Coming home

I’ve been back for about 3 weeks now, and it really feels like the start of the new year.  After coming home from Bursa, I had a week at home and then moved into UIC.  We just finished our first week of classes, and it’s with this perspective that I’m really able to reflect on what’s happened this summer.

I spent the summer studying the language and culture of a country very different from anything I’ve experienced.  But it really wasn’t all that different.  Once you get past the colored lens of cultural details, there are certain aspects of the human condition that are universal. 

I lived with a family that was gracious and hospitable; and that was patient and more than willing to invite me into their home and into their family.  I spoke with my host father about grandiose topics such as the role that religious tolerance plays in society, and we talked about John Deere tractors and Michelin tires.

Like most Americans, I hadn’t ever given much thought to Turkey as a country or a culture.  But it was an incredible experience.  If one is curious, interested in religion, society, politics, history, art, architecture, food, or all of the above, and if one is open to new experiences, I cannot recommend traveling to Turkey enough.  In eight weeks, even if I might not have an understanding of thousands of years of context, I certainly gained an insight and an appreciation for the country, culture, and people. 

Turkey is in such a unique position geographically, culturally, socially, and economically.  It is a middle ground between what are seen as incompatible opposites.  It is 98% Muslim, yet denies Islam a place in public life.  It is socially tied to Europe, but it looks to the East for its cultural identity.  It borders the European Union; and it borders Syria, Iran, and Iraq.  And it interacts with the European Union, the Arab League, and Israel, but it isn’t a member of any of these.  It looks to the past to create a sense of nation, but was founded on notions of rejecting backwardness for modernity. 

Really, there is more to Turkey than I could ever put into a blog post, and every day, it seems I can pick out some new nuance that I hadn’t noticed or paid close enough attention to before.  It was an incredible opportunity that pushed me to find new limits of what I have experienced in my life; a new continent, new country, new culture with its own history, new language, new religion, new normal. 

While I might return to the blog and post something in it, I think that this was a pretty fair wrap up of what I’m feeling.  There’s just so much more that I could say, but I will leave it at this.  Turkey has taken me to places – physical and not – and left me breathless, but thankfully not speechless.

Uruç

You heard it here first. Bu sene ben Ramazan uruçu tutuyorum.  Get ready for grumpy Hugh.

Photos

Everyone,

Here is the public link to all my photos!  Enjoy!

Bursa 2012 Photos HERE!!!

The link is also underneath the blog title

Iznik, Christianity, and Islam

Yesterday, my class went to Iznik (better known to Christians as Nicaea).  It is famous in Turkey for its tile works, but was notable for me for the Council of Nicaea, the Nicene Creed, and the 7^th Ecumenical Council on iconography.  Today, Iznik is a pretty rundown backwater and many of its pre Islamic historical architecture is destroyed by fire, earthquake, or repeated conquest. 

The Council of Nicaea, convened by Emperor Constantine to discuss the divinity of Christ, took place in the wooden imperial palace that has long ago disappeared.  But the Seventh Ecumenical Council is possibly more interesting.  It was a meeting in the 700’s between the four Patriarchies of Christendom: Rome; Constantinople; Alexandria; and Antioch, to discuss the role that icons should play in the Church.  At this point, Icons had not been used in churches for decades from a fear that the images themselves had become objects of worship.  The decision of the council was that Icons could be revered but not adored.  But according to an inaccurate translation, the Roman Patriarchy was offended enough to leave the other three, founding what is today the Roman Catholic Church.   In short, this meeting led to the split between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. 

This Council took place in Aya Sofia church, which is still standing.  But the building deserves its own explanation.  The church was built in the 600’s, but was converted to a mosque when the Ottomans arrived in Iznik.  It was terribly damaged by earthquakes, and was restored (they put a roof on it, and rebuilt the minaret which had fallen) and made a museum within the last decade and a half.  But two years ago, it was reconverted to a functioning mosque. 

