An American Life in Istanbul

Current Mood: Cool

I had to look up Tasseography too, so I will save you the trouble and start off this entry with its definition (according to wikipedia.org):

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Tasseography (also known as tasseomancy or tassology) is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments.

The terms derive from the French word tasse (cup), which in turn derives from the Arabic tassa (cup), and the Greek suffixes -graph, -logy, and -mancy (divination).

>>

Before I go into what Tasseography has to do with all of this, let me tell you about Turkish coffee. Turkish coffee came to Istanbul in the middle of the 16th century. It quickly grew in popularity. By the mid 17th century, Turkish coffee had become a measure of a woman’s merits. Prospective husbands and their parents would drink coffee prepared by the potential bride as a measure of her house keeping skills. To spoil unwanted marriages, women would use salt instead of sugar, or spill the coffee intentionally. I have read that still today this is used by parents to evaluate potential wives for the sons, but I haven’t seen or heard of it before.

Turkish coffee is made by boiling finely powdered coffee beans in a pot. Without any filtering, this produces somewhat of a muddy mixture that is typically served in a small white cup similar in size to Italian espresso. The coffee has some particulate matter floating in it, but for the most part, all of the coffee power sinks to the bottom like silt in a river bed. Because of the silt at the bottom of the cup, not all of the coffee can be drunk. Coffee used to be very popular in the Ottoman empire. As a consequence, many of the former Ottoman territories drink coffee in this way - the Arabs, Greeks, and many of the Slavs. So important was the coffee in Ottoman culture, the word for breakfast, ‘kahvalt?,’ literally means before coffee. Now, Turkish tea and ‘nescafe’ have taken over as the popular drinks in Turkish culture (To read more about Turkish Coffee click here). Personally, I love Turkish coffee, especially when it is mixed with spices.

After you have finished your Turkish coffee, the cup’s saucer is placed on top of the cup, and together they are turned upside down. It is then left that way until it dries. Some of the dark coffee grinds stick to the white cup and form a pattern of light and dark. It is from this pattern that a fortune teller can tell your fortune. This practice is known as “fal” in Turkish. Last night Berna did my reading and it was quite cool. Most of it was very positive, with a few warnings. I can’t say that I believe in that sort of thing, but it was fun nonetheless.

In Turkish, Turks say, “To drink one cup of coffee together guarantees forty years of friendship”

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Yesterday marked the first day of Ramadan. I won’t go into extreme detail about what it is, so if you are interested you can read Wikipedia’s Ramadan Page.   Simply put, Ramadan is an Islamic religious observance. It takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar (it’s a lunar calendar, so it is different than ours). Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for the entire month! That includes no water as well. Furthermore, you are supposed to observe the Koran more closely during this time period and in general be pure of thought. This includes no smoking and drinking.

Of course each person observes this in a different way. Alper has quit smoking during the day light hours (I think), many people are fasting and Ahmet has recently started smoking cigars in the company. To kick off the first day of fasting, Ahmet, Kenan and I went out for dinner. Unfortunately the restaurant we usually go to is closed during Ramadan so we had to trek a bit, but it was no problem. We were able to get there and start eating before sunset. We of course drank Raki, and to top it off, Kenan smoked cigarettes and Ahmet a cigar.

Since yesterday was my first day experiencing Ramadan, I assumed most of the Muslims here do not observe it. When I went downstairs for lunch today, I was surprised to find the lunch room nearly empty. Most of the tables had been moved and only a few chairs were out. I am often late for lunch, so I checked my watch. I was on time. Only 4 or 5 people from my company were eating of the 30 or so that are typically there. The lunch was unusual as well. It was lots of small breakfast things - cheese, bread, egg, olives, tomatoes, small sausages. It was actually excellent (I really love eating olives here). For a change, I stuffed myself. It felt a little awkward eating in front of our kitchen staff, and having them bring us tea, when they cannot eat or drink until after sunset tonight.

The positive impact of Ramadan on my life is that for some reason all employees get a box of random food stuff from the company (since people are not eating lunch I guess). I assume it’s Ramadan food, so I don’t know what to do with any of it, but there is a lot of olive oil and olives which I am excited about. The second thing is that since there is no lunch break, and no tea breaks (remember they can’t drink either), work ends at 5pm instead of 6pm. Thus my current predicament, everyone is gone and it’s too early for me to head to the city. So what should I do with my time?

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Current Mood: Confused

Last night after work I went to the city with Murat. He dropped me off at the indoor climbing place in Etiler where I did some climbing by myself for about an hour. After that I met with Tahsin and we went to Tophane where we were to meet with Ant and some other people. For those of you that don’t know Tophane is a place by the sea with lots of nargile (hookah) cafes. It is famous for its nargile cafes. I end up there about once a week. I am sure there are other note worthy things about the area, but I haven’t discovered them yet.

The nargile cafes in Tophane are wonderful (sorry I don’t have pictures of them yet). You can sit either on bean bag chairs, or on benches. There is cafe after cafe next to each other in  a line of about 100-150m. It is near the sea so there is always a nice breeze which carries the sweet smells of fruity sheesha (the tobacco in nargile) to the nearby street. As you approach Tophane, you can smell the nargile before you see it. My favorite part of Tophane is the many people that walk through the area selling all kinds of fun things to eat. Cold wet almonds, cherries, cookies, apricots, grapes, green plums, those weird pretzel bread things, tea and some things I haven’t eaten nor been able to identify yet, but they look good. Ant is a regular there, so since I am always with him, they recognize me as well, and I am therefore greeted very warmly.

The reason I am writing about Tophane was because of something very interesting I observed last night. While Tahsin and I were sitting waiting for the other three, a family of Dutch tourists came in. It was a father, his wife, and four children, the oldest being in high school. They were clearly trying to communicate with the servers there, whom do not speak English. Tahsin therefore volunteered to translate for them.

