Kapalıçarşı

Today, on the first day of our long-awaited vacation, we went to Kapalıçarşı, the Grand Bazaar. I haven't been there for God knows how long, and usually when I go, I don't have much time to spend there. I buy whatever I need and leave. Today was different. We just let ourselves enjoy strolling in the fascinating little streets of the bazaar. I remembered how much I like that place. We were in the tacky touristic streets as well as the artsy more sophisticated ones. And of course the Bedesten, with the antique and silver stores. This is not a good picture, but there was a fancy patisserie in Bedesten with a grand chandelier. I like the arches.

We will tell you more about it the trip when we see each other next week. When we needed a rest, we sat at a cute little cafe and had our lattes. Here is Barry admiring the ceiling.

And this is what he was looking at:

Barry will probably post his pictures, too.

I want to go back there again...

Long live the shopping malls!

Yesterday was the last day of the classes of the fall term. The last two weeks especially have been extremely busy for me, with not much sleep. In addition to grading midterms, writing recommendation letters for students who are applying to PhD programs in the States, reading and commenting on their samples of work, a colleague of mine and I were writing a grant proposal, which we also had to hand in yesterday. We finished it at 1 PM and then I had other things to do until 2. At 2 I was ready and happy to go home and I realized that I had left my keys at home and Barry had already left. On a Friday evening before a long holiday, he couldn't be back home till 9. That gave me 7 hours to spend outside! What do you do if you have so many hours to kill and you don't want to go back to your office and work anymore? Yes, of course, I went to the nearby shopping mall. I am not very good at shopping. I don't like it and I am not very efficient at it. I can spend hours looking for sth and can go home without having bought anything, and I get tired easily. Still, I did a lot of window shopping, which was fun. I got to meet Santa:

And I enjoyed some live Mozart...

Then I decided to go to the hairdresser. When Barry came back home at 9 PM, I was still there... :^)

Back atcha!

Ah, now that my tech-wizard wife has shown me how to upload pictures from our spiffy new cell phones, here's a taste of what I've been snapping:

Here's the Nuruosmaniye Camii, an Ottoman Baroque mosque from the 18th century. It's not my favorite mosque, but it is pretty. They cleaned it recently, and the difference between what you see now and what I am familiar with from architectural-history books is flabbergasting. In the old days this thing was practically black. It's like they sent fraternity pledges up there with bleach and toothbrushes.



I like this next one. I took it on the same walk I was on when I shot the Nuruosmaniye. It's from the nearby Sahaflar Çarsisi, or Second-Hand Book Bazaar. Amazing what you can read in Turkey these days. I find it kind of amusing that Atlas Shrugged is sitting on top of a biography of Che Guevara. It's also funny that while to Che's left is a copy of Mein Kampf (birds of a feather, don't you know), on his right is an encyclopedia of medicinal herbs!



Here's a picture of Meltem I took while we were taking the long, hard hike up the hill from Bebek to our apartment. Directly behind her is a nice old building which gives you an idea of the pretty wooden houses which USED to adorn our fair city. I also like the Jeep.



Finally, here is a Christmas (or rather New Year's?) tree beneath the bulletin board of the Yeditepe Philosophy Department. It had flashing lights which weren't flashing when I snapped this. I thought it was a cute gesture. (Some around here don't appreciate such cute gestures; from the bus window today I saw a banner that said "Christmas is not for MUSLIMS!")



So, another visual feast for you! More to come courtesy of me and Samsung!

Starbucks with the best view!

Hi everybody, I hope you had a nice Christmas. I have finally figured out how to transfer images from my cellphone to the computer, but Barry went to bed before I solved this technology puzzle. So, I thought I would post some pictures from last Sunday both for you and to suprise him.

The campus of the Bogazici (=Bosphorus) University, where I work, starts on top of a hill and ends in Bebek, by the water. As Barry wrote before, last Sunday we walked through the campus to Bebek. Traditional Turkish café chains Starbucks and Gloria Jeans (from West Coast) have branches there and whenever we can, we like to go to one of them and enjoy the view of Bosphorus while sipping non-Turkish coffee. This Sunday, we took work with us and sat outside, on one of the little balconies of Starbucks, grading and writing exams. It was nice to be breathing fresh air.

Cheers!

Our philosopher:

And our little friends:

The pictures came out better than I thought. Anyway, I have done enough to avoid preparing for my lecture tomorrow. I should go to bed now.

Noel kösesi UPDATE!

We decided our Christmas tree looked lonely without a human companion, so here's me with our beautiful creation:



As I write this, it's quarter past midnight, and therefore December 25. So Merry Christmas to everyone!

