Notes on the life of late

I've been living in Turkey for over two months now, and here are a few things I've observed about the culture:

They drink Çay (tea; pronounced chai) any time, any where, any place.  You can be in the midst of serious bargaining with a vendor at a market and he's drinking his Çay.  A store selling electronics will have some seats out front for you to order Çay (practically any place will sell you Çay).  On board the ferries, men go around selling Çay to the passengers no matter what weather.

People who want to sell something, sell it, plain and simple.  No real apparent law regulating where they can sell, so you see people walking the streets selling things, people setting up shop on blankets on the ground, little flea markets popping up everywhere, new (often fake) and used products for sale all over.  And often the same products are sold in certain areas, so if you want electronics, go here, for wedding dresses go here.  

There is a level of trust and respect out there, as seen with vendors covering up their wears with blankets when they go on a break.  So all their product is still out there, just under wraps and no one messes with them.

Street signs are difficult to find in Istanbul, and with such a large, sprawling city, people are lost all the time, not knowing where to go.  This includes taxi drivers.  I've been asked by several how to get to a location.  One friend had us call her several times along the way for further directions as she thought in terms of how you walk, not what street you take.  And then she didn't know her exact apartment number (true story) and was sitting out the window on the 4th floor waiting for us to show up.

Random carnival games on the streets:  the line of balloons strung up on a string for you to shoot down right along the waterfront (apparently you pay 1 lira ($.50) and if you hit 5 balloons, you get a cigarette (not a good deal for 1 lira).  Or the fortune game involving a live rabbit: give the man 1 lira, and the rabbit chooses a fortune to nibble on and that's the one you get.  So don't be surprised to be walking down a street and see a rabbit on a small table amidst hundreds of people.  Just normal day life.