This weekend is the beginning of the holiday season for many in the States. This year, the Muslim calendar coincides nicely with my more familiar holidays. The Kurban Bayramı (literally: sacrifice holiday) begins on Friday; today is Thanksgiving! As a vegetarian, neither holiday really appeals to me (based purely on the opinion that both are rather meat-based). I appreciate and enjoy the meaning behind both, and I'm quite pleased to have Thanksgiving day included in the bayram weekend.
We don't have any plans. I might try to go find some pumpkin pie. As I'm not much of a cook, I have no desire to cook a big meal. We'll probably make a small dinner and have some ice cream. Since Kaan has never experienced Thanksgiving, I'll try to explain it to him. We'll have to see how successful that is! I remember writing a short paragraph about Thanksgiving when I was here in 2006. I'm almost certain it was completely grammatically incorrect, but I was still a young Turkish speaker at the time. Hopefully now I'll be able to explain the holiday in terms understandable!
As for the Kurban Bayram, we have few plans to speak of. We have considered going to the mosque on Friday morning for some special bayram prayers. I'll hopefully be able to go; apparently the neighborhood mosques don't have places for women, so we might have to go to an older, farther away mosque. We'll see!
Traditionally, the Kurban Bayramı is the celebration of the end of Hajj (the journey to Mecca required for all Muslims). It has a hint of new beginnings. Although not quite the end of the Islamic calendar, it is situated in the last month of the year. I consider the Kurban Bayramı to be a chance for new beginnings. I believe this is related to the end of Hajj; one who has completed Hajj is considered to be reborn without sin. Even if one hasn't completed Hajj, Kurban Bayramı is still an opportunity to begin again. For me, it also holds a spirit similar to our Thanksgiving. It is normal for many Muslim communities to hold feasts and share their food with friends, family, neighbors, and even strangers. It is important to make sure even the poorest families have food; sharing one's meal with the poor and hungry is considered a good deed.
I feel that this is a similar hope during Thanksgiving. At least in my community, we try to give extra food to the poor and hungry. It's important to share what we can. As many already know, Thanksgiving is a holiday that we use to commemorate the gift the Native Americans gave to the Pilgrims in the first few years of colonization. While that gift was admittedly poorly repaid (hi, massacres and reservations), we still celebrate the kindness of the Natives as the reason our early settlers survived. It's only fair that we today support the survival of the poorest and richest alike. Of course, Thanksgiving is also the beginning of the winter holiday weight gain!
I apologize if this post seems a little disjointed; the more time I spend here, the poorer my English becomes. My main purpose in writing this (aside from not falling into the trap of dead blogs) is to clarify one point: despite all of our cultural, religious, political, and personal differences, the traditions of being thankful and of sharing with others are common. Even being in a city that's 6000 miles from home and many degrees different from my own, I'm able to find the undercurrent of similarities. Celebrating Thanksgiving won't be the same, but it will be hard to ignore the presence of the sharing spirit.
In the Thanksgiving tradition, I'm thankful for being given the opportunity to be here, in Turkey (that means you, DU Study Abroad!). I'm thankful for my family, who have been supporting me through not only this trip but for all of my life. I'm thankful for Kaan, who's been an inspiration and blessing for me. I'm especially thankful for my friends like Jessi and Eleanor, who have been putting up with me throughout the semester. I'm thankful for my friends back home and abroad, all of my Turkish friends (hi, Evrim!) and American friends alike. I'm thankful for all of the hard times I have and will experience, because without those hard times, the good times just aren't as nice.
Please, everyone, have a safe, blessed holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving (eat your TOFUrkeys please), eid mubarak, bayramlariniz kutlu olsun.
Turkish words for this entry:
bayram (bye-RAM) holiday
Şükran bayramı (shoe-KRAN bye-RAM-uh) literally: thanks holiday
kutlamak (koot-lah-mahk) to celebrate
paylaşmak (pie-lahsh-mahk) to share
'Bayram kutlu olsun!' (bye-RAM koot-LOO OL-son) 'May the holiday be blessed.' (a common salutation during any holiday)
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
quick correction
Several weeks ago I wrote complaining about the possibility of Kaan being fired. As it turns out, he wasn't. The boss people were concerned that my presence at the cafe was keeping him from working. They had apparently asked another worker to come early and watch us. She reported that Kaan was working and I was putzing around on the computer. This apparently was enough for them; despite Kaan's complete assurance that he would be fired, he was misled. He's still here at Cafe Nero--and so am I! In case anyone was concerned about his being fired, there's the truth.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
small updates
I'll try to be brief in this post; I feel that I have a tendency to be a little over verbose.
Midterm week passed uneventfully. I may have written this already. As I only had one real midterm, I was blessed with a relatively stress-free week. I was pleased to find out yesterday that I had done quite well on the test, so I'm feeling quite gratified. Last week we had a Turkish class "midterm", which was quite easy. I know I missed the spelling of a couple of words, but overall I feel confident that I did the best I could. I believe I'll get that score back on Friday. So overall, I've been able to maintain a level of relative success in school. Of course, we still have finals to overcome; I ought to be careful to not speak too soon.