Noel kösesi

(That means "Christmas Corner" in Turkish.)



Behold, the happiest little Christmas tree in Istanbul! Meltem and I put it up and decorated it this afternoon (better late than never!). The red chain thing draped over the door is a nice additional touch, no? And check out all the loot under the tree, much of which is due to the awesome generosity and Christmas spirit of my blessed mom.

Hope all our loyal readers (we're keeping track of you, note the counter at the very bottom of the blog!) are having as wonderful a build-up to Christmas as we are!

A nice Xmas Eve walk

This morning Meltem and I did our usual weekend get-off-the-hamster-wheel routine and went for a nice walk. This time we just walked over to Bogaziçi University (where Meltem works), meandered down its long road to the seaside neighborhood of Bebek, and had some nice coffee in the Starbucks there, which has a great view of the Bosphorus. Sad to say, our camera's batteries croaked before we got there, but we did take a couple of nice shots of our walk before that. Here, for example, is a view of the Bosphorus from the Bogaziçi "driveway," with yours truly exhibiting a complete inability to refrain from childish behavior:



And here's Meltem on the winding road which goes from the university campus down to Bebek:



Most buildings in Bebek are right on the street (thus looking directly out onto the Bosphorus), but this one has a driveway we liked:



Lastly, here is Meltem's abstract composition entitled Urban Symphony in Asphalt and White. I like the way the purely formal values intersect deconstructively with the implicit, yet uniquely devastating, social commentary... oh, fine, enough B.S. This is when the camera went off by itself and immediately thereupon told us it wanted new batteries.



I took a couple of pictures with my new cell phone, but haven't yet transferred them to my Mac. Hopefully that will happen soon. 'Til then, enjoy!

Corner turned?

Last night Meltem and I went to a small dinner that my university (Yeditepe) was throwing in honor of a visit from Orhan Kayaalp, who is (a) an economics professor at the City University of New York, (b) a personal friend of the rector and vice-rector, and (c) the father of one of my colleagues in the History Department. It was a darn fine occasion. The restaurant where it was held was beautiful, situated on the top floor of the university's Faculty of Dentistry building on swanky Bagdat Caddesi (Baghdad Avenue). It wasn't very big, just a bunch of us from the History Department and a few other friends of Prof. Kayaalp. But it was extremely nice. I got to chat informally with these, my new colleagues, and they are really good people. I got the same feeling from the department meeting we had last week: this is a close-knit department in which everybody genuinely likes each other and there's a strong sense of solidarity. Meltem and I had nice chats left and right, and even discovered mutual interests with some colleagues; for example, the husband of Pinar, the daughter of Prof. Kayaalp and the first person I met in the History Department, is really into walking in the Belgrade Forest (which we did a couple weeks ago and I blogged about here). So we may do a double-date amidst the trees sometime next year. On the whole, it was just a really nice evening and it definitely improved my impression of what working for Yeditepe will be like. I've already been told that the two (yes, two) students who will be in my Islamic Civilization class next semester are real go-getters – 'twill be quite a nice change from the bricks I've been struggling with in my Humanities 101 class this term. So, as the title of this post suggests, I'm hopeful that I've turned a corner as regards work, and that I can look forward to a much better semester in the spring.

Traffic woes, here and there

Of late we have finally gotten the rain we so desperately needed to clean the air (that nasty acrid haze was really bringing me down). Unfortunately, if even the slightest moiety of whispering droplets fall from the clouds over our fair city, the traffic increases exponentially. This has made this week a tough one for me in that my commute time has ballooned. I try to read on the bus, but when the bus is stuck in what we call "dur-kalk" ("stop-go") traffic, lurching into and out of gear with the twitchings of the traffic organism, it can be tough to concentrate. Not to mention when you're stuck in a place like accursed Kadiköy where the atmosphere is approximately 75% bus exhaust. At least this week was light as far as classes go, since all I have to do is review the last 5 classes for the final exams next week. (Yep, Christmas ain't a holiday here, so we just keep going!)

But for all my curmudgeonly griping about traffic woes in Istanbul, I breathe an inner sigh of relief when I look at headlines about holiday traffic in Britain and the USA. I mean, the very thought of being cooped up with several thousand angry travellers in Heathrow or Denver airports, waiting for hours to escape on flights which then get cancelled due to the weather, makes my flesh creep. Holiday rush, indeed. It almost makes it worth it that Christmas ain't a holiday here. Almost but not quite. It is interesting, I must note again, that Istanbullers have gotten very into the whole trees-and-lights thing, although here the holiday isn't Christmas but New Year's. They even appropriated Santa, who says not "ho ho ho" but "Mutlu Yillar" (Happy New Year").

