Well. here it is. My bags are pretty much packed. I bought most of gifts im gonna get. my last day of work was Thurs. My 2 month adventure has come to an end.
First though? How grateful i am to have been able to do this. It's such a blessing to be able to do something like this. From playing with coke bottles and sticks as a kid in Croatia to a 2 month expenses-paid internship from a top liberal arts school. That is progress. Thanks mainly to the parents and friends. So props to all you.
Thoughts about Istanbul/Turkey? First, it's a pretty fuckin' clean country. I live in the hood and even here people wash to roads and sweep trash every day. Second, it's not a cheap country. It's actually pretty expensive if you consider the average income, which I've heard is something like $700 a month. Just like in my own BiH, the numbers just don't add up; people should be able to survive here. But they do. How? By doing what I rarely see in the states: squeezing every penny (or here, kuruş).
Then again, there's construction everywhere. Massive skyscrapers mingle with the minaret's of Istanbul's 2500 mosques. I once saw a dirty, poor old man selling worthless crap from China...while listening to an iPod. If you came here for a weekend, you'd think all anyone does is eat, drink, play backgammon, and smoke nargile. I would forgive many people just who came to Beyoğlu or Sultanahmet for a weekend and came back with the most orientalist point-of-view. But go out of the old city to the "new Istanbul" or east towards Ankara and wow, projects galore. You then start to realize, barely, what a 12.5 million people increase in population over 50 years looks like. When I first saw how congested all the apartment buildings were the first thing I thought of some child playing with legos. they really do just look like hundreds of legos stacked together across rolling hills. it's almost surreal looking. even stranger when you look closer and see the thousands of barnacles all over every building - satellite dishes.
But go outside of Istanbul and everything changes. Green, forest covered hills, small quaint villages by the Sea of Marmara. The last 150 km's of the bus ride from Izmir were really beautiful. it looked like someone moved Bosnia a few hundred km's west and gave it a coast line (which would involve flooding Dalmatia and Herzegovina...no loss really, and probably a reality in 50 years thanks to Al Gore).
People are genuienly nice here too. They'll gladly help you get somewhere or find something. My co-intern Johanna says she never knows if they're just hitting on her or are really just that nice. For me, I don't know if they're trying to sell me something or they are that nice. Most of the time, it's a mix of the two. Oh and being Bosnian helped sooo much. I can't say that enough. Everyone with me noticed it too. Plus the whole Muslim thing.
I don't know what else to write. I always start thinking but then look out my window and kinda get lost. I'm excited to discuss all my "adventures" with everyone in person though! And show off my AWESOME pictures. over 1,000. niiiice.
So now I say, goodbye to this blog and görüşürüz to İstanbul!
-Edin
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
4 Days Left?!?!
Yup. 4 days left in Turkey. how it all went by so quick i do not understand. BECAUSE this adventure is almost over, i'll try and fill in some gaps right now. mainly, the reason why i'm here, my internship.
first of all, my internship did not go as planned. I was supposed to work with my boss but i barely ever talked to her and only as of this week is she on the same project as me (i think). This explains why i've felt so worthless and felt that this internship was kind of a fail. but it's nice to know it wasn't my fault.
i've spent pretty much the whole time here working on one grant proposal for a training session Amnesty wants to conduct with some of its members on the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). now although i have nothing against this, i will say that it was not what i was expecting to work on when i got here. I'm a poli sci major and i was much more interested in learning more about democratization, the Kurdish question, the Ergenekon case, etc etc. But I became an expert on women's rights instead...not really but i sure know a hell of a lot more now. The problem is I really never felt passionate about the work i was doing. Not to sound like an asshole, but I'm not really passionate about women's rights either. I think it's fair to say that I think it's something that i care about and think DEFINITELY needs to improve, but i also think global warming is a huge issue for every human being but i ain't doin' crap about it. my passion is politics and the such. For example, one of the most interesting things here was seeing a protest of about 300 people (not one of them a Spartan) calling for a free "East Turkestan." That would be Xinjiang province in China. Uighurs! Craziness. that's the kinda stuff I love. reading about UN laws on what discrimination against women is...not so much.
