June 29th, 730pm- Anders

Shelby, as all other foreign women, gets too much attention here from men (the attention is really just harmless stares and some comments, not much different than the average street vendor here trying to lure you into their shop). the first couple of days i wanted to say something, but what?, and to what effect? Also, is it really different back home? In Bellingham outside of "the shoe" (the oldest bar/diner in Bellingham) it is no different, except for the drugs- Americans, meth faced, crack laced, alky breath and offerings of marijuana, "do you wanna?"

Here, in tourist town Turkey drugs are no where to be seen, even the homeless scene has no team of down and out society drop outs, the far off slums are different of course.

So we have met some jerks, but we have met angels as well.

Metin is the operator of the guesthouse we are staying at and in just 5 days he has become a friend, at first i thought "he is nice, but he already has our money," now i know though; Metin has the same soul as- helpful, thoughtful, caring and at times i bet erring, but when i look at him i see a mirror.

When wandering around looking for a memory chip for shelby's camera we walk into a small inner building mall, we look around, we look confused, close by a man with a rug shop asks as what we are looking for, we tell and he spells out the situation- first off it is sunday and most shops are closed, second only small shops are close by. Our Turkish interactor asks our nationality and when he hears seattle he says "wait, help me with something," he leafs through a couple dozen papers and i stand near by leaning away from his door, he takes a minute and i close the 3 meter gap between us by a couple of steps, "ah, here it is," he says and shows me an order slip "what part of seattle is this?" The address is 1014 E. Newton St. and i had no clue to its location so i said "i cant help you." We continue talking and "Emrullah" is revealed as his name, more talking and Emrullah tells us of his Seattle friends he met selling rugs here in Istanbul, he has visited Vancouver BC, Canada and will again in November, also he wants to open a Turkish rug shop in Seattle and become a resident because "people in the NW are very nice and smiling people," he says. I tell Emrullah that Bellevue (a city close to Seattle) is where a lot of the rich people live and that targetting them would probably be good for business, i write down the city name for him and he says "see, this is why i like Seattle, you are not cold peopl, you are very hot and friendly- good people." We smile at eachother and a bond is formed.

Earlier Emrullah was asking us what we are shopping for in the Grand Bazaar, maybe rugs?, he could sell us one, "no" i say, textiles are what we seek, he tells us that if we come back with a map he will mark on it where Turkish people buy their cloth, we had already bought 4 meters of material that are unfound US shops, and if it is it would be 4-8 times the price, but we want more, lost more. Shelby and i will go back to Emrullah's shop, partly for the textile tip, partly for his smiling style.

5 days in Istanbul and we have met people, some worth trusting and some worth keeping an eye on until they are out of our lives. It is differnt here, but it is not as you think.

(it is now June 30th and today we went back to Emrullah's shop, it was quite an experience and i will write about it soon)