Me Lately

Here are some pics (with captions) of some special moments I've had lately in Turkey. Enjoy!

The Turkish Evil Eye...a.k.a. The Nazar

I'll never forget the first evil eye amulet I receieved in Turkey. It was just a few weeks after my arrival in Turkey, and I was getting familiar with Turkish culture, specifically male-female relations. My housemate, Fielding, had accepted a dinner date with the creepy guy at the reception desk of our hotel. Wanting to protect her reputation, I told her she was foolish to go alone (I'd learned this much so far), and that I'd come with her to not make it look like a date. (We live in a small city, and I was concerned about the destructive gossip I'd heard so much about).

The guy took us to dinner, engaging in awkward conversation with us since he hardly knew any English. He'd brought his nephew along--who was closer to Fielding's age--and rather than be put off that I'd broken up his date with Fielding, he paraded the two of us behind him through the city center as we followed him helplessly, since we didn't know the bus system well enough to get home by ourselves.

I was about to call a colleague to pick us up when the guy dashed into a jewelry shop with a disturbing smile. "No, please!" we shouted, but he didn't listen. Then he came out and handed us each a small bag. I opened it up, and inside I found my first evil eye amulet, a nazar boncuğu.

Turks are insanely superstitious about the evil eye, or nazar. The Evil Eye is basically a look someone can give you that will cause bad luck or misfortune. Countries all over the world believe in it, but I'm surprised at how pervasive it is, to the extent that there's a nazar amulet on Turkish airplanes, public offices, on baby clothing, on car mirrors, room and home entrances, and subtly woven into all kinds of jewelry. I've had Turkish coffee fortunes read where a bubble represented a nazar--which meant that someone was giving me the evil eye. That meant I had to stick a finger into the bubble and pop it to protect myself, as well as wear my nazar jewelry more fastidiously.

I'm starting to feel like everything you do can nazar or get you nazared by someone else, because a student recently told me that if you compliment someone's body part, you can nazar them (it's also a verb). This incident made her a believer: She was in her house one afternoon, and a neighbor walked by with a "short" skirt on (it was probably cut below the knee). My student told her that she had nice legs, as the neighbor traveled on her way. A few hours later, the neighbor came back. Apparently she'd had some kind of injury and (cue spooky voice) had hurt the very leg my student had complimented. Now, my student refuses to compliment people's body parts, unless they're wearing a nazar amulet, and even then...

As with all superstitions, it makes me giggle. But...I'm not going to lie, I also have a little nazar amulet on my purse...you know, just in case.

For more about the nazar amulet, or to purchase your own "insurance" you can check out this website here: www.nazarboncugu.com  where I stole my pictures from. Yeah, I know...I stole pictures from a nazar amulet website. What was I thinking? I'm screwed.

The Ladino Community in Turkey Part 2 (read the post below first)

The Ladino, or Sephardic, community in Turkey also developed a unique language that still exists today. Ladino primarily had 15th century Castilian Spanish as its base, but also borrowed words from Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and even French. The current Ladino language has two basic dialects which reflect the regions the Jews fled to after the expulsion from Spain. "Oriental" Ladino was spoken primarily by Ladinos in Turkey, while "Western" Ladino, emerged from Jews who escaped to Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Romania. Many Ladinos fled to South America as well.

You can hear a one-minute sample of Ladino here. While I don't know which version of Ladino this is, the Spanish roots are really clear. Try listening--it's fascinating!

During the Nazi regime, most Ladino speaking communities in Europe were destroyed. Turkey, however, maintained a neutral stance during the war, and was therefore able to accept many Jews fleeing from Nazi occupied countries, as well as protect the community protected by her neutral walls. Shortly after Israel gained independence in 1948, thousands of Ladino Jews fled to Israel, and as a result, Israel now has the greatest population Ladinos, somewhere around 200,000 who still speak or understand a very limited and basic version of the original language.

