Messin’ with Texas

Current Mood: Esctatic

So yeah, I had the best weekend ever. Izzy and I went with a few exchange students from Koc University (where Izzy studies) to a rock climbing festival in Olympos outside of Antalya in the south of Turkey. If you want to skip right to the pictures here is the link:

Olympos Climbing Festival

For those that are curious, here are two maps illustrating where exactly Olympus is:

Olympus is somewhere south of Antalya. It took about two hours to get there, and the bus ride to Antalya was about 12 hours or so. The bus ride down there was probably the nicest bus I have ever been on. It was extremely comfortable and I was actually able to sleep (first time I have ever done so while in transit).

Everything about this weekend was amazing. First of all the climbing festival was great. There were a lot of us in our group so we didn’t get to do too many routes, but the routes we did do were great. My last climb of the weekend was probably the most difficult climb I have ever done and took some real technique. Although scraped up quite a bit, I was extremely satisfied with myself once I reached the top. After that climb, I think I am going to buy a good pair of climbing pants to better protect my knees.

The place we stayed in was called Kadir’s Tree Houses. Olympos is an ancient city built 2000 years ago. Today the ruins are still there, surrounded by some of the best rock climbing in Turkey. Just before arriving at the ancient city, is a few blocks of cafes and tree house hotels. Since it is a historical site, only wooden buildings can be constructed, so everything has a very ramshackle feel to it. Kadir’s was one of the first one there, and was by far the best.

Kadir’s had an eclectic mix of people. There were the climbers, and there were hikers, and beach bums, and bikers, and random travelers. There were people from all over the world as well as a sizable Turkish group. My first breakfast there I sat with a Polish girl and a Hungarian guy whom were more than happy to welcome me at their table (for some reason I awoke at 630 am. Since we had been up partying until 3am, no one else was up). That was one of the really great things about the place, everyone was very approachable. Everyone took all meals together, everyone went to the club together.

The club was something else. It wasn’t like what I have typically seen here in Turkey. First of all it had no roof, so in the middle was a big bonfire. Second of all, everyone was together, layered radially around the fire. In most Turkish clubs, people come in groups and stick to their groups. Their are little dense clumps of people, dancing amongst their friends. There is very little socializing with new people from what I have seen. At Kadir’s everyone was together the entire time. Breakfast, dinner, drinking, partying, dancing, regardless of the activity everyone was friendly and open.

The place was also quite a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of Istanbul. For the most part everyone walked so there was no traffic. Everything was built amongst the trees with many animals running around (chickens apparently keep the snakes and scorpions out of the tree houses’ area). The valley was flanked on both sides by tall mountains. There was always a cool breeze coming in off the sea. It was perfect. This was definitely a place I could see myself spending many weeks in.

The bartender at the Hangar Bar (Kadir’s bar) was an American who had visited there for a few days and never left. She was on her third month there while we were there. There was a cyclist who had planned to stay only one night at Kadir’s. He was on his sixth day with no end in sight when we left. There were countless other stories of people simply not being able to leave this paradise.

The last bit about Olympos was that all along the roads in the area were small crates for collecting beer bottles. In our climbing guide book, it warned us about Olympos: “This area induces heavy drinking.” Since climbers are not big drinkers, this is a sign that this area is more than just a paradise for climbers.

For any of you who may have wondered what place I would recommend as my favorite: go to Olympos and stay at Kadir’s Tree Houses next summer. Plan to stay a short time but be warned - leaving this place will be difficult.

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This week we have a visitor from Tunis. Yes it is the same person I visited some months ago. If you like, and you speak French you can read about how my previous visit went (at the bare minimum you can look at the pictures):

La Tunisie

Now the Tunisien, Kamel, is here in Istanbul to meet with us, see our company, learn about our products, etc… As I said before, he speaks Arabic and French, and that’s it. I therefore am translating for him.

