ISTANBUL — I had a conversation over here a few days ago with a friend of mine who also writes for his college paper. His column, whose name is a clever derivative of Sex in The City, talks about his life in Istanbul and focuses primarily on his addictions and their different roles here than in the States. Case in point? He lives right next door to a mosque and will get into tussles with them over his consistent alcohol consumption in view of the worshipers. Alcohol is forbidden by Islam so you could imagine that the fights get a bit messy especially during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

I laughed a bit when talking to him about this and thought it took serious guts to write about these things in front of an audience of peers (and maybe even family). I thought to myself that there was no way I’d ever do anything like that. But, being that I came into this experience saying that I’d step out of my comfort zone as much as possible, today I will share with you one of my own addictions and how, in Istanbul, it’s just that much crazier.

The night started as most nights have over here, a group of friends and I were sitting around enjoying bottles the hometown brew — Efes Pilsen. The scenery was just unbelievable — a nighttime view of the Bosphorus Strait with the sparkling lights of European and Asian Istanbul reflecting on her beautiful waters. In the distance, one of the two bridges crossing the strait was in full view, its support cables lit up and frequently changing colors in a light show that just made the view more surreal.

We had just been there for a bit but I got up and made the rounds bidding everyone goodnight and questioned if I had made the right decision. “Is this going to happen every Sunday night Alex?” one of my friends asked. “Yeah looks like it,” I said, “though I’m definitely going to take a week off sometime in the near future.” With that I was off headed back home.

Returning to the “Superdorm,” as it’s called, I checked my phone for the time and saw that I’d have to work fast in order to make this go down. Running up the stairs and into my room I jumped in front of my computer and began working feverishly. Within a few minutes everything was set up and ready to go. I clicked the link, sat back and waited for paydirt. “Damnit!” I yelled and hit the desk, Miami vs. Arizona? How could this be? I was streaming the wrong game! With Tom Brady out, the Jets finally were finally going to beat the Patriots and I, for one, was sure as hell not going to miss it!

The clock ticked passed the 4:15 start time. It was 11:15 p.m. here, but no matter: I was mentally prepared to stay up until two in the morning. Navigating European websites that stream the NFL is no picnic though, and it took me a good half hour to find a decent feed to hook onto. Once that happened, I was on cloud nine.

As a bit of background, I watched in blissful agony over the summer as the Jets acquired Brett Favre, quarterback of our generation, in a trade with the Green Bay Packers. The trade had come after a messy “unretirement” when the big guy decided to come back for one more season. Now, I sure was happy the trade was made — it made the Jets competitive again — but realized I probably wasn’t going to be able to watch the games due to the fact I was headed to Turkey. After all this, you can imagine how great it was to have the game in front of me. One problem though: it was being announced in Danish.

After trying to to get around the language thing I gave up and was just excited to have the game in front of me. As it went on I still enjoyed but felt a bit weird watching it on this Danish channel. I felt as if this were the one thing that really connected me back to the U.S. and here it was being presented to me by Danes in a foreign tongue.

That said, you can’t change the crowd. No matter what, they will always come over the airwaves as the same rowdy, football crazed Americans I’ve come to know and love. And so, when Jets celebrity fan “Fireman Ed” came onto the screen leading some 80,000 of these hooligans in a J-E-T-S chant I could do nothing but smile. For a few seconds at least, I was as far away from home as I’ve ever been yet right there with my team, my city and my country.

Jets lost by the way. But heck, there’s always next week.

Alex Kantrowitz, a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, will report this semester from Istanbul, Turkey. For further coverage, check out his blog at http://smokedturkey.wordpress.com. Alex can be contacted at amk83@cornell.edu. Smoked Turkey appears alternate Thursdays this semester.