Halfway through this i was kinda lost. My work felt meaningless, it wasn't interesting, and it all seemed like a dead end. I'm happy to say now those feelings are gone. I still feel like my work is pretty meaningless, but I'm an intern. Individually we're meaningless but i think as a whole we're almost helpful. I'm fairly certain I want to take Turkish at UPenn next year; the language seems simple enough and I think it'd be real helpful to know considering the Balkans and the Middle East are the two regions I'm probably going to end up studying/working with the most. And guess where turkey is! in between em. Also I might finally understand old people's peasant speak in Bosnia cause im pretty sure it's all Turkish. Like how my grandma says "karpuza" for watermelon and I'm embarassed for her cause it seems so hick? Well, "karpuz" is Turkish for watermelon. Hopefully that will work and it won't kill me like German did. Genaaau.
What else? i went to the beach this weekend! that was awesome. got treated like royalty by a nice turkish grandma of a girl i met once. swam in the Aegean. ate a kumru sandwich, which is just cheese, herbs, and salami on a roll but dear god it is delicious. soooo much cheese. Oh, and I went to the ruins of Ephesus. i wondered aloud how weird it's gonna be when hundreds of years from now people go visit the ancient ruins of New York City. probably won't be as many marble columns. it was way cool though. i didn't know it used to be such a baller city but apparently it was the #2 city in the Byzantine Empire for a while. Also the site of the Seven Sleepers from the Qur'an, Mary's alleged final resting place, and the place where the Gospel of John was written. I know right? Lotta stuff. there's pictures of all of this but im kinda lazy to upload them now.
last day of work tomorrow. that's gonna be weird. i still remember the awkward, aimlessness of my first week and the BRUTAL heat that has now actually subsided cause of rain. nice. Friday and saturday will be dedicated to doing one final tour of the Grand Bazaar for gifts for people I like or those i want to think i like them and a visit to Topkapı palace (the biggest tourist attraction here...i was too cheap to visit before but why the hell not).
see some of you soon!
first of all, my internship did not go as planned. I was supposed to work with my boss but i barely ever talked to her and only as of this week is she on the same project as me (i think). This explains why i've felt so worthless and felt that this internship was kind of a fail. but it's nice to know it wasn't my fault.
i've spent pretty much the whole time here working on one grant proposal for a training session Amnesty wants to conduct with some of its members on the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). now although i have nothing against this, i will say that it was not what i was expecting to work on when i got here. I'm a poli sci major and i was much more interested in learning more about democratization, the Kurdish question, the Ergenekon case, etc etc. But I became an expert on women's rights instead...not really but i sure know a hell of a lot more now. The problem is I really never felt passionate about the work i was doing. Not to sound like an asshole, but I'm not really passionate about women's rights either. I think it's fair to say that I think it's something that i care about and think DEFINITELY needs to improve, but i also think global warming is a huge issue for every human being but i ain't doin' crap about it. my passion is politics and the such. For example, one of the most interesting things here was seeing a protest of about 300 people (not one of them a Spartan) calling for a free "East Turkestan." That would be Xinjiang province in China. Uighurs! Craziness. that's the kinda stuff I love. reading about UN laws on what discrimination against women is...not so much.
Halfway through this i was kinda lost. My work felt meaningless, it wasn't interesting, and it all seemed like a dead end. I'm happy to say now those feelings are gone. I still feel like my work is pretty meaningless, but I'm an intern. Individually we're meaningless but i think as a whole we're almost helpful. I'm fairly certain I want to take Turkish at UPenn next year; the language seems simple enough and I think it'd be real helpful to know considering the Balkans and the Middle East are the two regions I'm probably going to end up studying/working with the most. And guess where turkey is! in between em. Also I might finally understand old people's peasant speak in Bosnia cause im pretty sure it's all Turkish. Like how my grandma says "karpuza" for watermelon and I'm embarassed for her cause it seems so hick? Well, "karpuz" is Turkish for watermelon. Hopefully that will work and it won't kill me like German did. Genaaau.