The first thing about this situation that I want to point out is the irony of the whole thing. Normally Murat and Alper are translating for me from Turkish to English. Today during our meeting, I was translating for them from English to French. This was so much fun. My French is not very good, but being able to translate today made me feel very confident in my ability. All last week I had butterflies in my stomach about how on Earth I was going to talk about technical issues, service, warranty, payment terms, prices, spare parts, stock and all the other things in French. I remember being in Tunis for three days speaking only French and at one point just giving up and telling Kamel I needed to rest for the day. I took my time to call my family just so I could hear some English. I was afraid this would happen again.

I made it through the first two days so far without any problems. Well there were some. I keep forgetting the word for belt (not the kind you wear) and the word for ball bearings. I also am having some difficulty with the words for each piece of the compressor, but that’s what we have hands and fingers for. But in general it wasn’t bad.

Towards the end of the day however, I asked Murat to drive when we made our visits because I said it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to drive and try to speak French. Normally, driving in Istanbul requires a lot of concentration. At this point, he pointed out to me how tired I looked, and I was tired. Speaking and trying to think in French was exhausting after not having practiced for so long. On top of that, translating Alper’s already unclear English was even more exhausting. During the technical overview of the compressor, Ahmet Usta, spoke in Turkish (he doesn’t speak English) to Alper, who spoke in English to me, and then I translated it into French for Kamel. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make sense in French when Alper never understood what Ahmet was talking about in the first place?

Murat of course took pleasure in all of this. From time to time he has told me that he cannot speak English anymore with me. That he is exhausted and wants to just think and speak in Turkish. Now, he said, I understand how he feels. It’s true, I do. Granted it’s much easier for him because he has been speaking and studying in English for at least eight years, but it’s a similar idea. It’s tough to try and communicate in another language that isn’t natural for you. If you cannot think in that language, you are constantly translating everything in your mind into your mother tongue, processing it, creating a response in your mother tongue, and then translating it back to the other language. It’s extremely inefficient and extremely tiring.

So Murat, I feel your pain, but this what we signed up for I suppose.

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Current Mood: Alarmed

For those of you that have forgotten, I received a warning from the US State Department last week. You can reread the warning by clicking here.

This week, the PKK in the east of Turkey killed 17 Turkish soldiers in an attack. Since then the country has been on edge, and the belief is that the Turkish army will enter Iraq any day now. Of course this has had little noticeable impact on my life here in Turkey, until today.

Today, on my way home from a business dinner, I was stopped about 1 km from my house because of a dead stand still in traffic. The road was blocked by people demonstrating. They had a big dump truck and many other cars and were blocking part of the road, and driving in circles in the roundabout. Everyone was honking their horn, and people were running in the streets shouting and carrying Turkish flags. The whole thing took about 15 minutes before I was able to pass.

The demonstration was small compared to what actually happens in Istanbul. After all, Mimarsinan where I live is a very small place, but it was still intimidating. People seemed very intense about this demonstration. Their was a look and an energy about them that was extremely intimidating. With relations between Turkey and the US heating up, I was afraid for the first time ever in Turkey. My car was completely blocked in and I was on a bridge. I couldn’t see what was going on, and all I could here was a lot of noise. I was not afraid when I was pulled over by the cops and told my ID was no good and I would have to go with them to the police station, I was not afraid when I was tear gassed in Besiktas, but tonight I was afraid.

Maybe it’s because Murat has been telling me to be careful lately. Maybe it’s because I have been reading about Turkeys tumultuous history as a republic. Regardless, I have the feeling that something is happening here. Something big is coming. Six months ago the army threatened to intervene and take control of the government after massive protests around the country (over four million people in Istanbul alone) against what the government had been doing. Here the military believes it has a mandate to uphold democracy. Any threats to democracy and the well being of the people, the army has ‘corrected’ in the past (sometimes peacefully, sometimes by hanging).

