Learnings from Istanbul for Make Benefit Glorious State of Alabama

Well, I've got one day left in Istanbul before I head back to beautiful Ujar, and quite frankly I feel I've spent just the right amount of time here. The whole hyper-tourism aspect of this city is starting to get to me, and after spending a year in a small town in a tiny country in the middle of nowhere, I feel a bit claustrophobic around all these damn people. Also, I'm sorely disappointed at how useless my Azeri has been here. Basically the numbers and some basic words are the same, but conversationally it's like I'm speaking English and they're speaking Dutch. Also interesting is the general attitude difference people have here towards Azerbaijan. From what I've gathered, it seems that Turks regard Azerbaijan like a really embarassing cousin; you know, the kind you hope doesn't show up to the family reunion because he'll either get in a fight or tell inappropriate stories about his sex life. I've heard a few people say that Azeris are "they're brothers", meaning that they are also Turkic, but that's about as far as they'll go. It couldn't be more different in Azerbaijan. People there absolutely love Turkey, as far as they're concerned it's the best thing since sliced bread (pun intended...because even when people say "no pun intended", you know it was). They constantly describe their relationship with Turkey as "bir millet, iki dövlet", which means "one nation, two states", and if you ask any Azeri if they are Turkish they will inevitably answer "yes, of course, all Azeris are Turkish". If you ask a Turk if they're Azeri, they'll rarely even have the gumption to respond with a "no", much less tell you how ridiculous such a question sounds. I feel like I'm asking Tony Soprano if he's Byzantine.

But, despite these problems my stay in Istanbul has been nice overall. Despite eating a Turkish chicken dish of questionable history and preparation which left me curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor for about 12 hours, the food has been good, though not much different from Azerbaijan really. I got to see some amazing sights, most especially the Haghia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Today I took a boat tour out to the islands in the Sea of Marmara, which was very nice, though the islands themselves were pretty boring. Tomorrow I'm either going to the Spice Bazaar or Taksim on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, and on Wednesday I'm back on a plane to Baku at 8am. I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures for the next several posts. If I feel so inclined I might provide some more commentary, but if I don't then bye for now, expect more when I make it to an internet club back in AZ.

More pics

The Hagia Sofia, surrounded by tourists, much like the rest of the city. A view of the Sea of Marmara from my hotel's rooftop terrace. The gate of the University of Istanbul. One of the larger of the dozens of mosques scattered across the city. The Basilica Underground Cistern, a huge cistern built in the 5th century BC by the Romans to store fresh water brought in from the Belgrade forest.

Lessons learned

(An Egyptian obelisk, some Arabic calligraphy on the walls of the Topkapi Palace, inside the courtyard of the Blue Mosque, and one of the hallways of the absolutely massive Grand Bazaar)

So it's my third day in Istanbul and I'm getting the hang of it. I'm staying in a section called Sultanahmet, which is the section of Istanbul which has the most ancient sites to see, and as a result is fueled by a tourist industry that would make Walt Disney roll over in his cryogenic grave. Because of this, most everyone here speaks at least some English, which means I really don't have to use my Azeri, but I still speak it with the hotel staff and store clerks to get brownie points for being pseudo-Turkish. This also means that half the people here are tourists from all over the place. I've never heard so many different languages spoken in one place in my life. Last night I had some beers and played poker with 2 Russian guys, 2 Slovakian girls, an Irish woman, a Kiwi, 3 Turks and a Kurd. Since I was the only one who spoke the respective languages known by each group I ended up being the default translator when they didn't understand each other. It was nice, I talked with the Turks a lot about the differences between here and AZ, and was once again reminded that my Russian is terrible.

