a very very very fine house [part I]

After some pleading, begging, and tearful requests by dedicated readers, I've decided to do a post or two on my apartment. I can only imagine how utterly thrilled you are upon obtaining this news. I know. I almost can't handle it myself.

Ok, well, I'll start with a little background on where I live. I'm located in Bahcelievler [bahcheylee-evler; houses with gardens]. Now, this places is packed with apartments and shops, which means that there are no gardens. I don't know who made up such a craptastic description of the place! It must be like the whole Greenland-Iceland thing.

Anyhow, I live just off of Yedinci Caddesi--7th Street--which is one of the hot spots in Ankara. That means I'm surrounded by hoity-toity shops and all the fast food chains--KFC, Pizza Hut [with limitSIZ (limitless) pizza], McDonalds (home of the McTurco), and Burger King. Last Sunday morning, on the way to buying bread, I also noticed that the walls around a construction site on the corner were taken down to reveal...a brand new Starbucks. Golly.

But, I love it. There is a lot of life, places are open late, and the back streets are packed with goodies. Getting to any form of public transportation is a cinch, although I've decided I need to walk the back streets if I want to catch the dolmus any time between 12 and 1...it's out of control busy with all the business folks coming in to Bahceli for lunch. It's also not a good place to own a car--traffic is horrendous and parking is hell.

Throughout Bahcelievler there are tons of little coffee shops where I go to get out of the house. I currently spend a lot of time at the Jenga Cafe, where they have come to know me because I always sit in the same spot and only order water or tea. Heh, i'm not exactly a big contributor to their income, but they like the yabanci. Heck, who doesn't?! I'm cute, right? Ok, maybe not...but I'm an American who speaks Turkish and that seems to get 'em every time.


My apartment is on the 3rd floor [top floor] of my building. It's well-heated [the first comment every relative has made upon visiting] and gets so much light. It's absolutely wonderful. There are two bedrooms, an extra room, a salon, a kitchen, and two bathrooms--a la Franca [western toilet] and a la Turka [hole-in-the-ground toilet].













The salon is gigantic, but I spend surprisingly little time there. I'd like to make a defensive statement about this room: I didn't buy the couches. so, DON'T JUDGE ME! [at least, not based on the couches] I don't really watch TV because I don't have cable and understand so little. Consequently, I just fail to go into the room very often. But, it's awfully sunny and it's a wonderful place to sit and eat breakfast.


I use the extra room to I store things like extra chairs, the ladder, and the supergaz--the most amazing vacuum cleaner I've ever encountered. If you look at the left corner, you'll see the gray supergaz. It's a crap little thing, falling apart--it ain't no Dirt Devil. However, as I discovered a few weeks ago, I can plug it in in the kitchen and the cord is long enough that I somehow manage to vacuum the entire apartment without having to use a different plug. It's also pretty powerful.

One disadvantage of the apartment, and the real reason behind my love of the supergaz, is that EVERYTHING is carpeted. Let me just say--never put carpet in your kitchen. Sunday morning I was making a date shake for breakfast and it exploded. Yogurt went everywhere and I'm going to have to spend some time this week scrubbing the bloody carpet. ugh.

Moving on.
















I converted the other bedroom into my study/map room. It's wonderfully bright and I love it...given the amount of time I spend in here it better be ok! It lacks much decoration, but I've started to put stuff on the walls. I have two geologic maps on the back wall and above my desk I've got lists of Turkish food and shopping words. I recently bought a road map of Turkey and have started putting up pictures from each of my trips, connecting them by string to the map. It's pretty cool albeit unoriginal. However, I'm realizing that I'm travel heavy in the north and west...so, upcoming travel plans are gonna have to include a change of direction. Cyprus is in the works, currently, and that's pretty south...




Then we have the bedroom. Again, little decoration, but I'm working on it. Can I say something about the bed, too? I didn't pick the comforter. More importantly, though, I'd like to talk about the bed skirt. The base of my bed is a solid piece of wood--nothing is going under it. Do I need the bed skirt? No. Why do I have it? Well...



