For the class activity, I was paired with Buke, who is from Turkey. We tried to find an artifact she had with her that was representative of her culture but she did not have anything that was representative of Turkey. In terms of observational notes, I noted Buke’s appearance: curly hair tied back into a bun; small, circular silver earrings; a grey shirt from Zara; black capri pants also from Zara; and shiny silver shoes from … So these items were from all over the place and not really representative of her culture in particular. But I noted that everything matched together very well. She was dressed very stylishly. Buke and I didn’t really do the interview portion of the activity the way we were supposed to. It was more unstructured, with each of us asking questions and sharing answers the entire time. It was more a discussion than an interview. We talked about American and New York culture, and life and culture in Turkey. In terms of artifacts, her entire appearance was representative of the way women dress in Turkey. They prefer European brands, and her shirt, pants, and shoes were all from Spanish and Italian brands. She revealed that in Turkey, people like to buy well known, popular brands in order to show their status and wealth. Wealthy people like to buy nice things to show that they have a lot of money, and even people who are not wealthy like to spend their money on nice brands to appear as if they have money. The same also goes for jewelry; jewelry is very important in Turkey. Buke’s earrings were small today but she said that in Turkey, women usually wear bigger, more flashy earrings. She just decided to take it easy since it’s only Monday!
