It was a few Sundays ago now but it was an interesting day to say the least.To kick off the second half of the season we kicked some serious ass in our game. We started off 23-1 i think and although we let them back in for awhile, secured a much needed win on our home court. Our fans were going crazy and despite the fact that they arent so numerous, they can scream pretty loud. All our junior teams come and there are about 50 young girls cheering along with a few boys teams and the other random people associated with our club somehow. The little boys were chanting outside our locker room after the game. So cute.
Anyway after a nice afternoon with my parents enjoying the sweet taste of victory, I decided to meet out with all the other Americans in the hippest part of Istanbul,which is now ten minutes from my new fabulous apartment. (Which by the way is located in a neighborhood named 'Horhor'. I can just hear my college friends now and the ridiculous jokes that they will come up with.) I didnt actually take a taxi until about midnight and by the time I found them they were drunk and rapping on the median of the busy street in Taksim. From there it was time to find the gay bars so we started walking with half a clue where we were going. In the meantime, a Turkish guy starts coming up and talking to me about money. I don't speak a whole lot of Turkish but i was pretty sure he was asking for money so I tried to tell him no and when that didnt work I tried to just ignore him. Finally it was time to be mean. He followed us down the street, over to the next one, and back up the same one we started on...... like i said we didnt really know where we were going but the girls were insistent on finding this gay bar. It was a Sunday night so the streets werent busy and many things were closed so we were just wandering around aimlessly.
The Turkish guy was still following us despite the fact that every single 6'2'' girl in our group had gone up to him yelling and telling him to go away. Nothing gets to this guy and then he even started talking about a hotel to which i realize that the money talk earlier was him most likely asking me how much i cost. Sweet. I tried to tell him in broken Turkish that I wasnt a prostitute....one Turkish word I have learned. At one point as we are walking down the street i feel an arm through mine and figured it was my friend. no it was the weird guy. Finally one of the players started hugging me and telling the guy that we are together. Literally i had like eight women around me pushing the guy and telling him to leave me alone. He was just standing there like a dumbass. I mean how much embarassment can one person take. The only reason we lost him is because we went into a gay bar called 'the other side'.
Inside 'the other side' we found boys and more boys. Most of the girls in our group were not too happy that there were no ladies in the joint but me and my teammates could care less and began singing karaoke and dancing with every gay guy there. Marita was up on the bench dancing and Meek and I were dancing with the MC who insisted on taking his shirt off. Gay bars are gay bars anywhere in the world i guess. We didnt stay long though because the place was small and it was Sunday night so it wasnt that much fun. So we hit the streets again in search of something happening but all we found were kebap stands and ended up talking in the square and then going home.
I took a taxi home and got dropped off on the main street. As I made my way down the hill i felt much better when I saw four police men having a picnic on the front of their patrol car. The waved me over and began offering me everything available. A buffet of kebap and rice, yogurt and flat bread was spread out on the vehicle and they kept trying to serve me coke to which I declined, trying in my broken Turkish to explain that I can't have caffeine at night (a concept Turkish people,who drink tea at all hours, cannot comprehend.... it always feels like I am giving them a personal insult but a girls got to sleep). As I am declining coke and accepting water from the supplies in the car, another officer is using his fork to force feed me kebap, which was excellent by the way. The guys speak no English but they did invite me to join them every Wednesday night as they eat at 2 in the morning. It was late, I was freezing, and I had exhausted my knowledge of Turkish small talk so despite one of them offering me his coat, I said goodnight. They were so sweet.
So I made my way up the hill waving to my new friends to my apartment building half a block away. As I was bending down to unlock my door, another patrol car approached with some young guys hanging out waving. The car stops and the driver runs out. Great, I am thinking, another Turkish guy who is going to try to flirt with me. Instead he asks for my passport. I don't generally bring my passport when I go to the clubs so I showed him my drivers license and told him my passport was in my house.... the house that I am half in at the moment. He speaks zero English by the way which is not making the situation super fun. So he insists that I get my passport and starts following me in the building.
As we are climbing the stairs he puts his hand on my belt. Half his hand was below the belt, half his hand was above. I knocked his hand away and asked him what the f he was doing. When i go to the security door I tried to explain to him that my mom and dad were upstairs asleep and really didnt want to wake them to find my freaking passport. Then I told him I didnt have my passport at all and then he wanted to take me into the station. I am feeling super uncomfortable at this point because I dont know what my rights are. I really just wanted to jump behind the security gate and run to my apartment. Then I thought of calling my manager. As I am thinking of how to deal with this asshole he puts his hand on mine and I flip out. I look at him and tell him not to put his fucking hands on me and take off down the stairs and out the building. I am screaming and hollering down the street at two in the morning as my police men friends with the buffet are looking on. I am screaming that this guy is crazy and trying to show the nice police officers that this little shit tried to touch me. Not one person speaks a word of English but anger is pretty clear without words and everyone can tell that I am not happy. They were probably a little scared but it worked. The young officer got in his car and drove down the hill and pulled up next to the picnic. They start talking to each other... no doubt asking what he did to piss this crazy woman off. Finally the older guy motioned with his head for the car to get the hell out of here....probably figuring it just isnt worth it. I'm pretty sure they had no idea what I might do next. So I looked at the little shit driving and started telling him to go....go....go. He was super mad having some woman yelling at him I am sure but he drove off while I ate more kebap with the nice police officers. They were so sweet and tried to calm me down. Soon I went into my apartment, this time without getting molested but I was so mad I could hardly sleep.
I live in a neighborhood that has a lot of undocumented workers I guess so the police patrol and stop people. I dont look like an undocumented worker though and when I am opening my front door I generally want to be left alone. I told my teammate and she said the officer was probably hoping i didnt have papers so he could blackmail me into sleeping with him. Gross. For all I know he probably thought i was a prostitute too. I get asked if I am Russian alot and I never know if that is code for 'you look like a hooker' because all I hear about is how Russian women are beautiful and 'made for sex'. Literally that is what they say. There are apparently a lot of Russian prostitutes here.
Two nights later I got stopped again and I am not sure if it was the young officer sending his friends but they were much nicer. I took a taxi to my front door this time, uninterested in getting pulled over walking. I had just gone out with some American mens players who are black and listened to them complain about the cops here. They were trying to figure out how to get home and hoping they could time the stop lights so they didnt stop because the police would pull them over for being black.The week before they had spent seven hours in the police station because they got in an argument with a taxi driver who eventually fabricated a story about them urinating on a Turkish flag. They never got charged with anything but were detained all night. Its so frustrating not knowing your rights or speaking the language.
Turkey is not generally a scary place and I don't get the oppressive government feel that probably exists a little East of here but it is different, I am just unclear as to how much different. They dont have Freedom of Speech for instance. Try saying something about the Armenian Genocide and see where it gets you. Anyway, its the kind of place that probably wouldnt look too kindly on an American woman kicking a passport policeman in the nuts, despite his attempted fondling.
Anyway as my taxi is pulling up to my front door a police van pulls up along side us and, as I am rummaging around for money, our car gets surrounded by officers. They start talking to the driver and then ask me to get out. I am like 'here we go again'. One of the officers takes my arm to lead me to the van and I pull my arm away. He wasnt being inappropriate but my radar was up and I dont trust police officers here like I did two days prior. But these guys were nice and the driver spoke English. He looked at my ID and that was it. I got into my house faster than ever.
Guess there are good cops and bad cops everywhere....even in Horhor.
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