Answers to my dad's questions

I figure I might as well strike while the iron is hot and respond to the multitude of questions posed by my dad.

- How observant religiously are mainstream Antalyans?
Not at all. Less so, in fact, than the United States. Turkey is laik, similar to the French model. The separation between church and state is present but it manifests itself in different ways. Turkey is, in general, aggressively secular. This may seem like a peculiar use of words, but it is, I think, the best way to describe the predominant mindset. Of course, this mindset isn’t actually all that predominant, considering the religious party has a majority. But in general, city-dwellers and people who live further west tend to be less religious. For example, I don’t think my host brother has ever actually been inside a mosque, except historical ones that have been converted to museums.

- Are mosques prevalent? Are there muezzin in the towers?
In Antalya, somewhat, although no more so than churches in a similarly sized American city. It isn’t like Cairo, “the city of a thousand minarets.” There are muezzin and they do chant the call to prayer five times daily. I can hear it from my house but it doesn’t bother me; it’s must less irksome than the guy who is up at 6:00 yelling about how amazing his simit is (simit is sort of ring sesame-encrusted bread).

- What Muslim beliefs are honored and observed, and which are not?
No one eats pork, just because it is impossible (or extremely difficult) to find, and while most people wouldn’t care about eating it on religious grounds, most people think pork is dirty. There are wild pigs in Turkey, though, and I’m told that there are some farms where pork is produced for export to Bulgaria and other (Christian) places. The vast majority of people have no religious objection to drinking alcohol, at least not in Antalya. Antalya is pretty secular, even by Turkish standards. Not nearly as secular, as, say Izmir, but more secular than Istanbul and much more so than Ankara.
A lot of other things are not so much Muslim as they are just folk traditions. The evil eye (nazar boncuk) is everywhere, on basically every door and sometimes on babies, to ward off bad luck. People invoke the name of God by saying “mashallah” and “inshallah” and similar expressions that come from Arabic, even if they aren’t religious. A lot of people play with tesbih (prayer beads) in their idle time. These have 33 beads, which, if counted 3 times, equal 99 – so one can recite the 99 names of Allah if one is so inclined. Most people aren’t, though, and just use them as worry beads. I have a set that I like to play with – I don’t smoke, so I need something to do with my hands while I wait.
Most people don’t pray at all. I can’t stress enough the fact that Turkey is secular, and most definitely not Arab.

- How does your host mom shop for dinner? Does she shop every day, or does she shop for a week? What are grocery stores like as compared to a Hannaford’s here? What choices do you have?
A little of both. There are little shops on basically every corner. If you like, they will even have someone send up whatever you want to your apartment. Every morning our kapıcı (doorman is perhaps the best way to translate this) bring us the newspaper and a fresh loaf of bread. If we run out of yogurt or bread, we can go to the little store. For more regular shopping, there is a small grocery store in a mall near our house that my mom probably goes to once or twice weekly. Most things we get about once a week, some things fresh (like bread and fruit). Maybe every month or two we go to a big “hypermarket”, which is about the size of a standard supermarket in America – maybe a little bigger, but definitely not as big as a Sam’s Club or BJ’s.
The choices are not nearly as extensive as what we are used to in America. For some items – instant coffee, tea, nutella products and associated knock-offs – there are more choices, but in general it’s less. There aren’t nearly as many different types of soda: you have basically Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite, although you get a choice of a few different brands. There is basically one type of beer in Turkey – Efes, and imports are expensive. There’s also Tuborg, but it’s produced under license by the Efes company, so it doesn’t really count. There is no ice cream in the stores, just individual serving-sizes. We don’t have a regular freezer anyway, just a deep-freeze. It’s a tiny bit difficult to find normal coffee (filter, non-instant, non-Turkish). A lot of things are made by Ülker, which is a Turkish company that produces a lot of candy and also Cola Turka. The money that Ülker makes, though, is called yeşil para – green money (green being the color of Islam). Ülker tends to give money to conservative causes in Turkey and my family, for instance, generally prefers not to buy Ülker products.

- If you go into a pharmacy, is everything out on a shelf or do you have to ask someone to retrieve every item for you?
Yep, you have to ask someone. Pharmacies are a lot more common here because a) grocery stores don’t have their own pharmacies and b) hospitals don’t really have their own pharmacies, so you have to get the medicine yourself. They also seem to make a lot of money selling Viagra, at least judging by the large window displays. (I don’t know if you need a prescription for this or not; somehow I doubt it.)

