Ramazan

It's odd that English calls in Ramadan when all the regional languages say Ramazan. It's written with ض which the Arabs pronounce "th", Persians (not being able to say th) pronounce z, and Turks (also lacking a th sound) usually transliterate to Latin as "d" (eg the Arabic word for muscle, عضله is pronounced azoleh in Persian and adale in Turkish), but even in Turkish it's written Ramazan not Ramadan.

My last Ramadan in the ME was in Iraqi Kurdistan, and there for the first year restaurants were staying open for lunch and people were seen drinking water in the streets etc. But here it's illegal to drink or eat in public during the month, though I've seen several kids doing so and wished I could get away with it too. My other grievance against Ramadan is that all government offices have started closing at 2pm, just as I've been running back and forth between offices trying to get myself a new passport (to replace one I put through the wash) and permanent military exemption.

I went to the police +10 office and they told me to go to the passport administration. I went to the passport administration and they told me to go to the other passport administration. I went to the other passport office and filled out some forms and then they told me to go to the military service administration. I went to the military service administration and they told me to go to the Foreign Ministry. I went to the Foreign Ministry (which has just been renovated and is actually really nice inside and out) and they wrote me a letter and told me to go to the immigration/alien affairs police. It's been a few days now that I've been bouncing between offices (none of which are remotely near each other) and missing class with no end in sight, so looks like I'll have to cancel my week of traveling Turkey before my Istanbul-New York flight in a couple weeks.