What else? i went to the beach this weekend! that was awesome. got treated like royalty by a nice turkish grandma of a girl i met once. swam in the Aegean. ate a kumru sandwich, which is just cheese, herbs, and salami on a roll but dear god it is delicious. soooo much cheese. Oh, and I went to the ruins of Ephesus. i wondered aloud how weird it's gonna be when hundreds of years from now people go visit the ancient ruins of New York City. probably won't be as many marble columns. it was way cool though. i didn't know it used to be such a baller city but apparently it was the #2 city in the Byzantine Empire for a while. Also the site of the Seven Sleepers from the Qur'an, Mary's alleged final resting place, and the place where the Gospel of John was written. I know right? Lotta stuff. there's pictures of all of this but im kinda lazy to upload them now.
last day of work tomorrow. that's gonna be weird. i still remember the awkward, aimlessness of my first week and the BRUTAL heat that has now actually subsided cause of rain. nice. Friday and saturday will be dedicated to doing one final tour of the Grand Bazaar for gifts for people I like or those i want to think i like them and a visit to Topkapı palace (the biggest tourist attraction here...i was too cheap to visit before but why the hell not).
see some of you soon!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Cheese and Sucuk and çok kuzu
I think a lot of people will appreciate this: a post devoted to food.
First of all, the negatives (so you may leave on the positives!). Food isn't dirt cheap. Yes you can get a hot dog in some places for like $1.50 or a cheeseburger for about the same amount, but these aren't that good. Although, they put spices in the cheeseburger meat which is definitely an interesting take. Also, they're small. SMALL SMALL portions. Actually, scratch that. They're regular portions, but I'm to everything in the US being so damn big that these seem small. Turkish fast food is another story - it's better and just a bit more expensive. Kokoreç, a food that I am sure the Olympian gods must envy, is about $3.50. It's a sandwhich with oregano, spices, vegetables and...lamb intestine. Yeah I know, but trust me, it tastes more like lamb AWESOMENESS. they chop it up REAL tiny so it's just a bunch of minced meat with vegetables. They also have kumpir, which I would also define as a fast food. But nothing exotic here, it's just a baked potatoe with your choice of veggies and stuff. You can aslo find people selling fish sandwhiches, grilled snapper, calamari, and clams. Lot's of seafood in Istanbul. I think that would surprise some people. And it's good too! Although I have yet to try the clams at 3 am...cause they do sell them THAT late on istiklal. Finally, we come to the quintessential Turkish fast food, the Big Mac AND Whooper (although they have a buttload of those too...) of Turkish cuisine...the döner and kebap. Döner is the huge chunk of meat that gets rotated vertically on a spit and grilled by a vertical grill and whenever someone orders a portion, the chef shaves off thin slices of meat and they make a sandwhich/platter! It is pretty good but it's also kinda dry. It's generally lamb (kuzu) but I prefer the chicken (tavuk) because they tend to be less dry, ironically enough. You can get it as a sandwhich or a wrap (dürüm). Finally, the kebap. I honestly don't know how to describe the kebap because it comes in soooo many different forms. I will describe my favorite, but this is from a legit lokanta (restaurant) and is not fast food. The Beyti kebap is minced meat sausage wrapped in a very thin pita into a a long, cylindrical shape and then cut into bite-sized pieces and arranged in a circle on the outside of a plate, seperating each piece from the next with slices of fresh tomato. They garnish it with herbs and put a HUGE hunk of sour cream in the middle of the plate. It is SO GOOD. it goes for about $8 at a restaurant right around the corner and is definitely a filling dinner meal.
Stepping outside of fast food...there's a lot. There's a lot of stews. a LOT of stews. lots of eggplant (patlican) dishes with meat. LOTS OF MEAT. I don't know how vegetarians would cope here. Theyre's also a lot of köfte meals. Köfte is basically just any meat in small pieces. For Bosnians, köfte is our ćevap. I really have no idea what köfte is because everything I ever seem to order ends up being some form of köfte...no matter how different. The breads are delicious and baked fresh every day. I haven't tried TOO many desserts but they ones I have have not really impressed me. Besides baklava, of course, which is I think my favorite dessert. Stupidly enough I'm writing this on an empty stomach...I think i'll go fix that now. 10 MORE DAYS UNTIL THIS IS ALL OVER. I'm really gonna miss it. But i'll be back soon inshallah.
stay hungry!