Our visitor from DU has since come and gone. Jessi and I had a lovely day with her, showing off some of our favorite spots in the city and enjoying a good conversation throughout the day. We ate an early lunch, wandered around Istiklal, showed her the dorms, escorted her to campus, and then visited Sultanahmet. Although we had quite a limited time, I think everyone was satisfied at the end of the day. I, personally, was exhausted! But again, it was such a nice day.
Everyone will be pleased to know that we haven't had any more scorpions. Kaan thought it would be funny to rent the Scorpion King 2 a few days after the incident. I admit that the movie was more successful at making me laugh than renewing my concern for our crusty friend. It's definitely NOT a movie I would recommend anyone seeing. I was positive, after watching the first half hour, that the movie was either a spoof or a soft-core porno. Thankfully it was neither; rather, it was a mildly entertaining, quite silly prequel to the Rock's production.
Kaan's oldest brother came to stay with us for one night, en route to the 'village'. I was being a little anti-social and played the homework card. Luckily, we were able to get to bed quite early and able to avoid too much awkwardness.
And in other news, I've been quite busy making new friends. I've been spending a lot of time with some of the foreigners in my classes, particularly Niels, Jan, and Eleanor. I'm hoping to add a couple of Turkish friends to this mix, but that's going a little more slowly than I'd hoped. However, lately Jessi's been kind enough to bring her friends around, so we both are increasing our interactions with the "locals".
I'm desperately seeking a fitted bedsheet. Apparently they don't exist in Turkey if the bed is bigger than a one-person. My search has brought me to Ikea and Etsy so far. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. It's so annoying to try to tuck the bedsheet into the non-existant bedframe. Every morning I have to remake the bed, starting with the sheet. Since there's nothing to really anchor the sheet, every little move made in the middle of the night slowly pushes the sheet to the floor. So annoying!
Midterm week passed uneventfully. I may have written this already. As I only had one real midterm, I was blessed with a relatively stress-free week. I was pleased to find out yesterday that I had done quite well on the test, so I'm feeling quite gratified. Last week we had a Turkish class "midterm", which was quite easy. I know I missed the spelling of a couple of words, but overall I feel confident that I did the best I could. I believe I'll get that score back on Friday. So overall, I've been able to maintain a level of relative success in school. Of course, we still have finals to overcome; I ought to be careful to not speak too soon.
Our visitor from DU has since come and gone. Jessi and I had a lovely day with her, showing off some of our favorite spots in the city and enjoying a good conversation throughout the day. We ate an early lunch, wandered around Istiklal, showed her the dorms, escorted her to campus, and then visited Sultanahmet. Although we had quite a limited time, I think everyone was satisfied at the end of the day. I, personally, was exhausted! But again, it was such a nice day.
Everyone will be pleased to know that we haven't had any more scorpions. Kaan thought it would be funny to rent the Scorpion King 2 a few days after the incident. I admit that the movie was more successful at making me laugh than renewing my concern for our crusty friend. It's definitely NOT a movie I would recommend anyone seeing. I was positive, after watching the first half hour, that the movie was either a spoof or a soft-core porno. Thankfully it was neither; rather, it was a mildly entertaining, quite silly prequel to the Rock's production.
Kaan's oldest brother came to stay with us for one night, en route to the 'village'. I was being a little anti-social and played the homework card. Luckily, we were able to get to bed quite early and able to avoid too much awkwardness.
And in other news, I've been quite busy making new friends. I've been spending a lot of time with some of the foreigners in my classes, particularly Niels, Jan, and Eleanor. I'm hoping to add a couple of Turkish friends to this mix, but that's going a little more slowly than I'd hoped. However, lately Jessi's been kind enough to bring her friends around, so we both are increasing our interactions with the "locals".
I'm desperately seeking a fitted bedsheet. Apparently they don't exist in Turkey if the bed is bigger than a one-person. My search has brought me to Ikea and Etsy so far. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. It's so annoying to try to tuck the bedsheet into the non-existant bedframe. Every morning I have to remake the bed, starting with the sheet. Since there's nothing to really anchor the sheet, every little move made in the middle of the night slowly pushes the sheet to the floor. So annoying!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
It’s amazing the kind of things you see on days that are supposed to be normal.
After spending a lovely afternoon eating our favorite foods, Jessi and I decided to go to the local beauty supply store and pick up some new colors of nail polish. I chose bright pink, something completely unnatural for me. She picked up some sparkles, stars, and a great maroon type color. We headed back to the dorms to have tea and paint our nails and timed our trip perfectly; we were able to watch a great sunset at the same time. Sounds like a good evening, right?
We parted ways, and I headed home. I was just getting ready to play the Sims when I noticed a strange smudge of dirt on the wall. “How odd,” I thought. “It looks like that smudge of dirt has claws.” And so it did.
