New Money

On my first trip to Turkey, I became a millionaire in the instant I first changed a few dollars. In 2002 the exchanges rate was about a million to one. Before my next visit in 2004, the government had changed to the New Turkish Lira (Yeni Türk Lirası, YTL) and the millionaire days were gone. This year, trying to sound knowledgeable, I learned to say ‘YTL’ instead of just ‘lira’ and was doing fine until they changed the currency again.

The value stayed the same, but the appearance is quite different and I like it. Unfortunately, there’s the dilemma of what to call it. The old was ‘new’ and the new is now just Turkish Lira, TL, but I still hear ‘YTL’ frequently.

The old ‘new TL’ was the same size for all denominations. They all had the same picture of Ataturk, of course, which I didn’t find attractive. He seemed to glower.
The current currency is quite different: the size increases with increasing value and the color changes as well. Ataturk is on the front, of course, but he’s smiling. Best of all, there are interesting people on the back, not all political.

On the back of the 10 TL is Dr. Cahit Arf, a physicist, along with the mathematical function named for him. On the back of the 50 TL is the female writer Fatma Aliye, who wrote during the War of Independence. There is no 1 TL note. The coins have changed too. The 50 kuruş is particularly nice with the bridge over the Bosporus connecting Europe and Asia.

All in all, I wish the US would take note of the “new” Turkish notes. I understand that we could save millions by not printing ‘ones’ and I’d like to see scientists and writers as well as founding fathers.

The Last Spring

I’ve discovered an interesting thing about autumn here in Ankara. In Turkish, the spring season is called Ilkbahar and autumn is called Sonbahar. Sonbahar literally translates to "last spring" as “son” means “last” and “bahar” itself means “spring” giving them the two seasons: first spring and last spring.




We arrived in Ankara at the end of summer; it was very hot and dry not unlike Atlanta in the drought. Rather than turning browner and drier as I’m accustomed to in the South, Ankara turned green as sonbahar brought some rain and cooler days as well as cooler nights. Suddenly, everything started growing and blooming for a last hurrah before winter. The grass turned green again. Droopy flowers perked up. The rose bushes produce more, not less. It's quite a lovely time and I begin to understand those who consider autumn their favorite season.


The leaves are turning colors and it's definitely getting colder, but somehow it doesn't seem quite as much of an ending as it seems at home. Of course, I don't know yet what we're in for with an Ankara winter. The leaves are falling. There are lots of Sycamores, Chestnuts, and trees I don’t recognize. Yellows and oranges are the predominant colors. Virginia creepers are common and wonderfully red. Perhaps I’ll be more tolerant of that vine/weed when I return.


I’ve even found honeysuckle which doesn’t run amok in the high desert climate. I do miss the best of the southern smells: magnolia, honeysuckle, gardenias, and even the pines. Getting to know the seasons and plants is one my delights in living for an extended period in another country.

Written in sonbahar, posted in kış, awaiting ilkbahar.
All in all, the seasons change in their own ways; we just have to enjoy.

Pansey Diplomacy

One of the first things that struck me about our apartment building was the planter along the sidewalk leading to the door, devoid of plants. With the early rains of Sonbahar, little green things started springing up. I watched closely in hopes of something interesting, but there was nothing but little green weeds. At least the color was better, but I really wanted flowers. It was time for planting pansies in Atlanta and there were flats of them at the flower shops, but the price per flat was just a multiple of the individual price and much too expensive for filling an area of any size.

One early evening as I was coming home, I met a neighbor looking at the front area plantings. He’d lived in the U.S. for three years as a graduate student so has great English. We talked a bit about the dead tree and how it should come out. He explained that a couple of years before, water supplies in Ankara were becoming critical and watering was banned during the really dry weeks. I sympathized after leaving Atlanta in a drought. I couldn’t resist saying how nice it would be to have flowers in the planter and was delighted that he agreed.

It turned out that he is the apartment representative who is responsible for collecting the monthly fees for central heating and arranging for communal repair work. While interested in having flowers, he had no experience in gardening. I do miss puttering in my garden, so volunteered to plant the flowers if the apartment bought the plants. He gave me a tool – a spackling blade, but better than my best tool, a large spoon. The next day, we went in search of plants. He could at least talk to the flower shop owners but couldn’t get a better deal on the pansies which made me feel better. We did, however, learn of real nurseries on the edge of the city by a large cemetery. He has a car, so off we went. At that time, everything was an adventure for me, and he said that he’d never seen plant nurseries. (Lots of education is missed in engineering schools.) I got to see new parts of Ankara.

The nurseries were great - there was a whole street of them. Several flats of pansies, ornamental cabbages, and bags of soil later, I was back digging up the little green weeds. I was disappointed that they didn’t have tulip bulbs. Tulips deserve their own blog post. The digging and planting took several days over the next week. I was delighted when he bought me a real trowel. Perhaps the best part was that I met all of the apartment neighbors. Everyone was interested, some a bit skeptical about whether it was too late for planting, but all seemed to like having flowers.

Neighbors are normally reserved, not really unfriendly. Now they may still think I’m strange, but we greet each other having met over pansies. I got to plant flowers which are hanging in there. I was happy to see the city planting flowers a couple of weeks after me, so was reassured that it wasn’t too late.

All in all, flowers make a great starting point for getting to know neighbors everywhere.