Why go to İstanbul

I absolutely love that someone stumbled upon this blog the other day after searching the keywords, "why go to Istanbul". (I'll note here that I also love the embeddable StatCounter utility). Well, the reasons are simple.

1. The city has everything. Europe, Asia, hills, sea, nice weather, packed city blocks, open seaside parks, amazing food, crazy football fans, nightlife, daylife, night, day, life.

2. Art, history, art history. There are castles, museums, and ancient structures everywhere. If you're into that kind of thing, or even if you're not, the city's art and age can be quite enchanting.

3. Diversity, culture, proximity to the rest of the world, and...

4. I'll be there! Come visit.
Above is a map of the districts of İstanbul. I've been studying it lately. Putting it here will allow me to find it easily when I need it. Why go to İstanbul? All those places! Oh there must be a map around here somewhere.

Last visit home for a while

With my departure date fast arriving, I am under pressure (self-induced) to visit as many people as possible before I go. On top of that, my dad and stepmom are performing in a production of the musical, Three Penny Opera. After catching a glimpse of part of a rehearsal 2 weeks ago, I decided that I had to see the full performance.

After playing an excellent couple hours of soccer in Boston, I drove 4.5 hours up to Maine and arrived about 10 minutes before the start of show. Overall, it was excellent. The venue was small which made the experience more personal.

I stayed up very late that evening because I had a lot of energy. I woke up after 5 hours of sleep and a couple hours later went outside to stack wood. Since posts here are boring without photos, I took some photos.

In fact I stacked wood for about 4 hours. It was exhausting, but also relaxing. I thought a lot about my upcoming trip. I also thought about things I want to say to certain people before I go. Then I just listened to Ida Maria while stacking.

I figure that the heat of summer in İstanbul and the stress involved in moving to foreign country will cause me to soon miss these crisp days laced with the smells of chopped wood and chimney smoke. So I savored it as much as possible and honestly really enjoyed being outside and moving around.

Next on my agenda is the drive tomorrow to Kennebunk, Maine, on the way back to Massachusetts. I will spend the evening there with Nick, a close friend who has a tough graduate school decision to make. He and I will likely introduce hearty amounts of beer to the decision-discussing process. I can't wait to hear how his grad school visits went and where he's thinking of going. I see my visit with Nick as a chance to put my mind on big plans other than my own.

İstanbul, for a change

As some of those close to me already know by now, I'll be moving to İstanbul in early April. I want to give finding work there a try and I want to give teaching English a try. I will try these things while living with a good friend probably in the Kadıköy part of the city. We will go apartment hunting starting in about two weeks.

Of course I am thrilled about this new change and I feel strongly that it is what I want to do right now. It seems like the best time of my life to try new things. I am a little nervous and a lot hopeful and excited.Probably the biggest downside to all of this is that I will be leaving most of the people I know behind on this side of the Pond. That having been said, I encourage any and all of you to at least keep in touch, and if you can, to come visit. As you'd expect, you will be able to follow my happenings from here, my personal blog.

These final 10 days or so are going to be pretty crazy. I am fairly busy sorting, packing, preparing, and visiting family. It is 80% losing-sleep exciting and 20% losing-sleep stressful. So I am a bit sleepy, but that's ok.Anyway, let me know what you think. And definitely let me know if you want to come visit.

An account of the weekend

My weekend involved good news coming from friends and a wonderful time in Boston.

First of all, my dear friend B heard good news from schools' PhD programs to which she had applied. I am so happy for her. Getting accepted to a university is a awesome because you wish it more than anything while your applications are pending, but it is also a lot of stress because afterword you have a big and difficult decision to make.

Ultimately, what I conclude: It is hard to come to peace with a big decision even if you know all the choices are great. Given that the choice has a great impact on the rest of one's life, it is easy to get caught up in thinking that there is such thing as the wrong decision. To which I say, cheer up! Life is more about perspective than absolutes.

I saw my old roommate, Hyde, in Boston. We made cupcakes and talked about life. I always enjoy hanging out with him because we kind of tease each other about our quirks and joke about ourselves. After some time I told him about my plans to move abroad. He reacted for a moment and then concluded that he was not surprised. His roommate who was also in the kitchen at that moment interjected that he for one was very surprised.

A little later I went to the monthly Turkish meet-up. It was lots of fun, as usual. At some point later in the night, I came back from the bathroom and was looking for a new friend I had been talking with, when these this guy near me starting flirting with two French-Canadian girls who had just walked in. I started talking with one of them, trying to explain that I didn't know the other guy, but I asked where they were from and so forth. Straight from Quebec, and that explained the accents. Being a guest from out of the country and being an attractive lady, I offered to buy a drink. However, the girl I was talking with explained that they were about to go to another place and would I like to come. They made their way toward the door. By 'they' I mean both the girls and the flirty guy. I paused, and the guy said to me "come on, we'll be each other's wingman". It was a binary decision where each choice was of relatively little consequence. Go with the girls, stay at the bar. When making these kinds of decisions, I tend to go with the option that will make a better or more interesting story later on. However, I declined and remained in the bar with my new-found Turkish friends. The argument in my mind was that I was already content where I was. Although I did spend the rest of the evening and part of the next morning wondering where the other path would have taken me.

