What I Love About Turkey #1

Whew, it's been a week. I'm not exactly sure what, if anything, happened...but it's over and the next one is about to start.

First, some business:

1. Note the change of font color--thanks to two blind 20somethings you can no longer blame me if your current level of vision is not sustained.

2. I made some deliciousness tonight by accident and I want to be sure I record it before I forget what I did...and perhaps you will try it, make suggestions, tell me that it's crap and I must not really have taste buds, scream because you burned your house down, etc. As a warning, proportions may not be exactly correct as I didn't measure things, so I'm guesstimating here.

A lunch or dinner in two parts:

1. spicy citrusy "rusty" pasta
2. green on greens

Spicy Citrusy "Rusty" Pasta

1/4 lb shape pasta [i'm not really sure the quantity...i kind of just used a handful +-; using whole wheat pasta adds a nice nutty flavor and some texture]
1 tomato, cut into 8 segments
1 small onion, cut into rings
1 small carrot, cut into rods
1 small orange or tangerine, cut into 8 segments with peel still on [Seville or blood oranges would be great, i think]
1 tsp red pepper flakes [add more if you want more spice]
1 tsp orange juice
olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
parmesan cheese, shaved

1. preheat oven to 375 F.
2. toss tomato, onion, carrot, and orange in a bowl with red pepper flakes and juuuust enough olive oil to coat. spread on a baking sheet and put in oven. roast until vegetables are tender and beginning to caramelize along the edges [the carrots may not be tender, but that's ok].
3. take vegetables out of oven and let sit. bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add pasta. cook to al dente. drain and return pasta to the pot.
4. cut peels off of oranges, attempting to keep the juices [you can keep the peel on some, it adds a nice bitter flavor].
5. add roasted items to the pasta. add orange juice and some olive oil. toss together. salt and pepper to taste. top with parmesan.


Green on Greens

salad:
1 handful of watercress
1 small [ie of the pickling type] or 1/2 medium cucumber, cut into rounds
1 celery stalk, cut into crescents
1 handful of parsley

vinaigrette:
fresh lemon juice
extra virgin olive oil
fresh ginger, minced
fresh mint leaves

1. put all the salad ingredients together in a bowl
2. [the vinaigrette is to taste, so just play around with the proportions a bit. watch out for the ginger, though] put the vinaigrette ingredients in a blender [a hand blender is great here] and blend until mint is finely chopped and the liquid is milky and thickened slightly. if you don't have a blender, whisk the ingredients together with a fork, but make sure you've chopped the mint finely beforehand.
3. toss salad with vinaigrette.

ta-da.

Ok, on to pleasure.

I haven't written for awhile because, well, I have some topics I'd like to discuss and I'm attempting to get some pictures. Unfortunately, people and things are just not in the mood to be helpful in the photo department. So, in the meantime, I'm going to start a thread I plan to continue throughout my stay here. It's called:


What I Love About Turkey

1. cigarette warnings

Did you know that smoking cigarettes: assassinates, blasts, butchers, dispatches, exterminates, fritters, kills, murders, shoots?? Well, if you missed that mid-90s memo, now you know. the Turkish cigarette box won't let you be fooled [icmek = to smoke, to drink; oldurmek = the definitions given above]. It's great! I love it!!


2. how much other people, especially Turks, love Turkey

This is some graffiti I found on the wall of the Ankara Kalesi [Ankara Citadel] in Ulus. It may have been written by another traveler. However, I'd be willing to bet a couple of dolmus rides worth of Turkish lira that this was actually written by a citizen of Turkey, likely of Ankara itself. Seriously, I can not tell you how much the Turks love Turkey. Unless you've been to Turkey you've never experienced a sense of nationalism quite like Turkish nationalism. It's a somewhat famous quality of the general Turkish persona, in fact.


3. walking up/down the re-opened (!!!) Ataturk Bulvari and almost walking into open pillars of electricity every 10-15 steps.

