Brunch with Egber/Selmin and Fehmi's Game

This morning we were quite tired from having got home so late last night, at least midnight, plus neither of us slept particular well especially Evie. We were to meet Ekber in Rumeli Hisar, which was a bad idea, because we were planning on walking and we were both tired so we were going to take a bus. Ekber called and said he would pick us up, which saved the day. We drove down the Bosphorus to Emirgan, where he lives and had breakfast in the Sutish, the restaurant café we so liked when we had lunch their a week ago. It’s large, vibrant, right on the street over looking the water and has been their for a long time. We shared a menemen, tea, some lavash(a flat bread), simits, cheese, and tomatoes, just right. O, yea, we had honey and kaymak, becoming my favorite. We really liked Ekber ‘s wife Selmin, a graduate of RC who he met at the 25 year reunion just after both were divorced. They got together and seem very happy which is neat. They then invited us up to their home, up the main street in Emirgan in Baliliman. It is quite an interesting place, and once belonged to Rumi or Greek fishermen. It has five floors but each floor is about 4 meters wide, though it’s length might be 50 feet. The kitchen is on the main floor, though they have a basement as well, I think. Then a bedroom for their children, then their bedroom and study, then a living room, and finally an ourdoor terrace with the best view of the water in the village, as they are up above all others. The inside of the house reminds us both of a museum, as both seem to be colletors of everything interesting and unique, much Turkish but also things picked up from their travels: paintings, puppets, beads, signs, posters, old maps, old pictures, rugs, kalims, hands, stones from various beaches, set in clay pots for decoration, turquoise beads tied to plants on their terrace, old Turkish gowns and robes hanging from walls, signs in Greek, Ottoman script framed, Ekber’s fathers diploma in Persian, antiques of any kind, fill the walls on all three floors giving the house a artsy but not cluttered look, despite the numbers of things they have hanging, on tables, what not. There upper terrace has plants, to give it a warm green look, as well as a mini kitchen, so they can warm their meals up their if they choose to eat outside and they will not have to go downstairs. We drank coffee on the terrace, went inside when the storm clouds came, talked some more, and we seemed to really enjoy each others company. Ekber is truly fun and funny and his wife is both interseted and interesting. We looked at pictures of our kids and she wants to paint the four girls sitting by the edge of the water, four fairies as she calls them. They want to take us to see the old part of the Golden Horn, which has been completely renovated, housing a unversity now, and we are going to their house for dinner on Friday, I think.

At 3:00, Fehmi picked us up and took us across the Sultan Ahmet Bridge through the Asian side, to the seaside and eventually to Kartal, where his team of juniors were playing Besiktas, coached by Hursit, a former teammate of mine. The ride was long, about an hour, but gave us an idea of how huge Istanbul has become. The entire ride, we passed huge high rise apartments on our left and right, mile after mile, as we drove, reminding me a bit of the train ride into NewYork from Darien, with the huge apartments on either side. It is shocking to see the growth on this side, literally of a population to match that of the European side. Fehmi said that many people have moved to this side to live but work on the other side though that is changing too, with lots of businesses relocating to this side. Along the seaside the city has built a huge promenade, running for at least 15-20 miles from Uskudar, well beyong Kartal, perhaps to Pendik. As we drove by, people were walking, biking, strolling, playing in the occasional kiddie part, or just enjoying the view of the Princess Islands and the Sea of Maramara. The gym was quite nice, with a a snack bar. Hursit introduced Evie and I to the team and when the game began, they all ran over to where we were sitting in the stands and applauded us. The game showed how far Turkish basketball has come, with big strong kids who know how to play. We then fought out way back through horrendous traffice, stopping at a gym to drop off balls for Fehmi’s girls team. He introduced us to them and they all came over and gave high fives to both Evie and I. They were very cute. We cut through backstreets, trying to avoid the freeway jams, and eventually got home around 8:30, again at least an hour drive. I felt sorry for Fehmi who had to drive home. I then went into the village, picked up two lamahcuns, made in front of me, and some mercimek chorba and brought it home for our dinner. It was a full day, very tiring, especailly since we had not slept well the night before.

