Not in Kansas Anymore

I do stand by the fact that Turkey is remarkably western for being considered part of the Middle East.  Having said that, we are not in the west anymore.

I mean, there are the little things that are annoying, like getting a bad stomach bug, and not being able to drink the tap water, and getting dehydrated.  Fun fun.  But the bigger adjustment is the difference in how women are treated. 

Gather round everybody.  Its story time.

We are currently in a resort town, meaning that it is full of tourist traps and really pushy merchants.  Our global group decided to go out clubbing.  Having been dehydrated all day, I decided that alcohol would be a really bad idea.  Throughout the night, we left in groups from the club.  At 11:30, David, Jessica, Cassie and I left together.  Only it wasn’t just us who left.  Another Turkish man, who claimed to be from New York (yeah right) followed us and began chatting with David.  David, who is too nice for his own good, couldn’t ditch him.  Cassie and I were scared that he was going to pickpocket David.  David was scared that he was hitting on him.  Things took a sudden turn when he started overtly flirting with me!  I mean, he was trying to hold my hand, and when I got behind the group he said something to the effect that I can’t leave, because he needed me.  We managed to ditch him, and after conversing straightened out any confusion about the guy’s intent.  But unfortunately, he found us again. But this time, we were ready.  David, having realized that as a guy he had more sway than I ever did, talked to the guy while we girls walked away.  David was able to ditch him with some of his “brothers” (I really have no idea).

Lessons from this experience.  Do not talk with Turkish men who approach you out of nowhere.  Seriously, don’t.  Ever. 

This evening Cassis, Julia and I went out shopping.  By changing out body posture to walking with a little more assertion, and by coming to the realization that we do not have to talk to the store owners who try to engage us in conversation, things were a lot better.  There was a lot less harassment.  There was even a wonderful moment when we were walking past a bar, and a bar tender was trying to get us to go in.  As we past, a group of Turkish men also passed.  One of the men walked up to the bar tender and said “can’t you see they aren’t interested?”  Faith in humanity restored.  Later, we also managed, part way through the night to get into a less touristy area, and there no one seemed to give us any notice.  This is why I love non touristy areas.  I don’t care if people don’t speak English.  It is easier to deal with that than pushy merchants.

But all in all my experiences here have given me a lot more confidence in my ability to handle situations like this.  Instead of being scared, now I can laugh at the Turkish men making idiots of themselves trying to get costumers.