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Tag: Turkey

  • Expat Experience! Edition 1 – Blog Carnival

    Expat Experience Logo

    Welcome to the first edition of blog carnival Expat Experience!

    Expat Experience is a collection of the web’s best blog posts about life as an expat around the world. What is it like to move abroad? What are the joys and difficulties of emerging yourself in a different culture? What about food, culture shock, language problems, or making friends abroad? How about maintaining contact and relationships with people back home? But let’s not forget the adventures one experiences as an expat… travelling in ones new home country, the social life, going from outsider to insider in a new environment.

    Expat Experience is a reflection of all of this and more. We all have different homes and different destinations, but share one thing… We have made the move abroad. Whether you’re a long-term or short-term expat, serial expat or just someone that’s interested in the life of expats… Whether you’re interested in the lives of expats in your home country, an expat that wants to read about the experiences of fellow expats, or you just want to network with other expats and gain some attention for your own blog… Expat Experience offers a fascinating insight into the lives of expats globally.

    Enjoy the read, enjoy the adventure! Enjoy the Expat Experience!

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  • I’ve Got A Job

    I do, and that’s the reason why I haven’t been blogging so much (and dropping, for the EC readers). It’s a waiter job and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday I make 12 hour days. Never did that before and it’s really tough since you’re standing all the time and since it’s a touristy restaurant it gets extremely busy, guaranteed! Here are some (clickable) pictures of my work:

     

     

    The job’s quite fun. I get to speak many different languages. Today I’ve spoken Turkish, English, French, German, Dutch, and a little Bulgarian! 🙂

    The pay’s not so great though. It’s 50-80 lira per day (about 30 euros) for 12 hours of work. You can do the math and calculate my hourly wage. It’s very hard work and I don’t think most of the visitors realize how hard the staff actually works for what kind of money. I wouldn’t expect it at least. Now that I know, I’ll be a little bit more considerate when tipping in touristy places. Also, some of the visitors thinks that “service costs” means that the tip’s included. Wrong. I don’t get an hourly wage, I get a “commission”, which comes from the service costs (10% of the total check). So next time you see “service” on your bill, TIP!

    It’s great to be working in a bar/restaurant again and it’s a nice experience for now. Hard work, but it makes you sleep well at night… and wake up with an aching body the next day. 😉

    Off to bed. Gotta get up early tomorrow for another 12 hour day.

  • Crossing The Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul

    Last night I was relaxing a bit, since that’s the main reason why I came to Sofia, and I was looking for some documentaries on Istanbul. Hoping to learn about some interesting things I didn’t know yet in my current hometown, I came across a famous 2005 documentary called Crossing The Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul. It shows a lot of the music and culture that Istanbul has to offer, but also captures the daily life quite well. From rock to gypsie to Turkish traditional to rap to the whirling dervishes… It’s all in there! Without further ado… the documentary. (some commentary below)

    Press CC to turn subtitles on. The subtitling is decent and sometimes inaccurate (both for the German as well as the Turkish parts). However it doesn’t prevent one from enjoying and understanding the documentary. So don’t let it hold you back. If you prefer to watch the video on Google Video’s site, click here.

    My commentary
    Ok, so most of the sights seem really special, right?     That’s what I see every day. The sunsets, the Bosphorus… If I want to go to the European side, I go on one of the ferries displayed in the documentary.

    At some point the video shows a group of rappers walking the street (one of them stops to say hi to a girl that’s on the phone)… I walk that street every day. It’s the street that goes from the main Kadıköy busstation to my neighbourhood, Moda. The next shot shows them walking down a street and it has the Bosphorus in the background… I walk down that street every day too. 🙂

    I thought this documentary shows the daily life and the cultural life in Istanbul quite well. Some I have experienced, some I will experience, and some I will probably not experience. Having seen this documentary, I’m more inspired than ever to make the best out of my time… living in Istanbul!

