tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25398614779532430012024-03-13T13:35:07.266-07:00TurkeyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-64509455356902766642013-11-14T08:03:00.001-08:002016-06-18T14:57:36.301-07:00Final Post: What I Learned in 331 Words<div class="MsoNormal">
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Home at last after about 24 hours of various
conveyances. Dizzy tired, dizzy thrilled
to see family. Went to Turkey to do research
(went well), talk and connect over international writing (went well), and gain some perspective on what it means to
be an American (ditto). I loved Turkey.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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I was deeply impressed by the kindness of people, their commitment to friends and family, the affection and sobriety, the enterprising spirit, the work
ethic, the amazing health care system, the nascent democracy , the patriotism,
their doubts about fundamentalism and other simple answers for complex problems
…….. still.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, I’m very glad to be
home. I learned these things:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<ul>
<li>I live in great luxury.
I have an antique single-family home in a deciduous forest and two cars. It is possible to live with much less.</li>
<li>Our monocultural food system is a really scary vulnerability
(in other words, relying too much on big farms and purely technical solutions
to human needs, such as food).</li>
<li>I live in great love. I have so many friends and family who
matter to me and to whom I matter. Sorry
to be so mushy, but it’s true.</li>
<li>Actually, I’m not sorry.</li>
<li>I live in great isolation.
Other countries’ struggles have always been deep in the margins for me. I hope to remedy that. I finally understand that to be a good
American I have to learn from other countries, not just assume my system
is the only and best by default. A
little humility helps.</li>
<li>Doing things with people is more important than “getting
things accomplished.” I don't spend much time with other people and in that isolation I <i>feel</i> like I'm being productive, but now I'm doubting what I've been producing. A vita? I think I can shoot higher.</li>
<li>Some of the baseline assumptions that come with being an
American are fantastic and worth every effort (many of these are shared with Turkey): that difference is not to be feared, that justice is the probable
outcome of a struggle, that we are safe for and from each
other, that the natural world (sea to shining sea) is a necessary part of our
heritage, rights, and responsibilities – all these things are so built in to my
daily American life I tend not to see them. </li>
</ul>
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Now I see them more clearly. <o:p></o:p><br />
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Thanks to all my friends, faculty, and family who helped make this trip wonderful. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-59757210512836238442013-11-14T08:02:00.004-08:002013-12-05T11:24:04.503-08:00Myths<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CaaL2cO3KQk/UoTzdhnL5RI/AAAAAAAAA0E/X2utZveoO8g/s1600/images-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CaaL2cO3KQk/UoTzdhnL5RI/AAAAAAAAA0E/X2utZveoO8g/s1600/images-1.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I’m finally in my guest house, a hotel-like building in
urban Istanbul and I can see again the same school from last week and the same
hotel (the Hotel Nice, which may reflect a little optimism on their part). </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">I can see directly down into a room there, and I am eager to spy on them and at the same time disappointed in my urge. In any case, now the curtains are drawn and I can only imagine what is going
on in there: football.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Seriously.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">There is a football game tonight—what we call
soccer—between two arch rivals, both from Istanbul.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">People talk about the upcoming impact on Istanbul traffic, which is like saying someone in the Donner party might experience frostbite. I would love to be there for the game. I would be auditing like a blind person at a movie, I could enjoy the vibe even if I missed a lot of the detail. The real action—the grudges, mistakes, heroism, and history, and even the rules—would all be off my radar. I think I would understand soccer better if I had ever played it. But I am not a total ignoramus. I have played kickball (a child's version of baseball, played by kicking a large rubber ball). That is my practical kicking experience. I also have theoretical experience gleaned from my brief and highly regarded stint as a soccer coach for kindergarteners when
my two boys were young. It didn’t turn into something bigger, so I moved on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But seriously, I'd love to watch the game tonight. I'm starting to suspect the best way to understand a place is to eat at people's houses, go to their favorite games, and deal with their bureaucracies. I learned more from trying to mail letters in Istanbul than I ever learned from the museums and reading. I learned more from trying to order food at small restaurants than from eating the actual food. If traveling is entertainment, then watching the contrived spectacle where dervishes spin and dance is all you need. Going out to buy new tires with one of the performers after the show, however, would say a lot more about the resources of patience, strategy, and possibility here. I'd rather do the latter.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So sports help me understand where I am. Sports are all about what's possible. Great discipline, exertion, and luck make the game almost magical, but the actual competitions are, of course, just the opposite: you earn your victories. There is a certainly bottom-line to it all, a practical honesty. People sacrifice in all sorts of ways to realize a vision: parents, students, politicians (think Ottaturk!), farmers, and so on. But in a competition we get to see the results<i> </i>of that sacrifice played out in front of us, in real time. Sports is condensed action, all the drama a normal person has in a year condensed into two hours. It is literature compared to the prose of just living. Most of my heroes (Rebecca Solnit, Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan) have spent years perfecting their craft, and I can read the results, hold it in my hand. But reading the greats is still very different from watching someone kick a goal from 30 meters out, or make a perfect reverse summersault off the high board. Books can't include the writer's physical presence (ok, except at readings) which is what makes writing valuable: voice at a distance, enduring even death. Literature is the slow game; sports is the fast game. Infrared to ultraviolet. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">It's hard to get OUT into the world you're traveling through, something I talked out with the Turkish Bath post. This hesitation...it might...it might apply at home, too. The familiar is safe, and safe is comfortable and before you know it you've just spent the entire evening watching a movie on the computer rather than going out into the street to celebrate Ottatürk's reign while the city goes crazy! Which is what I did, watch a movie alone instead of go out into the world that night, of the stupidest mistakes I made while in Turkey. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I teach writing, so here is another way to talk about the value of entering into what you don't know: The hardest part of teaching kids to write is to get them to <i>use</i> their own doubt. They want to rush in with certainties, facts, inarguable personal experiences, not ask questions about it. They don't often want</span><span style="font-size: large;"> to say "I don't know, but maybe...." To open the door to the unknown, the merest possibility that there are other ways of seeing the world, is very hard for them. Hard for all of us! But that is where new ideas come from, where change leaks in. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Closing the door is tempting. It's certainly a temptation for this traveler. But just living and getting familiar will close the door incrementally and quietly, too. Walker Percy talks about how hard it is to keep a place fresh. We inevitably make it fit our expectations ("The Loss of the Creature"). Yet good traveling requires a lot of uncertainty. I regret not going to Greece, for instance. Yeah, yeah, I might have been too tired to enjoy it, but really, I was scared to try it. Distant and scary and yet another language to navigate? I opted out. Now I regret letting my fears control my decision in that way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Personally, I do not think we are safe from chaos (your milage will vary) or even that we should be (ymwv again). I just finished Rebecca Solnit's book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/A-Field-Guide-Getting-Lost/dp/0143037242" target="_blank">A Field Guide to Getting Lost</a>,</i> a title I thought fit my trip to Turkey very well. She talks about the value of getting lost, and it delights me to see that she wrote a smart "field guide" to it. I can see the value there now. When I first arrived in Turkey, I was deeply ambivalent about getting lost. On one hand, I desperately didn't want to end up hungry and inarticulate on the labyrinthine streets of Istanbul, darkness infilling the city streets moments before all chaos breaks loose as in that terrifying zombie scene in <i>I Am Legend.</i> (Turns out the Turks would be more likely to feed me than eat me; they'd probably just walk me home, which is pretty cool). But on the other hand, I didn't want to end up playing it so safe that I never really got my feet wet, never really got into Turkey. Again, it turns out <i>that</i> is a much easier mistake to make. I think "traveling" can be so planned and safe that any surprise presents itself as a mistake. I can imagine travelers of some nationalities (you know who you are) judging Turkey by the fluffiness of its towels rather than the hearts of its people. That would be a real loss, a waste.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Solnit talks about how one must "Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That's where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go" (4). I think she's saying that it's way too easy to understand things. It's very hard to <i>not</i> know what you're looking at and what it means, which is why double-takes are delightful, where meaning elude us and then get captured. A sturdy and reassuring explanation can be dangerous—what is prejudice other than forcing someone to represent what you expect them to represent? I read somewhere that schizophrenics have a brain problem that causes them, say, to hear voices. These voices are agonizing since they don't seem to be produced to any person present. In a restless and ineluctable turn of mind, the schizophrenic will attribute the voices to aliens or ghosts, anything, really, in order to make the experience understandable. Attributing the voices to aliens is a desperate attempt to make sense of the data. The explanation may be wrong, but it reflects a deep desire to make sense of the experience. Teacher and language theorist James Britton says people struggle mightily to avoid gaps and blind spots, the contradictions and <i>terra incognito</i> experience. He says in <i>Language and Learning </i>that "<span style="text-indent: -58pt;">many of the things we do most earnestly are directed towards preserving
