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Eileen Fisher
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Istanbul, OT (Turkey)

My Reflections of the Istanbul Trip

by Eileen Fisher
August 11, 2003
Istanbul, OT (Turkey)

My Reflections of the Istanbul Trip

By Eileen Fisher
August 11, 2003


First I would like to say that my experience on this trip was one of wonderment. What a beautiful country with so much to see and do. Don't take my word for it, see for yourself!!

Please note that the we in these little funnies are Jodi Waldron and Eileen Fisher.

Istanbul funnies:

We arrived in Istanbul all excited to meet new friends and see new places. As we were introduced we found it difficult to remember their names so we came up with nicknames. Examples: A dancer is wearing a flowered shirt and asks us to dance; now he becomes Flower Shirt. Other examples are Mr. And Mrs. Glasses, The Ponytail (only to realize they all had them), Little Cuties, Too Tall, 74, 75. Not only did this make life easier for us, we had a good time with it.

74 and 75 - How they came to have these names is that Jak told 74 that there were 73 dance instructors in NYC. When 74 told me this I told him he (big cutie) and little cutie should come to NYC and be 74 and 75. 75 was so impressed with the possibility of coming to NYC that he told me he wanted to be 100 and not 75. When I asked him why 100, he said that 100 is the best. You see, in his mind he is thinking that 100 is best but we know that 1 is best.

Language Goofs:

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A menu in a restaurant meant to say Red Snapper and instead wrote "Black Sniper."

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We were taught that when someone comes up to us in the street begging or trying to sell us something we aren't interested in we could do the following: make a tick sound and then tilt our head and say yok. Sounds crazy but it worked. So don't wave your hand, or say no thanks just follow the above.

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Carpet Negotiations:

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Our tour guide took us to see how the most beautiful carpets are hand woven. It was just a demonstration for us as we were told this place was too expensive and that we would be taken somewhere else to buy if we were interested. I kept admiring one carpet in particular and then I found myself surrounded by these guys giving me prices and each time I said I wasn't interested they came down another $100. What started out to be $1,200 ended up to be $700 on my way out of the store.

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Dancing at Milongas:

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This was such a wonderful experience for us because we were so excited to be able to dance with the local dancers. Their style is real milongero style (close embrace) and full of feeling and musicality. We could not get enough. The best part is I danced with a couple of men that seemed to enjoy the feeling of the dance with me and they danced with me for hours at a time. The only conversation after about 1.5 hours was "What is you name?"

Photos courtesy of Eileen Fisher


Tango Trip to Istanbul

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