Foggy Mornings

The Black Sea sends its regards...

This is the view from our porch on many a foggy morning; it burns off in a couple of hours. It makes it very, very easy to sleep in! 

Recommended Films: Meryem and Üç Yol

If, somehow, these movies get U.S. distribution and/or English subtitles, I recommend you see them! The first one, Meryem, is all in Turkish, so I understood about 30% of what they were saying. Still, it was definitely worth seeing for the overall story, characters, and images.
Meryem
(Don't let the conventional "young bride who waits" premise put you off.)

The second film, Üç Yol (Crossroads), is set in Bosnia and Turkey with a great mix of Bosnian, Turkish, English, French. The plot and its universe are often set in dreams that slide into reality and vice-versa. The lasting traumas of the Bosnian War are just one layer of the psychology of the characters and the film.

Üç Yol (Crossroads)

A kilim of our own!

Behold, our new Turkish rug!

On Saturday, I went with a group of friends from work on an all-day expedition to the Grand Bazaar (Kapalı Çarşı) in the old, touristy part of Istanbul. The day started with Turkish breakfast at Cafe Violeta, a nearby restaurant in Sarıyer. For $12.50 per person, we had: cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, hard boiled eggs, sausage (enjoyed by others, I assure you), menemen, several cheeses, french toast, bread, simit, poğaca, clotted cream and honey (bal kaymak), apricot jam, cherry jam, strawberry jam, tahini and molasses (pekmez), endless tea, and Turkish coffee to finish the meal. (I've probably forgotten something, too). This, of course, was a leisurely meal, and we all claimed that we would never eat again when we left the table!
Then we began the long trek south to the old city.
When we got there, somehow people were ready to have a snack!?! I could just manage tea, but it was an interesting, quieter nook of the market. We were being watched...

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk looms large

The ceiling makes a cool pattern

When we got the check, we noticed that it didn't quite add up. In fact, it was nearly 70 lira over! The waitstaff did apologize, but what a stupid "error." If it's just bad math, they seriously need a calculator. If it's a scam, did they think no one would notice? 

Well, after that, we went to a carpet shop, Adnan and Hasan, that has been recommended by KU people. It was the moment when ancestral knowledge was passed down to the next generation: here is where the ELC family has always found it's rugs and carpets. We had more tea (!) and settled in for a long, detailed, and truly fascinating tutorial on carpets and rugs. So, I decided to put that new knowledge to good use, and get a rug, too! 

The rug (kilim) I bought is thick, woven cotton and it is approximately 4 1/2 feet square. It is a sofra, which is a rug traditionally used for dining. A large communal plate would be put in the center and people would sit with the edge of the rug in their lap in order to catch any dropped food. At the end of the meal, the rug would be shaken out for the birds and no food would be wasted.

While we won't be using our rug in the traditional way, I have to say the new rug makes the apartment feel more homey, more like our own space.  

Going to the gym...

Over break, I finally went to the gym to exercise with some of my colleagues. The machines are much like what I used back in Arizona, which makes it easier. The rooms are quite small, so the machines are really tucked in closely. It was great to go back--I realllllllly felt it the next day.
I decided to rearrange my office hours after classes so that I could have more time in the mid-afternoon to go during the week. Right now, I can just manage a 45 minute workout. I went on Monday; there were only about four of us there. Of course, one of them was my student ;P It wasn't too horrendously awkward. He did tell me that he approved of me going to the gym--thanks!
It's no surprise to see a student there because the gym is in their "territory." The West Campus, which is a student residential area, is within walking distance of our apartment complex. The walk goes through some major construction that overlaps a highly traveled road for cars, motorcycles, and public transportation. I get the adrenaline going just getting there. I could take a dolmuş, but it seems silly for such a short ride.
My plan is to go again today. If I make this a routine, I'll go Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Wish me luck!

I went yesterday, asphalt laying backhoes be damned! Saw two more students, one of whom said, "What are you doing here!" Sorry kid, nowhere is safe from the olds....

Oh, by the way, I just noticed this is the 100th post on my blog! 

Istanbul Biennial 2013

 This post is a work in progress... Here are the photos from my outing to the Istanbul Biennial. I'll add more text sooooooon! Uff ya, adding a little less than expected this morning. I discovered there was no gas left for the stove :((( 

OK, I got a new gas cylinder yesterday afternoon--with the normal amount of confusion over the phone--but, as they say, now we're cookin' with gas!