Which reminds me, Meltem and I have to put up our Christmas tree! So I'll close on that happy note (and post a picture of it when it's done).

Culture vultures

Last night Meltem and I went to a guitar recital at a very nice concert hall (next to the Military Museum!). The performer was Eliot Fisk, a real virtuoso. He played a bunch of stuff ranging from Spanish classics to Bach and some composer who's still alive. It was really amazing to see a great player at work; sometimes it sounded like he had about 16 fingers all playing at once. Meltem and I were both struck by how interesting it is that here's this guy, basically plucking five lengths of catgut strung over a hollow box for resonance, shortening each one as necessary to yield different tones; and it all comes together in this great river of melody. Human ingenuity will never cease to boggle my mind.

Ah, also yesterday I didn't have to go to campus, so I went down to Sultanahmet (i.e. the old city, the touristy part) to hang around for a bit. I took a couple of pictures with my swanky new cell phone, including one of a maintenance worker pushing a wheelbarrow around the dome of Hagia Sophia. God, do I hope that one came out legibly. I will post a couple of my pix soon, it's a matter of figuring out how to get them onto my Mac (I can e-mail them to myself from my phone – again, how cool is that – but that costs money and let's face it, I'm cheap).

Language fun

Speaking of linguistic butt-kicking, I was entertaining myself thinking about Turkish the other day. People like silly phrases which sound funny, like:

Müdür müdür müdür? (Is the director a director?)
Müdür müdürdür. (The director is a director.)

Well I've got a cooler one:

Yaa, ya yayaya? (Hey, what about for the pedestrian?)

OK, it's not Sasha Baron Cohen funny, but it entertained me, so I thought I'd share.

We're in the para

Hi all! Sorry blogging is sparse but that's our busy life. Good news: Last week I jumped through what seems to be the final hoop to get my "promotion" to Assistant Professor (Yardimci Doçent) status, which was a two-hour language exam. I think I did fine; the funniest thing was that the guy who supervised the exam was one of my Turkish teachers back in 1996 when I did the Bogaziçi summer school. "Just like old times," I told him as I handed in my pages. Besides the inherent satisfaction of showing how much linguistic butt I kick, this will (or so I am told) also mean that when the university gets around to paying me for all the hours I worked before signing on as a full-time faculty member, I will already have been promoted, so I will get paid at a higher rate. We'll see if it happens, since as I have tried to intimate, this university ain't much for fulfilling promises; but if it turns out as they say, we will receive a nice financial boost right around Christmas. 'Tis the season!

In other news, Meltem and I are now the proud and happy owners of new cell phones, ones which can take pictures. Supposedly I can even take a picture and e-mail it to people, and EVEN directly to the blog. I'm still getting the hang of it (I was happy enough that my old phone could send text messages!), so don't hold your breath, but with any luck ol' MelbaBlog should have some nice new images coming very soon.

And for those of you who haven't heard, Meltem and I are going to be visiting the States for about two weeks in January. Start organizing the parade!

Can't help but share this with you!

I have been in love with this cutie for a year, since she made this world a happier place. She, Elvin, is my friend Sehnaz's daughter. Barry told you about her before. They get along very well. Sehnaz made a CD of some of Elvin's pictures for us, and I made one a wallpaper for my computer and also my screensaver shows her pictures randomly. I am putting some of them here. Sorry if this is all boring for you, but blogs are to share thoughts and feelings, right? Well, my feeling is that every time I see her pictures I want to run to their home and start eating her cheeks (arms, legs, belly, nose...)

The ones above and below were taken this summer. I love her smile.

The ones below show how evil her parents are. She should leave them and live with us.

It's the little (electronic) things

Our lovely apartment, which we enjoy courtesy of Meltem's august employer (see link at right), is blessedly equipped with Ethernet. But since there is one Ethernet jack and two of us, we have had to swap cables whenever one of us wanted to get on the Internet and the other was using it. Until now. We recently got a wireless access point, with the result that we can BOTH surf the web (uh, I mean work productively) at the same time. It's fun to sit on facing easy chairs and enjoy simultaneous access. Once we breached the cutesy barrier and send instant messages to each other on Skype... but I'll stop before you gag on our sweetness.

And here is another picture of my handsome hubby!