Apparently, I got here at just the right time. Ataturk Bulvari, a main thoroughfare in Ankara, has been closed the past 6 months for repairs/revampage and it's given a lot of people a hell of a time. It caused all the bus and dolmus routes to be changed and taxi rides were oftentimes made longer [= more expensive]. Last weekend the boulevard was re-opened and there were fireworks. Six months is record time for Turkish construction, apparently, so people are particularly excited. The road is beautiful (?) and up-to-date now, but they still have some work to do...like putting up all the street lights. For the most part, they seem to have started the job 50 times over, but just haven't quite finished it...leaving pits and wires poking out throughout the already pocked/non-existent sidewalk. Knowing my clumsiness and my tendency towards weird ailments, one of these days I'm just going to trip into a pit and get electrocuted. I'm pretty sure it's gonna happen. I'd bet my life on it?


4. street names

I live 5 blocks from Genghis Khan Street! There are some great street names here. Apparently, though, names of smaller, unimportant streets are constantly changed. It's not uncommon that a person will die and the street name will suddenly change to the name of the person. Consequently, according to my cousin, atlases and street maps are generally out-of-date the moment they are put on the shelves. But, for the main roads that don't change they are very useful. I would highly recommend the Sokak Sokak Ankara Kent Atlasi 1/10,000.

And that will end the first edition of What I Love About Turkey. It appears I'm not getting any better at writing less/picturing more. I'll keep working on it. Let me know if you try the recipes...i'm anxious to see what you think should be adjusted.

Later gators.

bills and saffron, saffron and bills.

*I am going to have a mild vent session for the first part of this post. Skip the first few paragraphs [italics will indicate the end of ranting] if you want to move onto something potentially more interesting*

Let's talk about bill payment. Turkey has a pretty interesting system. you see, no one uses checks here--they are too easy to forge. Consequently, to pay your bills you have three options: online bill payment; going to an associated bank; going directly to the bill source [electric, gas, telephone, water, etc. companies]. For all bills, there is a certain week in which you can pay. For example, your bill arrives on March 10th but you can only pay it from March 20-26th. Obviously, the bills don't all come at the same time and so they aren't all due at the same time. Additionally, you can only pay in cash if you go to a bank or directly to the source company.

The online bill payment system is great and works really well...if you have an account at a bank that will do it. Unfortunately, the bank that the Fulbright Commission uses is only associated with some random companies. Consequently, I'm only able to pay two of my bills this way.

Ok, well, no problem! I can just go to the bank. At the bottom of each bill there is a list of the banks that will take payment for the bills. Not all bills can be paid at all banks. The real downside of going to the bank to pay is that, at least from my experience so far, you have to wait in line for half-an-hour to an hour.

Going to the source is also an option, but oftentimes it's no where close to where I live and takes quite a bit to get there. So, the previous to choices are better.

Ok, so that's the background. Luckily for me, almost all of my bills this month could be paid on March 26th...that was the only overlapping day. So, I decided to go pay all my bills today. Now, let me tell you about my water bill. My water bill this month is 8.75ytl...that's about $6.00. According to the bill, I can go to pretty much any bank in Turkey to pay my dues. I also have phone bills, gas bills, and electric bills to pay. Again, they can all be paid at the same banks. And, also lucky for me, there is a branch of nearly every single bank in Turkey on the street I live on.

So, this morning around 10:45am I went to the Turkiye Is Bankasi near my house to pay my bills. I wait in line for ~45 minutes before my number gets called. I expected that, no problem. I go over, hand them my bills and money and the lady says "we can't take your water bill. you have to go to one of the other banks on the paper." But, my paper says the TurkIsBankasi will take it...but, ok, fine. So, I go down the street to the Garanti Bankasi, where I am supposed to be able to pay from the ATM...or not. So, I go to the AkBank, but there is a line forming out the door. Then I go to the Halk Bank. Again, a line out the door.

So, I walk across the street to the YapiKredi. First I stood in line at the ATM because it is supposed to also take bill payments. However, some nice man happened to see me holding my bill in my hand and elucidated the fact that I don't have the proper numbers on it. So, I have to go inside. [thank you nice man] Long line, they are on number 123, but I take my number [155] and stand there for another 45 minutes. Finally, I get to the counter! woo hoo! yay YapiKredi! Or not really. Apparently, they don't take my water bill either. For heaven's sakes, it's only 8.75ytl!!!