  • Residence Permit Chaos

    As I wrote before, it’s really hard to get your residence permit in Turkey. The bureaucracy is crazy and apparently nobody really knows what exact documents you need to show them for them to issue you a residence permit. I received an email from one of my university’s international office employees that shows the Turkish bureaucratic chaos quite well.

    I’ve bolded the parts of the email that really display the chaoticness very well, for quick reading. 😉

    Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 9:24 PM
    Subject: Residence Permit

    For those who are through – bravo .. geçmiş olsun too ..
    For those who are still going tomorrow . .stay calm – stay together in line – at the entrance and upstairs while getting the little piece of paper for  BANKO (bank, window) and numbers … don’t let people crowd in – or cut into your line – then you will be left behind .. and do not take cameras with you – they might see it in the x-ray machine .. and do not take pictures inside the compound or building ..
     
    The cafeteria is down the steps – the A Block is up the stairs after your ID check – (where they enter your name into the computer from your ID card or passport … make sure you get the card back .. and then exit the entry building – and wait for your group on the stairs .. then into the A Blok door – and one floor up – where you get little pieces of paper – BANKO and SERIES ..
     
    BANKO 1 to 9 are located in the main room in front of the building .. BANKO 10-15 is in rear room (behind the elevators  near the toilets) .. BANKO 16-18 are in the opposite corner (separate entry door) in the rear room and are really tight for space … each BANKO has its own series .. shown in larger numerals on your piece of paper .. . you just need to be there when your number comes up – but there is no indication – just word of mouth from others . .about which number is being looked at .. stay calm ..
     
    Cafeteria is downstairs  Burger King/Migros outside – a block down .. Aksaray is about 5 blocks down .. and the Grand Bazaar is another 5 blocks or su .. the “light rail trolley” is across the main street in front of the police building (VATAN CADDESI) and up the hill about 5 blocks to the next main street which has the rails right down the middle of the street – this system takes you to Blue Mosque, Eminönü .. the ferry docks .. always travel towards your left side as you exit the police building .. and you come to the old city ..
     
    As for paper work –
     
    Every university has a different style of “student validation” .. and every university has difficulties with some banko people – for example, the “example” brought by two students from another university for us – was rejected by six of the banko officials – and had to be redone .. not enough information .. students did not even get processed with it .. but one official says this is what we should be doing …
     
    Every time – the system changes – every time there are new or old officials .. making some petty decision ..
     
    However, the division chief showed us what to do on the student validation paper .. and we did that – if his own people do not accept it – (as one tried to do) they can go speak to their chief (as I told him on the phone – he did – it was ok) ..
     
    There is no reason to get upset – keep patient – and have your paperwork in order – yes
    do not show English duration and acceptance letters – they look and might decide you need them to be in Turkish .. just show the minimum forms
     
    and maximum patience ..  and call if you have a problem .. and let Brandon know ..
     
    maybe we can solve it at the time ..
     
    Terry
    Oh, how I wish this was just limited to the foreigner police. This type of bureaucracy is everywhere.
    Yup. Welcome to Turkey! 😉

  • Off To Bulgaria

    I’m off to see my girlfriend in Bulgaria. Which means I’ll be writing a bit about Bulgaria over the next week. If you want to know what it’s like there, just head over to my Picasa albums and have a look at the lower half of the page.

    Speaking of Picasaweb… I took some pictures yesterday of a more or less typical day of me in Istanbul. Go check them out now. 

    Also some great news… I got a freelance writing opportunity passed down from the international office from my university. Turkish Daily News, a Turkish newspaper in English, sent them a message that they’re looking for international students because they could offer an interesting perspective on Istanbul. This is very exciting and I hope to get a nice chance to show my take on Istanbul on a bigger scale, as well as increase my journalistic experiences after having worked with the Bulgarian National Radio before.

    My life’s developing at lightspeed! I can feel the rush! (and the stress, but enough about that already!)

    I’ll write soon, from Bulgaria!

