The Museum of Innocence

FYI, I cry at everything. Sad movies, sad books, happy movies, happy books. I'm serious. I cried at the end of the Gossip Girl book series. So it should come as no surprise that I cried during Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence. But, actually, "cried" doesn't quite cover it. I bawled/sobbed/wept uncontrollably and unabashedly. So it should also come as no surprise that I cried walking through the real-life museum based on the book. And it started immediately with this first box.

The museum, designed by Pamuk himself, parallels the protagonist's museum in the novel. Each box represents a chapter and has an accompanying audio track the viewer can listen to with rented headphones. The box pictured above has a small earring and represents the first chapter, which begins with the following sentence:

Seriously, go read this book. I don't want to give spoilers, but here's a quick synopsis: 1960s-70s Istanbul. Kemal is from a rich family and falls in love with Füsun, a poor, distant relative, but he's already engaged to Sibel, who is also rich and a perfect match—according to everyone else. The story tells of his burning love for Füsun and his intense heartache:

The reason I love this book so much, thought about it nonstop for weeks after finishing it, continue to agonize over it today, and recommend it to everyone I meet is that Pamuk's writing is so amazing and beautiful and true that I have never related to a book more. (The guy won a Nobel prize for literature, for goodness' sake.) During one of the audio tracks for one of the boxes, Pamuk says how getting the details of the book exactly right was very important to him. However, he soon realized that visitors to the museum don't remember the details so much as the emotions they felt reading the novel. As I looked at the exhibits, I remembered the details, and I definitely remembered the emotions.

I don't want to describe the contents of these pictures because, really, go read the book. But the museum wasn't only about the book. It also shows Istanbul's culture, which I did not understand or appreciate while reading the book since I had never lived in Istanbul. But after looking at the boxes and listening to the audio, I realized that the story takes place in Nişantaşı and Harbiye, which is where R and I lived! And the food and sights were entirely familiar.

The map on the left shows Harbiye and Nişantaşı, and the map on the right shows Istanbul.

The characters eat halva and drink çay.

These carts of men selling simit, cotton candy and roasted chestnuts were around in the 60s, and they haven't changed at all.

Also, as promised (though I doubt you're still reading/scrolling), here are some images of the underground Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, built by Justinian during the 6th century A.D. My camera is real terrible, so you should probably just Google pictures instead.

If you squint and also know what to look for, you'll see a bunch of columns standing in about a foot of water with lights at the bottom. Enjoy this slightly better yet still crappy video:

According to the audio guide and brochure, the cistern underwent several renovations in the last couple hundred years, the most recent being in the 1980s when paths were built above the water, and it was opened to the public. There are 336 columns in neat rows. Some are carved in the Corinthian style while others are carved in a plainer, Doric style.

This truly wonderful photograph attempts to show one of the bases of two columns, which had carvings of Medusa, the snake-haired giantess of Greek mythology. Since legend has it she can turn people to stone with her stare, neither Medusa is upright. One is upside down, and the other is turned on its side. As this picture clearly and brightly shows, this is the sideways Medusa. Her eye is in the middle of the photograph and her nose right below that. The audio guide said perhaps they were brought to protect the large structure, as was custom at the time.

This column has teardrop shapes carved on it to commemorate all the slaves who died constructing the cistern.

Anyway, since my study abroad program is due to start in two days, I owe you a lot of blogs in a short period of time. Hopefully I can get them all done!!

XXOO

The time I saw Istanbul with a local!

Two weekends ago one of my colleagues showed me around Istanbul. The city is huge so we only explored one small part. We went to the European side near Istanbul University for nargile and an amazing view of the city at dusk. Please enjoy (or not enjoy) a video of the things we saw, which includes the Milion Monument, which marked the beginning of the Roman road Via Egnetia. It shows the distances to all the major European cities—although they are not in the right direction at all... We also saw a centuries-old cemetery and ate the stuffed mussels sold everywhere in the city, which were amaaaazingggg.

 

 
The song is called Recuerdo de la Alhambra by Gino d'Auri.

Our Wonderful Boat Adventure!

What's there to say? The film says it all. R and I live on the European side in Beyoğlu (Bay-oh-loo), and our internship's co-director Güler invited us out for drinks on the Asian side! So we ferried and became real—Istanbulians? Istanbullers? Istanbulites?