Day Trip with Sami to Bazaar and Asmanli Restaurant with RC grads

We are getting a slow start this morning, as I was up early, around 5:00 but we have been lazing around, trying to figure out what to do, as I meet with an RC student, Buse, at 1:00, and with Sami in the afternoon. After some yogurt and bananas, I went for a 15 minute walk towards Kurucesme while Evie worked on pictures. We headed towards Rumeli Hisar, to the Kale Cay Bahcisi, a waterside café we ate at last week. It took us about 45 minutes to walk here from the village, mostly along the sea with the exception of Bebek, where you must squeeze your way through the town. We both ordered menemens, mine perynirly, with cheese, and it was great. We cannot figure out how they make them, as they are served in small frying pans, bubbling, with cheese melted on top. We ate them with simits, digging out the egg with pieces of the simit. Yum. I could eat these every day. I did talk to the cook, who seems very friendly, so the next time we go there for breakfast, I am going to watch him make them. I a sure he will be thrilled.
I met with a representative of the Bosphorus Chronicle, a senior named Buse, who interviewed me for the school newspaper. She was a delight to talk to, spoke very good English, and understood our conversation easily, laughing along with me at many things. I spent a half hour with her, came bac k, relaxed until Sami picked us up at 5:00

Sami drove us down to the Sultan Ahmet area during rush hour, taking about an hour, as we fought through tangled, thick traffic, especially around the Galata Bridge. We parked and walked along the main road from Sultan Ahmet towards the Bazaar, a very lively and interesting area, filled with tourists and every kind of shop imaginable. He pointed out some of the major monuments, as he is very intersted in history and knows quite a bit about Turkish, Ottoman history, and seems to read quite a bit too. We stopped at tea shop/hookah bar, just next to a mosque, or a medhrrdin, some thing to that spelling, which was filled with mostly Turks smoking narghiles. It was an inner courtyard, open aired, with vines and trees, surrounded by covered areas as well, and there most have been 50-100 people drinking tea and smoking narghiles. It was surrounded by small shops, but had all kinds of lighted globes decorating and illuminating the area. Sami had a good friend who owns a carpet shop, so we stopped int and looked at carpets because Sami needed a couple for a renovated stone house he is building in Avalik on the Aegean coast. We looked at many carpets and, and as we feared, Sami asked us which one we liked because he wanted to buy one for our house in Chautauqua; we tried as best we could to say no and I think we were able to dissuade him but who knows until we leave the country what he has done.

We then drove back to the Beyoglu area, where Sami lives, which is hopping with outdoor restaurants filled with mostly Turks, as I mentioned from our previous dinner with RC graduates. We at upstairs at the Asmanli Restaurant, an older, famous place, with dark wood wainscoating and photographs all over the walls. We had a table for five, set by a small open balcony, for air and a view. We had a typical Turkish dinner of various mezzes and ended with fish. We got there about 7:30 or 8:00 and did not leave till midnight, so it was a long night, of stories, laughter, and fun. Egber told an unbelieveable story about a 71’ RC graduate who happened into his store the day before. They had not seen each other in years, and for some reason, the grad told him about an escapade to steal a history exam; they snuck up to the school offices, somehow opened the safe, and in it was a pile of money, with a note that said Transfer money for Tom Davis, Besiktas player. Supposedly, they pushed the money aside and took the exam. After hearing the story, Egber told the grad that you are not going to believe this, but I am going to have dinner with Tom Davis tomorrow night. Egber also told an amusing story about helping me to drop off my van on my trip to India; I gave him some turkish lira to return to my wife, he went back to the college, found no one home, and left a note and the money outside a door of what he thought was our Barton Hall apartment. He asked if we ever got the money; of course, Evie doesn’t remember getting any money so we all had a good laugh. Serdal also told some funny stories about the RC days, especially a couple about Refik Soyer, who they all think of with affectionate. They all seem very successful and have worked all over the world. Serdar has had mines in South Africa, has lived in London for over ten years, has a home also in Istanbul and Bodrum, land in Ayvalik. Egber lives in Emirgan, but has worked in all kinds of areas, some in Africa as well, though he now owns an antique book and map store on Istiklal Cad…he seems to specialize in hard to find items like old maps and books. Sami has had numerous businesses, the last being a textile company in China but because the EU put quotas on goods from China, his business has evaporated or was too much trouble so now he seems to be retired, or has left it in others hands to take care of. He also owns a multimedia couple of some sort, which is involved in setting up kiosks for tourists to learn about the various highlights. Istanbul has been named Cultural Capital for 2010. He mentioned John Julius Norwich, the famous historian who has been involved with him in the project but he has since died, leaving a huge hold in the project. Sami also seems to have homes in Cannakalee, where his olive orchards are, Cesme and now on a small island off the coast of Ayvalik, which we will be visiting. His stone house sounds amazing, and was once, he thinks, the residence of the priest or bishop from the famous Orthodox Church next to his house. He seems really excited about taking trip with us to these areas; as he said to Evie, “It’s a pleasure to be able to travel or share with someone else my travels. I am usually alone.” Fortunately, we were able to get a cab home with both Serdar and Egber, who lives in Emirgan, so Sami did not have to drive us home. We came home exhausted, slept somewhat fitfully, and do not feel very refreshed this morning, though we are to meet Egber for breakfast with his wife at 9:30 in the morning. Our days are awfully full and interesting but also very tiring. We have think way ahead to say we are busy so we have time to ourselves. Every night this week, for example, we are going out with someone. Time to shower and get ready to head to Emirgan for breakfast with Egber and his wife.

