Some things I really like about my life in Turkey

Just as the title reads. Hope you enjoy!

Below ıs a pıcture of melissa, burcu, kazım, daetan and pınar enjoyıng dınner at my apartment. these dınner partıes (weekly-ısh) are one of my favorıte thıngs about the socıal lıfe ın ıstanbul...we cook together, enjoy each others company, have excellent dıscussıons about a wıde varıety of topıcs (the ıraq war, languages, cultural dıfferences, femınısm, and daetan and kazım never get together wıthout chattıng about dungeons and dragons haha), share music and general merrıment. İts not about getting drunk, not about anythıng really except sharing each others wonderful company and thoughts, recıpes and new frıends.

Below ıs a cafe ın Cihangir called Kahve 6. Ive lived in Istanbul for 5 months now and never even knew thıs thıng exısted...nor the park below. Yet another thıng I love about adventures ın the city...everyday you can turn a corner and fınd a new amazing vıew of the Boğaz, the palaces, the people.

Volkan at Kabataş. An amazing friend, guide, ağabey..i would certainly be at a loss wıthout hıs companıonshıp and advıce - always pushıng me to make the most of my experıence ın Turkey, remdindıng me of the bıgger pıcture and showıng me awesome places that Id just never fınd on my own. This picture was taken over one of our breakfast reunions - the usual simit and çay.

Cats at Boğaziçi. Fearless, persistent, cute.

Colors of Fall. The backside of Anderson Hall, where I spent my Mondays and Thursdays learning about nationalism or Byzantine art and architecture.

More of the view as I walk down the hill to school every day. Never gonna get over thıs.

Yenikapı, where Kaan and I began our adventure to Assos. Look at that view...

Yeşilyürt Köyü. A beautiful village up in the mountains above Edremit..famous for their olive trees and all the products assocıated with olive trees :).

Above: ruins of the Temple of Athena at Assos, in TURKEY. Lots of people dont know this, but there are tons tons tons of ancient Greek ruins (and Seljuk, and Byzantine, and Hittite, and every early civilızation ever) in Turkey...just waiting for you to come see them. There were approximately 4 people on top of this acropolis, and although I must admit that its the end of tourist season...seriously its just awesome to have these kinds of places "to yourself."

Below: One of the most amazing sunsets Ive ever experienced...overlooking Assos. I really cant even explain this. It was just too good...

Cumhurriyet Bayramı

Since I found out a few weeks ago that my blog was picked up by Globalpost, an international news blog, I've felt the need to produce something, well..."globalpost-worthy." I started framing all my experiences within the question: "Is this blog-able?" It's been a failure. Blogging has never been much more than a stream of consciousness for me, and I think I've just about given up efforts to make it more than that.

So despite the past couple of weeks trying to compose some sort of coherent thought about Nationalism, the topic of today's post, I'm going to just go for it: list some observations, questions, thoughts, reactions...and hopefully that will suffice for my new readership.

First off, I want to say that my academic semester is saturated with discussions about nationalism. My two most intellectually challenging and interesting courses are dialogues about the varying theories and case studies of nationalism. I've been spending my evenings dissecting primordialist/ethno-symbolist/modernist approaches to nationalism, and then applying them to the case of "millet nations" in the Ottoman empire. Over the next half of the semester, I'll dive into Irish, Balkan and Russian cases.

As I've mentioned before, my days are largely composed of class, reading, and exercise. Basically this means I'm non-stop thinking about these theories...and this past Thursday, 29 October, was the perfect day to be bombarded with the physical manifestation of all these thoughts. Cumhurriyet Bayramı is the celebration of the day that Atatürk officially proclaimed the Independent Turkish Republic in 1923. The following are some images of Turkish pride...







Some of these flags have been around for a couple weeks now, like the smaller ones that line the streets in the Beşiktaş Belediyesi, for example. Part of this is a result of the strong inter-municipality competition among the districts in Istanbul, each governed by a different political party trying to prove that they are the most proud of the Turkish republic. Otherwise, overnight the city turns into one big star and crescent via businesses, families, schools, etc. all either proudly displaying the Ay Yıldız or bowing to the pressure of nationalist fervor. (Know the neighbor on the street who refuses to put an American flag up on July 4th?)

On Thursday morning, Cole, Grace and I trekked to Aksaray to check out the official Istanbul parade for Cumhurriyet Bayramı. I snapped all those pictures above on my bus ride from Hisarüstü to Aksaray. Below are some of the many photos I have from the actual parade. Summary = little kids with parents, lots of schoolchildren (some very evidently disgruntled and apathetic, some seemingly enthusiastic - perhaps an effect of a stern schoolmaster?), military and veterans, some politicians, etc...