In Turkey, the Ladino population is now around 20,000 to 22,000, with the majority still in Istanbul and the rest in the touristic (and more Western) cities of Izmir, Adana, Ankara, Antakya, and Bursa. For the most part, Ladino Jews speak in Turkish, and the Shalom newspaper primarily prints in Turkish, but one page is printed in Ladino, and a monthly supplement in Ladino as well.

There are now eighteen active synagogues in Turkey. The photograph in this blog is of the Neve Shalom Synagogue, in Istanbul, Turkey. The caption next to the photograph states, "Entry to the synagogue is always through the rear where elaborate security measures are in place (e.g., three sets of steel doors)." This reflects the awful reality that several Jewish sites have been targeted by Arab terrorists, including three on this synagogue in 1986, 1992, and 2003, with over 35 fatalities.

The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews in Istanbul works to preserve the history and heritage of the Judeo-Spanish community in Turkey. The official website of the Museum can be found at http://www.muze500.com. You can also visit that website for a more extensive history of the Ladino community.

There's so much more to go into--I really barely scratched the surface here. But I have so many friends and family members with Jewish heritage, that I thought this would be a really rich topic to delve into. Please let me know if I made any historical mistakes that I need to correct, but more than anything, I am so happy to share a really special part of Turkish and Jewish history.

The Ladino Community in Turkey Part 1

One question about Turkey came from a friend who wondered about the Ladino community here in Turkey (and no, that's not a misspelling), which, in her words, was a "vibrant and culturally rich Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire" and then in Turkey, when it became an independent nation in 1922. My friend wondered about the state of the Ladinos in Turkey today.

What a great question! I hadn't known about the Ladinos actually, but after a little research through the Ladino museum in Turkey (and one in the U.S.) and several websites, here's what I found. First though, a little background about this historically fascinating community.

In 1453, the Ottoman Turks--under Mehmet the Conquerer, a beloved Sultan in Turkish history--conquered Istanbul. Sultan Mehmet the II, as he was also known, helped liberate the oppressed Jews living under the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Roman Empire), which primarily practiced pagan Catholicism and later Eastern Orthodoxism. Mehmet's inclusive call to the Jews encouraged them to "...dwell in the best of the land, each beneath his vine and fig tree, with silver and with gold, with wealth and with cattle." This wholehearted acceptance of Jews in Turkey during a time when so many were turned away, demonstrates the Ottoman Empire's legendary inclusiveness towards all people, regardless of race, religion, or background.

In order to understand how the Ladino community established itself in Turkey, we have to pull away from Turkey for a moment and turn our gaze to Spain. In 1492, Isabella and Ferdinand issued two important edicts. Americans are quite familiar with one of them--the order to Christopher Columbus to put an expedition together and head off in search of the Indies. But another important edict was issued as well: The entire Jewish community--over 200,000 people--was expelled from Spain as part of the Spanish Inquisition.

During this horrifying exodus, the most fortunate Spanish Jews, also known as Sephardim, escaped to Turkey, where they were embraced by the reigning sultan, Sultan Bayezid II, with open arms. "How can you call Ferdinand of Aragon a wise king," he was quoted as saying, "the same Ferdinand who impoverished his own land and enriched ours?"

It was an adept observation. Many of these Jewish citzens were doctors, lawyers, scholars, and diplomats, and they truly added so much to the economic, intellectual, and cultural richness of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire, in turn, was much kinder than the Byzantine Empire had been. Ladino communities were allowed to have their own laws, schools, and other independent freedoms. The Ladino Jews also created the Ottoman Empire's first printing press in 1493, in what was then Constantinople. In 1843, Ladinos began publishing a well known newspaper titled Shalom that is still in circulation today.

Photographs taken from here and here. The first is a remnant of the oldest synagogue in Turkey, dating back to the 4th century C.E. (A.D.). The second is of Sultan Bayazid II.

Sources:
The Sephardic Studies Website
The Istanbul Ladino Center
The Jewish Virtual Library
Time Magazine

Flowers!