The question they had was whether or not it was ok for the women to sit there. This question seemed a bit strange, but then I realized, there were not any women sitting in the area we were sitting, a just question I thought. The answer was of course, it is no problem. So they took up a spot next to us. Ironically the father’s name was Conrad also (although spelled the Dutch way). I talked with them (mostly the father who was sitting next to me) and found them very nice.

Tahsin’s reaction was quite different. Tahsin seemed insulted and angered by their question. His reaction to the tourists asking if women were allowed to sit there was that these people were insensitive to Turkish culture. According to Tahsin, had they done some research before visiting Turkey, they would understand how secular the country is, and that there is no strict division between women and men as in other Muslim countries.

The read the book argument is a little exagerated. I am evidence that you cannot read about a country’s culture and understand yet. Culture is very complex and it takes years to fully understand a new culture. Furthermore, I don’t believe you can do it through books. You must live the culture to understand it. I assumed that this was simply Tahsin being a pessimist and seeing only the bad side of things.

In my mind, they were being very culturally sensitive. They are in a country that they do not know much about. What they do know is from the media which is biased in its coverage. Furthermore they had only been two days in Istanbul. So when arriving at Tophane, what is one to think when they are in a culture they do not know and suddenly they see no women. I think their question was warranted. Had they not asked and had they sat down without asking, they would have been accused of being culturally insensitive. It’s kind of a lose-lose situation.

I didn’t pay much heed to Tahsin’s comment until Ant and the others arrived. After telling them the story of these Dutch visitors Ant’s comment was “they think we are barbarians,” and the others seemed to agree. I was shocked. I thought they were being cultural sensitive, and I am sure they did too. Many of you would agree, wouldn’t you? Apparently there are some who find it to be just the opposite. Is the fact that these tourists did not understand  Turkish culture before coming to Turkey is culturally insensitive in itself?
It is important to note at this point that the Turks are not Arabs. I am not sure everyone is aware of this. They are from a completely different genealogy and have a completely different language.  They are from different parts of the world. The Arabs and the Turks simply share the same religion (the same goes for the Persians - Iran).

What do I make of all this? It seems the Turks defaulted to a defensive stance in this situation.  I think everyone can agree that each side to this argument has a valid point and both sides are reasonable. So then it comes down to the difference between cultures. What does this incident say about Turkish culture?

I think it is indicative of the Turks being stuck between a rock and a hard place for a long time now. Since Turkey is a secular Muslim state, they aren’t very popular with their Arab neighbors, but since they are Muslim, they haven’t gotten along too well with Europe. People like Sarkozy in France, who had a campaign platform saying under his watch, Turkey would never join the EU, make Turkey feel rejected from the West. I am sure there is an eastern anti-Turkey counterpart, but I don’t know enough about the history and the politics to cite any names. Furthermore, allying itself with the US for so long has dragged Turkey’s popularity down as US popularity declines world wide. The divide between Turkey and the west has clearly led to a mutually lack of understanding. The rejection coupled with Turkey’s intense national pride may have turned them off to the rest of the world. Ant and Tahsin both saw this as a stealthy attack on their culture, would many other Turks have drawn the same conclusion? Would many other Turks agree with them? I don’t know.

I am now somewhat inspired to read deeper into Turkey’s history since the becoming a republic in 1923. They clearly  don’t like being rejected, but I am curious how they have responded to others. There is the issue of the incident with the Armenians, but there is also the Ottoman acceptance of the Jews when they fled Spain. Is this a case of a self fulfilling prophecy or have the Turks simply been backed into a corner by the forces of global politics?

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Current Mood: Confused

You may remember a post from way back in March where, I talked about some of the clear differences between Murat and myself. If not click here to catch up.

I am reminded of this entry because of my recent interaction with Oytun, the consultant we are paying to take care of our stock database and to create a website template with a user friendly content management system (don’t worry about what that is).

Since I am the most skilled person when it comes to Internet stuff, Murat appointed me in charge of the website. He said I can do whatever I want with it, just take care of it. To check how serious he was, I asked if I could fire Oytun and find someone else. He said yes. So I took this to mean that he didn’t want to hear about it, just that in a couple weeks, he wanted a functional high quality website. Before taking on this responsibility, I made him sit down and together we clearly defined what the goals of the website were, and each group that the website is meant to serve. This way I could have an idea of what he wants.

I have been going back and fourth with Oytun constantly since we met on Friday, bombarding him with questions and commands about things to change. In the email he sent me today, I was reminded of my earlier blog entry. At the bottom of a long list of things I wanted him to do, which I prioritized for him, he had the following response to my last request:

“Me: Sixth I don’t want to see any turkish anywhere in the content management system.
Oytun: You are too aggressive for someone working in a Turkish speaking country, anyway I will translate them as I encounter.”

I am not sure if he meant this to be critical or as a joke, but I took it as a compliment. This is certainly not the first comment I have received like this. After a series of emails back and fourth with Ant (one of Izzy’s friends), he commented

“I guess you were out before 9 months ? :p”

He means that I am always in such a hurry that I must not have waited 9 months to be born and had come out early. There was also Baris’ comment:

“You are the most American guy I have ever met.”

This one I was insulted by at first. I have a bit of euro-envy and I try to associate myself with European culture, so I was shocked when he said this. Then I realized it was because of my approach to work that he said this, and that it was kind of a compliment.

As I have commented on in other posts in this blog, and in my blog while in the Marshal Islands, I find that the American approach, or at least the approach I have always been witness to, is a very proactive one. This may be because I studied engineering, but I believe it is always better to take initiative and solve problems before to occur, to plan things out well in advance, to create opportunities for effective communication between colleagues, ect. I have in my mind a model for how a business should be run, and the culture of the people I would want working in that business (If I ever do have my own business, I have a running list in my mind of friends I have met that I would hire).

The Turkish method here is very different. I don’t want to comment too much here on Turkish culture because I do not have the experience to distinguish between what is Turkish work culture and what is my company’s work culture. My work experience at the company is frustrating from at times. It does not opperate in the same as the states and the differences bother me.

