Fieldwork is finished and I am back in Amsterdam since March 31. It was nice to come back, to see my friends and classmates, my room, my roomates, my cat!Everyone had amazing stories to tell, the ones of us that went to muslim countries were fascinated. The process of writing the thesis has started as well, it wasn't as scary as I thought. We have collected the data we needed and now we only need to structure them and put them in theoretical frameworks. I am excited about the writing process as well. And now that I am back, whenever I think about the Rums, I think about Istanbul with such a sweet feeling. I have kept contact with some of them and they help me if I still have some questions. This is very nice and helpful.
Many classmates of mine told me about the un-regularity of my weblog, that I should have written more often and stuff like that but for me it was good even that because I lack discipline. Hopefully my next blog will be more regular!And now what about this one? Is it all over??

Thanks for reading my stories, εις το επανειδείν!
Ευγενία

Funny, we are already in March and my time in Istanbul is about to end. This does not make me very happy but, on the other hand, I had such a good time here that I can only be grateful for that. And, anyway, I will have to work very hard when I go back in Amsterdam, to write the Master thesis in a period of 3 months, so this put things back in order. I feel that the life of this weblog is ending as well, it was an attempt to publish for the first time some thoughts and feelings while being 'in the field'. I didn't give much information about my research topic, not for particular reasons but mainly because -I write and- I will have to write so much about it, that I felt my personal experiences were more fun to share.
Also, at the end of March, my roomates, Phillipe and Corrado are going back and Phillipe has already started to feel nostalgic. Maybe I feel the same way, but I also have to complete the research, I have only a few interviews left, and enjoy my last weeks here. It is true, Istanbul can only seduce you. And the feeling of coming back, that's another thing it brings out.
My last publications are to come, to say goodbye and pay a tribute to this magnificent place! I am so pleased with my choice to come here and a sense of fulfilment overwhelmes me because it paid me back even more than expected!

I am sorry for not updating this weblog more frequenlty, but I am tembel (lazy)! In the meantime, many things happen, related or not to my research, more properly related to my life. I have brought with me from Amsterdam the book of Margaret Mead "Letters from the field, 1925-1975". It's funny, because my supervisor proposed to take a monograph with me, "to not feel lonely in the field". It was a good idea indeed but, instead, I chose a collection of letters, during her long period of fieldwork in the islands of the pacific. I am more interested in the emotions, the thoughts, the mood of the researcher. Because the theories we are teached at school. The practice is now and it includes feelings besides methodology, collection of data, interpretation. Reflections, I should say.

Mead writes that letters and news from home are both a temptation and an interruption; they can wrench one's thoughts and feelings inappropriately away. I don't know about that, because I am firstly anthropos and next anthropologist. Last Friday I received a sad news about a very dear family; I was overwhelmed. And Saturday I had to go to a Greek carnival party for participant observation. Before I go, I thought that I definately need a masque with a huge smile, to veil my sadness. But as soon as I was there, the field cought my interest and distracted my thoughts. A party, nevertheless, is a good way to distract one's mind. So, the anthropologist in me was back, and now I am happy about that. In general, my research is going well, and by now I am introduced in, but not a part of, the community. For them I am a Greek doing research, and the Rum community is very cautious with outsiders. But in general they are very helpful and kind people, with sincere feelings, I think.
I know that the title of this weblog is 'fielwork in Istanbul' but most of the posts are about my life here; it depends on my mood. We'll see what's next...

A quiet Sunday morning. This weekend was the most quiet of all here in Istanbul. I have been sick, with a sore throat and a weird temperature, so I didn’t go out neither Friday night nor Saturday. Thus, I woke up quite bored of the house and went out for a walk. First, I passed by the Dervish Lodge, close to Galata Tower. There was a show at 15.00 but it was 25 YTL and, in addition, I had already seen the whirling dervishes back in Amsterdam at Museumnacht in November. Therefore, I paid 2YTL to enter the gardens or silent-house, where most of the dervishes are buried. I took a lot of pictures; I don’t know what I am going to do with them, but the place was inviting.