Anyway, the song playing is traditional Turkish music. Cihan sent me this video but couldn't tell me who sings it. But he did say that this is what people listen to when they drink Rakı, a popular Turkish spirit made from anise. "And then it makes them sad, so they drink more Rakı." Şerefe!

So, without further ado, I happily present, "Our Wonderful Boat Adventure"!!

Turkey Votes Tomorrow

Fellow SPEAN in Turkey Bravo posted a link to an article from Carnegie Europe on Facebook that outlines tomorrow's elections pretty well. It writes,

This contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.

Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
 
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP.

(Read the rest of the article here:)

This article largely mirrors how my coworkers explained the major political parties that will factor in tomorrow's election. They all expect AKP to win and retain its power, but they would like to see HDP secure the 10% threshold it needs for parliamentary representation.

One man at a café this morning saw me editing my touristy videos and said, "you're not Turkish". I answered, "nope. I'm from the U.S." "Oh, U.S.! You like Istanbul?" "Of course," I said, laughing. "Well, it is nice, but we have a lot of problems," he answered. And after yesterday's explosions at an HDP rally killed at least two and injured at least 100, I couldn't help but agree.

Anyway, watch this video for some sweet footage of campaigning in Istanbul!

Also, check out these videos produced by each of the three major parties. We had a lot of fun jammin' out to these at work. Look closely at the first video, and you'll actually see one of my coworkers! I told her I was going to publish her big acting debut on ye ol' blog, and she said, "I'll be famous in America!" (She probably won't, though...)

Republican People's Party (CHP):

 

People's Democratic Party (HDP):

Justice and Development Party (AKP):

his contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP


Read more at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/05/29/turkey-s-game-changing-election/i97d

his contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP


Read more at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/05/29/turkey-s-game-changing-election/i97d

his contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP


Read more at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/05/29/turkey-s-game-changing-election/i97d

his contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP


Read more at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/05/29/turkey-s-game-changing-election/i97d

his contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP


Read more at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/05/29/turkey-s-game-changing-election/i97d

his contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP


Read more at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/05/29/turkey-s-game-changing-election/i97d

This contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP.


Read more at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/05/29/turkey-s-game-changing-election/i97d

his contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP


Read more at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/05/29/turkey-s-game-changing-election/i97d

This contest will center on the performance of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, the HDP is running as a political party instead of fielding independent candidates. The party is hoping to pass the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to secure representation in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.
Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the current main opposition group, and the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are both expected to retain representation in the Grand National Assembly with hopes of becoming the junior partner in an eventual coalition with the AKP.


Read more at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/05/29/turkey-s-game-changing-election/i97d

Julia Eats Ravioli

Watch as I make my colleagues uncomfortable and pretend to be my idol, Anthony Bourdain, for like 30 seconds. Obviously, I have a long way to go before I could hope to match his elegance, charm, wit and naturally good looks, but once he takes me under his wing—as he is bound to do after he sees this blog—I will learn his secrets.

This dish is called manti. Little beef ravioli are served with yogurt and spices, and, according to E, it's pretty traditional. It came with a lovely salad of cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, topped with lemon.

Güle güle!!

XOXO

Laylat al-Baraat

Moral of this story: you aren't going to find a lot of credible news sites explaining the significance of Laylat al-Baraat to include on your blog. Which is kind of surprising. I'll ask my colleagues about it tomorrow and hopefully get some good information. Until then, try to accept that is is more likely than not a holy night here in Istanbul, marked by the kind gift of halva my neighbor gave me.

I also wanted to capture the 10:02 p.m. call to prayer on this video, but I didn't act fast enough. By the time I sat down and started talking to my camera, it had just ended. But like every self-respecting blogger taking touristy videos of everything in Istanbul, I recorded a call to prayer during the day last week. So you can just play the following video when I mention the call to prayer in the first video, and if you close your eyes, you'll have no idea that I didn't think to plan ahead.

 

İyi geceler everyone!

6/2 UPDATE: Yes, it was Laylat al-Baraat yesterday, but according to the people at my internship, the level of importance varies from person to person. They confirmed that it's the day when Allah removes your sins for the coming year, so you can start anew before Ramadan.