I'm starting to notice the differences and, sometimes more striking, the similarities between here and Azerbaijan. The food is similar in restaurants, the language is similar, the customs are similar. However, this is definitely not Azerbaijan. For one, I'm beginning to find that most people here understand Azeri, but with some difficulty. At first I thought it was just because the languages are far more different than most Azeris are willing to admit, but it turns out that a lot of the words that Azerbaijanis use are actually old Turkish words which have been phased out or replaced in modern Turkish. Also, a lot of words in Azeri have been borrowed from Arabic or Persian, and more recently Russian, for which Turks have either their own original words or have adapted from European languages. Also different is the sounds in the language. After speaking and hearing Azeri for a year I have gotten used to the phonetics of the language. It has many sounds which are strange to the English speaker's ear, but which have a soft quality to them which in my opinion makes the language flow easily. But in Turkish many of these sounds are hardened, making it a harsher sounding language. Many words in which Azeri uses the sound "g" is replaced by "k" in Turkish, and "d" becomes "t". Also almost all the normal greetings are different in Turkish, so every time I say "salam aleykum" to someone, instead of responding "aleykum a salam" they say "merheba", which might as well be Vietnamese to me.

Also different is the religious observance. Both Azerbaijan and Turkish are muslim nations, but with significant differences. Firstly, Azerbaijan is the only nation other than Iran which has Shia Islam as its state religion. Turkey, like most of the rest of the muslim world, is Sunni. This carries with it some cultural differences, most of which are slight and are mainly related to expectations of religious observance. However, unlike Turkey, Azerbaijan spent 70 years under the rule of the officially atheist Soviet Union. As a result, people are more likely to have 5 shots of vodka than pray 5 times a day. There is a mosque in Ujar, and it plays the call to prayer 5 times a day, but hardly anyone actually prays and even less go to the mosque itself. That is absolutely not the case here. First off, there are like a billion mosques here, and when the call to prayer plays it comes from every direction at once. I've counted no less than 15 mosques within sight of my hotel's rooftop terrace, and those are just the ones that are nearby. And, when the call to prayer plays, people pray. Not just in the mosque, but everywhere. In the halls of the grand bazaar (pictured above), in the parks, even on the sidewalk, you will see groups of dozens, sometimes hundreds of people lined up on their prayer rugs. I've never seen anything like this in Azerbaijan, even in bigger cities, even on Friday, which is the most important day of prayer in Islam. Furthermore, right now it's Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. From sunrise to sunset the observant obstain from food during this month, and break fast after the last call to prayer. Here it's taken seriously, and you can see hundreds of people gathered in the park between the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia waiting for the last call, and then they break out their meals en masse and break fast together. In Azerbaijan, fasting essentially means that people don't drink alcohol (or at least less alcohol)...at best. For two nations that are considered so similar, it sometimes appears to be two different worlds.

More to come later.

Istanbul Adventure

Greetings all from Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, formerly known as Byzantium, and in between that known as New Rome and Augusta Antonina among other monikers. Interestingly enough, despite its long history of being constantly invaded and overrun throughout history by different groups of opposing ideas and cultures, most of the ancient things in this city that were built by previous inhabitants remain here in modern Turkey. Among them are the Hagia (or Aya) Sophia and the Blue Mosque, pictured above. Also pictured is the hottest day I managed to snap a pic of on my thermometer. It topped out at 111 for a couple of days and that's as hot as it got thankfully. Also is a slightly dated picture of my cat Magnus, from back when he first showed up at my house and was all scrawny and sad looking. He's pictured here in his signature pose of incessant whining until I feed him or pet him or do whatever it is that he thinks meowing to no end will make me do.

My first day in Istanbul hasn't been too eventful, I spent half the day inside just resting after the stress of getting here from Ujar. If I had known that it would require me staying awake for almost 48 hours and paying enough to get a round trip bus to and from Tbilisi, Georgia just to get to the Baku airport I would have just gone there instead, but I've been planning this trip for a while and nothing was gonna stop me.

Of course, as soon as I got in Turkey I realized that all the stuff Azeris have been telling me about Turks being able to understand Azerbaijani and vice verse was highly exaggerated at best. Maybe it's easy for Azeris to understand Turkish because they always watch Turkish TV, but so far it seems that most people have no idea what I'm saying here when I speak Azeri and I've understood about 3 sentences that have been said to me so far. The only conversation I've had was with a rug seller who, despite being a rather kind man, was clearly trying to make a sale, which I'm sure influenced his tolerance of my language skills. From what I've gathered, when Turks hear Azeris talk they have about the same reaction as when someone from Birmingham, England hears someone from Birmingham, Alabama speak.

