i want to tell you about a very short conversation, which is confusing me. its a story about turkish language, so İ will see, wether İ can explain to those, who don`t understand any turkish.

the setting: /me working, quite stressed and tired late in the night people got quite drunk and so its harder to work, anyway.

customer: kardeş, bira getirebilir misin bana?!

/me - oops, now they start to insult me? - tamam abla, the sound was as angry, as İ intended.

explanation: kardeş means something like little brother/sister, is showing disrespect, abla/abi means older sister/brother and is used normally to call someone with some respect.

ok, İ brought her drink, still angry and as İ gave the change İ refused the tip, İ think, the first time ever - i start to get integrated in turkish society, the cocepts of pride and honuer. then İ directly asked, why she used kardeş, to call me. what she said, was surprising me: she wanted to call me without using a word which defines a gender as she sees my appearence questioning gender, she said. and sure, kardeş has no gender, while abi/abla has.

so, thats confusing. on the one hand, she didn`t have to use all this family structure/social order stuff at all. on the other hand, İ was using the gender stuff in my reaction, which is not cool. İ could call her abi, which is quite normal, as you can say guys to both, men and women in english. but this wouldn`t have shown my anger ….

ya, two or three words and so much kompleks …

did you recognize: marlboro is causing serious damage to your haelth of you and those around you, the others not. OK, those sold tax free and illegal don`t have to care about that. But Samsun isn`t warning as well - despite a little hint at the side of the box: sağlığa zararlıdır, something like not healthy - thats enough for turkish cigarettes. smoking foreign stuff kills, is causing slow and painful death, is making impotent and so on.

İ wonder, maybe there is no law to force marlboro and Lucky Strike or what ever to print this ugly stuff, they just do, because it`s emphasizing there western style, as a part of their marketing concept. İ have to do resaerch on this.

finally my recommandation for cigarettes in turkey:

price: 2.25 YTL. Don`t buy the slightly cheaper normal Samsun. Samsun 216 where produced only for export in former times, now they are the standard cigarettes of the turkish foemer monopol company “tekel” which are also offering quite good beer, vodka - drinkable, and evrything else connected to legal drugs.

just before İ leave to ankara these pics:

find the differences ….

>>thnx to bengue for helpeng me to smoke this stuff.

cigarettes are the most important to show your social status. İf you can offer somebody a marlboro 100`s, you are someone. İn turkey there is a wide range of cigarettes. the cheapest are 1 ytl, the most expensive about 5 ytl. to write about the expensive is boring, but İ will present you some of the cheap, starting with: Superkings.

İ`m not so sure, but someone said me, they are an copy of a british brand. İ get them in my bakkal, the shop next corner, which is open 24 hours. they don`t have any tax sign. And they are ok, quite strong, but İ don`t smoke to live healthy anyway.

to all those, who are speaking about their addictin to the www: İ have to state, that İ like to hang around in the www from time to time. yesterday İ was working in a bar until 4:30 and İ will do today as well. so anyway, there`s even not much, İ can do in daytime. but even if there are only intersting and important things to do and discover in “real life”, İ need my time to sit and surf. and İ don`t think there is anything bad about that.

İ have to say it: There is no use to buy the cheapest coffee you can find.
Coffee is one of the most important things in my life, maybe more important than cigarettes. So there`s a problem here in turkey. You can find the really tasty türk kahvesi, but it`s served in really small cups, so İ would have to drink at least ten of them, to start my day. Or you can drink Nescafe, İ think İ don`t have to say something about that.
But at home, İ`m happy using türk kahvesi in an esspresso can, the one you can put on the oven and the heated water is pressed from down up. My can is producing about 1 1/2 big cups. And it`s the best coffee İ have ever drunk.
But only if you use “mehmet efendi”. İt`s between 1,30 and 1,50 YTL per 100g depending, where you buy it. There are two discount brands, İ tested yet, one of DiaSA - 100g for 0,69 YTL - and one of BİM - 250g for 1,49 YTL. But they`re disappointing. So if you wan`t to visit me, bringing coffee is not a bad idea, but …
İ just wanted to warn you.

ps: panic: now my gas is finished and şeker bayram is starting, three days holiday after ramazan, maybe the only days, where İ can`t get gas in the year - İ have to be fast now …

pps: ok, İ got it. let`s drink another coffee after this shock. - argh, the BİM one …