A lil something to get your Sunday jumping.

  Murat Dalkılıç is my favorite Turkish pop singer. I am sure there are other probably better but he was the only one that I heard while I was there that really caught my attention. I especially love the song Bir Güzellik Yap. I love that while it has obvious western pop aspects it still retains a traditional Turkish/Middle Eastern vibe, other than the use of the Turkish language.

                                        
                                         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gQxONA5j7Q

Was there ever such a thing a Copyright Law in Turkey?

    

   When I first arrived in Turkey one of the first things that I noticed was the use of Disney characters at a park not far from the airport. I would see the familiar Mickey, Donald and Pluto; but on closer inspection Mickey was wearing a different color of shorts, and Donald may be donning a bushy Turkish style mustache. These slight changes would not repeal the Disney lawyers if that was in the United States. My love for Turks who love American culture increased when I discovered Turkish mockbusters on YouTube. The term mockbuster is often used to describe straight to video releases that are meant to fool consumers who think they are purchasing the blockbuster, for example instead of Jack the Giant Slayer the mockbuster would be Jack the Giant Killer.

     Mockbuster would not be the correct term though for the films released during the 1970s and 1980s though, they were straight forward rip offs.  Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (The Man Who Saved the World) while had a somewhat original story, lifted stock footage from Star Wars and the its score as well. For this reason it is known as the Turkish Star Wars.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSv0ysqR9Xc

For those that didn’t like the new Superman that was released this summer, perhaps Turkish super man would be more to your liking.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8f1m0b6z0o

 Then there was Turkish Spiderman..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiA54GBAa9E

 How about some Turkish Star Trek..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc3CfHfNmXg

 Finally if superheroes or space isn’t your cup of chi how about a practically shot by shot remake of The Exorcist(Şeytan)?

 

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGCZb6iE8SA

 In a way you really cannot blame Turkey for recycling these ideas especially considering in the last year or two every single one of those examples have been remade in the United States.

How do you say, "How the hell do I poop in there!" in Turkish?

    It has been speculated that children that had difficult toilet training or some sort of severe trauma while toilet training turn out to have deep emotional problems, like psychopath/sociopath problems. With that being said I am surprised that there is one single sane person in the whole nation of Turkey! While recently talking with a friend that is considering the Peace Corps, she said that there was a chance that she would be sent to Eastern Europe, and of course the conversation turned to the most difficult aspect of living Turkey for an American. Turkish toilets!

 

     You might have heard the phrase, “You wouldn’t know you’re a** from a whole in the ground.” It wasn’t until I went to Turkey that I realized that two actually do go together.  Because that is what a Turkish toilet is, a hole in the floor surrounded by tile and with hose or a waterspout with a bucket. I have to say though that while your odds of encountering a Turkish toilet in Turkey are high, you will encounter more western toilets. The host family that I lived with had a very western bathroom; in fact it was nicer than some bathrooms I have seen in Alabama. When you were out in public you ran a higher chance of having to use a Turkish toilet. TOMER the language school that I attended in Ankara had both western toilets but it also had one Turkish toilet. If I had to guess perhaps that there are individuals of an older generation that prefers them. At the Ankara bus station, which had a pay toilet there was only one western toilet and it was reserved for the handicapped. I almost ask my money back.

 

     The biggest obstacle, at least for me in regards to the Turkish toilet is that the surrounding floor was always wet. I had never encountered a Turkish toilet at a private residence, but this is true for all the public ones I found.  To this day I am still confused as to how you either pull your pants down enough or take them off to do your business without getting them soaked! I will ask a person point blank their views on religion, politics and money but when it comes to thick kind of stuff I turn into a genteel southerner who has no idea how to broach such a subject. In the end I learned to know where the western bathrooms were, and if I didn’t then I would just limit what I would eat drink, especially eat!

 

 

 

A rediscovered blog and a continued love...for Turkiye!

    For the last couple weeks I have been slowly but surely preparing for a presentation that I will be giving at my job about Turkey. It will be bitter sweet because it is also my last day working there because I have to get everything in order for my move to South Carolina, where I will be a graduate student at Clemson University. My job is at Somerby which is a retirement community in Hoover, Alabama. They have a focus on master class living, which pretty much means that they never stop learning. The VP there asked if I would give a talk about Turkey, which I am very excited about. I am especially excited because of the audience I feel I will be able to shake some misconceptions about the Middle East, especially misconceptions that older white protestant Americans would have.

    In preparing for my presentation I have discovered several blog drafts that I had wrote last summer but never got around to posting, they are below. I also in a sense rediscovered my blog and realized what a wasted opportunity it was. I have made the decision to continue to write blog posts in regards to Turkey even though I am not physically there anymore. I love the country and the culture so much that I hope others would get as much joy reading about Turkey as I do writing about it. I will also update on how my presentation went.

Kids say the loudest things!

