A Few Changes

It has now been over a year since I arrived in Istanbul and began publishing this blog, so I decided to make a few changes. The layout is a little more reader-friendly (I hope), and now you don't need to subscribe to anything in order to comment on one of my posts (yes, it really took me a year to figure out how to do that).

Nothing much new here, as I am busy getting ready to go to Philadelphia in a couple of weeks for the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) convention followed by Thanksgiving with some old family friends, the Newmans, in Maryland. Here are a couple of random pictures to tide you over...Ciragan Caddesi, Galata Tower, and a mural in the Sishane Metro station.

Taksim Square on Swine Flu Friday

Last week, the mayor of Istanbul declared that all schools would be closed on Friday so they could be disinfected to prevent the spread of H1N1. Never mind the fact that there have been fewer than 30 confirmed cases of the virus in Turkey, or the fact that the cleaning that was actually done would never truly kill a virus...it was a day off! In addition, Thursday was the 86th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic, which means we managed to get a 4-day weekend out of the deal! Yay swine flu! The mayor had suggested that everyone stay home and try to avoid contact with others who might have the virus. Yeah, right. Give a million+ teenagers the day off and then expect them to stay home. Good luck with that. So what did I do? I headed for Taksim Square, of course, arguably the most people-packed area in Turkey outside of the Grand Bazaar. For those of you who have never been, Taksim is the heart of modern-day Istanbul, with hotels, restaurants, night clubs, and shops old and new lining the famed Istiklal Caddesi (Independence Avenue), a mostly pedestrian street that runs from Taksim to Tunel, the second-oldest subway in the world after London's Underground. Taksim is the place most often used for protests and demonstrations of all kinds, and Friday was no exception-there was a Marxist group protesting...I'm not sure what because I can't read enough Turkish to understand their signs. But they had a lot of pictures of Che Guevara, and a friend informed me that they were Marxists. This was one of the more peaceful protests I've seen; if you want to read about the other kind you can do so by looking up the World Bank protests of a few weeks ago. A friend of mine managed to accidentally happen upon that scene, not having read the bottom of the email we received about it from the Ministry of Education to find out the location of the protests. Oops. Friday was rainy, cold, and windy, but my friend Jen and I still managed to have a good time and find some great sales, in addition to the last-minute items for our Halloween costumes. My costume? Swine Flu, of course!