Who's on First? (TurkCell Edition)

In late August, as soon as I returned from the states, I registered my new cell phone in Turkey. Every cell phone that is imported into Turkey has to be registered or the government blocks service after two months. Apparently this is to control resale of cheaper electronics from abroad.

It wasn't easy. But, it worked... or so I thought!

Last weekend, I got a text message (in Turkish) from TurkCell warning me that my phone was not registered and that the service would be blocked on April 22. I start looking for a receipt or some other paperwork to show that I did register it, and *surprise* I have none! I look online at my bank statements for a record of a transaction with TurkCell--nope! (Later, I did find the bank record, it just didn't have TurkCell in the name.)
My eternally patient Turkish friend calls TurkCell to find out how to deal with this situation. We're told that my phone has probably been cloned (?) and we should take care of this at the branch were it was registered. So we returned to the TurkCell office last Monday. First, the "customer service" rep swears they have never registered phones at that office. We insist it happened. Then she wants to know who helped us. We described the man who registered my phone, and she says, "He was fired." Seriously. Plus, it's nothing out of the ordinary for phones to be cloned, and there's nothing they can do for me at this office. She tells us to go to another, bigger branch of TurkCell.
This Monday we take the 45 minute trip to the bigger office where the customer service rep says, "The other branch didn't send the paperwork to the government. You should go back to that office and tell them to send the paperwork. There's nothing we can do for you at this office. Or, you could try to re-register your phone on the passport of someone who has arrived in Turkey within the last two months." Sounds legit. No, I am not going to pay nearly 200 more lira to register my already-registered phone on someone else's passport.
She does give us the phone number for the government office responsible for registering phones. We leave the office, get some coffee, and my friend calls the government office. There's some double-checking of the IMEI number for my phone, and this person says, "There's no problem. The phone is already registered. Sometimes these messages are sent by mistake."
Too good to be true? I don't know. Ask me again on April 23.

More snooooooow!

How campus looked this afternoon (Photo: Kelly Nielsen)

Tomorrow is a snow day!  I'm so happy that I know this now rather than getting up at 6am for nothing. Alex had a bit of an adventure getting home. One of the buses got stuck going up a steep hill, and when he got off the bus to walk the rest of the way, he had to quickly get out of the way of a fight (!), perhaps about a car accident... Yikes! Later, after he got off the last bus close to home, there was a crazy flash of lightning followed by thunder and hail. What a day...

Here is the scene on Wednesday morning:

Brrrrrrrrr!

 

Just Hanging Out in the Neighborhood

Can you see the minaret in the background? Our apartment building is just to the right.

 

For the first time (since August 2013), there is a place to hang out in our neighborhood! It's a cafe, Robert's Coffee, that opened up in one of the new apartment complexes. Not the best, not the worst, but good enough to have a decent cappuccino and a snack. It may even serve as a place for Alex to work on his research when he doesn't trek out to the archives.

End of Vacation Art

Spring? HA!

Just in time for the first week of classes...

Hint of Spring

Walking from the university gate to campus this morning, it sure felt like spring. It's a temporary condition; the cold rain is supposed to return next week. I was walking because the minibus was ridiculously crowded, and the driver was less mindful of his passengers than usual, so I just got out at the gate. The 10-minute walk was much more pleasant indeed!

One fifteenth of 2015

1.  We welcomed the New Year with a modest celebration--Doctor Who followed by prosecco at midnight. 

 

40 seconds into the New Year!

2. I found a superbly unhelpful sign about the demise of "akbil," which was a popular method for paying the fare on public transportation:

The sign says: 

NO AKBIL

We don't know where you can find it!

3. Margaret and Jason visited! Poor things stayed for the coldest, wettest, snowiest days of the winter!! Thank you so much for coming!!!

Intrepid travellers we!

 

4. The holiday decorations were still up on January 7!

5. Aya Sofya is as amazing as ever, and I spied another graffiti detail (new to me, anyway).

6. The restaurant staff took pity on us and brought over a brazier to warm our frozen feet.

7. A gentle sunrise seen from the living room window.

8.  The frozen landscape in Gezi Park.

9. Topkapı Palace in the relentless rain.

10. No electricity when we got back to the apartment!

11.  A beautiful day to go to Asia (Kadıköy).

12.  Art! Architecture!

13. Sigh, all good things must come to an end. Margaret and Jason went back to the states. I went back to work to proctor and grade proficiency exams. The bright spot was this cat who decided to park on my lap in the cafeteria in the university.

14. Now that I am officially on vacation, I've gotten back out and about to see more of the old city.

15. Yesterday, after wandering for nearly an hour to find an Ethiopian restaurant, we were rewarded with a scrumptious meal, mesmerizing music videos (serious shoulder dancing!), and after dinner coffee with popcorn and incense, of course.