Fitting in is hard to do...

Walking down the street in front of Sultanamet (the Blue Mosque)  and Hagia Sophia, we made our way through waves of tourists and historic monuments literally sandwiched together.. Even if the Turks aren’t devout Muslims, I have to give them credit for being respectful. They turn their music down and stop speaking at deafening levels. They answer the call in their own way, even if it is 5 times a day. I think I am used to it now.

What I am not used to is the stares that I am getting. Growing up, I have always been worried about fitting in and being accepted. Trying my hardest to fit in with what everyone did and thought. As I grew into my own person in college, I stopped trying to conform and develop my own style and personality. Here in Turkey, the people desperately try to stand out by dying their hair or by getting piercings or tattoos.  They change their clothes, they have the best things, and they even speak several different languages. Even with all of this, they are still one people. They still are Turks. As a visitor to this beautiful and lively country, I worry that I stand out too much. When I walk down the street, people stare. They don’t stare in a bad way, just in a curious, just can’t look away stare. It is a stare of a person who is curious about who you are and why you are there. It was odd at first and it made me feel uncomfortable; the girls and women looking at me and shying away when I saw them doing it, guys staring at me and pulling on my dreadlocks to make sure they were real (some of them reached right out and pulled them as I was passing them in the streets, while some people waited behind me for a prized dreadlock to find its way into their had so they could roll it with their fingers), and the people who tried to candidly take pictures of me and even with me when I was at the mall or in a Mosque thinking that I was some sort of superstar. Meh, I used to want to be famous, but now I am just content with being different.

There is hope though! Speaking with the local people here in Turkish makes them smile. Whether on the Dolmuş (a mini bus that takes us to and from our little campus into the Neighborıng town of Sarıyer) or in the Mısır Çarşısı (The ancient spice bazaar) the sheer volume of tourists that visit this country can make hearing Turkish hard, even in the heart of Istanbul. Speaking with my awesome mentors Yasimin (Bos Bos, the head mentor), Dörukhan (Captain D, her best friend), and Tuçhe (Cork  Screw, one of the only women in Mechanical Engineering and a new member of team crazy hair because of her amazing curly hair (Jana, you would love her)) has done wonders for my ability to speak and understand Turkish. After 7 days, I can already order food and Çay ( Bir ne çay isteyorem, lütfen), I can apologize profusely (üsgünüm),  I can barter  , I can ask for a student discount (Oğrenci faiyat lütfen), I can curse profusely (look them up yourselves… lol), I can say that I love you (seni seviyurom), I can count to 100, and I can even pronounce my mentors names correctly (Major Bonus Points). Too bad it will be even longer before I stop confusing Shena with Elena… I’ll get there soon enough.

I start classes today so wish me luck!

 

Until next time,
You are what you eat, and I am savoring every bit of it!

Turkiye'de Merhaba!

The flight from Houston to London Heathrow was positively entertaining meeting a felow Texan who was traveling to London to Study Abroad at Kings College (Justin, another girl coming your way man). She instantly became my friend when we were assumed to be together. We got 2 times the wine, chocolate, and aircraft flight attendant attention. In between ignoring the demon possessed child 5 rows ahead and talking about how we wouldn't be drawn in by the local people to make bad decisions and break hearts over some kind of international drama. We bonded over the fact that we had a seat between us in which we could spread or so called wings. She kept kept making a fuss about the "crazy, foward, and freaking crazy" Rice girls. All I could do was laugh and not try to allude to the fact that I had dated those crazy Rice girls. After disembarking I was in line waiting at Heathrow airport,and my plan was an hour late for boarding for unknown reasons. The British Airways gate attendants kept running around like chickens with their heads cutoff between my gate and the adjacent one doing who knows what. The line had processed 3 people before it ground to a screaching halt as they informed us that the plane that we were supposed to travel on was replaced. Good thing that they replaced the plane before we were on it.


Landing in Turkey, somewhere around 5:30. I wasn't able to get the photos of the decent into Istanbul beacuse I didn't get the window seat that I booked. Kinda sucked but the pictures that I got when I got to my hotel definitely will make up for it.

Pictures!

We left our little hotel, The Cem (pronounced Jem) Sultan Otel and embarked on a journey into the music filled night in Istanbul. Following the brick street around a tight curve in the road we found ourselves in the central eating place of the Turks in the shadow of the Blue Mosque.

With Hookah called Nargele here, drums, a whirling dervish, and a crowd surrounding us we were officially welcomed to Istanbul with a feast completely covered by CIEE. Meeting the new people and the program directors as well as sharing stories of where we came from and what we hope to leave Turkey with we bonded in a sort of camaraderie only complete strangers could share. We started our meal with a read lentil stew and a pickled mix of vegetables on top of a salad.

We continued our meal with fresh bread and feasted on roasted tomatoes and peppers. This was complimented with a short grain rice that was bathed in a tomato pastte with grilled lamb, chicken, and mushrooms to add a little variety. There was a flat wrapping, not like the thick pita bread that you experience with gyros, but a thin paper bread that we wrapped our bounty in to create a package for our mouths to receive. The meal concluded with baklava, a pastry soaked in honey instead of rose water that is filled with pistachios and sugar, and çay (pronounced chai). Walking around the restaurant we took another right and found ourselves at the foot of the Hagia Sophia in awe of it's size and it's magnificence. Tomorrow we will get to your them both. This will be quite a trip to remember.   


