It's taken living in Turkey to break me of my eco-unfriendly habit of getting receipts from the ATM. Since the lira figures on the receipts don't match up with the dollar amounts coming out of my U.S. account, there doesn't seem much point. But even if I hadn't already made the switch, the supremely awesome guilt trip laid down by local bank Yapi Kredi would have done the trick: When the ATM asks whether you want a receipt or not, the "yes" and "no" options are accompanied by cartoon images of, respectively, a lush little forest and a pile of tree stumps. Subtle!
In other news, making photocopies is apparently haram (forbidden) on Sundays.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Getting the picture
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4 comments:
hello, I stumbled across your blog from another blog about Turkey. I live in SF and my husband is from Istanbul. I am curious where you were told that making a photocopy on a Sunday is forbidden? He said he has never heard of this before.
Sorry about any confusion, it was just a dumb joke! I thought it was funny that I couldn't find a single photocopy place open on Sunday, though all the Internet cafes and seemingly similar businesses were open. Hope that didn't cause any offense. Always nice to hear from folks with SF and Istanbul connections.
You know after I wrote that I thought perhaps you were being sarcastic! haha. I should have picked up on that better. I guess we are just so used to people in the US making so many incorrect assumptions about the culture and the city that I missed the humor :) The one thing I did pick up about Turkey though was that anything is for sale, so if any business you went into had a copier I bet you could have convinced them to let you use it for a fee, or else there is that amazing hospitality of theirs and I bet some would just let you do it to be neighborly.
I hope you write more, I love reading your blog and hearing about your impressions of Turkey from the point of view of someone from the US. You also sound somewhat liberal as I am so that is nice too. Your photos are amazing as well.
Ha, well, I'm sure I have plenty of incorrect assumptions still to overcome... You're totally right about the hospitality and the 'anything's possible' attitude--two of the things I enjoy here.
I'm glad you like the blog, and the photos. Definitely liberal, and will be staying up all night on Tuesday with fingers crossed for a better America!
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