Showing posts with label cultural differences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cultural differences. Show all posts
My Christmas Reward
Christmas abroad in a non-Christian country can be hard. You have to create the spirit of Christmas or it won’t happen at all. You miss family, get no holiday breaks. You don’t know how to teach that the holidays are about being together when your husband doesn’t even get the day off and worry about it coming across as just a massive day of presents. You spend 2 months planning and it’s over in a flash. Then you get handed this (albeit an hour after bed time) and suddenly you feel like you did something right.
Owning a Dryer
You wouldn't think that owning a dryer would be considered a luxury. Most Americans have grown up with one their entire lives and may use a clothes line in the summer months because it dries quickly and conserves energy. But believe it or not, here in Turkey, owning a dryer is extremely uncommon.
I've passed by streets with homes that sell for over 1 million Turkish liras, and they have drying racks full of laundry sitting on their sea view balconies. Despite having a definite rainy season that lasts for about 2-3 months, people in our area by in large resort to hanging laundry out on clothes lines strung from balconies or on portable drying rack carried daily to a sunny room. Imagine doing that for a family of 4 when it sometimes takes 2 days for clothes to fully dry due to wet and humid weather conditions.
Exhausted from this routine, I broke down and purchased a Turkish dryer about 2 years ago, and I was surprised both by how it works and that more people did not own them.
Unlike the dryers we have in the US, Turkish dryers don't have vents and they don't get terribly warm. They have a water tank in them that you have to empty after every cycle (and usually takes 2 1-hour cycles to fully dry 1 load of laundry). It may seem like a lot, but compared to leaving your laundry on a rack for 2 days all winter long, it's a life saver!
Yet despite only costing around 750TL/$150, most people (aside from possibly the extremely wealthy, I'm not sure) don't have them. It may be because of the space or electricity usage. Or maybe the cost? (750tl is about half a month's rent, maybe slightly more, for many people.) Or maybe just old habits just die hard? I haven't quite figured it out.
But in the meantime, I'll be the only mom in the school yard quietly listening to others complain about how hard it is to do laundry this winter, afraid to sound arrogant, snobbish, or affluent if I mention the convenience a dryer could offer. Meanwhile I also secretly wish it would work like standard US dryer - drying faster and requiring less maintenance. It leads to conflicting feelings: I've been told I should be grateful, but it's sometimes difficult to consider a machine that most would consider a necessity as a luxury. I mean it's a DRYER.
I suppose this is one of many examples of lifestyle changes here that I have yet to full come to terms with. More on that will surely come up in later posts, but for now, I'm off to go empty the water tank and start a second load of laundry drying.
I've passed by streets with homes that sell for over 1 million Turkish liras, and they have drying racks full of laundry sitting on their sea view balconies. Despite having a definite rainy season that lasts for about 2-3 months, people in our area by in large resort to hanging laundry out on clothes lines strung from balconies or on portable drying rack carried daily to a sunny room. Imagine doing that for a family of 4 when it sometimes takes 2 days for clothes to fully dry due to wet and humid weather conditions.
Exhausted from this routine, I broke down and purchased a Turkish dryer about 2 years ago, and I was surprised both by how it works and that more people did not own them.
Unlike the dryers we have in the US, Turkish dryers don't have vents and they don't get terribly warm. They have a water tank in them that you have to empty after every cycle (and usually takes 2 1-hour cycles to fully dry 1 load of laundry). It may seem like a lot, but compared to leaving your laundry on a rack for 2 days all winter long, it's a life saver!
Yet despite only costing around 750TL/$150, most people (aside from possibly the extremely wealthy, I'm not sure) don't have them. It may be because of the space or electricity usage. Or maybe the cost? (750tl is about half a month's rent, maybe slightly more, for many people.) Or maybe just old habits just die hard? I haven't quite figured it out.
But in the meantime, I'll be the only mom in the school yard quietly listening to others complain about how hard it is to do laundry this winter, afraid to sound arrogant, snobbish, or affluent if I mention the convenience a dryer could offer. Meanwhile I also secretly wish it would work like standard US dryer - drying faster and requiring less maintenance. It leads to conflicting feelings: I've been told I should be grateful, but it's sometimes difficult to consider a machine that most would consider a necessity as a luxury. I mean it's a DRYER.
I suppose this is one of many examples of lifestyle changes here that I have yet to full come to terms with. More on that will surely come up in later posts, but for now, I'm off to go empty the water tank and start a second load of laundry drying.
Donkeys and Plastic Bags
Starting January 1, Turkey enacted a law (originally announced a few months prior) stating shops must charge 0,25tl (currently a little less than $0.05) plastic bags, and general public is completely outraged.
To be fair, it probably FEELS more like $0.15-.20. For comparison, 0,25tl is about 1/4 the cost of a small bottle of water. But you only pay if you don't bring your own reusable bags.
I feel bad for the cashiers at grocery stores who have been so apprehensive when telling people bags are no longer free. I’ve seen so many people shout at checkout counter, as if the cashier personally chose to charge them. I saw one woman bring in handfuls of department store bags and leave them at the register intentionally making a scene until the cashier handed them back to her. Headline news featured a photo/video from another province where an older couple brought a donkey into a grocery store to load up their wares. There’s was another one of a shopper walking down the grocery store aisles with wheelbarrow.
I personally don’t understand it. I mean, I do understand why people are upset, but I don’t understand their unwillingness to adapt or change. Turkey has a MASSIVE problem with pollution. The sea and shorelines are awash with trash, the parks are littered with plastic bags and bottles. And while I do feel for those impoverished people to whom 0,25tl is a lot (especially if you start multiplying that times the bags you need), there are still ample alternatives. Resusable plastic and cloth bags can be purchases for less than $1, and one neighborhood in our city even gave away several thousand resuable bags by offering one in exchange 5 plastic bottles in exchange.
Most people would hail such efforts to reduce waste and plastic consumption. I think it just goes to show that environmental mindsets are difficult to foster in developing countries where the economy, poverty, and wealth gaps are substantially larger problems for the every day life of an average person.
To be fair, it probably FEELS more like $0.15-.20. For comparison, 0,25tl is about 1/4 the cost of a small bottle of water. But you only pay if you don't bring your own reusable bags.
I feel bad for the cashiers at grocery stores who have been so apprehensive when telling people bags are no longer free. I’ve seen so many people shout at checkout counter, as if the cashier personally chose to charge them. I saw one woman bring in handfuls of department store bags and leave them at the register intentionally making a scene until the cashier handed them back to her. Headline news featured a photo/video from another province where an older couple brought a donkey into a grocery store to load up their wares. There’s was another one of a shopper walking down the grocery store aisles with wheelbarrow.
I personally don’t understand it. I mean, I do understand why people are upset, but I don’t understand their unwillingness to adapt or change. Turkey has a MASSIVE problem with pollution. The sea and shorelines are awash with trash, the parks are littered with plastic bags and bottles. And while I do feel for those impoverished people to whom 0,25tl is a lot (especially if you start multiplying that times the bags you need), there are still ample alternatives. Resusable plastic and cloth bags can be purchases for less than $1, and one neighborhood in our city even gave away several thousand resuable bags by offering one in exchange 5 plastic bottles in exchange.
Most people would hail such efforts to reduce waste and plastic consumption. I think it just goes to show that environmental mindsets are difficult to foster in developing countries where the economy, poverty, and wealth gaps are substantially larger problems for the every day life of an average person.
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