    Edit – Oh, and I’ve been included in a blog carnival called Carnival of Cities, covering many interesting posts about many interesting cities around the world. Go check it out! And Foxnomad was so kind as to make a summary of it and include my post 🙂

  • Changes

    The last few days my blog has gone through a few changes, mostly because I haven’t been able to come up with good content, so I figured I’d invest my energy differently. Why am I not able to come up with good content? I’ve had a stomach or intestinal flu for about 3 or 4 weeks now and since I’m going to Bulgaria this weekend, I wanted to be better so I decided to actually go to the doctor. The campus doctor’s consult was free of charge, and after describing my stool in detail to the medical student of my age (very weird, not to mention awkward) who then translated it for the doctor, I was prescribed some medicine. I don’t know what’s in this medicine, but woah, my mind’s completely unfocused! I’m curious as to what the medicine actually is (besides very, very cheap compared to Holland!), but in this state I keep forgetting to Google/Wikipedia it once I get to a computer. Nice.

    Anyway, for this reason I’ve been unable to come up with intelligible stories, hence the lack of updates. I’m doing well though, I feel I’m getting better and my classes have started and they’re interesting! Oh, and tomorrow I can finally apply for my residence permit!

    Okay… so what have I changed/updated on my website? And why?

    • I got FeedSmith and transferred my RSS feeds to FeedBurner after reading an article at Rockfuse about messing up your RSS feeds 😉 .  I did this so that I could track my feed subscribers better. I was quite surprised when I found out I had about 36 subscribers, instead of the 15 I expected. I proudly put up my feedreader count at the right and an option for people to subscribe by email. Thanks to you all for subscribing!
    • I put my Entrecard widget to the left sidebar because it loads before the rest of the page. It’s really important to have your widget in the part of the page that loads the fastest, because many droppers just want to drop as fast as possible and it earns you credits to advertise!
    • This freed up space for an “above the fold” banner at the top right side of my page! It’s still rather cheap, so go place your ad now!
    • I put in a cool weather widget so you can see the weather I’m having here!
    • I removed my MyBlogLog widget after reading an alarming post about the type of information they’re releasing (accessible to everyone!) about your blog. Not cool!
    • I added a contact form, which can be reached by navigating to the bottom of the page and finding the contact link.
    • I put the link for announcing my Entrecard topdroppers reward closer to the ‘drop’ button. In case people miss when they click, they’ll see the reward system (and hopefully keep dropping here). Also, they’re more likely to notice the rewarding if they’re just here for a fast drop.
    • I also put the PayPal donation button under the Email subscriber form, because I think people with their attention focused on that part of the page are also more likely to donate. Not that I really expect anyone to donate, but who knows. 😉 A button can’t hurt.
    • That’s about it. I also uploaded a new header image that you’ll see when you visit category pages.
    More Istanbul (and Bulgaria!) adventures very soon! Right here.

  • 24 Hours of Ups & Downs

    Well, just a quick update about the last 24 hours. It’s a perfect display of bad and good things coming hand in hand, as they should. 🙂

    Most importantly is probably having more or less sealed the deal with our landlord. He will put in some extra furniture, provide more cutlery, some bowls and some other stuff. Besides that, he will get the window I broke repaired… I don’t have to pay for it. What a load off my shoulders. 🙂

    After that I went to eat somewhere with my flatmate Daniele, from Italy. We headed over to a particular place where I knew they offered vegetarian dürüm. They recognized me and the theory I called ‘The Vegetarian Sandwich‘ seems to be true. I noticed before that upon returning to the same place a few times, they give you more and more for the same price. Here was no different. We ordered food for about 18.50 lira (about 10 euros). When we went to pay they charged us just 15. A nice surprise, so we paid and I figured we got our drinks for free. As we were standing outside, somewhere down the road, one of the guys from the kebab place ran towards us. I figured they had realized their mistake. They had… He gave me back another 1.50, so in total we only paid 13.50 and thus got 5 lira off… That’s more than a quarter of the price. Awesome. I don’t care so much about the money… It’s just great that they show your appreciation for coming back. You’re not just customer #2739.

