Tough times in Turkey

Well, everyone knows by now that Turkey’s government faced a coup attempt and that it was, fortunately, unsuccessful. No one, however, seems to have seen it coming.

Friday evening was a bit frantic, as you can imagine.

I, of course, was sound asleep in bed when everything happened. I’d gone to dinner with a colleague at the nearby mall and had a great burger at Shake Shack. Perhaps that’s why I was having some kind of weird dream, only to be awakened around 11:30 or so by my landline, which has never rung before.

Jolted awake but still half asleep and confused, it was my supervisor calling on an emergency drill. As confused out as I was, I focused on the “drill” and wondered why the heck we were doing one when I was asleep. Then I figured out it must be real, so I got up, logged on and sent what I hoped were preemptive emails so people would know I was OK.

I also picked up my cell phone, which I’d left on the kitchen table intentionally, reasoning that the alarm on that is only set for weekdays, so why did I need it next to my bed? Well, I now know why – I missed 13 Whatsapp messages, a couple regular messages and some phone calls.

Catching up on that, I put finally together that I was supposed to continue down my branch of the phone tree and check on some other people, so I did that. And, like everyone else in the world, tried to figure out what was going on.

I swear I heard low-flying jets outside, and I could hear a dull roar, like people demonstrating. Also swear I heard an explosion, but everything was distant. I’m in a suburb and nowhere Taksim Square, which seems to be the place where everyone goes to protest. It takes me at least 30 minutes by bus/tram/taxi to get there, so it’s a ways away. And although I’ve been over the Bosporus bridge several times, it’s not anywhere near me and it takes an effort to get there.

So at no point did I feel in danger, although it was really weird. I hope it’s the only coup attempt I’m ever present for. We got a message telling us to stay where we were at around 2:30 a.m., which was lifted around 4 p.m. on Saturday.

So what a boring weekend! Fortunately, my DVD player arrived, so I’ve been watching “King of the Hill” and the Bourne movies. Also the latest “Star Wars” and “Monsters University,” which I just recently bought. So glad Walmart delivers.

And even though we were told to stay put, I figured that meant the apartment complex and not the apartment itself, so I went to the gym both mornings. There’s a TV there (I don’t have cable hooked up yet) so I got to watch BBC.

Ninety solid minutes of news and not a section spent on the U.S. presidential elections. So far, that’s the only plus I can figure from this. It’s just awful, and nothing good is going to come of it.

I don’t think it’s going to get any better, but I don’t feel unsafe.