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March 19, 2003
Turkey is Funny
While friends and family in the States are fraught with anxiety about our being in Turkey during the impending war, Girl-E and The Dude are laughing at Euroleague basketball. Compared to the NBA, it's sort of like watching Division III try-outs. The game currently being broadcast is between a team from Moscow and a Turkish team named after beer. Of course the game is interrupted frequently with war updates, as Iraqi refugees are flooding into the country and Turkey continues to struggle with its position as the only NATO ally to be bordering the "rogue nation", its loyalty to the United States and its people's passionate opposition to the war. But 2,000 kilometers from the border, we are both far away from the imminent fighting and close enough to have an understanding that we are relatively safe. At any rate, when folks at home ask Girl-E what it feels like to be in Turkey right now, her mind usually turns to salty cheese and the difficulty of adapting to a culture of people who can't wait in lines rather than anything like fear.
We could spend hours and days of posts expressing why Turkey is one of the most wonderful, fascinating, important countries in the history of the world, and that you should not die without coming here, but the purpose of this blog is not to get all Fodors on your ass. Instead, we will give a top ten list of curious things that for the reason that we just can't resist we'll call "Quirky Turkey," har har har:
10) They name their basketball teams after beer (ok, already mentioned, but still makes the list)
9) The standard way to both answer a phone and say "excuse me?" translates to "My lord".
8) Every movie in the theater has a five minute smoking break.
7) Turks didn't have last names until the mid-1920s, when each head of household could choose his own, the result being that a significant number of people have family names like "Son of Chicken Man" and "Fingerless".
6) Any Turk would argue to the death that drinking cold water or sitting on stone steps might make you morbidly ill, but they will laugh at you if you reach for a seatbelt in their car as they are considered wholly unnecessary.
5) During the month of December, store fronts and greeting cards are flooded with red and green New Years lights, New Years trees, New Years wreaths, and New Years Santa displays.
4) The people who work at McDonalds are the most helpful, cheerful, competent folks you ever could meet.
3) There is not a place you can go, including a gas station, that a bow-tied man will not offer you a glass of tea.
2) One of the most popular traditional desserts is a pudding made from milk, sugar, and chicken breast.
1) The word for kitchen is "mutfak".
Posted by The Twins at March 19, 2003 01:58 PM
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