Brunch with Faruk at Armada Hotel

We slept in a little this morning, as we got back late last night from Fehmi’s house. I walked to Bebek and back around 9:30, a bit overcast, with at least 125 fishermen manning the walls, which I decided to count, just to see how many there were. Most were situated just before the point of Arnavutkoy, less crowded then between there and Bebek. It rained slightly, I bought some kasar for later as well crackers. Ates called from the gate at 11:00, a half hour earlier then expected and I was in the shower. I hurried up, dressed and we were in his car within ten minutes, heading to the Sultan Ahmet area to eat at the Armada Hotel, one which I had never heard of. Faruk met us in the lobby and we went up to the terrace, with a wonderful view of the Sea of Marmara, the Asian side, and the Princess Islands. Also, there were at least 50 small fishing boats, slowly trolling or fishing for lufer and palamut. We were pratically the only ones in the restaurant, so we got great service, though it was mostly a buffet of everything Turkish imaginable, or as Faruk said, genuine Ottoman food. At the one end was spices, cheeses, olives, jams, helvah, kaymak, butter, things like that. In the middle were fruits and vegetables, of any kind, and towards the end were omelettes and three or four different boreks, our favorite being the kol boreck, one of I am not sure of . The beyaz peynir was either in olive oil or pepper oil, or plain. The jams were various, apricot, rose, ect. We did not have melon, at least I don’t remember seeing it. As we sat and ate and talked for at least three hours, we also were served tea in a samovar in the middle of our table. Faruk ordered a couple of menemens, and two small frying pans, of eggs with socuk, the other with pastirma, which we loved. They cook the meat separately and when the eggs are done, they throw it and cook it a bit. The bread was supposedly a peasant bread, from Trabazon, and was delicious toasted. We sipped tea, ate kaymak and honey, dipped our bread in the eggs, had more tea, took pictures, and finished everything with Turkish coffee, some water, orange juice, and a final tea before leaving. It really was a great place to eat and stay, if you want to be in the Sultan Ahmet side of the city, where most of the monuments are. It has a neat feel to it, clean but old, with a wonderful Radio Bar, made up of many old radios from the old days as decoration. Faruk and his wife, Aydan, were wonderful hosts and all six of us (Ates and Mine) had a good time telling stories and laughing about the exploits and travels on the b ball team.

