Messin’ with Texas

Current Mood: Sad

This past weekend was pretty great. For the first time we got all four Sigma Nu’s that are here from CMU together - Kutsal, Basar, Izzy, and myself. As was to be expected, we had a blast. All in all, the weekend was pretty great.

Next weekend is shaping up to not be so great. Basar will be heading off to China to do an internship there for most of the summer. He was supposed to have left yesterday, but he decided to stay a few extra days. He will be gone before the weekend is out. Izzy has left for a five week internship in Scottland. That’s another of my weekend group out of the picture. Leyla is gone for 10 days. Berna has to study for an exam this week and then is heading out as soon as it’s over for a short vacation. That leaves Tahsin and I.

I am not sure what I am going to do with everyone gone. I could call Baris, or hang out with Murat, maybe find some new people, or call other friends. However, I think I will take this weekend easy. All of my weekends have been rather intense and a good rest will be nice. Play soccer, go climbing, maybe Tahsin and I will head to Kemer Country again and go swimming. This will also keep my expenses down. I realized last night, that I spend nearly half my money on going out Friday and Saturday night. Between cab fares, drinks and snacks, most of my paycheck dissapears. So I suppose the theme of this weekend will be responsibility!

Basar and Izzy, we’ll miss you guys!

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Current Mood: Esctatic

Don’t worry mother, I am not in jail, nor was there any real chance of me going to jail, but we did have a little run in with the cops last night.

Let’s see, where to begin. I went into the city to go to some opening with Izzy. When that fell through we decided to meet up with Tahsin and Leyla who were planning to play some beer pong - Leyla is the cute girl I met on the airplane on my way back to Turkey last week. She has been hanging out with us. Izzy and I bought beer and met up with Tahsin at his place, Leyla joined a bit later.

After winning every game I played, we were out of beer, so we decided to go and get more. Tahsin’s house, Tahsin’s car, Tahsin would drive. This was our faux pas. We hadn’t had too many beers, but Tahsin probably shouldn’t have been driving. Izzy was in the best shape of all of us, and he was all for taking a cab. But Tahsin was insistent.

Behind the wheel, Tahsin drives like a maniac. He was driving too fast and passing every car he could (keep in mind Istanbul’s roads are very narrow and windy). Tahsin may have been showing off to the two Americans (Leyla and I), because he does not normally drive anything like that. Izzy and I of course told Tahsin to stop and to drive normally - we were just going around the corner so there was no need to drive fast. Furthermore, why draw attention to yourself if you are driving and you’ve had a few?

On one botched pass attempt, Tahsin came face to face with a police car coming in the other direction. He quickly moved back to his lane, avoiding collision. Two minutes later or so, the police were behind us, they pulled us over and began questioning Tahsin. According to Turkish law, you have to carry ID at all times. I used my ISIC card (international student identification card), but Leyla didn’t have one. The police said they would have to take her to the police station. They also said they would wait for the traffic police to show up so they could give Tahsin a breathalyzer.

Leyla was freaking out - she called her sister and said to come right away with her ID - Izzy and I were annoyed by the situation and Tahsin was angry. He was confrontational with the police (certainly not the approach to take with police as I am sure anybody who was in a fraternity can tell you), which just made matters worse. I actually wasn’t too worried. It’s like when I got tear gassed, I thought it was great. Here was something very out of the ordinary, something very new, something exciting and interesting. I relished every minute of it. I of course didn’t want us to get in trouble, but I had a lot of money so I figured worst comes to worst we’d end up bribing them. Maybe it was beer on the brain, but I was highly entertained by the whole situation.

After Izzy and I told Tahsin to shut up and Izzy talked to the cops, the attitude of the cops seemed to get better. Izzy is a very likeable guy and very non-confrontational which I think helped a lot. Eventually, Leyla’s sister, Berna, arrived with her passport, and after a total of 45 minutes they told us the traffic police wouldn’t be coming, and that they would escort us back to Tahsin’s place. Berna, Tahsin, Leyla, Izzy and myself all piled into Tahsin’s car (Tahsin still driving), and drove home.

