My first view of Istanbul - a personal introduction

I can tell the story of how I came to this city in my sleep. As it is one of the first things people ask, it was the first story I was able to communicate somewhat comfortably, although never flawlessly, in Turkish. İlk önce öğrenci olarak geldim, Şubat 2006′nda. Ondan sonra…

I first came to Istanbul on an exchange program to Bogazici University for the last semester of my undergraduate education.

Perhaps it was the city, perhaps it was the quarter-life crisis, but after graduation, I stayed around; a few apartments, a few jobs, a few social circles later, I still call Istanbul home. It is a common story, I hear, among those who move to Istanbul from other countries and cities and cultures. Something about the city. Or perhaps something about those who come to it.

And yet at the same time I still feel totally new to this space - far from fluent in navigating its backstreets and customs, somehow always off-beat in its daily routes and routines, living in a haze of partial understanding of all that goes on around me. Many times I blend in with ease, but when I do not, I am often granted generous pardons, as those given to children who don’t know any better.

So I ask you to read this not as a definitive city guide but instead as a project in progress. If one could momentarily humor my desire for rhyme - inspirations, representations, and contemplations of the city.