Republic Day and Our Environs

Today, October 29, is Republic Day, which commemorates the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal.  Flags have been flying for some weeks now in solidarity against the attacks by Kurdish rebels, in support of the earthquake victims, and now to celebrate Republic Day, but they seem bigger and more frequent today.  In the picture at left, you'll see the view from our window, which now includes a giant flag flying between 2 buildings.  Not wanting to seem unpatriotic, we have our own little flag in the window of our living room (see below), as well as a picture of Mustafa Kemal, who took the last name of Atatürk, or father of the Turks, when he became the first president of Turkey in 1923.  You'll see below our portrait of Atatürk when he was on the cover of Time Magazine on March 24, 1923.  I've also posted a picture of the school across the street from our apartment, complete with Turkish flags and a flag of Mustafa Kemal.  Maybe one reason we like the Turkish flag so much is because of the crescent, which is also in the South Carolina flag??? 

 

Mustafa the Barber & Ayhan the Kuaför

You really know you're living in a foreign country (as opposed to just visiting) when you have to get your hair done.  Now Cef (or Jeff, as he is known in the English language) has already visited Mustafa the barber.  According to Cef, Mustafa spent a great deal of time on the hair itself, with additional attention to the mustache.  As a bonus, there was the ear waxing.  Now I've had eyebrow waxing before, but ear waxing was a new concept for me (and a definite first for Cef).  Before he could protest, one ear had been waxed, with the offending hair jerked out.  What could he do but submit to the second ear?  I must admit that he received one of the best haircuts in memory, not to mention that his hearing has improved considerably.  (Sorry that he would not permit a close up of the ears.)   Now it may be different for men, but for me, I have a very special relationship with my hairdresser.  As background, I found Rosemary 12 years ago in Charleston, and since then, I've moved with her to 4 different locations, and we have gone through numerous life events together, such as graduating our sons from high school, getting married, and Rosemary's son getting married.  In the last 12 years, only Rosemary (and her son) have ever touched my hair -- so you can imagine my trepidation when I walked into the shop of Ayhan (the Kuaför).  For starters, Ayhan doesn't speak English (nor did I expect it), but then again, it's not too hard to indicate that I wanted a hair cut and touching up of my roots.  Ayhan understood completely and got the team started.  Yes -- it's a team approach here in Turkey.  Ayhan first called Sultan (the lone female on the team) to get me tea.  Then it was Ömer's turn to prepare and hand to Ayhan the little tin foils that are part of the process.  After this (which did not seem out of line with what Rosemary does), I was advised to sit tight and let the "stuff" work.  No worries -- Meena, an English speaking Indian woman arrived for a manicure and cut, and she and I had a good conversation.  Once Meena left, I was ushered to another area where Ayhan and Ömer got all of the tin foil and other extraneous stuff out of my hair for a good wash.  Then there was more "stuff" applied.  When I questioned them on this, they replied "Renk" (one of the few words I understand, meaning "color").  I had never had this procedure, but I was at their mercy, so renk it was, followed by more washing.  Then it was back to the chair, where Ayhan (without assistance) did the cutting.  I have never seen such fast fingers!  Following the cut, Ömer was called back into action to assist in the drying process (it took four hands!).  Although I may not ever have the same level of trust as I have with Rosemary, I do believe that I'll survive the next 9 months without having to wear a wig! 

Second ride on a dolmuş

Today I took my second ride from work to home on a Turkish mini-bus, or dolmuş.  I felt very proud of myself just finding the bus stop, recognizing the destination posted on the dolmuş, and then hailing it down.  Having already done this once, I felt somewhat seasoned, so I boarded the dolmuş and sat in a seat very close to the driver (security?).  What is interesting about a dolmuş ride is that the fare varies, depending on where you are going (my ride is only 2 lire).  There is only one entrance in the back of the dolmuş, so money has to be passed up to the driver.  As I came to realize, in my strategically located seat, I had to pass the money to the driver from those boarding, and then pass back the change.  Mercifully, a man sitting next to me told the driver where the various passengers were going, so that the driver would know how much change to give.  As it was rainy today, the windows started fogging up (no defroster!), so the passenger sitting in the dolmuş shotgun seat wiped the windows with a squeegee, occasionally passing the squeegee to the driver to wipe his side.  The driver was pretty amazing -- collecting money, giving change, stopping and starting the dolmuş, wiping the window -- all while working a gear shift which requires 2 hands.  So, just as I'm getting used to this routine, I started getting nervous about my exit.  Now I had written on a small (now very wet) piece of paper the name of my bus and what I needed to say to exit ("Inecek var"), but with the windows fogging up on the side of the dolmuş as well as the front, I was unable to get a good look at the street names.  So, I tried to ask the man next to me, who took one look at my pathetic piece of paper and burst out laughing -- promising to get me off the dolmuş at the right place!

Turkish Fulbrighters 2011-12

We are men and women, young and old, married and single, gay/lesbian and straight, students and faculty, researchers and lecturerers, US born and foreign born.  More importantly, my class of 19 Fulbrighters who are spending a year in Turkey are incredibly accomplished and doing absolutely amazing things.  Four of us are historians, two of us anthropologists, and one each in the following areas: computer science, education, landscape architecture, design, intepretation/translation, architecture, linguistics, world music, political science, and communication.  Oh yes, I am the lone epidemiologist (listed as a medical researcher)!  Various projects deal with: re-purposing train stations in Istanbul, GIS technology and art history, ceramic arts in rural Turkey, squatters in Ankara, gay language in Istanbul, and liberalism in Turkey.  I am truly awed and can't tell you what a privilege it is to be among this august group.  I only wish that I were one of the young ones who will be able to make this journey again.  The pictures show all of us at our orientation dinner (the night before the US Embassy reception!).  ...and speaking of the Embassy, turns out that our Ambassador (Frank Ricciardone) has a brother who lives in Charleston with MUSC connections.  It's a small world after all!

School Days

Who would have thought that I would be spending 20 hours a week in school??  After much deliberation, I decided that it would be worth it to invest half of my first month's time learning Turkish.  Soooo, it's back to school!  The first picture shows you one of my first assignments (remind you of 1st grade??).  I am in Intensive Turkish (first level), and there are 13 of us in my class.  We are varied in our backgrounds and purposes, and it's a lot of fun getting to know everyone.  Below you'll see pictures of my classmates.  The first picture shows (from left to right) Ulugbek (a businessman from Kazakistan), Esma (from Afghanistan), Maggie (Taiwan), Mahmoud (Jordan), Tarouq (Iran), Sharron (England), and Tony (China).  In the last picture, you'll see Shafieh and Nafiseh (both Irani), Veronika (Maldovia), myself, and Sachika and Akiko from Japan.  Mahmoud and Tarouq are only 17 years old, and both are trying to learn Turkish so that they can go to a Turkish University next year.  Ulugbek has his own business and is a builder, Sharron has a Turkish boyfriend, Maggie majored in Arabic in Taiwan, and the others are quite varied.  When we were learning numbers and our instructor was having us tell our birth years in Turkish, mercifully she arbitrarily assigned both Sharron and me to the year 1985!As you can imagine, it's pretty amazing to be spending 4 hours a day back in school.  We're going at a good pace, and I'm hopeful that I'll have a passing understanding of Turkish at the end (insha'allah).