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The first week of school is done and the year is off to a promising start. I am a Grade 12 advisor, teaching Grades 7 & 8 (MYP Art) and Grades 11 & 12 (IB/DP Visual Arts). The range of ages is nice and the energy is positive from all of my classes so far. Amazingly, I have two of my old students who I taught in Russia in my classes here in Turkey! When the war began in February, schools in the region offered asylum to international students from Moscow. These students hail from Denmark and France originally. It’s wonderful to see them a year later, making it work in this new environment.

On Friday night, the school took us on a boat ride downtown. We caught the sunset and danced the night away as we cruised up and down the Bosphorus Strait. The faculty has been so welcoming and I am really enjoying getting to meet all the teachers. Many have links to schools in Moscow or Bangladesh, as it happens. A robust group of international teachers with very interesting life journeys.

On Saturday, Ali and I took a bus back downtown for a little Moscow reunion with our friend Joseph, who has set up counseling practice here for the next few months. We enjoyed the area around İstiklal Caddesi and watched the tram patiently make it’s way through the crowd, bells ringing. Tuesday was Victory Day in Turkey and national pride runs high here. Many Turkish flags still proudly wave in adoration of Atatürk, founding father of the Republic of Turkey (more on him in a future post). As we walked around downtown, I was struck by the lightness of the mood on the street. The crowds are thick but people are happy, stepping aside to let others pass, and enjoying their time out with family and friends. You are just as likely to see a woman dressed in a full burka as a woman wearing a crop top and short shorts. Everything goes and everyone is welcome.

When moving to a new country, I always enjoy learning about cultural superstitions. They run as strong here in Turkey as they did in Korea (hello, fan death). One of the most well known is, of course, the evil eye.

The name is misleading, as an evil eye itself stands for love and protection. Known in Turkey as Nazar Boncuk, you should never purchase an evil eye for yourself – it must be a gift from someone who wishes you well in order to contain protective powers. Should the eye fall or break, this indicates someone had wished you harm and the eye protected you from those ill wishes, absorbing the blow. With the eye representing peace and the infinite, it is speculated that the blue color likely comes from the influence of the Byzantines in which blue, the color of heaven and water, was sacred.

Another interesting Turkish belief is that air conditioning will be make you sick. Instead of air con on our school buses, the rear bus door is often left wide open to provide air flow, even on the highway. I have experienced this superstition first hand in that my landlord refuses to put in air con units (more likely due to cost than tradition). Waking up to 88% humidity with temps the high 80s has felt like wading pea soup. Without screens in my apartment (very much the norm outside the US), it has been incredibly hot and stuffy. Mercifully, I was able to have custom screens made and they were installed just yesterday. The cat and I are today basking in the free flowing air on the 7th floor. Jumping back to cultural superstitions – it is also believed that sweat will make you sick. Children are sent to school with little towels around their necks to prevent illness. That these views on air con and sweat seem to lie in direct opposition to each other is not surprising to me, here in this country of many strong contrasts.

My apartment is starting to shape up and I’m reveling in the early morning glow from the sunroom. Alongside the screens, I’ve also had earthquake proofing completed on my wardrobes and heavy furniture. Having never lived in an earthquake zone before, I was schooled in the necessary preparations (liters of water, a go-back containing first aid supplies, copies of important papers, and non-perishables to last 72 hours, and food for the cat). My school is fully prepared to house our entire population for up to three days, should the need arise – from mattresses to food storage. I’m thankful that I live in a suburb where the buildings are up to earthquake code, unlike downtown with its 150 year old structures. Because of my proximity to the school (roughly 9 miles away), I could also walk there in a matter of hours and find safety among the sunflower fields.

As a new school week approaches, I’m reminded that I’ve only been in country for a mere three weeks. On the one hand, I am shocked at how settled things feel. On the other, I am very aware how much I don’t yet know (probably many layers I’m not remotely aware of). I’m struggling to accept the very loose interpretation of time on the part of the Turks. It’s not easy with an American sensibility, believing that A + B = C and every effort should (generally) lead to a completed outcome. I’ve been sent to Immigration offices for paperwork, taking hours from my day, only to be turned away on small technicalities my school could not have known ahead of time. I still can’t figure out how to tell which direction the 76E bus is going when it hits the roundabout near my house. This resulted in massive detour one Sunday, as you can see in the picture below (left). We are the blue dot. The red route is where we intended to be (lol). All’s well that ends well and we learned a little more about how the buses work (and made the most of our time downtown).