-Edin
First of all, the negatives (so you may leave on the positives!). Food isn't dirt cheap. Yes you can get a hot dog in some places for like $1.50 or a cheeseburger for about the same amount, but these aren't that good. Although, they put spices in the cheeseburger meat which is definitely an interesting take. Also, they're small. SMALL SMALL portions. Actually, scratch that. They're regular portions, but I'm to everything in the US being so damn big that these seem small. Turkish fast food is another story - it's better and just a bit more expensive. Kokoreç, a food that I am sure the Olympian gods must envy, is about $3.50. It's a sandwhich with oregano, spices, vegetables and...lamb intestine. Yeah I know, but trust me, it tastes more like lamb AWESOMENESS. they chop it up REAL tiny so it's just a bunch of minced meat with vegetables. They also have kumpir, which I would also define as a fast food. But nothing exotic here, it's just a baked potatoe with your choice of veggies and stuff. You can aslo find people selling fish sandwhiches, grilled snapper, calamari, and clams. Lot's of seafood in Istanbul. I think that would surprise some people. And it's good too! Although I have yet to try the clams at 3 am...cause they do sell them THAT late on istiklal. Finally, we come to the quintessential Turkish fast food, the Big Mac AND Whooper (although they have a buttload of those too...) of Turkish cuisine...the döner and kebap. Döner is the huge chunk of meat that gets rotated vertically on a spit and grilled by a vertical grill and whenever someone orders a portion, the chef shaves off thin slices of meat and they make a sandwhich/platter! It is pretty good but it's also kinda dry. It's generally lamb (kuzu) but I prefer the chicken (tavuk) because they tend to be less dry, ironically enough. You can get it as a sandwhich or a wrap (dürüm). Finally, the kebap. I honestly don't know how to describe the kebap because it comes in soooo many different forms. I will describe my favorite, but this is from a legit lokanta (restaurant) and is not fast food. The Beyti kebap is minced meat sausage wrapped in a very thin pita into a a long, cylindrical shape and then cut into bite-sized pieces and arranged in a circle on the outside of a plate, seperating each piece from the next with slices of fresh tomato. They garnish it with herbs and put a HUGE hunk of sour cream in the middle of the plate. It is SO GOOD. it goes for about $8 at a restaurant right around the corner and is definitely a filling dinner meal.
Stepping outside of fast food...there's a lot. There's a lot of stews. a LOT of stews. lots of eggplant (patlican) dishes with meat. LOTS OF MEAT. I don't know how vegetarians would cope here. Theyre's also a lot of köfte meals. Köfte is basically just any meat in small pieces. For Bosnians, köfte is our ćevap. I really have no idea what köfte is because everything I ever seem to order ends up being some form of köfte...no matter how different. The breads are delicious and baked fresh every day. I haven't tried TOO many desserts but they ones I have have not really impressed me. Besides baklava, of course, which is I think my favorite dessert. Stupidly enough I'm writing this on an empty stomach...I think i'll go fix that now. 10 MORE DAYS UNTIL THIS IS ALL OVER. I'm really gonna miss it. But i'll be back soon inshallah.
stay hungry!
-Edin
Friday, July 3, 2009
Turks
I think I'll devote this to just some of odd characters I've met here. Most people i interact with daily will be left out. This is for those people i'll probably never see again. (unless I need another hookah...)
I'll start backwards again. I was in the grand bazaar today and met a guy named Cengiz. That's...Gengis transliterated. Like...Gengis Khan. I wanted to buy a hookah from him just because he was fuckin Gengis Khan. But he was asking for too much. He did explain hookah to me though, which was nice, but as pointless as it gets. I liked him though, he seemed earnest and despite trying to rip me off, like a nice guy.
Second, there's the three guys all working at one shop selling a bunch of stuff, hookah included. I'll see them again probably cause I actually know where the shop is and it's right next to the Beyazit exit. Anyhoo, the main seller is a kid maybe 17 or 18 and he speaks english well enough to sell things but that's about it. The main attraction was his friend, whose heart I broke when I didn't buy a hookah the first time i was there. (he said, "you break my heart!" so im not exaggerating haha). Seriously though, his guy was so friendly and hugging me and stuff, it was fun. It was definitely pressure to buy ANYTHING (like a random scarf for 5 lira? no thanks) but i didn't feel bad not buying. Come to think of it, this may end up being all about buying things in Istanbul. Anyhoo. what i assume was the owner of the shop was most interesting. I bought Sana's hookah from him today and he asked me where im from and I said im a MUSLIM (key) from Bosnia. His family was apparently from Bitola, Macedonia and moved to Turkey in '56. He said they went back after 50 years and hated to see that Bitola was now a village and not really a nice city. He asked me where in Bosnia is nice t visit but refused to go anywhere with Serbs. It was wierd but he REALLY didn'tlike Serbs. I think he said that his blood doesn't like Serbs...but i could be mistaken. I just told him to stay away from Banja Luka.