We then headed to the Besiktas Complex near Taksim. I am still not sure what it is…a complex of buildings and apartmetns built where they used to have a practice soccer field. I assume the club built the complex, and earns money from rents from businesses and apartment renters. The top of the building ,the Vogue, has a modernistic bar, and some of the best views in town. It was a bit overcast but still memorable. We then went down to the Citi Mall, in Nisantas, the newest and the least successful for some reason. Lots of boarded up shop fronts and it’s only two years old. We went to Mavi jeans…made the mistake of wanting to buy something and Faruk insiste on buying both Evie and me a tee shirt. So, we caved in, as it’s impossible to say no. We ended up going to the top of the mall, enjoying the views, then left to go have a final coffe at the Nero coffee bar in Nisantas. A very hip and busy European style coffee bar, it had an outdoor smoking area in the back , as well as other rooms towards the front. We had a couple of lattes, listened to Ates complain about the heat and being tired, then finally headed up through a tangle of traffic to our apartment. It took us at least a half an hour to get home and of course, as we were winding our way down the hill in Arnavutkoy, Ates ran in to a doctor friend whom he had not seen in years. This always happens when we are out with Ates. His last words were to let me know your program, and inside joke, as we always seem to be making plans for the next day or two. Once again, we are overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of Turks, in this case Faruk and Aydan. He took care of everything, the buffet, the tee shirts, and wants us to come to Nisantas sometime next week to eat ‘real iskender kebab.’ He was the youngest on our team, a real charmer, a playboy, and often silly and he remains quite funny, fun to be with. He has been all over the states on business, really seems to have liked it, and may come to the US in late January or early February, to see New York city and LA for sure. His wife, Aydan, is a music teacher in a Turkish school, about the same age as Beth. She seems very nice and they seem to get along well. She is either Faruk’s second or third wife, Ates is not sure since they hardly see each other. My coming to Istanbul has prompted the reconnection of many of my teammates which is kind of neat. We are getting addresses from everyone, as well as phone numbers and emails and are giving ours out as well. We would love to see any of our Turkish friends when they come to the states but are a bit worried about how to entertain them in a style they are used to. For example, if Faruk and Aydan came to the lake in February, it would be cold and snowy with little to do or see other than going to the Seezurn for lunch or dinner, unless they enjoy walking or cross country skiing. We will worry about that when we have visitors.

Ortakoy and Dinner at Fehmi's

After a busy and long day with Ates yesterday, which included the morning at RC, we decided to take it easy on Saturday and not get an early start. So, we relaxed a bit and around 9:00, we took our usual walk to Bebek and back. There, we stopped at a bookstore/giftshop and ended up buying another hanging evil eye ornament for our kitchen. We are obsessed with evil eyes for some reason, though we found later that Fehmi’s house was full of various evil eyes as well. The walk is an endless panoply of characters, usually fishermen and this time we were not disappointed. One of them had decide to swim, and we watched, as he put on his fins, then his rubber hat, then goggles, and finally, a pair of plastic gloves. After he was set, his buddies pushed him in over the side wall, and he dove in, coming up laughing. We went on but when we returned, it looked like he may have actually gone mussel hunting, as it appeared there were a bunch of them in a basket. It was a gray/sunny day, for our walk, still warm, and we had to take showers when we returend. As I am writing this, on Sunday morning, it just tarted to pour outside; I sudddenly heard the rain hitting the trees and looked up and it was raining. Anyways, we then decided to walk to Ortakoy for the afternoon, making sure we were home by 4:00 to get ready for dinner at Fehmi’s. It took little over thirty minutes to get there, a picturesque little village on the sea, with cafes and restaurants surrounding an old mosque. This has become a tourist haunt, as well as for Turks, with its narrow streets, lined with shops selling mostly jewelery, kind of the type hippies might want, as well as evil eyes and some painted Turkish plates, a typical gift from Turkey. We mostly browsed, ended up at a chai house on the water, and had our first baked potato, the speciaiity of this areas, as there must be tend to fifteen stands selling these for around 8-10 liras, depending on which stand you go to. They usually look like an ice cream stand, but they have huge pounds of toppings in front, things like onions, sour cream, pickled beets, peas, spiced bulger, etc. The potatos are huge…they open them up, more or less mash the inside, add butter, then top it with whatever you wish. We split the potato and we happy with it, enough easily for two. Everyone around us was eating the same thing so I assume you go to Ortakoy for this delight. We browsed abit more as we left, filled up both our phone and Akbill card with units and tokens, and walked back to our apartment, briefly stopping at Migros for food, buying flowers for Florette at a stand outside of the market. We then relaxed until Fehmi picked us up, around 7:00