    Then we went to a house party… When returning home it was quite cold outside. Still being a little sick, my body didn’t enjoy it (understatement) and my stomach started rebelling quite seriously. We got a taxi, because I needed to be warm and home as fast as possible. Now I’m quite sure that I actually have some flu or viral infection related to either my stomach, or more likely, intestines. Even though physically I feel worse, mentally I feel slightly more comfortable since this is something I had before in Spain (5 or 6 years ago). I was lying on the beach as it was getting cold and windy and contracted this flu. It kept me inside my holiday apartment the whole week, never more than 20 metres away from the toilet. This is a bit different, but last night was a good wake up call that I should take it really easy this weekend. It also stopped me from being so stubborn and listen to my girlfriend’s advice of what to eat and what not to eat. 😉

    I think I’ll go to the infirmary this Monday, which is on-campus… If that’s the appropriate place to go. I just need antibiotics I suppose. But this weekend is for resting and taking it easy. No parties. I need to travel next week.

    So a typical Istanbul day for me… filled with ups and downs 😉 I’m so looking forward to get rid of this sickness though… It has been holding me back since I got here (yes, I’ve had it for about 3 weeks now – sometimes almost absent, but now very present). I don’t have a picture to go with this post, but imagine how you’d feel after drinking the juice in the picture below and you’ll know (more or less) how I’m feeling right now 😉

  • What’s this guy saying?

    So a few times per day this guy, and similar guys, come through my street selling 2nd hand stuff from their carts. To let people know they’re there, they yell something like “Yehhhhhhh”. It sounds really weird. Like a very, very sick mule.

    Besides these, we have accordionists walking the street, stopping on every corner to give their concert and wait for people to throw money out of the windows. Men that sell bread (they carry a huge stack on their head), gypsy women that sell flowers, people that collect water tanks to get them refilled for you… and I’m sure I’ll be seeing more of these professions soon… (and recording and uploading them of course ;-)).

  • 10 Things That Frustrate Me In Istanbul

    As much as I’m enjoying Istanbul, there are also things that frustrate me or have frustrated me in the first weeks after my arrival. I felt a comprehensive list was in order. 😉

    10) People thinking I’m a tourist.

    I generally dislike being seen as a tourist. I’m not a tourist. I prefer to discover places by living there instead of just going there and not truly experiencing it. I did this for Sofia, Bulgaria and I’m doing this for Istanbul. I have a negative opinion of most tourists and don’t want to be perceived or treated as such. However, it’s hard to hide the fact I don’t belong here, because of my Irish skin and blue eyes, but I don’t mind being seen as a foreigner. Hopefully I’ll be seen as a foreigner who lives here as time passes. Which brings me to the next point…

    9) Getting ripped off.

    Like in Bulgaria, if someone thinks they can take advantage of you, they will. This is true just for a minority of people (and a great majority of people at the bazaars 😉 ), but whenever it happens it’s very annoying. The first weeks I was very cautious of it, but it seemed to happen more… Or maybe I’ve just realized something about Istanbul that I didn’t realize before.

    8 ) Istanbul is not as cheap as I thought it would be.

    When I paid 4 lira (about 2 euros) for a coffee on a terrace somewhere, I was sure I was getting ripped off. Looking back, maybe I wasn’t. It’s a very mixed city and in one street you can find a tea or coffee in a bar for just 1 lira, but in the next you can pay 6 or more. Apartments are cheaper than in Holland, but not by much. Although I’m comparing furnished apartments in Istanbul to unfurnished apartments in Holland. This difference makes it a lot harder to settle in Istanbul than it was to settle in Sofia. Sofia, for a Dutchman, is cheap… for now.

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  • Beautiful Istanbul Sunset

    As said in the previous posts, I live very close to the sea. The first evening that I was in my apartment, I got a bit bored and went to walk around a bit. I found a gorgeous sun setting in the sea. Check out the video below… It’s really soothing, relaxing, meditative. 🙂

    Sorry for the crooked horizon… see it as artistic expression.

    Subscribe to my RSS feed now! 🙂

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