Ohhhhh the jetlaggggggggggggggg

My body and mind don't know what time it is. Last night I fell asleep early, woke up at 3AM went back to sleep at 8AM and woke again at 1:30PM! I was supposed to see my friend Dee last night but I fell asleep so early and when I woke up it was too late. Anyhow, her daughter had been pistol whipped at work and Dee had to stay with her because she had a concussion (and stitches, etc.) Also, a woman where she works was robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot yesterday, and today someone stole food out of my car while I was at the Cooper Young Festival! Welcome back to Memphis :-( My goal is to move away from here by next summer!

I finally posted the photos of Izmir and Ephesus. Ephesus is amazing. It was first settled in the 10th century BC and later became the capital of Asian rule under the Romans. I think what I enjoyed the most was the fact that it has a gladiator graveyard and that the Temple of Artemis was there (Diana). Ephesus was one of the 7 wonders of the world and the Temple was the largest building at that time. Pillars from the temple were taken to Constantinople and used in the Hagia Sophia. Ephesus is also where Apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians and is one of the seven cities mentioned in the book of Revelations. Apostle John also lived there, and his gravesite is located in the ruins of St. John's Basilica at Ephesus. According to our guide, his bones were exhumed not long ago and were taken by the Vatican.

The museum of Ephesus is not very large and a lot of things are in storage. I asked out tour guide about it and he told us that the entire area by law can not have any more building construction, due to future excavations.

When in Izmir, we went to visit the ancient Agora. It closed at 5:00, but some locals showed us how to scramble over some old rubble and get in....which is what we did. I was thinking how nice it was to have the entire place all to ourselves when I heard Igor say, "Briget", I looked up and a security guard was approaching. Uh-oh! I played the clueless American, "Merhaba!" and smiled and waved. I pointed to my camera and asked him to take a photo of me beside a pillar? So he did, and he then led us out, and everything was ok :-)

Also in Izmir we went to an Anatolian arts festival and to the local bizarre. At the festival was a fashion show, only invited guests and blocked off from view. I asked a security guy if we could go watch for a few minutes? He said "no" and Igor walked off. The security guy said to me, "You can go in but he can't!" I walked over and told Igor, "I'll be back in 15 minutes, I'm going to the fashion show!" HA! So I went in, had a quick glass of wine and sat beside the elite locals and photographers and watched :-)

At the bizarre we saw several stores selling outfits that are fit for a prince. The boys wear these clothes at their circumcision celebration, around age 10 or so. The deed is done, money is pinned on the boy's clothes by friends and relatives and there's a party and feast, while the boy lies on an nice bed, richly decorated and is distracted from the pain by jokes, animation and presents. This is a rite of passage for boys in Islamic Turkey.

Naming children is very important, as well. All names have meaning and all boys in a family have names that start with the same letter. Once the name is chosen, an Iman or elder in the family holds the child in the direction of Mecca, recites the name three times in the right ear and recites from the Koran in the left ear.

At death, the departed are buried only in a shroud, not a coffin. When I was in Ayvalik, at the call to prayer the Iman stopped and talked. I wondered what this was and asked a Turkish friend. It was the announcement of someone's death and funeral time, which is usually the same day or next as long as relatives don't have to come from far away.

Writing from Amsterdam Airport 'cause there's nothing else to do here!

Cute - where before there were Turkish words on the Blogger, now it has "Blog Maken"in the upper corner. Dutch is a funny language, the trash can says "DANK U" :-)

I THOUGHT I had a 5+ hour layover here, so I decided to take the train into Amsterdam. While in line at passport check I looked at my ticket and they had changed my itinerary (without mentioning that they did so), so I only have two hours here. Not worth the trip :-( BUT, this trip will be over sooner than I thought.

Nihal and her husband took me to the airport at 2AM last night. I was fine taking a cab but they insisted. I feel REALLY bad because Ramazan starts today and they'll have hardly any sleep before they have to wake up and eat something before daybreak! Nihal bought me a pretty dress as a going-away present. I am going to post some pictures of the kids, etc...then later Izmir and Ephesus.

I haven't explained about those cool Soviet-era things pictured below! They belong to Yosef in Israel and he has an AWESOME collection!!

