Most definitely there are a number of things that can drive me nuts about this culture--the way guys feel free to stare openly or how easy it is to be cheated here for example--but thankfully there are pluses.
I love how helpful people are here. Yesterday I was in a little bookshop picking up some paper and I wanted to find a show repair place. I asked the shopkeeper if she knew of one nearby. The only one she could think of was a fair bit of a walk. There was also an older gentlemen in the shop at the time and he joined in, the one he suggested was also a fair bit of a walk but in the same direction I was heading anyways to pay a bill so I listened to his directions carefully and off I went. 15-20 min later after I turned onto the street I understood I was to turn onto, I came up to a 3 pronged fork in the road. Just as I was standing there deciding which prong to try first because I couldn't find the landmark the guy had told me, up pulls this same older gentlemen on his moped, he pointed me down the right street then turned and drove off.
A friend and I were off to visit one of the museums here and looked up bus directions on the internet. We had to transfer to another bus at a stop we'd never been to so when we got on the first bus we asked the driver to let us know when we arrived at the stop. He then asked where we were headed and we told him the name of the museum. He shook his head and said that if we went that way we'd have to walk aways and then informed us that he knew a better route. He took us all the way to the last stop on his route, got off the bus with us, waited with us until the bus that would 'take us right to the front doors of the museum' passed, he flagged it down for us and then told the driver to make sure he let us off at the right place.
Another day a number of weeks ago I had stopped a woman to make sure I was heading in the right direction to get to this major roadway. She said that I was and then offered to escort me the whole way and also help me get on the right dolmush as she was just out for an evening stroll anyways.
I was out for a run the other evening when a medic on a motorcycle passed (I know, odd, but they've got them here). Generally I'm bright red when I do any exercise and just as he was passing I was stopping to walk for a bit. I watched as he pulled up on the side of the road quite aways up and watched through his rear view mirror. As soon as I started running again he pulled off once more. Not too many women exercise here like that, definitely not to the point that they are sweaty and worn out, I'm sure he thought I would pass out right then and there! I thought it thoughtful to wait and make sure I was alright!
The helpfulness if possibly in part because I'm a foreigner but I know Turks who have the same experiences. One friend from Adana expressed that one of the major culture shocks she experienced when she went to live in England for a while was how unhelpful people were when she needed to get somewhere!
Hospitality and helpfulness, I appreciate these.
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