lovewhatis

Although I haven't written in about a month I have been working and playing like crazy. I believe the last time I wrote I was in Antep staying with 4 Muslim university students and getting a better picture of what life is like for religious women trying to lead a public life in this country so devoted to secularism. After spending almost a week with them I decided I wanted to skip all of the touristic sights and instead went straight to my friend's village in Mardin on the Syrian border. I spent a little over a week with a wonderful family getting to know what village life was like in the Kurdish region of Turkey. The family I stayed with consists of a matriarch and patriarch, their three daughters, one son, his wife and their ... read more

Well it has been quite sometime since I last wrote a blog and for that I apologize. My life has just been so busy and so full recently that I have hardly had time to write for myself let alone the time to put together a blog entry. I have spent the past month getting ready to start travelling again because although I was out of the country I have been almost entirely sedentary for 8 months. My last week in İstanbul was very difficult because I ended up making really good friends there. I wish I didn't have to leave, but my project was starting to feel stagnant. I started travelling again on last Wednesday but the past six days feel more like a month than a week. My first stop was Adana where I ... read more

I sat down to write today because today I managed to see a few very picturesque snapshots of life here in İstanbul today and I wanted to put them on paper before I forgot their beauty. So this is a compilation of normal life for several different types of people I run into walking around town every day: On my way to Tarlabaşı today I saw a very familiar, although continuously perplexing sight. One one particular back corner just between the Harbiye and Pangaltı neighborhoods there sits a seeminly self-replenishing, lone, simit cart. Now simit is a unique type of pastry in Turkey - only bread baked in the shape of a ring and covered with sesame seeds. Normally they are sold from street carts in various standards of shabbiness to working Turks for breakfast or ... read more

I just looked out my window this morning through the gleaming sunlight into the neighbor’s window where a cat was busy sunning itself with the last rays of light to make it through the concrete alleyways which make up this sprawling city of 20 million people. The December breeze flooded into my flat in the heart of this phenomenal city chilling my skin despite the heat of the sun. As I checked the street life below, I saw a man placing a fresh loaf of bread in a wicker basket as a woman readied herself to pull the loaf up for her breakfast. Further down the street the taxies line themselves up on the right hand side of the street waiting for passengers to make them useful once again. Meanwhile the currently unemployed taxi drivers play ... read more

Kurban Bayram just finished in this incredible country (and in the rest of the Muslim world) and I just came back from visiting Izmir with my roommate Hatice. I have had an incredible time in Izmir but just as an incredible time in returning so I want to take this time about a few thoughts I have had over the past week: Izmir’s Hills - 12/10 Well these are my last hours of hanging out in the wilderness of Hatice’s village, Bahçeköy in Izmir. I know I will always be a city girl but after spending just two days without civilization I am ready to pack up all my worldly goods and run away - still reading the news and staying connected but away from all the hustle and bustle of a 20 million person city. ... read more

Well I seem to start all of my entries this way but I am sorry for not writing for over two weeks. I realized yesterday that I have officially been in Istanbul for five months but in some ways it feels like I just came yesterday. I found myself thinking about why I came here, what I had hoped to get out of Istanbul, and what I have actually accomplished. It kind of seems like a mixed bag from where I am sitting right now. I initially came because I wanted to learn Turkish (which I really could have done anywhere in the country). The other reason I came is because when I had come the time before I had really liked the city and wanted to explore it more. Well I have spent the last ... read more

This entry took me a span of three days to write and type, plus it follows the events of a week, so it may seem a bit schizophrenic. I will make sure to space out the days from each other and try to keep it from being too confusing. Well it has been a while now since I have written again but it is not because I have not wanted to. Really I have been cut off from most of the world for about a week - just taking a few unproductive days to myself. Wednesday of last week (October 29th) was the 85th anniversary of the founding of Turkey, called Cumhurriyet Bayramı (Republic Festival). There were a lot of people out on the streets and in Taksim there was a huge festival with fireworks, music, ... read more

So much has happened in the past two days that I really just had to update everyone one what is going on politically here. It has been absolutely insane. I will let the next few paragraphs explain... Yesterday (October 20) Well just another day of political turmoil in Turkey I suppose. It didn't all happen yesterday (when I wrote this) but I found out about all of it yesterday - a great way to start my week. I've written about most of it before so I will just gloss over the parts you already know and I think it will be easier just to go in chronological order. First on Saturday Abdullah Ocalan - the imprisoned leader of the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party - labelled a terrorist group by the Western World) - made a statement ... read more

I am afraid this will be something of a scattered blog enty because when I began writing this all I could think about was the night I had on Saturday night but originally I intended this to be about the apparant Turkish aversion to activism. As it is I will save that topic for a bit later but will instead start with my night. As you know I am currently volunteering at two different places so I can talk to people hear their stories. At Tarlabaşı Toplum Merkezi I have met all kinds of people from newly migrated Turks and Kurds to long term residents of Tarlabaşı to people who have fallen in fortune and are now jobless and practically homeless. I go and hang out before I begin teaching and stay and chat after I ... read more

Well again it has been a long time since I have written here so I expect you are all wondering what I have been doing with myself. Recently (other than this week) my life has taken on something of a routine: I wake up in the mornings and go teach English a poor neighborhood of İstanbul (one which is entirely made up of migrants from the East, Africans, Gypsies, and various peoples from Eastern Europe) then I go to my other volunteer job at İnsan Hakları Derneği (Human Rights Association). After that I go and hang out at my friends office and practice my Turkish or go to my other friends restuarant and trade English for Turkish and left overs during his breaks. I am really starting to enjoy it. My spoken Turkish and my understanding ... read more