It's hot

It is unspeakably hot. Our apartment is nicely arranged for handling heat. It extends over the entire top floor of our building (unlike the other 6 in the building, which have only half a floor each). As a result there are windows that open wide on the north, west and south sides (the east side adjoins the building next door). We get cross-drafts whenever there's a breeze, and there's usually a breeze. And our kindly landlords installed a klima, a combination air-conditioner/heater, before we moved in. We pay the electricity, of course, and we have no idea yet what the bills are going to look like. Judging from the amount of energy conservation we see going on - motion-sensitive hall lighting in hotels, lights in apartment stairwells that go out automatically after a suitable time - electricity is probably relatively expensive. Fortunately we seem to need our klima only a few hours a day, from 2 to 5 p.m. or so, when the sun is on the west windows.

We also have two terraces (the rooves of the apartments below us): a west and north-facing one that's very nice in the evenings at this time of year (it's where we eat dinner once the sun goes down), and a south-facing one that would be a good substitute for an oven at this time of year but will probably be nice in the winter. This morning I was feeling very Turkish as I scrubbed the terrace with a bucket of water and a mop. To be truly Turkish I should have used the broom like the other women do - the remarkable Turkish süperge that has no broomstick but is large enough that you don't need to bend over much to use it. Actually I'm much taller than most Turkish women and many Turkish men; they hardly have to stoop at all.

We always seem to end up going out for our exploration/shopping expeditions in the heat of the day, though. We don't really get organized until after noon. "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun" Noel Coward wrote. I wonder which group Canadians fall into....

Turks may be short, but they look remarkably healthy. Our neighbourhood is good solid working-class, and no one you see around on the streets looks overweight (except us). Part of the reason is probably that there's no such thing as a lazy Turk. I've never seen any group of people work harder and longer hours than these people. Stores are open about 7 a.m. and don't close until 8 or 9 p.m. There doesn't seem to be a mid-day siesta like some other places enjoy, either, although the streets are less crowded between 1 and 3 p.m. so they probably get a bit of a break then. If we call for a fresh big jug of water (5 gallons?) any time of day it will arrive within half an hour and be carried for us up the 3 flights of stairs to our apartment - delivered on the back of a moped or bicycle.

Another part of the reason is the diet here. Our lunch today was pide, salad and ayran, a very typical Turkish meal. Ayran is a drink made of yogurt, water or milk and salt. You see kids guzzling it like Canadian kids drink pop. (They like Coke too, but ayran is always a real alternative.) Pide is kinda like pizza only oval-shaped and cheaper. You can have just cheese on it (the white sheep's milk cheese we like so much), or cheese and vegetables, or meat and vegetables, or anything the cook can dream up. I'm quite partial to it myself. It costs 3.50 YTL for the equivalent of a medium pizza.

So the typical Turk seems to eat lots and lots of fresh vegetables, fresh bread, milk products, and olive oil - the Mediterranean diet doctors are always urging us to adopt. They also eat huge amounts of meat, mostly lamb, which is beginning to pall in my opinion at least - I'm finding it too rich and fatty. They eat very well indeed, and it shows in their great teeth and lean, healthy bodies. We hope it's going to rub off on us.

When we first arrived we were disappointed that prices weren't all that much lower than in Canada. In fact food and transportation seemed to cost the same or more. But living in this part of İzmir where the real people live we're finding costs for the basics are not all that bad. They've risen a lot in the last two years, but they're still less than Canadian prices in most cases. Wonderful peaches and pears cost 1 YTL/kilo (a YTL roughly equals a Canadian dollar - I'd say 1 dollar but I can't find a dollar sign on this keyboard). Of course they're only available at this time of year. You get great produce here but only in season, except in the big supermarkets - and then you don't get the quality. Our neighbours are all preparing for winter by drying long strings of red and green peppers on their balconies. I guess we'd better get started doing the same.

On the health front: we're both doing much better. We can manage quite long expeditions into the world without having to find a toilet in a hurry now. But the whole experience is going to produce a reflection on Turkish toilets sometime in the near future.