In honor of spring, here are some pictures of the flowers that have inspired me since I arrived in September 2009.

This is how I feel these days

With one month to go in Turkey, a finished novel, a wonderful partner I'm about to start a real life with, and a big open expanse of future ahead, this is how I feel these days. Like a big, empty vessel in a forest, open to the mystery of whatever's next.

Please bring my hot water back

The past two weeks since I got back from Italy have been a bit tough at home. The night I got back the hot water wasn't working and I couldn't take a shower. Then they fixed it. Then the house's windows were open one day, for no apparent reason. It was really creepy, because it meant that someone had come into our house without permission and hadn't locked up afterward. I've had the propane go out, construction and banging on my house every day until today, and we have no road in front of our house and have to walk halfway to work in the dirt.

I'm on day seven now without a working hot water heater. I've been taking showers Philippines style, with a mop bucket and a cezve, the pot used for making Turkish coffee. I light candles and pretend I'm in a Turkish hamam, but it's not that convincing.

I am really ready to move to Italy. 

I'm FINISHED!

While I am feeling pretty finished with my time in Turkey (just six weeks till Italy!), when I say that I'm finished, I actually mean that I'm finished with my novel. WOO HOO! After two and half years of writing, rewriting, editing, and then super-duper editing, I now have a finished product that I am really proud of. If I could make a wish on this little dandelion, it would be that I could get my novel published. So...say some extra prayers and send me some extra love, because I'm going to need it as I start to send out query letters to try to get an agent to represent me.

You can check out my new website and the prologue of my novel here!

It's also extra special for me, because I finished it on Mother's Day. My mom was the biggest fan of my writing growing up and always believed in me, even when I didn't. After she passed away, I decided to go to graduate school to get my M.F.A. in writing, to honor the gift she thought I had. My book is 100% dedicated to her in every way, and I know that somewhere she's super proud of me, cheering me on like she always has. Thanks Mom!

My Magical Italy Trip

My trip to Italy was partly magical just because I arrived. I kept reading about all the poor stranded people all over Europe and couldn't believe that I'd made it, and only a day late. I felt so blessed. But it also just seemed to have this beautiful magical glow--partly because it was spring, but there was something else...something really special...

Anyway, here are some of the highlights from my trip:

• Arriving!
• Spending wonderful time with Guido, of course.
• Picking the new apartment that I'm moving into with Guido on June 20th. It's so beautiful and wonderful! I can't believe how blessed I am that I get to live there! I really feel so fortunate.
• Seeing the new town that Guido chose for us to live in--it's called Monza, and it has a park that's three times the size of Central Park, a cobbled pedestrian center, and real Italian charm. I love it! And it's just a 15 minute train ride to Milan!
• My cooking class in the Lake Como region...the food was unbelievable, the class informative, and the city of Varenna stunning. Wow.
• I walked into a very pretty little English language school and asked if they were hiring. They promptly THANKED me for walking in the door, since they were looking to hire new staff. I had an interview later that week and was hired! What are the chances?
• Eating buffalo mozzarella pizza...it was orgasmic. No other way to describe it.
• Meeting more of Guido's incredible friends.
• Spending the weekend in Cinque Terre and having more incredible food, lots and lots of fantastic wine, and celebrating life, beauty, and Italy.
• Knowing that I was coming back in two months to start my life with Guido!

Okay, before you gag on all my happiness, here are some pictures of my trip. Enjoy!

Jen vs. the Volcano

My trip to Italy started with a bit of a hitch...my flight was canceled due to the infamous Iceland volcano, with no promise of when it would open again. It was Saturday. I had just over one week off work, and the clerk behind the check-in desk said "We don't know anything. Maybe you can fly on Tuesday or Wednesday?"

I hadn't seen Guido in three months, and had been looking forward to this day so much, that when they gave me the news, I crumpled to the ground and started crying as soon as I walked away from the desk. I was totally pathetic.

