it's turkey time

To whom it may concern.

First blog ever. Want to keep up? Read.

First adventure: Turkey. Left Minnesota at around 2:30 pm on the 26th, and arrived in Istanbul around 4:15 pm on the 27th. Major jet lag. Maybe slept...5 collective hours? I thought this would help me get to sleep that night (even though my body might have thought it was still the afternoon), but I woke up to the sound of the Muslim call to prayer at 4:50 am Turkish time and had troubles falling back to sleep. It might have been worth it to hear the call in the dead of night, however. Electric.

Next day was the first day of classes at Boğaziçe (pronounced boe-a-zi-chi) University, just up the street from the Superdorm, where we will be staying until September 7th. Out scheduled class material was Turkish. Now, Turkish isn't exactly known for being easy. Especially when it sounds like a combination of Portuguese, Norwegian and Japanese. And especially when your Turkish teacher has extremely high expectations. Long story short, we mumbled out a few words, tried to learn a few grammatical rules, and ended up extremely confused.
A taste of the words I did learn:
Merhaba (Hello)
Günaydin (Good night)
Amerikaliyim (I'm from America)
Allahaismarladik (Good bye - literally, something like: Allah light your way)
This last one sounds like alas, small dick. Take from that what you will.

Today we toured. Made a stop at the Topkopi Palace first, the palace of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. It has an amazing view of the Bosphorus, not to mention ridiculous opulence (read: crazy jewels. Most of which the Turks stole). Enough opulence, in fact, to keep a harem of 3,000 women, children and slaves.

Next stop: Hagia Sophia (in Greek, Holy Wisdom). It was once a church, way back when Constantine converted to Christianity and took all of Constantinople with him. Later, it was changed to a mosque when the Muslims took charge of the city. Now it's an odd mixture of both. Because no one can decide whether it should now be a church or a mosque, however, the good ole USA stepped in and declared it a museum. The building itself is a strange dichotomy: 4 minarets surround the church and there is Arabic writing throughout the inside, but mosaics of Christ, John the Baptist and Mary, and engravings of crosses, can be seen throughout the inside as well. Hagia Sophia is a truly gorgeous place. But its history alone would be enough of a draw.

Final stop: the Blue Mosque, so named for the blue tiles that characterize the place. The mosque sits directly opposite Hagia Sophia, so it could compete with Christianity for religious prevalence in Instanbul. The afternoon tour of the mosque was excellent. But what was really special was the experience I had inside later that night:
A few of us decided to try and sit in on a special prayer service, since it is currently Ramadan in Turkey. We weren't sure how this would turn out, since typically tourists are asked to leave when prayer services are being held, but when we arrived at the mosque (as the only non-Muslims in sight) we were told we could stay. Half of us ended up with the women on the second level of the mosque, and the other half ended up on the ground floor towards the back of the mosque (since women are not allowed to pray in the front of the mosque with the men). Although I sat viewing the ceremony on the ground floor without participating in the prayers, the group upstairs was guided by the women in the complicated process of bowing, prostrating and standing. It was a beautiful sight to hear and behold. The reading of the Qur'an is something indescribable. Very powerful, to be sure. The entire ceremony was one I'll never forget.

It never ceases to amaze me how genuinely nice people here in Turkey are. They all say hello and practice their English on us. They help us watch out for cars in the road (because driving in Instanbul is nothing short of chaos). One man even helped us cross the street. And they all put up with out terrible Turkish. I can't wait to see what more I can learn about this wonderful culture, and what other stereotypes I can examine and possibly break.

This post is much longer than the rest will be. Suffice it to say that I am alive and having a wonderful time.

Allahaismarladik!