or restoring the unity, coherence and harmony of [our]....</span><i style="text-indent: -58pt;">view of the world."</i><span style="text-indent: -58pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">This is why I say that the most frightening part of experience, the thing that makes it valuable </span><span style="font-size: large;">and scary, is actually plunging into the noise of it, the phenomenological smash. It's also the hardest.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Or as Wallace Stevens puts it in "To the Roaring Wind,"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><i><span style="font-size: large;"> What syllable are you seeking,</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"> Vocalissimus,</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"> In the distances of sleep?</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"> Speak it.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We are drawn to even the inanimate world as if it were speaking. This may be a fundamental urge we share with other forms of life: to be spoken to and respond. I swear even the grasses know how to listen to the world. They certainly respond to it. Listening to the world as it is, before it coheres in sentences (or syllables) is very hard, though. I <i>think </i>this is what they mean by meditation or prayer. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe more than anything from this trip, I've learned that certainty is overrated. After a certain point, trying to account for every contingency doesn't make us safer (or happier); that's just a myth. Sometimes the world does not cohere, or coheres in ways that can't be predicted. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I've been thinking about this as my kids continue growing up and my role in many areas has been changing. My son Eli is close friends with a young man whose family was shaken to the core by their child's suicide last week. I think of that tragedy as the furthest planet, the unendurable, the untravellable distance. It breaks my heart. But this morning an open letter from the family <i>thanked </i>the community for the rich and unqualified love that flowed over them all week. I've been thinking about this all morning. How could those parents find the strength to write at all, much less write a thoughtful and <i>generous</i> letter to others? Certainly their faith had much to do with it. But I think the parents were exposed to the deep truth of what I merely suspected while traveling, that we are often sustained not by what we expect, but also by what surprises, even disappoints us. And we are not sustained singly; by accepting help, we help others. It is through the grace of other people that we are taught how to accept and embrace what comes to us "through the door to the dark," no matter how terrifying it may be. No matter what.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-84341721941931007932013-11-08T01:46:00.004-08:002013-11-10T11:36:25.540-08:00Travel Tips from Me to Me<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IKTIgVkWvUM/UnyuNHxLDUI/AAAAAAAAAzE/U1E6OEMTfMc/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IKTIgVkWvUM/UnyuNHxLDUI/AAAAAAAAAzE/U1E6OEMTfMc/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a></div>
Ok. I finally figured
out some basics this morning. The most
basic of the basics is retaining the habits I use at home. When everything's unfamiliar, I tend to forget that I know what to do. Next time I wake up in the morning,
here in Turkey or anywhere, I hope to remember these fundamentals:<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>It helps to think up a plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It helps to write down the plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plan can be full of all sorts of
grandiose and trivial stuff, but I need that list in order to make my second draft, my
realistic draft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do I have to figure out
how to get from the Otogar (bus station) with two suitcases down to the
guesthouse way out by the Sea of Marmara?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You bet I do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I write it
down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not that I’m too dim to figure
these things out on the fly, but each step implies another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dominoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s what I’m trying to account for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What are the major events of the day and how do they impact each other? It helps on the road making travel plans; it helps at home, too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->It helps to exercise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every day, exercise needs to be in my day’s schedule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today I just figured out how to get some O<sup>2</sup> before breakfast: run up and down the back staircase that extends 13 floors from
ground to top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, people don’t “run”
here around on the streets. I tried it, and men would stop what they were
doing and stare, trying to figure out if I were dangerous or fleeing. Least that's what I thought was going through their heads, based on their expressions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the obvious (you need exercise) took me a long time to plug into "climb the open-air back stairwell." I forgot that exercise is a basic that I have to figure out in every new place.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->GET OUT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you stay in one place, you will start to feel stuck and struggle to
get out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll feel trapped by the “outside,”
but when you go out in it, you remember that you like air and light and people,
and could have done this at any point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Find a place in the sweet spot, not too far or unusual, not too close or familiar. Take some paper and dark chalk to a nearby
graveyard and try to make a impression of the oldest gravestone you can find. Or go to a restaurant and order the cheapest steak they sell. Or go to a library and check out a book (you'll have to return it, which is a bonus: see tip #5). It doesn't really matter where you go or if the trip is "successful." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trip is the adventure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went to a <a href="http://franketurkey.blogspot.com/2013/11/turkish-bath.html" target="_blank">Turkish bath</a>, and though it took
me a long time to work up steam for it (so to speak, ha), I’m so glad I
went.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Remember that the SECOND time you go a place is
better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then you know the basics, such as where the tables
and bathrooms are, where the place is located on the street, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go to places twice if you like them, and then
expand outward, like the explorer you are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Vasco de Gama always ate the same restaurant twice and jogged down the same forest path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If he can do it in armor, you can do it in that snazzy travel vest and fanny pack, you know you can.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Make your lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or at least plan it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since you
hardly ever know for <i>sure</i> where you are going to be, take a backpack with essentials,
including food. Dried fruit and bread are always good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The essentials are these: passport and visa;
wallet with the right kind of money and credit cards; map; phrasebook;
notebook; phone; pen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leave one of these
at home, and you might get stuck.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Getting stuck is going to happen daily and you
can look forward to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Oh, hello, you
are the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">getting stuck moment</i> for
today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you have any relatives who
might be stopping by later?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
sure?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to go ask this kind-faced man here
where the hell the train station is located.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See you later!”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Ask locals for help with plans you already have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t just moan for help and writhe on the
sidewalk like Homer Simpson in a foreign land, crying “O God, O God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An more effective alternative is to say to the
girl on the bus, “Excuse me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am trying
to get to the Tramvay station near Anadolu station. Can you help?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
they speak English, it’s a bonus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
they don’t, see tip 12 and use your phone.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RxTZQFVMgV8/UnyyXS_TDiI/AAAAAAAAAzo/RoNGpZLfkM0/s1600/smile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RxTZQFVMgV8/UnyyXS_TDiI/AAAAAAAAAzo/RoNGpZLfkM0/s200/smile.jpg" width="155" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Try</i>
to speak the language even if you are terrible at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You get points for trying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be happy that you get this chance to be in a very foreign land and you will
<b>smile</b> more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if the traveling is scary
sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If <span style="text-indent: -22.5pt;">you smile more, people
will be happy to help you which leads to more smiling, and on in a geometric
progression until you get lost again. </span><span style="text-indent: -22.5pt;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -22.5pt;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -22.5pt;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -22.5pt;">See #5. </span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Google the really specific directions in
the native language, like this: “Özür dilerim. Ben Anadolu istasyonu yakınında
Tramvay istasyonuna almak için çalışıyorum." Then you can
show your phone to people and get an answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nice! Google Translate is my best friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">13)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Write down the most interesting projects you have
ahead of you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, it’s revising and
revising this damn piece on Tully, which I finally just got a grip on this
morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But sometimes I would forget
what needed to be done and find myself looking at, say, direction for building
a lean-to in the woods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Breaks are
good; back to the main project is good, too. Writing it down helps me remember that it's part of my day, whether it's a typical day or a crazy one.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">14)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do pushups in the morning just to maintain
my intimidating figure.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">15)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you go out with people, eat
everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t be a wimp. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try it unless it writhes while you eat it, and
even then, ask how to proceed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
usually very good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People don’t feed you
junk when they are trying to show you their country. And say thanks, a lot!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
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but thoughtful matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I brought some glass jars of apple butter for folks here (applesauce with maple
syrup, essentially).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Freaking delicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what matters is that I thought of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people I gave it to seemed grateful, and
I was pleased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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have a mail drop box.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have to take a
number, and wait, and wait, and then finally give your postcards to a guy who
somewhat unhappily takes them off your hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
made the bright suggestion to a Turkish native that maybe a drop box would be a nice addition to
the Turkish postal system, and felt immediate push back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, you see, many people rely on the post
office for their monthly check,” etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
cool, I’m not saying Turkey should use Pony Express; I was just suggesting…well,
nevermind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People are proud of their
country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let ‘em.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s it for now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
list to refer to when getting up in the morning while traveling – and at home.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-53795220446831402662013-11-07T06:36:00.003-08:002013-11-07T06:36:58.634-08:00Food<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iIuuiKl6zoU/UnujFSkUHZI/AAAAAAAAAy0/gThvrrFg-WE/s1600/10577222_b9dc5f35a7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iIuuiKl6zoU/UnujFSkUHZI/AAAAAAAAAy0/gThvrrFg-WE/s200/10577222_b9dc5f35a7.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
So eating is important in Turkey. Perhaps Turkey is not the only place that in the world that's fond of eating food, I know, but in Turkey the point
is to spend time with the people you’re eating with, telling (and listening) to
stories. To give advice. To lament and ascribe and asservate. To reminisce.
And you do this over food. <div>
<br /></div>
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For
me, who is driven to eat only slightly more than he loves to talk, it’s a wonderful combination. My friends and colleagues in Turkey have been
giving me an intensive and demanding crash course in Turkish cuisine.
