Day Sixty-Nine: Hoşça Kalın İstanbul!

I have half an hour left in my internship, and about forty hours left in Turkey.  Jill and I did our presentations today and everything went fine.  The very small group to which I presented seemed awake, even interested at times, and I covered everything I wanted to.  There were no questions, which I'm taking as a sign that I answered every possible question that could have come up and not as a sign that they were all on the verge of falling asleep.

We're not coming back to work tomorrow, seeing as there would be literally nothing for us to do here.  (Mom, rest assured, I got that picture of me outside the building.  My camera just ran out of batteries though, so I can't post it here, but I promise it has been taken.)  The plan is to meet Müjgan and say goodbye tonight, sleep in, go to brunch in Bebek, and spend the rest of the day packing and getting ready for our flights.  Jill actually leaves tomorrow afternoon, so it'll just be me, Katie, and Katie's mom tomorrow evening.  Did I mention Katie's mom has been living with us since Friday?   She has been, but I keep forgetting.

I was ready to be done with the internship, but now that it's over I'm sad I have so little time left.  I'm going to eat as much borek as possible while I can and hopefully spend as much time looking at Istanbul while I still have the opportunity over these last few hours.  If something amazing happens I'll post tomorrow, but I imagine I'll spend most of the day either staring pensively at the Bosporus or maniacally cramming things into my suitcase.  Either way, not much to blog about.  So, that being said, thank you so much for reading, whether you've been following me for the last seventy days or you just started with this post (sorry if that's the case, but you can go back and check out the older stuff if you're interested).  I've really enjoyed writing and I'm glad I've been able to keep in touch with everyone back home.  You're not out of the woods yet-I'm sure I'll be talking about Turkey to anyone within a ten-foot radius for the next few months, but if I start rambling at any point during that time feel free to just say, "I already know, I read the blog."  Can't wait to see everyone, can't wait to be back in Virginia.  Thanks again for all the support.  And with that, I'll say hoşça kalın!

That's Turkish for goodbye, I think.

Day Sixty-Eight: Ankara Calling

Wow, it only occurred to me when I wrote "Day Sixty-Eight" up there that it was sixty-eight out of seventy.  It's so hard to believe after all this time that I only have three more mornings in Istanbul.
But more on that later.  Now that I've finished my report (though I haven't presented it yet... more on that later) I have time to catch you all up on my visit to Ankara, the Paris of Central Anatolia.
Ok, so nobody's ever called it that, but it is the birthplace of Joe Strummer:

Seen here wondering who put those stickers all over his guitar.

Although Strummer is better known for his association with a different world capital,

and property damage

Ankara still has lots to offer.  The city was founded way back in Roman times, or Greek times, or whichever came first, but from what I can tell it was essentially a collection of huts in between some hills until Ataturk decided to do his thing.  Actually, that can be said of a lot of Turkey.  Anyway, Istanbul was the Ottoman capital, and as I hope I've shown in this blog it's a very nice place from which to run a country, but Ataturk wanted to move the capital of his new republic for a few reasons.  First, as I hoped I showed in my research paper, Istanbul isn't exactly the best in terms of natural defenses.  It's the price you pay when you center your empire around a small peninsula jutting out into waters that have been fought over more or less continuously since a little before the time of Odysseus (and probably before then, who knows?).  Second, Ataturk was very deliberate about moving Turkey away from the Ottoman legacy.  He even banned the fez, although that might have just been because he was more of a top hat guy:

He's usually compared to George Washington, but he definitely has an Abe Lincoln vibe in this picture.

Anyway, in addition to kicking out the sultan and updating the hat codes, moving the capital away from Istanbul, a symbol of Ottoman decadence and stagnation, and to a central location was pretty important to Ataturk.  That's why, shortly after Turkey won its independence (from Greece, for some reason.  History is confusing.) the capital was moved to Ankara.  And shortly after that they started making Ankara, you know, a city.

