Hello friends and family,
As most of you know (definitely know…) two and a half years
ago, my life changed permanently. I embarked on a unique journey into a world
completely contrary to my own. My first time traveling abroad by myself, I had
one heck of a transformative experience. I saw beautiful sites, began learning
a new language, encountered some serious challenges and tests, and acquainted
myself with new people and knowledge. My semester in Istanbul bestowed upon me
all kinds of blessings that couldn’t easily be forgotten or released. Given my
interest in history and passion for sharing what I know and learn, I started
this blog to show people what I was doing, but more importantly to spread
awareness about the fascinating, multi-layered history of the place I was
standing for my 5 month semester. As travel, exams and other forces put
themselves in the way, I only ran this blog for a few posts. However, my life’s
journey has allowed me to remain in this wonderful capital of the world, and
due to many new circumstances, I have decided to revive this blog as a means of
sharing my never-ending obsession with history once more, as well as to share
with the world again what has happened and continues happening in this city and
country, a place on the globe that has maintained importance to this very
moment.
Despite numerous occurrences
and alterations to the country since I started this blog, I feel a kind of duty
to share the sites and stories this country has offered human civilization, as
a resident of this country and a lover of history.
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| Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul |
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| With family at the Hagia Sophia |
Firstly, I’d like to share a little about what I’ve done and where I am. In the second half of my semester two years ago, I went on
numerous trips to many countries, hitting places like Israel, Germany, Serbia, among others. I was very privileged and thankful to have
these astonishing experiences easily available to me. I attempted to find as many
historical treasures as possible; it was such a pleasure to finally see these
things with my own eyes. I went to places that prevalent historical figures I
studied since grammar school had seen, from Alexander the Great and Julius
Caesar to Abraham and Jesus Christ. As a history major, it gave me such purpose
to make common ground with wonderful historical figures, and to finally walk
where they walked and smell what they smelled. I still hold this desire and
fire when I travel and continue to live in a place full of secrets and stories. Additionally, I became incredibly interested in Turkish and Ottoman history, with specific fascination with the Ottoman Empire's first 250 years, and with the formation of the Turkish Republic. I've also grown interested in Biblical history, as well as the ancient Greek civilizations in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).
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| Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, May 2015 |
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| Berlin Wall, Germany, June 2015 |
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| Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, April 2015. This place made me cry. |
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| Theatre at Ephesus, March 2015 |
Towards the end of my semester, a different kind of blessing
and good fortune appeared in my life. I met Eda, a beautiful Turkish girl from
Bursa, the first official capital of the Ottoman Empire; through her amazing
talent and wonderful heart, let’s just say she kept me personally invested in
this city and country. We shared some truly sacred time together, and in front
of Istanbul’s beautiful nighttime skyline, with the Hagia Sophia lit up and in
sight, we fell in love; while sitting one night along the Bosphorus, the
waterway connected to the whole rest of the world, by chance and the work of
mystical forces out of our own control, perhaps divine intervention, fireworks
filled the dark spring night. From that moment on, we knew we were meant to be.
Not only was I standing on such holy ground for a history buff, but I was
falling in love on it.
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| Happy Happy on the Seaside |
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| May 2015 |
Only sharing 12 days together, we were forced to part ways. I
returned home to the USA to finish my history degree, while she remained in
Istanbul studying Statistics at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, a school named after
the most prominent Ottoman architect whose apprentices consulted on the Taj
Mahal. Seven months later, at the start of 2016, I came back to Istanbul to be
with Eda, and also to teach English. I found a job as a teacher in a preschool,
and this enabled me to return to my beloved city, as well as my significant
other, the greatest love of my life.
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| In front of the Suleimaniye, January 2016 |
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| Üsküdar, Istanbul, February 2016. 1923 is the Turkish Republic's Independence Year. |
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| In front of Sultan Osman I's tomb, Bursa, March 2016 |
Eda also shares a personal love of history, and in her spare
time, enjoys visiting old mosques, churches and historical places, like me.
Right after I left Istanbul for my home country, she visited the Suleimaniye
Mosque, and prayed there, vowing to return to it only if accompanied by me.
Three weeks after arriving back in Istanbul, we went together to this site, the
largest mosque in town, commissioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and
shared a great spiritual experience despite different religious faiths, native
languages and citizenships. We've gone to many new places, as well as revisited the old. I’m happy to say that now, two years later, Eda and
I are married, living together, and have plans to do so much over the course of
our lives. I proposed at an old Ottoman fortress built by my
most revered and venerated historical figure, the beautiful (ne güzel)
Fatih Sultan Mehmet II, my historical ‘man crush’, if you will (‘Fatih’ means
‘conqueror’). The plan for Eda and
I is to stay in Turkey for another year, and then move to the USA.