So we eat, and talk, and eat and drink strong Turkish coffee in those
little cups and then çay and then dessert and by the end of the day I can
hardly move. To say that these folks are
accommodating doesn’t come close. I can’t
pay for anything, though I try sincerely to buy stuff. They <i>will
not</i> <i>hear of it.</i><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
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Some of this stuff below sounds weird to Americans, I know,
but then if it were familiar, I might as well be at home, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is (almost) all extremely delicious, and
even the most cursory of restaurants takes time to do it right, and they
usually actually seem to enjoy making the meal comfortable. And it's something narrowly Turkish (though the Greeks stole some of their ideas, they say, as with gyros). I asked if they had American restaurants in Turkey, and my friend was a little baffled. What would such a restaurant even serve? MacDonald's? he laughed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I wanted to say that it might serve macaroni and cheese, pancakes, bad coffee, shakes, barbecued ribs, turnip greens, fried chicken, cranberry sauce, baked turkey with stuffing, ham (not a big seller in Turkey, for obvious reasons), bacon (ditto), and sweet corn. All true. But would we say any of these reflected and delivered a dose of national pride? I don't think so. These are entertainment foods, not a link to our past (ok, turkey for Thanksgiving does have a story and history). </div>
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Last night my waiter revealed to me that aspires to be a
journalist, and that he has worked on translating scholarly articles on ancient
writing technologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he served me çay
and bussed the dishes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pretty cool.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some meals I’ve had recently:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>Ayran</i>, the cold salted yogurt+water</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> drink. I love </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">this</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> stuff.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Seasonal fish, bone in, split sidewise and grilled. Amazing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Clumps of another fish endemic to the Black Sea,
fried in batter and eaten pretty much whole<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Fava bean paste, pressed into a cake, cut with a
fork, not unlike curds<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Salgam</span></i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, the only thing I cannot
handle: beet and carrot juice, fermented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Acidic, cold, thin and <u>beety</u><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Manti</span></i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> which means dumplings made
with great labor in thin dough and boiled: you pour plain yogurt over them, add
slightly burned butter, then mint, garlic, and hot peppers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A sausage-like item that is chopped by hand a
hundred times and thus mechanically masticated, fried over a fire (a kind of
kabob)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Eggplant fried with sausage of some kind<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Eggplant with everything else that's edible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Pasta that I can’t describe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Meat döner (“dough-nerc”, which means turning as on
a spit), the stuff they make gyros with, on crusty bread; ditto with chicken<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A strange but good dessert that seems to be made of
cornmeal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Lentil soup (good!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Boza, a fermented bulgur soup.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never had it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Seems to be a little intimidating, even to the locals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rice with beans ladled on top<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Free and endless cups of çay<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Free and endless baskets of bread (emek) with every
meal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Omlette </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">seems to mean</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> tomato paste, peppers and eggs in a thick, well, pasty patty. Cheese on top.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The food, combined with the caffeine, combined with the
complete lack of exercise has made my heart skip beats, which I think means it’s
time to return to Cheerios.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-45024452231341609922013-11-03T14:12:00.000-08:002013-11-15T08:42:45.492-08:00Turkish Bath<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3u2fj6Yk6hg/UnbFyj3YPjI/AAAAAAAAAyo/hxZbbyaI_zo/s1600/Turkish_Bath6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3u2fj6Yk6hg/UnbFyj3YPjI/AAAAAAAAAyo/hxZbbyaI_zo/s320/Turkish_Bath6.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: left;">The</span><span style="text-align: left;"> picture of health. Seriously</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 21px; text-align: left;">Before I talk about my adventure today, a brief note from the traveller: </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-align: left;">Just got a chance to FaceTime with my youngest
bio-son, and he sounds great. He took the SAT and probably did
well. Hanging at his mom’s house, playing pool with three of his
friends. Looks like he’s been lifting weights. Someday he will be
as outrageously buff as I am.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Seriously, this is a long time to be away.
The micro-moments are what you miss. I missed my oldest stepson's birthday and Halloween. I missed my wife's </span><span style="font-size: 21px;">second, third, and fourth week at her new job. I am missing Drew's application process to college (which is bet is intimidating but also exciting). I missed Joe's French horn at the concert where they all wore costumes. I missed Eli's SAT. So I know that was part of it, but I miss it, just the same.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">I’ve been feeling a little stuck here in
Turkey. The problem is all mine. I've allowed myself to be limited
by feeling awkward. So today I decided to quit that for a bit and try
somethin</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">g new.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">So I looked up “Turkish Baths” and after about an
hour of research, I got the name of a local one, mapped it on Google, went to
the bank and got some lira, and set out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">The route wasn’t hard. Lots of small
surprises marked the way as cars and people try to avoid one another.
People will run across a busy highway if they think there is a
better-than-average chance that they will make it. They are completely
crazy here in traffic. It’s as if they are chased by zombies. If a
car is making a turn, people will walk in front of it under the assumption that
“we can’t all die.” So far, I have never seen anybody get hit, but there
were two fender-benders in front of my dorm back in Eskisehir. So there
is apparently no magic protection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">I also got to watch a full-size bus try to turn
around in the alley here. It was so hopeless, just from the perspective
of the geometry of the thing, that I couldn’t watch. I kept thinking of
what it would be like to be the bus driver with a coach full of people
connected to a wedding (which was his situation, best I could surmise).
There was a lot of diesel noise, and then eventually silence. When I came
out later there was no bus, so either it got airlifted out of there (my first
guess) or he somehow wiggled it back and forth until he was free. I don’t
know how the hell he got it into the alley in the first place. Turkey is
a mystery to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">The Turkish Bath house was up on the hill about a
mile away. Got there and immediately got a sense that this would
work. They carefully showed me how much and for what, and I was shown
into a cool little room just big enough to nap (I bet people do). They
didn’t even bother speaking Turkish to me, thankfully. I guessed I was to
get undressed and put on the towel-thing they handed me, which I did, and with
some pangs of anxiety about leaving my money and passport in the room behind a
weak lock, I did it anyway. Of course it was all there and fine when I
got back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">So the whole place is a hang out.
You can drink tea there and smoke cigarettes in the cooler outer lobby, but in
the back there is a warm raised marble dais that you lie on to wait. It’s
actually quite warm, and the air gets so warm and humid that it's sort of hard to breathe.
The room is surrounded by maybe eight little stations. If you’ve
ever seen that circular cap-gun ammo, the stuff with small circles arranged around a bigger
circle, that’s what it looked like. The center of the room rose to a high dome, like a
mosque devoted to cleanliness (in fact they are often connected to mosques, I
believe, but I’m not sure why). Men were washing in several of them, and
there appeared to be a sauna one one side. It was my first time and I
didn't explore much. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">I waited there for about fifteen minutes and
finally sat up to look around. At that moment a short man with striking
mustache came in, grabbed my shoulder, and decided I needed more time to heat
up. He gestured for me to lie down, which I did, and I was glad to know
who my bather was going to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Finally he came back and took me into a small side
room with running water. He left the water running all the time in a profusion of excess and cleanliness, and
started by pouring a great panful of it over my head. Hot, yep. And
then the scrubbing started. With a rough green oven-mitten-like pad, he
scoured my entire body with that pad. It was uncomfortable, but also
good. Tons of dead skin came off, and he worked hard, puffing and
tugging. Finally, I lay down on my back and he did my torso, cracking my
back along the way; then I flipped over and he did the same thing, respectfully
skipping my covered butt. Then soap began: I sat down with my back to the
hot wall, and he poured pan after pan of water on the soap he had rubbed into
my skin and hair, going so far as to use his fingernails to really scratch up
my scalp. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">It was good. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">More water, hot, cold, lukewarm, cool, cooler,
cold. I gasped at the last few, and we were done. I was wrapped in
a new dry towel, then one for my chest, then one for my head, all red and white
stripes. I felt like a million bucks. Got dressed, tipped the
gentleman, and headed off back to my part of the warren.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Most of the pictures I find on the web make it look
like a pedicure. Damsels sitting around in a pretty place. My place
was ancient, rough-hewn, not pretty, but effective. Large soapy men
sitting in their carrels being worked on, the way you'd scrub a large animal.
But it was also a wonderful place to escape the noisy world, to simply
get something done without pretense or complication. It wasn’t sterile in
there, not at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was probably
hundreds of years old and worn. The toilets were old style, two raised foot
peds to stand on and a hole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Water
faucet near by with a small plastic bucket to wash it all down the sewer pipe
with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cool.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Again, not a pedicure. The man who scrubbed me didn’t wear dainty nitrile
gloves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He squatted and grunted and gave
me a good workout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was so <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
a mall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose you could say that it
wasn’t “healthy” or “hygienic” either, what with the lack of barriers between people,
the well-used and rinsed stalls for scrubbing, the thick air and, hell, what
about the cigarette smoke?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Terrible!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But </span>I think it all depends
a lot of what “hygiene” and “health” mean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you think they imply sterility, then, no, it was an unhealthy and
unhygienic place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they are roughly =
to well-being, then heck yes, it was <i>good for you.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">I've been pretty happy all day I got up and out.
Good for <i>me</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-63485424386116870082013-11-02T08:10:00.000-07:002014-11-21T11:05:43.843-08:00Young Democracy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q2nUq8GjwLw/UnUWP0Q4LHI/AAAAAAAAAxo/_Ir8-c1VPSk/s1600/1370872105-protesters-in-taksim-square_2106640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q2nUq8GjwLw/UnUWP0Q4LHI/AAAAAAAAAxo/_Ir8-c1VPSk/s320/1370872105-protesters-in-taksim-square_2106640.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
I’m about half way done with this adventure, and while I
miss my family, my friends, my bed, and breakfast cereal, it’s good practice to
take things as they come and not scrabble too hard to get what I want immediately. The hardest thing is the language, of course.
When I get hungry, I walk around the several block radius, knowing that going
in to eat means I will have to pantomime and misunderstand for many long
minutes. I sort of dread it. When I go in, though, the storekeepers are
almost always patient with me, trying out their rudimentary English while I try
out my rudimentary Turkish. The result
is that I eat some unexpected things.
Whatever arrives on my plate is <i>mine</i>,
and I always clean my plate (thanks, Mom).
I’m also always hungry. When it
comes time to pay, I have to hold up fingers, as it is still hard for me to
recognize numbers for some silly reason.