As we went to Fehmi’s, the roads were packed with cars as usual, so he took the backroads through the villages, litterally alleys, hardly wide enough for two small cars to pass. We waited with hordes of cars to get on the Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror Bridge, which goes from about 16 lanes/toll booths, to fourlanes, so you can imagine the scrabble and confusion. We then came to the Asian side, and drove to Rumeli Hisar, where Fehmi has lived for the past 19 years. It’s a luxurious gated community of ten or eleven homes, with two shared swimming pools, a huge one for adults, smaller one for children, hot tub, and tennis courts below. As you sit by the pool, you look out over the Bosphorus, as nice of view as I have seen yet. Fehmi’s house sits above the pool, as do most of the homes, and it tropically landscapted, or so it seems, with terraces, outside gardens, and a lovely table, set beneath the trees where we ate our dinner under a full moon. We sat on the porch for drinks, with a low wall covered with cushions in front of our chairs. The view, again, is spectacular, as we look back towards the city, with the 1st Bosphorus Bridge’s lights blinking as we see the lights of the city, the boats on the Bosphorus, and the moonlight on the water. We had simple mezze, more like American, mostly three kinds of cheese, one brie, and a spread for crackers. We sat out on the porch, then the terrace, with the lights of the city blinking behind us, then Florette called us in for dinner. It was served buffet style, so we each picked up our plates and silverware, and helped ourselves to food, a leg of lamb, lettuce salad with dressing, pilav, and a cheesy squash casserole, which was quite nice. We ate outside on the terrace, talked, and enjoyed the night. At the end of dinner, the women cleared the table and disappeared into the house. Fehmi, Ahmet and I stayed outside and talked basketball mostly of the old days, but Fehmi also diagrammed his offenses for me, one he calls the butterfly which he is very proud of developing. I forget to mention that Nikki and Ahmet also came, bringing their friend Yasemin, I guess a friend of Florette’s as well. She was very nice and spoke excellent English, as she and her husband have a business importing laser surgery devices to Turkey from the States as well as Europe. We had Turkish coffee, but not dessert, perhaps they forgot becasuse the women has some inside. AS we were about to leave, about 11:30, Fehmi’s oldest daughter returned, so we got to meet Neslihan, who seems very successful and well spoken. She’s very cute, confident, and could speak pasable English. She worked for CNN for a number of years and now seems to merchandisng head for Steppe carpets, a high end carpet store in all the malls. The complex where they live houses not only Fehmi and Florette, but his mother, his two daughters, and I think his brother lives next store. The house itself is a bit small, with a downstairs made up of two bedrooms, the upstairs includes a narrow galley kitchen, a study with livng room combination, with a dining room off it. The outside terraces certainly create a lot more space when the weathr is warm. It’s the nicest house we’ve seen in Istanbul, much more warm and inviting then Ates more formal apartment, with it’s Turkish decorations, wall of books, warm woods and colors, as opposed to Ates’s white walls, sparse decoration, formal looking couches and chairs, two very different styles. Fehmi’s view and outside terraces and landscaping give it the major advantage, a view to rival any into Istanbul I would say, whereas Ates looks out on other apartments. I hardly talked with any of the women, though we tried early with Florette but we were both frustrated with our inability to express ourselves. Fehmi wants me to see his team play, so Tuesday he will pick us up at 3:00 and take us to his game with Hursit’s Besiktas team at 5:00. And Nikki and Ahmet want us to come to their house, so we will go there on Thursday evening. I feel guilty about our lack of car, as we impose on all of them, when we need rides. Ahmet and Nikki, for example, drove us home from Fehmi’s. And they will have to pick us up and take us home on Thursday. We have offered to take taxis but they won’t hear of it. And a bus or ferry seems out of the question…it’s not something their class would do anymore. We didn’t get to bed until 12:30, after a traffic filled ride home, as the city and its suburbs never seems to sleep. I woke at the call of the muezzin, around six, but went back to sleep until 7:15. As I write this, it’s now 8:40 and Evie is still sleeping, which is great because she has not been sleeping well the last couple of nights. It just started to rain again, though the sun continues to play hide and seek across the waterway. The next few days look like they may bring some bad weather each day. It was a full day, one we will remember always, especially for the moonlit dinner at Fehmi’s, with the view of the Bosphorus and bridge and city.

