Playing in the Streets

I apologize for this blog posting being late.  I can't believe I'm already behind!  I've super-sized the blog to make it up to you!  On to the blog!

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This morning redefined "a brisk jog."

Wil, Yaseen, and myself decided that going for a run outside would be a good idea.  Well, actually Wil and I thought that.  Yaseen didn't know we were running outside until it was too late.

We met in the lobby, stretched out, and then headed out into the bustling streets of Ankara to get a morning run in.  As soon as we left the warmth of the lobby, we knew this run would be challenging.  But the sooner we warmed up, the sooner we'd get comfortable again, so we tried to get the blood flowing by taking a fast pace for a few hundred feet.  That really didn't seem to be helping, so we slowed down to a comfortable pace and ran South down Atatürk Boulevard.  We had driven past this section of Ankara a few times now, but it was a whole new place to me on foot.  I was able to notice the detail on the shops, the flowers in the planters, and the loose sidewalk tiles that were looking for an opportunity to make me slip.

People were attending to their morning routines.  Getting up an moving, heading to work, and selling food on the side of the road for a quick breakfast.  Us three Americans, however, were running through the streets!  We must have looked pretty ridiculous.  I didn't realize how ridiculous until I looked up at a sign at a bank.  The temperature was a frosty -1ºC.  NEGATIVE ONE.  As in COLD!  It was too late to turn back, and I tortured myself by thinking about my long-sleeved T-shirt that was sitting on my warm bed!

It only made it worse to run.  What also didn't help was how quickly I felt out of breath!  I chided myself for not staying in my exercise routine, and decided to up the ante a bit and do some stairs.  Instead of dodging cars, I chose to race up the steps of a platform that allows pedestrians to cross busy streets, and back down the opposite steps.  Wil and Yaseen weren't too happy about it, and after my Quads started burnin' something fierce, I wasn't very happy about it, either.  We kept running along, looped around, and then started running back.

• Run.
• Do some stairs.
• Run.
• Tell Quads to shut up.
• Run.
• Regulate breathing: Step. Exhale. Step. Continue to exhale. Step. Inhale.
• Keep running.
• Squirrel!  (Actually, this is a lie. I haven't seen any squirrels in Ankara!)

We stopped for 2 walk breaks, but if not walking, we were running the entire time.  By the time we reached back to the hotel lobby, I couldn't feel my hands.  They were still there, and as they warmed up, I could feel life resuming it's flow through them.  We stopped by the breakfast buffet and grabbed something to get our blood sugar levels back up.  Once I got back to my room, I did a quick Wikipedia search, and it appears that Ankara is at an elevation of 2,800 feet!  Which explains my fast fatigue!

I showered and dressed quickly, and was in the lobby for our first business meeting.  We were meeting the Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Industry and Trade this morning.  Dr. Yavuz Cabbar has one of his degrees from UC Davis (like me!), is a Chemical Engineer (like me!), and from what we observed in the meeting, is a pretty important person (uh, okay. not like me.)

Our driver, Baki Bey (Bey means "Mister" and follows the man's first name, not last. This is how to properly address a man in Turkish.) picked us up, and soon we were barreling through the morning traffic to the Ministry.  I'm gonna take a quick second to talk about driving in Turkey.

Road lines are a suggestion in this country.  There may be lane lines, and if anyone is respecting them, it's probably because they're distracted.  This includes the yellow line separating oncoming traffic.  From our conversations with Turks that we've met, these are the rules of the road in Turkey:

1. If there's an open spot, fill it.  If you don't, you won't move anywhere.
2. The farthest forward bumper gets the right of way.  Take it.  If you don't, you won't move anywhere.
3. Don't hesitate.  Drive aggressively and use your horn.  Otherwise, you won't move ANYWHERE.

I laughed when I first heard them.  But when I started watching traffic, they're absolutely true.  You'd think that there would be more accidents because of these rules.  But I can say that I haven't seen a single fender bender.  At all.  And THAT, my friends, is impressive!

