My friend Heather has a brother, Michael, and he lives in Istanbul with his wife. He has been there for 7 years. What began as a study abroad has ended in an entire immersion in another culture and a life Michael truly enjoys. He was very helpful as my tour guide during my trip, and he took this job very, very seriously. Michael is a Musician, so he took me on an errand while we were in part of the city, he needed a skin for his drum.
Walking the streets in this particular part of town there were a lot of music shops. Istanbul is full of strange, amazing instruments, many of which I had never seen. Michael was an amazing resource in knowing the names of them and I learned so much from him. I am not a musical person. I love music, but I cannot sing or play any instruments. My disability in this area does not hinder my lust for knowledge of it and wandered up to so many windows saying "What is this?" in the way a child does. Michael knew them all.
We walked into one shop, I went in to buy guitar picks for my boyfriend, and saw all these amazing instruments hung from the ceiling. The guy behind the counter was playing a Saz and started singing as well. After he finished, we chatted for a bit, but his English wasn't great so he and Michael chatted a bit more in limited Turkish. Every instrument I pointed at he would pick up, tune, then play. It was extraordinary. He and Michael also had an impromptu jam session. It was truly . I could've spontaneous and I could've stayed there for hours, but we were on our way to the tower.
I feel like Turkey was full of interesting, wonderful people and this was not an isolated incident. It was just amazing that we had a common language to communicate in, music.
Here's a video:
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