Wanderings in the City

Hello all, sorry for the brief delay in updates but here it goes.  

Today is the first day of class at Bogazici University where I am enrolled for the semester.  This is completely obvious in the neighborhood surrounding campus as little restaurants and cafes that have sat nearly empty for the two weeks that I have been here are filled with young people catching up and swapping stories of their summer holidays.  I feel rather ridiculous in admitting my  defeat in finding my yoga class this afternoon, but it was not due to a lack of effort.  Wish me luck as i attempt to redeem myself by finding my art history lecture tonight.  

Beyond registering for class, this past week as been lax.  With some days being spent exploring the farther reaches of the city and others wandering the streets of my neighborhood, which i have found stretches down along the Bosporus.  There is an overlook on the walk to campus that has yet to fail in inspiring me with awe at the fact that I am in fact here--that for the next several months this city is my home.  At night the hills that surround this rather spectacular view are alive with the lights of a city that holds late hours, and when it rains it seems that a beautifully melancholy mist hugs the hills and slowly falls into the steely waters of the straight below.  Yet these same waters change to the deepest shades of turquoise and cerulean blue the moment the sun parts the clouds.  And I get to live here.

Early last week several other international students and I decided to embrace the role of tourist and went to the old city to visit the Blue Mosque.  When we arrived it was nearing time for the late afternoon prayer and only the faithful were allowed inside.  But there is something to be said for merely being on the grounds of this monument of Ottoman architecture that has been in continuous use as a house of god since its opening in the early 17th century.  When the PA system begins the call to prayer it is so loud and so powerful that it is felt as much as it is heard.  When prayer was over tourists were allowed to enter after removing our shoes and being deemed modest in dress.  I have been lucky in that I have seen some of the great monumnets to the christian faith that leave their lasting marks on western europe.  But to be in the Blue Mosque is an experience entirely remarkable unto itself.  The Catherdrals of Spain were a testament to the wealth and power of that colonial empire with seemingly everything dripping in gold and gems from the new world.  To write it off as garish may be inaccurate but in comparison there is really not a better descriptive.  

Once inside I immediately felt insignificant in nearly the same way that the ocean in its magnitude makes one feel insignificant.  The overarching domes and immense pillars create a cavernous space that is somehow enlarged by the low lighting.  And as there are no pews the long lines from floor to ceiling and left to right and front to back only seem longer without the obstruction.  

In the area of Sultanahmet that surrounds the mosque after the sun sets and prayer is said and the fast is broken their is a nearly carnival like atmosphere with food vendors everywhere selling the most wonderful smelling food.  And this happens every night night during Ramadan. Other then the sleazy teenaged boys that are taken aback by every foreign girl that they see there is a wonderfully familial air with grandparents, parents and children coming together in celebration in the most universal of ways--eating!

Peace & Love