Sharing what I can about life in Turkey… from a Foreign Perspective

Venue: Watched at home on DVD
note: DVD offers English subtitles
Rating: Heart: I loved it. It’s a good film. I highly recommend this film.
Quality: Actors didn’t seem to be famous, but the production and the promotion of this film has been top notch
Genre: Drama

Having not read the book, I was wholly satisfied with the film. I’ve heard the (as is often the case) the film strays from the original story of the book, but for me that was a non-issue.

My Review:
The film starts with an early teen (Meryem) living in a traditional Turkish village who has been “dirtied.” There is no clarity as to who she had been with, or as to whether it was consensual; the only thing that is clear is that disgrace has been brought on her family’s honor (namus), and there is only one solution according to custom (töre). She is to be killed. When a family member (Cemal) is sent with her of the city to finish the job, he finds himself unable to do the deed.

As Meryem and Cemal try to sort out what to do next, their paths cross that of an Istanbul professor in a mid-life crisis. The majority of the film is spent with these three characters living their lives together on the professor’s yacht in the Agean sea. We see the classic conflict and confusion that occurs when traditional life becomes deeply connected to modern. We see good and bad aspects of both lifestyles, and we watch as both parties benefit from this unlikely alliance.

I appreciated this film for many reasons. It enabled me to explore village life and village culture. It reminded me of the occasional brutality of village life. It’s easy for me to believe at times that we’d all be happier if we lived in small villages where everyone knew everyone and everything was interconnected. This film reminded that sometimes the strings that hold these tight-knit communities together are lies, oppression and even the willingness to kill those who don’t follow the rules.

This film also gave a great picture of the emptiness of worldly success. We see a man at the top of his career in his fifties who has everything and leaves it behind in Istanbul because he’s not happy. He’s gained the whole world but lost his soul.

I love how this film brings people from both contexts together and uses them to heal one another. I’m sure the book is even more detailed on this point.

I also enjoyed the scenery, as most of the film is shot on the sea around Marmaris which is breathtaking.

I highly recommend this film to anyone learning Turkish because it features a few different accents. Most dialogue however is focused on a few characters, which makes it easier to understand without using the subtitles as you get used to their voices. I also think the cultural lessons are invaluable. Check out this film, I think you’ll love it.

I ran across an interesting link on Bea’s blog today. It was an female University of Wisconsin student’s reflections on a semester at Middle Eastern Technical University.

Although a little dated (2002) her comments were fascinating. You can read all of them here.

Here are some interesting quotes. What do you think of these impressions?

In general, the attitudes of the students seemed conservative. They listened almost exclusively to western pop music, and dressed like European youth, but the modern mind-set was not quite there. Some parts of the Turkish culture reminded me of what I think the United States would have resembled in the 1950’s. Boys and girls remained separate, dormitories were strictly segregated by sex, and rules were well enforced. Visitors of the opposite sex were not allowed in the dormitories, and dormitory curfews prevented late-night trouble off-campus.

The students did not work part-time jobs to pay for their education, and seemed to be taken care of financially and otherwise, by their families. They had fewer responsibilities than many US students would, and were able to concentrate more on their studies

My brother-in-law just got back from 9 months in Florida. Here’s one of the only cultural comparisons I could get out of him tonight. (he’s more in a ‘re-connecting’ mood than a ‘analyzing my experience’ mood.)

“Is there like a new trend in America for men to like asian… like Chinese women. Wherever I go, i see these tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed floridian guys dating with asian girls.”

I know Americans are complaining about fuel prices as prices go up to +3$/gallon as cited by Hans.

I just want to mention again that this is nothing.

We’re still paying over 9$/gallon in Turkey

Check out the recent article (March) in Turkish Airlines’ in-flight magazine about my current residence, Adana.

When my parents told me that they’d read about Adana on the plane last March, I was excited to see the article, and to hear a new take on classic Adana promotion. Unfortunately, I read a lame article that I swear I’ve seen printed elsewhere. The most annoying thing was the photographs.

Here’s a sampling.

Sorry to be cynical, but I think all of my regular readers will agree that my amateur eye and my $100 camera do a better job of catching the feel of this city than these 10-year-old stock photos from Adana’s Tourism Ministry. I know that Adana hopes to draw tourists some day and capitalize on this huge market… but come on. You’ve got to market yourself a little better than this. The article was boring and the photos un-impressive, just like every document I’ve ever seen promoting tourism in this region.

I know Adana will never be a Mecca for sun-seeking tourists, but if you’re not going to put forth a decent effort, why try?

Check out this report on BBC about pig farms in Turkey being shut down by Turkey’s religiously minded AK Party. The Agruculture minister says it has nothing to do with religion. What do you think?