It is a fascinating building.  There are Byzantine mosaics by the entrance. And while the alter of the church faces east, the mosque is orientated to the south-east to face Mecca.  The center of the building is carpeted in the manner of an Islamic prayer room, but surrounded by the gravel that is used in the church museum as a floor.  It is strikingly different from any mosque I’ve seen.  But perhaps the most surprising thing there are the frescoes.  In the church’s front tower, there are fragments of wall paintings depicting St. Andrew (who evangelized the region), angels, and crosses.  But these are separate from the prayer room.  But in the prayer room, protected by Plexiglas is a fragment of a frescoe depicting Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist. 

We often get the impression that Islam is a religion of violence, repression, and intolerance.  But I have seen nothing but the opposite in my stay here.  I have been invited to join kandil prayers (I declined, though I washed and observed), I listen daily to the music of the calls to prayer, I am consistently amazed by the design and simplistic beauty of mosques, and I am surprised by the willingness of Muslims to talk with me about my faith and the role of Jesus in relation to Christianity’s and Islam’s shared heritage through Abraham.  And now, in one of the most important buildings in Christian history, there is a working mosque, that has proactively protected the Christian history in its worship space. 

This is not the Islam of intolerance that often springs to mind and jumps from television and the pages of newspapers.   This is the Islam of knowledge, peace, and compassion that at one point made the Islamic world the center of science, technology, and literature.  And this is an Islam that has made a permanent impression on me.  

Musings on Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.  Fact: Born Mustafa in Thessalonica, Greece. Second Fact: Name literally translates to Mustafa Kemal perfection Atatürk Father of the Türks (ironic as he had no biological children).

Atatürk is Turkey’s version of George Washington, but if Washington had invented the English Language, and after chopping down the cherry tree, had invented cherry pie and used the ax handle as the first baseball bat. 

In Türkiye, Atatürk is a constant presence.  Statues of him are in every city in the country.  His picture is in every public building, almost all private businesses, and a good percentage of private residences as well.  Every car has either a decal of either the Turkish flag or Atatürk‘s signature in the window, and every house where he spent more than 12 hours is invariably a museum.  There are streets in every city named for him, stadiums, bridges, and parks.  Everything is named for Atatürk. 

So why is he so omnipresent in Turkish life Culture?  To begin with, he really was an extraordinary individual.  He was a war hero in the Turkish-Balkan War, the Turkish-Greek War, and World War I (including the battle of Gallipoli where it could be argued that the modern Australian state has its impetus, and where Atatürk gave an incredible speech). 

After WWI, the Ottoman Empire as an ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary, was dismantled and divided between Greek and Italian interests in the west and French and British interests in the east, leaving Turkey a sliver of coast.  Turkish politics was controlled by the last Ottoman Sultan who also served as the last Caliph, blending Ottoman politics and pan-Islamic politics.  Atatürk led the nationalist revolt against the occupying forces, citing Wilson’s 14 Points for legitimacy. 

After the War of Independence, Atatürk remade a backwards looking Islamist state into the Western looking, but still Muslim, state.  The difference was that religion played no role in the new government.  The Fez was outlawed in 1925 with possibly the greatest law ever, Law 671 – Law on the Wearing of Hats – which required public sector workers to adopt western style hats, leading the general public to follow suit. 

He also recreated the Turkish language.  Turkish is a member of the central Asian Turkik linguistic family, and the spoken language goes back thousands of years.  However, during the Islamic rule of the Ottoman Empire, this spoken language was represented by written Arabic.  Arabic is consonant rich and vowel poor.  Turkish is the complete opposite, making Arabic script an imperfect representation of the language.  It is also difficult to learn, leading to a poorly educated population.  Atatürk convened a council of linguists, educators, and policy experts to create a specific written Turkish language.  Modern written Turkish uses a modified Roman alphabet that almost perfectly represents the phonetics of the spoken language.  The Council recommended that country-wide implementation would take 3-5 years.  Atatürk gave them 3-5 months.  And it worked.  Literacy classes were mandated for all Turkish citizens under the age of 40, and literacy rates went from around 15% to 75% within 3 years. 

But again, why is he everywhere?  There are several answers.  One is that he really was an extraordinary individual with a vision for modern Turkey and a drive to realize that goal.  But there are also issues of proximity.  Atatürk only died in the 1930’s, and there are people who can still remember him personally.  This is not unlike American reverence of George Washington well into the 1800’s.  In fact, I would be interested to know how many towns, schools and bridges are named after G. Washington.  But this historical proximity is key to his role in Turkish society today.