In addition to being afraid of what is going to happen, I am excited. It’s like how when I was tear gassed, I felt like I was really experiencing something unique, that most people don’t get to do. Of course, most people don’t want to be tear gassed, but in the end, it’s quite an experience. Here is the same situation; nobody wants to live through difficult and uncertain times, but at the end of the road, people look back and will have gained great wisdom. I feel the excitement of being here to bear witness to that. It’s exciting to see Turkish people out in force, demonstrating their power as the public. Showing their government and rest of the world that the government’s power is mandated by the people. It’s exciting to see people exercising their democratic rights en mass.

Murat says things are happening every day, and the situation is deteriorating. I haven’t been following this closely so I do not know. Murat on the other hand watches enough TV for the both of us so I take his word for it. Let’s everyone keep their fingers crossed that Turkey remains a stable and productive country.

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Current Mood: Angry

You can read the other traffic entries by following each of these links:

Traffic

Traffic part II

Every Thursday I drive into the city to have dinner and play games with my friends. I typically try to leave at 6pm sharp. That way if traffic is bad, I can still be there before our scheduled meeting at 8pm, usually.

This past Thursday I had quite a bit of misfortune. First of all, Murat was also planning to go the city. This meant that instead of leaving at 6pm as I usually do, Murat finished screwing around and we got on the road at 715 or so. This was problem number one. Murat assured me we would get there before 8pm. I drive this route more than he does so I assured him that we would not.

Driving into the city, we hit what was probably the worst traffic I have ever seen in my entire my life. According to Izzy’s mom, 3 million people are moving back and forth across the city each day. We left during rush hour, which dooms us to a minimum 80 minutes in the car. This particular Thursday, there was a car accident on the highway on the Asian side of Istanbul (yes I am talking about something like 40 miles away) that backed up traffic nearly to where I live. It therefore took us not the typical 60 minutes to get into the city, but instead a whopping 184 minutes (three hours and four minutes). Having left late, I arrived at game night as it was drawing to a close and so I just went back to Izzy’s and just slept there before driving back in the morning. On top of that, Murat got sick so he canceled the meeting he had driven to the city for in the first place.

While angry and pondering how much I hate traffic, I came to an interesting realization. In the car I usually drive, there is a TV that you can only  watch when the car is not moving. At first I thought to myself that this is stupid. When the heck would you ever watch that? Thursday night I realized. As we inched through traffic, I saw many people pulled over on the side of the road, watching TV in their cars. What genius! Of course you should have a TV in your car if you live in Istanbul. If the traffic gets really bad, you can simply pull over and wait it out. Too bad the TV sucks here.

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The newest addition to my company has got to be the cutest pair of legs to walk through our doors since I have been here, and I think everyone would agree. Pasha is a huge hit with everyone. Many of the company’s employees – male and female alike – spend their breaks playing stupid little games with Pasha in an attempt to win favor. It’s terribly inefficient. I swear the only thing Pasha does for the company is make everyone work less, but at least people smile more.

Pasha is of course a dog. Ahmet found him behind the building scrounging around for things to eat. He was a really small and cute puppy at that time (he still is, but not so much). As the person in charge of human resources and finance, Ahmet doesn’t have much to do, so a puppy was a perfect distraction for him. He had a vet come to the company and check the dog and give it all it’s shots and register it. He had a groomer come and clean him up. He bought only the best food for the dog because he loved the dog so much.

Of course the money for the dog ultimately is paid for by the company, which wasn’t much a problem. Everyone seems to like the dog. Although it has no training it was very playful (as a puppy should be) and adorable (also as a puppy should be). Visitors always stop to say hello to this aggressive greeter. In general it’s fun having a puppy around.

I did have one problem with this puppy. Ahmet was leaving the puppy tied up on a very short chain all day. The puppy was barking constantly and was clearly unhappy. So I took the chain and locked it in my desk. This resulted in quite a schism between Ahmet and I who was so angry that his already badly broken English became even more badly broken. I didn’t fold.

