Filipa's List: Strange Things in Turkey

1. Nobody wears a seat belt in the car, it is only illegal not to do it in the front two seats.
2. There are hardly any zebra-crossings but nobody uses them anyway!
3. The count-down numbers at the traffic lights are for the drivers not the people (as in Portugal).
4. Majority of the time, there is no knife given for meals, even in restaurants.
5. At every entrance of every shopping center, there is a security screening like that at the airports.
6. The children start smoking at about 10 years old, in the streets.
7. They use mobiles while driving with the police watching.
8. The men kiss each other on the cheek when meeting.
9. Construction workers make a lot of noise in the streets where we live even at midnight.
10. There are a lot of stray cats and dogs.
11. Some bathrooms are only 'holes in the floor' style.
12. Water is sold at 7.30am in the streets every morning, with a musical soundtrack to alert everyone.
13. 5 times a day, the Mosque calls you to go pray - it starts at 5.46am!
14. More people speak German than English.
15. Breakfast is made up of tomatoes, olives, cucumber and cheese.
16. Some meals consist of both pasta and potatoes.
17. They drink tea like its water, even on hot days.
18. There are Christmas-y lights over the social-street all year long, and they are lit every night.
19. Hashish is used in many household recipes.
20. The Turkish flag is EVERYWHERE!
By Filipa and Lucy (with contributions from Andi and Francesca)

In other news, yesterday I interviewed Turkish artist Semih whose artwork consists of some Greek/Turkish Mythology and King Mitas and Hudi interviewed a Greek woman who is making a forest out of clay that cannot burn.

Interviewing Semih

Interviewing Wali

Today we had to do our first, artist and translator interview, with Turkish artist Hasan - an interesting process. His work is all about the culture you can find because of the use of terracotta from 3,000 years ago when archaeologists dig in the ground. He is also using bricks, like Rodney, but a different kind of brick to represent his idea.

Today is the first day after working that I actually have some energy left, yay!

Maybe we will go out tonight, maybe I wont push it too far... yet :P

Lucy xxo