- Are there more misconceptions about Americans that Turks hold that you could share?
Nothing all that new or interesting, other than that our government isn’t particularly well-liked in this part of the world. There is a best-selling novel here called “Metal Storm” which describes a US-led invasion of Turkey, and people actually seem to think that this is something fairly realistic, and something they worry about. There is also a movie called “Valley of the Wolves: Iraq”, which features, among other things a (Jewish) American doctor who sells organs from Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib to businessmen in Tel Aviv. During the invasion of Iraq, US forces captured Turkish commandos operating in the north and pictures were taken of the hooded Turkish soldiers. While the prisoners were eventually released, the “hood incident” was not exactly a high point in US-Turkish relations. The movie is based on the embarrassment caused by this incident.
What else? A lot of the stereotypes are just based on what people see in the movies: we all have big cars, eat fast food 24/7, snort coke 24/7, we all love basketball, etc.
A lot of people think that the Armenian and the Jewish lobbies are very powerful in America, which is, to a certain extent, true.

- What do they think of other nationalities, such as the British, or Germans, or Asians?
In Antalya we get a lot of tourists, along with people who retire or move to Turkey. Most Turkish people believe that pretty much all foreigners from central or northern Europe are “cold”. While Turkish people are a warm and hospitable people, the worst of the tourist stereotypes are as follows: British people – kind of white trash. Drink a lot. Not wearing enough clothing. Germans – cold. Extremely cold. Also drink too much. Russians – cheap. (Think 5 or 6 people in a 2-person hotel room cheap.) Drink too much. Israelis – same as the Russians. Maybe because a lot of them are from Russia. Asians – there is only one country in Asia, and that is Japan. I feel bad for the Thai students, who have to deal with “Japan? Japan?” and “konichiwa” whenever they go outside. In general, Asian tourists (read: Japanese) prefer to go to historical places, such as Istanbul and Kapadokya, and stay away from the beaches. Americans – surprisingly, people like us. We don’t come to Turkey so much, so there aren’t nearly as many stereotypes just because they are’t as well known.

- It would also be interesting to hear more about students in your school. Do they pay attention in class? Do they write everything diligently? Do any of them pass notes, or throw paper at each other, or throw pencils up to stick in the ceilings? Are there disciplinary issues for harmless, mindless mischief?
Not so much. There is more discipline in the sense that teachers yell a lot more, but less in the sense that no one really listens to the teachers. All the teachers have decided to crack down on people bringing food into their classrooms, which most people solve by just putting their food in their bag or waiting until the teacher isn’t looking. Classes are a lot bigger here so the teachers can’t really enforce discipline as much. Side conversations pretty much occur all the time. Students don’t form lines (“queue up”, as I’ve been taught in English class), instead they just form a mob. I’m tall, so I actually do okay for myself. People sometimes pass notes, but usually its easier just to talk across the room to whoever you want to speak with.
In Turkey there are no substitute teachers. If the teacher doesn’t come, you just have a free period. Sometimes people play football (soccer) with a piece of paper, or have fights with the chalk. In general they don’t pay as much attention in class, but they somehow manage to write all the important things down. A lot of times students will sleep and the teacher will either not notice or just not care. People also have all sorts of cool tricks they can do that involve twirling their pens.

- Do some kids drop out?
Yes. If, after 8th grade, you want to stop school, you just stop going to school. Some people do. Some girls do because it is forbidden to wear the headscarf in school, but most of them just wear it outside of school. I’ve heard that in some places girls wear wigs to get around this, but, as I’ve said, Antalya is really secular, and I’ve only actually seen one girl in my school who wears the headscarf while not in school.

- What if a kid loves sports - you mention that in 11th and 12th grade all they do is prep for the exam - do the athletes just give up their sports for two years?
Pretty much, if they want to get into a good university and get a job. There aren’t really school teams – we have matches with other schools, but usually they just organize a team a week or two before the match and practice during lunch. After school, everyone has private study classes to attend, and there aren’t sports teams (at least not at my public school – perhaps some private schools do). If you want to play sports, you rent a field and get a group together to play football on the weekend. Same goes for music and just about any other hobby outside of school.
I was late to class yesterday and rather than showing up late, I decided to sit in on a conference with all the 12th graders in my school. One of the teachers asked if any of the students were still trying to have any relations with people during the weekends – social activities and whatnot. About 25% of the students raised their hands, and laughed nervously. The teacher then basically told them, good for you for wanting to have fun and be young, but you really should be studying more for your own good. And he’s right.

- Do any kids hold after school jobs? If so, what do they do?
It’s hard to get a job in Turkey, even for university graduates. That being said, I know a few people in my school who work in hotels during the summer, and they tend to have better English than their peers. Some of them have even picked up a few bits of Russian. It’s not very common though. Bulatcan, my host brother, had a tourism-related job for a week or so. I think it was kind of like a bellhop type-thing, but he had to stop after he hurt his wrist. Some of the kids from poorer families help out around the house or the job, I think. Having an actual job during the school year is unheard of – actually, the same is true in Europe to a large extent.