Now two weeks later the puppy trots happily around the company courtyard and parking lot. It is free to leave the area but for the most part he sticks around. I have offered to train him, but want no part in paying for the dog or being responsible for it. If it were up to me, I would let him go back to being a wild stray. Ahmet now, in his typical fashion, has lost interest and no longer wants the dog. He tried to give it to me – registration papers and all – but I declined. I found a pet shop and bought him some treats a leash and a brush and have been giving him attention when I have a bit of time at the end of the day. In general though, I do not have time for a dog, and Ahmet is not responsible enough to take care of a dog – or anything for that matter. So I guess you can consider this post as an advertisement; anyone in Istanbul want to give a home to this adorable little dog?

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I meet a lot of people. For work, when I am out, through other friends, I am meeting people all the time. Regardless of who they are or where they are from, they start with more or less the same question: What are you doing in Turkey?

There is always a hint of surprise, or disbelief when they hear an American has decided to come to Turkey to start what they perceive as a real career. It is common for foreigners to come here and either take high paying jobs at huge companies, or take jobs as teacher that pay very little. The latter is mostly people who say “it’s only six months or a year,” and are here for the adventure and the experience. But those people all have a short term plan for Turkey. Even the people working for huge companies are only here on short term contracts for a few years. I fall somewhere in between I suppose. I don’t really know when I will leave Turkey, and I could get a higher paying job in many other countries. This question is therefore always the first.

The second, comes with the first as often as peanut butter comes with jelly (If you are not American, just trust me that these two are served together on bread quite often): “So how are the girls?” Turks, Americans, English, they all ask the same question. It is worded in a variety of ways: “Do you have a girl friend here yet?” “What do you think of Turkish girls?” “How’s the lady scene over there?” I was actually talking on the phone with a guy at work the other day and he said he had been meaning to ask me this for quite some time. Foreigners seem to be genuinely curious, Turkish guys seems to be fishing for compliments to their culture. Regardless, after I tell my story of how I have come to live in Turkey, question number two is always the same.

The problem arises in the fact that I never know how to answer this question. The fact of the matter is I don’t know. I hear all the time that foreigners are popular with Turkish girls, that if you have nice a car, you’ll be beating them off with a stick, that if you are tall you will have an advantage… the list of attributes that I have that are supposed to be beneficial goes on. Except for a few drunk flirts at bars trying to drag me off with them, I would say I haven’t interacted very much with the female half of the Turkish population. I don’t think I have forgone any opportunities, although some would argue otherwise, I just think I haven’t been in the right places making the right efforts.

I have my theories though. I can answer this question in a wide variety of ways based on what I have observed, overheard and been told, and I often attempt to do so. My lack of knowledge of this subject is more catered to the inquirer. Based on their tone, their wording, and the overall flow of their sentence, I can usually tell what answer they are looking for, and without disregarding the truth, I give them that answer. It’s usually short and does not leave room for the discussion to evolve from there.

When I thought about the frequency at which I receive this question, I asked myself what do I really think? What is the answer that encompasses all that is in my mind. Finding this answer made me wish I hadn’t attached my name to this blog. Some weeks ago I made a decision to remove all instance of my company’s name including its address. I did this so I could have more freedom to talk about what I want to talk about without effecting the image of the company. This wasn’t so much liberating as it made me feel safer about my existing words. If you look back to the following entry, you will be reminded of how one of my business contacts found my blog before I had even met with them: UK Trip Part II: Fear for the Fearless

Having my name attached to this blog means that I have to be wary of who my readers are, and how they know me. I have many theories, complaints, funny stories, observations, etcetera that I cannot put here because of the potential repercussions. I almost crossed this line with the entry Culturally (in)sensitive, which was discussed on my blog and amongst my friends. That said, my choice of content is somewhat censored and therefore not an objective account of ‘An American Life in Istanbul.’ I am sorry to those of you that thought it would be. The day I created this blog, and attached my name to it, I have signed away some of my freedom.