The second factor in his role today is his role as Father of the Türks.  Going back to my blog entry about the flag, Atatürk created modern Turkey’s self-identity.  It is no longer a state ruled by a puppet caliph controlled by the British.  It is a modern state engaged in the world, and Atatürk really is the reason why. 

I’ll leave on this last note.  Atatürk’s signature is K. Atatürk.  6 letters.  In the Turkish language edition of Microsoft Word, there is an Atatürk typeface where the 29 letters in the Turkish language have been created from the 6 in his signature.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, Father of the Turks,
and  man with the best eyebrows, with his iconic and omnipresent signature.

Hamams and barbers

As some of you may know, I am a big fan of going to the Chicago Sweat Lodge – a Russian and Turkish sauna.  My city in Turkey, Bursa, has been famous since the early 600’s for its hot springs.  This being the case, I headed to Eski Kaplıcı or Old Hot Spring for a day of bathing after class.  To contextualize this, it was 95 out and I walked about a half mile up hill, so when I arrived I was sweaty and hot.  But that only made the experience more typical since Turkey is a dusty and hot place.

The main difference between the Chicago baths and a Turkish bath is that the Chicago Turkish Sauna is a wet sauna, whereas a Turkish Bath really is a bath.  In Bursa, there is a hot spring that enters a small pool at around 80C and filters into a larger pool that is still hot.  Around this there are ledges to sit on where you can rinse with warm or cold water.  And in a cold room, there are ledges to cool off.  I got a vigorous scrub with a mitt that felt like steel wool, and then hopped in and out of the pools for the next three hours.  It really is a different kind of clean than the Russian style I’m used to.  Islamic culture stresses cleanliness – I’ve learned the proper way to ritually wash before entering a mosque – and the importance of cleaning dirt and grime from the skin is important in Turkey. Russian style saunas stress the importance of flushing impurity from the body.  The Turkish bath lays the importance on what’s on the body.

But differences aside, the experience was very good.  I saw a part of the city I hadn’t before.  And the bath itself dates to the 600’s and Emperor Justinius.  The current building is a 14^th century building that is just amazing.  I plan on going to another Hamam next week to compare the experiences.

But after the Hamam, I decided to make my version of a spa day and get a shave.  I could see my own mustache which isn’t good for me haha! But I went to the berber in my town and got a very good shave.  There is something exhilarating about sitting while another person holds a razor to your throat.  There is a human bonding experience as he doesn’t pull a Sweeney Todd on you. 

But the shave is not just a shave.  You get a straight razor shave plus a head massage.  I kid you not, I got a head massage.  It was delightful.  And in the city if I pony up an extra 3 Liras, I could get any stubble burned off with a kerosene torch.  Look it up on youtube.  And after warnings from my host family that the berber would be prohibitively expensive, I paid the equivalent of $2US.  This came after the warning that the Hamams were all seething cesspools of filth (they weren’t by the way.  Perfectly clean).  Though I did heed the warning that this particular berber was very bad at haircuts after seeing his bowl cut of the man in front of me.

ü  Go to hamam and have Turkish Bath experience

ü  Get a Turkish shave

Good me-day.

The Parable of the 24 coins

I will preface this post by saying that my host father is a religious man.  This last week I dropped the bombshell of Ben ile aile uruç yapmak istiyorum or: I want to keep the fast (for Ramazan coming up in a little under 2 weeks) with the family.  He was speechless, and since then, he has talked with me more and more about a broad range of topics.  Two nights ago I was outside doing homework when the call to prayer went out.  One of my favorite things about Turkey is hearing the call, and I always stop to listen.  My host father came and told me a story (several times and with the help of props haha!)

Every day, a rich man gave a poor man gave a poor man 24 gold coins, asking one thing in return for his generosity.  He asked only that at the end of the day, the poor man give one gold coin back, which he gladly did. 

This parable, for lack of a better word, is how my host-father described Muslims’ relationship to God through prayer.  God has given us 24 hours in each day, and he asks that we give one of those hours back in prayer.  I really enjoyed the analogy.

video upload difficulties

I am encountering some difficulties with uploading .AVI video files to the internet.  If anyone has any insights, please let me know.  Facebook and Blogger are affected.

