That sizzling sound

... you hear is Turkey baking in one of the worst summers in memory. A day or two ago we did get this:



– but it lasted almost exactly as long as it took Meltem to run inside, fetch the camera and take this photo. Then it was back to more of the same hot-n-sunny. At least we don't (yet) have it as bad as Ankara; they're in a hot dry region and at a high altitude to boot, so their water shortage has hit the critical level (reservoir below 5% capacity) and the public water supply is now on a 48 hours on, 48 hours off cycle. Can you imagine, 48 hours with nary a drop from the tap? We were promised thunderstorms today but naturally they didn't materialize. Now I like sunshine as much as the next guy, but this is getting to be a little much. So I like talking to Mom and Dad on Skype and hearing them talk about all the rain they're getting.

Snip!

It being the last day of the month, I checked my bank account and lo and behold, Yeditepe paid me my July salary – pro-rated to take into account the resignation letter I couriered to them last week. So it appears they got the message, and I am now officially outta there. The cord has been cut, as it were. Phew. What a saga that was.

My teaching schedule is gossamer-light this week, and next week (ceteris paribus) I have no students at all. I have been taking advantage of this to get some of my own work done in the Bogaziçi library. And it's been going great. It got me thinking how I did not leave Yeditepe (solely) because of the students' alarming inability to reason; nor, more generally, did I bail on academia because I lost interest in the intellectual life. Quite the opposite: There is a certain kind of work I want to do, a certain stamp I want to leave on the world, and it's intellectual work; but academia was proving to be exactly the wrong environment I needed in which to do it. So I shoved off. Spinoza ground lenses, I can teach the SAT for a while.

Summertime blues

Greetings from the world's largest sauna. It's not actually that hot temperature-wise – as I write this it's about 84 degrees Fahrenheit – but the humidity is unbelievable. Looking off our balcony you can see the Asian side blanketed in steamy clouds. In short, yuck. Meltem and I have no class today (some would say I never have any!), so we're safely ensconced in air-conditioned splendor here in our living room, only daring to dart out into the soupy air for purposes of micturation and suchlike.

When the weather is less hideous, though, we do make the most of the summer. I try to get out and practice tai chi whenever I can, and my sly minx of a wife caught me with the camera the other day:



Also, last weekend we escaped to the shore, as mentioned in our last post. Here's a view of yours truly contemplating the Sea of Marmara:



This is a view across the street, to give you an idea of what kind of building our "summer place" is:



And, finally, a view down to the stairs which lead to the "beach." The water was particularly nice that day; sometimes it fills up with seaweed and jellyfish, but other times it's crystal-clear and the perfect temperature for a refreshing dip.

Election day

Meltem and I just came back from a very nice, relaxing weekend at her family's summer place about 45 minutes outside the city. I even worked up a tan of sorts. We were hoping that the place would be near-deserted today, because it's election day in Turkey and people would presumably leave early to make it to the polls on time. (Not only is it an important election, what with people being all nervous about returning the ruling party to power, but voting in Turkey is compulsory.) Alas, the place was still somewhat populated, but it certainly didn't detract from the quality of our chill-out time.

Driving back this evening, we noticed an unusual number of cars with European license plates on the road into the city. Meltem thinks they were Gastarbeiter, i.e. Turks who work in Europe, coming back to vote and visit their families while they're at it. Impressive to see how seriously people take voting around here. Not like there's really anyone worth voting for, but I digress!

My Proustian moment

The oddest things make you homesick. At work last week I was chatting with my colleagues at lunch when one of them, Selma, commented that as a graduate student in Massachusetts many years ago, she was grossed out when her residence served cottage cheese with pineapple. Bam! All of a sudden I had really vivid memories of eating cottage cheese with pineapple, and let me assure you they are blissful memories indeed. Naturally I piped up in favor of my beloved delicacy, but Selma was not to be moved. No matter – I was off down memory lane, an especially bittersweet inner journey in light of the fact that as far as I am aware, you can't get cottage cheese here in Turkey. So now there are, officially, two things I desperately miss about the States: autumn in New England, and cottage cheese with pineapple.

A MelbaBlog Milestone!

I was just gonna post something about my day, but I realized when I logged in that this is the 100th post on MelbaBlog! So, happy anniversary to us.

My new job continues to go well. It's a very interesting change from the kind of lecturing I'm used to. I used to have a body of material in my brain (e.g. "Islamic art from the 7th to the 14th century") which I then had to transmit, over the course of a semester or so, into the brains of my students. Teaching the SAT is different, because the body of material is, well, the English language and how to use it right. I have 3 students so far. Usually they come for 2 hours at a time, twice a week, but one of them is only in Istanbul for a month, so I've been teaching her 4 hours a day, 3 times a week – whew! Tiring, especially because I'm sorta learning by doing, but it's a good change for me. Plus, today was my first payday (ka-ching)!

Otherwise, summer continues to drag along with no rain in sight. Pretty sad to see the hay-brown lawn outside our balcony. Since there's an election coming up on July 22, the government doesn't dare mess with the water supply, but rumor has it that after the election they will start shutting off the water for some hours each day. Yuck. And speaking of elections, I will be glad when they're over if only because that will mean the various political parties will stop driving amplifier-laden vans around town blaring the lousy pop songs they commissioned for themselves...