On Sunday, my friend Blake and I went to see two of the venues of the Istanbul Biennial; the 2013 theme was "Mom, am I a barbarian?". We had planned to go earlier in the week, but the weather turned much too rainy and cold for such a cross-town trek. Sunday was the last day of the Biennial, so there was a bit of motivation to go. Lucky for us, it was a gorgeous, fall day!

This is one set of Rainbow Stairs in Istanbul (near the Fındıklı tram stop).

The words are: Barış için el ele. /  Hand in hand for peace.

These photos are from an exhibit of children's art at the Biennial. The school kids made a shadow-paper diorama of "their" city.

Pieces from the Biennial 

I still need to look up the titles and names of the artists...

Lunch break with attendant kitty

Massive installation at another Biennial venue

Art masquerading as flooring

Ah, if only this were in focus!

Floor masquerading as art

 View of a church from the roof of one of the venues

The parking lot for the church--is that a landing pad?

Blake contemplating the city

Happy to be out seeing art on a beautiful day!

Cappuccino and Carrot Cake on the Bosphorus

...and a view!

Alex and I took a jaunt down to Sarıyer to see if anything was open on the first day of the holiday. Most grocery stores, clothing stores, and cafes were open, but not much else. There were plenty of people out and about along the shore, and we stopped at Camilla Cafe to enjoy some coffee and a treat. That was the extent of today's adventure. Now I'm back in the apartment avoiding grading ;P

Expedition to the Big Island!

On our first official vacation day, we went with a group of my work friends to Büyükada, which is the biggest of the Princes Islands in the Mamara Sea just off the coast of Istanbul. We left the apartment pretty early, around 8:15am, caught a nearly empty dolmuş down to Sarıyer to meet up with everyone. There was some hope of taking a commuter boat from Sarıyer to Kabataş, where there is a pier for boats to the islands. Since the ticket office door was still locked at 8:45 (and there was no boat waiting), we took a bus instead. The bus made remarkably good time--it seems that Istanbul has emptied out for the week long holiday--and we caught a 10am boat to the islands with 15 minutes to spare! The trip to the islands took about an hour. Here we are at the beginning of the trip:

Good-bye mainland!

Hello island!

Beautiful gardens, beautiful houses...

Beautiful cats!

 One of many horse-drawn carriages

The majority of the other tourists on our boat to the island were from Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, most likely), and they hired the carriages--the Europeans and Americans generally chose to walk. It was quite a steep uphill walk, but the views were well worth the effort.

A more humble abode

So, there is a story for this photo; the dog was tied, but determined to catch the birds. It kept rushing at them, and would get held back by the leash. The cats just watched this poor, deluded dog...

At the beginning of the real uphill trek

Wish-strings--apparently people tie these to trees and if the strands don't break, 

then their wish will come true.

Wish tree--these are labels from water bottles and wet wipes!

Abandoned orphanage--a huge wooden structure

Our destination--the monastery of Saint George

It wasn't clear if services were still held here, 

but there were lots of signs for people to be quiet to respect worshipers.

Cats waiting for us to drop something from our lunch

On break....

 Bee houses?

The House of the Masons?

Arty House

GELATO!

 

Tired feets

Good-bye islands!

Hello city...

The end of a fine day

Vacation Conundrum

After just one month of classes, we have a week long vacation because of a religious holiday, Kurban Bayramı (Feast of the Sacrifice). Those who can have gone home to visit family, and the rest of the us left behind are planning various activities: walking in the woods, a day trip to some islands in the Bosphorus, seeing some art exhibitions, hosting dinner, etc. I'll have time to do some fun things like knitting, drawing, and reading, but there are lots of other tasks that I'm hoping to get done this week as well--hence, the conundrum. How to balance fun, rest, and work? So I'm trying to make lists... what to clean, what to buy, what to do for school. It's a little overwhelming as you might imagine.
One of the most important tasks is to buy myself a pair of rain/winter boots. Shoe shopping has never been fun for me, and shopping for shoes in Turkey reminds me of the experiences I had in early high school before stores carried anything above size 10. So far, every time I've asked about size 11 (size 42 here), I've gotten that look of pity and horror for someone whose feet are that big. Yes, I could get men's shoes, and that may well be the solution...
For now, I'm thinking about buying a crochet needle and one of these:

These are awesome--they boil the water super fast and keep the tea hot in the carafe above. Where have you been all my life?