rebecca soble

Entering NYC from NJ on the PATH train, you come to the World Trade Center site.  Finally, things are being built!

Dünya Tıcaret Merkezi yerinde nihayet yeni yapılıyor!

A typical downtown street scene – narrow streets, tall buildings, both modern and older.  Also some remnants from times past with shorter historical buildings (look to the very end of the street, low down.)

Tipik cadde manzarası – dar caddeler, uzun binalar, tarihsel ve çağdaş.

Into the subway!  The platforms are dirty and hot but I love them.  And then getting onto the cool and relatively clean train is so nice, especially traveling off-peak times so you get a seat easily.

Metro’ye bindim!  Tramvay sahanlığında her yerde kirli ve sıcak ama her şeye rağmen onu seviyorum.

Some nice SoHo buildings.

Güzel binalar, SoHo’de.  (SoHo bir mahalledir.)

A hazy view of the Statue of Liberty.

Özgürlük Heykeli, puslu bir manzara.

Chinatown.  I ate lunch here.

Çin Mahallesi.  Burada oğle yemeğı yedim.

And a couple blocks north, Little Italy, with the Empire State Building in the distance.

Ve Çin mahallesiınden az kavşak kuzey, küçük İtalya mahallesi.  Uzaklıkta Empire Eyalet Binası görebilirsin.

People take their noise pollution seriously in this city!

Bu şehirde, gürültü kirliliğı çok ciddi bir konu.  [KORNU ÖTTÜRMEYİN $350 CEZA]

Back at the WTC PATH station, heading home at the same time as many commuters.

İşten sonra, herkes trenle eve gidiyor.

April has been a busy month, in a mostly positive way.  Nevermind the broken waterheater and the visits to the Emniyet, here are some images of the fun moments…

Ilkbahar tatilinda, Emrah ile bir gün Eminönü’de dolaştık.  Arkasindaki cami “Suleymaniye Camii”. Önünde balıkcı tekneleri, orada taze balık ekmek falan yenir. Ortasinda otobüs durağı.

Over spring break, spent an afternoon wandering in Eminönü with Emrah.  In the background is the Suleymaniye Mosque and in the front are the boats where people can eat freshly caught and cooked fish.  In the middle is a bus depot.

İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi kampüsünde evim yakında küçük bir göldür. Emrah’in yardımıyla, sonunda yaya yollarını keşfettik.

Near my home on the Istanbul Technical University campus there is a small lake.  With Emrah’s help, I finally discovered the footpaths that lead to and around it.

Gölet yaninda güneş batmasıyı seyretmekten zevk aldık, ve mahalli arkadaşlarla ziyaret ettik.  Onlara kurabiyeyi verdik.  Emrah’in gölgesi görebilirsin…

We enjoyed watching the setting sun by the lake, and visited with some local friends.  We gave them our cookies.  You can see Emrah’s shadow…

Yeniköy’den Beykoz’a vapura bindik.

We took a ferry from Yeniköy to Beykoz.

Nisan Türkiye’de lale mevsimidir.  Beykoz Korusunda pek çok güzel çeşitleri vardı.

April is tulip season in Turkey.  In the Beykoz park there were many lovely varieties.

Ayrıca, biraz örgü yaptım, bebek battaniyeleri (Nasıl Türkçe ile örme açıklamaya bilmiyorum.)

I’ve also done some knitting this month, baby blankets.  All in garter stitch, but some Entrelac and some Log Cabin.

Doğum günüm bulutlu başladı….

My birthday started out cloudy…

…ama çok nefis sona erdi!  Kadıköy’deki  Çiya Lokantada Alinazik kebabı yedım.  Altındaki patlican+sarımsak ezmesi en iyi parça.

…but ended yummy!  I had Alinazik Kebab at Çiya in Kadıköy.  The best part is the eggplant+garlic paste underneath…

Çocuk Bayramında, Büyükada’da kalabalığa dayanıp yukarı manastıra tırmandık.

On Children’s Day we faced the crowds at Büyükada and climbed up to the monastery.

Insanlar bütün yolu iplik çekiyor, iyi şans için (zannedersem).

People were stringing thread the whole way, for good luck (I think).

Günün sonunda  vapurla eve geri döndüm.  Vapurlardan çok hoşlanıyorum.

At the end of the day I rode the ferry back home.  I love the ferries.

Ona benzeyen bir adam gördüğüm zaman kalbım yerınden fırladı.

Havuza girmeden önce çabuk ve sabunsuz duş aldığım için iki yaşlılar bana söylendiler.
Onlara sinirlendiğim için daha hızlı ve hareketli yüzdüm (ve havuzda dalgaları yaptım).