But then, walking away from the restaurant, I have to suppress the urge
to laugh and shout: I’m so happy that I did it again, and each time it gets a
little easier.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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This morning I sat in a super tiny breakfast joint run by a
young woman (quite unusual) who seemed unsure about having me in there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I slowly learned, however, that she is in
fact Syrian, and probably doesn’t speak fluent Turkish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know exactly how she feels!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Crows speak better Turkish than I do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wish I could have told her so, but then
chatting up the Arab women probably isn’t the best choice. She did chill a bit,
though, and made me the strangest omelets I ever had: eggs, tomato paste,
chopped green chili cooked together in a loose, brick-red mass, with cheese
chips over the top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Delicious, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever I order, I love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No exceptions.*<o:p></o:p></div>
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I came here to develop a link between my college and Anadolu
University in an experimental cultural exchange that has students use writing
to learn how to use English more effectively. But that’s not all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also came because I’m working a project
about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">place</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Tully, New York is the subject).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figured that to really understand where I live,
I better be exposed to where I am NOT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In other words, I wanted to be able to return to my home with fresh eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without some distance, it’s all a blur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Missing it helps, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Last night I had dinner with my newfound Turkish friend, a
medical doctor who helped me navigate the city when we arrived in
Istanbul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s gone way, way more than
the second mile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She and I share a sense
of curiosity about what people are really like, what it means to go about your
day, what the conventional decisions might be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Getting to know a culture means getting to know people: statistics won’t
suffice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I laughed when she generously
ordered dinner the other night because she was careful to create a match
between the main dish and the drink.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
logic there is not clear to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For instance,
it makes “obvious” sense to drink Aryan, that yogurt fluid, with crusty bread. I’m
not sure where on the alchemical spectrum these to foods stand, or what makes
them complimentary, but it is interesting that some sort of concert is aimed
for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Asian dishes, for instance, tend to
be balanced in color, texture, and taste (and probably a lot more).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually in the US the only balance is to have
liquid with a meal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you’re
eating cereal, you’ve got that covered already!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Then my friend and I jumped in a minivan-cab and rode at high speed through
the busy highways of Istanbul, at one point driving beside a very high Roman aqueduct.
I was incredulous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could that be? How
something so grand have been conceivable that long ago? How could it still be
standing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t have a lot of time
for historical musing, however, because our pilot was the most aggressive
driver I’ve ever known. He was good, expertly cutting off other cars, squeezing
between a line of busses and cars, popping into a space that I didn’t see until
he went for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was, ah, invigorating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The destination was Taskim Square, next to a ritzy part of
town of stores and restaurants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taskim
Square is magnetized for protest, the center for political demonstrations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1977 and again periodically, most recently
in June of this year, students and all interested parties met there to assert
themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have this written into
our first amendment, and Turkey does also, article 33 and 34 of its constitution
(thanks Wikipedia).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But protest in Turkey is not the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is, I think, a fundamental and
underlying assumption we in the U.S. feel: we are going to be ok no matter
what.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 1968 Democratic National Convention
might have been tense, and Joan Didion in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White
Noise</i> helped me understand how common irresponsible anarchic casual talk might have been in '68 or so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seemed sort of crazy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Turkey is not loose and irresponsible like
that, as far as I can tell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a
great deal of pride at being a democratic outpost in the
Middle East.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet many Turks feel that
the entire country is being swept to the right, nudged by insidious and
manipulative Arab religious leaders who promise people salvation in the future if they
reject the trappings of the West (“Arab” means pretty much any country that
uses the Arabic script, I think).<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
My greatest fear as an American comes not from the protesters, but from the tight smiles of major corporations. Capitalism run amok wrecks small town businesses (think Pepsi-Co). I worry about the way capitalism has learned to make us feel like engaged citizens when we choose between a red iPod and a green iPod. That is just selling us the option to assert our "personality," reflected by the color we pick. I worry about the way we are encouraged to consume our way to happiness. Protests are nice. But in the States, to my mind, the greatest dangers is a steadfast refusal to look at our <u>unsustainable</u> lifestyle. But we're not Turkey. Turkey is younger. Politics is played out in different terms. It requires different forms of assent and different forms of dissent.</div>
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In practical terms, politics is revealed in the way women dress. What they wear is often
meant as an explicit political statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are young women here who dress in the typical too-much and
too-little style of any high school or college co-ed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two girls were eating lunch at the restaurant
down the street, flirting with the man behind the counter, delighted by everything
and nothing, and sort of teasing each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As they left, one walked up to the wall mirror and made sure her makeup
was right; while she walked out the door, #2 did the same thing, fluffing a bit,
arranging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It made me think of a couple
I passed on my walk to the bay this morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The man was wearing a suit jacket (most men my age do), and the woman
was wearing an all-black burka with only a little slit for her eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> She was a bunker of a woman. </span>I could tell you how tall she was, but that’s
all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So this hiding away the women,
keeping them from inciting desire, and her agreement to play that role, I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">think</i> represents a public statement of
conformity to the strict neo-Islamic and anti-Western sentiments usually
attributed to Iran.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“There it is,” said
another friend as we walked past the other day, his voice low and almost a
hiss, “there is the <i>Iranian embassy</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
friends, both liberals, both educated, see this novel Turkish democracy, this bright
experiment, being pulled into the dark ages by the walla-walla government of Abdullah
Gül.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know anything about the
politics of Turkey, but I have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">heard</i>
that Gül seems either unwilling or unable to assert Turkey’s difference from the
Iranians and other fundamentalists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
doesn’t, I am told, understand his <i>responsibility</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I can’t make sense of some of these things yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Until recently, Turkish women were forbidden from wearing the traditional head scarves in public. And they complied! Now the law has changed, and they are going back to the old style. The is a very big deal here. </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R7LGhbus2rs/UnUYiFFxOWI/AAAAAAAAAyA/9uGUyZQQ8YU/s1600/turkish-characters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R7LGhbus2rs/UnUYiFFxOWI/AAAAAAAAAyA/9uGUyZQQ8YU/s320/turkish-characters.jpg" height="198" width="320" /></a></div>
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Another example. The letter “Q” was also recently legalized. This seem
strange to argue over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I can’t
even imagine telling a population what letters they could use: it’s not an
American way of thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to
remind myself that decisions about the nature of the alphabet imply a lot about
Turkey’s independence and identity; by banishing Arabic script in 1928 (and improving
the literacy, agriculture, industry, finances, education, and just about every
other system in the country), Atatürk brought Turkey into the modern age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Revising the alphabet—even if it’s the
diffident little letter Q—is mucking around in the basic operating system of
the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Green-lighting the letter “Q”
recognized the phonemic reality of the Turkish Kurds who could use a Q now and then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, the new law was a political statement
about the nature of the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are the
Kurds Turks, or not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they don’t want
to be part of the Turkish state (and it’s not clear even if that’s true or not,
or how you’d find out), then is including them in the country a form of coercion?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is leaving them out going to damage the
integrity and coherence that Turkey is trying hard to create?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> These are the sort of things fiercely and intelligently debated over tea and cigarettes. This is a democracy at work.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The issues fought over at Taskim Square recently and back in
1977 seem deeply connected to this central question of identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The role of the Kurds (and other groups, I
think) as well as the perceived threat of the Iranian fundamentalism, these
things are scary because they challenge the dream of a liberal democracy, a
government responsive to the people, serving the people, made up OF the people,
one that the people are responsible for, not subservient to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, this is complicated by lots of things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Turkey seems to have a long history of
somewhat autocratic leaders: the Sultans made amazing and intelligent and
un-democratic reforms after the crusades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m not criticizing: I’m saying that it is very hard, I sense, for
Turkish people to know how exactly to proceed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They can’t accept some of the government’s fiats (and inaction), but at
the same time direct protest must be much more terrifying here than in the states.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Two other things make me worry about this lovely and aspiring
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, the court system is
apparently very poor, corrupt and very slow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My friend has a landlord who is breaking the contract for his business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite a completely airtight and legal
contract, the businessman has no recourse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He can <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">try </i>to go to court, but
