What I’ve figured out about Turkey so far

The difference between living in a foreign country and just visiting it is that you get the chance to delve into the culture instead of just scratching the surface. When surrounded by so much that’s different, it’s only natural to try to figure it out and make yourself aware of the cultural differences. After being here 5 months, I feel like I’ve realized a lot of these differences, and in this post I’ll highlight some that I’ve noticed. Sidenote: I’ve exaggerated these for your enjoyment, so remember I say everything here with love and sarcasm

Food

• Turkish food itself is a good enough reason to come visit
• Baklava is the sweetest dessert I’ve ever had and that is why I love it
• Turkish yogurt isn’t just a snack, but also a drink, condiment, lifestyle, and topping for anything.
• Turks put yogurt on everything – beans, meat, their newborn children, their cars, etc.
• Turkish people drink an average of 7 cups of tea every day (Turkish çay is the best tea ever!)
• Their spoons are bigger than my face – there’s nothing in between a tea spoon and soup spoon
• I can get döner or kebab on the streets for about a dollar (And I haven’t gotten food poisoning!)
• If you turn over your turkish coffee cup, you can have your fortune read from the leftovers! I’ve even learned how to read people’s fortunes and I think it’s really cool. One time they told me I’d find love in 3 months…it’s been 4 months and I’m still single…
• Traditional Turkish food is incredible: Adana kebab, döner, mantı, pide….how have I not gained weight?

Transportation

• Everything is accessible by public transportation – it’s easy to use and super efficient*
• Spending 2+ hours in traffic is completely normal.
• Busses are completely full with people, so much that my bus sometimes gets stuck going uphill
  • (Sidenote: if you’ve ever wanted to see 50 aggressive animals push their way onto a bus, it’s called bus 48E during rush hour)
• The only way to cross the street in cases is to J-walk. Imagine a real life “Crossy Road.”
• If I had a dollar for every time I almost got hit by a car, I’d be able to pay for an American college education.
• The busses are so crowded and hot that you could take off the majority of your clothes and nobody would notice (I have yet to test this theory)
• Busses and metros are extremely cheap: around 60 cents usually. (Take that, Denmark!)
• Metrobus is magical – these are busses that have their own lane and can drive fast through traffic; these can also can be built anywhere a metro track can’t be built. Brilliant, right? (I can only assume Mrs. Frizzle’s Magic School Bus is also a Metrobus)

Shopping

• There are 140 malls in Istanbul, many of which are 3-6 stories tall.
• I actually live close to Europe’s largest mall, Cevahir. It’s the 9^th largest in the world, and the Mall of America is the 39^th largest.
• If I showed my Turkish friends La Crosse’s “Valley View Mall” they would laugh all the way back to Istanbul.
• I recently visited one of the “small” malls in Istanbul…it was still 10 floors tall.
• You can get fake and cheap stuff at bazaars – watches, namebrand shoes, scarves, anything!
• Koton is like a Turkish H&M and it’s my favorite store…3 dollar shirts? Yes please.

School

• Everything is based off exams – no homework, just a lot of high-pressure exams
• We have an hour long break to eat lunch, but they normally get done eating in 5 minutes
• The amount of drama and gossip at my school makes Mean Girls seem like nothing. I’ve actually had scheduled gossip sessions with friends before, and I’ve had a fair share of rumors spread around the school about me
• If a Turk goes abroad for college, they have to go to one of the top 500 schools worldwide. Therefore all my friends are aiming for Harvard, Parsons, etc.
• You can buy toast “Karisik” at school. Take notes, Central High School

People

• Turks always cancel, so if you want to make a plan, you have to do it 2 days beforehand…not any later or sooner.
• If a turkish person is feeling too hot, instead of taking off their sweater they will open a window and make everyone else cold #Stopturks2k16
• Turks are extremely warm people, even to strangers. They always want to make you feel at home and will feed you the amount an elephant would eat in a month to make sure you feel welcome.
• The sellers in Grand Bazaar and on the streets are just annoying, I have to put in headphones to block out the buyurunbuyurunbuyurunbuyurun of the city
• Everyone helps each other out on the busses/public transportation (IE. letting old people and children sit, holding bags for other people if there’s no room, etc.)

Clothes

(You can basically wear whatever you want, so it’s hard for me to pin Turkish fashion)

Turkish men’s fashion comes in 3 different flavors:

• European Fashion Model
• Totally 2008 golfer ™
• “I only wear tight sweatpants because they’re trendy now”

There you go, my observations of Turkish culture! Hopefully you enjoyed reading it.  Feel free to comment below if there’s any other things I’ve missed.

-Cameron  (Alternatively spelled Camayran but never Kamuran)

Abi and I, reunited in Istanbul

(Yes, I’m still alive! I’m uploading this a bit late – this is a summary I wrote a month ago about my experiences in November and December here in Istanbul.)

