rebecca soble

Here is a link to my recent trip pics of Mardin, Midyat, and Diyarbakır on Flickr.  Emrah and I spent just four short days wandering in that area - still a lot of the East of Turkey that I would like to see, but yavaş yavaş…   Here’s one pic to whet your curiosity to see the rest - yes, I’m chatting with a donkey, or at least trying to.  It isn’t being very sociable.

Wordle is a new web tool that lets you take text and make a word cloud image out of it, with the most common words larger and bolder than the less common words.  Within the framework of information architecture, this is a great technique for visualizing and thus more easily absorbing the essence of a text.  Plus it’s really nifty looking.  I tried it out with my own blog’s RSS feed, but it must only pull the X most recent posts because it definitely weighted more recently used words (eg Ramadan) over other words that are used more often but more widely dispersed (eg knit)  Also, even though it allows for eliminating common words in several languages (for English: the, and, a, etc) it doesn’t seem to allow for combining words with the same root (knit/knitting, elected/election) for a clearer visual.   Here is a wordle I created based on the second presidential debate:

http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/236414/Second_Presidential_Debate

I did a bit of editing on the transcript to remove some common words that were throwing off the results, including names (Brokaw, McCain, Obama, Sen (a common abbreviation for Senator), and some other common words that are just used in spoken English (going, get, got, know).  I could have also removed “think” and “make”, and perhaps would have come up with a more descriptive result, but I liked them there.  I don’t pretend this is scientific in the slightest.

In personal updates, I just came back from a short trip around Western Turkey, stopping in Troy, Bergama, and the Galipoli peninsula.  Here are some pics.  Next week Emrah and I are going to Dıyarbakır and Mardın, in Eastern Turkey, I’m really looking forward to that.  It’s a good time to go - not too hot, not too cold.

Troy has a lot of layers - civilizations have lived in this location since around 2000 BC.

This is the memorial at Abide (on the southern point of the Galipoli peninsula) that the Turks erected to honor their soldiers lost in the Galipoli battles of WWI.

A cute marina in Kılıtbahir, with an old Ottoman wall and gate in the background.

Roman Empire ruins from the Acropolis, up on the top of a big hill 5km from Bergama.

Typical carpet store, Bergama Turkey.

Ruins from the Asclepion, 2km outside Bergama.

Closeup of a column in the Bergama Archaeology Museum.

In the US, if a workman came to your house to cut a hole in a glass window for exhaust ventilation, that workman would then clean up the glass fragments left on the floor afterwards.

In the US, a workman would assume that you wanted your possessions covered with drape cloths while they were doing the work and bring them along at the start rather than wait for you to insist, go out and buy them, and then two hours after starting the work, cover your furniture.

In the US, if a workman came to your house to install some pipes through your cupboards, and had to move your cupboard contents to do the work (obviously forgetting to mention to you first that the pipe had to go in that particular place, or you would have cleared the cupboard yourself), that workman would make sure that a glass jar of honey was not balanced precariously on the top of several other things on the highest shelf to fall down on you when you opened the cupboard.  IF, by chance, this DID happen, that workman would not then, faced with a pile of glass-bits-and-honey, say “oh, no problem” with a dismissive wave of the hand and then leave it for YOU to clean up.  (No, not a single apology passed any lips.)

In the US, if a workman cut a hole in your shower surround in order to install some pipes, that workman would make sure the hole was the right size and position so that it could be filled or covered in a solid way (in other words, the workman would PLAN AHEAD), rather than cut a hole larger then necessary and then realize after the fact (because you tell him) that when you take a shower water flows through the hole to cover your bathroom floor, and then only upon your insistence that “YES, THE HOLE MUST BE COMPLETELY COVERED”, slap up some flimsy plastic (in multiple pieces!  not just one!) with silicone.

—

No, I don’t feel better.  I still have hours of cleaning ahead of me and a jerry-rigged silicone-plastic-blob to look at every time I take a shower.  And I have no honey for my tea.

This is my third year in Turkey but it will be my first full Ramazan (Ramadan), as in both previous autumns my visits home overlapped with this special month of the year, though not intentionally.  So this year I’m gearing up for the full experience.  Though let me clarify that “the full experience” will not include me actually following the Ramadan practices (though I might once or twice, when I’m not working) but observing and experiencing what happens around me.

