In my 5 months in Turkey I've experienced several frustrations, some that I thought would make me go crazy. But I am learning that the best way to deal with these is, if at all possible, to laugh it off. The most recent experience came in the form of a check from the states. Jayme and I cancelled a credit card before we left and they owed us $45.34, so they mailed it to my parents address. My dad realizing that he was about to send us a goody bag, including the check in with it, expecting we wouldn't have any trouble cashing it here.
Having never seen a check in Turkey, I asked my stock broker buddy if I would be able to cash it. He assured me that there wouldn't be any problem. So I took it to my bank and got my other buddy, Celal, to help me cash it. However, due to the fact that Citibank was written in large letters on the top left corner, they instructed me to take it to the Citibank branch downtown and assured me they would cash it. I thought this was little odd, but since I was headed that way, I didn't question him. When I arrived at Citibank, a friendly, English-speaking lady helped me and after examining the check for a few minutes acted if she would be able to cash it. Great, I thought. However, I don't have an account at Citibank and was told that I would need to open an account there in order to cash it; but my bank should be able to cash it as well. Since it takes a couple of hours to open an account, I opted to go with door #2 and go back to my bank with this new information. I realized that my bank might have only seen the Citibank name and not my name in small print at the bottom.
Fortunately, there was a branch of my bank close to the Citibank so I walked there and asked them to cash it for me. This lead to a 10 minute "dialogue" with the teller, where he continued to instruct me that I needed to go to Citibank and I continued to tell him that I had just come from Citibank and they wouldn't take it. I also tried to explain that it didn't matter that it was from Citibank, it was made out to me. After several attempts to uneffectively communicate with each other, he went and got one of the managers. She graciously told me that they could cash it, however, I would have to go to my branch to do it. I kindly told her that I had made several transactions at her branch in the past without any problems, why was this different. I didn't get much of an answer before realizing I would have to go back where I started and see if Celal could pull through for me and get my measly $45 check cashed.
So yesterday Garrett and I headed to the bank for my last attempt at cashing the check. I told him on the way that "I had a good feeling." As I confidently stepped up to the teller, I told him that I needed to cash this check. He studied it for a few seconds and then went to the back to hopefully get permission from the bank manager. I looked at Garrett and said, "I think this is the winner." While they continued to discuss we made our way over to Celal's desk and visited with him. I told him about our frustrations with trying to get the check cashed and how I had been all over the city and back again. A few minutes later they brought the check over to Celal with the instructions for him to translate. He said, "I've got some good news. We can cash the check!" I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that the ordeal was over. Then he says, "However, it's going to cost $40." Garrett and I literally fell out on the floor laughing.
So despite my persistence and optimism, the check is going back home with Garrett to where it will hopefully make its way to a bank that will gladly cash it. Unfortunately I don't even want the money anymore, I just want to be reassured that there are places in this world where normal things like cashing a check can be done in one trip to one bank.
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