XXOO

First impressions in Istanbul

I've been in Istanbul with my fellow SPEAN Roberta since Sunday. That's five days with a lot of first impressions. Here are a few (my apologies for the poor video quality):

The people:

During my first few hours in Istanbul, the cab drivers couldn't find the apartment our colleague booked for R and me and overcharged every ounce of my sweaty, American body. So I spent the night in a less-than-luxurious hotel near Taksim Square. Around 10 p.m., R and I met at Taksim and walked down one of the many streets branching off the square to find dinner. Apparently, some sort of football championship match took place Sunday, so Sunday night looked like this. Everywhere. First impression of the people of Istanbul? They're crazy soccer hooligans, and they're gonna trample us.

The food:

  

Çay (pronounced like "chai") is amazing in Turkey. For my 18th birthday, my mom paid to have my teeth whitened because my family loves tea so much that my teeth were yellow. Looks like she'll have to do the same for my 25th birthday because the way this country brews tea is incredible. And our internship orders it from a café about 5 times a day. 

Same goes for the coffee. Silky and rich and full-bodied and a ton of other coffee-describing adjectives I'm not fit to use. I couldn't finish my first cup—mostly because I don't drink caffeine, so when I do, I go nuts—but also because it was so thick and strong that 3 sips were plenty. I need to finish a full cup soon, though, so one of my colleagues can read me my fortune with the empty cup, Sybill Trelawney style.

Baklava. *hearts in eyes emoji* The sugar, the pistachios, the honey, the filo dough. Perfection. By the way, if you're interesting in watching a Spanish woman try and fail miserably to make baklava in a very awkward setting, I highly recommend "Turkey 2", a travel special starring Adela Úcar. Why a dedicated Turkish baklava baker would agree to have some inexperienced foreigner fondle his filo is not clearly communicated by the film and will leave you feeling uncomfortable. But it's worth watching to appreciate the hard work behind this magical pastry.

The internship:

As mentioned, our internships are with İdema, a consulting and economic development team. Our internship director Ercan (pronounced "Air-John") and colleague Emircan ("Eh-meer-John") translated to R and me the highlights of the Responsible Cities Conference, which we attended Wednesday. Very relevant to a SPEA Master's degree in economic development, what with all the emphasis on public-private partnerships, sustainability and government accountability. Except for the complete Turkishness of it all, we might have been sitting in one of the second-floor lecture halls in SPEA.

The rest of the internship has been spent in the office (playing with cute babies), the metro (to buy our one-month, all-access passes to the public transportation services in Istanbul), and the shoe stores near Taksim Square. Yes, shoe stores—because yours truly stupidly wore sandals on her first day of Internship, and they broke within 20 minutes of following Emircan to our office. So E took us shoe shopping and began to question his director's decision to allow two American girls to intern with his company. (Talk about good first impressions.) The new shoes gave me 3 new blisters, so it'll be sneakers every day for the rest of the internship. No shame.

The city:

 

Orhan Pamuk writes in his autobiography Istanbul: Memories and the City, "If the city speaks of defeat, destruction, deprivation, melancholy, and poverty, the Bosphorus sings of life, pleasure, and happiness." Ugh Orhan. He always portrays Istanbul in this way—derelict and decrepit on the one hand and beautiful and enchanting on the other. I think it's partly due to his own childhood, which was full of paradoxes. And partly due to the decline of the Ottoman Empire, which left things derelict and decrepit. (But he is a beautiful writer, so check him out. I especially loved The Museum of Innocence.)

In my first few days in Istanbul, I've seen what Orhan means about destruction. Old, Ottoman buildings literally crumbling next to new, modern ones. It's as if the city built the new right on top of the old. I have only been in the city a few days, so I'm going to wait to decide what I think about the rest of Orhan's view of Istanbul, which he always seems to describe as cold, wintry and sad. It's clear we agree on one thing, though. The Bosphorus is incredible.

 

Our internship's office is located 2 minutes from the Bosphorus in Beyoğlu ("Bay-oh-loo") District.

Stray cats are EVERYWHERE in Istanbul. The lot next to our apartment is home to about 8 kittens. The neighbors, R, and I take turns feeding them. How could you not??

"#Hasthtag", a restaurant near Taksim, hosted a "special party", from which R and I were expressly prohibited. So we had to eat our French Fries and sulk in the corner.

The city reminds me of other European cities in which I've lived in the past, like Madrid. I love the wide, cobblestone streets and endless windows of shops—not that I'm into consumerism or anything.

As Istanbul and I get to know one another better, I will post new pictures and videos. I've only been here 5 days, and there is much, much more to come.

XXOO