An American Life in Istanbul

Current Mood: Happy

Well a lot has happened since I last wrote a real post way back on… December 12th! It was a real pain in the butt trying to get my domains transfered and set up my new host for my website, but it’s all finally done thanks to the help of Ant and Ali Emre.

So what has happened. I guess most of you know about the primaries in the US, which has been the news item winning most of my attention. I guess that’s not interesting for my American readers (everyone else go to cnn.com, they have good coverage).

Izzy and I went to Morocco for one week. It was an organized all expense paid tour. This was the first time I have done something like that and probably the last. I prefer to travel on my own schedule and to just wander around. Although it was a fun trip, I don’t think I will do it again. I covered four cities in seven days. On the way over I hadn’t quite gotten over a nasal infection. I couldn’t equalize the pressure when we went up and I nearly fainted from the pain. I spent the last two days of the trip praying to the porcelain gods. Anyway here are the pictures. Sorry I don’t have any of when they threw a monkey on Izzy’s head out of no where on the street. That was probably the highlight of the trip.

Morocco Pictures

My brother came to visit me right after Christmas up through New Years. We went around Istanbul, partied with my friends, did some shopping… it was a nice visit. I think he had fun except for a little problem with food or water, everything went well. Another friend of mine, James (aka Spags) was here as well. Graham, Spags and myself went to Kapadokya, ‘the land of well bred horses.’ Kapadokya is one of the most interesting places in Turkey according to my friends. It is full of bizarre land formations and underground cities that have been used by countless cultures for thousands of years. Because of it’s relative isolation on the high plateau of central Turkey, it was never a important strategic point to control so it was more or less ignored by conquering armies. I will let you look at the pictures for yourself. (oh I had a sweet new year’s eve party at my apartment. Those pictures are also there)

Pictures from Graham’s visit

Other than that I haven’t done too much. I went to Slovakia for an exhibition for work, but I haven’t posted any pictures. I finally got new climbing shoes. About one week afterwards Izzy hurt his shoulder so we can’t climb until it heals.

My gaming group has really taken off. We created “Istanbul Boardgame Enthusiasts” group on facebook and Izzy and I have been very aggressively trying to recruit new gamers. It has definitely paid off. The only problem we have had is about finding a place to play. Over the summer Wonderland started turning off the AC to get us to leave earlier. Then we moved to the Wrap which said they are now closing at 10:30 instead of 11:30. They had spent the weeks prior trying to kick us at at 11:00. Now we are playing at a bagel cafe called Tribeca. It’s definitely not the best place for us since we are so loud. When we are not there it is a very quiet upscale cafe. When we get there it gets a little wild, especially with the recent surge in people. I have a feeling we are going to be hassled there until we leave also. Here are a few pictures from our recent meetings:

Me explaining ‘Ticket to Ride’ to a captive audience.

In the back left of this picture is Ali Emre and myself. We are actually trying to get my webspace setup to transfer my blog in this picture.

This composite is courtesy of Rana. This was the final showdown in bang between Izzy the sheriff, and Turan the renegade. Izzy won.

On the political front, Serbs attacked the Turkish Embassy in Belgrade when Turkey backed Kosovo. Turkey invaded Northern Iraq to hopefully catch PKK terrorists. If you aren’t sure what the PKK is, I wrote about them in two previous blog entries: Turmoil in Turkey: Part I, Turmoil in Turkey: Part II. Turkey lifted the ban on women’s head scarves in all schools and other government institutions (this is a much bigger deal here than you think, but that’s for a later entry). Of course, that is only the last weeks worth of news in Turkey! To go with all three of those big events, there has been lots of protesting, especially in the east of Turkey where there has been daily rioting, vandalism and clashes with police. On the bright side of things after last weeks blizzard which dumped nearly 10 inches of snow in some places, the weather is warming up! Here’s a picture from trying to drive in the first, and the smaller of the two snow storms.

Alright, that’s all I have for now. Take care of everyone and keep reading. Thanks mom and Chris for bugging me about getting back to blogging.

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This is possibly one of my favorite things on the internet. I come across it every once in a while. I think it is so funny. Make sure you go to the bottom because there are two top ten lists. This may not be appropriate for people under 15. Enjoy.

http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=435

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Yes it’s true! Roberto Carlos (if you don’t know who that is look him up on wikipedia) is going to start playing for Fenerbache, a soccer club here in Istanbul, next year. Fenerbache recently won the Turkish championships on their 100 year anniversary. They closed the season by announcing the deal. Check out the CNN article:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SPORT/football/06/06/turkey.carlos.reut/index.html

I know I am looking forward to the next besiktas v fenerbache game. An interesting little fact: Besiktas and Galtasaray are the only two clubs in Turkey on the European side. That means that most of their games are transcontinental games and are the only regular season transcontinental
games in the world.

