerous, doesn’t it?

Another one that I haven’t seen but wouldn’t be surprised if I saw it.

This is my favorite one. I actually have seen this at one of the monuments. On the right it says the entrance fee is two million Turkish Lyra. On the left it says “entrance one million.” Sneaky Turks!

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Just some pictures from the weekend. That’s Doruk, Erman and myself. Because there are so many students in Istanbul, there is quite a good night life to be found. Istanbul is a city that never sleeps. These pictures were taken at ‘cafe pi’ in Taksim. They have a huge variety of drinks on the menu, and play American Rock and Pop music.

From the left Doruk, Erman and myself

Doruk and Erman

Friends!

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Tulips have long been indigenous here in Turkey, and are the symbol of Istanbul. In the spring time, they can be seen everywhere. Yesterday I had the chance to go to Emirgan park, the park that was given to the boy friend (yes boy friend) of one of the sultans. It now serves as a beautiful, wooded retreat from the hustle and bustle of Istanbul. The park is so quiet and beautiful that you wouldn’t believe you were still in Istanbul.

Below are some pictures from my afternoon in the park. I went with Tahsin, who will join the army on Saturday to do his mandatory military service. What you need to know is that a european ambassador to the Ottoman empire took the flowers to western Europe with him between the years 1550 and 1560 because they seemed to do very well in the early spring, a time which is unfriendly to flowers. If you would like to read more about the Tulips and are not interested in the pictures, here is an interesting article about it: Sunday’s Zaman Article: Tulips Making a Comeback. Anyway, here are the pictures:

The road through the park was falnked on both sides by tulip beds

The road through the park

Red Tulips!

Me sitting on one of the many picnic benches.

Even the bathrooms looked nice.

Tulips!

Tulips!

A concert going on during the tulip festival on an island in a pond.

The evil eye. This is a very traditional symbol in Turkish culture.

Tulips!

An advertisement for the tulip festival.

You can see the Bosporus in the background. The park is on one of the higher hills next to the Bosporus.

Tulips!

Tulips!

A small flower shop in the park.

All the fences along the path look like this: more tulips!

Tulips!

Tulips!

Tulips!

Tulips!

Tulips! (notice anything strange about this picture?

On the way out of the park.

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A few weeks ago, Alper sent me this video. This is from the main highway into Istanbul, the highway that I take to get into the city. The best part is probably the last driver who drives not only against traffic but in the fast lane?! The question is why do so many people need to go against the flow of traffic? Are they stupid or are the roads poorly designed. My guess is a combination of both, but more the later.

I have several more traffic, driving and car related entries if you are interested:

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Over the weekend I stayed at a friend’s house (I will avoid using names because the issue may be sensitive) that I do not normally stay at. Realizing I had not asked my friend what his parents do, I asked. They are both professors at two of Turkey’s most prestigious universities. I was excited.

The town I grew up in was near a very large and reasonably well known university (Stony Brook University in New York). There were many foreign professors and foreign students from all over the world there. Because of this, many of my friends growing up were the children of professors. From my experiences growing up and my experiences at university, I found that the academic community always held a good, well informed opinion of current events, and was a good way to measure what changes were coming.

So at breakfast, I casually slipped in questions to his father, constituting what I consider my first interview. The issue was the pending court case to remove the current government for being anti secular. I briefly commented on this issue in: Economic Hiccups. I was curious to find out what the academic community though of the whole situation.

Two petitions were passed around amongst Turkey’s 40,000 person academia. 3,000 professors signed a petition in support of the current government and claimed that there was nothing wrong with what the government has been doing. 8,000 signed the petition against the government (this 8000 included assistants where as the 3000 did not). My friend’s father signed the petition against the government, his wife did not.

The interesting bit of this story is what happened to my friends father who we will call Ahmet for now. Ahmet is a tenured professor here in Istanbul. On top of his normal job he is a senior part-time researcher at separate government institute where he has been working for approximately 20 years. He was recently promoted to chairmen of the executive committee there. He is also a member of Turkey’s equivalent to the National Academy of Science in the US.

After his name appeared on a similar petition against the government, the person who had appointed him to chairman - a person serving in an office appointed by a council which is made up of the prime ministers appointees - called him and asked why he signed the petition. She followed up with the question “do you think I appointed you for your academic achievements?”

