Final Post

I leave tomorrow. I will miss this place. I will miss waking up to endless cups of tea and the thrill of crossing highways without sidewalks. I don’t know if I will ever find the hospitality anywhere else that seems to be ingrained so deeply in a society. I admire the Turks for being so proud of their homeland, yet feel sorry for them; their balancing act of harmonizing the East and West as well as past and present will not be level see-saw for long. But, I am leaving here with fond memories and many lessons learned. My host family is already planning which weekends they have free so that I can return for a week, so I have no doubt that I will be back.

As this post seems a bit short for my final posting, I complied I short list of random thoughts about Turkey. They are not in order of importance, but in the order in which they came to me.

1. Ataturk, elephants, and the evil eye are staple decorations in nearly every household. Ataturk will generally sit on a mantle, the elephants lining chair rails, and the evil eye either above the front entrance way, or on the foot mat.


2. Staring is common, and practiced daily. Staring when I absentmindedly wore shorts during Ramadan, quadrupled. I have, one more than one occasion, considered wearing a scarf to hide the reason for the majority of stares: blonde hair.

3. On the topic of physical appearance, while I wouldn’t consider Turkey to be as homogenous as most of its neighboring nations, curly dark hair does seem to be the norm. It is as rare to find a black person, as it is to find a naturally blonde one.

4. If you have heart problems, do not get in a taxi. I say this for your safety. After 10 years of playing competitive sports, the adrenaline rushes I got this summer on the streets of Istanbul hands down got my heart pumping harder than any double overtime.

5. I may have acquired lung cancer from all the second hand smoke here. Since the smoking ban on July 19th, when smoking became permitted only outside, it is nearly impossible to walk on the sidewalks without choking on clouds of smoke.

6. A word to the wise for anyone planning on visiting Turkey and staying in someone’s home: bring slippers. Shoes are not to be worn in the house.

7. I have spoken with more than a handful of people now who believe that the United States never killed Sadam Hussain, and that we are keeping him hostage. Though it took a few hours or conversation with one particular individual, he let it slip that he also believes that the United States either 1. Has custody of Osama, or that we are somehow helping him hide. Oh, also, we are responsible for the twin towers falling—we planted bombs in them that simultaneously went off when the planes crashed. Some interesting theories, supported with some fairly convincing arguments.

8. Men here, and they agree to this, belong to one of the most proud and protective sects of the male species. Arguing here hardly ever ends in resolution. Compromise is not a virtue that many men here wish to possess, as it means they are admitting that they aren’t completely right about the topic at hand. This trait is common from children to elders.

9. Their school systems are quite different than ours. They do not have to attend the closest public school to them, but rather can choose amongst a slew of them. Their private schools (which I am much more familiar with, as that is where all of my host family and their friends go) are generally language based. They have French, English, and German schools, where all of the courses are taught in the foreign language. As Turkish is the official language of only one country, it is obligatory that every student know at least one other language fluently.

10. The Turks are quite proud of their food. It is one of the most important aspects of their culture. One could find at least a half-a-dozen different types of cheese on a platter for any given meal. Olives are in the green and black variety, generally drizzled in olive oil just for the extra flavor. Lamb in the most common meat. Processed foods are—no shock here—far less common here than they are in the States. My host family doesn’t even have crackers in the house.

11. I still am not used to their airports. Once you had checked in for your flight, and are in the airport, apparently you flight is not allowed to leave without you. So you can hold up a plane simply because you are having a sandwich in the coffee shop (I use this as an example, as this was one of the experiences I went through with my family). Also, my liquids were never once confiscated. Not even my 1.5 liters of diet coke.

12. You will find wet naps readily available after any meal or coffee. Muslims are quite concerned with cleanliness (thus the ritual of fully cleansing the body before prayer) and thus carry wet naps with them everywhere. Also, in regards to hygiene, it is not uncommon to find the ladies’ (or gents’ I suppose) room filled with holes in the ground as opposed to toilet seats. Toilet seats carry too many germs and unwanted residue, so many public bathrooms—at the airport, park, or beach—simply do not have them.

13. If mountaintops are visible, you are bound to see a Turkish flag on them
When I asked why, the person explaining it to me compared it to America’s 9/11. When something bad happens, patriotism goes up. The ongoing war with the Kurds is a cause for concern amongst all Turkish citizens, and thus the new government placed them there to remind citizens that there is strength in numbers: Turkey is stronger united than divided.

14. Happy horns. I love them. The 18-wheelers here have a different horn than the
normal “annnhhh” that sounds like a dead phone line. Rather, these gas-guzzlers have a much more pleasant ring, sounding much more like “doodaloop”. It is harder to have road rage when the person honking is simultaneously serenading you.

15. Something I will certainly miss about Turkey: nearly every home has a library.
No computer, no TV, simply a room with shelves, and get this—on those shelves, there are books! There are few houses back in the States that I can think of that have libraries. Seeing this, and noting that IKEA has begun to make bookshelves for everything but books, I have promised myself to one day own a home with a library.
Luckily I have already started collecting for those treasures with which it will be stocked.

One last thing. Tomorrow, August 30, is a national holiday in Turkey. It is their victory day, akin to our 4th of July. It was first celebrated in 1922 when Modern Turkey gained their independence from the Ottoman Empire. This is also the same day that I will be leaving. I’ll let you know how traffic is, as the main celebrations for this holiday are held in Istanbul.