Last Day in Istanbul

Two things:

One – Unfortunately I was on a train at the time I originally wrote this and there was no WiFi access, so I apologize for the lateness but it was sort of unavoidable.

Two – I want to say Happy Birthday to Nolan whose birthday was actually yesterday but I couldn’t post this for the above reason.

Today was the last day that we were in Istanbul, so I decided that it was necessary to do some last minute shopping at the bazaar before we left. I came across these guys who I’d seen before at their store just outside the bazaar. They called me Obama, and they really wanted to sell me a pair of jeans. I told them that I was looking for a shirt, and they conveniently were selling just the ones I wanted. So they showed me the shirts, I chose one, and they of course asked me to try on some jeans. Since they were kind enough to show me, I reluctantly complied. The jeans were actually pretty nice, and they did say Giorgio Armani. I asked how much and he picked up his calculator and began furiously punching in numbers. While he was typing away, I was wondering what exactly he could be adding up, price per fiber? So he flipped the calculator around to show me a three-digit figure: 243 TL (lyra). At that point, those jeans didn’t really look that amazing, and I started calculating how I was going to get out of the situation without offending him too much. But as soon as they realized this, the price miraculously began to drop. “120 lyra”, he says. I shook my head as I started getting up, and the price kept dropping. “100 lyra… Ok, 90 lyra… 80 lyra?” Now that I think about it, if I had stayed longer maybe he would have just given me the jeans. But the real problem was that I realized how much of a huge price range he’d gone through. There’s also a point where you feel kind of bad for the guy because he’s dropping so low, and I mean he does have to make a living. Maybe I’m too compassionate; maybe I buy into these cons to easily. Whatever the reason, I finally agreed to get the jeans and two t-shirts for 80 TL. I walked away prideful about the great deal I had made. It wasn’t until later that I realized the tag said Giorgio Armani, and the jeans said Emporio Armani. What the heck? Oh well. I finished the shopping with just enough time to make it back to the hotel by noon.

After we were all done packing, we set off to take a tour of the Bosphorus. You know, it’s so weird writing what happened during the day because so much walking and talking and trams and sightseeing goes on that by the end of the day the morning feels like it happened a week ago. But the Bosphorus was very relaxing. It was sunny with a nice breeze, and we just chilled and talked about how we used to love Pokémon. I was a little surprised that the 10 lyra Bosphorus Tour didn’t come with a free tour guide, but I kind of preferred to see it for myself anyway. The tour didn’t last too long, and after it was over I wished it had been longer. But the next event on our list was the mosque that we’d been talking about going to for the last three days. Prayer time was going on, and I felt a little self-conscious since I was wearing shorts which aren’t the best thing to wear in a mosque. But I think going to that service and talking with the imam (via translator) was very helpful and gave me some good insight into the minds of Muslims. The thing about people who grow up with a set religion is that they become close-minded about other religions. I know it’s true because I’m one of those people. I was taught that Christianity is the right way and the only way. If you’re of any other religion then you need to convert to Christianity or you’ll go to hell. But from seeing these Turkish Muslims who have likely been Muslim for their whole lives has changed my perspective, because they think exactly like me. They believe that Islam is the right way to get to heaven (or paradise) and probably the only way (not sure on that one). They just aren’t as forthright with their judgment of other religions like Christians are. But our religions are so far ingrained inside our minds that the possibility of any other religion holding more truth than our own is unfathomable to us. That’s why I can’t imagine how people can change religions. It’s like your whole life (views, motivations, actions) has to shift to adjust to the new religion. By the way my mind is set right now, I know there is no way I could depart from Christianity in the near future. It would just feel so wrong to do that and I’m not sure if these feelings are coming from the part of me that has attached and rooted itself inseparably to my religion or if it’s the Holy Spirit who is urging me to stay close to the Truth. All I know is that God is just and merciful at the same time, and if we’re trying to follow Him to the best of our knowledge and abilities then we can’t go wrong. So this mosque experience was very eye-opening for me and I’m really glad we finally got to sit through a Muslim prayer service. Because of it, I now have a more objective view of different religions instead of a close-minded one stuck on Christianity.

To make a big mark on an already full day, something really unexpected happened. After a quick dinner, we dragged our luggage out of the hotel’s storage and loaded up the bus to go to the train station. We were all in the bus except Dr. Clark and Dr. Mallery. Then the bus started pulling out. We called to the driver to let him know that we were still missing a couple of people. He pulled over to the side, and it turned out that another bus had needed to pass through the narrow, cobblestone road and he’d just moved out of the way. So Dr. Clark got on the bus, and we asked him where our instructor was. The next three words that left his mouth left us confused for a second. “She’s not coming”, he explained. Since Dr. Mallery had periodically left the group throughout the trip (to go on secret missions?), we could only assume that she would eventually be meeting us in Ankara, so we began interrogating Dr. Clark for answers. When he told us again that she wasn’t coming with us for the rest of the trip, I couldn’t help but laugh. I realized that it was some kind of bad joke that maybe Dr. Clark or even Dr. Mallery had conjured up. It wasn’t until minutes later as evidence piled up that the truth became quite clear… We had lost our leader. The knife of reality plunged deep into our hearts as we rode away in our bus of grief. Well, maybe I’m being a little overdramatic here. But it really did come as a shock to most of us (*cough* Amanda and Nolan *cough*). I’m also sure that Dr. Mallery didn’t mean to cause us to feel the way we did. She had a perfectly good reason to drop us like a bag of old tennis racquets to see her kids. I, too, may have even probably had the possible thought of thinking about doing the same thing if it had somehow in another life been my kids. But despite this minor setback, we will press forward into the unknown. Despite our inability to communicate with the natives now, we will press on! Despite our inability to navigate through unknown territory or locate local contacts now, we will press on! Despite the loss of our goal-oriented, experienced leader, we will press on! On to Ankara!