it will take years and cost thousands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In situations like this, where justice is impotent, then people have to
feel the tug to just solve the problem with violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect thoughts like that have never even
passed through my friend’s mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he’s
just one guy, and a gentleman in every sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The courts suck: I have never been so grateful before for our American
system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may not win, it’s imperfect,
but you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">believe</i> that justice will probably emerge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s not a given here.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Secondly, the media seem to turn their head from anything controversial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The deaths stemming from the recent Taksim
Square protest were denied, footage was “lost” and then “found,” newspapers
refused to cover it, all sorts of big holes in the reporting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wikipedia says that what limited coverage it
got had bad effects: “the state media regulator fined many channels ‘for
'harming the physical, moral and mental development of children and young
people’.” Likewise, “Sabah's front page on [the day after] did not feature the
protests at all, but found space to cover ‘President Abdullah Gul being
presented with a horse during his official visit to Turkmenistan’.”[473] If
nobody’s watching, then the fox can do whatever he wants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Over dinner and later over a game of backgammon (she <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">killed</i> me) and French-press coffee (the
best coffee I have ever had), we talked about people and politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She asked me about my life and experiences in
America, starting from the assumption that to know a place, you have to know
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What they know and don’t know about
their experience and history is as telling, perhaps, as what the scholars
say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a doctor, her strategy is to get
to know her patients’ daily life first before jumping to a textbook diagnosis
and prescription.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That interest ran both
ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is a doctor, an activist, and a
committed Muslim, and that sounds like a complicated position in Turkey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She tells a story of wanting to go on a
pilgrimage to Mecca to find our more about Mohammed’s life, about who he really
was. I could understand that. Going to the source.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Saudi Arabia would not allow her to enter
unless she was accompanied by a man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her
husband (null set) was expected; her brother would do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she applied as a doctor and went there to
serve as on a medical team for pilgrims who traveled to Mecca and were overcome by the heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a smart move, and an unfortunate one, regrettable that a woman unaccompanied was viewed as a threat or problem. It was for me a vivid example of what she, and her peers in Turkey, are
fighting against. <o:p></o:p></div>
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During that conversation this still-young pro-democracy,
pro-Turkey citizen had to quit talking for a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tears came to her eyes, and she said, “I’m
just worried that all we worked for will come undone.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a pause, and then in typical
Turkish fashion she rolled the dice to get her fifth set of doubles in the game,
and won.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sipped my coffee and thought about
how much there is to lose, about our own revolution, about how directionless we
must have seemed, and how much I hope they get through this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I really do.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-77891242390456596542013-10-31T14:00:00.001-07:002013-11-07T08:31:59.000-08:00Age<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To enter the Hagia Sophia is to be in the audience of greatness. The engineering, the labor, the expense, the intelligence, the devotion, the elegance can be touched. You can find images of it online (or in Assassin's Creed!) But I wanted to add just this small picture, of the floor. The hard rock (marble?) looks like it's made of ice, melted a bit. </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GnlVP2m6THI/UnJitJUCaeI/AAAAAAAAAxY/09-jKbQhifA/s1600/IMG_0690.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GnlVP2m6THI/UnJitJUCaeI/AAAAAAAAAxY/09-jKbQhifA/s640/IMG_0690.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I guess it would be fair to say that it's been a long time since 537, you know, with Rome falling and all that, Christianity ebbing into the provinces and flowing west again. I'm thrilled to see that those hundreds and hundred of years of feet have worn the entryway door thresholds into a wavy, scalloped pattern. Near the left doorjamb, people step up with their left foot on to the threshold, and then step forward with the right. <br />
<br />
Thousands and thousands and thousands Christians and Muslims walking into the Great Chamber. The heartfelt prayers, like waves on the ocean, completely uncountable. The structure is a metaphor of me, a reminder that God (like the Hagia Sophia) is larger and older and more foreign than might be comfortable, and that my unique little prayers are in a sea of others, all of which are now inaudible.<br />
<br />
The possibility that much of the eloquent wear on the marble threshold has been caused by tourists from Ohio who just wanted to take a picture of the roof and get the hell back to the Grand Bazaar, where a killer deal on a silk scarf awaits, has occurred to me. There are a lot of ways to pray, though, and maybe not all of them are deliberate and solemn or even reverent.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-31912110295168967332013-10-28T14:17:00.001-07:002013-10-28T14:17:57.323-07:00Istanbul<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-apYdxlIxojg/Um7TRqUDmDI/AAAAAAAAAxI/2OokysktKK4/s1600/istanbul-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-apYdxlIxojg/Um7TRqUDmDI/AAAAAAAAAxI/2OokysktKK4/s400/istanbul-1.jpg" width="400" /></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">When first entering Istanbul (and btw, not my picture, but suggests how it feels for me anyway), I notice these things:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The city is gigantic. Takes hours to cross it. City not built for cars, at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. People much more urgent and busy here than the relatively rusticated Eskisehir: Istanbul's like an ancient New York City. Cars everywhere (no parking laws!). Highways very fast: narrow narrow streets, two cars can't sometimes pass. A hundred shops in every block, all with neon signs, none of which can I read. Saw a small cat chewing on a lizard. LOTS of cats. Sweet corn for sale in a boiling pot on the corner. Ate sweet corn-meal dessert (free). Tea is EXCELLENT. Loud here. Children, cars, yelling. Also, men singing prayers (also broadcast through speakers right outside my window). </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">A worn city, an exciting one. VERY easy to get lost (not yet). Woman got off subway and walked me all the way here (many blocks) just to be nice. See women in very short skirts AND women in full burka. Independence day tomorrow: students may riot again (I'm safe). VERY thirsty for English, so I write a lot. Reading a great book on nature by David Gessler, my new hero. Everyone smokes (but me). Most toilets have bidet (very strange!). Hope to go to Turkish baths tomorrow: supposed to be very hot (110º+). Will visit giant bazar (</span><a href="http://www.grandbazaaristanbul.org/The_Grand_Bazaar.html" style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.grandbazaaristanbul.org/The_Grand_Bazaar.html</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">). Many men sit and smoke and talk and drink tea for hours. I am far from home. I am having the time of my life. Wish you could see this</span>!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-23329697226403408322013-10-27T03:31:00.000-07:002013-10-27T03:06:04.104-07:00Post 6: Ka-va-lar means breakfastSo I went out for breakfast. Big fat deal, you say. Yes, but<br />
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look at what they served me: this is off-the-charts delicious. Clockwise from the egg you have strawberry preserves, a weird liver paté patty, margarine (never butter), delicious olives, three kinds of cheese, a dish of honey, tomatoes, cucumbers, a fried bread thing with cheese in the middle, a thick paste of sun-dried tomatoes, and finally, some crumbly stuff. Not sure what the crumbly stuff is, but I ate it and it had very little taste, like some sort of self-effacing cheese. Lots of hot <i>çay</i> (tea) and lots of bread. For this, I paid 7.5 lira, about three dollars and a quarter. </div>
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The waiter was very patient with me. I had written out some of my questions, but either he couldn't read my handwriting, or was overthinking it. He called over a young lady (student of Dr. Osgur Yilidrim, my informal guide, as it turns out). After some confusion (all stemming from me), I figured out that the whole package was called an "Ottoman breakfast," and she doubted I'd be able to find it in Istanbul, where I am destined to travel tomorrow. But she, and the waiter, were great, inviting me back, asking why I chose their place among all others, encouraging me to return and smoke the hooka ("narge-eel"). It costs ten lira, which is a whole lot, but what the heck? What could go wrong? For the anxious in the crowd (hi, Aunt Mary), the nargile is filled with tobacco, and you smoke it like regular pipe, without inhaling. So there. No Turkish prisons on this trip.</div>
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While I was there, a guy came to the rail of the restaurant and leaned over toward the waiter, opened his mouth, and pointed. I guessed this hungry guy didn't speak Turkish, and he looked beat; I was interested in what the waiter would do. I guess this is not the first time they've seen this guy. The waiter made him a big sandwich and took it to him on the street, but as I watched, I realized the guy was impaired, retarded. He was carrying a red rubber soccer ball, and had trouble holding it and the sandwich. He could barely feed himself, but was apparently fending for himself on the street. The waiter handed him the sandwich, handed it to him again, and waited until the guy was settled. I'm so glad I got to see that.</div>
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When I came back, Emina (Em-ma-nay) the cook/maid had been washing the clothes I left her downstairs in this apartment building. I was looking for a laundromat, but it turns out she IS the laundromat. I left them the clothes with her, and while I was gone she separated them and washed two loads, and then folded them for me, matching my socks even (I was surprised to find that only one matched pair existed in the bunch). While we waited for the clothes to dry, she suggested with gestures that we get some tea, so we did, and she showed me how she makes it. We talked, sort of, about our kids: she has two, and I know their ages. She knows the ages of mine. </div>
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And then we were done. It's awkward not to be able to speak, but then it's also comforting in a way. I stood at the window, drinking my very strong <i>çay,</i> and watching a guy deftly maneuver a giant backhoe claw into dirt. He is truly an expert. After dumping a many-ton shovelful into the back of a long multi-wheeled truck, he would brush the concrete remains smooth and flat, both he and the truck occasionally partly obscured by dust. And while he was doing this, Emina was behind me, folding my laundry, brushing it flat with her palm down, tugging it square, and lifting it into my bag.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-15996363878280008222013-10-26T23:17:00.001-07:002013-10-26T23:17:32.389-07:00Post 5: Cat<div class="MsoNormal">
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I was walking down by the lovely river that runs through town, walking on the cobblestones and stopping for <i>çay</i>, feeling sort of alone and isolated (which is a good thing, to a point), when I came a across a bench in the shade. Still thinking about <i>touch</i> and being <i>out of touch </i>from yesterday's post, I sat down and this little cat, not kitten, not full-grown cat, came over and was delighted to have me there to rub on it. It flipped over and let me rub its belly, pulsed its claws in my thigh, and was generally thrilled to have me there. Man, it reminded me of my old cat. But I left the lithe animal there, and walked on to my next adventures.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-58284147247213061492013-10-26T08:22:00.002-07:002014-11-21T11:22:28.525-08:00Post 4: There is No Bank: Sex, Violence, and Turkey<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: x-small;">Spoiler alert:
