Eventful weekend

Alhamdulillah, I was able to cross off a couple of my to-dos this weekend.

Alas, I am still sick, but since I started taking Zithromax on Friday night, I think I averted any major setback. I was initially leaning against anything more than Tylenol cold, but I could feel a bit of body ache starting to set in, so I went for it - alhamdulillah, it has paid off. I have two more days of vitamin Z to go, in sha Allah, but already, I feel much better.

On Friday, I finally recharged my TurkCell credits - I got 150 kontors/credits for YTL 25. I spent about half of that on a call to Baba before he left, but I don't anticipate using much more until I leave - we'll see. Maybe MoBaba can use it when he comes. Alhamdulillah, Baba returned home safely. He had a good trip. I spoke with him and Mom on Skype today.

On Saturday morning, I had my Kellogg interview with an alumna. She graduated in 2002, and works for a competitor actually (Oliver Wyman). She was also sick, so we were on equal footing as far as that went. She came about fifteen minutes late, and I got there about fifteen minutes early. It was in Etiler, a place I had considered living before I got here. It is a bit far for walking, and was a YTL 6 taxi ride. Seems like an upscale area. I got a "medium" (whatever they call it) sized hazelnut hot chocolate and parked myself out in front. She said casual, but I went business casual anyways. The guy who interviewed after me showed up in a suit!. I think the interview went okay. She asked the typical questions, but didn't dig too deep into my work experiences, since she already knows what I do for the most part, and also probably to respect the competitive nature of the business. I more or less repeated the same types of answers I gave in the written application.

I took the bus from Etiler and I went back to the office for a bit, before going home to change and figure out a game plan.

I have been a bit concerned that I accidentally left a soft copy of my Stanford application on the internet cafe desktop, given the tremendous amount of sensitive data in the document (e.g., SSN), so I have visited the cafe several times over the past few days to figure out how their system works. I could not find the document and it appears as though everything is deleted after each session, but I'm making a couple of other checks to make sure.

I decided to go have lunch/dinner at Sultanahmet Koftecisi and then try and catch the Whirling Dervish show that (Saturday) evening. I was going to take the Metro, but saw that the Eminonu bus was waiting at the bus stop, so I literally jumped on. I prayed Asr at the Yeni Cami, then I walked to Sultanahmet, trying a mix of new and old routes. I stopped by at the North Shield, but alas, they don't have college games, only NFL (The timing of our game has not been announced either - if it is a late game, I doubt we can find a place that is open through the whole game. We may have to try streaming a radio play by play over the internet.). I prayed Maghrib at the Blue Mosque, and then went for food.

Now, there are quite a few places all over Istanbul that refer to themselves as Sultanahmet Koftecisi, so make sure you go to the right one. I went to the same one my company went to last weekend, as I assume that is the right one. The food was good, and wasn't too pricey. The menu is rather limited - they do kofte, and that is about it. Not even too many varieties of kabab. Unlike Moddasser Bhai, however, I didn't really like the dessert they gave me. Maybe a bite or two of the stuff is ok, but they gave me four slabs in the small plate, and it wasn't so great. I think I paid about YTL 15-20 for everything, including tip. They don't take cards, so they didn't have too much trouble with the YTL 100 note I gave them. They are very, very busy, which is another way to tell what places are good.

I took the tram back down, as I didn't feel like walking. I was initially going to go all the way to Eminonu, but saw the Sirkeci stop was right in front of a train station. I thought I had read that the show was at the old train station, but this seemed to be functional, so I was a bit confused. I got off anyways, figuring it was a good place to start looking - the train tracks couldn't have moved too far, even if there were two stations. Actually, there is only one station, and it is an old station, being the end point of the Orient Express. A rather fancy terminal, I should say. Still, quite an odd place to have the whirling dervish ceremony. I bought the ticket for YTL 30 right there (although you can buy it from several tour stores), and left to walk around, as the show didn't start until 7:30 (it is also on Tuesday at the same time).

I did a bit more exploring (I think I am getting to be rather familiar with the Sultanahmet/Eminonu/Taksim/Mecidiyekoy areas - at least enough to know where I am and where I have to go). I actually came across a place that takes traveler's cheques in that tourist area! Subhanallah. I may make use of it. I don't think the guy was charging any sort of percentage fee either, other than a slightly lower rate. I hung out at an internet cafe for a bit, then went back for the show.

The doors were supposed to open at 715pm, but I reached about then, and it was already full of people. I lucked into an excellent seat, front and center, that was somehow still vacant. Most of the audience was tourists, as you could expect. A few Muslims, but mostly non-Muslims - Europeans I think for the most part.

After a briefly delayed start, someone came up and gave a brief introduction. It sounded a bit extreme (characterization of Rumi). Then seven people, men and women, showed up all dressed similarly, with various instruments (flute, drums, oud, etc.). The first half hour was more or less these people playing. Sometimes it was just the music. The rest of the time, there was some singing of Islamic type dhikr or salawat songs (I found it a bit relieving that at least they kept this much - the group is some kind of modern Mevlevi sect or something). The second half featured the whirling dervishes. They were also seven. They came in all dressed in black robes/jubbahs with the long caps, again mixed. It was quite wierd to see the women dressed that way. They had a very deliberate walk, and sat down on some rug that had been placed on the floor. They immediately went into prostration (although not towards the Qiblah (or Rumi's grave for that matter), if my sense of direction was correct). Quite a few of their activities seemed a bit pretentious, but it was a show after all. I'm not sure how much their hearts were in it. They did quite a bit of bowing, every few steps. Right in front of me, there was a red rug, and whenever they approached it, they bowed and then crossed it. They went in circles several times, then broke out into the spinning circles. I have to give them props for being able to spin so long at least without any visible side effects. Every five minutes or so, they would break/stop, and walk in a circle again, before bowing and spinning again. All the while, the musicians were playing and singing. Quite interesing. I wonder how different it will be in Konya in sha Allah. The show was done within the hour. They were selling some materials, but I didn't find anything terribly interesting - just CDs, books, etc. I took the bus home, and planned to go to Buyukada on Sunday.

I will write about Buyukada, and post pictures for both days), tomorrow in sha Allah...