This entry isn’t meant to talk about Turkish culture so much, but to point out how Turkish culture is interpreting me. If you look back at my “Fear in the Fearless” entry, you can read about how I see myself as good at making a positive impression on people. It appears however, that this is becoming less and less true. I have had four people now tell me that at first they thought I didn’t like them, that I was giving off hostile energy. I am not aware of doing this, which leads to one of two conclusions: I am not myself lately (possible), or I am missing some key cultural cues (equally possible). How to figure out which of these two it is, I am not sure. I can only try and learn more about the culture, learn more about myself and ask my friends for feedback. These comments from Oytun, Ant and Baris illustrate that I am distinctly different and that it is more obvious than I had previously thought. Perhaps Oytun and Ant were turned off to me when they saw this. Ant studied at Penn State, so he is familiar with my kind of attitude, but I don’t think that Oytun has studied or worked outside of Turkey. I wonder what he really thinks? Perhaps he sees this characteristic in me, understands it, and offers his words as a warning. “Conrad, you will go crazy if you try to function this way within a Turkish run company,” is what he means to say.

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Current Mood: Confused

I believe the expression is that the good comes with the bad. This is always true I believe. There are always negative sides to things, or ways of looking at situations and events in a negative way. You can try to be optimistic, but the bad is always there. That’s what I do. I always try to be optimistic and accept the negative points of life while embracing the positive things. But even the best of us can stumble from time to time.

Since coming here, I have exchanged a few emails with Carnegie Mellon’s study abroad coordinator, Eve Mergner about the issue of culture shock, which I am most certainly experiencing. She sent me the study abroad student handbook, which has a large section about culture shock. For lack of a desire to create a structure for this entry, I will simply respond to the various parts of the culture shock section of the handbook. If you are interested, you can download the whole PDF file for yourself and read through it. I have found it to be very helpful. The section on culture shock starts on page 31.

Study Abroad Handbook.pdf

Understanding Culture Shock
Culture shock is a slow, cumulative feeling of frustration. Many factors contribute to the mounting feeling of culture shock. It can cause intense discomfort, often accompanied by hyperirritability, bitterness, resentment, homesickness, and depression. In some cases distinct physical symptoms of psychosomatic illness occur.

This is exactly as I feel. In Switzerland the culture was very similar to my own, on the Marshall Islands, I lived on a military base with Americans, in Turkey, it’s very different. Many aspects of life are different and many things contribute to negatively to my life. Hopefully I can outline some of those for you.

Culture shock comes from:
- Being cut off from the cultural cues and known patterns with which you are familiar — especially the subtle, indirect ways you normally have of expressing feelings.
- living and/or working over an extended period of time in a situation that is ambiguous.
- having your own values (which you had heretofore considered as absolutes) brought into question — which yanks your moral rug out from under you.
- being continually put into a position in which you are expected to function with maximum skill and speed but where the rules have not been adequately explained.

Not everyone will experience a severe case of culture shock, nor will all the symptoms be observed in any single individual. Many people sail through culture shock with relative ease, only now and again experiencing the more serious reactions. But many others do not. One might say that culture shock is the occupational hazard of overseas living that one has to be willing to go through in order to have the pleasures of experiencing other countries and cultures.

Points two and four are the ones that really struck a cord in me, and inspired me to share this pamphlet with you. The first, living/working in an ambiguous situation is very frustrating. Because of the language barrier, I have to rely on other people to take care of things in my life. My visa, air conditioning in my apartment, wind surfing club membership and lessons, information I need about our compressors, health insurance questions… everything requires that I go through someone else to get done. My attitude has always been to tackle something immediately, quickly see that it’s done and then be free of it. Adding a middleman to the process who must translate and do some leg work for me, adds time. Further more, the fact that they are Turkish means that there is no rush to get it done. I am therefore put in a situation where I don’t know when the guy will come and install my air conditioning, and I each day, I am told a new day that they will come. I have very little confidence in the people that I have to rely on in my life.

The second point is somewhat my own doing. I don’t think I am expected to continually function at maximum skill and speed at all, but I feel I should. I hate wasting time – you may have another opinion about how I use my time, but I argue it is never wasted if I can help it – and sometimes I feel like I should be doing more. Furthermore, there are high expectations for Murat and I here and I feel a bit ill equipped at times to meet those expectations. I have spent six weeks asking every week to get documentation in English, and each week, I am told it is being done. It wasn’t until this week that the issue was actually addressed. Thus, for many things, I am forced to work at the leisurely speed of the rest of the company (thus why I have had so much time to blog), which drives me crazy (it also drove me crazy in the Marshal Islands, but Danny and I continually found new tasks for ourselves). Even small things about changes in the working hours that don’t get told to me add a little bit more ambiguity and therefore stress to my life. I could go on and on forever, but it would just be me being very critical, which doesn’t help anything. I just want to give you an idea.

In order to understand culture shock better and therefore how
to counteract it, you should recognize that there are distinct
stages of personal adjustment while living abroad.
These stages are:
- Initial euphoria
- Irritability and hostility
- Gradual adjustment
- Adaptation or biculturalism

So I am not sure which of these phases I am in right now. I am sometimes in all of the first three. In Switzerland I never made it stage four because I didn’t interact with the Swiss too much. They were not terribly friendly or welcoming so I stuck to the foreigners. Perhaps we foreigners had an Erasmus student culture all our own that I adopted.

Progressive Stages of Culture Shock

1. Initial Euphoria
Most people begin their study abroad experience with great
expectations and a positive mindset. If anything, they come
with expectations that are too high and attitudes that are too
positive toward the host country. At this point, anything new
is intriguing and exciting. But, for the most part, it is the
similarities that stand out. The newcomer is really impressed
with how people everywhere are really very much alike. This
period of euphoria may last from a week to a month, but the
letdown is inevitable. You’ve reached the end of the first
stage.

This is how all my weekends feel; Full of energy and excitement. I am anxious to meet new people and to take advantage of all the wonderful things that a culture center like Istanbul has to offer.