We arrived at the Ministry having survived our drive.  We were greeted by Mr. Ali Eser, Assistant EU Expert for the Ministry of Industry and Trade.  He was a young guy, and was very kind.  I had been coordinating the visit with Dr. Cabbar and Mr. Eser, and the final details were hammered out by Mr. Eser.  We were walked through Security and taken to conference room.  I was running this meeting from the UC Davis side (since I had planned it), and sat in front so that I could explain the purpose of our trip to Dr. Cabbar and present him with thank you gifts afterwards.  But I was told to move so that the professor could sit next to him.  I moved, and once we were all seated, Dr. Cabbar came in and sat down at the head of the conference table.

He had done his homework.  Even though to set up these meetings I send information ahead of time, most people don't read it or forget it by the time we're on the ground in the country.  Not Dr. Cabbar.  He apparently reviewed all of our information before we came in and jumped right into his presentation instead of doing the usual "who are you and why are you here" schpeal.

His presentation focused greatly on Turkey's economic status and why it's such a great place for business.  He made some pretty compelling arguments!  The biggest one was Turkey's location at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.  He spoke to Turkey's innovation, young work force (average age of 28), and governmental support of business growth.  Mr. Eser spoke to Turkey's road to EU accession, and brought up some really interesting points.  Up until now, I've only thought that Turkey would want to join the EU, and not necessarily the other way around.  But as Mr. Eser started to list advantages for the EU if Turkey were a member, I started to see that I hadn't been giving Turkey a lot of credit.  Again, it's geographic location is key.  Another advantage is Turkey's military, which is the second largest in NATO.  Thirdly, since Turkey is a stable secular Muslim country, it could prove helpful to reinforce relationships in the Middle East.  As Wil would put it, it's your classic "You REALLY should invest in our country" presentation.  But you gotta hand it to the Ministry... they did a great job!

Something happened for the very first time in this meeting.  We got a second round of tea!  Usually, there's one set of elegant tulip-shaped glasses with the warm amber liquid that helps keep us awake.  This time, there were two.  It was pretty cool!

We asked Dr. Cabbar plenty of questions, and after the meeting, we took pictures outside of the Ministry.  Baki Bey was on it, and was ready to pick us up as we walked out of the building.  We drove back to the hotel to change out of our business suits because our afternoon meeting was going to be at Kavaklidere Winery outside of Ankara.  I fell asleep on the way there, and was tapped on my shoulder by Becca when we got there.  It was a really nice winery, and the building with the tasting room was fully outfitted with ping ping tables, foosball tables, squash courts, tennis courts, and a swimming pool!

I don't drink alcohol, so I wasn't sure how I'd handle the Wine Tasting.  After figuring it'd be okay to spit it out into the buckets, I was in.  This was my first time tasting wine, and I guess it is an acquired taste.  (and I'm sure the alcohol content might have something to do with its enjoyment, also)  It was interesting to try to find the different flavors that our host, Marta, was talking about.

Once we were done with the tasting, we were taken to the production area so that we could see how the wine was made and bottled.  We were limited on which areas we could take pictures in, so I apologize that you won't see everything that I saw.  It was an interesting tour, and we got to take some pictures in the cask room.  I didn't think the stainless steel production vessels were very GMP, as they had chalk slates to identify contents, they had a tube running vertically outside the tank to determine volume, and a startling lack of Automation.  But Spencer said that's pretty common among wineries, so I guess I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to stainless steel pressure vessels and Good Manufacturing Principles.

We walked across the yard to the bottling building, and saw how Wine is bottled.  (They were using a series of Sartorius 30" single-round filter housings, in case anyone was wondering)  It was cool to watch the bottles get washed, filled, corked, sealed, stamped, inspected, and packaged.  Marta was incredibly helpful in explaining everything to us, and as the tour ended, she led us outside.  We thanked her and walked back to the bus.  Baki Bey was ready for us, and soon we were filling open spots on the highway.  Instead of taking us back to the hotel, we took advantage of the prepaid transportation and had him drop us off at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.