Happy Fourth

Beh!

(More Elvin treacle follows hereupon, so scroll down if you're not interested.)

This was passed on to me by Meltem: The other day, out of the blue, Elvin looked at her mother and said "Beh!" (her version of "Barry") and made a hugging gesture. For those of you unfamiliar with Elvinese, this may be translated as "I love Barry!" And, of course, I'm flattered as all bug-out. I may only have a fan club of one, but she is surely a cutie!

Moving right along

It feels like things are moving right along around here. For one thing, I have started teaching – with a vengeance; they've already given me three students! This may not sound like a lot, but each one gets my time in two-hour blocks, twice a week, and one of them is only in Istanbul for a month so she's doing four hours a day three times a week. So my schedule is filling up (and my bank account will shortly follow!).

Also, today Meltem and I went to the Istanbul police to renew my residence permit. We were expecting a hellish bureaucratic experience, but actually it went much more smoothly than all that, I'm happy to report. We paid for a three-year extension, so I am legal until just after my fortieth birthday. Yes, fortieth. Middle age, here I come. Talk about moving right along...

Can't resist

...posting a picture of a graduation. God, I'm such a sucker for academic regalia and ceremony. We missed the main shindig, but yesterday a separate graduation was held for (I think) students of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences, and I got a snap of the professors coming onto the field. So here you are. (Cue "Pomp and Circumstance"!)

Balcony miscellanea

I am pleased to present the petunias I nursed back from shriveled near-oblivion.



Also, I couldn't resist getting a shot of the gathering audience for yesterday's Bogaziçi graduation. These people are lucky – the brutally hot weather had abated a little bit. Meltem and I missed the ceremony itself as we had gone off to a classical music concert (held in a Byzantine church with amazing acoustics), but we had gotten to savor the tests of the stadium's speaker system all day. I have to say, Pomp and Circumstance still gets me all choked up.

Behold the new teacher

A happy day job-wise! In quick succession, I got a phone call from TIPPS asking if I felt ready to start teaching (seems there's a student champing at the bit to get going; I said yes) and Meltem noticed that they've put my profile up on their web page. Huzzah!

Workin' Turks

OK, it's Africa hot around here. And I mean that literally – it seems a hot-weather pattern has come from Africa across the eastern Mediterranean to torment us in Turkey for a while. So say the Turkish meteorologists, anyway. Wherever it came from, it sucks. It's just nauseatingly hot. In fact several regions of Turkey have given public servants today and tomorrow off, since they're supposed to be the hottest days yet. Supposedly things will cool down toward the weekend.

And yet, if you look off either of our balconies at midday, you see manly men displaying what is either an awe-inspiring work ethic or mulish stupidity in the face of really dangerous heat. Here's one guy doing roof repairs across the street (there were others with him earlier, but they may have evaporated):



Just nearby, at the Bogaziçi stadium, they're setting up for the upcoming graduation festivities, blazing sun or no:



As for your humble Melbablog hosts, we're perfectly happy to cower in air-conditioned splendor. Call us spoiled (or civilized).

The chronicles of Elvin continue

For newcomers, or those who have forgotten: Elvin isn't some Tolkien reference, she's the daughter of Meltem's friends Durul and Şehnaz (who also happen to be our dentists!). We went to see them a couple of days ago and had a very nice time playing with Elvin, who will be 2 in October. Here's a recent snap.



I had been getting worried about Elvin for a while there. She has vast reserves of energy and a mighty pair of lungs, and when you combine that with an incentive structure like this:

Elvin: Aaaa!
Şehnaz: No.
Elvin: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
Şehnaz: OK, OK, fine!

... you get a recipe for trouble. Which is exactly what was brewing, as Elvin got more and more spoiled and demanding and her poor mother gradually got ground into powder. But things have turned around, and now Elvin is once again well-nigh 100% cuteness. I was playing with her on the couch at one point when she climbed down on the floor, patted the carpet with one hand and said "Otu!" (otur = sit!). So I sat on the floor – and she climbed up on me, wrapped her arms around my neck and just hugged me silently for like a minute and a half. I just about melted.

Sidewalk art

Now this is just cool. I'd heard of this guy before, but this photo essay captures his appeal particularly nicely as it builds up to the final image.

Just an update

...'cause I feel bad about posting so infrequently. I'm afraid we'll lose our fans!

The weather is turning nice and HOT. Not quite brutal enough yet to warrant turning on the air conditioner (with the attendant jump in the electric bill), but getting there. It's also regrettably dry. When Meltem and I drive out to our family's summer place on the outskirts of Istanbul we pass by the city's main water reservoir, and hoo boy, it's a scary sight. Despite the heat, though, this week there appears to be some kind of football camp going on at the stadium across the street. (And again, when I say "football" I mean the REAL kind, not this girly-man soccer aberration.) Morning and afternoon the field fills up with young guys wearing helmets, running around to the orders of a couple of middle-aged men who are probably imported coaches. Hell, fine by me; anything to get a he-man sport recognized around here.