The comforter came as one of those sets. You know, with the pillowcase, sheets, and bed skirt. When I was moving in, my cousin was over to help out. I was putting the bed together and conveniently "forgot" the bed skirt. But, Berrin saved me from my folly and insisted I put it on. And now I can't take it off for fear of hurting her feelings. Hence, the bed skirt. But, it's a comfortable bed and the room has exquisite light [noticing a trend?].


I have two wonderful balconies. One has doors from both the study and the kitchen, which is great. The other is off the salon. Now that the warm weather is consistently coming, I anticipate spending an inordinate amount of time sitting on the balconies. Both face away from the sun, which is a bit unfortunate, but it'll be better in the summer.

It's amazing how soundproof my house is. It can be pouring rain outside and I'll have no idea. I am right around the corner from the Bahcelievler Camii but it's never woken me up at the 5:45 am call and I never have to stop talking to wait for it to end. But, it's nice to open the balcony doors when I'm working or cooking and suddenly hear all sorts of street sounds. Especially on Sunday mornings, when it's just me and the Simitci awake at 6:45 am, I like to hear the "Simitciiiiieeeeeeeehhhhhhh" call piercing the silence as he passes my apartment. He's never seen my face, but we have a special bond. In the afternoons, it's also nice to hear the kids at the primary school around the corner playing at recess and singing. In the morning, they belt out the national anthem...there are some distractingly loud and out-of-tune kids, I'll tell ya.


The foyer is also a key part of any Turkish apartment as shoe removal is a huge thing. The moment you walk into the house you take off your shoes and, most times, put on some slippers. No, if you have a need-to-pee emergency you can NOT bend the rules. You have to take off your shoes first [one reason why I enjoy living alone, as I am often afflicted by this predicament]. Most houses have some kind of large coat-shoe rack in the foyer. With my family members, shoes are never kept in a closet in the bedroom--always in the foyer closet. For me, it's become a nice big storage facility for all the superfluous junk I have no other place for. It also has a convenient little handle where I can hang my flashlight--you never know when the electricity is just gonna be cut-off. And who knows what they'll do if we go military coup!

The hall closet is home to the only mirror in the house, which can be both a good and bad thing. So far it hasn't saved me from going outside looking like a nutball. I think that, with all the intense fashion sense and constant dressing-to-the-nines amongst the Turkish youth surrounding me, I've actually become frumpier [didn't think that could happen, did you?]. I just can't handle the pressure! So, I try to look like a homeless person instead, thinking no one will notice my existence...but, unfortunately, I think it backfires most times and people just whisper about me or the crowds part to let Ms. Frump through. Shame. Looks like I'll have to try a different tactic. Maybe...hot/neon colors?

Doorbells are also a ridiculous thing in Turkey--they always play some crazy sound, without fail. Mine isn't so bad, kind of like a chirping bird. Problem is, whenever it rings I have a moment of absolute fear because I think I have let a bird into the house [see sidenote]. However, I think it's better than others. My cousin's plays a midi-like version of Mozart. My aunt's, It's A Small World...on crack.

sidenote: One time, in Chicago, I thought Aya was home because I heard something in the kitchen. I started talking to her and was getting no response. So, I went in to the kitchen to find...not Aya, but a squirrel who had chewed through the window screen and was eating a bar of chocolate. I wasn't really sure what to do. He gave me a look and kind of barred his teeth. Since I wasn't in the mood to be bitten by a squirrel [I'd had a long day in the lab] I just locked myself in my room. He eventually left, but we couldn't open the kitchen window ever again. It was too bad--he ruined a really good bar of chocolate.

Abrupt though it is, I'm going to stop here and keep the best room for a later installment. Any guesses on which room that could possibly be? Oh yes, wait and see...tee hee, tee hee.