no sex or violence here. To elsewhere for pictures of actress Mary Louise
Parker!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I
awoke to hear the muezzin call the faithful to prayer at 6:00 A.M., and again,
as on my first morning, the wonderful recorded voice sang in that Eastern scale
and the sound, reverberating off these dour buildings, created a wobbly
echolalia, slightly out of phase, one Arabic phrase fading out over another, then another,
then the dominos of their echoes. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">To say it was beautiful and strange would not
even begin to make the point. </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Back
in the early 1980s I lived in the Westcott neighborhood of Syracuse and every
apartment I lived in, even the two houses I owned there after my children were
born, was within earshot of the Erwin Methodist Church. On Sunday they would
broadcast their own religious invitation, bells ringing through the
neighborhood and all my many backyards. </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I spent many good years in that
neighborhood and because I was familiar with it, paradoxically I could not hear
it very well or often. It was lost to the background, to the quotidian, just another
noise to ignore like the airplanes that sometimes flew low over that part of
Syracuse on Sunday. I suspect that the bells were beautiful and strange, but I'll never know.</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Therefore, I felt entirely privileged
to hear this Muslim aubade, and that theme—rediscovering innocence (or
ignorance, if you will)— was the theme of the day. I recently re-read Walker
Percy’s essay “<a href="http://www.udel.edu/anthro/ackerman/loss_creature.pdf"><span style="color: #0000e9;">The Loss of the Creature</span></a>,” where he reflects
on the paradox of familiarity, the way what is closest is also most obscure. He
gives several strategies for finding his way back to an “authentic” experience,
something the Zen masters have spent some time with, I’m sure. </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Yesterday I
wrote a paper on this and argued that although writing seems to assert itself (even at the most basic level, it's saying <i>read this!)</i>, writing also doubts what's known,
allowing the writer to run up against what he doesn't know. That’s why it is so hard! And valuable! I argued all this in the paper, proposing to my gracious Turkish audience that we could harness the difference
between our cultures through writing in a way we’d all benefit from. They liked
it, I think. The students were great and three came up later and asked if they
could participate in any way. I was touched.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; text-indent: 48pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; text-indent: 48pt;">There
is a certain characteristic Turkish impatience for cynicism and drama, it seems. They seem less bored than American students, less distracted. (Written by a guy who here in Turkey can't turn on his hall light nor say "goodbye" properly, these claims might not hold up under scrutiny. I am very new here). I
suspect people work too hard and have suffered too much to get a kick out of
being droll, of presenting their cynicism as an achievement. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; text-indent: 48pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; text-indent: 48pt;">Turks seem a
little less exploited than those of us with a schizophrenic power structure,
one that says one thing and does another: </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; text-indent: 48pt;">Stalinist Russia comes to mind, but
so does any nation that, for instance, actively ignores the contradiction
between survival and endless growth. You can’t have both, and we all know it at
some level, but it’s not polite to talk about. I like the directness of
this Turkish city, but am holding the door open to the possibility that I’m
oversimplifying and just thrilled to be here.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Despite the plane ride, the strange food, the
odd hours, the overwhelming influx of information, the lack of communication,
the directions, toilets, locks, accents, confusions—I’m doing great. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I
love salmoning up my own river. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It helps to have wonderful hosts. My go-to guy, Ozgur, teaches <i>21 credit hours</i> every week. That’s seven class meetings
(think seven classes, four on Monday, three on the Tuesday: repeat, repeat,
repeat). Yet they all make time for me. They tell endless wonderful stories <i>in English</i> and they forgive
me when I mangle their very names and forget a how to say something or
do anything, and they just basically accept me and my situation. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’m learning a
lot about what newcomers feel. Now I <i>know</i> how grateful I am when the guy in the restaurant waits for me to order, or does some small nice thing (for instance, giving me a cup of tea I didn't ask or pay for). I have a better sense of why ethnic
groups group up. I used to be a little impatient with how clannish they seemed. But if there were Americans here, I’d be cling to them like velcro
rather go out into the world with all the negotiation skills of a donkey. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It is very good for me to feel awkward and unsure of myself. Not pleasant, but it keeps my words from organizing my experience, and induces humility in every single small social interaction.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">A kindness: Today,
for instance, a guard at the University had to call to get approval to let me
on campus, but when he got the ok, he continued writing me up on his phone. Paranoid, I
expected a ticket, and offered him my passport to provide the necessary data. He
waived it away. I was clearly beyond the anything a passport could cure (insert prayer here). But I stood there for a long while, trying to be patient
(and getting later and later for my talk!), and was relieved when he turned his
phone around and showed me the directions he had been typing into Google
Translate for me from Turkish to English. That whole time, he had been helping me out. A route from where we were standing
to the Education building was written out, step by step. That was above and
beyond the call of duty, sir.</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Another kindness: I was taken out for lunch after the talk
to an open-air Crimean restaurant, watching the lake. “It’s not the Bosphorus,
but it’s water”, said my host and department chair, Professor
Bayam Balipenal. Apparently the place is periodically awash with tourists who swarm
the place as their busses unload. The special food they make there is the attraction, I guess: it's like having one place in NY State where you can get Buffalo chicken wings.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">We watched a paddock or corral of horses(horses are “<i>at</i>” in
Turkish, in case anyone asks) and talked politics. Fundamentalism is on everyone’s lips. I got an
insider’s view of the Syrian crisis. The destruction of entire cities, the
refugees, the Turkish government’s position. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">And when we were full </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bT2nhGcVPXE/UmvhzauYNaI/AAAAAAAAAuI/gCqzMXyRzzQ/s1600/Cay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bT2nhGcVPXE/UmvhzauYNaI/AAAAAAAAAuI/gCqzMXyRzzQ/s1600/Cay.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">of tea (“<i>çay</i>,”
pronounced “chai,” which you get everywhere in the same sort of hourglass
shaped vessel) and eating the endemic unpronounceable folded, deep-fried-meat-and-onion
Asian tortilla thing (delicious) with sweet cake (they said it had no name)
and more <i>çay,</i> we went inside</span><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">and the Professor asked me into the kitchen. I
felt a bit awkward intruding, but she is such an authentic and enthusiastic
person that the staff complied without complication. She may also have some
status in town, of course.<br /> </span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Yet another: Right
now they had a lull. One guy wordlessly showed me how they run the dough
through a machine, twice, at right angles each time, and another guy showed how
they fill the dough and fold it over, crimping it, and a third dropped it into
the deep fryer (just a big cast iron bowl of hot oil, very dangerous it seemed
to me), and then drained it, put in on a plate, and handed it to me, for free. It
was: fantastic. I waved to them, and in my crude,
unintelligible Turkish said “Cok teskkular” *(shok te-check-u-lar) which means
“Very much thanks.” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">They all looked at me with something not unlike love (or
pity!) and one guy touched his fingers to his heart and nodded, indicating his
heartfelt pleasure at being able to help out. A small gesture, but entirely
sincere, and I was grateful. There is a way to say “Blessed be the work of your
hands,” but it was hiding in my phrase book and entirely absent from my brain,
so I just nodded said nothing and left, for the second time touched by the simplicity and
directness of a gesture.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I
said that part of the opportunity of this trip is to see not just what’s in
Turkey, but what’s in the U.S. I can’t see the States all that well because I
am too much a part of them. Just as I can’t see my own face, I’m limited by the
structure that gives me vision. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Maybe
I’m an unusually superficial person, but as far as I can tell, in America, I
seem always to be saving my best energies for something else. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">What that
“something else” is doesn’t seem entirely clear to me. Maybe it’s
entertainment, or family, or work, or writing, or whatever. But even when I’m
present physically, I often feel distracted, as if I am shuttling my involvement among many
different accounts, keeping as much in the bank as possible.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Except,
<i>what if there is no bank? </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It
may be that there. is. no. bank.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Maybe my rush-around lifestyle is counterproductive, even insincere. Doing fewer things more slowly, more sincerely, might lead to
greater happiness, not just personal gain.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">And
it may be that I am on a vacation of sorts, consuming very little, needing
little, and a little soft in the head because of it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">There
is this little place down the road where I like to go and get a <i>çay</i>
in those cool little hourglass vessels. I've come to love it. It’s hot and sweet with a depth to it
and quite a kick, but a slow one, one that is good for sitting in a café and
watching the people walk by, one good also for holding conversation (if you
speak Turkish!), which is what I see the old men doing in the morning, before
the </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">college students are up. They congregate in the open-air cafes and smoke
and read the paper and talk, spending a great deal of time together, hanging
out, arguing about fundamentalism and the price of things -- or so I imagine. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">There is this other place further down the road where the men sit in a
small, dingy room and play a game I can’t name or understand, using worn tiles in wooden holders, talking emphatically about the same stuff. On the street, too, on makeshift
benches, the men drink <i>çay</i> and talk and smoke. Many are unemployed, but some are young, storeowners, etc. They spend a
great deal of time together, it seems. They are comfortable with each other,
and it’s pretty wonderful to see.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">The
young people also congregate, of course, smoking and drinking tea, but they are
in smaller groups, dinner table groups, and talk more boisteriously, trying to
entertain each other or flirt. When they walk, they often walk arm in arm,
girls holding hands, men locking arms. When I first saw this, I’ll admit that I
was surprised. I didn’t know there were so many gay Turks, men and women! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">But
that assumption didn’t seem to make sense. There wasn’t the sexual thing going
on between them. In fact, there just isn’t that strong a sexual vibe here, though a great many people, the young people in
particular, are often very striking and handsome and beautiful, with complicated
features and open faces, maybe a little thinner than the typical American. Imagine talk African-Asian-Greek elegance. You are not even half way there yet, I assure you.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">But in all this, there isn’t the same
sort of sexual glut that we see in American colleges, the sort of subsonic
hunger that thrums through the quad, the visual <i>frottage.</i> Nobody leers here. Of course, again, I don't know Turkish, so maybe everyone is saying very crude things about the others. But I doubt it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">There is a
certain modesty to the ways that people behave with each other here, a kind of propriety, and, I suspect,
that modesty allows for, or is encouraged by, the fact that people can touch