The result is a city that's totally unlike Istanbul, except they do speak Turkish there.  Ankara is a city of wide streets, streets on which multiple cars can fit comfortably at a time.  There are plenty of mosques, of course, but the skyline isn't dominated by ancient domes like the Hagia Sophia and the Süleimanye mosque, and it's anything but a water world.  I was going to Ankara to visit a friend, so I got up early on Saturday and took a six-hour bus ride in a giant, surprisingly comfortable bus to Ankara, in the center of the Anatolian peninsula.

 view of the Bosporus, leaving the European side of Istanbul

 and in the other direction

and that's what the rest of Turkey looks like

I was stuck by the fact that everything seems more relaxed in Ankara.  This could easily have been because I got there on Saturday afternoon and left on Sunday afternoon, but still, it was quieter than any neighborhood I've been in here for at least the last four weeks.  Even the larger streets were relatively quiet, something which it actually took a while to get used to.  In Istanbul, if there is quiet it is usually just the precursor to something.  There's a sense that the silence is about to be shattered by the calling of a street vendor, the honking of some taxi driver's horn, the call to prayer, obnoxious tourists talking too loudly, a ferry's horn sounding, or something along those lines.  In Ankara, sometimes it's actually just quiet.  My hotel was on a wide street near Kızılay, a district of large pedestrian roads and nice restaurants and bars, where I met my friend Ezgi, who's starting an internship in Ankara this week.

It's also greener there, which is great.

And the lack of people was cool, if not a little disturbing at first.

The first night, Ezgi and I got dinner and then wandered around this area.  We also took a taxi to this really cool hill where you can't really see them but there are a bunch of outdoor cafes surrounded by gardens with water running through them and a bunch of swans, although I only saw a few swans.  Our trip was abbreviated by the rain-that's right, for the first time since Reunions I felt rain!  On the bus ride in I had been thinking about Virginia, since the more forested parts of the highway actually looked a lot like 64 as you head to Charlottesville, and thinking about how I miss those thunderstorms that always roll in at like 5 or 6 on a summer evening.  I remember getting caught in one with some friends as we were leaving Brewster's on the South Side last summer and racing it across the river, arriving at home just in time to run inside and turn on the TV before the power went out.  Apparently some higher power mistook this reminiscence for a wish, because dark clouds were following the bus most of the way to Ankara and they finally caught up as the sun was going down, bringing a fairly long-lasting, surprisingly cold rain that felt good even though it made the swan park less enjoyable.  Still, it was just nice to feel rain again.

One interesting thing: twice over the course of the evening the relative silence of Ankara was broken by a line of four or five cars, honking profusely and with people holding Turkish flags leaning out the windows and yelling.  Ezgi told me that this is what people do when they send a young man off to his mandatory military service.

Having had what Ezgi described as a "chilled" Saturday evening, we met up on Sunday, had a quick breakfast and began "the touristy stuff."  The first stop was Ataturk's tomb, which, well I really can't describe, so I'll just show you.

Yeah.  Turkey had very little money when Ataturk died, but from what I can tell they spent all of it on this tomb.  That and shiny uniforms for the guards, who have a tradition of switching places every few minutes by 

taking steps as drawn-out and elaborate as someone doing very careful stretches before a race.  (Side note: Turkish women placed 1st and 2nd in the 1500m last week, getting everyone excited about the Olympics for the first time, as far as I can tell).  Inside the buildings around the tomb they had pretty much everything Ataturk ever owned.  There were rooms full of books, several cases of clothing, lots of hats (even fezzes), way more knives and swords than one man could use, and even things like hair brushes.  A new life goal of mine is to become important enough that, when I die, somebody says, "Ok, go find his hair brush-we need it for the museum!"  After viewing all these artifacts and seeing a hall full of really cool paintings of scenes from the Turkish war of independence, we left for our next tourist spot, but not before I observed an important tradition of my own.

I wanted to do the full Colbert pose, but I thought there was a chance I'd be shot if I got any closer.

From there we went to Ankara Castle.  A lack of tours, signs, and museums led to us never finding out who built the castle, when, or why, but it was a very nice castle on a big hill in the middle of the city.  We found some shade and drank some lemonade and had lunch, and I took the following pictures.

That green patch in the distance is the park around Ataturk's tomb.

Next, we dropped by a few more museums of the Turkish republic.  One thing I like about Turkey that I think we should adopt in America is the practice of putting artillery outside of governmental buildings.  Imagine how cool the Washington Monument would look if it were fortified.  Plus, idiots like me could do things like this:

"Take that, forces of evil!"

We were looking for some Roman ruins, and though we did find the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, which was very cool and featured lots of ancient Hittite carvings, our search was hampered, once again, by afternoon showers.

