Weekend

Woke up early Sunday and couldn't get back to sleep... and this is the first day I didn't have to get up at all. I did some housekeeping, mostly organizational. Tried out my new coffeemaker and iron. Downloaded some podcasts to ipod, iPad and the new HP and practiced keyboarding.

This afternoon I walked down the hill and headed north along the Bosphorous to the town of Bebek (I guess it' a town, I need to get clear on the way these areas are designated. I live in Arnavutkoy and Bebek is a ten minute walk to the north and Ortakoy is 10 to the south.) Bebek is fashionable; there's a big Starbuck's and lots of upscale restaurants and shops. I passed the Indonesian and Egyptian consulates, both under renovation but impressive looking. Along the Bosphorous there are lots of fishermen, plus people strolling andd jogging. In various spots where there are ladders to get out of the water, there are groups of men and boys swimming. The only women I saw were in t- shirts and capris sitting on picnic blankets. That is until I got to the public park in Bebek where there were some little girls swimming with the boys and a couple of women in bikinis, one of whom was about 8 months pregnant

Sweating profusely and in need of water and a bathroom (the temp was 33 degrees celsius), I did indeed stop at Starbucks. I will not make a habit of this, but I was curious, plus it was right on the Bosphorous and had tables with a view both inside in the ac and outside. I had a cafe latte and bottle of water for 6.25 YTL, about $4.30

I stopped at the Dia grocery store in Arnavutkoy on the way home and bought a bottle of white wine for 7,95 YTL,(about 5.25) including tax. I tasted it tonight and it's fine. Most of the Turkish whites just don't have a lot flavor. This is as good as the stuff at twice the price.

At 5 I headed over to John and Tania's for a tag sale . It was household goods donated by faculty and the proceeds go to the Community Involvement Program. I got a good haul of odds and ends, both practical and pretty. Went down to Arnavutkoy for dinner with Corinne and Layne, but discovered we were in the same place as the Chandlers, Graham, Kristine and Danny, and Metin, who is our IT guy and a sweeter man you will never meet. We joined them and had a great dinner orchestrated by Metin who is a regular. It' s a fish place, so we had fish soup (outstanding), calamari, fish borek, sardines and a sort of casserole with fish, onions and mushrooms, which Metin said was called "fener" something, with fener referring to lighthouse.

With salad and bread (including some excellent cornbread) we each paid 15 lira, about 10 bucks. There are a lot of fish restaurants in Arnavutkoy, but Metin claims this is the best. They don't serve alcohol and apparently the ones that do have much higher prices.

After dinner we strolled over to a gelato place. Apparently the woman who owns it went to school in Italy to learn gelato making and then opened up Girandola Dondurma. I had the incredibly rich cikolata. We walked along the water up to Bebek. There was a big crowd in the park, lots of kids swimming, including girls, though they wore shorts and t-shirts rather than bathing suits. Many families were having picnic iftars, which is the meal eaten after sundown to break the fast. Metin says there's not supposed to be either swimming or picnicking at this park. He thought perhaps security was being lax during Ramazan.

At home I used the screwdrivers I bought at the tag sale to put together the tables I bought at Ikea and arrranged the knickknacks to further settle in. At this point I was wide awake, having gotten a second wind, and I started making calls using Skype. I can call anyone in the US, mobile or landline, for about 2 cents a minute. I've never liked the phone, in part because I seem to get "telephone ear" very easily, so this solution is great, especially when I have so much to tell.

Today is Victory Day, which I looked up just now. It commemorates the last battle in the Turkish War of Independence in 1922, which established the Turkish nation under the leadership of Ataturk, as a secular state following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI. On September 12th there's a referendum on changes to the Constitution. All over town and on Campus there are dozens of flags and huge portraits of Ataturk (even more than usual, which is hard to imagine given that his portrait is everywhere in Turkey) for Victory Day. Down in town there are also billboards and trucks with signs urging either "Evet" or "Hayir" votes on the referendum. The adamantly secular Turks on campus (which seems to be most of them) are definitely "Hayir." Though there are some good changes for protecting and aiding the elderly and children, the secular Turks see the overall effort as an attempt by the ruling Ak Party to undermine the secular character of the government.


After staying up so late last night, I finally really slept in today. This is the first morning where it hasn't been bright blue skies. It's overcast and cooler. After yesterday's walking with sweaty feet and sandals, I ended up with a big blister, so I'm going to take it easy today, study some Turkish and do some reading.

When Sim comes with the camera I'll start posting some pictures.