I gave up after that and just went home. I decided to check the Ankara water company's site online to see if I can determine where I can go. Lo and behold they have a webpage that has all the bank names that are listed on my bill...however, what else is there? what do i spy with my little eye? is it, is it asterisks? My oh my, there are indeed a number of asterisks, and all linked with the names of the five banks I visited this morning. Oh, let's scroll down to see what the asterisks stand for: ONLY SOME BRANCHES OF THESE BANKS WILL TAKE WATER BILLS.

So, apparently i picked every single wrong branch in the book and wasted 1.5 hours in bank lines. gaaaahhhhhhhhhh. You learn something new every day...I feel like I'm a much better person on the inside now.

Ok, now we can move on to...

SAFFRON, or safran as the Turks call it.

Two weekends ago I went with three delightful persons [Candas, Michael, Ryan] on a nice little day trip. We caught an early morning bus from the ASTI bus terminal [if you ever want to do any traveling in Turkey you'll likely utilize the coach bus system to no end. the buses are wonderful, nothing like Greyhound, and make for pretty comfortable trips. in Ankara, take the Ankaray subway line or a dolmus to get to ASTI]...

The little town of Safranbolu is an easy 3-hour bus ride North from Ankara. As you get out of the city you immediately begin to get some clear air, great sedimentary rock formations, and mountains (!!!).

The town has been deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site for it's plethora of Ottoman Houses. It's also known for [shockingly] it's saffron, which is used in a number of delicacies (?),

such as saffron tea [tastes like you'd expect...saffron. added bonus: it's neon yellow] and saffron flavored lokum [lowkoom, Turkish delight]. However, to be honest, I found the most delicious delight to be the Tahini Helvasi. It was so incredibly good...and I bought myself a block, which was, not surprisingly, obliterated within days of its purchase.

The town also has the requisite mosque, a nice little pazar with the standard goods for sale, and an additional copper and iron pazar in the backstreets.

We talked with one of the blacksmiths for awhile, unable to say no [or just completely confused] as he pulled us into his workshop. Apparently he's pretty famous with the foreigners--he had us look at his little signature books where people wrote notes in English about how we should watch his hands because he's known for giving frisky massages. After reading that we decided that, yes he was nice and in all sorts of different newspapers, but we didn't really feel the need to stick around for the massages.

We decided a much better use of our time would be to go to the Havuz ve Et Lokantasi [the pool and meat restaurant]. Let me tell you, this place lived up to it's name! Not only was there a massive pool in the middle of it but they had a lot of meat...and we ate it, like one would at a restaurant.

The highlight of the trip, however, had to be the fact that we almost didn't make it back to Ankara that night. When we bought our return ticket they told us the bus would be leaving at 6:30. Well, it turns out that it was leaving Safranbolu at 5:30 and Karabuk [a nearby town] at 6:30. So, we got to the bus terminal with, what we believed, was enough time. We were subsequently informed, by pure luck, that the bus had actually already left. So, in a whirlwind runaround we got a taxi to speed us to Karabuk while the people in Safranbolu called to have the bus stopped. The bus had actually already left the terminal--we ended up only being 3 or 4 minutes late--and we caught it on the side of the road. They weren't exactly pleased...and then the people sitting in front of us were pretty pissed for most of the ride because they thought us too loud. A sidenote--an odd rule on the long-distance bus in Turkey is that you can't use your cellphone. You can't even send text messages. It's like being on an airplane...but for no apparent reason. I get the not wanting you to make calls, but having to turn your phone completely off is a little strange.





And that's Safranbolu: a really great little place for a relaxing day trip...but I can't say I was disappointed when we managed to catch the bus home. While sleeping in an Ottoman House could be cool, it could also be really really really cold.

pazar.

The word pazar may be my favorite Turkish word. I dunno, it's up in the air...I also really like buzdolabi [boozdollabuh; refrigerator], dondurma [dondoorma; ice cream], cicek [cheecheck; flower]. But, my love for those words is primarily located within the shallow realm of pronunciation. My love of pazar is deeply rooted in definition...two definitions, in fact. Let's take a look, shall we? [suckers]

1. Pazar
Definition: Sunday
Why this definition is sooooo great: I can not tell you how much I love Sundays in Turkey.

a. Sunday is the one day a week when most people don't work. So, they get up quite late. This makes Sunday the absolute best day to go for a run or walk out in the city. You see, Ankara is incredibly polluted. It's truly out of control. There are no emissions controls on motor vehicles, and there sure are a whole heckava lotta cars in this city. Example: Here is Ulus on a pretty clear day. You can see some clouds in the sky, but you see that gray haze covering most of the place? That wasn't fog, that wasn't clouds. That was pollution. There are mountains not too far off in the background that you can't even see. Every morning when I wake up I'm convinced it's going to rain because the sky is so gray with pollution.

