No dissent, please, we're Turkish!

Whoops, don't insult this country! "Almost 50 writers have been brought to trial since May for insulting the nation." - from a BBC article about how dangerous it is to write or speak the truth in Turkey.

Ready to join the EU?! I think not. They need to get their human rights issues solved. See honor killings.

No freedom of speech, please, we're Turkish!

Turkey tightens controls on Internet speech

The link above is just for reference, here's the complete quotation: "For pioneering Turkish blogger Erkan Saka, these are dark days. Last week, he found himself cut off from a group of blogs that he belongs to and from hundreds of other websites he regularly reads.

A Turkish court had just banned Blogger, the popular blog-hosting site owned by Google, because of illegal material found on a few sites on its servers. It was just the latest among hundreds of sites banned by Turkey's courts and government this year, raising concerns about censorship in a country with an already troubling record on freedom of speech."

BTW, I got the picture here.

Hallowe'en Night, Fun-Filled Fright!

Since Hallowe'en is pretty much limited to (widely celebrated in) North America, we obviously weren't at all surprised by the lack of jack-o-lanterns, trick-or-treaters, or bite-sized candy in the stores. But that didn't stop us from hosting a Hallowe'en party for friends and colleagues.

Actually, we jointly hosted it with our friends (and neighbors on the 5th floor) Melissa and Arnaud, who also threw their doors open, so that people could wander back and forth between apartments—to sit and visit with folks, or (in our place) to stand up and dance... whether in John Travolta/disco-style, or doing the limbo (how low can you go?!), or zombie-like fashion.

Most people came in costume, and we were all duly impressed by the vast array and creativity on display: some pirates, a skeleton, a witch, a zombie, an angel, several Madonnas, a dead princess, a Ninja, an iPod, an underwater treasure-seeker, a gangster, a dancing queen, even a Frida Kahlo, you name it—everything, perhaps, except a Sarah Palin, which would have been truly horrific.

Plenty more photos at our photo blog, if you're interested.

And scroll down to the previous post, to check out the jack-o-lantern carving session from the day before.

If we find a dead body, we can kill it!

Turkish pumpkins! Well, watermelons. But they turned out really well, huh? And with candles, they're appropriately red and scary. Happy Hallowe'en!

Istanbul Hallowe'en, Part 1

Well, food coloring apparently doesn't exist in Istanbul (Turkey?). So our cupcakes don't have blue or green eyes, but brown instead. We're getting ready for Hallowe'en, so did these last night...stay tuned!

Animal Collective in Istanbul!

Yeah, we're cool! (And we were the oldest people there, we believe!) Went to see Animal Collective last night, at Babylon in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. There's a dolmuş (public minibus) that goes straight to Taksim Square from near our house, and then straight back afterwards (we caught it coming home at 1:30 a.m.), so although the hours are a bit late for us old people, at least it's easy.

The club is quite small, but is really nice. We've been in a few clubs in Istanbul now, where they take old buildings/warehouses and upgrade them, making 'em very cool & useable.

It was way too loud and we were sorry we'd forgotten to buy earplugs, but it was totally weird and wonderful. Sort of like if the Residents were indie pop?! Or funky, head-bopping avant-garde? Here's an article from the New Yorker about them.

After the show, as we walked back up to Taksim Square to get a dolmuş back home, we were a little surprised at how Istiglal Street was still quite full of pedestrians, and others enjoying a midnight snack or tea in many of the cafes that're still open at that hour. We didn't linger, however, and were glad when we got home and plopped ourselves into bed, about an hour later. Thank god it wasn't a school night!

Dental Hygiene Week in Grade 5

Thought you'd enjoy these clay models of teeth. I like the ones with different colored teeth; I don't know if that means more or less decay!