one another in non-sexual ways.*</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Everyone
shares a powerful need to be touched, but back home there are few cultural
vehicles that allow it. In football, for instance, there is a great deal of
touching —at least I guess you could call it that — when our warriors crash together. It's fun, for sure, but I wonder if a simple human contact has been channeled into a structured system of smashing. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">This
violent game (which I admit I love: love the force and violence of it as much as the
skill and strategy) echoes the violence we see in “Action/Adventure” movies,
too. In those, we have a complicated plot that revolves around people touching
each other, but in this case, it’s often hypersexual and hyperviolent. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It
goes like this: the movie starts with sex or fighting. Then
there is a long chase scene where two larger bodies, usually cars, crash into
everything but each other. Finally, the escaping human pupa is extracted
and the movie returns to human touching in the form of torture or just rough
handling. In many movies, this is immediately contrasted with the ways the protagonist
and his woman are tender toward each other. Then there is a lot of fighting
with bullets, bullets being pure touch without a body (right?) There is a lot to be said about superhero movies in this regard, where you can't be touched, emerging unscathed from every scrape, but they can touch others.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">These gun battles are ritualized and abstract, and the movie will <i>always
</i>have the men fight physically at some point. </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">My
point isn’t that violence is a kind of pornography, which it is, but that maybe both pornography and violence are desperate attempts to achieve a great and deep human
desire for simple <i>contact</i>. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Human contact is so freighted for us that in some schools teachers are forbidden to touch students in any way. Ok, I never wanted to be scratched behind the ears by my ancient coffee-breath-ed teachers, and I'm not advocating it, but too often the simplest touch is overlinked, like a magnet in a pile of paperclips, to worries about violence and sex, relying on sports and sexualized display to channel our desire, or try to. Not that we should open massage parlors in the malls and not that American ways are stupid, but physical isolation among adults, and even of the elderly and very young, is just sort of a given for in too many American situations and other cultures seem do it differently. My mom, for instance, is nearly 80, and I think she gets more than intelligent diagnoses from her doctors: they take time with her, put their hands on her in a respectful and intimate way, talk to her, look her in the eye. People deserve that. We are a very lonely society, a wire-monkey society.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Gender’s
working here, too. Women touch each other more easily, and often get a great
deal of physical contact from their children, whom they often carry and nurse
and wrestle into clothes. My guess is that as we get more isolated, less "in touch" with each other, our culture gets more fearful, violent, and sexualized. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Ok, I’ll even go this far: If there were more physical contact, not limited to, but including
corporal punishment, and including physical engagement with other kids and
teachers, most of the school violence, the “touching without a body” work of
school shooters, would evaporate. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">So
when I am here in Turkey and see people walking arm in arm, shoulder around
each other, I am thrilled. It seems to me the most salutary and salubrious
kind of social work that I can imagine, and not only is it “good for a person”
(I’m sure you can find studies that say it lowers blood pressure and the like),
but it’s good for the community. It helps us literally touch <i>stay in touch</i> with our friends and family. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">So the end: To be emotionally "touched" or find something "touching," without it shading off into violence, sentimentality or desire, is rare. That's too bad! That's part of a vast middle ground, the spectrum
of human contact, that have lost. The result is that we have a hard time imagining ourselves
as an equal part of something, arm in arm with something, rather than the
aggressor or pursuer. We seem, in a word, isolated, and the Turks here aren't, or are less so.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">PS I figured out how to turn on the hall light today. Also, I might have called a security guard to help me open the main exit door to the building.* So I'm no expert on Turkey. Just sayin'. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-size: large;">*</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: x-small;">The potential loss of this modesty, this propriety, could it be partly fueling
the new fundamentalism? Perhaps fundamentalism is in part an attempt to
conserve these social relations they feel are threatened by Western consumerism
in which everyone is, foremost, a potential sale? Perhaps the urge to have iPods is, as
the name suggests, self-centered and subtracts the individual from the
community. Oh, no, I just dissed Apple. I'm doomed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: x-small;">* Um, in my defense, the main door out of the building opens IN rather than OUT, which would mean death for everyone in the building if there were a fire and someone didn't hold the door open for the panicked people to exit. Just saying'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-44852930251626426402013-10-24T00:35:00.000-07:002014-11-21T10:52:10.968-08:00Post 3: The Eagle has Landed<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bErHG-29n1g/UmzoISN2QBI/AAAAAAAAAv8/RdMXyGDkcC0/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bErHG-29n1g/UmzoISN2QBI/AAAAAAAAAv8/RdMXyGDkcC0/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-indent: 0.5in;">Hi, there. Walker Percy, one of my heroes of nonfiction writing, says in "</span><a href="http://www.udel.edu/anthro/ackerman/loss_creature.pdf" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #0000e9;">The Loss of the Creature</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-indent: 0.5in;">" that it's very
hard to see something fresh from the inside. I think he's right. After a while,
a short while, expectations and assumptions take the place of actual
experiences. He offers some various strategies for breaking through, but on my first day here in Turkey I figured out the best way of all. All you
have to do is NOT SPEAK THE LANGUAGE. It shows you how incredibly small you are in
the world, and how big the world is, especially when you can't share anything you know or learn anything easily. In that situation, you experience (pretty much) what things really are, not what you explain it them be. Not all bad, but
not easy, either.</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yesterday
I was writing on a well-appointed bus on my way out of Istanbul. I tried to watch Turkish TV on the screen in the headrest. My thoughts were going slowly. Everything is very basic. I'm
sitting by myself, and there are mostly women on the bus. The countryside is
dry and hilly. There is water everywhere, they say, but I haven't seen any yet:
the Bosporus, the Black Sea, the other sea that pours into the Mediterranean. We
are getting on the interstate, and there are these wooly pine trees as well as other
trees that took like poplar trees, and locust trees. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Here is a shocker: when we come up over a rise, I
see in the distance what look like strange skyscrapers, silos, but realize they
are minarets, the thin, elegant spires of ancient mosques spiking the skyline.
I might not be in Kansas anymore, huh? They are beautiful, and as we roll
through the urban countryside (buildings going up everywhere), I see many more
mosques, more even than there are churches in Chattanooga, TN. And that's a
lot.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">It makes me wonder about the role that organized
religious institutions play in Turkey. I suspect people are less ironic about
their religion, or at least don't feel it's outside of them, somebody else's, an imposition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe they do, but being "evolved" beyond religion might be less interesting — or less acceptable. In the States, every college freshman practices apostasy. I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">think</i> religion a part of the weave in Turkey,
pervasive, not only when the muezzin calls us to prayer five times a day -- but
more on that later. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Everywhere in Instanbul there is construction,
the empty floors of a buildings exposed, wall-less, and the exposed girders
sketched in. There are a lot of completed "modern" buildings that look
ugly to me, Russian in their faceless quality, their determined utilitarianism.
When you get off the main road, as we are here in a no-name parking lot owned
by the bus company (with the untranslatable name Kamel Koc), it quickly turns
into outback. This part of Turkey has the feel of a west Texas town. Modern
Turkey fades fast, like stepping out of the sun on a autumn day. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The waiter who takes care of the bus passengers
(which is a new thing to me, of course) came over and took my order, or tried
to. He gently lobbed a few handfuls of consonants and suffixes at me, watched
me shrug in what I hoped would be interpreted as good-natured dismay, and then
back to taking orders from literate people. He later offered me crackers, and
apparently you get to eat all you want, though I am determined not to be that
ugly American, and took only one pack, and regretted it, but ate them all. The
alphabet is in the Greek/Latin lineage, but it's swarmed with diacritical marks
of all sorts and the Turks are almost as comfortable with consonants as the
Slovaks. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The trip to Eskisehir took over six hours, and I
got to see the sun go down in what is, essentially, a high desert. I awoke
several times: when we were driving by the tip of the Black Sea, when we passed
a long river, when we passed a large lake. Maybe I was awake more, but these
moments stay with me. I would come to and realize that 1) there is water here and then 2) my speech is completely
paralyzed, I’m unable to communicate. It's both an opportunity and a
struggle.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">It's beautiful out. Strangely, it's becoming
evening already. Seems impossible. I have been traveling since 11:00 in the morning yesterday, so for about 24 hours: car, van, plane, plane, subway, and now bus. Now road signs
are saying "Eskisehir," one of the very few Turkish words I can
recognize. Yay.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The evening is lit with a Mexican sun, slightly
hazy, hanging in very dry air. As we head south, we move out of the plain and
into hilly country not unlike the Adirondacks, but dry and scrubby and very
rocky. Good place for a goat. There isn't enough water, I surmise, to round
everything off, to erode the edges smooth, so the hilltops are sharp, jagged. I'm
starting to understand what this whole region is like, dry like this, rocky and
inaccessible. I can picture how Afthanastan might be "impassable" as
they say. It looks more like Oregon than the Adirondacks, I think now.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">We stop at a little restaurant/rest area, Tunatan
is the name of it, and they have pumpkins all around, huge orange ones and many
smaller white ones. It's pleasant out, maybe 60 degrees, and there are palm
trees out front, huge ones. I wander around outside, afraid that the bus will
take off without me, too chicken to try to order food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m hungry. But I can’t recognize the
pictures and somehow, though I know it's foolish, I am afraid of doing something that
makes me look boorish or stupid. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Turkish facts: This month they legalized the
letter "Q" in Turkey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a
long political issue, but I haven’t been able to understand the context. But thank goodness for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No doubt the ducks are relieved: “-uack" is
hard for them to say. Another fact, also true: When you first meet someone, you
are supposed to keep your hands out of our pockets and avoid crossing your
arms. Considered rude. I suddenly sense that do these things a lot. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Worse yet is my habit of saying "Um"
while I'm searching for a word. I do it all the time, and I just learned from
my phrasebook that it is a vulgar way to say "vagina." My first few
conversations must have been pretty crude, now that I think of it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">"I vagina would vagina like vagina apple! Thanks so much!!!" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So it's pretty awkward to not know the language. The
billboards and signs give me no traction: <i>Yesil imreden. Aybak,
Demirhan dgida</i>. The bus waiter here gave me some slack, though, when he noticed I was at least trying to speak
Turkish. Still, at this odd little