Türkiye, Türks, and the Flag

As a political science student, I am particularly interested in peoples’ political self-identity.  One thing that I usually am struck by as an American is how we put the American flag on anything that stands still.  I think a lot of it stems from our self-identity as a nation in the aftermath of World War II.  But this has really been highlighted when I’ve been abroad by other countries’ reticence to plaster their national flag everywhere.  A great example is Germany which until the 2006 World Cup was almost ashamed to display the flag in public; and Spaniards still don’t display their flag as prominently as a consequence of the dictatorship. 

So I was really surprised when I came to Turkey to see the Turkish flag everywhere!  Turks are very proud of the Turkish state and its relatively recent founding.  Kamal Ataturk is everywhere in public life (blog post on that is in the works) and the flag is further expression of this pride.

But this flag pride has been heightened in the last week by two incidents.  A week ago, 8 soldiers were killed by the PKK – a terrorist Kurdish separatist group operating in the extreme south east of Turkey and the north west of Iraq.  And then on Friday, a Turkish Fighter jet was shot down with 2 pilots by Syria.  These two incidents have caused even more flags to appear, and it will be interesting to see how long this lasts. 

But this is one of those little things that you notice but can’t put a finger on and then, suddenly, you see it.  And Turks’ pride over their flag and their country is a very noticeable part of their self-constructed identity.

So....What do you actually do?

To spare everyone, I gave my sort of day-by-day account to a separate post (you may now breathe your sigh of relief.)  I’ll just run through what we did briefly, but I’ve been busy.

6/8         Leave Washington DC

6/9         Arrive in Bursa, and arrive in Alaşar at around 10p.

6/10       Orientation at TÖMER in the morning.  In the evening, Mehmet, Yağmur, and I went to the Bursa Zoo and to the large city park (think Grant Park in Chicago).  On Sunday, many urban apartment families will spend the evening outside.  But the picnics are both in the park, but more strangely, can be on the grassy medians of the parking lot.  We also noticed people using the grassy areas in highway interchanges as parks.  It seems strange at first, but there is a certain sense to it, especially in Istanbul with green space at such a premium. 

6/11       Was a testing day at TÖMER.  I was exempt haha!  We all met our buddies in the afternoon and grabbed lunch together.  But in the evening, I had my first experience of çay fuelled late night conversation.  It was really a blast.  I love communicating with people, and it really is just fun for me.

6/12       First day of class which was interesting.  Turkish is very different from the languages that I know, and it was frustrating starting from complete scratch.  But in the evening Mehmet, Yağmur, Ece and I went to Kulturpark (an area that is comparable to Tivoli in Copenhagen.  Part amusement park, part park-park) where for a modest entrance fee – around 12 cents US – we went to dinner and rode on a little roller coaster.  It is much easier to enjoy Bursa in the late afternoon and evening, so this made for a nice night.

6/13       After class, I went with Favziye and her friend Mavre (it almost sounds like “mary”) to explore historic Bursa.  My feet still hurt.  It was probably about 6-7 miles in 39 C with most of it uphill.  But we saw Ulu Cami (U-lu Ja-mee), the oldest and biggest mosque in the city.  We saw the Osman citadel in the city that commanded the heights, and from there I could really see over the city.  It’s really big and just busy.  Then we walked clear to the other side of the city to see the best mosque and mausoleum complex in the city, Yeşil Cami (Yes- sheel Ja-mee) or Green Mosque.  Maybe better described as blue, the building itself really is spectacular and the view is exceptional.  Of course, I forgot my camera, but I promise I will take pictures and post them. 

There were also two beverage firsts for me yesterday.  The first was my first Ayran, a very popular beverage that every Turk drinks but has a mixed review among Americans.  Ayran is a mixture of yogurt, water, and salt which my travel book describes as “refreshing.”  I think I fall in the middle on this.  I had it and it did not taste like death as one student warned, but I wouldn’t order it again.  Something about the salt plus sourness from the yogurt plus the extreme heat just made it unpleasant.  My other first was my first kahve which was delightful.  After drinking up, Favziye, Mavre, and I tried to find shapes in the dregs like looking at clouds.  Loads of fun after a hot sweaty day of hiking. 