As a sidenote, down on the street you can see one of the dolmus [dolemush; hop-on hop-off minibuses to get around the city] centers. They are a particularly convenient and quick form of transportation...although taking them generally causes me to have a near heart attack for the duration of the ride. The drivers are ruthless.

But, back to the main point: in Ankara, there is no such thing as "going outside for a breath of fresh air." You've got fresher air inside your house even if the room with the squat toilet is sending out putrid fumes. But, on Sunday mornings until pretty late (circa 8:30 am), one can go for a walk without having a bus blow black air into your face.

Added bonus--Sunday morning is the one time when you can be pretty sure you won't get hit by a moving vehicle. You think drivers in Boston are bad? Pff. You have no clue. It's almost fun trying to cross the street here. It's like playing Frogger. I've always liked the feeling of being in a video game where i'm fated to eventually be killed...orrrr make it onto the high score table!

b. Sunday is the day I do my important grocery shopping. Right down the street I have an ekmekci [ekmekjih; breadmaker], a simitci [seemeetjee; simitmaker, simit is this tasty bread ring with black cumin seeds or sesame seeds on it] and a peynirci [payneerjee; cheesemaker] that has great Turkish cheeses, olives, and sucuk [soojook; a kind of sausage]. So, after my fresh air excursion I can go get bread and simit still warm from the oven and stock up on cheese for the week. And the streets are pretty quiet because the shops open late, so it's a delightful place to be. The people in the cheese shop are pretty fun and are starting to recognize me a bit...probably because they always have to ask me a second time what I've asked for.

c. Some Sundays I go walking with my cousin Gizem and afterwards we go to her house or her grandmother's house [my great aunt] for breakfast, who live three or four blocks from my apartment. They like to laugh and we eat outrageous amounts of tomatoes [2 or 3 kilo] and drink absurd amounts of tea. I can't tell you how badly I have to pee after breakfast with them. But, it's a pretty much awesome way to start the morning/week. I admit, sometimes I can't follow the conversation at all and have no clue what they are talking about, so I usually end up answering their questions with completely random answers. For instance, let's say they ask me how old I am...I usually respond with "her hair was red and striped and then she went to the bank" because I missed some key words in the flurry of Turkish. Oddly, they just shake their heads and smile like i've answered the right question...but the conversation usually dies in the awkward confused silence. These mornings are also prime time to fight with my cousin Ahmet about the quality of chocolate in Turkey.

2. Pazar
Definition: Bazaar
Why this definition is sooooo great: going to the bazaar is oftentimes a serious highlight of my week.

a. Pazar, as mentioned, means Sunday. Eskiden (back in the day), the weekly fresh produce and goods markets were generally held on Sundays. So, pazar --> bazaar. Simdi (nowadays), weekly pazars aren't necessarily on Sundays. The one in the area where I live is held on Fridays. It's a great place. According to dad, when he was a kid and he'd stay where I am now the Pazar was uncovered. Now, it's basically an open-air warehouse. It has a ramp going up into it and as you enter you go into a whole new overwhelming world of freshness. Everywhere you look there's produce and people screaming prices, calling to you "sister, sister, this is the freshest dill you've ever seen!"

Turkey is an incredibly self-sufficient nation, agriculturewise. The country itself is not much bigger than Texas, but i'm pretty sure it has all 15 microclimates [the Big Island of Hawaii has 13/15] which allows for all types of produce to be grown year round. Since it doesn't have to be shipped long distances, like from California to Maine, it's pretty fresh by the time it gets to Ankara. However, oddly, bananas grow in Turkey but at the pazar you still see bananas with the Chiquita from Ecuador sticker on them.