Gramma got angry with me! Balat and Fatih in Istanbul

Nihal and her husband have been out of town for a few days. The day before yesterday "gramma" came to watch the kids. It was the maid's day off, I was going out that evening and we couldn't find the key to the house, so Gramma stayed up until 11:00 - she usually goes to bed at 10:00 so she was nice about it. But yesterday the maid was here and I left for what was supposed to be only a "goodbye dinner" with two friends. But I told the maid I didn't know when I'd return. In these cases I just knock on her window (Lila's) and she lets me in. Well, the dinner came with lots of wine, and then more wine "on the house" at the restaurant, and then we decided to go to Taksim, and we went to several clubs, and had lots of fun, but I got back home about 3AM and knocked on the maids window and who comes to the door? GRAMMA! She doesn't speak English but she was furious! She held up three fingers and shook them at me. THREE THREE! I felt like I had broken curfew BIGTIME and I was BUSTED. By my Turkish mom! This morning Lila filled me in on what happened while I was gone last night. I wasn't home by 10, then 11, then midnight and she told Lila to sleep in the girl's room and Gramma stayed up until I got home. Lila said Gramma was pacing back and forth, back and forth. This is what it must be like for a single Turkish woman who lives at home with her parents (usually the case in Turkey). I posted pics below of Utabe (German) and me and Charly (Australian) and me when the night was young :-)
I met a guy last night who grew up in a cave house in Cappadocia, Turkey. Here are what some look like: http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/CentralAnatolia/Cappadocia/goreme/cave_house_tours.html
It would be so cool to see them!

My photos are going to be all out of order but I'm going to download some pictures I took in the Fatih neighborhood of Istanbul. It's very conservative, here is where many women do wear black from head to toe with only eyes showing. Some locals told me afterwards that the people there do not like foreigners and to never go there alone. I was with Igor so I was safe. We sort of just wandered into the neighborhood from another neighborhood called Balat, where we had gone to see the Chora Church http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chora_Church (an amazing place, highly recommended!) and Ahidra Synagogue. (By the way, don't anyone waste your time going to see this synagogue! The woman running things was one of the rudest people I've ever come across and the synagogue wasn't all that great anyhow.) Some people in these places still use horse and carts. I got yelled at once for taking a photo...the photo of the men sitting outside the mosque talking. As soon as I took the photo, a man in a shop ran out and yelled at me. I had a curious urge to videotape him yelling at me but of course I didn't :-) The thought just sort of ran through my head, "What a great video!"!!

I just checked my ticket to see what time my departure is on Thursday and it couldn't be worse - 5:35AM :-( I get to Memphis at around 8AM the same day. I'm going to have really bad jetlag.

Went to Israel! I am leaving for the US on Thursday :-(

I said goodbye to a bunch of people over the weekend. Today I am going to have lunch with another Turkish friend and go the Grand Bizarre to pick up a t-shirt for a friend at home (yeah - that's you Pat! :-))

Here is a quick run-down of what I have been doing, I have been slowly uploading photos and I will write in more depth about everything when I have some time - maybe on the flight back!

My best friend and his mother (Galina) visited me in Istanbul for three days. Igor's mom went back to Israel and Igor and I flew to Izmir, Turkey and saw Ephesus! It was amazing but HOT! About 100 degrees in the shade...but there's very little shade there. I wore a goofy white hat which helped and I did take an umbrella but it was no help as the heat reflected off of the marble and stones, so heat was coming from above and also from below. I wonder if the temperatures back several thousand years were cooler there? Anyhow, the ruins were awesome and we also went to see where Mary supposedly went to live in her later life, a house in the mountains close to Ephesus, and to the archeology museum which has items from the city. Izmir is a nice city, the cab drivers are honest :-) and it's much quieter than Istanbul. It is Turkey's 3rd largest city.

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (I've always LOVED this movie!! I once had a party, someone put on this album and we ended up each taking characters and reinacting the entire opera...just a spontaneous thing.)
JUDAS (What a voice!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytNoiQ8LkS8

After Izmir we flew to Tel Aviv, Israel. The first day Igor was there and we drove all day stopping to see many things! The ruins of King Herod's palace were really interesting. The entire time there "King Herod's Song" from JCS was running through my head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb_9uH-ELJE I loved the Old City of Acco as well and the B'hai Temple in Haifa. Galina gave a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem the next day (she lives in Jerusalem and is also very knowledgeable about religions, art, history, etc.), which is fascinating but also confusing! Different groups of Christians have different ideas of where Mary was buried, where the crucifiction took place, etc. etc. etc. The confusion reaches a peak at the Church of the Holy Sepultre: On a hot summer day in 2002, the Coptic monk who is stationed on the roof to express Coptic claims to the Ethiopian territory there moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians, and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fracas.[3]
In another incident in 2004 during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some people were arrested, but no one was seriously injured http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre Hmmm..I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind? (I hope nobody takes offense to this, but I don't believe Jesus was divine and I don't think he intended to start a new religion. I do believe he was a great man. Just my opinion.)

