Life<\/p>\n
Best of Our Blogs: “Isaac in Turkey” explains difference between Istanbul and Constantinople<\/p>\n
By AUBREE CUTKOMP<\/p>\n
acutkomp@saratogian.com<\/p>\n
Twitter.com\/aubreecutkomp<\/p>\n
Isaac Handley-Miner, a junior at Hamilton College, is spending a semester abroad in Turkey. His blog, \u201cIsaac in Turkey,\u201d is another new addition to The Saratogian\u2019s community travel blogs and will detail his time in Instanbul, an expedition he believes will be \u201crife with family history, good food, (occasionally) riveting academics, a little adventure and a lot of culture shock.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve received a variety of responses when I tell people I\u2019m studying abroad (in Turkey) this semester. I got a lot of \u2018That\u2019s unique,\u2019 quite a few \u2018I hear that\u2019s a really fun city,\u2019 some \u2018Isn\u2019t that dangerous?\u2019 and even a couple \u2018Where\u2019s that?\u2019 \u201d his inaugural post says. \u201cBut I think by far the most common reply has been neither a statement nor a question, but instead the opening line to a song: \u2018Istanbul (not Constantinople)\u2019 written by Jimmy Kennedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Handley-Miner admits he had never heard of the song until his friends began singing it immediately after hearing where he was headed. After finally listening to it, he at first \u201cthought it was a stupid premise for a song \u2014 yes, Jimmy Kennedy, you are correct, the city formerly known as Constantinople is now referred to as Istanbul,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
But then Handley-Miner realized it was an interesting distinction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe name Constantinople connotes, at least for me, a medieval city steeped in ancient history and conflict. Istanbul, on the other hand, brings to mind a bustling, modern city teetering both physically and culturally between Europe and the Middle East,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI have a lot of family history in this city, especially at the school where I will be studying \u2014 Bogazici University.\u201d<\/p>\n
Handley-Miner is the \u201cthe fourth generation to be at Bogazici University and the third generation at Hamilton College. Talk about legacy,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter acknowledging the visceral difference I experience between the two names Constantinople and Istanbul, this distinction is reminiscent of my own relationship to Istanbul,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s not a perfect parallel, but I do have an almost misplaced nostalgia for my family history in Istanbul and that era; I\u2019m also going to be having my own experience in this city decades after my father and my ancestors lived there. New meets old (no offense, dad). Modernity intersects antiquity just the way the two names, Istanbul and Constantinople, overlap to combine histories and cultures. What does this mean for me on a day-to-day basis? I have no idea. I guess we\u2019ll have to wait and see. It gives me something to reflect on between mouthfuls of baklava.\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow the blogger\u2019s adventures in Istanbul this semester at isaacinturkey.blogspot.com.<\/p>\n
via Best of Our Blogs: “Isaac in Turkey” explains difference between Istanbul and Constantinople – saratogian.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Life Best of Our Blogs: “Isaac in Turkey” explains difference between Istanbul and Constantinople By AUBREE CUTKOMP acutkomp@saratogian.com Twitter.com\/aubreecutkomp Isaac Handley-Miner, a junior at Hamilton College, is spending a semester abroad in Turkey. His blog, \u201cIsaac in Turkey,\u201d is another new addition to The Saratogian\u2019s community travel blogs and will detail his time in Instanbul, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":33840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[845,1094],"tags":[4397,7497],"class_list":["post-65192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scitech","category-tourism","tag-constantinople","tag-study-in-istanbul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}