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| Rumeli Castle, Nov. 2016 |
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| My 22nd Birthday Surprise Party :) |
Overall, I never forget how lucky and blessed I am to have
found the most incredible feeling of love and life that I ever knew. I found
someone who accepts and challenges me. Someone who shares with me all the love,
care, respect and honor anyone could ever dream of, and to whom I love reciprocating all the same. Eda gives me so much hope
and faith in this world, and will always be my greatest role model, inspiration
and light. I found this through my travels, and through opening my mind and
heart to something new, exciting, terrifying, and lovely. We both have grown as
a result of this, expanding our vocabularies in different languages, learning
new cultures and their values, exploring different religions, and touching new ground of this world together. And, as a bonus, it’s nice to have a
partner to go to historical places with. Through my interest in studying
events, people and places of the past, I discovered my own future. I also
became acquainted with a new culture and language, including witnessing and
joining the traditions (and benefits) of getting engaged and married in it! 😃
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| Buddies (Kankalar in Turkish) at our Engagement Party, Dec. 2016 |
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| My Turkish family and I :) |
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| Our 'Nikah' (gov't marriage ceremony). I did it in Turkish! |
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| Galata Tower, February 2017 |
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| Gallipoli, July 2016 |
I promise Eda repeatedly that I love her more than history.
In fact, she likes it when I say to her “Fatih Sultan Mehmet’e minettarim,” which
means “I’m grateful to Fatih Sultan Mehmet.” This is true, because if he and
his army didn’t conquer Istanbul in 1453, Eda and I perhaps never would have
met. The point is:
history is
relevant. The events of the past shape who and where we are today. We can still
feel the effects of this conquest, and other prominent historical events.
Things that happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago may seem so far
away that they’re insignificant, but they’re not. They’re here. They’re not
going anywhere, so rather than just leave it behind or keep it where it is, I’d
like to share it on this forum. If you’ve ever talked to me, you know that I
love the facts, the figures, the dates, and the people. I’m very passionate
about this subject, and I hope to pursue it through graduate studies soon. I
haven’t lost my passion for this field, and with all the events happening as we
speak, both in Turkey and beyond, I’m more than excited to be writing again and
sharing what I know through this blogging project. This ability to channel my
passion somewhere gives me a sense of purpose, as I’m making my own methods to apply my
history degree to good use.
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| Basilica Cistern with our dear friend Matt, March 2016 |
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| Cast and Crew of a play we participated in here, Dec. 2016 |
Thank you in advance for reading, and more importantly, for
putting up with my ramblings on the subject. In addition to this project, I’m
still continuing work as an English teacher in town. I wrap up things at my
preschool in June, and also maintain a small network of private students. I
even gave lessons at the headquarters of a Turkish bank for a few months. This
summer, Eda and I will have our wedding in Bursa, where the first and second
Ottoman sultans are buried, and we’ll also do some traveling. Come mid-August,
I will begin work in the middle school of a well-established private school in
Istanbul, a school that has been around for over 130 years, even before the
foundation of the Turkish Republic. I also will now live in an apartment with
my wife that has an incredible view of the Golden Horn, the site where the
Byzantine Empire suspended a chain blocking invaders from entry; I’m also right
across the water from the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople, which has been the capital of the Greek Orthodox Church for
hundreds of years. So overall, I have a nice little life here. I’ve been
involved in education, corporate life, tourism, theatre, music, and a few other
things here. It’s been a nice way to spend my early 20s, and doing it with my
soul mate and meeting great people makes it all the more better.
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| My little students and I in Circle Time, February 2016. |
It has been such a privilege to give back to this society
through teaching English. This country has given me so much, and I knew I could
use my native language to satisfy its demand for improved English language
education. I’m forever in Turkey’s debt for helping Eda and I find each other,
for making it easy to come back to be with her, and for allowing me to
communicate in my beloved wife’s language. I have no regrets coming to Turkey
for my studies or for coming back as a worker. I am grateful to Turkey, and I
still love it and its history every day. I will try to send out a history blogpost as much as possible. This is my place to share that
excitement and love.
Thanks again for reading.
Garrett Garcia
Istanbul, Turkey
29 April 2017
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| The winds of Troy, Canakkale, Turkey |
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| My second country's flag |