You are what you eat and I am full.

İyi geceler,
(Good Night)
JD

I'm here... I'm going... I'm gone!

After what seems like a lifetime, I am gearing up to leave. I've been packed since Monday rearranging things, distributing things, tying up loose ends, and saying my goodbyes to the waves of friends and family who keep asking me when I am leaving. Meeting up Friday night to see people that I have known for almost my entire life to people that I have become so attached to during my time at Rice was really moving. Thank you guys. I really appreciate it. In case you missed it, as of 4:20 PM CST TOMORROW, I am on a jet plane, flying off from my beloved state of Texas to embark on the next chapter of my life. With a little pit stop in London. Sadly, I don't think I will have to time to go visit my best friend, Justin, who is studying abroad there. No disrespect to him, but I really don't want to miss my connecting flight.

This is not going to be the first time that I have been outside of the US for an extended period of time, but because the location is worlds apart from the tropical climate that I grew up in, this will surely be an experience. This is the first time away from my family in a long time so I guess it will be kind of bittersweet. But as that image pervades my mind another one becomes stronger and stronger... Come to think of it, I have actually never lived anywhere where there has been constant snow. Even thinking about it makes me smile. Seeing all of the hills on the coast of the Black Sea covered in a soft white blanket. My family thinks I am crazy, but I think that it is just perfect for me. All of the mosques and the Topkapi Palace bathed in a glorious white wash. But sadly, I will have to wait until mid-November/early-December for such a site. Meh, I guess I'll deal.

There is one thing that I am sure that most people who go abroad won't miss that I am sure to; that would be my kitchen. Many people don't know that for me, cooking is not only my way to relieve stress, but also my most enjoyable pastime and hobby (not to mention that everything I make is delicious). It is a weird circumstance that I have found myself in, thinking that could try to take another suitcase filled with 1/4 of my kitchen, but in reality this cannot be done. Just seeing all of the airport security descend upon my bags in a laughing riot of disbelief would be worth it if they let me send it through, but yeah... it is an unreasonable request. I have resigned to the fact that I won't be cooking and the constant reassurance from all my friends about the wonderful food that I will get to experience will hopefully get me through these next 4 months. I will however take extensive notes on the food, ingredients, recipes, and techniques that I will encounter and post them here in order for my friends and family to try out for themselves. I will make what I have learned how to make when I get home.

In these final hours, I've been mulling over the itinerary of things for us to accomplish during our week of orientation in downtown Istanbul. Not being daunted, I feel that even though it will be hectic, I will thoroughly enjoy: my walking tour of Sultanahmet, breakfast on the Bosphorus, dinner in Beyoğlu to experience Klemuri (Authentic Black Sea cuisine), Tour of Topkapı Palace (home of the Ottoman sultans), Yerebatan Sarayı (Basilica Cistern, a massive underground water storage system for the old city), a journey to Mısır Çarşısı (Spice Market), and finally on to Koç University. I will share pictures as soon as I can. I have been told that the flight into Istanbul is a miraculous sight flying down into the city with the mosques on the horizon will make a spectacular picture and with my newly acquired Nikon S630, I can assure you that I will document it and all the other sites justly.

Until then,
You are what you eat and I am hungry for adventure!

Jordan

Turkish-ish

A long time ago, I asked my roommate Paul to cook some Thai food for dinner because he could always make better Pad-Thai than I could. What I got was not only a delicious meal, but also an insightful lesson. The lesson was this: no matter what kind of dish that you make, it is your interpretation of the dish. It is your take on a recipe to show people what you believe that the dish should taste like. This lesson is all inclusive and all encompassing. Most notably it extends to restaurants. So what is authentic and how do we make our food authentic food? Authentic is originating from the source; there are no deviations from the traditional way that things are made or where they are made. The where is key here. To be truly authentic something has to be made in country with the ingredients that are from the place of origin. To have authentic food, the ingredients from the country have to be combined with the mastery and skills provided from tradition for it to be able to be called authentic. Authentic spices, authentic tools, and authentic techniques must all be combined to produce an authentic dish. But how does this apply to my Turkish travels? Well for starters, I have been trying to familiarize myself with the food, or the food that is an interpretation of the food that I will experience. I have become particularly fond of the meze:

Traditionally Meze is a Persian or Mediterranean in origin but many different cultures have adopted what they have thought meze should be and tweaked it in delicious ways how they see fit. Over the centuries, Turkey has made their Meze authentically Turkish. They use their own ingredients, their own techniques, and their own history to produce it. But, what exactly is Meze?  Meze means a taste. It is a snack and an appetizer but really it is so much more. It is sharing and taking part in a banquet of flavors. It is enjoying comraderie through delicious food and drink, the sharing of stories before a meal, and the drinking of wine or anise seed flavored liquors. I cant wait for all the different types of Meze that I will get to experience and I feel that this post is an adequate start to the journey that I am about to begin.

You are what you eat & I eat well!

JD