Old-school followers of Yabangee will likely have noted that we love starting the year off with resolutions (How to Stop Being Such a Yabancı: 23 Resolutions for 2015, 42 Istanbul Resolutions for 2016). This time around we went a bit more free-form, leaving it up to some of our contributors to help inspire the common yabancı in Istanbul with their personal lists.
Špela Grošelj
– I became a big fan of the Turkish breakfast culture and I want to discover more new and delicious breakfast places.
– Do more sports. (Ideally before the Sunday breakfasts)
– Discover more hidden gems in Istanbul and visit all those nice places which have always been “too far”.
– Go on a road trip around Turkey.
– Read more books in Turkish.
– Finally get an empty seat on the metrobus like a turkish teyze.
– Take less wrong buses… or maybe not. There are a few suburbs that haven’t seen me wandering around lost yet.
– Learn how to properly make a homemade künefe.
– Visit more pazars and eat more seasonal food.
– Produce less waste and recycle more.
– Grow my own veggies on the balcony.
– Finally find a new club with great music and ambiance.
Santiago Brusadin
Read more on my daily commute. This, of course, means less sleeping against the window bus and that in itself would be a great victory to start the year. Also, just maybe, try to read more Turkish authors. Yes to more of the classics Pamuk and Şafak (haters gonna hate) and yes to every recommendation I can get about authors I am unaware of. And also, maybe, just maybe, actually try to read a novel in Turkish (besides Küçuk Prens).
Sherifa Diya
-Keep a diary.
-Take yourself to Şile or Polonezköy at the weekends and just enjoy the peaceful, green side of İstanbul. You’ll thank me later!
-Make mistakes! There is no way in hell you can learn something new without practicing it and making mistakes.
-Instead of buying groceries from supermarkets, change the habit and go to a local bazaar/çarsı. More organic, healthy and cheap. Plus you support the local tradesmen.
-Learn how to defend yourself. Being able to ensure your own safety and the safety of those you love, especially in a city like Istanbul is very important.
-Drink more water!
-Take a photo of something you find it interesting/different and share it to the world by using unique hashtags. #AYabangeeInIstanbul would be a nice one. 😉
-Be creative in the kitchen and change your cooking habits. Combine the Turkish cuisine with a cuisine you love maybe by adding different herbs and spices that aren’t common in this country. Waiting for your magical recipes, Master!
Farah Hallaba
-If you are a sketcher in Istanbul, or maybe someone who likes to doodle or just creatively fill up a sketchbook while roaming Istanbul’s streets – let 2018 be the year you join The Sketchbook Project! For only $30, you can keep your legacy in the Brooklyn Art Library. They ship you the sketchbook, and you have 10 months to fill it the way you want, and then you can always track it after shipping it back to them. Keep up with how many times people checked it in Brooklyn or in the exhibitions it travels to.
– Explore more of these little cute vintage cafes in your favourite neighbourhoods!
– Like to paint? Check the monthly paintings calendars of Masterpiece, and choose the day of the painting you like, and take a break from the buzz and take the brush!
– Check the vintage and antique bazaars, if you are a fan, then do not miss the Feriköy Sunday antique baazar.
– Stop shopping at malls, local Turkey’s clothing stores/bazaars are of way better prices and similar models!
– Interested in culture? Why not do a Jewish Heritage Tour in Istanbul; mainly in Galata and Balat, with plenty of synagogues, museums, and heritage.
– If you haven’t already, spend more time roaming the Golden Horn area, the heart of Istanbul.
– Explore, explore, and explore while using your phone for street art. Every shot anytime in Istanbul’s streets is picturesque!
– Fond of vintage lifestyle? Love dancing? 2018 should be the year you join Swing Istanbul – a dancing school where you learn 1920s Lindy Hop and solo jazz dances!
– If you play/like music, and you are thinking of learning a new instrument, then try out a Turkish one! Maybe Tambur or Ney?
– Of course, FOOD! Make a list – using Foursquare/Zomato is a good idea – and every time you are out for lunch go to a new place! They will never finish, especially not before 2019.
-If you are not yet (Turkish mobile application) savvy, you are missing a lot of comfort! Make sure in 2018 you have these apps that make your life easier like: Traffi, Getir, Yemeksepeti, Scotty, BiTaksi, Foursquare and your bank’s mobile app!
Eric Beyer
-Get Fit. Go to the gym. Make the world your gym. Steal someone’s cigarette while they’re in the middle of taking a drag and run like hell. Have a swimming competition with the ferries by seeing who can reach the other side of Bosphorus first. Lift anything and everything that you can get your hands on. See that hefty-looking simitçi over there? That’s 110 kilos of pure New Year’s Resolution.