Turkish Airlines put me up in a wonderful hotel for the night, where I had a lonely poolside dinner with a bunch of other solo travelers who were looking at much longer delays than I was. I trekked out to the local computer cafe and began calling Turkish Airlines and looking at my options, banking on the hope that the "squeaky wheel gets the oil" theory. At that time, the only Europe flights going out were to Bulgaria and Greece. I found out how to take a ferry to Italy from Greece, and if a flight didn't open up for Sunday, then I was going to do it. I was desperate and up for an adventure.

Just when I was prepared to book a ferry ticket, I called Turkish Airlines again. "We have a flight to Rome tomorrow!" they said. Guido and his father helped me book a train from Rome to Milan (3 hours), just barely getting one for Sunday evening as the tickets were purchased by the second. After all the cancellations, some further travel hiccups, and seeing travelers sleeping in the Istanbul airport, I was skittish that I wouldn't actually make it. But once our flight lifted off for Rome, I was so joyful that my cheeks hurt from grinning. I was going to make it to Italy.

On the flight, I met two girls from Croatia who were trying to get home and had no idea how they'd make it. We discussed ferry options (which I'd become a recent expert at) and talked about our trips. Another guy on the train from the airport had just flown into Rome, trying to get to Austria as soon as possible. The trains to northern Europe were booked for four days out already...who knew what happened to him.

My train finally arrived in Milan at 11pm and I rushed into Guido's arms. As we held hands and dragged my luggage through the station, we saw people sleeping in alcoves on their luggage, trying to find any way possible to get home. The volcano had brought Europe to a halt. I couldn't help but feel enormously blessed. I'd somehow managed to arrive.

A Not So Happy Moment in Turkey

I had a rough day the other day. I have two Facebook accounts, one for friends and family, and one for my Turkish students. I was looking through the homepage of my student Facebook account and saw a Youtube video titled "Americans are Bloody Idiots!" The video (which you can watch below) was both funny and painful. Basically, some British guys interviewed a bunch of Americans on the street and asked them some basic political and geography questions that people weren't able to answer (such as "Name a country that begins with the letter "U"...as in, the United States...or "What religion are most Israelis?"...some people answered "Islam").

If they'd just posted the video, it would have been fine. But the comments that followed were really hard to read: several of my students writing (in English): "Yeah, Americans think they're so great, but they're really a bunch of idiots" and "I totally agree with you, but what can we do?" and "I agree with my brothers," etc. All from MY students...and ones I was close to, at that.

It really upset me, for several reasons. One of them is that it's easy to take a video and only post the responses that make Americans look bad. And the responses were pretty bad, I must say. But I didn't want my students to make conclusions about Americans based on that video when there are so many intelligent, thoughtful, geographically aware Americans out there.

Secondly, it was painful because some of the stereotypes people all over the world have about us are true: many of us don't have a really good sense of geography and aren't very aware of global politics. Time after time, I hear this from people I've met who spent time with traveling Americans--they were very kind, very friendly, and really misinformed and uneducated about the rest of the world.

But mostly, it was hard because I'm entering my ninth month in Turkey tomorrow, and I'm starting to see the reality of Turkish beliefs towards Americans. And to be quite frank, they're really not good. A lot of it is a result of Turkey's increasingly strong ties with conservative Islamic nations such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. Some of it is backlash from the war in Iraq and Bush's policies.

But the point is, it's hard to be the only American your students have ever met, and learn how negatively your nation is viewed. I understand their frustrations, but at the same time, I want them to remember that there are so many GOOD people out there and that you can't confuse a nation's government with its people.

I decided to confront my students about it. They were horrified that I'd read their post and then commented on it. One of them--the one I'm closest to--took me out to dinner and drove me and my groceries home so I didn't have to take the bus. But I'm still haunted by all the comments I hear that my colleagues and students are letting slip more often these days...it makes me wonder how the U.S. and Turkey will mend these broken ties and build a new relationship again.