May 16, 2012
ATL
Well kids, I'm on my way. Time seems to stop when I travel overseas, and I feel as if I have endless
hours to do lots of things without the internet.
Unless, of course, I use my iPhone.
I've spent the past week and a half doing laundry, though
not as frantically as I should have been, as my mother scoffed at many an item
as we packed, claiming that it was dirty (it wasn't… mostly). As is the fashion
in my family, I didn't actually begin putting clothes into a suitcase until
about 8 pm last night, and my mother took that task over, because, let's face
it, she's better than me. I turned into emotional goo while watching the 2 hour
episode of Glee and letting the weight of my impending departure sink in. I also
repaired my "Holy Toms" around 11 pm last night. It was actually
quite fun, and I almost like them better than the originals! Though I did end
with a disproportionate amount of Loc-Tite (Satan's stickiest of super glues)
on my fingertips. Did anyone else know that vegetable oil gets that sort of
thing off? Weird.
I thought I might write a bit about some of the key players
in this summer's adventures, that way when I throw out these names all of a
sudden you'll have some frame of reference for them.
(Okay side note- I've moved from the overpriced café to my
gate, and the couple across from me is speaking Arabic, and my heart is all a
flutter.)
Moving right along!
Ugur Uludag and Yagmur Kasifoglu: They are the lovely couple
hosting me during about half of my time in Turkey. Serendipity has played a
huge part in my arrangements this summer, and they are a wonderful example.
Back in January, desperate for advice on how to sublet a room in Istanbul, I
posted something like this on facebook:
"DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYONE AT ALL IN ISTANBUL HELP ME
PLEASEEEEE."
An acquaintance of mine, who is an MFA grad from UNC
Department of Dramatic Art, messaged me. He knew an American man who had acted
there and traveled through Turkey for about a year. His name is Adrian, and he
put me in touch with some of his contacts. Ugur and Yagmur were among them, he
had travelled with them while he worked on a show in Turkey a few years back.
Ugur runs his own theatre company, which, to my understanding, it a comic one.
Yagmur acts with his company some, and is also on a television soap opera.
Adrian described her as being a television celebrity of sorts.
I messaged Ugur
asking for advice on renting, and he immediately offered me a room for free in
their home. I am overwhelmed by their kindness. Not only did they offer up
their home to me, they also dealt with all of my ridiculous hoops and demands
as I applied for grants to conduct cultural research in Turkey. Ugur wrote
letters, answered my nit picky questions, and offered me a wealth of
opportunities that I otherwise would have never come across. I didn't get the
grants for my own cultural research, but I did ultimately team up with the
research being done by the Kenan Institute of the Arts, based on out Winston
Salem, and involved in a partnership of sorts with UNC-School of the Arts,
where I spent my senior year of high school.
Which brings me to my next point!
Omid Safi: Omid is the professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, and for
the past 12 years he's led an educational tour of Turkey every summer. I took a
class with him, Modern Muslim History, last semester and loved every minute.
His surprising and snarky humor is second in greatness only to the depth of his
kindness. He is an esteemed religious scholar and writer (check him out on
HuffPost!), and I know I have a great deal to learn from him. He has partnered
with the Kenan Institute in their effort to seek connections with artists in a
Muslim context.
The project is called ART/Islam, and began this year. Our
goal is to achieve a greater understanding of Islam and the cultures in which
it is found through the work of artists. We are aiming to create an exchange of
sorts, in which artists from Muslim context can create with artists from North
Carolina. There is a group going to Tunisia, while David (a UNC-School of the Arts college
student) and I will join Omid's program in Turkey. We will travel through
Istanbul, Konya, Bursa, Ankara, and Cappadocia, and spend our time discussing
readings in breathtaking locations, meeting with artists and religious leaders,
and trying to gain some semblance of the deep history and spirituality of the
region. My job is to document, through writing, photographs, and video. I'll be
setting up the official blog for that soon, and I'll link it on the right in case
anyone is interested in seeing what is going on related specifically to that
trip. To be honest, a lot of it will probably end up on here, too. It is sure
to the be trip of a lifetime!