-Finally learn Turkish. Tired of only being able to order a beer and say the occasional “öff ya”? Swap the language school for watching Turkish soap operas, and you’ll never be in the dark when your ex-wife pulls a gun on you whilst you’re perched atop a cliff proposing to her best friend’s cousin’s niece whom she thought was dead.
-Go to the Asian side more. “But it’s, like, just, so far away.” Wrong. Take a ferry, have some tea, and enjoy the view while you’re at it. Have you ever spent an afternoon walking around Icadiye or the Bostancı seaside? It’s stupidly pleasant. Actually, wait, I take it back, you’ll just make it more crowded. Stay over there and enjoy Europe, you heathens.
-Be the person who organizes the summer boat party at least once this year. I know it’s a pain, but, and I cannot stress this enough, boat party. Bonus points if people flake last minute and you are stuck with a less-than- agreeable captain and a massive bill.
-Get to know your local wandering simit/boza/çay/kestane seller. It’s always a good idea to hang out with these pillars of the community. Just remember, it’s a time-honored Turkish
tradition that you enter a shouting match with them after exactly three conversations. If you win, you get to take over their job. Train hard and good luck.
-Eat more açma sandwiches. Never made an açma sandwich before? Take an açma, cut it in half, and insert your preferred sandwich fillings. You’re welcome.
-Pet all of the street cats that you possibly can. Turkish law stipulates that you cannot be punished for being late to work for doing this, as long as you can produce a recording each individual cat purring. If you are unable to make the cat purr, then you have no soul and deserve to be fired.
-Write down how many different ways your foreigner friends say the word “Carrefour”. Tell only the ones who pronounce it correctly that they’re wrong. Especially if they’re French.
-Develop a new public transportation strategy. Fed up with having to fight for a seat on the metro or metrobus? Forgo showering for a week and you’ll have a whole row to yourself. Checkmate, the entire city.
-Something about the islands.
Melis Kanik
– Lose those ten kilos!
– Make that million dollars…
– Make another million dollars. Use it for a good cause.
– Save the world.
– Travel said-world.
– Reclaim nature of said-world.
– Hug a panda.
– Visit nephew in South Africa. 🙂
– In Turkey, get all stray cats adopted. In the USA, get them off the euth-list.
– Get Turkish people to start to recycle… systematically.
– Add two more kilos to your weight loss resolution because you just gained two in the meantime!
Khaoula El Maaloumi
-Eat healthy
-Make social connections
-Read more
-Surround myself with intellectually stimulating people
-My thesis is not going to finish itself, so time to stop procrastination and get it done.
-Find a job
-Get rid of the ‘I don’t really feel like it’ attitude
-Make a trip somewhere, anywhere
-Save money
-Be more self-disciplined
-Wake up early
-Try new things
-Keep up the positive vibes
Tasneem Anjarwalla
-Practice appropriate ways to steer conversation away from politics
-Dig deep and scourge the words “sick” and “um” from our vocabulary
-Get a Turkish credit card
-Face down bureaucracy without the help of a Turkish speaker (maybe just one day…)
-Write postcards
-Go to PTT and register for e-devlet
-Enjoy the ferry ride without taking a single photo
-Tracking down a good, affordable restaurant in Sultanahmet so we finally have a good rec for visiting family
-Have a fancy dinner on the Bosphorus
-Buy all things from the pazar and spend one week eating in
-Swear to never (ok, how about rarely) order from Yemeksepeti when it’s pouring rain/sleet/snow (we don’t need the bad karma)
-Get really good at one Turkish song for karaoke night
-Read “the Orientalist” and ponder our life choices
-Try boza
Tarik Yassien
-Walk more. This includes convincing others to walk more when going places. If reasonably healthy and flexible on time (which is generally a given thanks to “Turkish time”), taking a taxi to someplace in your neighborhood and/or using the metro for one stop is a disservice to oneself.
-Organize and attend more events. Festivals, workshops, art tours, etc.
-Spend more time on Turkish vocabulary, especially descriptive adjectives. If I had a lira for every time I’ve used çok güzel to describe something…
-Delete my Yemeksepeti account and cook more.
-Keep up with friends back home…
-Travel to nearby countries that I’ve procrastinated hopping over to.
-Save twice as much as I have been to compensate for the terrible state of the lira.
-Embrace being 30 and try to be a bit (just a bit) more mature.
Got some more resolutions we can take inspiration from? Let us know in the comments & see you in 2019!