On the way back, I passed by a Catholic church which is actually very close to our house, took some pictures and heard for only some minutes the songs of a Chinese community attending their Sunday service. And then I met Kanber; he was going out and proposed to join him. We had discussed some days ago that we should go to Tarlabasi in the morning, because after speaking to my informants but as well as with Kanber, I was informed that this used to be a very classy Greek neighbourhood. I knew already Tarlabasi from my birthday – night but I didn’t know that it was also another old Greek neighbourhood. The scenery now is of course much different, again very beautiful old houses but almost collapsing, and gypsy and Kurdish people are the present inhabitants. I have many nice pictures in my camera but also in my mind of this very poor but colourful neighborhood. Clothes were hanging from one balcony to another, children were playing in the streets, women were washing the carpets on the streets; then Kanber took me to a Christian church and there we found some Greek people sitting outside. The name of the church was Evangelistria and Mr. Vasilis, the verger of the church (καντυλανάφτης) unlocked the door and let us in. We were amazed; it is an old and beautiful church. For Kanber the experience was even more intense than mine because it was the first time he entered a Christian Orthodox Church. Mr. Vasilis told me that in the past, in the 60s, people were queuing in order to attend the Sunday's service. "But now"...he said, "we are so few". I asked him how many people were this morning in the service and he said around 10, 15 maximum. Yes, indeed, the community is shrinking.

The Greek schools have been closed these last two weeks, a thing that kind of slowed down my research. On Wednesday, I had a very interesting interview with the secretary of Zografeion Highschool, who told me –among other things- that the graduates of last year were 12 (big class, as she commented) and this year’s senior class has also 12 students. She also told me that she will give me the phone numbers of last years graduates but she had to wait for the principal to come back from a trip abroad. Consequently, after tomorrow, maybe I will have more informants. Let’s see…

A brief description of what is central in Turkish newspapers over the past week: The Hrant Dink murder and the controversy it has sparked. It seems that the slogan used at Dink’s funeral “We are all Armenians” fuelled a reaction and many people, from what I read in the newspapers, declare now “No, we are Turks”. What seems to be the reality is that there are two different Turkeys, on that is more open and tolerant, and another infused with ethnic nationalism. The latter one seems to spoil the image of Turkey as the example of a tolerant state regardless of religious, language and ethnic differences.

The other day I went to Fener (Φανάρι), the old Greek neighbourhood midway up the Golden Horn, where the Christian Orthodox Patriarchate is situated. The streets are full of remains of historic houses that are left in oblivion … I was moved. It seems I cannot escape my Greek identity either. I tried to imagine almost 3 centuries ago, how this neighbourhood would look like when the people of Fener, the Phanariotes, who were prominent Greek families occupied in political and administrative posts in the Ottoman Empire during the 17^th and 18^th century, where living there. And now all you can see is ruins, reminders of another epoch, alive only in memory.

It’s funny but once you are abroad, you tend to stress your nationality, as the most important feature of your identity besides sex; the rest follow: student, worker, musician, artist, traveller, anthropologist, photographer, etc. This is why I sympathise with the Greeks I meet here and their attachment to religion, history and memory. Wherever I go, to the Greek consulate, to the schools, I find big marble inscriptions of Patriarch Bartholomeos, the oath of Alexander the Great and so on. Justifiable, in a way, I think…

As far as my research is concerned, all my contacts come from the Zografeion Highschool. From there I was informed that the majority of graduate students go to study abroad and especially in Greece, because they have advantages as foreigners. Consequently, there are not a lot of young Rums in the city, a fact that makes my research more difficult. But I think that if I talk to family or friends and achieve to find at least 10 or 15 informants it would be satisfying. The principal of the Greek school told me that this year 49 students attend classes in total and that the last 11 years 140 students have gratuated. I have managed to find only a few so far but hopefully I will find more. I have 55 days to go, I am optimistic.

Night in Istanbul

Yesterday was my 30^th birthday. Such a unique experience to be in the field at this date. My fellow anthropologist and dear friend Carlos sent me a very nice present-email with a poem by Mario Benedetti entitled 'No te salves' (don't save your self) and he wrote me that this number (30) sounds like a liminal age...for the better. I certainly feel like that, otherwise I would be ungrateful.

So, my day started as usual, I had breakfast with Kanber and then I went out to Istiklal caddesi, the big shopping street just 5 min walking from my house. I wanted to buy some kind of sweet, cake or something more traditional, like baklava, but at the end I bought the best profiterole in town! I know, it is not Turkish, but it is a scandalous delight! I bought 2 boxes because now we are more in the house, Andre from Germany moved in last week and he also has a friend visiting. I was thinking to gather all the people to go out for dinner in the evening but they were out, spread around in Istanbul and I did not informed them earlier. Therefore, Kanber, me and Corrado went out. First, we went to a restaurant at a terrace with a remarkable view in the city, had some food and drunk raki (traditional alcoholic drink made from seeds of grapes and anise). As usual, we were the last to leave the restaurant!

