There are moments in my day-to-day Istanbul life when I forget that I am living in a foreign country. And then moments sneak up on me, in which I feel like I am living on a different planet - sometimes an entertaining one, sometimes not so much. Let me rewind to Friday night. After a long week of training my roommate and I decided drinks would be a fabulous way to start the weekend, so we headed out. We walked down the pedestrian street, the Istiklal, working our way through massive amounts of people. Suddenly, I feel a kick. I look back, shocked and confused as to what just happened. A little Turkish woman stood behind me, her babushka pulled tight and an a mean look on her face. She had just kicked me in the bum! I turned to my roommate, who was behind me and saw everything go down. Jill was laughing histerically. Understandable, as it was behavior unlike anything either of us have ever witnessed. I would have been laughing if I hadn't been so in shock. I couldn't even be mad it was so ridiculous. Where in human social behavior is it acceptable to kick someone who is in your way? It's not acceptable, but it happens in Turkey.
Jill and I made our way off the Istiklal - much to my satisfaction. Our first stop was Babyface, the Turkish women's salon. We both got our hair washed and blown out (it's about 5USD to do this and a nice little treat). Our next goal was to find friends. It's very challenging to meet people here without knowing Turkish, so we keep our ears out for English speakers and aren't afraid to be friendly. We ended up befriending a couple from the States and a few Germans who spoke English enough to communicate. I have a new appreciation for the work I did at Cartus - my previous employer. Cartus organized language and cultural progams for business people moving to new countries. As I don't have an option I'll settle with the baptism by fire approach, but those lessons would have been nice!
Most of Saturday and Sunday were spent siteseeing. Jill's friends parents were in town from Minnesota, so we went to the grand bazaar (pic on right) and basilica cisterns (pic on left) with them. It was a relatively uneventful "tourist" weekend until Sunday afternoon when Jill and I found ourselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. Walking down the Istiklal on our way to lunch, we began to see many officers in uniform, all of them riot ready holding thick plexiglass shields. As I now know, we uncomfortably walked through a Hamas rally. There were many hamas flags and women in full burkas, a few signs written in English reading "people who desecrate the Quaran should be punished". It was an interesting and scary walk through the crowd. When Jill whispered to me that she wanted to take a picture I shot her a quick "nein". The rally was over when we went back through the area a while later, but it is an experience and feeling I'll never forget.
Finally, I have to share one of the most entertaining of my Turkish experiences so far. Last night while out smoking hooka with my roommate and her friend, a man sitting at the table down from us pulled out his pet monkey! Thank god it was on a leash. It was also wearing a diaper and the owner was feeding him beer (as seen in pic). It was hilarious! I'm not sure if too many things will surprise me once I move out of Turkey. It's a different world. Life's an adventure! XO
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