At the end of each year, each person at this government institute must submit a report for what they have done. This time, when Ahmet went to turn in his report, his 20th or so, they told him it wasn’t necessary. Nor would he need to submit a report for his position as chairman. He of course, was not rehired.

I’d like to thank Ahmet for sharing this story and commend him for having the courage to stand up for what he believes in.

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I actually wasn’t sure that the Istanbul based soccer club Fenerbache had beaten London’s Chelsea last night during their champions league match last night here in Istanbul. Fenerbache is the most expensive team in Turkish history this year with a total cost for it’s players of 100 million euros. That’s quite an impressive number. Besiktas and Galtasaray are finishing somewhere around 50 million euros. Chelsea on the other hand is the most expensive team in history, coming in at 456 million euros per year. As you can see these two teams are of a drastically different scale.

However, since signing Roberto Carlos over the summer (See: Roberto Carlos is Coming to Istanbul) Fenerbache has seemed unstoppable. They are currently in the quarter finals of the most prestigious tournament in Europe, which means they are in the tops 8 in Europe this year. They are on pace to win the Turkish league again this year (they are currently on top).

Well last night I looked at my window to this scene:

Keep in mind I live in a remote sparsely populated part of Istanbul. The majority of the noise is from that darn truck which is out almost everytime there is a big win by a Turkish team, but you can hear the horns of all the other motorists. They are all stopped just before a roundabout where the people get out of their cars and run around and scream. Sorry I didn’t get a video of that, but I will have another chance the next time Fenerbache or the national team accomplishes some great feat.

Of course worse things can happen than losing sleep. If you remember (See: Wine-ing and Crying) I got teargassed standing in a crowd of Besiktas supporters last year. That was not fun.

Anyway, Fenerbache has to tie or beat Chelsea when they play in London next week on the 8th of April. If they score at least two goals, they can also lose by only one and still move on because of the away goals rule, but the finer points of the Champions Leagues rules are not interesting. Let’s just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

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Current Mood: Esctatic

Guess what? I am no longer employed! How’s that for big news? Didn’t expect that did you?

If you were one of my friends here in Istanbul, you probably were expecting it. Over the past few months it became clear that things just weren’t going to work out between my employer and myself. It came down to a schism in ideology that was part cultural differences. It would be a great topic to write about, but knowing that this is a public forum and that some of distributors have or still do read my blog, I am not going to say anything. Anything that could potentially adversely affect my past employer would be unprofessional.

The question is what will I do next? I am not sure. I will apply for jobs around Istanbul because frankly, I like Istanbul. It’s a great place. I may also apply for masters programs. I may go on a little adventure. The company gave me a decent severance so I don’t immediately need to find a job. They offered to let me stay in the apartment and use the car for as long as I want - which when they realize how long I want they may change that clause to ‘as long as i need.’

To tell you the truth, I haven’t thought about it too much. I already have a round trip plane ticket to the US  for April 14th-28th. I will just figure it all out when I get back I guess. I feel like I should be more worried - I know my friends are worried - but I think the end of my employment was due. Things just weren’t going to my satisfaction. A few weeks ago I met a Syrian representing an American company in the Middle East. He told me that I didn’t know it yet, but since compressors is such a specialized industry, I was going to spend the rest of my life in compressors. That worried me.

I am a bit disappointed though. I was finally starting to get the hang of things. I took this job with no prior training and received no training once starting here. I more or less had to figure everything out on my own. From servicing compressors, to international shipping regulations, I discovered most of this information on my own motivation. These past few months things have been picking up for foreign sales. In March, I felt as though I was on the cusp of really boosting the foreign sales. Everything had finally fallen into place: Alper had found a packaging solution, I had translated all the necessary things into French, I had completed our new service manual, we had finished designs and prototypes for our new potentially huge OEM customer (they were readily accepted), I had completed compiling all data for our technical documents and Altan had nearly completed the 3D technical drawings… pretty much everything was falling into place. Furthermore, I had had the whole gambit of possible questions about compressors so I am no ready to handle tough questions on the fly.

But as I said, it was time. I am excited at what the future holds for me.

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