How to Stop Being Such a Yabancı: 23 Resolutions for 2015

resolutions

  1. Stop ordering on YemekSepeti cause you’re too scared to order over the phone in Turkish.
  2. Stop forcing your friends to call you cause you forgot to top up your kontor.
  3. Stop being so offended by the lack of good Mexican food
  4. and sushi.
  5. Stop getting lost because you’re relying on Google Maps and don’t know even know how to direct the taxi driver to your home.
  6. Stop shopping at Macro Center. You can oftentimes find your precious avocados and cilantro at your local pazar.
  7. Stop bringing your visitors to the same three sites — mix it up with a room escape game or a cheeky trip to the top of the Grand Bazaar.
  8. Stop thinking you’ve seen the city when you’ve never even heard of Kuzguncuk.
  9. Stop rolling your eyes when someone tells you the air conditioning got you sick.
  10. Stop getting balik ekmek in Eminönü. Karaköy, my friends. Karaköy.
  11. Stop grimacing at rakı. Turk up and drink.
  12. Stop complaining about Turkish music when you only know that one Tarkan song.
  13. Stop complaining about dating Turkish men/women cause you can’t handle the “drama,” (i.e. differing cultural expectations/norms that are getting in the way of easy booty).
  14. Stop complaining about traffic. We all know.
  15. Stop complaining about having to take your shoes off.
  16. Stop complaining that there’s no bacon. There’s bacon. You just gotta work for it.
  17. Stop complaining.
  18. Stop going to Taksim every weekend like you’ll find something new there.
  19. Stop being so freaking loud on public transportation (Americans!).
  20. Stop taking photos of cats. (Who are we kidding, that will never happen.)
  21. Stop putting off finishing that Orhan Pamuk novel you started 6 months ago. (Or better yet, read some lesser known Turkish authors, like Aziz Nesin or Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar.)
  22. Stop side-eyeing the ıslak hamburger and try one already. You can thank us later.
  23. Stop wishing there was sauce on your döner kebab. (Want something saucy? That’s what the ıslak hamburger is for.)

Any other resolutions you’d like to add?

Tas Anjarwalla is a contributor to Yabangee 

A year in small-town Turkey wasn't enough for this South Carolina girl. But after heading stateside, the dreams of buying yogurt by the bucklet-load wouldn't let up, and she found herself living on the breakfast-laden streets of Beşiktaş. A writer, editor and cheese-lover, there's one thing keeping this happy-go-lucky journalist here in the land of İskender kebab and künefe -- Turkish food. Food, food and just maybe the Bosporus too.

14 COMMENTS

  1. Actually, Ioki in Istinye has incredible sushi! But I agree with the lack of good Mexican. Since I’m here let me add one:

    24. Stop expecting your afternoon coffee order of decaf w/skim milk to be processed correctly at Gloria Jean’s Coffees. I will share this thought with a local who recently told me that the orderly at his mom’s old folks home kept mixing up his mom’s medications!

  2. People who travel and have experience living abroad know that not only Americans are loud on the metro in foreign countries.

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