My hotel has internet so I will be uploading photos and blogs all week. Keep you're eyes peeled for more neat stuff from Anatolia!

From the Bowels of Hell: Summer in Ujar

Forgive the title, but if you were here you would understand. With the exception of a week or so it's been at least 100 every day for like 3 months here. At its worst it got up to 110 for about a week and a half, then tapered off to 108 for a couple more and finally fell below 100 last week. The past couple of days storms have been rolling through and brought the temp down to a nice cool 80, though from what I've heard it's not destined to last. I haven't posted in so long because the only working internet club in my town wouldn't really be well aptly described as "working". It's so eaten up with viruses that the net only works only half the time. Furthermore, it's about a 30 minute walk away, and is located inside an unairconditioned box that maintains an air temperature that I would estimate is only slightly higher than the surface of the sun. Considering this, I usually find myself less than enthusiastic about coming here unless I can make the walk without losing 5 pounds of body water in the process. I apologize to those of you, especially my family, who have been waiting patiently by the computer to get news from me. So, here it is.

First off, I've finally planned my summer trip, though by the time I get there it won't really be summer anymore. I'm going to be spending a week in the ancient and lovely city of Istanbul. I've secured my flight and a cheap but reliable hotel room for the week, and the rest I'm playing by ear. I'm flying solo, though a few of the departing volunteers from AZ will be there for a few days during my stay. I'm gonna get to see the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, and all kinds of other neat stuff. Plus, since I now speak Azeri (sort of), that means I will be able to understand Turkish (less sort of). I'm looking forward to a break from Ujar and Azerbaijan in general before the school year starts again.

As far as home life goes, I'm basically sitting around reading a lot and trying not to boil in my own heat-stressed bodily fluids. I've become exceedingly good at freecell and solitaire on the computer, and extremely bad a showering regularly. I've adopted a stray cat who was abandoned by its mother in my yard. At first he was totally terrified of me, but now he is just about the neediest animal I have ever seen in my life. He will NOT SHUT UP. Fortunately for him he's cute and I like cats, otherwise he would have been left outside the gate to fend for himself. I have dubbed him Magnus the Brave, on account of the fact that he is afraid of his own shadow. Pictures will follow when I have time to get to a computer whence I can send them.

Finally, I've been trying to get more acquainted with people in my community by essentially doing as they do. This means I spend a good amount of time sitting outside the local store, at the local tea house and the local restaurant/bar hanging out with "the guys". "The Guys" are all people who live nearby me in Ujar, all of varying ages, professions, marital status and walks of life. I've shared countless glasses of tea (yes, glasses. They drink it piping hot, but out of tumblers, so you get used to the end of your fingers having no sensation after a while), beer, and more than a few reluctantly accepted shots of vodka. Out of these interactions I have found a few fundamental truths about the Azeri soul. First off, family, especially kids, is the be all and end all of Azeri life. These guys, or the married ones at least, care more about their kids than anything else, for which I applaud them. However, this also means that anyone older than 20 that isn't married with a kid on the way is considered a bit odd. To them, the proper course of life is 1) grow up, 2)get married, 3)start a family, 4)find means of supporting said family. Because of this they cannot for the life of them understand why I am neither married nor have any desire to get married. Without fail, every single conversation I have with a group of men here will inevitably result in at least one, and usually many, attempts to convince me to find a girl and get married in Azerbaijan. To them, which girl, her personality and our potential compatibility are completely irrelevant. As far as they're concerned, I just need to get married quick and then figure things out afterwards. Outside of family though, most guys here are just trying to live the best they can with what they have and try to have fun with it. Average salary here is around $100 a month, which is very little but enough considering that most households have about 4 incomes and no rent to pay. They like to do some irritating things, like constantly argue about money as if arguing about it makes more of it appear, and when I grew a goatee earlier this summer they constantly gave me crap about it because they think beards look bad. But for the most part they just like to joke and have fun, which is about all there is to do here in this flat, hot, boring town.

That's all for now, I'll post more when I'm in Istanbul. Peace.