The next day Galina took me to the Dead Sea Scroll museum and swimming in the Dead Sea, and I really enjoyed the scenery on the way there! I think swimming in the Dead Sea is more dangerous than swimming anywhere else. I saw three people being rescued during the 1 1/2 hours I was there. The problem is...you don't SWIM in the Dead Sea...and if you try you get into trouble! The idea is to just float around slowly and it's very relaxing. We also took a hot mineral bath before we went in the sea and we slathered black Dead Sea mud all over ourselves, it is supposed to be very good for the skin.

Oh - about the Golden Gate: In Jewish tradition this is the gate that the Messiah will enter...so from Wikipedia: Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541, allegedly to prevent the Messiah's entrance. The Muslims also built a cemetery in front of the gate, allegedly in the (mistaken) belief that the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, would not be able to pass through, since he is a Kohen. This belief is erroneous because a Kohen is permitted to enter a cemetery in which primarily non-Jews are buried. Crazy, huh?

The next day I returned to the mayhem of Istanbul, which used to be Constantinople, which is where the Nicene Creed that Christians recite was finalized at the Counsel of Constantinople in 381 :-) More details later!

Ece is in a BAD MOOD today! I told her so. She said, in a whining voice, "What does 'bad mood' mean?" I said, The way you are right now, whining, crying, sad face. She stamped her foot and cried, "I am NOT in bad mood! Nooo, I am NOT in a bad mood!" I was working with Defne on her lesson book, Ece wanted me to help her cut something with scissors, I said, "As soon as I am finished with this I will cut it for you." She began to cry and whine. I said "Be patient, it will only be a few minutes." She pitched a fit. I said, "Bad mood!" She said, "I am NOT NOT NOT in a bad mood!" I ignored it, so she proceeded to cut it out herself. Then she tried to open the tube of glue. I wasn't paying attention. She couldn't open the top with her fingers so she tried with her teeth and succeeded, therefore getting a mouth full of glue. She shrieked! She ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off, spitting as she went. It's rather windy outside today so most of the glue-spit blew right back on her. We washed her mouth out with water, brushed her teeth and tongue and gargled. I told her bad things happen when you're in a bad mood and impatient! She's eating lunch now, she says it tastes like glue. She's acting rather meek at the moment :-)

I knew the girls loved Barbies before I came here, and bought a book of Barbie stickers that say things like "You are awesome" and "Brilliant". This book of stickers is my weapon...or call it a bribe. If they don't behave during their lessons, they don't get a Barbie sticker. This is a terrible blow, the worst kind of torture, if they don't get their Barbie sticker for the day. Today Ece didn't get a Barbie sticker. Defne did, it said "Genius!" She asked what "genious" means, I told her "Very very smart". She was putting the sticker in her book and said without a smile, "Oh, like me."

I haven't been writing much in my blog lately for several reasons.
1. After living here for a few months things are starting to feel really "normal". Not saying I don't learn new things about Turkey/Istanbul every day (impossible not to!), but the differences aren't as glaring as they were when I first got here.
2. I have made some good friends and I have been busy doing things with them and with the family that I stay with. Knowing there's not much time left here I am spending a lot of time with the people I have come to know, and the kids...rather than being the tourist. Nihal wrote to me yesterday, "Briget Pls don't say to me 'I will leave' because I am feeling very bad . I am feeling that you are one of the my relatives."

I feel the same way :-(

"I was walking in Istanbul.."

Yesterday I started at Taksim and walked for five hours! I had no plan, just started walking. (I like to do that in NYC, too!) Ya never know what you might find. (Photos below)

I found an old junk shop in a posh area of the city. The man who owned it said he was a movie actor. I was a little bit skeptical...a movie star who has a junk shop? Then I thought...well maybe it's a hobby like Paul Newman with his race cars? He spoke barely any English but he had a Turkish-English phrase book, and it was filled with pick-up lines in English!!!!!!!!!! HAHA! He pointed to my camera and to him and me...'blahblahblah' in Turkish so I said "Ok' and had someone take our picture together. Then he looked at his phrase book and said, "You have beautiful eyes" and looked at me seriously. He paged through his book again and said, "Did you come from heaven?" I couldn't help it, I just laughed and laughed. He looked puzzled. He must have thought he pronounced something wrong so he read it again: Did you come from heaven? Which only made me laugh even harder - my stomach hurt from laughing so hard and I was practically crying! I don't think he knew what to do so he laughed as well. Then he turned the page of his book, I was trying to leave, but he held up his hand like "wait"...so I waited and finally he got to the page he wanted and said, "May I see you tonight?" Since he couldn't understand English there was no way to tell him "I am busy" or whatever, a nice excuse of some sort... so I just had to say "No" in Turkish. He looked very sad. He pointed to his guest book for me to sign as I was leaving. It had a space for name, from where, and email address. Oh, big mistake! When I woke up this morning I had an email, "Hello Briget, how are you this morning? You are lovlier than a rose."