Watch the video here.

As for me, this video was great advertising for the companies profiled in the report. Maybe they’ll deliver to Adana!

We’re enjoying spring here in Adana

In a previous post, I included a screen shot, and Superhero asked if I was a Mac user. I said “unfortunately.” I’ve explained to a few friends lately why I don’t recommend buying a Mac if you don’t live in the United States. People respond “I thought you LOVED your Mac!” True: key word - LOVED. Right now, I constantly consider throwing it out the window and going back to using my 5 year old Dell. I thought I’d offer a warning here for my friends living in Turkey who might consider buying a nice, small, cool-looking, trendy Mac.

Don’t do it.

I know that many Mac users are loyal and happy customers. I was too for the first 9 months. I think I would still be a happy, loyal Mac geek if I lived in the states and had bought the service plan.

Please listen to my story and pass it on to any friends in Turkey (or anywhere outside the USA) who are thinking about buying a Mac.

I bought a Mac 22 months ago. In that time, I’ve had many irredeemable problems. Let me start with the selling points that led me to get a Mac.

(SIZE) Because of living internationally, I liked the idea of having a compact laptop for traveling.
(VALUE) When pricing small PCs like the Sony Vaio, I realized that really small ones were in the $2000 range. The Mac was nice and small, but the price was only $1099 (I was shopping in Minnesota.)
(SPEED/STABLE) I liked hearing the promises that Mac was less vulnerable to viruses and spyware, this implied that it would be fast and not crash nearly as much.
(BATTERY-LIFE) I also was thrilled to hear that it had a two hour battery life.
(COMPATIBILITY) I was told that the tide had turned on Mac, and most programs and hardware were compatible with Mac. Hell I could even run Microsoft on my new Mac.
(COOLNESS) Honestly there was the coolness factor too. This was around the time that the “Get a Mac” campaign was in full swing, so I thought having a Mac would be cool.

A little thought may have foreseen the problems that occurred. Hopefully I can save you the disappointment I’ve experienced.

-The CD player hasn’t worked for at least 6 months. Having a replacement ordered in Turkey would cost 200 Euros. I now use a huge external drive that cost me about $50.
-The clicker for the mouse has been broken for a long time and barely works. This is incredibly frustrating, and a big part of why I haven’t been blogging often; namely because using my computer isn’t fun. With my new USB mouse and external CD drive, my Mac is hardly any more portable than any laptop I’ve owned in the past.
-The power cable broke and later tore. Although I was able to have the tear fixed, the part that is broken cannot be fixed. A new power cable must be purchased. (80$ in the USA, 200 Euros in Adana). As it is, the cable works as a power source, but fails to charge the battery. That doesn’t matter much anymore because…
-The battery (when charged completely) now lasts only 15 minutes. Not exactly a commuter machine with a long BATTERY LIFE any longer .
-The stylish white cover of the computer where you rest your hands while typing turned brown within the first 4 months. It just looks gross. (not exactly COOL)

Other problems:
-Living in Turkey, it’s much harder to find hardware that is Mac compatible. For example, the Skype phone that Rana bought for my birthday a year ago.
-I constantly run into programs that I’d like to try, but don’t work with Mac. (e.g. Picasso, Google SketchUp) There are also many programs and web-based software that work, but don’t work well with Mac (e.g. Joomla.) The Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint versions for Mac are slow and for that reason, much less functional. Not as COMPATIBLE as I’d hoped.
-The computer itself has always been slow. I’m not a gamer, don’t download a ton of worthless programs, and don’t have a lot of photos or music. I just have the basics, but I still find that my computer is slow and YES, the system does crash quite often. Not the STABLE/SPEEDY computer I wanted.
-Finally, it’s hard in Turkey to take risks with my Mac (for example re-loading the operating system,) because I know that if I screw it up, I’ll have to pay a lot of money to have it fixed. With a PC, you always know that there are friends who can help you or repairmen who will easily solve problems for you when they occur. In Turkey, very few people know the system, so it’s almost impossible to find help when something goes wrong. The only option is the Mac service center, which is expensive for obvious reasons.

I know it’s normal for a computer to get some bugs, especially after 18 months. It’s just a lot harder to do basic maintenance when you’re using a Mac, and everyone around you is using a PC. The lack of availability also means that replacement parts and qualified repairmen are be very expensive. Not a great VALUE.

I want to encourage people who don’t live in Mac’s primary market (the USA) to think twice before making this purchase.

I was asked by a new Turkish blogger what had surprised me since coming to Turkey. You can read my answers at “More than Five Senses” today. I think you’ll enjoy it.