Turkish macho

I have few stories to share about Turkish boyfriends

One girl came to dancing course to give company to her friend but she did not dance because her boyfriend had prohibited her to dance with other men.

One girl said that she has to lie to her boyfriend what she is doing during the day because she does not want to make her boyfriend jealous.

I was in a bar with friends my back facing a dancing couple. The guy turns on me and says "do not try to hit on my girlfriend". I did not even have eye contact with his girlfriend.

Some boyfriends do not let their girlfriends wear the clothes they want. For example some prohibit their girlfriends to wear a mini skirt.

Style of Turkish men

I have previously written about the style of Spanish men and here I am going to explain the style of Turkish men. Turkish men wear mostly dark classical clothes. I have not seen underwear because of lowered jeans like in Spain. They are not much variation of different styles.  It is very rare to see people dressed in emo, hip hop, hippie or other styles. Only piercing what you can see is earring and nobody has a colored hair. Turkish men wear always wife beater under their shirt. Especially when they wear a nice one colored shirt with collar you can easily see that they have under it a wife beater and in my opinion it does not look nice. Also all men here have much more beard than I have.

Live music

Bar

Turkish like live music. In the most of the bars in the center of Ankara almost every night there is one group performing. Usually these groups play cover songs. Some people also dance in front of the stage. Live music is also a big part of Turkish dinner in a restaurant. In a Turkish dinner group plays with traditional Turkish instruments. There are few traditional instruments with strings and some kind of drum.

Please

In Turkish "please" is "lütfen" but it is not used much. You cannot hear it from Turkish friends or when a customer is asking something from service sector personal. In Spanish "please" is "por favor" and you can hear it used all the time when friends asks you to pass are give something or in supermarket customers always say "please, Can I have a plastic bag". In Finnish we do not have the word "please".

Metro

Metro

When I came from Madrid to Ankara in the city center I felt like Ankara is a smaller city than Madrid but Ankara has two million more habitants than Madrid. Ankara has more than 5 million habitants but only two metro lines. Three new metro lines are under construction at the moment. I was wondering that how people can move in Ankara with only two metro lines in such a big city. Madrid is a big city with 3 million habitants and there is 12 metro lines. I did not have to use metro daily in Madrid and I am not using metro daily in Ankara either.  So I have been able to avoid the public transportation in the rush hours.

Turkish pizza

Lahmacun

Turkish pizza is called lahmacun. In lahmacun dough is like in a Italian pizza. The most common topping is minced meat with some spices without cheese but instead of minced meat you can take cheese. You are also served lettuce and lemon what you can sprinkle on the pizza. To eat lahmacun you make a roll. Lahmacun is not cut to the slices like Italian pizza. Normal price for two lahmacuns and a drink is 2,5 - 3 euros.

Grading

The grading system of Gazi university differs from the Finnish one. All universities in Turkey do not follow the same grading system. From the best grade to the worst grade the grades are AA, BA, BC, CC, DC, DD FD, FF and H. The lowest grade to pass is CC but if you have good grades from the other exams you can also pass with DC. When giving grades professors follow the distribution of Guass. You get CC if you get slightly less than the average. If you fail to pass the exam your option is to take the whole course again in the summer or in the next academic year. I think that the system of examination in Finland is less stressful than in Spain or in Turkey.

Izmir

View from the elevator of  Izmir

Port

Many Turkish people had said to me that Izmir is the most beautiful city of Turkey. Izmir is a big city with 2.5 million habitants. Izmir resembled a lot of Ankara in my opinion but difference was that Izmir is in the seaside. Izmir is much more touristic than Ankara but there are more sightseeing destinations in Ankara than in Izmir. In Izmir there is not a beach near the city center. Turkish friends said that water was not clean enough for swimming even the water looked more pure and transparent than in the beaches of Spain.

Beggars

Poor area of Ankara

I can see some beggars in the streets of Ankara. Here at least half of the beggars are little children who try to sell you napkin package or a plastic rose. You can also see some women holding their child and begging. In Spain I never saw children begging. Some children do not give up easily when they are begging from you.