This is a museum that we have heard a lot about here in Ankara, and we felt like we would really miss out if we didn't see it.  So we excitedly got our tickets, and made our way in.  A few of us took advantage of the WC (the bathrooms), and a couple of others grabbed something to eat.  We hadn't grabbed lunch between our meetings, and I was hungry.  So I went to the cafe and got perhaps the most perfect source of nourishment.

Vanilla ice cream.  On a stick.  Coated with a chocolate shell.

They call it a Magnum bar (that's what she said) here in Turkey.  It was absolutely delicious!  When you're outside of the States, seemingly familiar foods don't taste the same.  This ice cream bar tasted AMAZING, and did my best to savor it before it was gone (for those of you who are familiar with my eating habits, this was a very short exercise for me).

Once I regained consciousness, I noticed that an elderly tourguide was watching us.  He approached, and asked if we wanted a tour guide.  When we asked how much, he said TL80 (Turkish Lira, about $55 USD).  That was a little steep for a museum that also offered English translations of exhibit captions, so we politely declined.  He started to talk about the exhibits as we made our way towards the entrance to the artifacts, saying he'd give us 5 minutes free.  But then, instead of guiding us, he started ranting about how we had spent so much money and why wouldn't we want to get a tourguide to tell us all about it?  It was weird.  So we waited for him to try to bait another group (they declined, too), and we moved on.  I realize the guy is trying to make a living, but I don't think their prices are in line with market demand!

We walked through the museum, looking at ancient artifacts of arrowheads, pottery, statues, tablets, and carvings.  The next room had reliefs that had been recovered from ruins.  They were impressive, but by the time I reached the end of the exhibit, I couldn't help but feeling a little let down.  Sure, I didn't take the time to read every caption, but what I walked out with was people have been in Anatolia for a VERY long time.  I suppose it had been built up too much.

Near the museum was the Citadel, or castle.  It's a series of stone walls that overlooks the city.  It is surrounded by bit of a shantytown, and as we walked towards the Citadel walls, we peeked through open doors that betrayed their owners' privacy, revealing piles of laundry, broken chairs, and toys that sat on the ground waiting to be played with again.  Children were playing in the narrow alleys, mothers were walking with bags in hand, and cars sat defeated with flattened tires.  There was more life here than in the Cappadocia village that we walked through, but I think the sight of the children playing amongst these houses is what brought a sense of melancholy over me.

This is their life.  They probably wake in the morning in their small, cramped rooms and go to an adjoining small, cramped room to get something to eat from their mother.  They don't pity themselves for their situation, because this is all they know.  They don't play XBox, they've never gone skiing, and they have never left their city.  They find their friends and play in the alleys, happy with the inherent joy that comes from being a child playing with her friends.  They shoot marbles under a tree, or play soccer amongst the Citadel walls, or they race down sloped alleys on old cushions.  They stop their play long enough to watch a bearded American walk by.  They catch his gaze, but they don't see the sadness behind his sunglasses.  They don't feel the heaviness of his heart.  They don't see him battling the guilt he feels for the fortune he has been blessed with.  The sheer luck that he was born into a life where he didn't have to burn trash to keep warm.  They lose interest and return to their game, their life undisturbed.  Their joy intact as they race back up the sloped alley for their next turn on the cushion.  I, however, am not the same.  I can't find that inherent joy inside me, because all I feel is pity for their situation, and a sense of helplessness that comes from not being able to give them the same privileges that I take for granted on a daily basis.  I picture my niece and nephews in this village, and my heart rips as I can't bear the thought of them living like this.  It absolutely drives me to tears.  Is this because I'm an arrogant American?  Perhaps.  I don't apologize for it.

I am thankful I'm wearing sunglasses so I don't draw attention to myself holding back tears.  I trail the group a bit with the excuse of taking pictures so that I would have an opportunity to compose myself before I rejoined them.