Some belated pictures

Hi! I am still fighting with the cold, unfortunately. Jon, thanks for the sympathy. I take this as an opportunity to post some more pictures. Barry wrote earlier that we got together with some of my elementary school friends and our teacher at a tavern-like place. These are some of the pictures from that night. Here is Barry and my teacher:

And here is me with two of my friends.

I may have told some of you on the phone about this reunion. I hadn't seen my elementary school friends for 25 years (yes, this makes me feel really old) until one of them bumped into our teacher at the market, and started to look for us last spring. First time we got together was very weird and very emotional. We bonded as if we had never separated and had a lot of fun together. Last time we had seen each other we were 10-11, and here we were with a long history in-between. Some of us had gotten married, with one or more children, some already divorced. Some with successful careers, some unemployed but happy. There is so much to tell but still you don't know how much of it you want to tell to this childhood friend who is also a stranger. Anyway, we had great fun that night. Just watching people around dancing was quite entertaining:

Wow

Remember yesterday I talked about a white blanket of mist that had descended upon Istanbul? Well, it's getting thicker. Here's a snap:



Apparently it intensified early this morning (like 3:30 am), to the point where they had to close the Bosphorus to shipping in both directions. It's also snarling traffic in places. Oh joy, I can't wait for my commute!

In a few minutes, as it happens, Meltem and I will go out into this killer fog to get me a tax number. This will allow me to get paid, at long last. Or so they tell me; I'm waiting for the next "Oh yeah, there's something else we neglected to mention." (By the way, Meltem is developing a cold, so please leave sympathy notes in the comments!)

Damn

Looks like divine justice was almost served on my scumbag landlord in London. Hey God! A couple of miles to the southwest next time!

Work update

Thought I'd share what's going on with my august employer. As I think I've written already, I signed my contract, so until next August 31 I have a paying job. Not quite paying enough for what I go through, but hey, it's a start. Irritatingly, the Human Resources people are still hanging on to my passport and residence permit, so I intend to go ask when I can have them back today or tomorrow.

The latest fun is that I was actually hired as a lecturer, not an assistant professor. To be an assistant professor (Yardim Doçent, or Yard. Doç. as we like to say), I have to be promoted. The promotion committee, whoever they are, need to pore over my CV and all my publications including my Ph.D. thesis – in four copies. So I have been having a grand old time at the local photocopy places. I'm sure the guys at Yunus Copy really loved me when I asked for four copies of my 500-page thesis, which they basically have to do page by page. Well, it will be a fat wad of money for them, so I shouldn't pity them. I'll pick it up today and give it to the Dean's secretary so that she can give it to the committee members and they can (not) read it. Ha, and the best part is that I apparently have to take a language proficiency exam, which the secretary said would consist of translating a text in a language of my choice (I took French) into Turkish. Yep, into Turkish. I seriously doubt she remembered it correctly, but it will be a real hoot if I actually do have to translate French into Turkish. I'd probably do an OK job, but it seems a bit illogical. Also, I'm annoyed enough with this farcical university that if I fail the stupid thing I can say fine, don't promote me, I'll work as a lecturer for a year and then bail. Surely there's work to be found in Istanbul as a virtuoso banjo player or something.

I have met a few members of the History Department, which will be my home. One is a recent Harvard graduate (I didn't know her there) who's quite nice. I met with her a week or two ago and she was very helpful in telling me about the department, the workload, etc. She says for all the crap, working here is actually OK because everybody in the department is friendly and supportive. So I hold on to a narrow thread of hope. (Oh, I'm just so grouchy!)

In the meantime, I continue teaching History of Civilizations. This week I've been doing Islamic history until 1258, which is the end of the classical age. The irony of a non-Muslim standing up there and teaching Turkish students about Islamic history is not lost on my students. A couple have indeed pointed out to me that in the fiercely secular Turkish Republic, you don't get taught much Islamic anything in school. Yours truly is also fiercely secular, but I think it's possible to convey the interest and value of classical Islamic civilization without sounding like you're trying to convert people. I did have one kid come up to me in the break to tell me about the scientific knowledge hidden in the Qur'an – guess he appreciated the outlet for his piety. Interesting place.

Crazy hazy

The last couple of days have seen a blanket of white haze descend upon our fair city. I thought it was kind of cool, just a nifty early-winter fog thing, but Meltem informs me that it's lousy air quality time. They even warn people who live at the bottom of Istanbul's many hills to be careful, since the haze pools there and can adversely affect people with respiratory troubles. Up here at higher altitudes, though, it still looks pretty nifty. And even if it's bad for you, at least it doesn't hit you right in the stomach like the bus fumes I am occasionally forced to marinate in for interminable minutes at a time.