This however did not deter us from our mission to get more beer. Riled up from the confrontation with the police, Tahsin wanted to immediately turn around with his car and go back out. We blocked his car from leaving and Leyla, Berna and Tahsin went up to Tahsin’s flat while Izzy and I got more beer. We played beer pong until 330 AM and then took a cab home. I am at work now, a bit hung over, but still on a high from the police encounter. I am sure Tahsin is at work hurting as welll. The other three all get to sleep late.

On a side note, i am very excited about my next few days. Here’s my schedule:

Friday night (today): Berna’s birthday party from 7pm-1130pm. There will be beer pong tables!

Friday late night: After that go out in Taksim, or hangout at Tahsin’s again. Probably beat everybody in beer pong again. I would like to meet up with my friend Nail who came back to Turkey last week.

Saturday daytime: Boat party on Izzy’s yacht. I came up with this idea last night when we happened to pass Izzy’s 60 foot yacht on our way to Tahsin’s. I am VERY EXCITED! Hopefully we’ll invite people tonight and have a good outing tomorrow on the boat.

Saturday night: I have an 8pm dinner reservation at a nice place near the sea. This is assuming we get back with the boat on time, which I am not sure we will.

Saturday late night: Meet up with Basar, one of my fraternity brother’s who returned from CMU last week, maybe Kutsal also (another friend from Sigma Nu). Probably go out in Taksim, or play beer pong at Tahsin’s.

Sunday: Recover. I was going to play tennis with Tahsin but he hurt his back. I will play soccer, hopefully try to go rock climbing, or hang out on Izzy’s boat.

Monday: Three-day business trip to Tunis! Woo! I am going to Sfax Tunis to meet with a distributor there.

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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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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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Current Mood: Sickly

Sorry I don’t have much time today for a proper post, so this will be short.

1. Weight Set: We got a weight set in the apartment and Baris and I have started using it. The past two mornings in a row we got up at 7am and did about 45 minutes worth of anaerobic exercise. We plan to try to stick to this schedule during weekdays.

2. Still Jogging: I have been continuing to jog. The other day when I was going to go jogging Murat’s uncle, Ahmed, insisted I let him take me down to the shore and that I run there. Murat said Ahmed is worried that a dog will attack me (there are a few stray dogs here and there). So we went down to the shore, I did a quick 2km and then Ahmed and i went and ate. We were later joined by Murat, Baris and the vice president of the municipality we live in. It was kind of cool meeting him, and although we can’t really communicate too well, we had fun. Since the actual president of this municipality made a joke about Attaturk, this guy is the acting president.

3. Sick: I got really sick last night an almost threw up at the restaurant. I am feeling better today, but am still not doing that well. I want to go home and go to sleep.

4. Payday: I got paid yesterday! All in cash, in a white, unmarked envelope. Felt like a drug deal or something.

5. Rock Climbing: Since Baris and Murat are going to visit a friend in the army tomorrow, I going rock climbing with Izzy all day. I am looking forward too it. I really hope I am back up to 100% in time.

6. Antimoda: Murat’s uncle took me around to the other companies that rent space from us. One of them is a textile company run by a Turk who grew up in Germany. They are all very nice and always bring us tea every time we go up there. Today they let out the waist on my suit pants for free!

7. Germany Trip: The company needs someone in Germany on Thursday to take care of some stuff relating to our crates. So instead of going Friday afternoon, I am going Wednesday morning to Germany. That means I will be in Germany for 12 days! Hopefully we make many good contacts while there.

8. Appolgies: Sorry I don’t have any new pictures. I have been very busy trying to finish these catalogs.

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Current Mood: Happy

This is a delayed post. I was a bit lazy and didn’t get around to downloading the pictures off of my camera. First of all, this is Baris. I know it looks like he has a strange look on his face, but that’s actually not too far off from normal, especially come the end of the week.