I think it's quite easy to say that a bunch of flags and even the show of tanks, or military power, isn't too harmless. Except that this kind of mentality is not saved for Cumhurriyet Bayramı. It's something that unfortunately, a huge part of the Turkish population lives every day. Surges of "national unity" pride that are euphemisms for protests against the recognition of the problems that Turkey faces, problems that military, politicians, and then the people too often and too easily radicalize as theats to the unity of the Turkish Republic as Atatürk envisioned it 86 years ago.

In this sense, Turkey is stuck protecting the borders of its National Pact. Still, 89 years after Sevres, in the Sevres mentality - convinced that the world is still trying to tear apart Turkey as imperial powers did the Middle East in the inter-war period. (But now, new parties are the major threats to Turkey's "sovereignty": Armenia, the Kurds, Greece, Israel, America). I learn about Sevres mentality in class, and then it pops up left and right in newspapers, politics, and even in conversations with friends...and I just can't help but write about it.

Now, I'm going to take a major turn and stop writing about these things that really upset me. Having accused Turkey of being overly obsessed about a past that is no longer politically or socially relevant, I should say that actually, I really like Turkey! There have been times in the past 4.5 months that I feel like I don't belong here, that I can't stand and make me miss America so much. But the thing is...I can list out those times, I can tell you about what happened in that specific moment, I can probably describe those few guys who really blew it for Turkey. Those times are "countable," whereas my affection and love for the warmth of Turkish culture (things I promise to write about in my next blog post) is now a full-fledged part of my life. I don't know how I'm going to say bye to it on the 22nd...

Anyways, Cumhurriyet Bayramı Kutlu Olsun everyone. (Sorry, I'm 2 weeks late). And at the least, fierce nationalism puts on a great fireworks show:

A Photo Recap of the Last Month

Let's start with some flashes of my life for the past 30 days:




this pic was taken on a night "touring" the old city with the newly arrived bogazici exchange crowd. don't know how this happened with the light, but i like it. shortly after i took this picture it started to POUR buckets of rain. it was awesome :).

the next two shots are from tyler and my trip to greece - well, more accurately a trip to the border. my visa was expiring so i had to go renew it by crossing the border, and ty and i decided it would be funnest to walk from turkey to greece. it was fun, except we had no time to actually chill in yunanistan. the walk through "no man's land" between the borders was so beautiful and picturesque we didn't even know what to do with ourselves.

the most ironic picture i've ever taken:

this is a view from an awesome hangout spot on my campus. if it has a name i don't know it, but it's awesome and we've spent quite a few evenings here enjoying this amazing view of bogazici koprusu and the strait.


the black sea and a lovely restaurant that kaan took me to. we literally spent 5 hours here just talking and enjoying the relaxing, chill atmosphere.

a typical night out in taksim with the crew: tyler, myself, daetan, paul and ruth.

THE best caffe latte i've had in turkey:

melisa and i on our girl date to the asian side (uskudar). we went to one of my favorite restaurants, dilruba, and enjoyed a top notch quality meal, an amazing view and each other's wonderful company. and afterwards, in amazingly typical turkish fashion, our waiter walked us all the way to the ferry. lol.

ruth and i :).

why have i not blogged for 30 days? well, i've been sort of rebelling against my blog and just indulging myself in experiencing life without too much reflection; and/or i've been reflecting on things i dont quite feel like blogging about. but i'm back!

the new big thing in my life is school. since it's started up, i've been reallyyy absorbed in my coursework. my primary goal for coming to bogazici was to expand my coursework (breaking free of the relatively limited selection at ucsd in near eastern history), i'm trying to take advantage of the unique opportunities i have here to learn in a different environment, from different perspectives. that's definitely happening. i feel myself pushed to think in new ways, and the challenge is exhilarating and of course, exhausting. i've included a pic below of school (stolen from melisa!) and i promise to take a few pics of my view from the classroom i spend most of my time in...


yeah, i definitely spend most of my time in class or reading and preparing for class. the second big use of my time is VOLLEYBALL. i just made the bogazici school team, sort of. since i'm leaving second semester i can't compete with them, but i'm setting for them as they train, and the girls are so great and sweet. i loveeee having a team again and though its also exhausting, its 100% worth it.

okay thats all for now. better, more consistent blogging to come. toodles!