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!