We ducked into a mall to get some tea and wait out the rain, but by the time it was over we had to get back to the hotel to pick up my stuff and catch the bus home.  So I had to settle for this statue of Ataturk on Ataturk Boulevard:

The inscription was written in Ottoman Turkish, which Ataturk banned.  History is confusing.

So after Ezgi helped me navigate the process of buying a ticket (during which the person at the desk asked if I was German) and getting to the bus terminal, we said goodbye and I settled in for another ride.  This ride was made interesting by the fact that Galatasaray was playing Fenerbahçe and we could watch the game on the bus's personal TVs.  Again, the buses are very nice.  The game was actually exciting, partially because I kind of actually cared who won and partially because 5 whole goals were scored, but much to this die-hard Fenerbahçe fan's disappointment, Galatasaray won 3-2.  The refs were totally on Galatasaray's side though. Anyway, I got back to Istanbul at about 11 and walked from Taksim back to our apartment.  On the way, I saw more celebratory reckless driving, except this time the flags being held out the car windows featured the red and yellow of Galatasaray.

So on Monday I came to work and put the finishing touches on my presentation.  I got it done, practiced it, and went to bed that night feeling pretty good but a little nervous.  I woke up, got out of bed, (didn't drag a comb across my head) and went to work on Tuesday ready for action.  Katie was presenting at 10 and I was going after her, so at about 9:45 my coworker told me I could head upstairs.  As I was leaving, he mentioned that I wasn't doing my presentation that day.  I asked when I would be doing it, and it he said, "We will decide."  Apparently the date was changed but I never got the memo.  Anyway, I now know that I'm giving it sometime tomorrow, so I basically have all day to proofread my report and practice my presentation.  Hence the longest blog post I've written thus far.

I'll put an end to my blabbering now, so thanks for hanging in there!  I'll probably write some kind of wrap-up, but if not, thanks to everyone who has read and given me positive feedback the whole time I've been here.  I've enjoyed writing and I hope you've enjoyed reading.  Can't wait to see everyone soon and to be back in the USA!

Day Sixty-one: Pictures of Things and Stuff

There were some pictures of the city I took on my walk this weekend left over, so here they are!

the view as you walk out of our apartment building... this is the hill I've been talking about

our street from closer to Istiklal

covered street off of Istiklal

typical images of Istiklal Avenue, except usually there are more people

 the intersection of our street and Istiklal

 These are enormous Galatasaray banners, and this is by no means the only building decorated with them.

view of our building (the yellowish one in the middle) from up the hill on our street

And because I know you wanted to see more amateur photography, I also had some leftover pictures from walking around and visiting Dolmabahçe Palace about three weeks ago.  Here they are now!  (You can stop reading this anytime.  My feelings won't be hurt.  I won't even know.)

 A beloved Turkish tradition is the Incredibly Oversized Flag, and nowhere can a better example be found than here in Taksim Square.

 We were wandering around on a hot day and ducked into what looked like a run-down mosque only to discover that the interior was both stunningly beautiful and air-conditioned.  Win-win.

 Unlike "Probably the Best Cafe in Town" in Bucharest, this cafe knows there's no substitute for confidence.

 A windowshopping cat.  They have those here.

For a little background, Dolmabahçe was built in the 1800s, the last century of Ottoman rule.  The Ottomans were basically faced with a choice: either develop a competitive industrial economy or build a palace where everything's plated in gold and there's an even larger space for a harem than in the current palace.  They went with Option B, and although it might not have been the most forward-thinking choice they ever made (that wasn't really their thing) it certainly resulted in a heck of a palace.  Ataturk later used Dolmabahçe as his residence when he visited Istanbul, and he died in one of the bedrooms there.  There's a huge Turkish flag draped over the bed, the room has been left just as it was when he died (except the flag part, I assume), and they kept all of his medicine in the bathroom's medicine cabinet.  Anyway, I can see why he liked the place.

 Right?

