Speaking of which, we now have an apartment. We moved in after the bulk of our friends left for the airport yesterday afternoon, making two trips and lugging all our stuff up four flights of stairs. We're living on the other side of the Golden Horn, a few blocks off of the avenue that goes from Eminönü to Taksim, which means it's a little less than a five minute walk to Istiklal and just about five minutes to the Chamber of Industry. Our building is not much to look at from the outside or from the inside, but once you step inside the apartment that all changes. It's clean, well-lit, very well taken care of by whomever was here last, and bigger than I expected. It's already starting to feel like home, largely thanks to our friend Mujgan and her Turkish hospitality. A few hours after we moved in, she came over with her little cousin and several bags worth of dinner, which she and her aunt had just cooked. We had a very good meal, something that has become the norm for me in Turkey.
from left to right: me, Katie, Jill, and Mujgan's nine year-old cousin
background: our balcony and a TV we don't know how to work
Turkish people are the best. Anyway, back to the apartment. Jill is in the large bedroom facing the street; Katie and I have slightly smaller rooms facing the interior of the building, which means our windows look out on this weird space that is open to the sky but completely enclosed by the building. I can't see all the way down, but it's too small for there to be a garden or anything down there, so I'm not really sure what it's doing, but I do know there are birds. That window will stay closed. Katie and Jill have devised a plan by which we will switch rooms every nine days so that everyone gets to have the big room at some point. We'll see how that goes. I'm perfectly happy in my room. The only thing I don't like is the CONSTANT OPPRESSIVE HEAT. This is a problem in every room, although you feel it less in the living/dining room and in Jill's room, both of which face the street. It was great to sleep last night knowing we didn't have to get up at any specific time, but what was less great was how long it took to get to sleep thanks to the CONSTANT OPPRESSIVE HEAT. For that reason, we headed for an air-conditioned area as soon as we woke up this morning. We had a great breakfast at a nearby place on Istiklal, and we stayed there for maybe three hours, doing work on our essays (our apartment's internet leaves something to be desired, so we may be utilizing the free wifi at cafes a lot). Once that got old, I set out to find something the MLS has been searching for for years: fans.
A quick look around Istiklal told me that I would not find fans in any of the shops right on the street. The vast majority of them are either touristy or restaurants or expensive clothing stores, or some combination thereof. I called one of our Turkish friends, who told me that she didn't think there were any fan stores but that I should ask around at the cheap jewelry stores in the area. There are lots of those. I asked around for maybe half an hour before someone finally said they had fans. I was relieved, until the shop owner pulled out a box from under her desk and opened it to reveal a large collection of hand-held paper fans, the kind that you always associate with Japan and that don't cool down an entire room. I had forgotten that that type of fan existed, probably due to the COH. In hindsight, I probably should have realized that a box fan is an odd thing to sell at a jewelry store, even if they also sell shirts that say, "I'm famous in Istanbul" like some places I've seen. Too embarrassed to call the one friend, I called another Turkish friend, who told me that there was a huge store where I could get the kind of fans I wanted and all I had to do was walk to Taksim and take the subway two stops over. I did this, sweating until I reached the cool caverns of the gigantic Taksim metro station, and when I got off the train I saw an enormous mall that rose maybe seven stories in the air and went several more stories underground, as I learned once I entered. There was a massive electronics store right near the entrance, and after checking out some 3D TVs I went and found two powerful fans (I tested them) for our apartment. They were not that big, but the boxes they came in were just big enough not to fit in the same bag, so I took the metro back to Taksim and walked the fifteen minute walk to our apartment with a full load of fans. I'm not complaining-they were absolutely necessary. My fan now sits on my windowsill, blocking my view of the weird void, and as I write this I am no longer bothered by the COH. I still wouldn't call the temperature in our apartment comfortable, but it's definitely livable, which is great because I start work tomorrow and I can't afford to lie awake thinking about how hot it is until the wee hours of the morning.
I'll end by saying that when Katie got back to the apartment she had with her a fan that she had bought from a mall on Istiklal that I somehow missed. There was a huge appliance store there, of course. I think I've learned a lot in Turkey, but I'm still working on that whole "common sense" thing.
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