After the two weeks with Omid, I'll spend another 9 days in
Istanbul, before flying to Amman, Jordan, where the fates have stepped in yet
again to provide me with an incredible friend and roommate.
Jasmine Melvin-Koushki: I cannot even begin to describe this
woman's accomplishments. You just need to google her. She's essentially done
everything under the sun, and done it brilliantly. And she will be my roommate
in Amman! I took my approach to housing in Amman in a similar fashion to my
Istanbul search, only this time, couchsurfing.org was my platform instead of
facebook. Many people are wary of couch surfing, and with good reason. But with
the foolishness of youth, an optimistic nature, and what my father refers to as
my "vagabond spirit," I simply can't resist it! I used it over spring
break to great success, and encourage everyone, of all ages and backgrounds, to
at least try it!
I posted on the Amman group, asking if anyone needed a
subletter for the summer, or knew someone who needed one. Many men between the
ages of 20 and 40 sent me very kind offers, and though I was of course a little
wary, I would definitely have taken them up in a pinch. Many of them had pages
of positive reviews from people they had hosted in the past, and it probably
would have been just fine. But, for my
mother's sake, I waited it out a little. And then, the stars aligned, and
Jasmine messaged me.
Apparently her friend had seen my post, and had sent it
along to her. She is now a design consultant at the Royal Botanic Gardens, and
prior to that had been studying Islamic Art in Jordan on the Fulbright. As far
as I can tell, she has a deeply creative spirit, a very poetic command of
language, and an enormous heart. I foresee us getting along swimmingly.
And the apartment is to die for. It's a rooftop apartment,
with vintage crystal chandeliers, marble floors, and….wait for it…
A TERRACE.
A terrace that appears to be the size of my bedroom.
And if all that weren't wonderful enough, she's fluent in
Arabic, so she can help me with my studies.
Oh yes, because that's what I'll actually be doing there, if
you can ever get me to leave the terrace. Studying Arabic at the University of
Jordan, assuming the administration stops ignoring my emails asking for a
tuition invoice for my scholarship. To anyone in college reading this who wants
to pursue language studies:
Apply for the FLAS. Do it. I haven't really begun my program
yet, so perhaps this is preemptive, but so far it's been a great lesson in
learning how to travel independently and take the initiative. All good and
useful things!
That's all for now. I'm on my flight to Istanbul as I type,
and it seems that all the small children have finally drifted off. Total
silence is not far away. The woman to my left is hilarious, she's from the
Bronx and hates sitting, so she's been doing laps basically the entire flight.
Another funny thing- my mom had a fit over my black fingernails before I left,
and demanded that I remove the polish before landing. I did, in the airport,
and they are squeaky clean and proper as a primrose. However, I snuck the black
nail polish into my bag of liquids, out of both a streak of rebellion and an
earnest desire to repaint them, if I gauged my company to be relaxed about that
sort of thing (and they will be- no one in the whole world cares as much about
nail polish as my mother).
But moments ago, as I opened my bulging quart size bag of
approved liquids to retrieve my chap stick, the smell of acetone hit me.
Quoi?
My black nail polish has either exploded or broken,
decorating my makeup and cute travel sized face wash with Jackson Pollock-esque
spots. My mother must have put in a word with the pressurized cabin gods. I'm just superstitious enough to not purchase
another bottle in Istanbul.
Cheers,
Madison
Hey Hood,
ReplyDeleteQuestions: Do you have a twitter?
Will you be meeting up with Lindian & co in Jordan?
Also #iloveFLAS
Yes to both! Follow me @TheMadisonScott. This is it's name because, as you know,the other Madison Scott is no good.
DeleteAs for Linden and Margo and the rest, yes! At least I hope to, if they can make time in their busy schedules for little old me. :]
YES SENEGAL. MMMM.