On the other hand, there is a lot available to me here that would never be possible in the States. An hour long bus ride to downtown costs $1 USD. My generous apartment is covered by the stipend I receive from my school. I now have a cleaning person who comes once a week. She stays for 8 hours and I pay her well above market rate at $35/day plus some fruit thrown in for good measure. All of these are gems I would not experience living as a teacher in the US and I greatly appreciate them.

Diving into a new culture can bring great challenge. Armed with respect and an open mind, I’m finding that good things are possible here and there are, of course, many amazing people here very willing to help me with the adjustment. I still have a lot to learn!

The Turks do food exceptionally well. A stop on the Silk Road, Istanbul straddles both Asia and Europe. It is therefore no surprise that I am finding widely diverse cuisine within the city’s fortifications. Turkish cuisine is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Mediterranean, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Eastern European, Armenian, and Georgian cuisines. Within a one block radius in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu District, you can find traditional Turkish fare (doner, lahmacun, etc.), a handful of bakeries selling simit, and food from countries around the world – Korean, Russian, and Ethiopian to name a few. On Friday night, we opted for the later.

On a rooftop overlooking the city of rolling hills, we enjoyed a drink (rarely found in my far out district) and celebrated the conclusion of orientation. A lot has happened in the last two weeks! Ripping the tart, spongy bread and dipping it in the lentils, cabbage, corn, spinach is a staple of Ethiopian food the world over, something I’ve enjoyed ever since living in close proximity to Washington, DC’s H Street Corridor. If you haven’t tried Ethiopian before, I can’t suggest it enough. It was wonderful to make new friends, discussing where our work has taken each of us (Malaysia, Shanghai, Korea…) and what we should enjoy here in Istanbul.

Last weekend, our wonderful Uzbek music teacher took Ali and I to our local market. Only a 15 minute walk from my apartment, the market is the heart center of our area, attracting vendors from all over the region to sell on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The downstairs is full of clothing, rugs, and antiques for sale. The upstairs is an explosion of color and taste. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Check out the tongue on that pup! Even the local park dogs (indicated by his tagged ear) get lucky at the market sometimes 🙂 As much as it breaks my heart to see them striving to survive on the streets, dogs are treated well here on the whole. People build them wooden shelters in the parks and there are stations with water and food set up all around town. Stray, a documentary available on Amazon Prime, follows the daily life of a few Istanbul pups. I highly recommend it. The cats of Istanbul are a breed all their own and I will definitely profile them in an upcoming post. That’s mine (below right) doing her morning yoga 😉

Turkish breakfast is such an amazing experience that I’ve covered it twice in four posts. “A classic Turkish breakfast always features a selection of fruit preserves, jams, and spreads. For example, apricot, cherry, and apricot jams are traditional options at any Turkish breakfast. Likewise, black olive spread, molasses, and tahini are popular spreads.” Mirroring the Mediterranean practice of dolce far niente (Italian for, “the sweetness of doing nothing”), the practice as all about enjoying a leisurely meal with family and friends on a day when no one has to rush. While the mindset is peaceful, the spread is intense! Turkish breakfast encompasses many small plates (hello, banchan), washed down with strongly brewed Turkish coffee and chai. Borek, menemen, and pisi are some of my favorites, along with the delicious cheeses you see included below. Not required but surely adding to the flavor – a view of the Blue Mosque, captured during our new hire breakfast last week (below, left).

Cafe culture is strong in Istanbul. Coffee shops, bars, and clubs stay open until all hours of the morning. Smoking is still a very common past time, though now relegated to outdoors at bars and restaurants. It is common to retire to a cafe after dinner, to enjoy a strong coffee or an apéritif.

Istanbul nights are awash in a warm, golden glow. Ringed in vines, the streets look like something out of a fairy tale. People watching while surrounded by a multitude of languages being spoken, it’s easy to see that Istanbul still retains its Silk Road reputation – it truly feels like the center of our universe.