We climbed the steps to the Citadel walls, and watched the children play.  One boy was catching pigeons, and another boy was following Yaseen around.  We were climbing up walls to make our way to the top of the Citadel, and as I was climbing this short wall, my foot slipped and I bumped my forehead on a rock.  I did a quick check to make sure I wasn't bleeding, and once I was satisfied, I tried again and got up.  (I got a nice lump from it, which is now all but gone)

The view was amazing.  Ankara doesn't just go in all directions, it sprawls!  The red roof tiles spilled up and over hills, and the city went as far as I could see.  I snapped some pictures, and tried to find our hotel.  The closest I could get was finding the Kocatepe Mosque with its four splendid minarets.  I stayed up there for some time, trying to take in as much as I could.  I switched to my long lens, and tried to capture some of the city's details in the distance.

After some time, we all headed down, and made our way to the fortress walls near the Citadel.  You can't walk on this fortress they way you can on the Citadel, but we were close by and we had time.  More village life in the middle of Turkey's capital city.  I was fascinated that this pocket of poverty existed here in the city that houses the national government, and then realized that it isn't the only one.  These pockets are likely more widespread than I've seen.  They remain hidden from me because I'm a visitor, and I'm staying in the Governmental district near all the Embassies.

We waited for everyone at the meeting spot.  I was going to wait to call Baki Bey until everyone had arrived, but he sensed our presence, and within a matter of minutes, he was pulling up, ready to take us to our hotel.  He did his best to keep his bumper ahead of other cars, and soon, we were at our destination.  I confirmed tomorrow's schedule (amazing how much you can communicate with someone who doesn't speak any English!), and met the group in the lobby.  For dinner, we were meeting with some students from Middle East Technical University.  I had attempted to set up a campus visit, but my contact, Professor Hamamci would not be in Ankara.  So he asked some of his Food Engineering students to have dinner with us.  We would be meeting them in the lobby at 7.

I went up to the room, changed, and putzed around a little bit, trying to relax from the day's events.  It was soon 7, and I went downstairs to see two Turkish undergrads chatting with some of my MBA classmates.  Introductions were made, and after a short wait for stragglers, we stepped into the cool Ankara evening to walk to the restaurant where we had made reservations, where a third Turkish undergrad joined us.

Başak, Ezgi, and Gizem (pronounced Bashaak, Ahz'gee, and Giz´em) just happened to be in Professor Hamamci's office when I was on the phone with him.  (In Turkish, the tail under the letter 's' gives it a "sh" sound, and gives the ç a "ch" sound)  They generously gave up their evening to join the Americans for dinner.  They were very nice, very pretty, and very open with their opinions on Turkey, it's culture, it's educational system, and it's politics.  They helped everyone order (the menus were in Turkish!), and the conversations started.  I was sitting closest to Başak, and most of my questions centered around Turkish Politics.

You see, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the vision for a new Turkey was created and implemented by a man named Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.  The country is actually named after him, and reverence for him and his legacy are regarded with near-religious admiration.  His progressive stances like a Secular nation (separation of church and state), equality for women, and a democratic approach to politics have formed the Turkey we know today.  Subsequently Başak does not have to adhere to the strict restrictions that women in other Muslim countries face.  Her mother didn't wear a headscarf, and neither does she.  Neither she is criticized for this choice, nor are the women who choose to wear a headscarf.

That said, I found it curious that the current political party was elected to lead the country.  The AK Party leans towards a more Islamist policy, which -- from what I understand -- is counter to Atatürk's vision of Turkey.  What I find most baffling is that in polls, younger Turks are supporting the AK Party.  I would think the youth would support progressive ideas and democracy for all.  Başak's explained that these youth aren't thinking for themselves; they are voting along the same lines as their parents, or they are choosing to believe the campaign rhetoric of the AK Party.

It was fascinating to talk to her and to get her perspective on life in Turkey.  She's a 22 year old Muslim, and she lives with her parents.  Her sister has been married, and she should finish with her degree in Food Engineering soon.  In addition to being able to ask her just about anything in Turkey (which isn't a good policy with someone who might be easily offended), she was asking us about our lives.  She's been to America, but didn't get to see everything she wanted.  She loves California, but only got to see San Diego.  The cultural exchange continued through dinner, and she knew quite a bit about American politics.