Next, Said and Dr. Mahmut. They were two guys who helped me look for Zadeh's manuscript in the Sulaymaniyye library. I really like both of these guys. Said spoke Turkish and Arabic fluently (as far as I could tell) but I assumed he was an Arab because Said isn't that common a Turkish name and he seemed to resort to Arabic by mistake (he asked me kayf al-haal but stopped mid-sentence and spoke english). I dunno though. if they got turkish passports they're turks. Dr. Mahmut was a Syrian (now Turkish...) guy who was friends with Mustafa Ceric efendi. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! well. it is. Mustafa Ceric is the "grand mufti" (i think) of Bosnia and the most liberal grand mufti in the world. but yeah, dr. mahmut looked for the manuscript, told me it's not in turkey (sorry zadeh) and we parted ways. but the man just looked smart as hell. he must be hot shit i don't know though. The library was really nice it just felt very peaceful and full of knowledge like a library in narnia would feel like. yes. narnia.
that's it actually. all men. all from this week. it's funny, pretty much everyone in amnesty is a women and pretty much everyone else i've dealt ith here in Istanbul has been a man. there are sooo few female bazaar sellers and waiters and a bunch of other jobs. the only place where i see a lot of women as in the mosques...that makes me kinda upset. maybe an update on that later!
-peace
I'll start backwards again. I was in the grand bazaar today and met a guy named Cengiz. That's...Gengis transliterated. Like...Gengis Khan. I wanted to buy a hookah from him just because he was fuckin Gengis Khan. But he was asking for too much. He did explain hookah to me though, which was nice, but as pointless as it gets. I liked him though, he seemed earnest and despite trying to rip me off, like a nice guy.
Second, there's the three guys all working at one shop selling a bunch of stuff, hookah included. I'll see them again probably cause I actually know where the shop is and it's right next to the Beyazit exit. Anyhoo, the main seller is a kid maybe 17 or 18 and he speaks english well enough to sell things but that's about it. The main attraction was his friend, whose heart I broke when I didn't buy a hookah the first time i was there. (he said, "you break my heart!" so im not exaggerating haha). Seriously though, his guy was so friendly and hugging me and stuff, it was fun. It was definitely pressure to buy ANYTHING (like a random scarf for 5 lira? no thanks) but i didn't feel bad not buying. Come to think of it, this may end up being all about buying things in Istanbul. Anyhoo. what i assume was the owner of the shop was most interesting. I bought Sana's hookah from him today and he asked me where im from and I said im a MUSLIM (key) from Bosnia. His family was apparently from Bitola, Macedonia and moved to Turkey in '56. He said they went back after 50 years and hated to see that Bitola was now a village and not really a nice city. He asked me where in Bosnia is nice t visit but refused to go anywhere with Serbs. It was wierd but he REALLY didn'tlike Serbs. I think he said that his blood doesn't like Serbs...but i could be mistaken. I just told him to stay away from Banja Luka.
Next, Said and Dr. Mahmut. They were two guys who helped me look for Zadeh's manuscript in the Sulaymaniyye library. I really like both of these guys. Said spoke Turkish and Arabic fluently (as far as I could tell) but I assumed he was an Arab because Said isn't that common a Turkish name and he seemed to resort to Arabic by mistake (he asked me kayf al-haal but stopped mid-sentence and spoke english). I dunno though. if they got turkish passports they're turks. Dr. Mahmut was a Syrian (now Turkish...) guy who was friends with Mustafa Ceric efendi. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! well. it is. Mustafa Ceric is the "grand mufti" (i think) of Bosnia and the most liberal grand mufti in the world. but yeah, dr. mahmut looked for the manuscript, told me it's not in turkey (sorry zadeh) and we parted ways. but the man just looked smart as hell. he must be hot shit i don't know though. The library was really nice it just felt very peaceful and full of knowledge like a library in narnia would feel like. yes. narnia.
that's it actually. all men. all from this week. it's funny, pretty much everyone in amnesty is a women and pretty much everyone else i've dealt ith here in Istanbul has been a man. there are sooo few female bazaar sellers and waiters and a bunch of other jobs. the only place where i see a lot of women as in the mosques...that makes me kinda upset. maybe an update on that later!
-peace
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