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Here is a short story I wrote March 3rd, 2005. Anybody pick up on the significance of that date?

The story is supposed to be a metaphor for life. Let me know what you think.

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The Train Ride

It’s cold. It’s dark. The few lights on the platform appear to have been vandalized recently leaving you, and the other passengers, to wait in the dark. Without light, the others are amorphous shapes, moving very little or not at all. But you can hear them. Their voices are the only things you can hear. You don’t listen though; you don’t care. You just want the train to get there before you freeze. Your winter garments – gloves, jacket, hat, scarf – seem to be doing little if anything to hold back the ferocious cold. You fully realize how cold you are as you fumble with a match to try and light a cigarette. After failing with two matches, you give up – you need to quit anyways.

After what seems like an eternity, the voices are muffled by the grinding of the approaching train’s wheels. A flood of light follows, and then a flood of warmth as the doors open. You help an older woman get her bags off the train and exchange formalities with a young woman as you let her board ahead of you. Only a smile and a nod is exchanged. Then, it’s your turn.

It’s one of those nice new trains. There is still a relatively clean carpet on the floor – not too many stains yet – and the seats are not yet worn around the edges. There are nice wood tables with well-hidden garbage cans at the center of each four-seat cluster. Even the glimpse you caught of the bathrooms as you entered into the main cabin was impressive.

Now, a seat. There were plenty of free seats, but each cluster is already occupied by at least one person. You want a whole cluster to yourself. You don’t want to have to share if you didn’t have to. You want to be comfortable, to have your space, to have your freedom. Sufficient searching presents you with exactly what you were looking for: a cluster to yourself, with a pretty woman in the neighboring cluster. You ask her what time it was, but you can tell she isn’t interested.

Almost immediately after you had sit down, a woman with drinks arrives offering you everything the restaurant car offers but without the hassle of having to get up. “Coffee, Tea?” she says as she passes.

‘An excellent idea,’ you think to yourself as you realize she has already made the decision for you. It’s good to be served.

As you indulge yourself in the warmth of the coffee, you begin to feel your face and your hands again. With the caffeine now pumping through your system, you feel wide-awake, you feel alive again!
The last few drops of your coffee disappear down your throat followed by hunger. When, after 20 minutes, she doesn’t come back you begrudgingly lift your self from the warmth of your seat, careful to place your jacket over both seats on your side of the cluster, ask your uninterested new lady friend sitting across from you to watch your belongings, and then head to the restaurant car to get the sandwich yourself.

While there, you chat with a young woman, but she has little interest in anything beyond the casual conversation over a drink and you both return to your seats at the same time with little said since leaving the restaurant car. The other one is still there keeping a watchful eye on your belongings, and you thank her as you sit down. It would appear you a riding alone tonight. Your seat, still warm, welcomes you as you take to looking out the window. Although it’s dark, there is an occasional light from a house, car or street lamp, which provides glimpses of the world outside the train. Although you certainly don’t want to be out there, you are curious to see, to know.

After an hour or so, your trance is interrupted by a ‘have a good evening.’ You turn and see the girl from the bar is leaving.

‘A pity she’s not getting off at my stop,’ you think to yourself as her, and the others step off into the darkness and are replaced by a group of new comers. When the new comers come through the doors into the main cabin, their cheeks are a nice rosy color. Yours looked like that when you got on the train. One of them, a young woman, not too much younger than you, enters and takes up residence in the cluster next to you. That is when you realize your neighbor has left as well. The new girl has a very unfriendly look about her and seems absorbed in whatever she’s listening to on her headphones, so you decide not to ask her the time.

Now you really are alone. Feeling this, you now notice now that newcomers search out the empty clusters, choosing to sit by themselves rather than try to enjoy the company of one of your mutual companions in travel. ‘What a silly practice,’ you think to yourself. Wiser after the girl in the bar, you are quite sure the ride would have been better spent chatting with someone. Perhaps you might have even learned a thing or two.

As your stop your approaches you realize it’s implications: cold and dark, again. Panicking a bit now, you quickly scan the cabin for the woman who had served you the coffee with such a pleasant gentleness in her manner. She’s nowhere to be found and you need a stiff drink to prepare you for what’s about to come. But there is no time. You recognize the area; you’re very close now. Gathering your things slowly and gloomily you say goodbye to the warmth of your chair. Someone else will be taking your space shortly, and there is nothing you can do about it. Could they possibly appreciate the warm cabin and soft seat enough? Did you?

Now the train’s breaks begin to screech as the train begins to stop. You feel the force of the deceleration. You hadn’t noticed it at the other stops, but now, it is all you can focus on. It’s as if it were out to ruin your last few minutes of warmth.

The doors finally open and a blast of cold hits you. It seems to be colder and darker than before. One, two steps, and you are back in the cold, in the dark, again.

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From America: 011-90-539-474-4817

From Europe: 00-90-539-474-4817

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