For those who don’t know the practice, observant Muslims follow Ramadan by not partaking of any food, drink (including water), cigarettes, gum, or sex during daylight hours for the course of the month, and tend to be more observant of the five-times-per-day prayers as well.   Each day starts in the wee hours with the banging of a drum in the streets to wake people up to eat before sunrise.  They get up early enough so that they can eat slowly and thoroughly, at least I hope they do.  And then after a day of sacrifice, everyone comes together for the iftar, the meal that ends the fast after sunset.  This is a celebratory and festive meal, best partaken with lots of family and friends to support each other through the month.  For the people who have to break their fast alone, I imagine it isn’t as enjoyable an experience.  Because the Islamic calendar does not coincide with the Gregorian calendar, the month of Ramadan moves through the seasons over time.  In recent years, Ramadan has been in the autumn, when the days were relatively short, making the fasting a bit easier.  This year, coinciding exactly with the month of September, the fast-day is getting longer and I’ve already heard several people comment about how it gets longer and harder every year….

Of course, there are a lot of non-observant Muslims who won’t be following Ramadan (just like there are plenty of Catholics who don’t observe Lent and Jews who skip Yom Kippur - and Emrah is Alevi, so he doesn’t observe Ramadan either) but I’ve been asking around in preparation and several of my students will be fasting.   For the ones whose lessons are in the 8-10pm time frame, they’ll have time to eat something before their lessons (the sunset time will start around 7:45 at the beginning of Ramazan and gradually get earlier over the course of the month) though it obviously can’t be a complete iftar meal because of lack of time, but I’m a bit concerned for the ones whose lessons are in the 5-8 time frame, the very end of the day when they will be at their most hungry, thirsty, most caffeine-and-nicotine-deprived.  Not really conducive for learning, so I might have to modify my lessons a bit.

Out on the street, it will pay to be a bit more careful in traffic, as drivers who already have a rather high baseline of impatience and scofflawdom (if that isn’t a word it should be) will be even more so, especially later in the day.  Also I wonder about the overall levels of productivity and whether Ramadan is visible as a blip in the quarterly GDP of predominantly Muslim countries.  Do companies make allowances for fasting employees?  What about ones who work with dangerous factory equipment or need to make split-second important decisions or be very detailed about accounting figures?  How many more mistakes will there be, and will any be life- or business-threatening?   I actually have no idea what percentage of people observe Ramadan in Istanbul, I would guess a lower percentage than in the rest of Turkey, but still a significant number.

At the end of the month, there is a 3-day holiday called Şeker Bayramı (Sugar Holiday) which apparently is a big hooplah.  I have three days off from work so I’ll have to find somewhere to go, something to do.

Well that’s about all for Ramazan, starting tomorrow morning.  I’m clearly not a food photographer, but here is a picture of the dinner I ate tonight:  mucver (zucchini patties), cold carrot salad (sauteed with olive oil), and wheat grains.  I had been eating the wheat in a cold yogurt soup and had some leftover.  Plus yogurt and cold tea.   Hugs to all my friends and family!  xoxo!

With serendipitously coinciding days off, Kimby and I wandered to İznik for the day.  Some pics:

A mosque in iznik covered with the meşhur eponymous tiles. and lots of men outside - it’s friday and we’ve just heard the ezan.

İznik was historically a walled city, with the walls in a pentagon shape and four gates at the major NSEW directions. Remnants of the gates and the walls still remain. This is the Yenişehir Gate, to the South. The gates were built in the time period 69-81 AD (Roman age).

This is the Lefke Gate, to the East. The gates are named for the city that is reachable by following the road in that direction.

A closeup of the Lefke gate.

A long section of the wall still standing near the Lefke gate.

In the museum, a carved decoration from the Roman period. I’m sorry I forgot to get a closeup of the placard, but I remember the figure is Hercules.

Meşhur Manyas kavunu, 1ytl/kg. (that’s kinda expensive melon, but hey, apparently it’s famous.)

Near the Yenişehir gate, we met a farmer on a tractor and his wife in the wagon being pulled behind. When we waved hello, they stopped and offered us nectarines.

Kids near the Lefke gate, they really wanted to have their picture taken.

Travel instructions from Istanbul:  Take the fast ferry to Yalova (embark at Bostancı, Kartal, Pendik or Yenikapı depending on your location and timing) - fare from Kartal was 5.50 using the akbil, 7ytl without.  Travel time less than an hour depending on your starting point.

Disembark in Yalova and walk about 10 mins to the left to a bus area right across the street from the bazaar (active on Saturdays).  Find the minibus to İznik near the back, 7.50 fare.  During the center of the day (9am to 6pm), the minibusses go every hour at 10 past the hour and a couple more times outside those hours.  Travel time less than an hour, get off at the final stop in the center of town.  Total travel time (including some waiting for the minibus) is less than 3 hours.  Same path in reverse to get home except you have to get on the minibus at the İznik otogar (bus station) a little way away from the center of town (easy to find with the map from the tourist information center, or by asking a local).