What more can I say to make you book a flight to Turkey right this moment? I am sure happy, amazing, exciting stories would do the job, but I think everyone should be prepared. So, now it is time to tell you what really sucks about being in Turkey, because no matter how great a place is, there’s always a “but.”
And here they are:
—YouTube is banned. I found a way around this, but for the first few weeks that meant no viral videos to keep me up all night, no watching “lonelygirl” with bated breath and no new overnight Internet celebrities.
—Body odor. And lots of it. That’s right, it’s true ... many people outside the U.S. are smelly. Now, Americans are not roses and lavender, but I must point out that here, occasionally you really just want to hand over some deodorant.
—Gmail’s blogger is banned. This has effectively cut off my family from any updates that I have made to my blog ... which might be a plus because my blog is pretty boring. And, while I could get around this ban, too, it just isn’t as much fun. Incidentally, this ban means that free speech really isn’t so free here.
—Increased inflation, rising bread prices and skyrocketing public transportation fees are a hit below the belt. As a poor student, I don’t like that it now costs me way more to go to class than it did before.
—Turkish is “logical.” Why is that a negative? Because I am struggling to learn the ridiculous language and repeatedly being told it is “so logical!” makes me feel like an idiot and inspires a desire to burn my books. If it is so logical, why is it so hard?!
—Everywhere you turn looks like home and feels like home, but as soon as you get comfortable, some guy yells “Merhaba f?st?k!” and you realize you don’t have the slightest clue how to shut him up. And that means you are definitely not at home, your family is a few thousand miles away and all your friends are carving pumpkins while you try to figure out how to print the readings for your class that is supposed to be in English but definitely is not.
But, even though all these things add up to a few dismal days, Turkey is still a great place to be. Just to convince you that the logic, smelliness and Internet prohibitions aren’t all that bad, here are a few of the things that make most days fantastic:
—Gorgeous men and women walk the streets here. And that’s every street, every day, every hour. Beauty is engrained in Turkish genetics.
—Fresh bread is continuously available. Any day, any hour, you can find bread with crust perfectly baked to a golden crispiness. And, even with inflation, it’s still cheap.
—Street pastries are delicious, cheap and not as sketchy as they sound. And, when Ramadan is not in progress, the pastry sellers offer a selection that leaves your mouth watering even when you walk away fully satisfied by the five-for-a-lira deal.
—Every few blocks you can find a strip of flower stands. In a dingy city nothing lifts your spirits like the bright splashes of color and the clean fresh scent of daisies, carnations, roses and lilies.
—Turkish ice cream is plentiful, cheap and delicious. Enough said.
—The availability of ski slopes and Mediterranean beaches within hours of each other makes Turkey one of a kind. If you plan well, you can get sunburned by the snow glare and the sand in the same day — and explore ancient ruins while you’re at it.
—Lastly, and certainly one of the most important factors in making Turkey the wonderful place that it is: The unending hospitality and generosity of the Turkish people is hard to match. Even the most Southern of Americans might be pressed to beat them.
Some days in Turkey are hard, but then I remember that frat parties reek of body and beer, the Internet is not my life (really!) and that I can’t understand what Americans are saying half the time, either.
If I could just figure out the “logic” of the language, I could cut my list of negatives down to one. There’s just no way to make everyone on the metro smell fresh and clean ... even in Virginia.
Jess’s column runs biweekly Tuesdays. She can be reached at j.walker@cavalierdaily.com.
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