Celebrations.

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes. I very much appreciated them. Many of you inquire as to whether my family here celebrated my birthday, and if so, how they did. I wasn’t expecting them to do anything, as I didn’t’ think that they knew it was my birthday. Well they did. Not a word was mentioned about my birthday all day. After dinner I was reading with their son Goki when they asked me to help make dessert in the kitchen. When I walked into the kitchen I was bombarded with their (and now my) friends, family, and neighbors. They threw me a surprise party. It was wonderful. They tried to make it very American, so they made me a cake with candles and sung me happy birthday in English. Though I would have loved to hear the song in Turkish, I was overjoyed that they all put in the effort to learn the song in English. The rest of the evening was spent with tea, cake, and conversation. A delightful evening. They also gave me a wonderful birthday present—I am allowed make a list of the cultural attractions that I would like to visit, and I will be able to visit one a week. This is fabulous for me, as I spend the majority of time in the house (upon their request).

On Thursday I visited my first landmark in Istanbul: Topkapi Palace. It was built for Mehmet II during the 15th century. It remained the home of the emperor/sultan until the 1850s. The palace was originally the government headquarters, and since then has included a school, stables, housing for foreign ambassadors, but the focal point of the palace museum is the harem. The harem housed over a 1,000 women at its peak. The majority of women were common concubines—very few actually made it into the presence of the Sultan. It took special talents to impress royalty; the most sought skill was belly dancing. Below you will find a picture of where foreign guests would be entertained by concubines training to be selected to perform for the Sultan.



Though the Harm is one of the main attractions due to size and architecture, the treasury hosts some of Islam’s most precious artifacts: Muhammad’s sword and cloak. Pictures unfortunately are not allowed in this section of the palace. One of the many perks of the palace is its location. It is located right next to the Hagia Sophia (which I will be visiting before I leave) on the European side of the Istanbul. Below are more pictures of the visit to the Palace.

This picture is taken from the palace walls looking across the sea towards Asia.


The Influence of Arabic was strong during the time that the palace was constructed. Nearly every room had Arabic scripts or traditional paintings.


This is the first lady's (the father of the Sultan)bathing quarters.



This week while I was in the city with Nurdan, my host mother, we visited her new house. The family bought an entire apartment building. When I say the family, I don’t only mean the immediate family. Tomar, my host father, is very close with his family. His parents will be living in one of the suites in the apartment. His great uncle in other. His brother’s family in another. They are all relocating together, so that as the grandparents and great uncle age, it will be easy to take care of them. This isn’t an uncommon practice in Turkey.

Last night I missed out on experiencing a Muslim tradition. Nurdan, Tomar, and Goki went to a wedding while I was asked to stay with Miray (whose cast comes off in 3 weeks). In Turkish, wedding means two things: a marriage ceremony and an event to celebrate the circumcision of a boy. This wedding was the latter. In the Muslim world, though not written in the Quran, it is a common practice that boys are circumcised as a rite of passage before puberty. From what I understood from my family, it is most common between the ages of 8-10. Once the boy undergoes this procedure a celebration is thrown by his family in order to celebrate his devotion to Islam and the completion of one of the stages necessary to become a man.