Ok, now that you have met Baris, you should meet Ahmed, Murat’s uncle. He doesn’t speak much english, but he’s a very nice, very out going guy. He always makes an effort to communicate with me using the english he knows. We go out with him fairly often and he always pays for dinner. He is the one taking care of my visa stuff.

You notice in the picture he has a white liquid in his glass? That’s Raki (not really pronounced how it looks, so don’t try). That is the traditional drink of Turkey and I think it is very similar to the Italian drink Grappa. If you want to know more about Raki, check Wikipedia’s Raki page. It’s interesting, but nothing beets a good old beer after work. I am drinking Efes, the beer of Turkey, in this picture.

Apparently, Murat’s uncle frequents this restaurant so much that he has his own list of appetizers that they serve for him. Below is one of them. It’s olives with olive oil and walnuts. Not bad. The taste is a little strong, so although I like eating it, I can’t eat very much of it.

Lastly, here is a picture of some tea, in the little cups they serve it in here. It’s kind of cool, but the glass gets hot when it’s full of tea making it a bit tricky to drink when it’s really hot. You usually have to wait for it to cool down rather than doing the traditional sip and blow technique. You may or may not be able to tell, but it’s a pretty small glass. Turks seem to be always having Tea.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures!

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Current Mood: Confused

Well this news will be arriving a little late, but I want to tell you about my weekend. To make the story easier, I have modified a simple map to illustrate how my Saturday night went. Sorry that it is low resolution.

This map illustrates where my CMU friends live in Istanbul (the ones that have moved back to Istanbul) except for Arin, because I don’t know where he lives. The hazy red circle is just a circle I put on there because that is where most of the known monuments are like topkapi palace and haiga sophia (sp?).

Anyway, so my evening started out in Caddebostan with Murat. We walked around a bit, had a drink, talked. Nothing big. From there we planned to meet up with Baris, at which point we would split. Murat was going to go and spend time with his cousins, and Baris and I would go off to some bar where a high school friend of theirs was celebrating her birthday. I of course had called Izzy to see if he was free, but he was and still is on a diving trip. I called Kutsal, but he said he couldn’t hang out because he had other plans. So I joined Baris for this party which was in Taksim (check map).

When Baris and I arrived, Kutsal was there - small world for such a big city. I hadn’t seen Kutsal in three years, so we had a lot of catching up to do. I spoke mostly with Kutsal and a friend of Baris, and before I knew it, Baris was tired and wanted to go home. Here was my faux pas.

Murat had explained to me how to use the Dolmus - a kind of public transportation system using these little vans that drive around all over the place. They are cheap, but very confusing. As is typical of me, I forgot which one to take and from where. But, that was supposed to be ok. Murat told me there was no need to write it down, because Baris would make sure I got back alright. And thus my error was made. Kutsal wanted to head to some club with two other friends and he asked me to come along. Since Baris was tired, I figured he would go to sleep soon, so I followed Kutsal to a place in Levant (I think), near to where he lives.

I had fun with Kutsal for a while, but I got very tired around 3am, and the loud music was starting to get to me. We finally left at around 4am (a whole big group) and met up with a member of the first group, and went for soup (most people ate what they referred to as ’stomach soup’ - I had lentil). With no where to go I went and crashed at Kutsal’s place. No problems.

In the morning, Kutsal’s phone was dead and his charger was at his flat outside the city, not at his parents flat where we were staying. He couldn’t recall anybody’s cellphone number except for two people who weren’t answering, and I had no idea how to get back, nor did I have any contact information for anyone. So we spent about an hour and a half trying different things before finally getting Murat on the phone. I spent those 90 minutes quite stressed about what to do - not normally like me, but I was still very tired, a bit sick to my stomach, and a little hungover from the night before. I wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep. Of course, Kutsal’s parents thought this was hilarious, as did Kutsal.

Looking back, it was pretty funny. I am usually more prepared for sitautions like this. I guess I still have a few things to learn.

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