Chris Minich--Reflections on the Flight to Ankara

We are beginning our descent on the flight from Munich to Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It is disorienting to think that it is 1:30 AM in Lancaster, but 7:30 AM in Munich, and even later in Ankara. On the flight I read Stephen Kinser's book Crescent and Star, which is a journalist's look at the modern political and cultural identity of modern Turkey. I enjoyed his sections discussing Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, because ealier in the year I read Snow, a novel by Pamuk. It gave Kinser's book more credibility in my eyes, since his picture of Turkish identity mached Pamuk's--and Pamuk is a Turkish citizen who has lived at breather Turkey for much of his life.

I was intrigued by Kinser's descriptions of the Nargile (hookah) bars and the Meyanne (traditional Turkish meal served with raki, the Turkish drink of choice). These passages were some of Kinser's most insightful and show authentic Turkish experiences as they are. They were experiences that Kinser himself partook in, so they changed his view from an outsider looking in to a man who has seen it from the inside.

when the stewardess rolled her cart of drinks by, I asked for a "kafe, bitte."

A humorous story about the flights themselves illustrates the language barrier. So all the staff on the flight were German, and I had a semester of German ın college, so I figured I was basically a pro at the language. I worked up my courage and, when the stewardess rolled her cart of drinks by, asked for a "kafe, bitte."

I felt amazing.

Until she asked me a question in German. I smiled a bit confusedly at her and said "hm?" Then she smiled and asked, "wıth sugar or black?" That language barrier has consistently come up, but that was an example of it rearıng its humorously ugly head.

The meal at Ankara was nothing short of incredible. I became aware of two things that came up throughout the trip that night. The first is that Turkish dining is typically far superior to their American equivalent. It's not that the food is so much better, although much of it is very good, but the service is head and shoulders above American service. At many American restaurants, the waitstaff consists of individuals who are waiting for a better job, who desire to move on, who want to get out of the job, and their faces often betray them. This is not to mention the myriad of college and high school students who simply don't care. In Turkey, the vast majority of the waitstaff are adults, and they bend over backwards to ensure that their customers have had a great meal. On this occsasion, the waiters brought out pita loaf after piping hot pita loaf, piling them on top of each other if we did not eat the other in time. When one of our people spilled a drink, they swooped in to the rescue by placing another table cloth over the spill, so as not to obstruct our meal.

The second thing I learned was the truth behind the stereotype that Americans are loud, annoying, and selfish. Most of the people on our trip did not attempt to be loud--myself included--but we would be walking down the street and something would strike us as funny. Then we have to tell our friends, who will then laugh so loud that they can hear us back in Kansas. I say this not to condemn specific individuals on the trip. I did the same thing, and then slowly realized it and tried not to. Self-restraint is not exactly in most Americans' vocabulary of actions.