Going to the Black Sea on treads ...

So we came to this distant land of mystery and intrigue to meet the “natives” and experience their culture. As they say, “when in Constantinople do as the Romans did.”

On Thursday we took a new step in our “emersion” process. We decided to fast for Ramadan. For… one… whole… day. When we return home people may look at us differently, ask us for autographs, and hopeful be more than willing to sleep with us after we completed this Herculean Task. Now I can already hear the negative skeptics “One day? What about the other 28 days?” But let’s not those comments get in the way of our accomplishments. Not eating in Turkey is like having a McLaren F1 LM on the Autobahn and going 40 km/h (we have a running joke with all our friends here about how we have no idea how to use the metric system), the self control required is ridiculously difficult. If you’ve been keeping up with our blogs you understand our infatuation with Turkish Cuisine. In all fairness we took quite a large nap during the middle of the day. That night we went out with our Turkish class and were finally able to eat at 8:12pm. We ate at our teacher’s favorite kofte restaurant near the Blue Mosque. Lee alone ate two and half plates; it was like watching Oliver Twist at a Thanksgiving dinner (if he was American of course).

N.B. The trick to Ramadan fasting is sleep. Go out the night before late…. Really late…. Until its early. Once you hear the drums in the street (telling you to get up and stuff your face before sunrise) eat. Now sleep. Get up and go to class or work. Get home as soon as you can and sleep. When you wake up, go back to sleep. Sleep all day. Go to “breakfast” and gorge. Not that difficult if you’re really, really lazy. This brings us to Ramadan travel warnings. People can get cranky during Ramadan. Peoples eating patterns are messed up, their sleep patterns are out of whack, it’s 35+ degrees Celsius outside, you have to work all day without as much as a glass of water, the whole city is a bunch of hills, and did I mention its 300 degrees out. We witnessed our first Ramazan Tantrum the other day during class. A few students were sitting on the steps taking a break from class (not us of course), when all the sudden the shop keep comes running out screaming in Turkish while throwing a bucket of water on the students! At night it more of a relaxing atmosphere as Ramadan is also a festival.

Now, if we may we’d like to talk about people other than the Turks. Yes that’s right those lovable Joes from east of the Rhine (and occasionally the west too) THE GERMANS! We’ve met a lot of Germans here. Germany and Turkey have had a unique connection for generations. Guess who built all the railroads for the Ottomans? The Germans. And guess who works in all those German factories today? The Turks. I’m not quite sure the exact reasons behind this unique connection, but it definitely has deep roots.

Today in Germany, Turkish guest workers number almost 2 million people, mostly in the south western section of the country. More flights from Istanbul’s Airport go to Germany than any other country, except Turkey. In Istanbul most of the people studying Turkish with us are Germans and they plan to spend more time at home then in Istanbul. One German medical student said he “needs” to speak Turkish because he lives in Little Istanbul, a not so PC nickname for Berlin. We’ve met three teachers from Cologne, a southern German industrial Town and center for the Turkish community, who say 1/5 of their students are of Turkish decent and they need to be able to communicate with non-German speaking parents. Another student is here because her Turkish parents want her to learn to write Turkish, even though she’s lives in Germany. The Turkey – Germany relationship is an interesting one and one that we don’t know enough about to make an intelligent commentary.

What we can comment on is the fact that we’ve met a ton of Germans here and we’re getting along just swell with them. For many of whose German cultural experiences consist only of watching “Beerfest” and “Saving Private Ryan” a real German may come as both a shock and pleasant reinforcement of centuries old stereotypes (like… they take beer really seriously).

This weekend we had a beach day to the Black Sea. The weather was gorgeous, the water was amazing and is noticeably less salty then most ocean water, and the waves were great. We went to a public beach which was extremely crowded and a bit dirty. About 6 kilometers off the beach there were numerous tanker and cargo ships waiting to travel down the Bosphorus, a noticeably different backdrop to a beach day then what we are previously used to. Never the less we had a ‘swimmingly’ good time and are now all sporting new bright red birthday suits.

This coming week is a very busy one for us. We’ve got to get our school schedules in order, register with the immigration office, and finalize our travel plans. On Saturday we begin our road trip around Turkey! We’ve got some cool destinations in mind, but suggestion are welcomed (encouraged even).

-The Team

PS Check out our flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamturkey there are a ton of new pictures up