Day Fifty-Nine: Ömer's Odyssey

Merhaba!  I'm back in the office after a relaxing weekend.  And after Monday, I guess, since today's Tuesday.
First, a brief summary of the weekend's activities.  Müjgan had to cancel the brunch/pool thing because of inclement weather.  Although the weather in the main part of the city wasn't bad, she assured us that if there was rain in the forecast it would rain at Koç since the university's much closer to the Black Sea and apparently that means more rain.  I had been looking forward to the brunch as much as the swimming, but I guess we couldn't do one without the other.  So it came to pass that we decided to head in the opposite direction, to the Prince's Islands in the Sea of Marmara.  I feel like that sounds like something from Tolkien or C.S. Lewis, but I assure you, the Prince's Islands are very real and conveniently located, just a fifteen-minute ferry ride from Kabataş,which is near the Galata Tower..  We went to Burgazada, an island that Wikipedia just told me was named after a fort built by Demetrius I of Macedon, something I wish I had known when I was there.  I thought it was just named that because it was fun to say with an Italian accent.  Anywho, Katie knew Burgazada because she's been practicing and playing water polo every now and then with a club team on the island, so we got to go to a private club on a pier stretching out into the sea, facing the island we went to on the Fourth of July.  They had a nice pool, where Katie played water polo while Jill and I lounged and tried to understand water polo, as well as several very nice, roped-off areas of the sea for us to swim in.  We swam, read, walked around the town, and had dinner.  It was all very relaxing, and it looked like this:

Tell me that's not scenic.

Saturday night was mostly spent watching the Olympics.  And I Skyped with some of my Princeton friends, which was great because they're the people I've gone the longest without seeing.

The next day, we slept late and went to Bebek for brunch.  We had a great brunch at a very good, very hip restaurant where parents with tattoos brought their children to mingle with dogs.  Seriously, there was literally a dog.  Just chilling while everyone was eating.  Everyone was cool with it.  I think it belonged to one of the families eating there, although there are so many dogs around you can never really tell.  But I assume someone would have said something if it were just a random dog.  After that, we decided to take a nice stroll up to my old stomping grounds, Boğaziçi University.  Unfortunately, since I hadn't stomped around there in four years, what I thought was a shortcut to the campus turned out to be a long, steep road that wound progressively further and further away from Boğaziçi, so after about ten minutes of climbing the others suggested that we turn around.  It was for the best.  We walked along the Bosporus for a while before taking a bus back to the apartment.  When I had recovered from that walking, I decided to do some more, so I headed over to Istanbul Modern, a modern art museum I had visited briefly with some people from the seminar and promised myself I would go back to before I left.  They have a bunch of really cool paintings of Istanbul, as well as an awesome gallery of photographs of the city in 1950, which were really cool to see because parts of the city looked almost exactly the same back then and some parts were barren compared to what they are now.  That happens when the population goes up by about 10,000,000 in thirty or so years.    Istanbul Modern is located on the Bosporus very close to where it meets the Golden Horn, so you know what that means... it's time for an way more pictures of boats than you wanted to see!

 Not that many ships, right?

 Ok, so a few ships.

 Decent amount.

 My God, now there are too many!

 They're heading straight for each other!

Nah, but they didn't crash.

 ferries headed toward the Prince's Islands

 ferries on the Golden Horn approaching the Bosporus

 Did I mention I like these boats?  (Also, in the background you can see the Hagia Sophia on the left and the Blue Mosque on the right)

This is now my cover photo on Facebook.  That's Topkapı Palace on the hill.

Ok, unless something major happens I can safely say that's the last time I'll inundate you with pictures of boats.

So after a lovely weekend of hill-walking and ship-watching, I'm back at work.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the two guys who work with me.  Our supervisor is here, but Mürşat is out of the office for two days and Ömer is on vacation with his wife.  He's gone for two weeks, and I'm gone in two weeks, so unfortunately I'll have no one with whom to talk about Seinfeld and the Olympics with for the rest of the internship.  In fact, I might not have anyone to talk English with.  My other coworkers are decent at English, especially Mürşat, but it can take them a while to express themselves sometimes.  And of course I'm still awful at Turkish, so things will be quieting down a bit in Ömer's absence.  That might be for the best, since I have a presentation to do, but still.  Yesterday it was just me and my supervisor, so the AC was off most of the time, although she did turn it on at one point in the afternoon, which was a pleasant surprise.  Today, I turned it on with the remote from Jill's office because I couldn't find our remote, so now we're in this weird limbo where the AC is on but it isn't very cold and the door is open but the windows aren't.  I would discuss this with my supervisor, but between the language barrier and my fear that she'll just turn off the AC entirely I've decided it's better to just see how this plays out.  Riveting stuff, I know.  Thanks for reading!  If you're in Richmond, I look forward to seeing you in under two weeks!  It's weird how short two weeks seems now that I've been gone for more than eight.  It feels more like it's two days until I'll be getting on the plane to JFK.