2. Irritability and Hostility
Gradually, your focus turns from the similarities to the dif-
ferences, and these differences, which suddenly seem to be
everywhere, are troubling. You overreact and turn little,
seemingly insignificant difficulties into major catastrophes.
This is the stage generally identified as culture shock, and
you may experience any of the symptoms listed in the chart.

Irritable and whiney from time to time, check!

3. Gradual Adjustment
The crisis is over, and you are on your way to recovery. This
step may come so gradually that, at first, you will be un-
aware that it is even happening. Once you begin to orient
yourself and are able to interpret some of the subtle cultural
clues and cues that passed by unnoticed earlier, the culture
seems more familiar. You become more comfortable in it
and feel less isolated from it. Gradually, too, your sense of

I am getting there. I becoming more and more comfortable with my situation as I have to rely on other people less and less.

humor returns and you realize the situation is not hopeless
after all.

I will rue the day I lose my humor. Humor is extremely important to me. It is often a healthy way to release stress and pent up negative energy. It is also very important I think to be able to laugh at yourself. If you begin to take yourself to seriously, and cannot laugh at yourself, you will lose your humor all together.

4. Adaptation and Bi-culturalism
Full recovery will result in an ability to function in two cul-
tures with confidence. You will even find a great many cus-
toms, ways of doing and saying things, and personal attitudes
which you enjoy — indeed, to which you have in some de-
gree acculturated — and which you will definitely miss
when you pack up and return home. In fact, you can expect
to experience “reverse culture shock” upon your return to the
United States. In some cases, particularly where a person has
adjusted exceptionally well to the host country, reverse cul-
ture shock may cause greater distress than the original cul-
ture shock.

Not sure I will ever get to this point. I will certainly have to learn Turkish first though.

The interesting thing about culture shock is that there are
routinely not 1 but 2 low points and, even more interestingly,
they will accommodate themselves to the amount of time
you intend to spend in the host country! That is, they will
spread themselves out if you’re going to stay for a longer
period or contract if your initial plans are for a shorter time.

How long will culture shock last? As we have suggested, that
varies with the length of your stay. But it also depends to
some extent on you and your resiliency, and on the degree to
which you are immersed in the culture. You can expect a
letup after the first dip, but be prepared for the second down-
turn, which will probably be somewhat more severe. Stop a
moment and consider what you can do on your own to com-
bat the onset and alleviate the effects of culture shock.

Responding to Culture Shock

1. Realize that, in fact, practically everybody who goes over-
seas for a substantial period of time experiences culture
shock in some form and to some degree. It’s natural and not
a sign that you’re deficient or strange — and you’ll live
through it as thousands of others have.

2. Be ready for the lesson culture shock teaches. Culture is a
survival mechanism which tells its members not only that
their ways of doing things are right but also that they are
superior. Culture shock stems from an in-depth encounter
with another culture in which you learn to the contrary that
there are different ways of doing things that are neither
wrong nor inferior. It teaches a lesson that cannot be learned
as effectively by any other means: that one’s own culture
does not possess the single right way, best way or even a
uniformly better way of providing for human need and en-
joyments. Believing it does is a kind of imprisonment —
from which the experience of culture shock, as painful as it
may be, can liberate you.

The importance of this point is often overlooked, and I constantly remind myself of this. It is very easy to sit back and say the US is better because of this, this and this. But that means closing one’s mind and learning nothing. It is not easy. When people ask me what my impressions of Turkey are, and how it compares to the US, I stop them, and simply respond that it’s just different. I try to not focus on the differences so much and instead I try to understand all that I do not understand here without making comparisons to my own culture. Of course, this is impossible to do absolutely, but it is not a bad thing to work towards. Like being bilingual, being bicultural takes a very long time to achieve. Thinking in terms of another culture is perhaps more difficult than simply thinking in another language.

3. Select one or two areas of interest and investigate them
more thoroughly than the other topics. If you are a fan of
American football, for example, don’t just sit around and
grouse about missing the weekly games. Cultivate an interest
in their football – soccer — or other national sports.

I am working on doing exactly this. It’s just things move slowly in Turkey. I would be more comfortable if I had a bit more routine in my life.

4. Begin, if you haven’t done so already, to consciously look
for logical reasons behind everything in the host culture that
seems strange, difficult, confusing, or threatening. Take
every aspect of your experience and look at it from their per-
spective. Search for patterns and interrelationships. You
may be surprised to find that the pieces fit together once you
discover where they go. Relax your grip on your own culture
a little in the process. There’s no way you can lose it any
more than you could forget your knowledge of English by
learning another language.

Sort of what I said in point 2.

5. Make a list of all the positive things that you can identify
about your present situation. (Ignore the negative — which
you’ve probably been concentrating on too much anyway.)
Then tack the list up somewhere where you’ll see it during
the course of your day. You may find it helpful to find an
American who has been there longer, experienced culture
shock, and has a positive attitude towards the host country.
Discuss your feelings and try to get a new sense of perspec-
tive.

6. Avoid those Americans or other foreigners who are in a
permanent state of culture shock and who spend their days
seeking company to commiserate with. They will only per-
petuate any feelings of culture shock you may already have.

I follow this one fairly well. Leyla is the only American I know here, but Murat points out that Tahsin and Izzy are somewhat Americanized. My rebuttal is that they understand English and are not afraid to speak it with me, unlike many others.

7. Don’t succumb to the temptation to disparage the host
culture yourself. Resist making jokes and denigrating com-
ments such as “well, what else would you expect from these
people?” They only reinforce your beleaguered sense of self
or shaky feelings of superiority and slow down the process of
adaptation and of recapturing the true feelings of worth you
are searching for. Avoid other people who make such jokes.

I try…

8. On the other hand, work at maintaining a healthy sense of
humor. Be ready to laugh at yourself. It’s one of the best
antidotes to culture shock there is. Making silly mistakes
because of your unfamiliarity with the culture may cause you
to feel foolish or childish, but the embarrassment will pass.
Share your gaffes with family and friends and get them out
of your system with a good laugh.