Robert College visit

We spent the morning on the RC campus, attended two morning meetings, were introduced twice, once to 9 and 10the graders, the other to upper classmen. We talked with John Chandler, who seems very laid back and has little or any expectations for my stay, which is good. Visit classes, come and go as you wish, and perhaps give him some feedback at the end. Two changes in the school will be effecting faculty, no longer will they be paid for extracurriculars, rather all wil be expected to do things and their will good teachers will be recognized by in they paycheck After the meeting, we talked with Johh, then went off and visited with Umran in the business office, quite a professsional, serious, friendly, and knowledgeable; I can see why everyone likes her, appreciates her work. She knows Hasan well, and talked about him, as they have socialized together. She was extremely helpful, wants to make sure we have a ride to the airport on the 19th of October, which is great. We then walked up to Barton Hall, took pictures, the Cedar of Lebanon was still there, as were the column bottoms which we had used to create a patio. After walking a bit, we stopped into the Alumni office to visit with Leyla, who also was fun to talk with. She knows everyone, took our picture, and wrote some notes for an rticle in the RC Quarterly, or one of he magazines. We had a nice chat, went to the library for a bit, looked at yearbooks, from Hasan’s year and remarked on how he was on almost every page. We also sat in the faculty room for about 15 minutes, talked with a couple of newer Turkish literature teachers; interestingly, the American faculty had little interest in us. I ended up introducing myself to Phil Espositio, the English Chair, and as we talked, one of my students from 72’ came up to say hi, named Neserin. Also, on our ride up the hill, we sat next to Phillips, a black gym teacher, who also played for Besiktas for a few years…he referred to me as the legend, and seemed to be a really good guy. He came in 78’ and has stayed all these years, obviously loving the life and getting along well with everyone.
Friday Oct 2: Sat in on Phil Esposito’s senior elective, discussed Montana 1948 and Mr. Gee’s science Fiction Elective, where a student gave a power point on the Voyager, as they are studying Neuroman by Phillip Gibson, the writer who influenced the making of Matrix, things like that.

Ferryboat Ride Up the Bosphorus

We caught the 9:35 ferry to Istiney in the village; it makes six stops, three on the Asia side, so it’s a lvoely way to spend a morning. It’s sunny, a bit hazy, with a nice breeze, and we ended up in Istinye around 10:15. We found a tea house right on the water, with nice shade, and this is where I am sitting as I write this, and recollect last night’s dinner with Muharrem et al. We walked into Emirgan, following the water when possible; Istinye was not much, with little charm, mostly a harbor with larger types of boats, a fish market. We the went to the Sabanci Museum in Emirgan, where we saw a exhibition of Joseph Boeey’s works, not much to our taste really, but some interesting things by his contemporaries. Lots of sketches, lithographs, and very few paintings. We did like one painting called Nightmare, of a women’s head, part of which was a stairs with figures walking up it. Unbelievabe colors, a chartreuse, I think. We spent about an hour, bought a print and are now eating at the hot spot in Emirgan, an outdoor café packed with at least a hundred people called Sutis. I am sure it’s been here for quite awhile, as I remember the location at least from the old days. I am getting my usual, a menemen, and Eive is getting lentil soup. A very modern, hip crowd, one wonders when anyone works around here. We walked up the village a bit, the main street lined with shaded restaurants and tea house for about 50 yards and then it opened up to a typical village like street, sunny and uninteresting. We then walked down the road, braving traffice in areas where there is not promendade, and have stopped at another café on the called the Oba Park Café, right on the water’s edge; we literaally on sitting at a table where we could be fishing. The area is called Bataliman . It is lovely just

