another small post

"The Turks consider it unlucky to step on a piece of bread." [link]

Whenever Kaan and I are walking around, he always makes sure to pick up and move any bread that's found on the ground. He says it's a sin to step on, to walk on food. I've only done a few brief, basic searches on Google, but I haven't found anything specifically forbidding it. Verifiability isn't really what I'm concerned out; rather, I'm curious about from where this belief/understanding comes from. While stumbling around today, I came across a trivia list with the above 'fact'. Again, I'm not interested really in whether or not it's the truth (but Evrim, if you are familiar with this, please let me know!). What's interesting to me is that this superstition/belief/whatever has made its way into the practice of Islam in Kaan's family.

That's really the whole purpose to this post; I discovered something cultural that I didn't know before.


Also, some big German person has come to the German churchhigh school on our street. There are tons of police standing around, soldiers patrolling, and camera crews running around. It's very exciting. I'll try to find something on the news, as I actually have no idea who is here or why.

[edit]
It turns out that the visitor wasn't just ANY big German person.. it was Chancellor Merkel herself. She apparently visited a few sites in Istanbul, including our neighborhood German high school. I took a few photos and didn't see much else. I let a cameraman into the apartment to take some footage (probably not the best idea, but I was excited to help someone get a good shot!). If I can find the clip, I'll be sure to post it. I'll try to post some of the pictures I took too. It was really interesting to see just how many people were actually involved in the street security process. I think there were about 15 cars in the whole procession! I'll be sure to update with news articles as I find them.

oh, Turkey

Just a quick update today to inform all nine of you of a rather strange development. Yesterday while the nephew was cruising the channels, I noticed that several of ours were not showing up on the channel guide. I was hoping that it was some sort of a glitch, but today when I turned on the telly (to catch my favorite, Mrs. deGeneres!) those same channels were gone.

I asked Kaan to call the company (DigiTurk) and see what the problem was. We've been having these strange issues with our home add ons (I can't think of what else to call them: things like electricity, water, television. Utilities would work, except TV isn't a utility. Anyway!). For about two days, our electricity was gone. When Kaan went to check at the electric place, they said not only did they not cut our electricity, our bills were all paid up. This is strange because I haven't received a bill since January! Strange. But so Kaan called up DigiTurk to see what the matter was. According to them, the channels we weren't receiving were being transmitted as normal. Baffled, we went up to the terrace to check our dish; perhaps something had been broken.

So we get to the terrace and it turns out, the down stairs neighbors have put THEIR dish RIGHT on top of ours. I couldn't believe it. On the same pole, facing the same direction, even covering the top of our dish. Unbelievable! We're thinking that's the problem. Unfortunately, they aren't home, so we can't complain. Does this happen anywhere else? Maybe I just haven't lived in enough big cities, but I don't think anything quite like this would happen in Colorado Springs or Denver.

The weird thing is I watched Ellen on Thursday or Friday. I can't recall a lot of noise on the weekend, so I don't know when they would have stealthily handicapped our dish. It's a mystery! I'm eager for them to come home so we can work this out. Until then, I'll try to catch some Ellen clips online!

no more excuses

I ought to take my own advice here; I ought to stop making excuses for my extreme lack of adventure! With Spring Break coming up, I have a great opportunity to do some exploring. I have almost three weeks with no school (just two midterms)! Most of the other exchange students here have planned some grand adventure.. maybe I'll try to tag along.

The package from my mother finally arrived. It can be so hard to get organized and motivated sometimes; it took her almost two months to send me this box. I finally got it last week, on the same day we set up our home internet AND purchased a lovely new table. Needless to say, it was a great day. My mom sent some junk food treats (Boulder Chips!) and some lovely socks from Target, as well as a scarf for Kaan and some cute office supplies. Regardless of how impractical or little the gifts are, it's always nice to get a package from someone full of things that make you smile. Although I don't need a pink stapler, it was definitely my favorite part of the box! So, thanks mom, for knowing just how to make my day.

Along with this "no more excuses" post, I have to admit that, now with internet at home, I have no excuse to not update. I know I'll find something resembling an excuse (a lack of anything interesting to say, perhaps!), but I'll definitely have more frequent updates. It can be really hard to sit down and think your life into blog posts, without making stupid updates about what you ate for lunch. I have a habit of posting insignificant details like that on my personal blog; I'm working hard to avoid it here!

One of my projects for over break is to take more photos. I'm eager to show off my neighborhood and life here in Istanbul. Also, I have to write a little paper about it for my Turkish class. So perhaps I'll post a little bit here. My darling friend Kyle puts me to shame with his frequent, informative blog updates! He's had such a wonderful array of trips and experiences; I have total blog envy. If I remember next time, I'll post a link to some of my favorite posts of his.

I've been such a crappy blogger lately, I'm sorry. I'll try to write more, I promise!

Here’s the latest news:
Kaan’s nephew has been staying with us for the last few days. Normally I don’t particularly enjoy having guests, but it’s been quite fun. Suat is 17 or 18 and is the son of Kaan’s eldest sister, Zahide. It’s an interesting situation; Suat is one of 13 siblings. It’s certainly a mind-boggling number. Granted, she’s the second wife of Suat’s father and has only given birth to EIGHT of the thirteen, but it’s still a scary number to those of us who think anything over 3 children is a lot. It marks another division between the rural families and the urban families, as I think it also does in the States. Families that come from the country (versus the city) tend to have larger families to aid in farming and whatnot. In the States, I think this also relates in a small part to rural religious conservatism (the Quiverfull-type people). I’m not sure I’m educated enough to make a judgment like that for Turkey, but I reckon there are similar circumstances. Whatever the reasons for this really large household, the situation is interesting to me.

Suat works during the day, so it’s been quiet at home. He comes home just as Kaan leaves for work, usually, so I finally have something to occupy me in the evenings. It’s really nice to have some company after spending most of the day alone. However, we’ve been staying up quite late the last few nights, and it’s really wearing on me. I’ve forgotten how much I enjoy staying up late, but I may try to go to sleep just a little bit earlier from now on. It’s really a drag to sleep most of the day because you were having too much fun hanging out the night before. It’s even more of a drag to not sleep all day but wish you had.


School is continuing. I find more and more that I’m frustrated by the lack of organization here. I have classes that I like (or would potentially like) but still have no clue how they will be graded. I don’t have a syllabus for one class. I have a partial syllabus for another. It’s really crazy. Mid-terms are in two or three weeks, and we don’t have a syllabus? Just ridiculous. On Thursday, my class was cancelled. Of course, since I don’t have internet at home, I couldn’t go check the online page. Luckily, nothing was posted online about a cancelled class. Apparently everyone except three of us knew there was to be no class. We showed up and waited for fifteen minutes before being kicked out of the room. It was really strange and frustrating! At DU, if class is going to be cancelled, we often know in advance. If a last minute cancellation, most teachers have the decency to send someone to post a note on the door. Sure, most of us are rooting for class to be cancelled, waiting for that 15th minute to pass so we can “legally” leave. But somehow it’s easier to root for a class to be cancelled when you aren’t the only one waiting for it to start. It’s so hard to be happy that class is cancelled when you weren’t going to come in the first place, but your sense of responsibility and obligation dragged you out of bed and aaaallllll the way to school.