Eve giderken minibüs şoförü çok öfkeli davranıyordu. Diğer minibüs şoförlerine acı acı bağırdı, freni çok sert kullandı, ve İKİ DEFA bağırmak için minibüsten indi! Ikinci defa, evimini yakin varmadığımız halde, ben de indim çünkü o minibüs güvenli degildi. Keşke plaka numarasını almayı düşünseydim ama alsaydım ne yapacaktım?

Canım seni çok özledim. öptüm.

I went to the Carrefour in Maltepe today, enjoying the feeling of being in a large supermarket with wide aisles and big selections.  I don’t know why I’ve never gone there before, it’s an easy ride on the minibus from my house.  But being three days before payday, my budget is tight so I bought just 8 things (fruit, veg, sandwich materials for workday lunches + some “garden spirit” scented tealight candles on sale for 3TL).  I went to the checkout and was pleased to find one reasonably short.  I got in the row, waited, put my things on the conveyor, and waited a bit more.  Then a woman came behind me and had also started putting her items on the conveyor when the cashier told her that this particular checkout was 5 items or less.  The cashier was very strict about this and made the woman leave.   I just watched.  I hadn’t realized I was in a restricted lane (the sign was very high up) and was wondering when the cashier was going to notice that I too was over limit.  In the meantime another woman came behind me and was discussing with the cashier whether 10 items would be okay since 5 of them were the same (5 packets of the same brand of mallo-cookies, yuck).  When it came my turn to check out, the cashier finally realized that I also had more than 5 items and she was about to get strict with me too, I could tell.  By this time there were two people behind me and it would have been a real pain in the patootie to retrieve my basket, refill it, back out, and get in another lane where everyone had carts piled high.  I had an inspiration:  I started talking in English.  “I’m really sorry, I just didn’t realize!”.   That was all it took, and she made an exception for my extra three items and let me go through.  As I took my change, I said (in my best English) “Thank you VERY much!” and smiled.  Nevermind that I understood every conversation around me and once I saw the sign knew exactly what it said and could have spoken to the cashier in Turkish.  Sometimes you’ve just gotta use your opportunities.

FWIW I think the “X items or fewer” concept is great, but I think the X should be closer to 10 or 12.   There’s a big difference between someone with a basket-ful and someone with a cart-ful.  If I have 8 items, is it better for me to be in the limited-item lane or fuming in the lane with people who have 50 items?  Here’s a nice solution I saw online, at another Carrefour (a French supermarket that has gone global) in Shanghai.  If you have a basket, you can pass through.  If you need a cart, find another lane.  I suppose someone could cheat with two baskets, but who wants to carry two baskets?

BTW the sign in the Maltepe Carrefour was about the same color and height as that one in Shanghai, but sideways to the checkout lanes rather than readable straight on.  I would have had to come to the checkout lanes from near the entrance in order to read it.

Ok, that’s enough about supermarket checkout lanes. 

I’ve started taking Turkish lessons again, but now for the first time they are private lessons (hi Aslı!) that I’m paying for as opposed to joining classes offered at school (free for English teachers if they are available at the right time, which seldom happens).  So this represents a new level of commitment for me.

One activity Aslı recommended in order to improve my writing (and, to follow, my speaking) is to keep a diary, but make it an imaginary diary so I wouldn’t feel limited by my own actual life’s events.   At the same time, I have started working on a lesson plan for my Advanced English students related to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, where they can read some of the winning entries (crazy or funny or dramatic opening lines for novels) and then try to make up some of their own, in various genres (spy thriller, romance, historical fiction, etc).   So having these two things come into my consciousness at the same time made me think that I could do the same thing for myself – instead of diary entries, I could write short fake novel openings.

So here’s my first go.  I’m posting it here without anyone else having first looked at it, so all the mistakes are mine (as well as the things that are done right).  After Aslı reviews it, I will update this entry with a followup corrected version.  The theme for this first attempt is Ramazan-film-noir.

Akşam yemeği başlamadan önce ekmeği onun getirmesini bekliyordum, ama gelmedi.  Çok zaman bekledim, o yüzden yemek soğuk oldu.  Ya yolda çok aç ve çılgın bir taksi şoförü ona çarpti (beş dakika sonra iftar başlayacaktı) ya da benden nihayet ayrılmaya karar verdi.  Her ikisi aynı derecede olabiliyordu.

Here’s what I am hoping it says, in English:

I was waiting for him to bring the bread before starting dinner, but he didn’t come.  I waited so long the food became cold.  Either a crazy starved taxi driver hit him on the street (iftar was just about to start) or he finally decided to leave me for good.  Both were equally possible.

Okay at this red-hot moment I’m a bit nervous about posting this for the whole world to read (Yuck, her Turkish sucks! the crowd hisses) but Aslı tells me it will be motivational, so here goes.  (Click.)