Okay, let’s be honest…it’s been way too long since I’ve updated my blog and I need to get on that more often. No news is good news, right? Well basically everything has been beyond perfect so I haven’t felt the need to post much. Normally, the time period between November and December is considered the “low-point” of the year for an exchange student. (There’s books on this – people have it down to a science) But for me, my November and December have been my best months so far!

To start out with, I really have to give a huge shout out to all my amazing friends at school. I have to say, my first few days at Hisar school were a bit rough to say the least, but once I got to know people, it’s been wonderful being at school. Just walking around the school I always have people who stop me in the hallways to talk, and outside of school I have friends to hang out with. I haven’t even been to school for 3 months yet, and I really feel like I’m a part of Hisar. It’s definitely weird/cool that I’m graduating with them this year – I feel like I’ve missed a lot, since they’ve all been together for 13 years and I’ve just been here a few months, but it’s cool too to still feel like a part of their last year.

During this period, one of my exchange friends that I met in Denmark, Abi, visited Istanbul with her Dad. She actually lives in Minnesota, so it’s crazy it took us this long to meet up, on the other side of the world. It was super fun to show them around the city I’ve come to love, even if I almost got them lost a few times, and it was beyond wonderful to see her again.

With my exchange friends by Sultan Ahmet

I’ve really been enjoying exploring Istanbul, and crossing items off my bucket list for this year.  One day, my exchange friends and I went to Grand Bazaar after language school, where I found a Danish person doing surveys of tourists(!!) FINALLY, I found 5 minutes worth of use for my Danish in Istanbul!  Afterwards the exchange students and I found a cafe with an incredible view of Istanbul, where we could drink hot chocolate with Hagia Sofia on one side, Sultan Ahmet on one side, and the Bosphorus Strait on the other.  That turned out to be one of the best days of my exchange so far!  Another weekend, my exchange Kaya and I found this amazing place called “Büyük Valide Han” in Eminönü, and even though we thought a man in an alley saying “terrace, 1 lira, very beautiful” was very sketchy, the view turned out to be amazing!  Another day, a few friends and I walked to Ortakoy mosque from Taksim, and coincidentally ran into one of my teachers from school on the way.  In a city of almost 20 million people, I’m still always reminded that it’s not as big as I think.

Unfortunately I’m done with language school, and my turkish is still needs a lot of work. It really varies on the situation and day, but I can at least hold a basic conversation and understand what’s going on around me!

With the Press Team/Photographers of JMUN

After my friend Eran’s insisting, I signed up to be one of the photographers at our school’s JMUN conference. I was really lucky to meet not only tons of people from my school, but people from around Turkey, Egypt, Britain, and more. The 4 days of the conference were my best days in Turkey so far – I really got to know some amazing people at my school, and I’m looking forward to getting to know the people I met this weekend more.

I also got to participate in the school’s Christmas Concert, which was a wonderful chance for me to perform and meet other people who are into music. I got to sing a duet of “Last Christmas” with the orchestra and choir backing, and perform “All of Me” with one of the school’s alumni playing piano. It was really fun, even though I was slightly confused about why we were doing a concert for a holiday that doesn’t actually exist in this country.

Thanksgiving Dinner with my family; pumpkin dessert in the foreground

I think the most amazing moments for me were when I realized how much of a family I have here – both my host family and my exchange student family have done so much to make me happy here. For Thanksgiving, my host family made a Thanksgiving Dinner for me, complete with turkey, potatoes, and a turkish pumpkin dessert. (Before you make the joke, yes. I ate Turkey in Turkey) I got to share one of my favorite holidays with my host family, a friend from school, and two Brazilian exchange students. I can’t explain how happy it made me that everyone pitched in to give me an amazing day on a holiday that I would have otherwise missed.

It was also a bit odd to not have Christmas this year – Turkey is a muslim country and therefore celebrating Christmas isn’t common…just the superficial stuff like Christmas decorations in shopping malls. (Ironically, St. Nicholas is actually from Turkey) Throughout this time, I actually missed Denmark more than the US, since I spent the past 2 years in Denmark for Christmas. I missed pebernødder and ris a la mande and I was very tempted to just buy a plane ticket and go there for the 24^th.

My exchange family on Christmas Eve

However, my exchange friends made a sort of Christmas for ourselves, and it was at this moment we realized that we’re a family too.  At the beginning of the month, the exchange students made ourselves a Christmas party, where we traded “Santa Santa” gifts.  On Christmas Eve we went to a neighborhood famous for its Christmas Decorations and then found a church that was singing Christmas carols. On Christmas Day, we went to a cafe to drink Salep (A turkish winter drink that tastes like Christmas) and ate chestnuts roasted on an open fire.  Rotary also organized a few Christmas and New Years parties for the exchange students as well, which were also really fun! Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day turned out to be some of my best days so far, because I spent them with people I loved.

There’s the summary of my first 4 months! It’s crazy that 4 months have already passed by – not does this mean my apple music free trial is almost over but also that my exchange is close to being half-way done. I love everyone here so much and I really don’t want this year to end! I’m excited for the upcoming tour across Turkey and I’m excited to see everything this year brings me.