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I swear, It was not me
Entry 9 of 15 | show all | print this entry |
Well, It would seem that we are entering the rainy season here in Turkey. The weather is reportedly rainy about 5 days a week and that standard seems to be holding for this week at least. I've never had a problem with the rain; it begs you to stay in bed and sleep late, watch movies, and make soups and stews. Yesterday Hannah made a cabbage soup that was really good. The cabbages here are enormous. I bought a quarter of one at the market for a lira on Wednesday and it was about half as big as a watermelon. They just chop them up with these machetes. Remind me to never anger a cabbage farmer. A couple of days ago I had to go and get my residence permit. I was supposed to meet the Koc lawyer at the police station at 7:30 in the morning in Askaroy. To get there I had to call a cab, catch a bus, get on the metro, then catch another cab the rest of the way. I was a little proud of myself that there were no major mishaps. I arrived about 20 minutes early so I decided to read some of the book I brought with me. Now I have to take a minute and explain that in Istanbul there are armed guards everywhere. They have some kind of machine gun and they seem to just hang out and watch people. It is at the same time comforting and terrifying. The police station is the largest on the western side of Istanbul, and in light of recent terrorist attacks it is heavily guarded. They all have whistles and blow them at cab drivers and people who park near the police station. They also whistle at people to get their attention. I was off to the left of the police station reading my book and leaning against the wall when someone was suddenly whistling at me. Why would anyone be trying to get my attention I thought. I looked up from my book and there were two guards with machine guns yelling at me in Turkish. Thinking I could manage to explain myself in Turkish, I walked over. As I started walking towards them, they shouted louder and were gesturing for me to go do something. Could have been go away, could have been come here. Not really sure. So I'm not sure if any of you have been yelled at by men with machine guns in a language you don't know and in a country where you don't have a visa yet.. But it is not comforting. Any Turkish I thought I new quickly left my mind and I just shouted in English "no Turkche" Pardon, Americanlie" Which is, in caveman Turkish, "no Turkish, sorry I am American" Then they dismissively waved me away and I walked around the corner to wait for the Koc lawyer. I can only guess that I was not supposed to lean against the wall. Who knew? After that it was smooth sailing. The lawyer showed up and four hours later I had a shiny new residence permit good for one year.
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