Taxi Talk, Small World

Although we can’t really take taxis all the time, as we did in Abu Dhabi (where they’re dirt cheap), we have had to use them occasionally here in Istanbul, especially when loaded down with shopping from Carrefour or other big stores. Of course, our Turkish is still close to non-existent, so there’s usually not a whole lotta conversation going on—at least not that’s mutually comprehensible!

But our little foray to IKEA today, along with some of our new colleagues, ended with a somewhat amusing exchange between our taxi driver and Alex, a really nice Dutch woman who teaches visual arts at our school. Amusing because after about 10 minutes they both realized that they were able to speak to each other pretty effectively—not in Turkish, or English, but in Dutch. This was due to his living in The Hague for three years. And it turns out that Alex is actually from The Hague, so we all had a good laugh about the coincidence and the world that seems to be getting smaller and smaller every year… at least that’s what we thought we were all laughing about!

One of the perks about living overseas, with a new language and culture to manage, is that sometimes we don’t really know what the hell is going on—at least not all the time, anyway, and so we’re released from any major obligation or worry. There’s kind of a weird little comfort in that, knowing that we’re often out of it, but still able to enjoy the ride.