Said this already.

9. Make friends with host nationals and try to develop a
deeper, more intimate relationship with one or two of them.
Discuss with them the problems you’ve been having, taking
care to present them in a way that doesn’t sound like you’re
criticizing their culture. It is a truism that Americans who
spend their time associating only with other Americans or
others like them never do adjust to the host country.

I do. The one thing I always loved about Turks is that they make great friends. They are extremely loyal, but as I am learning, they are a bit unreliable. They of course do not see this as a problem but it can be frustrating.

10. When you look for advice, focus on how you are feeling
— what is going on inside you — rather than on what you
consider the causes of your problems, especially when
you’re inclined to think they lie in what is wrong in the host
culture.

I am an engineer, I think in terms of cause and effect, and try to analyze whole systems. Thinking this way is more challenging than it seems.

11. As you adjust to and function more comfortably within
the value system of your host country, don’t worry that you
may lose your own values. This is a thought that comes
quite naturally at some point or other to most people who
live abroad. Your values are much deeper and more
permanent than that. To act according to the customs of your
host country, when and where it is appropriate, does not
make you less of an American. It only makes you more com-
fortable and enables you to feel more at home.

I like the value system that I have, and I think it’s important to stay true to it. I am not sure how much agree with this point. Perhaps I am misreading it. Baris did tell me that I am “the most American guy [he] ever met.” So perhaps I am acting opposite to what this paragraph is saying.

12. During the deepest plunges into culture shock, take a trip
— get away to a scenic spot or a nearby country. When you
return, be open to having good “coming back home” feel-
ings.

Izmir, Efes, Kordon…

13. Prepare some kind of presentation about the U.S. for
your hosts, using slides, film or some other kinds of visuals.
You will have to prepare this before you leave home. Be-
come an “unofficial ambassador” whose mission it is to cor-
rect some of the many misconceptions which replays of The
OC, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Friends have cre-
ated in people’s minds overseas.

I show people lots of episodes of Southpark and The Office. I also never turn down the chance to talk about culture with who ever is interested.

There you have it, a program to get you safely though culture
shock and to make sure that the rewards which come with
the overseas experience will be yours to relive for the rest of
your life.

There you have it: A quick rundown of the bad in my life. Don’t worry though. I am a big boy and I can take care of myself. Just thought you might all be interested to know that life isn’t perfect. This blog may be a window into my life, but it has been a rose colored window. Thanks for the info Eva.

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You would think in a hot country, shorts would be very popular. Sadly this is not the case, here and in many countries around the world, men wear pants, no matter how hot is. I asked Izzy why and he gave me this explanation, which I have read online, and is true of many countries.

When kids are growing up they are given shorts so that their parents do not have to continually buy them new pants as they get bigger. When they come of age, and become men, they are given pants. Thus it has become a sign of manhood to wear the pants. According to a bit of research I did, this was also the case in the United States until some 50 years ago or so. On a flight I took recently, I read an article talking about how the British military was one of the first to issue shorts. This was for troops stationed in India who were cutting off the legs of their pants to get some relief from the heat.

In conclusion, if you come to visit me, I don’t care how hot it is, you are going to wear pants.

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Current Mood: Bored

Regardless of who you are, where you come from, or what you are interested in, you must go to Taksim. It is the heart of Istanbul. There are clubs, restaurants, shops (one of which haven’t closed for a minute in over 40 years), bars, nargile cafes, Starbucks… you name it, and it’s there. At night, a cacophony of different music, car horns, motorcycle engines, singing and yelling fill Taksim’s crowded streets, creating an atmosphere that is quite unique in my experience. There is a kind of infectious energy there. If you are tired, go to Taksim and take a beer, you won’t be tired anymore. The endless energy that is in the air there, that makes the pulse that keeps time in Istanbul’s heart, will draw you in; it will trigger a second wind.

Saturday night, after dinner at a fabulous restaurant in Taksim, I had some time to kill before meeting Basar and his future brother-in-law, Alistair, so I took a few laps around Taksim and noticed a few things. Should you have the opportunity to kill some time in the evening in Taksim, do as I have done. Walk around, look not at the shops, not at the clubs, not at the beautiful men and women that epitomize sexual desirability, instead look at everyone. Look at all the faces, listen to the language, and watch the shoulders, the eyes, the walk and the clothes. In the short main street through Taksim you will some very interesting groups.

Couples: Of course there are many couples walking through Taksim. It is very obvious who is together and who is not. Turkish men always seem to walk with some sort of body contact with their girl. They will either hold hands, put a hand around the waist, or around the shoulder. Of Taksim’s patrons, these are the slowest walkers. After all what is the rush anyway? Taksim moves in a special way. I won’t attempt to describe it (I would need to see from a bird’s eye view to be able to have any real comments on this), sorry to disappoint, guess you’ll just have to visit and see for yourself.

These couples strolling carelessly through Taksim illustrate a point of Turkish culture, which I have observed but I don’t think I have mentioned here (on my blog) yet.

Groups of friends: These are typically large groups of Turkish men, which stroll through the streets of Taksim at leisurely pace. Although not quite as leisurely as the coupled people you see, they do seem to be as close at times. In Turkish culture body contact between same sex friends seems to be a very normal thing. Two guys will walk down the street one with his arm around the other. Heck, Murat’s uncle Ahmet comes into the office and gives me a little shoulder massage from time to time. It is also customary for Turkish men (well for everyone) to kiss each other twice on the cheek when greeting. I am not exactly comfortable with this yet, but I am trying to fit in.

It is interesting to note before reading about the foreigners, that Turks seem to walk in lines perpendicular to the flow of traffic, and often keep their eyes looking ahead at eye level. They don’t really look at anything in particular; they just look ahead or at each other.

Americans/foreigners: You can pick them out from a mile away. They walk different, they talk different and they look different. I saw several groups of English speakers – I assume they were tourists – in my stroll through Taksim and they all seemed to have the same characteristics.