Yesterday at about 5:45 pm, I saw my first live, in my house scorpion. SCORPION. You can bet that I hightailed it out of the room as FAST as I could. I called Kaan, sobbing from fear. He said he was coming, to just ignore it. Not knowing how long it would take him to arrive—and desperately needing to hear a friendly voice—I called my mother. She had a good laugh and occupied my attention until Kaan could come and kill it, which he did.
I was actually surprised, upon seeing the whole thing, that the scorpion was so small. What I saw was it sticking its claws out of the wall vent, magnified by its shadow. I was ready for a cell phone sized monster; instead, it looked about three inches from tip to pincher and scrawny as hell. After seeing it in real light, I felt rather silly. All that commotion for a skinny little thing! But still, I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with it. Kaan aptly smooshed it and put it in the trash can. I took him out for kumpir and ice cream afterwards.
Today a woman from my home university is coming for a meeting with the international office at Bilgi. Jessi and I are going to meet up with her, show her around a little, and escort her to the correct campus. I just hope that she doesn’t decide to bring a pet scorpion; I don’t think I can handle any more claws!
After spending a lovely afternoon eating our favorite foods, Jessi and I decided to go to the local beauty supply store and pick up some new colors of nail polish. I chose bright pink, something completely unnatural for me. She picked up some sparkles, stars, and a great maroon type color. We headed back to the dorms to have tea and paint our nails and timed our trip perfectly; we were able to watch a great sunset at the same time. Sounds like a good evening, right?
We parted ways, and I headed home. I was just getting ready to play the Sims when I noticed a strange smudge of dirt on the wall. “How odd,” I thought. “It looks like that smudge of dirt has claws.” And so it did.
Yesterday at about 5:45 pm, I saw my first live, in my house scorpion. SCORPION. You can bet that I hightailed it out of the room as FAST as I could. I called Kaan, sobbing from fear. He said he was coming, to just ignore it. Not knowing how long it would take him to arrive—and desperately needing to hear a friendly voice—I called my mother. She had a good laugh and occupied my attention until Kaan could come and kill it, which he did.
I was actually surprised, upon seeing the whole thing, that the scorpion was so small. What I saw was it sticking its claws out of the wall vent, magnified by its shadow. I was ready for a cell phone sized monster; instead, it looked about three inches from tip to pincher and scrawny as hell. After seeing it in real light, I felt rather silly. All that commotion for a skinny little thing! But still, I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with it. Kaan aptly smooshed it and put it in the trash can. I took him out for kumpir and ice cream afterwards.
Today a woman from my home university is coming for a meeting with the international office at Bilgi. Jessi and I are going to meet up with her, show her around a little, and escort her to the correct campus. I just hope that she doesn’t decide to bring a pet scorpion; I don’t think I can handle any more claws!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
no title today
oh what a stupid thing. I came to the cafe today to find Kaan in quite low spirits. Wondering what was the matter, I asked him. He thinks they're going to fire him. I don't get it.
The cafe has two owners. The second one has only been coming for a couple of weeks, and he will apparently leave around the end of November. The owner whom I know is quite nice and, I believe, likes Kaan quite a lot. I'm not so sure about this "new" guy, however. He doesn't seem to talk much. But anyway, I don't think he likes Kaan 'cause Kaan seems to think they're going to fire him.
It makes me quite mad. This 'new' guy comes for a month and out of nowhere decides to fire Kaan? It's absurd. If he isn't here and doesn't see Kaan working, why should he have the authority to fire him?
Whatever. It just means a lot of worry for me. If he finds another job that requires he works nights, I don't know what I'll do. I'll probably die. It makes me so mad that these fuckers are possibly going to take away the little time we have together. Whatever. I can't do anything about it; I just hope things work out for the best. I hope Kaan's wrong about this. I will be quite upset if he has to find a new job.
[edit]
okay, I won't really die. But since work here involves often a 10 or 12 hour shift, if he has to work nights, I don't know when I'll see him. That will be very tough. But things will be okay.
The cafe has two owners. The second one has only been coming for a couple of weeks, and he will apparently leave around the end of November. The owner whom I know is quite nice and, I believe, likes Kaan quite a lot. I'm not so sure about this "new" guy, however. He doesn't seem to talk much. But anyway, I don't think he likes Kaan 'cause Kaan seems to think they're going to fire him.
It makes me quite mad. This 'new' guy comes for a month and out of nowhere decides to fire Kaan? It's absurd. If he isn't here and doesn't see Kaan working, why should he have the authority to fire him?
Whatever. It just means a lot of worry for me. If he finds another job that requires he works nights, I don't know what I'll do. I'll probably die. It makes me so mad that these fuckers are possibly going to take away the little time we have together. Whatever. I can't do anything about it; I just hope things work out for the best. I hope Kaan's wrong about this. I will be quite upset if he has to find a new job.
[edit]
okay, I won't really die. But since work here involves often a 10 or 12 hour shift, if he has to work nights, I don't know when I'll see him. That will be very tough. But things will be okay.
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