Tap Water: Wash body and foods with it, brush your teeth with it, don’t drink it before boiling it. Even the Turks say this. So bottled water is the norm. It can be purchased in handy bottles everywhere, in larger bottles requiring handles in any grocery shop, or you can have a large container (requiring a siphon) delivered. Water sellers frequently drive through our neighborhood, stopping and walking above the “under dwellings” (explanation below), shouting their presence. An older man does the driving and shouting; a younger man carries the heavy jugs up/down the road/steps/path. I once saw a guy driving a moped deftly deliver two jugs, one under his feet, one on his lap.
Under Dwellings: We live in an economically diverse neighborhood. Luxury car owners park their vehicles on the roads and sidewalks above tin-roofed hovels that squat below street level. I daily walk above or alongside some family’s chimney. The roofs consist mostly of rusty, corrugated metal held in place by irregularly shaped blocks of concrete, damaged bricks, broken roof tiles, even cast off toilet fixtures. Broken spaces are covered with tarps, or blankets draped over castoff wood planks. Cautious cats patrol these zones.
Fish Shops: These are small, street-side, open-air shops that offer local fish of sizes from sardines to salmon in iced displays. There are some fish on display that I have never seen in an aquarium, especially a purple flounder-like creature usually displayed bottom out—pink with irregular pimple/nipple-like growths: which parts are edible? The fish are hosed down regularly with the water that must not be drunk. Pedestrians with sensitive olfactory organs are aware of the fish shops well before they reach them.
Onions and Peppers: These are real, not the pale imitations to which North Americans have become accustomed. The onions look the same, but are smaller, pungent, powerful and delicious. Comparing an average American onion to a Turkish onion is like saying that the warm brown liquid they serve you in church is coffee. Peppers come in three varieties: light-green or dark-red bells; light-green/dark-red, long, fat peppers that twist in multitudinous ways; and greener, redder, shorter, thinner twisters. The darker the shade, the more palpable the pungency.
Staring: Because I am obviously not Turkish -- Slavic featured, taller than most, gray-haired, white-bearded, and a male wearing clothes that color-match -- sometimes get stared at. Solution: stare back. They buckle.
Street Cleaners: There are three distinct groups of street cleaners: the sweepers, the pickers and the carters. The Sweepers are the only official street cleaners. They wear uniforms: black work coats and pants with light blue shoulders and arm bands. They are equipped with rough, long-bristled brooms and large, long-handled plastic scoop-buckets. They work in pairs down the sidewalks, sweeping up candy wrappers, cigarette butts and dog shit. They are a team, "litterally." Pickers work alone, each hauling a huge bag made of tough, knitted plastic fibers, carried on a two-handled, two-wheeled contrivance that can be either pushed or pulled. They are pushed only on the rare flat surfaces, for obvious reasons: d’y’ever try to push something heavy and awkward uphill? Pickers work in the streets, filling their giant bags with larger litter, especially plastic and cardboard. They periodically gather and separate the booty into stuff that can be recycled (there is no official recycling in Istanbul because these guys do the duty). The Carters push a flat-bedded, three-wheeled cart, and roam both sidewalks and streets looking for cast-off junk, such as kitchen and bathroom fixtures, microwave ovens, wheel-less bicycles, automobile fenders, broken TVs, wind-mangled umbrellas, etc.
Students: I have students whose lands of origin are: Italy, Norway, Korea, India, Spain, Germany, America, Azerbaijan, Canada, Finland, Russia, Georgia, Sweden, Holland, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ukraine and Greece. I have usually been able to learn student names quickly. In an international school, however, this has been a challenge. Here are some of my students’ names:
Aakriti (Ah-kree-tee), Ad (Add), Ada (Ah-da), Ahmed (Ah-[German "ch"]-med), Alejandro (Ah-leh-hon-dro), Alessandra, Ali, Aliaskar, Anar (Ah-nar), Andhika (Ahn-dee-ka), Andreas, Atif (Ah-teef), Aycan (Eye-jon), Aylin (Eye-lin), Behrouz (Be[ch]-rooz), Bhoomika (Boo-mee-ka), Can (John), Cemre (Jem-ray), Diego, Eda (Eh-da), Emil (Eh-meel), Fabio, Ferit (Feh-reet), Fuzuli, Gal (Gahl), Giorgi (Ghee-or-ghee), Hamza, Hanze, Hee-Doh, Ilaya (Ee-lye-uh), Ishaan (Ee-shawn), Jacob (Yah-kobe), Jens (Yenz), Ji-Wan, Ji-Wu, Kayhan (Kai-hahn), Kaylee (Kai-lee), Laurits, Leonardo, Mahdihah, Mario, Melina, Mert (Mairt), Meryem, Muhammet (Moo- [ch]ah-met), Mustafa, Natia (Nah-tee-ah), Nigar (Nee-gar), Olga (Ol-ya), Olli (Oh-lee), Pietro, Pranjal (Prawn-jahl), Qubaa (Koo-ba), Qurbannali (Koor-ba-nah-lee), Rashad, Rasul (Rah-sool), Riccardo, Samir, Samira, Sang-Wu, Scherzade (Share-zod), Selin (Seh-leen), Semre (Sem-ray), Serge (Sairj), Serin (Serene), Serra (Sarah), Seung-Eon (Sin-On!), Shahan (Sha-hahn), Simin (Sih-meen), Tristan (Tree-stahn), Umut (Oo-moot), Yannik (Yon-nik), Yonca (Yong-jia), Yosun (Yoh-soon), Zuzha (Zoo-zha).
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