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Published: July 31st 2012
Hot Off The Press
The highly anticipated story of one Buckeye’s epic journey to Turkey has finally been released and is now available on a blog near you. Get your copy while supplies last!
Welcome my friends to the continuing saga that is my life. Please sit back and enjoy the chronicles of Eric, the Turkish Traveler.
The Chicago Send Off
Our good friends Richard & Reyhan graciously agreed to drive us to Chicago, where we decided to spend our last night in America exploring the ‘windy city’. The first thing we noticed about Chicago was that it was full of drivers eager to get downtown, uptown, and just about anywhere else the over-crowded freeways would take them. After slowly navigating through a crowded maze of motorists, we found our hotel and checked our luggage. We took a slight breather before heading over to “Gino’s East of Chicago” for some authentic deep dish Chicago pizza.
I must say that Gino’s didn’t disappoint. It was thick, chewy and packed full of delicious toppings, yet the bottom was pleasantly crisp. Yum! I’d eat this stuff as often as I could if I lived there. We choose to dine in
the outdoor café area since it was such a picturesque night. I sat in my chair and in between bites I took pictures of planes flying into and out of O’Hare International Airport. I thought it was a cool photo op to see them fly over top of the 10-story building that Gino’s was housed in.
With bellies stuffed full of pizza, we all decided that some ice cream was needed to keep the pizza company. We asked the waitress for the location of the closest ice cream place that was still open (since it was now almost 10 pm). Armed with her directions we quickly headed over to the local “Cold Stone Creamery” where I ordered a ‘Brownie a La Cold Stone’ (pictured) with chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla. Good move, as this was a chocolate lovers dream! After our feast our blood sugar was quickly dropping, so we headed back to the hotel where we promptly passed out. The next day we said our goodbyes, taxied over to the airport and prepared for our long flight toward our new home.
Immigration to Izmir
Without boring you with all the gory details let me just say
that wrestling with our luggage was no small task. We packed everything we could into 15 large bags, plus shoulder totes, plus our 20 pound cat in tow. The content of these bags would represent our new start in Turkey. Our carry-on bags along weighed almost 100 pounds each, and the total damages amounted to $1,500 in overage fees. The airline should have bumped us up to first class just as a way of saying thanks.
The 12-hour flight was actually the quickest one I’ve ever experienced because I slept almost the entire time due to extreme exhaustion. The first thing I noticed upon waking up was the fact that there was a small melon where my right foot used to be. During the flight my foot ballooned up significantly (which my surgeon did warn me of). The second thing I soon noticed was the heat.
When we left Chicago it was about 92 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) and when we arrived in Istanbul it was almost 30 degrees Celsius (86 Degrees Fahrenheit) at 18:15 hours, which means that the peak heat of the day had already passed. As I stepped out of the air-conditioned plane and
into the exit ramp with my luggage, I could feel the heat from outside filling the tunnel like a thick, hot, invisible wall that enveloped me and stole my breath. I also knew that Istanbul was much cooler than Izmir, so I couldn’t wait to see what that felt like during peak heat.
As we sat in the Atatürk airport in Istanbul waiting for our connecting flight to Izmir, Alev noticed a friend of ours who lives in Dublin, Ohio, USA. Her friend came over and we exchanged pleasantries. I found it ironic that we were greeted at the Turkish airport with a “Welcome to Turkey“ by a Turkish-American friend of ours who lives in the same city in America that we just left.
Sea-Side Serenity
Immediately after arriving in Turkey, we spent our first month at my in-law’s summer house in Doganbey (pronounced doo-on-bay). We were completely off the grid with no cell phones, Internet, or general way to communicate with the outside world except by an occasional visit to the Internet café. This is the same picturesque summer vacation town where I’ve spent my past three vacations in Izmir.
I sat on the third story
porch of their house writing, taking pictures, and gazing out across the hypnotic Mediterranean Sea. I captured the cruise line ships as they traveled transversely across the deep blue waters in between Turkey and Greece. I captured images of the sea-side homes scattered throughout the community. I thought about our past and I thought about our future. I tried to sort out all of the obstacles and all of the possibilities that lie ahead for us here. Life has a funny way of keeping you on your toes doesn’t it?
Apartment Hunting
Without the aid of House Hunters International we began our own apartment search here in Izmir. Upon the advice of a friend we did enlist the help of a local realtor who showed us several potential places. Alev is originally from Karsiyaka (pronounced car-she-ache-ka) so this is where she wanted to move back to. It’s a very nice suburb of Izmir and is comparable to Polaris or Dublin back in Columbus.
The internal layouts of the Turkish apartments are much like America in that they are comparable in size. That’s about where the comparison ends because apartments here do not come furnished with any of the
appliances that are standard in America. These include: stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, air conditioner, closets, and no apartment complex in Turkey has a laundry facility. In fact, there are no public laundry facilities anywhere in the country (they consider them to be unhygienic).
And yes, I did say no closets. They are simply not a standard feature in the design of the apartments here (at least the ones we looked at). All renters are expected to buy their own refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, air conditioner, washing machine, and furniture that come with separate modular closets for each room. The renter then takes these items with them from apartment to apartment whenever they move (thank goodness labor is cheap in Turkey).
