due deed done

today i appeared in court for the first time in my life. it was much more nerve wrecking than i expected! and for no reason at all, i was there just to testify on my own behalf about the phone robbery which occurred 2 years ago. but it was all pretty smooth. i headed to the court house in Kartal early, doctor warned me that its a large building. but holy shit, really? it was possibly the largest gov building ive ever seen. but doctor said there is on the euro side of the city, said to be the largest court house in europe. in fact, now that i checked, wikipedia claims that the Caglayan courthouse is the largest in the world. and with further googling it seems like the one i visited is only half of the size. oki doki, these people like to centralize their courts...  and the architecture itself, well thats another chapter;

so i arrived early and had no trouble finding my court room #68. next to the door there was a schedule for the day, with the names of both defendants and accused, as well as the charges. it was fun looking at people going in and then checking the list to see what they had gotten into. when doctor arrived we enjoyed guessing who is a wife beater and who has been seling drugs (allegedly!).

then they call me in and turns out the 2 guys charged for possession of my phone had not come. and that i need a translator. we had to sit and wait outside while they requested for the courthouse english translator. he came quick and we got started. i wish i wouldve had the guts to try to take a photo of the pretty nice court room, but i didnt want to be improper. it was just like in american tv shows (ie. Law & Order), furnished with light brown wood, but much smaller. there was one short row for "audience" and the rest was pretty congested too, but modern and functional. on my table there was a screen, where i could see in real time the document relating to my case, and the court reporter writing it. it was on a turkish word editor program, kind of nice to follow the proceeding in writing too...
i shall borrow a pic from the court house website, although the room here is bigger;

in the actual 10min proceeding i had to explain again what happened, and confirm my address and other details. the judge (a nice woman! :)) also asked me for the value of the phone and if the sentence can be reduced in case I get either the phone or the money. surprising question, so i just said whichever. she was also interested in how long ive been in turkey and what is my level of turkish and so forth. then they set a new court date, for which the police will try to summon the 2 charged men, and my prsence wont be required since i already made my appearance. i would say that was a pretty smooth process overall. i will see in january i guess if i get money back or something :D

the uncolored lines in the railway map are in the works. a lot of construction going on in istanbul, public transport wise!

 macaroni casserole i did 2 days ago. the last portion going... nom nom