The day ended rather abruptly, however, as I missed the last minibus back to Alaşar.  Favziye called Mehmet to explain in Turkish what happened.  I ended getting in a different minibus that ran kind of near Alaşar and giving my cell to the driver so Mehmet could explain.  But it worked.  I was home around 10:30 and starving.  After dinner, it was homework, çay, and conversation with Mehmet, Ahmet, Safiye, and Ece. 

Tomorrow, I will be back with Favziye and Mavre to watch her friend graduate and then we will go out.  I’m looking forward to seeing what we will do because I don’t really have any idea what to expect.  Then on Saturday, TÖMER students and their buddies are all going up the cable car on Uludağ (where it can be 15 F cooler and which has a permanent snow cap) for a picnic and game day.  We are all looking forward to it very much.  Then finally next Wednesday, the TÖMER leader is giving a tour of the old city that is only for beginners, so I will be going back to the Osman center (with camera this time haha!) and I plan to post pictures next week. 

But that’s been my time so far and the near future.  Busy and hot – Favziye finds it hysterical that Sıcak (hot) was the first word I learned in Turkey – are the order of the day.  But I am beginning to kind of communicate and I look forward to improving. 

As always, comment and keep reading, and I promise to bring my camera with me from now on.

Life in Turkey

Daily life for me has three main places to it.  First is the city of Bursa in general.  I will get out and about in the city, and while I look forward to some travel, I’m pretty tied to the city during the week.  Second is Alaşar where I actually live.  And third is the TÖMER Institute where I study.

Alaşar is a small little town, but I spend time with the family in the home, and it is lovely.  All our food is homemade (cheese; yogurt; the ubiquitous Turkish salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, and spicy peppers; eggs, olives, etc.) and the farm is shady (vital when it’s 40 C like it is every day) and quiet as compared to Bursa.  Plus we are a little less polluted which just feels clean. 

In the evening, we’ll have dinner and then sit around drinking çay (chay or tea) which, contrary to the common perception is the national drink, not kahve (coffee).  I really have a good situation, and I am very glad.  Ahmet – the father – is very curious about very specific aspects of American life (car companies, whether Americans dance at weddings, and what our circumcision parties are like – in Turkey, it takes place around age 10 and is celebrated like a bar mitzvah – are all representative of Ahmet’s interests).  Safiye is more interested in my interest in languages (her son is beginning to learn English, and she wants him to pursue language study.) 

When we sit around, there are several dictionaries (Mehmet’s English is quite good and Yağmur’s is also pretty good.  Safiye can also speak some, but it is limited.  That being said, neither the parents nor grandparents speak English, but I am getting better with them.  In any case, conversations happen at night with çay; and it’s generally just a pleasant way to spend the evening. 

The main part of my life here, though, is the TÖMER (toer-mehr) Institute.  It is a program of Ankara University, and the first of its kind in Turkey, to systematically teach foreign languages.  It is amazing that every day when I walk in, there is another student in our class from another part of the world.  Two Afghanis were in our class today, for example.  Learning Turkish has 3 aspects to it in our program.  The first is class work.  Our CLS group is divided into 4 skill-levels with mine having 8 students.  We spend 4 hours per day in class – 160 hours in 8 weeks.  The second aspect of the program is being partnered with a “buddy,” a Turk who is somewhere between someone paid to be my friend and a tutor.    My buddy is named Favziye (fahfv-zi-ye) and she is a 22 year old student at Uludağ Universitesi, and is very good.  We explore together, and generally expose me to Turkish Culture.  I’ll get into what we do in the next post.  The third aspect of the program is the most obvious: immersion.  By living in Turkey and thinking in Turkish, students use their claas work in real situations. 

TÖMER is a wonderful place that really takes care of us.  We are in class from 9-1 and have programming in the afternoon two days a week.  These can be excursions (Izik, better known as Nicea is nearby), cultural activities such as a paper marbling class, or mini cultural trips like to museums. 

In all, I’m very busy, but enjoying myself!  Please comment and keep reading!

