Work Your Magic, We'll Meet You By The Tiles
Sufism. The majority of our morning was spent on this ambiguous noun. We had the pleasure of speaking to the head of an NGO (names of which I do not recall) and her thoughts about women in Islam, scarves, Sufism, and a variety of other questions. Most, if not all, of her answers had the word love and Mashallah (the most similar to the word: wonderful). To my ears, she sounded like a modern day hippie. Peace and love would solve all of the issues in the world. Her simplified view of the world did not help her clarity in her responses to our questions, in particular What is Sufism? After a few hours of questioning the women served us lunch, and we were off to Sirkeci Train station.
Today was the first on-site presentation of the class. Kristina and Emily led numerous intellectual discussions of the significance of this grand monument and the impact of the Orient Express. One thing that struck me was the color of the ceilings. All of the beams were pink. Now what interior designer or person would decide to use pink as the color to express grandeur, luxury, and sophistication? This remains a perplexing question... After the Sirkeci stop we had a couple of hours before our Sufi zikr (worship service/meeting).
In the 2 hours, we decided to go to the Grand Bazaar and purchase my long-awaited puse (pronounced poo-shee). There's a picture of me and my newly-acquired puse. Yekta, our native Turk, Amanda and I engaged in covert operations. I would send Yekta to a store and have her pretend she was buying a puse. "Work your magic, We'll meet you by the tiles." This is a sample of some of the dialogue that occurred during our purchasing adventure. Whenever she found one, Amanda and I would pretend to look at other scarves and talk to Yekta through each other. I would call Amanda Yekta and tell her which puse I wanted and the price I wanted to pay. In the end, it was another successful mission!
The zikr was an experience! Here are a few pictures attempting to show glimpses of the scene:
Whirling Dervish (religious practice)
...and the party afterwards!
Today was the first on-site presentation of the class. Kristina and Emily led numerous intellectual discussions of the significance of this grand monument and the impact of the Orient Express. One thing that struck me was the color of the ceilings. All of the beams were pink. Now what interior designer or person would decide to use pink as the color to express grandeur, luxury, and sophistication? This remains a perplexing question... After the Sirkeci stop we had a couple of hours before our Sufi zikr (worship service/meeting).
In the 2 hours, we decided to go to the Grand Bazaar and purchase my long-awaited puse (pronounced poo-shee). There's a picture of me and my newly-acquired puse. Yekta, our native Turk, Amanda and I engaged in covert operations. I would send Yekta to a store and have her pretend she was buying a puse. "Work your magic, We'll meet you by the tiles." This is a sample of some of the dialogue that occurred during our purchasing adventure. Whenever she found one, Amanda and I would pretend to look at other scarves and talk to Yekta through each other. I would call Amanda Yekta and tell her which puse I wanted and the price I wanted to pay. In the end, it was another successful mission!
Whirling Dervish (religious practice)
Again
...and the party afterwards!
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