I'll take more pictures in the future, but it's hard to be discrete with a camera there--it's dark inside, so a flash is necessary--and once they know you're a foreigner your haggling opportunities are kaput. You should hear some of the old women in that place, though...they are champion bargainers. I've seen some of them hit the grocers with their canes saying "5 kurus for one kilo of carrots?!? THAT'S WAY TOO EXPENSIVE". mind you, 5 kurus is not in any way shape or form expensive for a kilo of carrots. But those old ladies, they always win! It's really pretty impressive.

Outside the pazar there are also all sorts of trucks with produce on them. Yesterday when I went it was really windy. One truck had these ginormous heads of lettuce on them--diameter = my forearm--and the back of the truck was open so they went rolling all over the street.















It's also artichoke season, so you see trucks piled with artichokes. Inside the pazar the guys just sit there ripping off the leaves (!!!!!) and taking out the bowl like part in the middle because they make a type of olive oil dish called zeytinyagli enginar [artichokes with olive oil]. Olive oil dishes using different vegetables are pretty prolific and the term "olive oil dish" doesn't really describe what they are at all. But, what I can tell you is they are darned tasty things. I made zeytinyagli kereviz--celery root with olive oil--last week and it was deelish. Maybe i'll post a recipe or two in the coming days.








So, there you have it--pazar is such a great word.

the basics.

It's been nearly two months since I arrived in Ankara and i've finally gotten myself on track [i think]. Establishing a life in Turkey is not exactly simple; there's an incredible amount of bureaucracy and corruption. I didn't really believe my dad when he warned me about it before, but my thinking has been thoroughly converted. Even getting onto the ODTU (Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi; Middle East Technical University) campus where I'm based was chaotic. Here's a (not so) funny story about my cousin Ebru:

Ebru was transferring to ODTU from Cankaya University, but she didn't have an ODTU id. There are 4 gates on the ODTU campus and you can not get in without an id or a friend. So, she got a friend to get her on campus, talked with the rector, and had a letter written that would allow her to get through the gates until she received her id...because it takes a month+ to get an id and classes were starting. So, her letter is directed to Kapi 1 (Gate 1) and usually she comes in Kapi 4. One day she goes in as usual, and the guard stops her to look at her letter. "This letter says Kapi 1. This is Kapi 4. You can not come in here," he says. Wait, wait, what? Where is the sense in that? She's going to be on the same campus no matter where she comes in...

I have a letter to get onto campus too and I know that one day, when I'm running late, they will decide to stop me. My cousin Gizem was stuck standing at the front gate for 3 hours once.

But, other than campus issues, I haven't had too many problems with the system. I did get into a fight with the Turkish police, and that was cool. Lots of blood and teeth flying. Ok, so we all know I'm lying, but there were some serious verbal fisticuffs going on. Walking into the yabanci isler (foreigner issues) department of the police one expects some English. But, there are surprisingly few English speakers there, so that didn't help. I needed to get a residence permit and the police said I had to pay 375ytl/month for no reason other than "it's our law". The other kids I talked to only had to pay something like 75ytl total. So, when I tried to get an explanation, they weren't pleased and there was some battling.

At the moment I think I have a solution, but that may be complicated by field work. For some of the other Fulbrighters it took a number of months for them to get all the right paperwork and get it figured out. They would keep going to the Emniyet and then get sent back to get different letters. A pain in the rear patooshka.

As for other aspects of my life here [i.e. my research], it's been slow going. But, this week ended with some key meetings completed and I think I'm starting to get somewhere. I'm learning that it's hard to start a research project from scratch when you are in a different country and you only have a limited amount of time. I think it's not as tough if you've established a background back home [eg. you've come in the middle of your PhD work, so you have some stuff done already and a direction/route determined]. But, I am determined to do something with this project, and I think I will...right now we're trying to construct the project so that I can actually do something significant in the time I'm here rather than just kind of start something.