Welcome to Türkiye

Merhaba all,

I know I haven’t written for a bit, but I’ve been getting my feet in Bursa (and a wifi connection for the laptop is a 25 min bus ride away haha!)  But a quick update.  I left DC on the 8^th and arrived in Turkey on the 9^th.  Two flights: DC-Munich & Munich-Istanbul.  From there, we hopped on a bus to a ferry for a three hour drive to Bursa.  If not for the bus, Istanbul is only an hour and a half from Bursa, but what can you do? 

In Bursa I live with a family of a 24 y/o son, Mehmet Memiş; two parents; and the Mehmet’s paternal grandparents.  Mehmet’s married sister, Safiye is often with us during the evening as well along with her son who’s 7, another cousin Ece (ay-zheh), and Mehmet’s girlfriend Yağmur.  We live about 25 minutes away from the city center in a village called Alaşar (al-ah-shar).  The father and grandfather are both orchard farmers with 300 Olive trees, plus almond, walnut, mulberry, lemon, green fig, black fig, plum, and cherry trees.  Then in the garden are these vicious peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, parsley, mint, grapes, and lots of other garden vegetables that I couldn’t recognize.  Plus the chickens running around and the giant carp in the fountain.  So I live on what could safely be described as a farm, and it is wonderful!  It is far enough outside the city to escape but close enough to be accessible.

Bursa is a fascinating city.  As the first Osman (Ottoman) capital, it is very historic.  It was traditionally known for its weaving (especially silk) and for being an oasis west of the interior of Turkey.  Bursa is known as Yişil (green) Bursa because it really is green.  The city is dominated by Uludağ (U-lu­-da’a.  Literally: great/historic mountain) which is the source of several springs, both cold and hot. 

In 1970, Bursa had about 200 thousand people.  Today, it has 2.5 million, and is known for manufacturing.  Fiat has a factory, and there are many other car companies here.  The city is also home to many soft drink and bottling companies, drawn to the spring water and the industrial infrastructure already in place.  With all this manufacturing, the pollution is pretty bad, but the mountain really makes up for it, even if it’s smoggy.   

So this is the quick over view of where I live, but I hope you keep reading to see some of what I actually do haha!

Görüşürüz! (see you later!)

Waiting in line, waiting in the airport

Well, I'm in the airport.  Security was very fast, and once my privacy was violated for all to see (wear clean underwear folks) I was through.  Several internet issues followed (dear NYTimes, I totally have an account) but they are now all fixed, and I'm getting ready for the flight.  We board in.....two and a half hours! Until then, I'm gunna read.

Hi all,

Apologies for my lack of posts, but I actually developed Strep here in D.C. so I have a good reason to be incommunicado.  But there are a few things that are especially note worthy.  First, I am a huge fan of corned beef hash.  It's delicious.  And we went to a restaurant called Ted's Bulletin which makes homemade, chunky corned beef hash.  The potatoes are herb roasted, and its just generally delicious.  Go check it out.  Just very memorable.  The smaller second note is that fresh, in season softshell crab, crabcakes, and raw clams make a delightful Chesapeake dinner.  Hands down.

But as we speak, I'm in the hotel, prepping to leave TOMORROW for Turkey! We've been meeting all day as a group for orientation, and it's been fun meeting everyone going to bursa with me.  I'm very excited, and feeling a little better that I'm not the only novice going.

After some last minute errands, I'm back in the room, just resting my throat.  It's still pretty raw.  We leave the hotel tomorrow at noon for the airport, so I'm probably going to call it a night here, but I'll be sure to really kick this into high gear once I'm in Bursa.

Until then,

Hi all!

Welcome to the first post on Merhaba!  which means hello! in Turkish.  As I speak, I'm sitting in the carriage house that mom and I are sharing in D.C. getting ready to go to the National Archives and then to parts unknown - probably Baltimore for all you The Wire fans out there.

During our stay in D.C., I think I'll probably be posting links to photos that we've taken, and maybe explain some things that we've seen.  After June 8th when I fly out, the posts will be a bit more meaty.

So here are photos from our drive to Columbus, Ohio to see friends over memorial day and our first full day in the district:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151768037140015.853372.841405014&type=3&l=8c095cefd3