BTW, I did google him and he's had a few bit parts in some movies, including one this year: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884805/usercomments

Further on I saw a mosque I wanted to photograph. The best angle was from a parking lot. The old man who was the attendant saw me and ushered me into his "office" for what he thought was a better angle for the shot. His office was outdoors, along an old wall which had a great view of the Bosphorus and the mosque. He must have been working there for years as he had all the comforts of home right there. There was a grape arbor above, pots of flowers, chairs, a table and beyond this he had his supplies...food, pots and pans, an habachi...and his prized possession and the only English he knew, "Jack Daniels"! He offered me some, I declined :-) He gestured toward a chair and I sat. He sat across from me. We chatted for a few minutes, him speaking in Turkish, me in English and neither of us minded that we didn't understand what the other said. We admired the scenary and discussed it. I admired his flowers and roses, and he told me all about them. He asked me to take pictures of him, then I said I had to go, and he nodded and smiled and bid me farewell.

I got a phone call from a friend, who asked where I was? I said I had no idea, so I looked for landmarks. She met me there and we had something to eat at the below pictured cafe.

OH! I was right about the nanny! One day she told the kids to go outside to play, and they did, and they disappeared. She (nanny/housekeeper) came running to me almost hysterical a while later, she couldn't find them. I figured if I were them, where would I go? The swimming pool of course! So I ran down there and that's where they were. NOT GOOD AT ALL! She was honest though, and told Nihal what happened, and the next day she was gone. Now there's another nanny/housekeeper here - Lila.

I am living in the area of Istanbul called Ulus, which is a very nice upper middle class, quiet place. But it's residential and doesn't feel like a neighborhood. What I consider my neighborhood is Ortakoy, just a walk down the hill. When I'm not doing anything else, I walk down there in the evenings. The people at Starbucks know me, when they see me they say "Briget!" (they know because they write it on the cup of course! And they remembered. And they pronounce it "Burget") The people at my little grocery store know me, the people at the sweet shop know me (oh the baklava!!). I buy stuffed mussels from the same street vendor every time. And when they realize you are more than a tourist, they treat you differently. The guy at the sweet shop throws in a few more baklava -- last week they gave me a box of fresh...something between a bagel and a doughnut? Just gave it to me. They were filling up the boxes when I was in there, to sell. The grocer had me for tea one day, and tried to talk English with me :-) (BTW, I don't think I can pronounce a single Turkish word properly!) Oh you would think I'd be getting fat, all this talk of food, but I must walk it off because I haven't gained any.

Ortakoy is a very diverse neighborhood and very tolerant. Greeks, Turks, Armenians and Jews all live there. There are art galleries, restaurants, cafes, bars and two really magnificent nightclubs - Angelique and Reina. http://www.reina.com.tr/2007/ An odd thing here - there are summer nightclubs in Istanbul and winter nightclubs. These are the most popular of the summer nightclubs and right on the Bosphorus. Lots of fun!! Although I haven't been inside, the Ciragan Palace Kempinsky is here: http://www.kempinski-istanbul.com/en/hotel/index.htm?item_id=37670 Imagine staying there!! There is an old Hamam which is closed, unfortunately, right across from the entrance to the "square". The square itself is fantastic for people-watching!

I'm worried about Nihal. In the spring, before I came, she was very ill for several weeks, she said she was almost paralyzed, couldn't move or eat or talk. The doctor's couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then she got better. But the last few days she has been very very exhausted, her calves and back hurt, she walks stiffly and she looks horrible. She cried today in the kitchen and said she was scared what will happen to her. I think something is seriously wrong with her. :-( Her husband, sorry to say, doesn't seem to take this seriously? I believe she should be in a hospital getting every test in the book and he should take her. But he just ignores it.

Meanwhile, Ece wants to know my logon password so we can have the same passwords. I can't make her understand that passwords are supposed to be secret :-) Defne went into hysterics today when she saw raspberry juice running down my leg (the bag I had was leaking and I didn't know it.) She thought it was blood. She screamed like she did when the dogs ran into my bedroom, then ran and wouldn't look at me again for a long time, she didn't believe it was juice. So, she already has a phobia :-) She got very angry at me a few days ago. I took the girls swimming and Nihal told me not to let Defne jump. Well, of course, Defne jumped, because that's the way she is. Twice I warned her not to do it. The third time she jumped, I had to physically drag her from the pool and carry her kicking and screaming up to the apartment to stay with the nanny. She hasn't jumped since :-)