1. They walk faster. They all seemed like they were going somewhere urgently, or lost and getting a bit of anxiety because of it.

2. They walk in a line parallel to the flow of traffic. This makes it easier to stay together, and therefore they can move faster. Does this say something about which culture is more efficiency oriented? I merely pose the question – I dare not take another shot at the Turkish way without examining myself ?.

3. They don’t look ahead of them. Turks seem to look straight ahead as they are going and talking. They look at each other, or directly ahead at eye level. They don’t really seem to be looking at anyone or any particular thing, just kind of looking. The foreign groups follow their leader and look everywhere but straight ahead. They look at the signs, the shops, each other, their shoes, their phones, but rarely straight ahead for any length of time. I do the same thing because it’s all so new to me, but the foreigners always seem a bit skittish. Taksim is intimidating and many of them seem to be a bit intimidated. Perhaps they are partially afraid to make strong eye contact with the Turks who stare so boldly ahead of them.

4. They walk closer together. If you took an aerial picture of Taksim, I bet you could pick out all the groups of foreigners and tourists. They stay much closer to each other, which ends up offsetting any efficiency gained from lining up parallel to the flow of traffic, so that knows if any of theories are right. I suppose you’ll have to look for myself and see if you see the same things.

Transvestites: Let me say it again: Transvestites. Big, manly, muscular, square-jawed, broad-shouldered, Transvestites. What true place of the night would be complete with out transvestites? Where I am from, you don’t see a lot of Transvestites, so I can’t help but stare sometimes. The first thought that goes through my mind is always, “what an ugly women. She must have fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.” As the ogre gets closer, my second thought is always, “ooohhhh, right.” On this particular evening in Taksim, I was amazed by one’s 5 o’clock shadow (how could they let that go?!) and I guess I gawked a little bit too long, because she, err he caught my look. My face was expressionless – my mouth may have open a little bit in disbelief, which I suppose could be taken the wrong way. He noticed me, and attempted to do a feminine smile back at me. I immediately turned and walked the other way.

The funny thing about the Transvestites I have seen in Taksim is they are probably the worst kinds of guys to dress up as women. They have such masculine forms and shapes to their faces and bodies that they could never fool anybody. This leads to the question of why none of the guys with feminine looks, and there are many, are not playing for the other team on Friday nights?

Occam’s Razor tells us that the simplest answer to a problem is the right answer until it can be proven wrong. In this case, our simplest answer is that they do change uniforms at half time, and have just been fooling me so far. Scary thought isn’t it?

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Current Mood: Happy

Fear not! This entry is not actually about traffic, nor is it very long. Well maybe it does have something to do with traffic. As I am learning more and more about Turkey, I am really beginning to appreciate the… small differences. One such difference came to my attention last night.

Yesterday I was invited to a nice dinner at a luxury resort near to where I live (it was only 15-20 minutes drive from here). Everything was excellent (far better than spending the evening at home, or around mimarsinan and buyukecekmece). When I finally got around to leaving it was nearly midnight so there were not many cars on the road. In fact, the highway was nearly deserted except for the occasional car.

The funny thing about the roads around Istanbul is the small side roads running against the flow of traffic. From what I can tell, these roads serve two purposes:

1. They provide easier access to shopping centers and other places people might really want to get to.

2. They act as a way of turning around. Since there aren’t many ways to cross over the highways, you can take these small side roads, against traffic, until the next crossover, roundabout, bridge or whatever.

This looks inefficient and confusing at first – I am sure there is a better way of doing it so that there can be more highway lanes in each direction – but I suppose Istanbul is an old city, and they started doing these at some point because there weren’t other economical solutions. This assumes thought went into the road system, something I am very skeptical of.

Now picture this; I am driving home, it’s night, it’s dark, there aren’t many cars around, but it’s still somewhat urban. Since it’s a highway I am going fast. After about the third car I encountered on the road, I realized when I switched my brights off that the difficulty I am having seeing is because there are no street lights.

I realize that Long Island, New York is the kind of place that has excellent infrastructure, and I have driven on the roads in Vermont that have no streetlights, but that was the middle of nowhere. The road from here to Silivri is lined with buildings, so it should fall somewhere in the middle. If something had been in the road, I don’t think I would have been able to stop in time with out my brights on.

What makes this all amusing, is that all the feeder roads from here to Silivri are lined with street lamps! Why!? They are not close enough to the main road to shed light on both roads, although I am sure they could have been built that way. My guess it is because they are next to housing developments and the homes wanted well lit streets all around. Seriously though, how can you not light the highway in a heavily trafficked area?

Ok, I am done. Here is a picture of me with my new office decoration. Until my poster gets here, that will have to do.

And here’s another picture form my brother’s graduation. Those are my father’s parents, my parents, graham, his girl friend Elise and myself! (My dad is wearing a traditional Afghan hat. I have no idea why).

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If there is one thing that visitors to Istanbul will remember, it’s the traffic. There is always a lot of traffic, especially as you get in closer to the city center. Places like Levant, Besiktas, Taksim, Kadikoy always seem to be choking on traffic, night and day. On May 14th, a ferry will begin running from where I live to Besiktas, which I am hoping will make my life easier. Hopefully I will be able to take it and dodge the traffic that we always hit going into the city. Since I usually stay on the European side with friends there, my commute isn’t as bad as Murat’s. He must cross one of two bridges that connect the two continents, and there is ALWAYS traffic at the bridge.

There are several factors, from what I know, that lead to Istanbul’s traffic problem. The first is obvious: over-population. Istanbul is built on two kissing peninsula’s. As the city grows, it can only grow to the west on the European side, and to the east on the Asian side, yet everyone still wants to be in the city. With people constantly trying to move in and out of the city, and routes connecting the two continents very limited, this puts a lot of cars on the road.

