I just got back from a screening of "The Passenger" (1975), starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider. It was amazing. Don't expect a lot of action, dialogue, or exposition. Just a really nicely paced, slow, beautifully shot film about escaping. I really liked it, and would like to own it.
Today was pretty great. It was Easy Thursday, meaning we had grammar, listening lab, and speaking classes. In the lab, we listened to a song by the composer Züflü Livaneli, and watched an interview with him. I know this guy's books. We've read two of them in Turkish at Georgetown. He is kind of pop-ish, but he writes really well and it's easy enough to read that I don't need a dictionary for every single paragraph. Today in speaking class we had a two hour discussion on minorities of all sorts. My teacher taught us how to say "shove it up your ass," which I will teach you right now:
"Götüne sok!"
We also talked about economic, political, sexual, and ethnic minorities. We solved all of Turkey's problems in literally two hours. We are awesome. Lunch today at the Urfam Lahmacun place was soup and a lahmacun. Afterwards we had a lecture about Dede Korkut, the Oghuz Turkic literary hero and man of legend. His stories date back to between the 13th and 15th centuries, and according to what I have read, have their roots in the much older Alpamysh epic, which is found among Turkic peoples from Siberia to Turkmenistan. This bad boy is 14,000 verses long, and people would memorize it. And this one is still not longer than the Kyrgyz Manas, which is 500,000 lines long. These guys know how to sit and listen.
The lecturer talked about the similarities between the Dede Korkut stories that emerged later and the pre-existing Greek mythologies. There is a story about a cyclops, which many believe actually predates both stories, and there is a story about going to the underworld to reclaim a soul that resembles a Greek story very closely. I asked the professor afterwards if he knew of any versions that have the Turkish and old Turkic parallel translation, but unfortunately there isn't one. I bet if I wrote it, it would sell a billion copies. But no matter, my friend Ryan found it in the original Turkic online, and also found a kickass website for all things Turkic, including mp3s of people singing the old Central Asian epics, like the Alpamysh. I have been listening to a Kazakh bard sing it for an hour and a half now. It is fantastic. I can pick up some words here and there, like the words for horse, woman, bride, and my.
Dinner was at the other Urfam place, owned by the same people and located right across the street. We call this one the "nice" place, because they give you better free shit and have kebabs. I got the eggplant salad and a soup. It was so fucking good. It will take some adjustment to get used to not having eggplant ready for me wherever I go, but in its place we have burritos, so...
Oh, so further proof that the Turks are insane drivers. First off, they always seem to drive toward you if you are in the street for any reasons. That must be clear otherwise what I tell you next will make no sense. I guess this is just as much proof that they are insane as it is that they don't care about animals as much as you'd like to think they do. As we were walking to the movie, meaning down the hill to campus, there was a dog on the SIDE of the road. A delivery guy on a moped was coming down the hill, slowed down, and actually tried to hit the dog with his scooter until it got off the road. Fact. Also, the rich people here are horrible to their cars. They grind clutches, squeal tires, slam brakes, and do it to their Mercedes, Land Rovers, and Maseratis. Even taking a turn at 15 mph is too much for some people. I honestly have no clue how people survive the roads on a daily basis, especially when you consider that the bus drivers routinely do not give a fuck about anything.
Anyway, the moral of this story is that Jack Nich0lson kicks ass, and Dede Korkut knows how to use the internet. I am coming home in exactly 2 weeks. I am excited but will miss this place, as can be expected. I am working on a "Turkey Bucket List" of shit to get done before I go. Let me know if you think of anything. Saturday is the big ARIT boat trip!!
ETI puffs & track jacket- you promised!
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