Yesterday morning after our delicious breakfast of Turkish pastries, we were given a crash course in foreign correspondence via Skype by NPR journalist Kelly McEvers. A piece of wisdom she gave us was to look for certain universal signs that we all share in human experience. Across the globe, the birth of a baby is a joyous occasion. A funeral is a day or days of mourning. The universal I have caught on to while in Turkey is that no matter where you are, children are children.

Whether you are taking a stroll through Beverly Hills or roaming the Tarlabasi in Turkey, when you see children, you can expect certain similarities. Even with the supposed overexposure of technology in some populations, when a child sees a piece of unfamiliar technology, their interest is piqued, and so begins their pursuit of their “new toy.”

I noticed this in our evening trip to the Tarlabasi, an impoverished and neglected neighborhood in Istanbul, comparable to an inner-city housing project in Chicago. As soon as my fellow reporter and roommate, Caroline, set up her tripod and camera on the street, she was swarmed with curious children anxious to look in the viewfinder. The less reserved ones insisted Caroline give them the camera, so they could take their own pictures. One boy asked me to take a picture of his soccer jersey then proceeded to show me his soccer skills by kicking a small ball across the street.

As we grow up and become more inhibited, it is a lot easier to spot cultural differences in the way we conduct ourselves, but this is just not the case with kids. All children like to play, and all children visibly display their fascination with new and unfamiliar toys. If you would like to put my observation to the test, next time you see a small child, whip out your cell phone and see what happens.