To sophomores: If it's remotely possible, study abroad. I'm sure I'll say this again in some cheesy end-of-the-semester column, but if you don't do it, you'll always regret it. If you do study abroad, and if you - like I and many students - do so in Europe, here's one other tip: at least once, get out of Europe. I went to Istanbul this weekend, and it was the best four days of my life.
On our first morning in the country, I woke up at five o'clock-something upon hearing the call to prayer. Fuzzy-brained and sandy-eyed, I first heard the call from the mosque across the street. It is broadcast from a loudspeaker at the top of a minaret.
If I had any notion of falling back to sleep, it was dispelled a second or two later when that call to prayer was answered by another call to prayer from the famous Blue Mosque across the square, which was answered by a third call to prayer from a few blocks further on. To a non-Muslim who doesn't speak the language, the call, which is chanted in a man's voice, sounds rather atonal and non-descript at first.
After a few seconds, though, the various calls blend together to form a beautiful symphony. And there's no shortage of mosques: Istanbul has four times as many as Iran. (Remember that the word 'secular' refers to the country's government, not its society.) Over the next few days, every time I heard the prayer calls, whether on the street or in my bed, I paused to listen.
This was my first experience with Islam, and it shattered my expectations. I try to be open-minded, but I have to admit, I realized when I got there how messed up my thinking had become. For instance: I, my two friends and my brother were walking around the palace grounds one afternoon. It's a beautiful area, and it was nice out, so there were tons of couples sitting on benches, sort of just cuddling. Most of the women were veiled.
I leaned over to my friend Ash, a fellow Jumbo from Hong Kong, and said, "Not to comment on a topic about which I know nothing, but don't you find it hypocritical that these women are making out in public while wearing veils to show their 'modesty'?"
Ash is very wise, and he took a moment before answering my ridiculously stupid comment. "Not really. I mean, they're not really making out, they're just snuggling," he said.
And there you have it: My newest answer to world peace is, "Everyone likes a good snuggle." The veils are an integral part of who the women are, but they didn't change anything about the women. They're veiled. And they like to snuggle. They're both. I was stupid enough to think that being both is "hypocrisy."
Another cool moment: The four of us were smoking hookah with a couple of Turkish guys. Despite the language barrier, we were doing well with sign language, and Ash was showing our new friend Ya-ya our digital pictures. All of a sudden, Ya-ya grabbed the camera, put it in front of his face and started to pray with his eyes closed for several seconds. He had seen a picture Ash had taken of the tombs of several sultans. Besides my introduction to Islam, there were other things I wanted to write about Istanbul: The food was the best I've ever had. I realized in Istanbul that every other food I've eaten appeals to my stomach, whereas Turkish food appealed to my tongue, and each of its little taste buds. Windows with roasting lamb and simmering spices lined every street, tempting you to partake.
Then there were the Turkish baths. In an experience that was at once harrowing and exhilarating, I got shuffled around, assembly-line style. You sit on hot marble slabs that are supposedly hundreds of years old, drenching yourself with cold water to keep from passing out. Then a Turkish man rips all your joints out of their sockets, giving you a "massage." The experience is billed as relaxing. It was so relaxing that one of the "masseuses" nearly re-tore my brother's ACL, but still, an awesome time.
Or there was the Hagia Sophia. Built in the sixth century as the heart of the Byzantine Empire, it changed Christian and Western architecture forever. In the 15th century, it was converted into a mosque. And finally, in the early 1900s, it was made into a museum. The architecture defies words, and it contained one of the most jaw-dropping juxtapositions I have ever seen: a massive black disc with "Allah" written in golden Arabic lettering hanging 20 feet over an 800-year-old mosaic of Jesus Christ.
Or there was drinking sweet black tea over the Bosporus Straits, looking out over Asia and Europe. Or there was walking through the Yerebatan Sarayi, a 1500-year-old underground cistern that makes you feel like Indiana Jones and Aladdin all at once.
In the last four months, I've been to Alaska, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Krakow, Interlaken, Munich, Prague, Salzburg, Venice, Verona and Vienna. None compare to Istanbul, and for juniors lucky enough to be in Europe next semester, you should try to get there.
Europe's great, but studying abroad is supposed to be about opening your mind to new experiences, and for an American, nothing could be as new as Istanbul.
