Ok so we didn't really have potatoes, but I was invited to a small IMIAD (interior masters in arch design?) dinner the other night in celebration someone's birthday. Not mine, apparently mine is tonight. Anyways, Raed who sits across from me in studio cooked at his place a somewhat traditional Turkish meal: chicken wings, rice, lamacun, and taziki. Somewhat traditional, he's Syrian not Turkish though.
The rundown: 1 american, 1 lebanese born self proclaimed brit with a poor accent for english, 1 chinese, 1 syrian, 2 finnish, 6 german; it was a squeeze into the apartment. Fun though.
It seems most of the exchange students are German in my studio, although not all from the same school in Germany. We have a large studio close to 25 people consisting of a handful of Turks, a handful of Germans, a handful of Auburn, and a sprinkling of Finnish. Boring post, I know, but something needed to be posted.
The Turks my age are very nice and liberal. A few of us went to a house party with Ortune (not too sure how to spell it), he's a classmate and one of the Turks. It was good and not what I expected... they liked to party. It felt like an American one actually, and come to think of it other American people were there. Some American music. Wow, they even had cheese balls! People play fighting with crowbars, yes i do believe this is an American party. Wait, no my shoeless feet tell me that, in fact, I am in a different place. It was great everybody's English was excellent... my Turkish was horrible, but still somehow seems to impress people when I can count to 10. Made some new contacts. Left before the house was completely dead around 4 or 5am, which was surprising because we were told to meet at 8pm (it was closer to 9 or 10 i think) Took a taxi back to Taksim, ate a bowl of corn flakes and drifted off to sleep.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
WARNING: the end of this post may be disturbing to some, first part is OK tho
It doesn't look like i will finish telling my Greece story. School started up this week and most likely the posts will get even scarcer. It's all the same though, when school is in session nothing really new happens. At least nothing colorful and exciting. The weather here is still chilly and wet, but it will probably be warming up in a few weeks.
Our studio project was assigned to use Monday, and we are going along with the Mardin project. We have some kind of corporate sponsor or someone who is paying for all of our plane tickets out there. We are visiting the site(s) in Mardin at the end of February for 4 days, and should be a good chance to see the ancient side of Turkey. You can google image search for Mardin and see what I'm talking about.
I am still meaning to add pictures somewhere maybe here, but the connection is still pretty flaky. So maybe soon there will be some pictures somewhere.
The exploration of our little slice of Istanbul is going well, we are slowly finding the good places to eat and the cheap places to hang out at. It is truly a maze though, especially if the side streets are to be navigated. I saw something last night that must happen five times a day in this city, and truthfully I am surprised I haven't seen it sooner.
We were walking up the main high speed road going into Taksim (city center/ retail hub) heading back from dinner. When we heard tires locking up we looked up just in time to see the car slamming on its breaks. At first I didn't know what it was stopping for, but at that instance it hit something and then we saw the man's legs summer salting over the car. He landed and the car finally came to a complete stop around 20 feet down the road. The man hit the ground stiff and still with one arm involuntarily raised to the sky; he was half on the curb and half in the street.
We didn't have any phones to call, but the man in front of us was already on it. I started checking the area and almost ran across the street to help. After seeing that incident in full however something was holding me where I stood, and even though no cars were coming I was still unsure about crossing the street. By now a few were going to help and a crowd was starting to gather. We thought it better to stay out of the way and keep walking.
When it fist happened I was mildly surprised, I felt pain for the man and the driver. I suppose growing up in America with the TV shows and the movies we have become desensitized to traumatic occurrences. I can't tell you how many thousands of casualties I've seen produced by the entertainment industry, but thousands it must be.
I started to feel bad about not helping later on that night. I started to feel bad because I started to think of how to properly handle the situation. 1) make sure area is safe and in no present danger to myself. 2) approach site with caution 3) assess number of victims and level of stress each one is in 4) check for pulse and for breathing. The list goes on, I don't even remember the number to dial for an emergency, and if I did there it little chance that the dispatch spoke English.
I felt out of place and unable to help. Susie said that was referred to as the bystander effect, I don't know though. I only know my training is in Architecture and the last rescue class I had was 8 years ago. In any case, look both ways and use a crosswalk - he didn't. There is no way to know if he died or not, Casey thinks he must have. I think he probably survived given the size and speed of the car and how he hit it. I my head I think it was: legs, back, head. There were two distinct impact noises, but the landing on the ground could have done just as much damage. One thing is certain, the man and most likely the driver will never be the same after last night.
Be safe and I love you guys!
Our studio project was assigned to use Monday, and we are going along with the Mardin project. We have some kind of corporate sponsor or someone who is paying for all of our plane tickets out there. We are visiting the site(s) in Mardin at the end of February for 4 days, and should be a good chance to see the ancient side of Turkey. You can google image search for Mardin and see what I'm talking about.
I am still meaning to add pictures somewhere maybe here, but the connection is still pretty flaky. So maybe soon there will be some pictures somewhere.
The exploration of our little slice of Istanbul is going well, we are slowly finding the good places to eat and the cheap places to hang out at. It is truly a maze though, especially if the side streets are to be navigated. I saw something last night that must happen five times a day in this city, and truthfully I am surprised I haven't seen it sooner.
We were walking up the main high speed road going into Taksim (city center/ retail hub) heading back from dinner. When we heard tires locking up we looked up just in time to see the car slamming on its breaks. At first I didn't know what it was stopping for, but at that instance it hit something and then we saw the man's legs summer salting over the car. He landed and the car finally came to a complete stop around 20 feet down the road. The man hit the ground stiff and still with one arm involuntarily raised to the sky; he was half on the curb and half in the street.
We didn't have any phones to call, but the man in front of us was already on it. I started checking the area and almost ran across the street to help. After seeing that incident in full however something was holding me where I stood, and even though no cars were coming I was still unsure about crossing the street. By now a few were going to help and a crowd was starting to gather. We thought it better to stay out of the way and keep walking.
When it fist happened I was mildly surprised, I felt pain for the man and the driver. I suppose growing up in America with the TV shows and the movies we have become desensitized to traumatic occurrences. I can't tell you how many thousands of casualties I've seen produced by the entertainment industry, but thousands it must be.
I started to feel bad about not helping later on that night. I started to feel bad because I started to think of how to properly handle the situation. 1) make sure area is safe and in no present danger to myself. 2) approach site with caution 3) assess number of victims and level of stress each one is in 4) check for pulse and for breathing. The list goes on, I don't even remember the number to dial for an emergency, and if I did there it little chance that the dispatch spoke English.
I felt out of place and unable to help. Susie said that was referred to as the bystander effect, I don't know though. I only know my training is in Architecture and the last rescue class I had was 8 years ago. In any case, look both ways and use a crosswalk - he didn't. There is no way to know if he died or not, Casey thinks he must have. I think he probably survived given the size and speed of the car and how he hit it. I my head I think it was: legs, back, head. There were two distinct impact noises, but the landing on the ground could have done just as much damage. One thing is certain, the man and most likely the driver will never be the same after last night.
Be safe and I love you guys!
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