In a city of over 13 million, it is easy to never see a familiar face.
One morning last week, as my aunt and I were leaving the apartment to go to the bus stop, I hear someone saying my name over and over again. We both stopped and looked at each other in confusion, then turned around to see a hand waving enthusiastically through the bars of a bottom floor apartment. Huh?
We walked back to the apartment's entrance, only to be greeted by one of my dad's oldest friend's sisters, Hulya, who I have met before in the United States (but haven't seen for years I would guess). As we chatted I learned that she worked in a converted office on the bottom floor of the very same apartment that I am currently staying in and, even better:
(This was the first time I heard this story, and it blew my mind...) Earlier this year, my dad visited Turkey for the first time in over a decade. Apparently he and Hulya had talked on the phone and tried to coordinate a meet-up but they just couldn't for the life of them figure out a way in which meeting would be possible. As my dad traveled around, they talked again from Bodrum, etc. but, again, couldn't coordinate. You know how this story ends: One day they ran into each other in this exact apartment building and the shock and awe that they both experienced was ridiculous.
Over thirteen million people, two continents, thirty nine districts, thousands of apartment complexes...it doesn't seem possible but, in the end, I suppose anything is.
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