After a relatively short time of looking, we found a flat that we were happy with. It’s a 3-bedroom, 2-bath apartment in a nice part of Karsiyaka. It has ample external balconies (three of them) and an elevator in the complex (a lot of the older buildings do not have these). It’s right across the street from a small park with an outdoor café where we go to drink tea in the evening. It’s also about 1 kilometer (6/10 of
a mile) from the beach, which is about a fifteen minute, rather scenic walk.
Typical of the European layout, all cities in Turkey have local shops just around the corner from where you may be living. Our little neighborhood is no exception. Within less than a minute’s walk from our flat we are close to a variety of shops including a bakery, small produce market, large super market, numerous outdoor cafés, a pool hall, and even a barber shop. That’s just what I’ve noticed so far. I haven’t thoroughly explored the neighborhood yet, so I’ll talk more about this in the future as I discover things I deem blog worthy.
By the way, Tigger absolutely LOVES our balconies because it’s like he gets to go outside, but we don’t have to worry about him running away (we live on the second floor). They are fenced in with enough space between the bars that he can lie on the ground and look out at the activity below. Turkey has TONS of feral cats and every time I look down I see about a dozen of them roaming and resting, waiting for some kind soul to bring them a meal.
University Viewing
After contacting my recruiter we visited the university where I’ll be working (pictures attached). It just opened last year and is still rife with growth as construction is ongoing in many areas. All of the staff I met were extremely delightful and seem genuinely excited that I had arrived. The atmosphere was almost electric and I felt a lot of positive energy in this place. I have a really good feeling about working there and can’t wait to get started teaching. More updates forthcoming as things progress.
Adjusting To My New Lifestyle
Okay, so since I’m no longer driving a car (big adjustment there) I now need to take the bus to get around. Luckily Izmir has a much better mass transit system that Columbus did, so it makes my new mandatory commute almost painless. I say almost because I still don’t speak Turkish well enough to have an actual conversation with the natives. This poses a small problem when I need to communicate with the bus driver, since they don’t have pull cords on these small busses. I’ve learned enough Turkish to tell them my destination and when I want to get off (although sometimes
they don’t understand me because of my thick accent).
The bus I take is called a dolmusch (pronounced dole-moo-sshh) and it’s a small 10-passenger bus that’s kind of like the COTA Mainstream in Columbus. I can catch the bus in just a one minute walk from our flat and it only takes about 20 minutes to reach my destination. Fortunately for me it stops right in front of the university and I don’t need to change busses. The entire ride is only 1.75 Turkish Lyra, or about 0.75 cents USD. It is quite an interesting experience to be the only non-Turkish passenger riding it. Now I’m the foreigner who stands out in the crowd, especially when I try to speak. It’s rather humbling let me tell you. I have a new found appreciation for all of the immigrants that come to America and don’t speak English very well, or even at all.
I did visit the local produce market the other day all by myself! It was painfully obvious that I didn’t blend as well as I had hoped because everyone kept staring at me. Maybe it’s my orange hair I thought to myself (just joking, I don’t
have hair). Anyway, I had to figure out their system of checking items out of the store and paying for them at the correct counter, all without saying a word…because obviously I can’t yet.
The first counter I approached there was a guy standing behind a scale located to the far right of the store where the produce was (I was after a couple of honeydew melons). He weighed the melons, put stickers on them, bagged them and then handed them back to me. I tried to pay him but he held up his hand and said something I couldn’t understand, of course; however, I inferred that he was telling me that I had to pay for them at another counter (thanks to him pointing – paying attention to body language helps with inference).
I made my way over to the other counter across the store and the cashier also said something that I didn’t understand, so I just handed her the cash (since I could see the total at the register and I knew I that had enough cash). It’s really awkward when you can’t even have a simple conversation with someone. I’ve got to figure out
where I’m going to find the time to step up my game with learning Turkish…I know, I’ll do it in my SPARE time, LOL!
We are still waiting on our living room furniture to be delivered, so we’re sitting in office chairs for now. As soon as we are fully furnished I will take pictures and post them so folks back home can see what contemporary Turkish furniture looks like.
A great website for folks that don’t know much (if anything) about Turkey would be All About Turkey at http://www.allaboutturkey.com/. It’s a great place to start learning about the geography, history, and culture of Turkey.
As I turn my attention now to writing ESL lesson plans and lecture presentations, I can’t help but thoroughly enjoy my new surroundings. While I sit in the office of my new home, I pour myself another glass of hot cay (Turkish black tea) and look out the window at the palm trees in front of the park across the street. It makes me think of the Jimmy Buffet song “Boat Drinks” and I think to myself, this ain’t a bad place to be.
That’s all for now, but stay tuned
for more of my adventures as I update you periodically with details of our new life in Izmir, Turkey.
Thanks for reading,
Eric, the Turkish Traveler.
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Christopher
non-member comment
Bon Voyage!
Best of luck, Eric. Keep the pics along with your culture shock comin'!