Additionally, this is a very different field for me; I don't have a strong background in archaeology or the geologies generally associated with archaeology [hydrology, sediments, geomorphology]. My original project idea was to study large scale geologic events to see how they influenced settlement development and migration...but the professor I'm working with, Geoff Summers, doesn't have a lot of faith in the idea that big events [like volcanic eruptions or earthquakes] really did much. They would wipe out populations, but people would just build in the same place. So, right now, it looks like my project is going to be a study of the geology in reference to the building materials used on the site. I actually like the idea a lot as it allows me to do a lot more with archaeology and consider the geology from a number of angles--aerial photography, GIS, field work, thin section analysis--which will give me a lot of good experience. Now it's just figuring out the logistics and getting access to the current material collections.

Otherwise, my life is pretty unspectacular. I've got a great apartment where everything works [other than the toilet that sounds like it is about to explode every time it's flushed and the silverware drawer that doesn't open] in a convenient and lively part of Ankara. Ankara is a great place to live if you've got a life and stuff to do to keep you busy, but within the city itself there's not a lot of stuff to see or do...other than errands, which i seem to do a lot. Additionally, it's hard to figure out how to get around as there are no maps that give bus routes or anything like that. It's, you know, an adventure...a sometimes overwhelmingly frustrating adventure, but generally not too too bad. Additionally, Ankara is a great base from which to see the rest of Central Anatolia, an oftentimes overlooked region by travelers in Turkey. I'm really looking forward to traveling within Turkey [and outside] and hopefully have some fodder with which to develop my [currently pretty nonexistent] photography skeelz.

Another goal is to learn to use different spices and more grains in my cooking, and I'm in a good part of the world to do that. And I've definitely stocked up on the necessary supplies. I'll take pictures of my ingenious grain container method and the rainbow of spices someday in the future. [I promise to try to not make this into some kind of food blog] The picture is of the spice market where I spent way too much time last month. The photo doesn't really do the place justice; it's the inside that counts...and man-oh-man does this place have a spicetastic-dried fruitsastic-grainymcgraintastic inside.


Nice thing about Turkey, is that spices that are generally super expensive at home are cheap cheap cheap. That being said, pine nuts are really expensive, which is weird because they are used relatively often in Turkish cooking. And, I mean, they've got the pine trees...heck, they make cam bal (pine honey [and, yes, honey is the correct term, despite what some plant oriented people will tell you])!

One downfall of having so many dried spices is that oftentimes you can't find fresh varieties...and vice versa. I mean, it's pretty darned near impossible to find fresh basil, and fresh ginger isn't a cinch either. But, you can find dried and powdered varieties out the wazoo. It's a holdover from when Turkey was a major player in the spice trade back in the day [not that it isn't now, necessarily].


Buuuuut, [this makes me way way way too excited], I HAVE A GROWING HERB AND FLOWER GARDEN IN MY HOUSE.You can't understand how thrilled I am to actually be able to make plants live. If you haven't heard my sad, pathetic Lemon Verbena story you won't understand.



Again, the pictures are a pathetic representation of how epic it actually is. Because let me tell you, this is an epic thing. Really, it is.

Ok, well, after that important point what else is there to really say? Actually, this is getting long, so I'll stop. [I promise I'll jabber less in future posts.] I've got some pictures from some recent day trips that I'll post soon...and if you feel inspired, perhaps you'll come visit and travel with me?

a preliminary note.

Ok, before I get started with anything (in)significant, I'd like to clarify some things about the title of this page. Contrary to that suggested by a certain person (i won't mention names as it is revealing of said person's general thought processes), the word bum in the title does not recall the definition of it as used commonly in British vernacular...it refers to a person who sits on their bum, i.e. a Bum. Sorry to disappoint but no, this is not a porn site.

Furthermore, approximately none of you will understand the reference, so I'll explain that as well. My grandpa used to sing us this song called We Are Three Bums. It goes like this:

We are three bums
Three jolly good bums
We live like royal Turks
We rush the muck like any old duck [i'm pretty sure this is the wrong lyric, just what i remember singing as a kid]
And to hell with the guy that works

We met a man the other night we never met before
He asked us if we wanted a job
Shoveling iron ore...

Ok, the song goes on and on (and on and on and on), but in these two verses i'd like you to note the references to both Turkey (Turk) and Geology (iron ore). How perfect. As an additional point, I oftentimes seem like three people, feel jolly, and act like a good bum. Overall, I really think that the title sums me up quite well (ha). And, hey, who doesn't like to give their grandpa a shout out on occasion?