Dinner was enjoyable, and it was hours before we got up to leave.  Our new Turkish friends offered to take us out after dinner to see some of the Ankaran nightlife.  We agreed, and soon we were walking the streets with these locals, continuing our conversations and having our misconceptions corrected.

The whole time we have been in Ankara, we have seen Turkish flags flying and hanging on buildings everywhere.  Also, you see huge banners of Atatürk on the sides of buildings, hung on the walls of businesses, in taxis… nearly everywhere.  I took this as a fervent love and admiration for this man.  In fact, YouTube is blocked in Turkey because some videos were made criticizing the man, and the Government stepped in to defend the integrity of his memory.

I was chatting with Gizem about this.  I was telling her how heartwarming it was to see a nation be so patriotic to have their flag hung everywhere!  Well, I misinterpreted things here.  The flags and pictures of Atatürk are hung for a national holiday to celebrate the liberation of a Turkish city back in the war.  It just happened to be a happy coincidence that we were there during this holiday time.  After bemoaning the sad state of American Patriotism, she said that the Turks aren't much more patriotic than the Americans.  She shocked me when she said that the Secularists aren't a majority… it's more of a 50/50 split between the Secular ideology and the Islamist ideology.  Upon hearing this, the success of the AK Party made more sense.

We were soon standing in front of a booth on the sidewalk.  I didn't see a club.  I saw a parking garage.  I stood there, confused.  Why were we buying tickets to a parking garage?  Misunderstanding the source of my confusion, one of our friends responded "To hear live music!"  To which I asked "Live music in a Parking Garage?"  When Ezgi cocked her head and said "What?" I realized we were now both confused.  By the time our "Who's on Third" routine ended, I realized that the club was located in the basement of the building, and that we weren't going to the Parking Lot!

Inside, we were given a table without chairs.  It was fairly empty, but it was early.  The speakers were playing Jazz music, and the stage seemed to be eager for someone to come and play.  We chatted and got to know each other some more as the club slowly filled with people.  We danced some to the music, told stories, and generally had a good time.  Başak taught me some fresh Turkish dance moves, and I think I caused Spencer some permanent eye damage.

Spencer was quite intrigued by Başak.  She's a pretty girl, and either by her nature or her culture, she's a very affectionate person.  Throughout the evening, it was apparent that Spencer was attracted to her, and she to him.  It was cute, and I did my best to be a good wingman.  Back in the hotel afterwards, Spencer was all smiles as he talked about her.  We were Facebook friends by the time we got back to the hotel (those girls are quick!), and looking through their pages, we got the sense that they haven't really hung out with Americans before like they did tonight… dancing, enjoying music, and exchanging stories about each other.  They seemed to have really enjoyed their evening, and I found their assertions of the night being like a dream to be very telling of their culture and their normal daily lives.

Spencer was smitten, gushing that he had never met a girl like Başak.  Whether what he found attractive was personal or cultural, in any case, Başak was that.  She was affectionate in her nonverbal communication (eye contact, touching of hands, etc.), and Spencer told me that he has never dated anyone like her.

Although I think any future between the two is unlikely due to geographic challenges, I am not in any position to judge.  I would love to be proven wrong, as they both seem to make each other very happy.  In any case, I think by spending time together, both Spencer and Başak are going to learn a lot about themselves and what they are looking for in life.  It is possible to find someone who is affectionate and kind, generous and respectful, beautiful and thoughtful.  I speak of both Spencer and Başak here, and I hope that they find what they need in life to be happy.

By the time the singing group came on stage, we couldn't move.  We were so packed in, we lost the will to move.  We moved as an organism, a collective will directing motion.  The singer controlled how we clapped, how we swayed, and when we would throw up our hands.  I had no idea what she was singing, but it was cool.  They were pretty good… song after song I found myself fully entertained.

The band was still playing when we left.  It was getting pretty late, and our Turkish friends needed to get home to their families.  We had to squeeze between people to get out of the club.  It was a lot like driving in Turkey.  If there's an open spot, fill it.  The farthest forward person gets closer to the door.  Don't hesitate.  Push aggressively and use your voice.  Otherwise, you won't move anywhere.

Be safe and be kind.

With love,

SoJo