That’s enough of the ethical dilemma I am in. I think I can voice my real opinions without violating anyone’s confidence. I may offend them, but should the subject come up in discussion I will say the same thing. I therefore not be afraid of stepping on people’s toes, and further more, I welcome any intellectual debate that may follow. (I must add that I am a bit intimidated by Turks’ sense of nationalism and will continue to avoid commentary that could mobilize my Turkish readers’ patriotism. I do this out of respect to my host culture more than anything, but also because I don’t want my blog getting blocked)

Eight paragraphs of setting up for the answer to this question. Well sorry, but I think I am going to disappoint those of you that have read this far. You will have to look for a part two to this entry. Keep in mind, what you are going to read in it, is not coming from someone with any kind of idea of what they are talking about. I am hoping that the entry will provide a truly American view point, that I can provide the view point of an outsider (after all that is what I am, no matter how hard I try not to be). I am hoping it will come off as somewhat uneducated. This blog is about my life in Turkey. If I have arrived at the wrong conclusions or ideas about life here, I expect my Turkish readers to correct me, and to educate the rest of my readers.

Stay tuned…

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 I had one heck of a weekend. Since Ramadan ended, I had a four day weekend. Thursday Izzy and I went rock climbing; we were the only ones there. Then Thursday night we took a 14 hour bus ride to the south of Turkey to a charming little diving town called Kas. The three days I spent there were relaxing and extremely fulfilling and satisfying. I am however exhausted. Anyway, I am not going to go into great detail about how things went. Instead here are some pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/skyblueshu/TwoWeekendsHikingDivingAndClimbing

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In an effort to make my apartment less bleak, I bought a bunch of new plant stuff! Yeah! I bought some new vine plants that I am going to cut and try and make into several vine plants and scatter them around my flat. They grow pretty easily indoors and will hopefully add some new character to my apartment. Murat asked me if there was some girl in my life I was trying to make the apartment nice for; I wish. No, this effort is to have something to do when I decide to take a quiet evening at home, and to make my apartment more like home, which was always very green.

That’s all the new stuff.

These are the old plants. After vacation I had to replant everything because Murat didn’t water anything, so it’s been slow growing back. Here’s a picture of what home in New York looks like. As you can see I have a long way to go.

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Last night I recieved the following email:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
THE UNITED STATES
Istanbul, Turkey

WARDEN MESSAGE 2007, Number 9
October 9, 2007

This important message was sent out a few minutes ago to all of the
volunteer wardens who assist the Consulate in passing important messages
to American citizens in the Istanbul region. To help speed up the
process we are also sending this directly to everyone registered with
the Consular Section who has provided us an e-mail address. As a
result, some of you will receive this message more than once.

Scott Oudkirk
Consular Section Chief

(Start of message)

This Warden Message is being sent to alert U.S. citizens in Turkey to
anticipated legislative activity in the U.S. House of Representatives
and its possible consequences in Turkey.

On October 10, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will consider a
non-binding resolution connected with Armenia and the events of 1915.
The Administration has made its opposition to any resolution on this
topic clear. If, despite the Administration’s concerted efforts against
this resolution, it passes committee and makes its way to the floor of
the House for debate and a possible vote, there could be a reaction in
the form of demonstrations and other manifestations of anti-Americanism
throughout Turkey. Demonstrations could occur following committee
action or later, if and when the resolution is considered by the full
House of Representatives. Protestors targeted French interests in
October 2006, after the French National Assembly passed a bill regarding
the issue.

The Department of State advises U.S. citizens traveling or residing in
Turkey to be alert to the potential for demonstrations, and to avoid
large gatherings. Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn
confrontational and possibly escalate into violence. American citizens
are therefore urged to avoid the areas of demonstrations if possible.
Particular caution should be exercised in places known to be frequented
by Americans.

