500 Ronald McDonald dolls, in perfect formations, spaced 2 or 3 feet apart in the center of 6 roads in a court that houses mobile homes.

spooooooky. *shudder*

weird guy's website

the authentic women's penis size preference chart: here!

a chess set made of apples: here!

the rest of the pictures aren't that weird. though the ones of the flowers are all altered and pretty. probably not worth your time.

the same passage

Believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabaeans -- whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right -- shall be rewarded by their Lord.
-the Koran.

No other religion except Islam will be accepted from anyone.
-the Wahhabi Koran, English translation.

In case you're wondering, Wahhabi Islam is the state-sanctioned religion in Saudi Arabia. State-funded universities teach this as gospel. It's evident that these institutions produced at least some of the people who decided it was god's will to crash planes into buildings and kill lots of infidels.

Logical conclusion? Come on, kids! Let's go to Baghdad!

Yep.

problem.

This article reminded me of an encounter I had in Turkey. Rox, Heather, and I were in a cab heading to the museum on saturday. The traffic in Istanbul is terrible, and it took about an hour to get there from the hotel. On the way, we were chatting as usual, and the cab driver, in incredibly bad English, asked us if we were Americans. After we said yes, he proceeded to give us his take on the world political situation:

"Bush: problem."
"Jacque Chirac: good."
"Blair: problem."
"Kerry: okay."
&tc.

He named a bunch of other heads of state and diplomats that I didn't even recognize. We were all so taken aback that this cabbie, in Turkey, half a world away from the US, could give political commentary. It was an eye-opening experience, to say the least.

After all this happened, Heather told us that, while she was touristing around Turkey before the meeting, she would tell people she was Canadian in response to their questions, just so she didn't have to hear everyone's political views. Heather's as liberal as anyone in this city, and mostly she agreed with what people were saying, but at a certain point you just get tired of people telling you that the US and Bush suck. When she'd say she was from Canada, people would just nod and smile.

turkey!

so i'm back at work after a week of meetings and tourings in istanbul. i had some internet troubles while i was there, and some intense frustrations with a turkish keyboard (they have two i's, and the wrong one is on the i key! ugh), but i managed to write some things down on trusty ol' notepad. readers' digest version: good time, will go back soon.

a mosquito bit the palm of my hand last night! it's very annoying. i think it's time to invest in a screen for my window.

12 september 2004

9-12, 1:09 pm est
over nova scotia

istanbul, the rest of the time

the rest of my days in turkey turned out to be pretty busy. the meetings went pretty much as expected - lots of talking, not a lot of listening, and very little production of anything. i have now an immense respect for simultaneous interpreters. there weren't a lot of participants who spoke english as their first language (only the new york staff and a couple random others), and most people had some trouble speaking in english. so, there were two women who sat in booths at the back of the room and translated what was said from english to russian or russian to english, and the translation was broadcast into headphones via some wireless system. so, you wore or took off your headphones as you needed. in my moments of boredom, i tried to simultaneously translate in my head from english to farsi, and it's HARD (also because i'm not totally fluent, and don't know how to translate words like "community-based initiatives"). but being around so many people who spoke 3, 4, or 5 languages made me want to learn some new ones. also, i can't help but feel like a bit of an ass when i go to a restaurant and expect people in another country to speak english - at least, i should learn how to say basic things like "water" and "bathroom" and whatnot.

the meeting organizers had arranged for "social outings" in the evenings, mainly just dinner in the city somewhere. i went the first night, but by the second i had had my fill of the soros foundations network. so rox and i went to a kebab house near the hotel instead. that was nice - i should remember not to take for granted that i get along personally well with my boss. on the last day (saturday), they had organized a tour of some of istanbul's finest tourist sites, the blue mosque, the aya sofia (a cool building that used to be a cathedral but was converted into a mosque), and the palace. because of my immense dislike for bus tours, i didn't go. instead, rox, heather, and i went to the textile museum and looked at the neat carpets. they were huge! some were bigger than my entire apartment! after that, we went to a cafe nearby and had a two-hour cup of tea. then we walked through the grand bazaar, where i did the entirety of my istanbul shopping (some funky jewelry and some postcards). we walked around a while more and then settled into a restaurant in an area of town called otokoy for dinner. this place was GOOD. and CHEAP! the rumor was that the area is where the "young, rich professionals" of istanbul hang out. i don't know if we qualify as rich, but we fit right in.

verdict: istanbul is cool. i am definitely looking forward to spending 12 hours here in transit in november, on my way to iran. maybe i can actually do the tourist stuff then.

so now i'm on the flight home, about two and a half hours outside JFK. thankfully, i have a car voucher so i can take a fancy ride and don't have to sit on the train or a cab all the way home, which means i can sleep! i slept a bit on the plane and woke up about an hour ago for the end of "raising helen" (of expected quality) and now "harry potter and the prizoner of azkaban" (which i've seen before - he just blew up his aunt! woohoo!). i have to go to work tomorrow, unfortunately, but no one else will be there, fortunately. and next weekend, sectionals!

