A scavenger hunt, a sheep sacrifice, and back to school

Hello everyone! Greetings from my yurt!
Yurt means dormitory in Turkish (though it also means yurt...). I am all moved in, and enjoying getting to know my neighborhood. I went to my first class today, so things are picking up at university as well.

We continued our seminar last week with a visit to the Tuesday market in Kadiköy, on the Asian side of Istanbul. We had a scavenger hunt in the market, where we were given a list of things in Turkish to buy, and were encouraged to practice bargaining. In the end, we came home with quince (one of my favorite fruits!), some interesting spices, condensed pomegranate juice, and many other interesting finds. We had lunch at a nice place in Kadiköy, and enjoyed wandering around in Asia before hopping continents again.

On Wednesday we took a "religious minorities walking tour" around Istanbul, where we visited a Catholic church, a former Jewish temple, and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchy (the Patriarch is still in Istanbul, not in Greece). Although religious minorities are not prevalent here (Turkey is 96% Muslim), there used to be more, and it was interesting to learn about the history.

After that we finally were able to go see our university! Although there are around 12,000 undergraduate students here, there are only two academic building complexes. The campus is right next to the Bosphorus, though, and the views are beautiful! We had a lecture on religion and philosophy that afternoon, then found our way back to the dorms with public transportation.

Thursday was so interesting—we first met with an Imam at a mosque in a non-touristy area. The imam (Muslim religious leader) had prepared a wonderful mid-morning snack for us in a building next to the mosque—so although it wasn't a mosque space, women and men still sat on opposite sides of the room, and we wore headscarves. For a few hours, the imam answered our questions about Islam (our guide translated from Turkish), and I was glad to learn a bit about this religion that I don't know very well.

That afternoon, we sat in on a Shi'a Alevi ceremony, an experience like no other. We started out by stumbling upon a sheep sacrifice, then ate some sacrificed sheep meat (I think) at a communal lunch where I attempted to hold a conversation in a mixture of Turkish and German with some of the Turks at our table. Afterwards, we went to the religious service room, where we took off our shoes and put on headscarves. Women and men sat on opposite sides of the room, and most of us were sitting on the floor. The Alevi tradition is different from other forms of Shi'a Islam, and very different from Sunni Islam (that of the imam whom we had met). There were paintings around the room of Ali, whom Shi'ites consider the rightful successor to Mohammed (I'm hoping I'm getting this history right!); images are forbidden in Sunni Islam. The service was led by a man who spoke (in Turkish, not Arabic) at the front of the room, and various people with ribbons around their waists participated by dancing or moving around the room. At some points, the leader picked up a saz and sang, strumming until the energy in the room built up; at one point, one of the worshippers went into a trance and started shouting and jumping on his knees. The service was two and a half hours long, so I spent a lot of time shifting around, trying to keep my limbs from falling asleep. Often I closed my eyes and let my brain wander, listening to the music and reflecting on such a new experience. At the end of two hours, the other women there were curious to know why we were there, so I sputtered out a few words of Turkish ("we're American, we don't speak Turkish"), and then we all headed back to the dorms, feeling reflective.

On Friday we had our orientation for international students—there are many students here on erasmus, and a few others from American universities—including a cocktail party and a party at a club in Taksim (one of the nightlife hotspots here). It was fun to meet a few other foreign students, though I was quite tired, so we left before midnight.

Saturday and Sunday were days to relax and get ready for the first week of classes. Bahçeşehir University holds most classes once a week for three hours, so my schedule will be pretty unusual, I think. I'm still trying out classes this week, and will register for them by next week. I'm hoping to take something in the sociology department, plus my program's required "Contemporary Turkish Politics" course. Yesterday I took a Turkish placement exam (hoping to place into an intermediate level), and today I sat in on a class that I probably won't end up registering for. I will keep you updated about school next week!