store/restaurant, I saw that there was a fruit stand on the other side of the
parking lot, so I sauntered over. They had several kinds of apples, huge yellow
ones and red ones and little scabby green ones. I immediately thought, of course, of Michael Pollan's essay on the apple, how they are an ancient fruit that slowly crept east through the last thousand years. No way to share this. The plump, hooded woman was
really helpful, and I asked for one apple and she gave me four or five, picking
out nice ones and putting them in the bad. I said, no, that's ok several times
(in English, of course, duh), but I actually remembered the word for the number
1 (“bier,” I think), but she kept filling it. Finally she weighed it, and I
paid three Turkish lire for them. Now, that is hardly Marco Polo negotiating
with the Mongolian emperor, but I was really proud of myself, even if I kept saying
STOP and getting MORE! <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Footnote: People from Cortland might find the
apples here very different from what they are used to.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">We are crossing a major river down in the valley
with huge hills and rocks tumbled around, a Del Water Gap of sorts. The highway
is new, and there is a liberal use of concrete on the hillsides. Giant tunnels
are cut through the steepest hills. The construction is endless, profuse, in
the blank absolute colors of concrete and steel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Funny how I'll learn a word and then be able to
hear it in conversations across the bus. I can almost make out the break
between words. Almost. There are perforations, but no actual mental spaces.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So here
is the takeaway for today so far: there are two ways to do this trip. The first
is to think of myself as somebody important, somebody that people ought to
respect. I feel that urge. I can't talk any better than a two-year-old,
literally, and I'm confused about everything. It's a little scary. But carrying
myself that with bluster is like trying to push a giant wheelbarrow wherever I
go, wrestling it up the stairs at the restaurant, wheeling it into the
bathroom, onto the bus. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The other way to travel, seems to me, is to completely
give up that heavy handcart of ego, and to accept my powerlessness. I will do
what I can to speak, but I'm, um, going to look dumb a lot. I’m vulnerable -- I
don't know what things cost, and I'm afraid of being ripped off -- but I’ve got to
accept silence. When you have no voice you spend a lot more time waiting and hoping, not so different from the elderly or very young, and you appreciate it greatly when people make an effort to understand you. It's been a while since I felt this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">End of the first evening. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-53897113744335399172013-10-21T20:15:00.001-07:002013-12-05T11:23:06.414-08:00Post 2: The night before I go<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I1dowTja-hw/UmXo8Ls9plI/AAAAAAAAAto/cFuRjXVVrpk/s1600/Eskisehir2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I1dowTja-hw/UmXo8Ls9plI/AAAAAAAAAto/cFuRjXVVrpk/s200/Eskisehir2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
It's the night before I am to leave for Turkey, and I'm ready for anything, and although wondering ahead about the experience is fun—sort of like trying to see your child's face before he's born—I also don't have any expectations. I know what I want to try, but don't know what I'll be able to do. <br />
<br />
I'm very conscious of being an American when I go out of the country. I vividly remember watching a couple of American boys drive to Customs in Mexico and stop to let the passenger get behind the wheel: the driver was too drunk to even stand. I really love my country, but hate the boosterism and chauvinism that seems standard nowadays for Americans. Loving my country, my town, even my Irish/German heritage is my right, but it doesn't make me swagger when I walk. I think of my citizenship as a stroke of luck and a big responsibility—not a brand.<br />
<br />
The Turks seem very proud of their infrastructure: the still new alphabet, the waterways, the educational institutions, the roads and busses. It seems orderly, serious, unadorned. I am very impressed by the students I have met, for all of them have a very strong spirit. Their eyes are dark and expressions and frank and direct. How close is their history?<br />
<br />
Tired! Tomorrow I have to put in a ceiling fan, pack, do some online work, and get to the airport by noon. <br />
<br />
I fly out of Newark at 7:30 and then fifteen hours later land in Istanbul. I think I will be a little worn after sitting for 15 hours, but then I take bus six more hours to my suite in Anadolu. Finally, by the early evening, I hope to find my bed and sleep. The next day I will be writing my paper (always last minute) and then deliver it Friday. <br />
<br />
I can't think past that point. I'm so lucky. I had no idea this would ever happen. I pray not for good fortune, but for a grateful heart.<br />
<br />
Yay.<br />
<br />
David<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-11159844041639943682013-10-12T11:11:00.002-07:002013-10-21T20:16:14.986-07:00Post 1: Still Preparing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GBcuJCdTOZE/UlmQhFSUh7I/AAAAAAAAAtY/j0O91VkYOxE/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GBcuJCdTOZE/UlmQhFSUh7I/AAAAAAAAAtY/j0O91VkYOxE/s200/Unknown.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the crazy day of weevils. They make a loud buzzing when they fly by (or into) your head, and they are strange looking, with a long nose. They do not bite, but if you accidentally crush one, the room fills with the sharp smell of grass, somehow unpleasant. They move slowly, lumbering like dinosaurs, but really little ones. Me, I've been sitting hear all day and I'm tired of thinking about <i>genius loci</i> and how to make one ¶ fit into another one and how geography and understanding are linked. I mean, it's fun, but it's also beautiful outside, a gentle and comely day, and I want to escape this chair!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But one more minute. I found out today that I was granted permission to stay in Istanbul. I'm thrilled. The guesthouse there is supposed to have a view of the water from the rooftop, to wit: "<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">The roof on the seventh floor overlooks the sea, and houses an Internet café, TV hall, American bar and breakfast hall, where open buffet breakfast, hot and cold as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages service and appetizers and snacks are served. The roof has a perfect view of the Marmara Sea from Fatih Mosque to the Blue Mosque, from the Old Istanbul and Islands (Adalar) to Samatya."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">What's thrilling to me is that this is the first time I've been in a city where you can see time. American cities tend to revise their identity as fast as do the citizens. In natural areas, it's easy to look for the waterfalls and lakes, drumlins and moraines that preceded you and will last after you. In cities, though, American cities, what's old is usually about to be razed and what's new is being built in front of you. The smell of setting concrete was pervasive when I was a kid -- it was the smell of spring, just as burning coal was the smell of fall. But to think of a city that has weathered many occupations, alphabets, armies, and hundreds of generations.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 18px;">I think it's easy to talk about how ugly American cities are, and it's a cheap shot. They often are, but most areas of most cities are ugly. Barstow, CA is an ugly town. Fresno, CA. The slums of the south side of Syracuse and the sterile square flowers of neighborhoods in surburbia. But all cities are partly ugly. What's redemptive is a city's character. Some cities are depleted: Cortland, NY is often an example. Istanbul, however, has a great deal of character. It means something to live there, I suspect. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 18px;">Maybe I'm just talking about pride.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I picture eating breakfast at the guesthouse, walking to the Archeological Museum on this route: <a href="http://goo.gl/maps/iTggK">http://goo.gl/maps/iTggK</a>, wandering for lunch, writing about what I have discovered, and then reading until bedtime, planning my class in the Evolution of Writing (which should be called Writing, Technology and Culture). Apparently the Archeological Museum is a fantastic resource for early writing artifacts. I hope they allow pictures. I hope I remember how to turn my flash off if they don't.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tapes of Turkish are intimidating. Turkish makes sounds that just don't have spellings in English, with some serious back-of-the-throat Arabic-ish grinding sounds that are a challenge for me, and a hundred small shifts in tone as they move over a word that I can hardly hear, must less emulate. <br />I did discover the Turkish Listening Library, which is pretty great, giving me children's tales in slow Turkish. Which I can not in the least begin to understand. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Yet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />More soon.</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Courier;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16372942019738279191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2539861477953243001.post-27567919422001835442013-09-26T13:05:00.006-07:002013-10-24T00:48:05.150-07:00Post # 0: Turkey<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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I said on Facebook that I'm so excited about this upcoming trip that I can barely sit down. It's true. I have to force myself to stay in one place, and I fidget when I get there. But when I do buckle up, I see the great maple and basswood trees outside my window, the slant September light, and my chickens muttering around in the pen, and these simple things are thrilling. For a few weeks I have been hearing that distant sound of fall. I start wanting travel, to see what's over there, just one hill more. The geese with their plangent cries feel it. My runs get longer, my line of sight penetrates deeper into the woods as the leaves fall. I read The Hobbit about this time when I was 14, and that slightly mystical time is hangs in the air. I keep thinking</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Leaves are falling all around,<br />
It's time I was on my way.<br />
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged<br />
for such a pleasant stay.<br />
But now it's time for me to go.<br />
The autumn moon lights my way...</blockquote>
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<div class="p2">
It's not just fall. It's also a transitional time of my life, a good time to read Yeats' "<a href="http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20310"><span class="s1">Sailing to Byzantium</span></a>." In that poem Byzantium is a mystical place: the ancient city, the intersection of worlds. The very word "Byzantium" conjures up these feelings for me still. In the poem, an aged traveler has left the natural, distracted fecundity of his youth for a more arid spiritual home in art. In Yeats' European imagination, Byzantium remains an outpost, the jumping off place. His pilgrimage sought spiritual relief from the darkest vision of what it means to be human:</div>
<div class="p4">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Consume my heart away; sick with desire<br />
And fastened to a dying animal<br />
It knows not what it is</blockquote>
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Ok, ok, I'm not going there to be turned into "hammered gold and gold enameling," nor do I feel like a "dying animal." The trip will, though, allow me to hold up my internalized American vision of what people do against a (slightly) alternative Turkish view of what people do. When I was in grad school, my Grand Plan was to travel overseas to get a better sense of what it means to be an American. Even back then, though I didn't really understand it, I was hoping to ask and answer a very fundamental question: Where am I? Partly, that means asking about my personal history and naturalized habits of thought, inquiries that require contrast. While I as an American tacitly assume that history pretty much began in 1776, I suspect the Turks might have a <u>somewhat</u> longer timeline. I often wonder if Americans are somehow too mobile and too isolated: family, town, & people usually mediated through the frame of an LCD screen or a car window. In contrast, I'd like to know how people hang out in Turkey, where the line between public and private is, what counts as "good work," how people think about place and history, how they maintain both their privacy and sociality, what they think of their place and natural landscape, what nostalgia means to them (is there even a negative term for looking back with clingy longing?), what forms of kindness are expected and unusual.</div>
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This sabbatical, the ongoing project on Tully (the "Where Am I?" project), the Turkey trip, Jacqueline's new job—all these have come together to allow us more opportunities to be in one place at a time, to be here more simply, and, I hope, more gratefully.</div>
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