Muslim Turkey and Starbucks.

Eastern and Western cultures are usually easy to distinguish between. The nature of the skyline [with minerettes shooting out of the city fabric], the calls to prayer [which play on the loud speakers 5 times a day across the city], and the women fully covered [in black, which I will never understand...it is so hot here, and that has to make it worse] are all quickly identifiable here. Yet Istanbul has another side to it completely. There are also very western ideas of shopping, cafe life, cinema, and Starbucks. It is a very strange juxtaposition [a word we architecture students like to use often I have noticed] of both of these two different worlds. The balance is a great insight into the East, within the framed comfort of the West. I have always been intrigued by Eastern culture, and this has been a very enlightening way of seeing it. So many questions surface when confronted with the differences. Why are women still oppressed? What keeps people so dedicated to the religious ceremony? How can a society modernize, and still keep a cultural clarity? These are not easy questions to answer, but they certainly present themselves while here. I know I am looking at this culture through Western eyes, so maybe I am biased. But I look forward to a day [if it comes in my lifetime] where people are all treated with respect, and dignity.