The second factor that amplifies all the problems caused by the first is poor design. Murat agrees with me that very little urban planning appears to have gone into Istanbul. With explosive growth for the past 20 years, people have built and built to meet the insatiable demand for industry, apartments, and offices. In the past developers would start building without permits in empty space (sometimes without actually owning the land). Once completed, the government would grant them ownership. With everybody and their mother throwing up buildings and supporting infrastructure, little thought went into the overall infrastructure of the city. No trams were built, no subways and no trains. Furthermore, because of a decision approximately 50 years ago, to follow the US model of highway building, Turkey also has terrible railway infrastructure.

The third factor is, as Murat puts it, “everyone drives like retards.” Cairo still takes the cake when it comes to the worst drivers I have ever seen, but Istanbul is a respectable second. While not the utter lawlessness of Cairo, Istanbul still has its share of rampant traffic violations. In the city, second lanes become places to park, with miles of cars illegally parked. Parking police come around, with a special kind of truck that lifts random cars from the tightly packed lines and carries them off. But this doesn’t change parking habits. Rather than spend the time to find a legal parking spot, most seem satisfied to risk having their car carried off. People will stop in the road, put their hazards on, and pop into a bar or café for an ice cream, or to catch the closing minutes of a soccer match.

Cab drivers, as usual, contribute their own special disruption to traffic flow. I’ve seen them stop in the middle of the road, completely indifferent to the frustrated honks behind them, to ask for directions, or to pick up a fair. I have seen an entire line of cars not move an inch at a green light because of a cab.

The government has taken some steps to curb this problem. There are so many taxes on cars that often people end up paying double their normal value. This is a logical deterrent to car ownership. There is a cap on building height in many parts of the city, which leads to a lower density of people (tall office buildings have many works, all of whom need to park their cars somewhere). But these seem to do very little. What happens instead is a law stating that in the event of an accident, neither party can move their car until the police have made their report, cripples the flow of traffic. From what I have seen, minor traffic bumps can quickly lead to several kilometers of stalled traffic. Investments are feeble at best proportional to the size of the city. The private sector has stepped in where profitable with the small, but convenient dolmus, and ferries throughout the Bosporus.

Instead of consider a massive public transportation overhaul – which may be unviable due to the age and density of Istanbul – the government has talked of taxing people to come and go from Istanbul. Now, this information is comes to me second hand, so I am not sure how seriously it is being considered, but will it really do much? If over 100% taxes on cars have not deterred people from driving will this tax make a difference? Does it matter if this tax were to be applied as a variable cost to consumers or as a fixed cost (like the taxes on the cars)? Indonesia has had a lot of success with a similar plan, and if Mayor Bloomberg has his way, New Yorkers may be paying $8 to enter the US south of 82nd street (source: The Economist). At least it will raise revenue to fund further infrastructure improvements.

***************************

Now this brings me to what I find amusing about Istanbul’s dreadful traffic. In all these traffic jams, there are always guys walking around selling stuff. Looking at the economic costs of traffic – things like time lost, stress generated, petrol resources wasted – is interesting, and can lead to a valid argument for more investment, but it’s the same argument in every city. Istanbul however, has a small micro-economy that thrives on the traffic jams. When traffic stops, an army of vendors descends from nowhere, filling in the tight spaces on the nearly motionless roads roads.

In my experience, this is unique to Istanbul. I have been in many cities, and nowhere else have I seen this. It’s like being at a baseball game; there is hot dog guy, beer guy, water guy, cracker jacks guy and so on. The convenience and the price hike are the same. In Istanbul however, there are slightly different products for sale as you sit, watching for the car in front of you to move. In fact, I would say it is almost as excruciating as watching a baseball game, or perhaps golf (There is less excitement, but better music). Just like in baseball, there is the occasional burst of excitement when things picks up, only slow again. Just like in baseball, you are dying for a drink to keep things interesting. Just like in baseball, afterwards you are exhausted and don’t want to do anything. Finally, a good traffic jam takes about as long as baseball.

Sorry, I got a bit side tracked there. I enjoy this traffic-baseball metaphor. Let’s get back to our small traffic economy. Now, I am not an economist, but I took some economics, and in general it’s pretty straightforward. If there is demand, there will usually be a supply that tries to meet that demand, right? At least if it is profitable to meet the demand, there will be a supply. So let’s look at this groups three key products: water, jumbo-pretzel-bread things (not really sure what they are) and cell phone car chargers.

Water: It’s Istanbul, it’s hot, it’s dry, and most people don’t take water with them incase the ride home from work gets long and grueling so naturally people get thirsty. Since tap water isn’t very good quality, bottled water is a necessity. Almost any service of this kind is going to supply water, but it seems to especially have a foothold in the markets that are Istanbul’s traffic jams.

If there was a slightly wider variety of products, one could say that the traffic jams turn into a kind of bazaar. Imagine that, you could buy a kebab, or birthday card, or earrings for your wife, all while stuck in traffic! Wouldn’t that be grand! It could be one of the great wonders of the world. Like the nomads of the US Midwest, Istanbul’s traffic-jam markets would come and go with the traffic.

Accidents would of course be the biggest catalyst for their business. Traffic is one thing, but it’s car accidents that really bring things to a grinding halt. In fact, there is even incentive here for them to cause car accidents! Imagine the unionized workers of Istanbul’s traffic-jam markets hurling goats (or something else) into traffic, creating planned traffic jams at prime hours. With the way Turkey’s traffic laws work, they could even take two of their own cars and bump them together. I wonder if they would make a blog so people could pick up the schedule? Could turf wars over the best routes develop?

Jumbo-pretzel-bread things: Food, everyone wants food. Driving home from work and you get stuck in traffic for two hours, of course you are going to get hungry. This is a no brainer. I haven’t tried these yet, because frankly, they don’t look too appetizing, but everyone else must like them. I would prefer a New York City hot dog – or better yet a Jimmy Dog from Hazleton PA – but I guess that’s not a reasonable request in a Muslim country (remember, no pork).