(end of message)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What is happening in Turkey? Yesterday the Turkish government approved a measure authorizing the Turkish army to move into Iraq. For years now, the Turkish military has been fighting against what they deem a terrorist organization called the PKK. This organization is made up of Kurds living in the southeastern part of Turkey and the northern part of Iraq. The PKK has been causing problems in Turkey for about 30 years now. According to Alper, the PKK has killed more than 30,000 people.

Normally the PKK retreats into Iraq where the Turkish army cannot go. Historically the Turkish army has pursued them over the border, but not much more than a short chase into Iraq. This new resolution is one of two authorizations that are needed for the army to invade northern Iraq, which the US has made clear it does not want. So the US is now voting on a resolution to declare the incident in Armenia a genocide, which will no doubt anger the Turks. So, the US State Department sent me a warning to keep myself safe. Thank you America! `

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This entry will be mostly pictures.Well I had a busy weekend. On Friday, I got up at 6am to take a bus to Ankara where I had a meeting with one of our suppliers. After my meeting, I met with a friend of Parisa’s (one of my friends), whom lives there. I spent Friday night and Saturday morning with Gokce and her twin sister Goken. They had an impeccably clean house that was very well decorated. Each room looked like something out of catalog. They said this was a point of pride for their mother and she was pleased to hear this from me.

They had both been exchange students in the US so their English was good. Their father liked speaking English but didn’t speak perfectly. The mother only spoke a few words here and there. They were excellent hosts.

That’s me and Gokce, who was an exchange student during high school, at Parisa’s high school. The two of them kept in touch all this time. After dinner, we went with a group and played monopoly at a nargile cafe. Being the last person to go, I got my butt kicked. I hardly even had a chance to buy any property. I also got my butt kicked right before that in backgammon, by Goken’s boy friend.

This is Goken and her boy friend who’s name escapes me right now. He’s really good at backgammon.

This was one of Gokce and Goken’s friends. I like this picture for some reason.

Because of plans on Saturday afternoon, I could only stay one day. After a breakfast at TriBeCa - a decent bagel shop that has a location in Istanbul as well - I met with Kenan who was coincidently in Ankara as well. We drove back to Istanbul together. This picture is a picture from the car as we were driving. I was in a bit of a hurry to get back so we didn’t stop for any sight seeing. It’s quite an interesting drive though.

Saturday afternoon, my important event was playing Diplomacy! We were partly the same group - Izzy, Adnan, Berna and myself - plus three new players. Amber, Adnan’s girl friend played as did Erman. Izzy’s father as it turns out played Diplomacy a long time ago so he joined us. I think that most of the people that have played so far have enjoyed it quite a bit and that we will be playing again soon. I am hoping to build up a group for Diplomacy here in Istanbul, but it is a slow process. In this picture from the left you see Amber, Adnan and Izzy, trying to figure out how Adnan can fight back against the stab I had just made against him.

Sunday morning we got up early to go hiking! We drove for about four hours almost all the way to Ankara (I should have stayed there Saturday). The scenery was great and it was a lot of fun. Of the people I know, Berna, Izzy and Erman came. The other 80 or so people were mostly students at Koc university. The trip was organized by the Koc University Diving and Mountaineering club, which Izzy is the president of. It was exhausting though.

That’s Murat (Izzy’s friend, not the one I work with) heading back from peeing off the cliff. I snapped this picture about 10 seconds too late.

I like the way the colors looked in this scene. The ferns were are dead and dried out and were very read. The mountain was very gray and the sky was blue. The contrast didn’t come out as clearly as I would have liked. It looked much better in person.

Izzy and Erman. For the second half of the hike, the three of us walked in the back to make sure no stragglers got lost.

Finally, on our way back down to the lake. That’s Izzy striking a pose with the walking stick he stole from me.

There were more pictures taken, but I haven’t gotten them yet. When I do I will upload them to my Picasa webalbum and post a link here.

NEXT WEEKEND: Climbing in Ballikaylar on Thursday, and a three day diving trip Friday, Saturday, Sunday!

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