i'm onto why i feel slightly uncertain about it here. My feet slightly shaky ground, worried to make the next step. Things are well, but they are not spectacular. My Turkish is taking a long time, my other classes are very good; yet things are moving slower, my mind is not willing to dive in, i'm sitting at the edge of the pool, looking in.

Istanbul i find endlessly fascinating,


I've never been so overwhelmed by a city. Not the everyday, not the common walks to class, and dealing with a new university and meeting new people. I'm overwhelmed by the city. it is not just this city, with its sprawling geography slight slopes and un-adulterated growth.



View Larger Map

This is the terrain view of Istanbul form google maps, i live right there a speck along the Bosphorus(İstanbul Boğazı). Each day out my door, i have developed a routine but every day there is somewhere new i end up. Sometimes it is welcome sometimes i just miss New York; I miss Seattle. Both places i know where i'm, i know what are the limitations and know where i can find and be myself.


It is amazing to be taking urban studies as one of my courses while living here. trying to apply what i'm learning about the economic growth of Venice and of Bruges i try to tie it to Istanbul. In asking the professor how Istanbul fits into this growth he looks and me and says, "none of what i'm saying fully applies to Istanbul, the city's ebbs and flows are uncharacteristic of any other city of the world."


Its completely true, this city is its own beast. Possibly why i'm worried to jump in to the pool that is Istanbul and its much larger surrogate Turkey. Turkey, which is its own whirlwind of change, i wrote about it like this in my Journal,

Turkey is in a transition, Istanbul is the beacon of what it wants to be. A city with free market success, on the cutting edge. Shopping malls and western clad youth shopping, mingling, Emulating the west with a Turkish orientation.... however the roots of the past remain. A past different then this ideal, much more conservative orientations, less excited of this complete Free market avalanche(note Free market as a cultural orientation not as just an economic system, to make this easier lets cal it moving to the left as in it is a spectrum,).

AND THEN

There is me Zac, Coming from the even further left ward orientation then that of The final place on this spectrum Turkey has in mind.

We are meeting(Turkey and I) in a strange midway point, where there are more malls then I've seen in a city before, The streets are full of Turkish/western music; but you-tube is baned and a beer is 7ytl.

I find myself in a strange situation feeling like I've been catapulted to the United states in the 1950's. and it is slightly strange.

Maybe this feeling will pass and maybe it will stay, i have no idea. I will become more use to it, I feel i got to stick it out till the end.

The closest thing to real, Palin as President Simulator.

more about my life soon.

Ever Wonder about the price of Gas?

Here is an very insightful look into the price of Gas. In America. i'm not sure it applies here in Turkey.

All is well on the frontier.

Address here in Turkiye. Some of you may have another one, which works as well, but this is the most direct way to send mail to me.

BOĞAZİÇİ ÜNİVERSİTESİ - SUPERDORM
Uçaksavar Kültür ve Spor Tesisleri Cengiz Topel Caddesi
Etiler 34337, İstanbul
Türkiye

One Month and Counting

DSCN0214
Originally uploaded by sailingbynight

It has been a month and the gears of what i've decided to do are starting to finally turn.

I apologies for the time between entries, and no entries about the particulars. its all coming i promise.

I've been trying to figure it all out here, between the Curving sea's and the winding streets, things are complex here within this metropolis, and larger context country. it is true what they say about Istanbul as the line between two different worlds, yet at the end of the day it all comes back to what seems to matter most, and that is whats best for Turkey.

I've never lived in a city this huge, and at the same time unaccessible, it goes on for days, stretching out on two continents like the carpets of which it is famous for each neighborhood apart of the larger piece, its intreicacies and theme may be different, yet in the end it is all connected and apart of the big picture.

I took the time to organize my photos, here is a link to the map showing the places i have taken my photos.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.