Speaking of he-men, or wanna-bes anyway, I don't know if it's the heat, but in the past week I've witnessed three fights. One we watched from the balcony of a restaurant downtown; some worthless jackass shoved a woman (his girlfriend?) across the hood of a cab, and was promptly given what-for by a nearby Galahad (not before the woman threw her high-heeled shoe at his head though!). Then, the other day, Meltem and I were running for a bus when the doors opened and WHAM, a couple of peasant-looking ruffians burst out the door, one chasing the other. The chasee tripped over me, so the chaser caught him; hope I didn't accidentally trip the wrong guy! Finally, I was coming home from somewhere yesterday and noticed that a crowd had gathered outside our local mini-mart. Right as I passed by the tension snapped as two guys lunged at each other. It's a regular Dodge City around here! (Weird thing: No one around here seems to know how to take a swing; they all go for the straightforward frontal choke. Maybe I've been watching too many kung fu movies, so my entertainment expectations are inappropriately elevated.)

And finally, the big drama around the house is an invasion of pesky ants, who discovered our secret cache of brown sugar. The forces of goodness and light (me) have been struggling valiantly to vanquish them, but they just keep comin'. O tempora! O mores!

Who's Starbuck?

Last night Meltem and I went out with a couple we know, Kürşad and Funda. Kürşad (the husband) works in a casino, and as part of his preparation for a new placement at a casino in North Cyprus he's been "training" in sunny Suriname. Funda is about to go join him for the last leg of his stay there, and then they'll go to North Cyprus hopefully in December. (Kürşad is a high-school friend of Meltem's, and he and Funda were living in North Cyprus when we were there, so it's kind of a homecoming for them.) Anyway, after a nice meal we went out for a coffee at a place with a cool name: Mandabatmaz. In Turkish this means, ahem, "the water buffalo doesn't sink." Apparently the idea is that the foam on top of your yummy Turkish coffee is so thick a water buffalo could walk on it. (The logo of the place was even a water buffalo walking atop a cup of coffee.) Much cooler than some stupid mermaid!

MWNF update

Some of you may recall that I worked on a project called Museum With No Frontiers and its "Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean" website. Well, it's still growing, and they've just unveiled a new bunch of sections including a general introduction to the phases of Islamic art. It's divided into sections, each of which has information about the architecture and minor (decorative) arts of the respective historical periods (e.g. Abbasids, Ottomans). I wrote the sections describing the minor arts. You can plunge in here if you're so inclined.

A comparison

Lest my joyful swoon, in my last post, over the concept of "walking distance" was insufficiently convincing, here's a pictorial comparison to show you how oh-so-beautifully close to home my new job is gonna be. Courtesy Google Earth, of course.

Exhibit A: Where TIPPS is relative to our love shack.



I realize it's a bit small, but home is at the upper right, a little house-icon labeled "Home Sweet Home" right next to the compass-circle. (The big green field right next to it is the Bogaziçi sports field, where I often go to run or do tai chi.) My lovely new workplace is at the upper left, a blue pushpin marked "TIPPS." For reference I've included the large triangular complex at the bottom with two towers; this is the Akmerkez shopping mall, with which some of you are now familiar (hi Mom!).

OK, on to Exhibit B: Where my soon-to-be-erstwhile employer is located relative to all this.



Home Sweet Home and TIPPS are in the foreground; Yeditepe is the yellow pushpin in the background. I like how you can see the curvature of the earth. Any questions as to why I didn't like the commute?

(UPDATE: If you click on the pictures you get bigger and more legible versions. At least I did.)

Müjde

(That means "good news" in Turkish.)

Today I signed a contract for a New Job. Yes, that's right, I am letting my contract with my current employer run out (on August 31), and switching to a new career track, sort of. My new employer is a place called Turkish International Prep Schools, or TIPPS. (Their website is here.) They provide tutoring and consulting services to Turkish students who want to get into American universities, mainly by helping them pass the SAT and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) tests. Officially it's a part-time job, but since the demographic that wants this service is pretty well-off, the potential for making fat wads of money is darn good. I need to "self-train" as an SAT instructor, but should get my first students next month or August at the latest. Best part: The school is in a very nice neighborhood WALKING DISTANCE from where we live. Oh, let me repeat them, the sweetest two words I have let roll off my lips and keyboard in a long, long time: walking distance. (Whence this urge for a cigarette?) Anyway, I went there today to sign the contract and have lunch with them, and I was really struck by what an incredibly friendly, even familial environment they have cultivated, at least among the staff. And judging from a Turkish bulletin board I checked out, they are intensely beloved by their students as well. So things are looking very, very up indeed, at least at this moment.

For an idea of what I'm leaving, here are some gems of knowledge I picked up from my current students' final examinations:

• The Cold War ended when Jean-Jacques Rousseau died.
• The U.S. Constitution was written by Joseph Stalin.
• In WWII, the Germans invaded other countries "directly, without foreheads." (I love this one.)

(Let me hasten to add that I had a handful of really nice, intelligent students who fully earned my respect and whom I will miss a lot. Not enough to make me want to stay, though.)