Cell phone car chargers: This is the product that interests me. In order for this to be one of the top three selling products on the street, there has to be significant demand for it. That means more than flashy light things, beads, necklaces and most surprisingly ice cream. How can cell phone chargers beat out ice cream and flashy light things? I asked myself this same question and came up with the following answer, which wonderfully illustrates Istanbul’s traffic.

Cell phone chargers are useful for one thing: charging your phone when you are in the car. This is especially useful for people who spend a lot of time in the car on the phone. People like Kenan, who drives a lot for his job, have use for one of these. But that’s not really a sizeable market in my mind. Your average traveler on his way home from work wouldn’t really have need for one of these, right? With a good charge, you can get 2, 3, 4 hours of talk time out of cell phones these days, maybe more. That should be more than adequate for even the longest commutes home. By this thinking there wouldn’t be much demand unless… you were stuck in traffic for a really long time. Therein lies the answer. You get stuck in traffic for a really long time and if you are chatting on the phone to pass the time, you need a charger. Imagine being stuck in traffic so long that you need to recharge your phone! If that doesn’t give you an appreciation for Istanbul traffic, you will just have to come visit me and see for yourself.

Ok, I am done. I hope my little essay here was coherent (it has been awhile since I attempted any formal writing). If you made it this far, time for a treat. Last night, while I was doing some exercise, Baris asked if I had any shorts, which I didn’t. Since Murat wasn’t around, Baris went looking through Murat’s stuff for a pair of shorts. I could hear Baris talking about not being able to find shorts but I didn’t pay too much attention. What happened next put me in tears with laughter.

Baris came out wearing what was most definitely women’s workout pants. They were very tight, and too short for him. He looked at me and said, “Hey, I have never seen Murat wear these.” I just hit the floor laughing.

In summary, traffic sucks, and Baris cross dresses.

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Current Mood: Confused

Hmmmm, I am not quite sure how to begin this one. Let’s start with Friday. If you have been regularly reading this blog you will know that I was in Izmir on Friday on business. Since we did not return until late, my weekend really only consisted of Saturday.I spent a large chunk of my free daylight hours stuck in the worst traffic I have seen since I got here. I have started driving from time to time to get used to the way things work here. I have been gradually building road confidence. Saturday was a grueling three hours of inching along under a hot sun, Murat praying the whole way we would arrive before the night’s big match. Besiktas (the team that Murat, Izzy, Tahsin, Ahmet Asci and Kemal Asci support) was playing Fenerbayche (haven’t meat anyone that supports them yet). Trailing by one point with only a few games left in the season, Besiktas’ home match against Fenerbayche was viewed as the deciding factor in the Turkish league this year. Thus, Besiktas (the area of the city, not the team) was a mad house.

Let me come back to that part of the story because it is by far the most interesting part. Let me quickly say that we made it with about 60-90 minutes until game time. The stadium was of course nearly full. The super fans of Besiktas begin preparing themselves (ie drinking a lot) many hours before the game, and begin fill the stadium with song sometimes several hours before game time. They really are in love with their team.

Izzy and I watched the game, and much to his disappointment, Besiktas lost. Afterwards though, we went to Pano, a wine bar that makes its own wine in Taksim (Istanbul’s party central). It was classy, the wine was good and the selection was one of the best I have seen in Turkey so far (that’s not saying much). Best of all, it was cheap.

Just as I did last weekend, I stayed at Tahsin’s place, I played soccer on Sunday – the wine hang over made it one of my worst 60 minutes of play in a long time – and had lunch by the sea. Before I left the US, I had jokingly asked Kristen (a friend from high school) if she knew anyone in Turkey. Surprisingly she did; a girl by the name of Max. So Sunday I met with Max for a few hours to browse a local market and have lunch. It was nice.

Now we come to the interesting part of my story. The hour and a half between when Murat went into the stadium, and I met with Izzy, was an interesting cultural experience. I was walking through Besiktas (the part of the city) admiring all the fans and how passionate they were about their team. As I headed north, away from the stadium, the crowd seemed to get thicker and thicker (I know, it’s counter-intuitive) to the point that I couldn’t move. I stood a few minutes in the drunk and rowdy crowd waiting for a path to open up so I could keep moving.

Suddenly the noise level rose, and the crowd began moving… at least the front of it did. Scores of people crashed into the people behind them, fleeing from some unseen danger. Unable to really go anywhere, I stood there, watching people crash into the rows of un-phased spectators, coughing, rubbing their eyes, some choking.

That’s when it hit me. First a strange odor in the air that had a tangy flavor to it, like very acidic vinegar, then full blown burning. My eyes, nose, throat and mouth all began burning unbearably. Row by row, the tear gas infiltrated the crowd sending everyone blindly fleeing. All the shopkeepers, clearly wiser than I, had blocked or locked their doors denying the afflicted a quick escape. By the time I got far enough away from the cloud, my eyes and all the skin around them were burning, my nose was running, and I was coughing and sneezing. I realized shortly afterwards that the fans had been blocking the road and throwing things at the police who were trying to clear the road for the players’ bus to get through.

Of course I can’t be sure it was tear gas, but I did gather some proof several minutes later. Now fascinated by the crowd’s epic battle against police I watched from what I thought was a safe distance. The crowd charged forward, hurling anything they could find at the police. The police would then form a line and rush forward, sending the crowd fleeing. Without any projectiles, the police were somewhat powerless to quell the crowd. That’s when I saw the tear gas canister come arcing over head, as if shot from a mortar. It settled somewhere in the middle of the crowd, unfortunately not very far from where I was. Before I was once again blinded by the tear gas, I saw one brave soul, his face covered, run forward, pick up the canister, and hurl it forward into the wall of police. At this point, I had had enough. Two tear gassings was enough for one day.

In summary, I have been in Turkey five or six weeks and the following has happened:
1. I have been tear-gassed
2. Tear-gassed again
3. Turkey has gone into political the worst political crisis in a long time
4….

That’s not such a bad list with just three right? I can’t even imagine what will happen when I get back to the USA (if I ever do. My flight is delayed 4 hours, so far).

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