     If there is one thing that is different here in Turkey than the United States it is that here children run the show, especially the boys. I was raised with the constant reminding that “children are to be seen but not heard.” In Turkey they are to be seen and heard, and they especially make sure that they are heard! I have the misfortune of having a playground right outside my bedroom window, and there is one particular boy that very loudly rides a tricycle and makes a very loud siren noise as if he is a policeman. This is very annoying not only for the noise but for his inaccurate portrayal of the Turkish police. Now if he was to just lean against the building eating pistachios and leering at women as they walked by, THEN I would commend him for his Turkish policing.

Original Draft August 14, 2012

The Pigeons and I thank you Turkey.

    

     I absolutely love the old world, the old world being anything outside of the Western Hemisphere. The main thing I love about it is all the statues. Yes in Alabama we have statues here and there, usually one per park and the statue is of the person that the park is named after. But Turkey has so many statues, and I know many cannot be considered “old world” due to the fact that they are not old. In fact most statues are of Ataturk, but I still love that there are so many. It adds to the character of the nation that there is this completely free form of art readily available for the populace.

 

Original Draft August 13, 2012

What do you mean you’ve never been to the Black Sea? Well you simply must!

 

    As part of our Safronbolu adventure, Anne and I took a day trip to the Black Sea town of Amasra. The trip there was hell, but I have to say that the destination was heaven! This has got to be the one of the most beautiful places I think I have ever laid eyes on. It is the kind of place that Turks know about and flock to for their vacations.

   We left Safronbolu early in the morning and we traveled on a small bus. It picked us up on the side of the road and we paid the man to take us to the next town, which would then take us to Amasra. The first part of the trip was alright, there was ample room and good air-conditioning. The second part of the trip was not so good. We downsized from a small bus to a van. It was also crowded, very crowded. The air-conditioning was barely working or most likely turned low, since most Turks believe that air-conditioning will make you sick.  To make the trip even more uncomfortable was the fact that the road into Amasra was a very winding road.

 

 

     Amasra is a very old town, dating back to even before the Byzantines. The town is arranged on a peninsula with a bridge connecting to an island, from the top of which you can see neighboring small islands. There were small museums there but the main attraction was the shore. The water cool and refreshing on my feet, I really regret not bringing my swim trunks to really swim in the water. The food there was also amazing. Anne and I spent eight hours there just exploring and could have spent longer had we more time. The ride back to Safronbulu was also a great experience. It was a direct ride back, with no change. The bus driver also decided that Anne and I would sit in the front with him. Anne was generous enough to let me sit by the window, so I could feel the cool evening breeze as we road home at dusk. The driver even slowed down as we ascended up the mountains surrounding Amasra to take some last photos of the sun setting over the Black Sea, Karadeniz.

Original Draft July 9, 2012

Alex and Anne go to a Mosque. (Cami in Turkish) (Pronounced JAH-MEEE)

   So a couple days ago Anne and I decided that we would have an adventure. Should we go to a bar? No. Should we go skydiving? No. Should we try to cross the Armenian boarder disguised as sheep? No. We were going to really up the stakes and go to a Mosque! There is no bigger adventure for a Baptized Southern Baptist from Alabama than going to a Mosque in a predominate Muslim nation.

     Our adventure hit a small snag when we got confused  how to enter the cami and accidently ended up in a grocery store. Honestly it could have happened to anyone...or just me. Anyway, as Anne started ascending the mosques steps she noticed my absence as I lagged behind.  Don't get me wrong I loved looking at the exterior but actually going inside scared me. Though I am gay and probably constantly prayed for by members of my former church, I still in some ways hold dear that fundamentalist  upbringing. While I know science and people in the know may have their point in saying religion is a sham, its something I still find peace in, and for some reason I felt that going into a mosque would be disrespectful . Anne urged me to come with her, and I begrudgingly followed. We had to take off our shoes to enter the mosque, Southern Baptists spend too much time and money on their church shoes to just leave them at the door, so right there was something different! When we entered the space I was in total awe of its beauty and volume..it was big. I mean really big! Like a hundred Macedonia Baptist Churches in Margaret, Alabama could have fit inside it. Anne and I spent about two hours there pacing the carpeted floors looking up at the vaulting ceiling. We eventually sat against a pillar to rest and soak up the environment. 

     While we sat an elderly Turkish man approached me and asked me to pray with him. I guess he asked me considering I was the "man". He was very encouraging and I was very tempted to. I suppose that many others would have jumped at that opportunity as another example of doing as the local do, but I took pause. While I see the beauty of the Muslim religion and respect it, had I joined the elderly man I would have been doing nothing more than being a mimic. I respected the religion too much to play along with something without really believing in it. With as much respect as I could muster with my limited Turkish I declined the kind mans offer. Anne and I then gathered our shoes, and began to plan our next adventure.

Original Draft written June 29,2012