8 september 2004

9-8-04, 9:57 pm
Istanbul, Turkey: day 1

it sucks to fly with a cold. my ears were stuffed up from pretty much the moment we took off, and the landing hurt. boo. running around istanbul with a snotty tissue constantly on your nose sucks too. if i had a box of tissues, i probably would have used them all up. instead, i had to use paper towels, which made both me and my nose very unhappy.

mary (a program officer at OSI) and i sat next to each other by pure coincidence. we had probably one of the worst seating arrangements on the plane: the bulkhead seats were right in front of us (which means crying babies), and the emergency exit row was right behind us (which means the seat doesn't go back). all that, on a 10-hour overnight flight means not a lot of sleep, despite the taking of nyquil, and a quite cranky sai. ugh. had to be one of the worst flying experiences in recent memory.

aside from that, turkey is pretty fucking cool. we landed at 10:25AM (5 of us were on the same flight) and got picked up by a bus and dropped off at the plaza hotel in istanbul. pretty nice digs - a double room to myself, a mini-bar paid for by OSI (the water comes in much more handy than the vodka), and free meals for just under a week. at 1:30 rox, mary, virginija, and i walked (uphill!) to taksim, one of the main town centers. on the way, i noticed that some of the traffic lights have green numbers above the signal that count down the seconds until the light turns yellow. traffic in istanbul SUCKS. the city was built for about a million people, and now it's inhabited by around 15 million. FIFTEEN! of course, they didn't really keep up the infrastructure work along the way, so the roadway capacity just isn't there for all those cars. add to that that people drive like maniacs and you have disaster just waiting to happen. i slept for most of the cab ride home, but the portion that i was awake for terrified me, given that i could pretty much reach out and touch another car (or bus, or truck) at any given moment.

in taksim, the there is a long stretch of road blocked off to car traffic for pedestrian use only, called the istiklal. we went to a kebab (they spelled it kebap) house and had yummy lunch, then window shopped our way down the street for the next couple of hours. after a while, we stopped at another restaurant to get some tea. turkish tea is very strong and very hot. because my tolerance to hot fluids is on the low side, i called the waiter over to ask for an ice cube to put in my teacup. unfortunately, he interpreted "ice" as "ice cream" and brought us a bowl of different flavors of turkish ice cream. the texture is different from ice cream you find in the US; it's more stretchy, and has a different kind of sweetness. i think they maybe add gelatin to it, but i'm not sure. anyway, mary and i nibbled at it until we were rested enough to continue on.

we walked to the end of the strip before catching a cab home to the hotel. i peeked into one of the shops - if you could call it a shop, it looked more like a little alley/nook! - and the floor and walls were covered in clocks. plastic, wood, metal, mostly analog, some ringing. and at the end of the shop (or hallway, whatever) was a guy holding a little red clock and just shaking it like crazy! it was making strange noises, and he seemed quite frustrated. i really wished i had a camera, so i could capture that moment and keep it.

tomorrow is the first day of meetings, and i get to take notes all day! i know that sounds like just SO much fun. i can't wait.

goodnight.

i've been sitting here staring at this screen for a good 10 minutes, trying to write about the new school year and the fact that i'm not part of it. it's hard to describe. it's a strange kind of lonely, knowing that i won't be involved in all of the daily things that happen on campus - the craft fairs, the all nighters. getting that perfect alcove in butler. working on a problem set and figuring out the last problem. jj's place french fries. the white couch in hogan 2B. green fucking flags.

ahh, mudd. the new engineers don't have any idea what kind of love-hate relationship they'll cultivate with that place over the next four years. they'll find their groups and claim study places, go to office hours and beg TAs for help. they'll take a totally new gateway class. at least once, they will want to transfer.

good luck, newbies. it'll be over before you know it.