Dinner with RC Grads at Richmond Hotel

We are beginning to get used to the luxury of a car, as we were picked up by a driver at 8:00 and driven downtonw to the Istiklal area, through backstreets and alleys, a way we could hever have known or followed. We ended up at the Richmond Hotel, right in the center of Beyoglu, about a quarter to half mile from Taksim. We ate at the rooftop restaurant, with a great view of the city, though the food was somewhat pedestrian, American style really, It was great to see eveyone: Muharrem, Sami, Agop. Tayfur, Egber An, and Serdal Aral. All played basketball except for Tayfur who was a soccer capatain. It was an easy night because all of them spoke good English, so we talked of RC days mostly, but also of politics, and especially of the marriages and divorces of Agop, who said he got out of prison after 22 years of marriage. I spent most of the time talking with Sami and Muharrem, mostly because they were sitting near me. They both were very intersted in our family; what they were doing, where they were living and they seemed to remember them. Muharrem has a daughter at Columbia grad school, a son working for Coke Cola in Toronto. Interstingly, he mentioned how hard it is for a Turk to get a job in the US after 9/11. We had heard this once before from a guy we met on the bus, who lost his job after 9/11. Also, it seems as though no one will hire an engineer in any of the critical areas, like defense or the miitary industial complex if they a Turkish or muslim. Sami’s 18 year old daugher is starting school in London; Agop’s son is at USC, as an electrical engineering student. Tayfur has lived with a women for 24 years but never married. Egber has a 12 year old son and lives in Emirgan, runs an antique bookstore on Istiklal Caddesi. He wants us to stop by next week, so we can go out, have lunch or head back to Emirgan, where he lives. He is as inconocluastic as ever, never fitting in, the round shape in a square holed world. He is a delight, remembers trying to help me get my car through customs: I kept saying, “Tell them I play for Besiktas.” As he said, that might have made a difference in a fish market, but here you had to be Fener or Galatasaray. What was really amazing was the walk to and from the restaurant, the latter around 11:30, though narrow streets packed with people eating outside, mostly Turks, mostly young, eating, drinking, having a good time. The alleys and streets of people seemed to go on and on, as if all of Istanbu was up, having a wonderful time. Sami lives in this district, says it is always like this, kind of the in place for Turks, though tourists are starting to discover it. I can see why. Sami says he bought a couple buildings in this area about ten years ago for a pittance and now they are worth quite a bit. At the end of dinner, Sami and Muharrem said they were going to make plans for us to go to Izmir and Cesme, where they both have homes on the sea. We will see what happens…I know they are serious so if it works out, we may drive there with Sami, through various sites, visit Ephesus, stay with Muharrem one night, Sami another, then head back, I assume. Or we might fly down, I’m not sure. They are both very successful business man; in fact, Muhareem has just opened up a 40 million dollar factory in India, and Sami, according to Hasan, has made a bundle in buying real estate; He also supposedly has 100’s of acres of olive trees in the Izmir area. Both are was to talk to, have a very liberal and secular attitude, and we think pretty much the same way about the world, which is nice. In fact, all the Turks I’ve met are very sophisticated in their thinking, knowledgeable about the world in a way much Americans aren’t. They all speak two or three or four languages, have traveled and done business all over the world and have a pretty good fix on the States, who they criticize mostly for supporting the current govt, which many feel is just a few steps away from becoming something like Iran. The US supports them for now because Turkey gives them what they want; an the govt gets legitimacy from of the US which is what they want(since they are moving towards a semi theocracy), not a democracy. That seems to be the fear, though most are optimistic that it won’t happen. Muharrem sees the worst development being the split that is cleaving Turkey, between the Ataturk democrats, secular and open minded, and the religious, more close minded conservative movement of Erdogan. I guess I would say the US is looking at short terms gains but in the long run, they may rue their support of the Turkish government, especially if it becomes more intolerant of debate and freedom, which seems to be the case as they are harasssing and closing some newspapers that are critical of govt pollicies. I suppose it’s a tough rope to balance, to get what you want yet be critical of a government; you cannot do both and, as usual, we think short term.