Next, I was in the mood to continue somewhere else but the guys said there was nothing open on Monday, 01 o’clock at night. So, we were walking in Taksim when we saw the taxi-rank and an idea hit us. Some nights ago we watched the film 'Night on Earth', five different stories of taxi drivers around the world. The guys loved the movie and suggested that we should do the same in Istanbul, take a ride with a taxi around Istanbul and film it as well. So, this was the perfect time to do it. Kind of drunk and cheerful, we entered a taxi and we asked him to take us to Tarlabasi; as I was told, this is the most dangerous district in Istanbul, the people that you see there are usually prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, etc. The poor taxi driver was a bit scared and he asked if we were going to buy drugs! What could he think if he saw 3 drunk people asking to go to Tarlabasi? During the ride, I was filming the rout but it wasn't that interesting, even these 'bad' people were resting on Monday night. Thus, we asked him to bring us back and on the way I saw a very, very interesting bar and asked him to stop. We got off and went inside the bar. The place was square, 6-7 tables, some girls were sitting here and there and a guy was singing live Turkish songs. His band was one (!) other guy playing keyboards! They greeted us very warmly; one girl came and kissed us on the cheek and Corrado on the lips! Downstairs were rooms for ‘private meetings’ and men kept coming out, appearing from a hole in the ground. The waiter- (owner maybe) brought us the beers and then the girl took me to dance with her. After a few seconds, the boys were dancing as well, but they couldn’t dance with the girl, because men should pay even for dancing with her. The singer was reading the lyrics from a paper and the waiter- boss open for us a champaign that we didn’t order. After finishing the beer we had to go, because we were broke, and the guy was pressing us to buy more alcohol.

The night came to an end at the house, smoking our last cigarettes and eating my delicious profiterole! What a birth-night!

Pazartesi, 15 Ocak, 2007

It’s been 10 days that I am in Istanbul and by now I can say I have found my way around, I am used to the money, the Turkish lira, and I can buy simple things like food, tickets etc. The people here use a lot their hands therefore it is easy to communicate with.
This last week I had mainly been looking for a place to stay, I moved for four days to an apartment of a Turkish guy and on Saturday I moved to a student house in Taksim. The owner, Kanber, is a very friendly young business man who wanted to make this hostel, ‘Hostel de Pera’ is called, for people that come and stay for a while in Istanbul-not just travellers- so, as he said, to create more secure and cosy atmosphere. The truth is that nobody locks his room and in fact there are no keys in the doors. The other renters are all men and consequently I am the only girl in the house, which is funny and convenient some times. On my first evening there we all had dinner together;Kanber and Corrado (from Italy) cooked fish and shrimps from the Black Sea, rice with peanuts and salad, a very delicious meal! The other renters/housemates are Vedat from Turkey, Phillipe from Germany and Sebastian from Poland. The dinner ‘thing’ takes place almost every night which is very enjoyable and usually if one prepares something in the kitchen, asks the others if they want, whether it is coffee, tea, breakfast, launch or dinner. Thus, individualization is not the case here! We all do cleaning, cooking or helping in cooking and everything works out pretty well.

About the city, I haven’t been much further than the areas that I know already, Taksim, Eminonu and Sultanahmet. On Friday I took the ferry to the Anatolian side, it was a glorious sunshine so I sat on the deck, had a tea and enjoyed the trip. Then I went to the Greek Consulate to begin my research although my research had begun already; a Turkish girl I met on Thursday told me that she has a friend from the university that is of Greek descent. I made arrangements to meet her after her exams this week. I have also made an appointment with the head of the Department of Education of the Greek Consulate for Wednesday morning.

What is interesting about my research, and quite complex, is the fact that the two identities in question -or cultures- (Greek and Turkish) are alike to the extent of not distinguishing what is Greek and what is Turkish, like for example food and language. The other night, I cooked together with Kanber meatballs ( kefte or köfte) and it was funny because we said it was a Greek-Turkish teamwork which resulted in Greek-Turkish meatballs (which is in fact one thing). The same happens with the language, they seem surprised when I use Turkish words (besides food vocabulary) and they think I am progressing in my Turkish (!) but the truth is that these are words that we use in Greek, as well. Only an experienced linguist could help us solve the mystery of the origin of these words…

This expands of course to my research subject, how can one distinguish a Greek from a Turkish identity, especially after living in Turkish ground since….forever? And what are the reasons that make the Greeks of Istanbul to want to be differentiated from Turks but also from the Greeks of Greece? That is something I have to figure out…
What I find amusing are the conceptions that Turkish people have about Greeks. Like Kanber, who was teasing me last night: “And how should I know that you are a student, as you say, and not a spy for the Greek government? What are you doing here? It is suspicious!” We had a great laugh!