Helping to take my mind off the events of the previous night were thoughts about playing soccer with a random group of strangers in Boston later that Saturday morning. I showed up at the park at Cleveland Circle to play soccer on a Facebook invite. There was one familiar face there and a bunch of new faces. As it turned out, most of the people there only knew 1 or 2 of the other people. I was delighted at how much fun we all had and at how effortlessly everyone got along and made the most out of the event. The weather was gorgeous and we played for roughly two and half hours.

I drove home and took a long nap on the couch. The living room was washed in sunlight, but still I slept like a baby. Sunday, I had plans to go back to Boston and participate in an Irish themed food tasting party, but being far from the city, the weather being nice, and other plans arising, I opted to stay in the area of home. It was a nice cap to an awesome weekend.

This weekend, I will play soccer again in Boston and then go to Maine to see my dad and stepmom in a musical production. I will see a good friend in Kennebunk, and then return.

My moving plans are coming together slowly, but time is running out. Two more weeks. I keep thinking about life two weeks from now. So totally different from this old familiar mess. I think about the day before I go. My mind will be clear that day.

The Canada Trip

The weekend of March 6 was quite memorable. Jacob had just arrived by plane from Kentucky and we abruptly left on a road trip. The first stop was to see Julian. He took us to Blue Ben, a kickass diner in Bennington. I had one the best breakfasts of my life. It was the California Eggs Benedict and it had sprouts (yum!) and avocado (yum!). Of course it was also awesome to hang out with Julian and Jacob. Julian shared a desire of his for the three of us to visit Saigon, rent motorcycles, and then drive up the coast of Vietnam. He later admitted to taking the idea from an episode of TopGear. However, his determination to promote the plan never wavered. The conclusion of the conversation was that Jacob needs to get his passport.

Jacob and I left with Julian's car and we drove to Syracuse, NY to see Bonnie. I visited for a short while and then left Jacob there and continued on to Waterloo, Ontario.

I made it across the border ok and after about 1.5 hours I arrived in Waterloo. First I must say that driving in Canada was both scary and nice. It was scary because I wasn't familiar with some of the road signs and I was afraid that some unfamiliar traffic pattern would arise or that I would screw it up somehow after coming so far. In a way, my unfamiliarity with everything made the drive more exciting. The advertisements, road signs, and stores were all different. The drive was also nice because I have gotten used to the metric system and to see kilometers and Celsius everywhere was kind of a relief.

The biggest relief was seeing Monica and knowing my trip was over. 850 kilometers had passed and I was tired. She looked great and I probably looked terrible, but anyway we went out to a local Irish pub. First of all, I loved it there. The pub sort of had a lodge feel to it with its dim lighting log beams stretching along the ceiling. On the walls there were tvs with a hockey match, a large Canadian flag, and a Guinness banner. Sitting at the table to my left were a couple of rowdy Scottish guys who were laughing and cracking lewd jokes in thick accents. Monica and I got some food and talked. It was really a nice way to end the day.

The next day, we worked indoors much of the day and then went into town for lunch with a friend of Monica's. I had a delicious schnitzel. In the evening, we went out to a different bar. The atmosphere was much quieter than the night before; after all it was a Sunday evening. After a long debate within myself, I ordered a large salad. It was the perfect choice. During the meal, I texted a friend about my potential plans for work. By the end of the meal, I had made a big decision regarding my future. I have decided to move soon.

I had a 10 hour drive the next day to think about it. As the Sun came up, I passed by Niagara Falls. I was tempted to stop there for a while just to think, but the day would have been too long if I had. Besides, I had the peace of a long car ride. I filled up the gas tank and then proceeded to cruise at a speed of about 63 miles per hour for the entire trip to Syracuse. Doing so set a new record for Julian's car in gas mileage of 37mpg. Anyway, I made it to Syracuse, had some lunch, picked up Jacob and continued onto Julian's. The rest of the ride home was fairly dull, as my car was winding through the mountains of western Massachusetts. Also, the day seemed shorter, but I determined that I had experienced about 30 minutes less sunlight than the people in Waterloo and in Worcester.

I spent the week working on my plans. Moving soon means that I have to visit everyone soon. I drove to Maine for the following weekend (last weekend) to see the family. I spent a lot of time stacking wood and relaxing with my dad, stepmom, and sister. I really liked it up there. At the church down the road was an open mic night and the music was really fun to listen to. I realized that I would probably miss that small-town community feel despite running from it (or trying to) from about high school onward.

On the drive home, I saw a van with a license plate that read "1ST 86" When I first saw it, I thought the 1 looked like an İ, which might make it a reference to İstanbul. Of course '86 is my birth year. The vehicle wasn't just a van, it was a caravan indicating moving somewhere. To top it all off there was a big American flag sticker next to the plate. I am not superstitious and I don't like to read into these things, but it was a nice set of reminders about my plans to move. I am tempted to interpret it as a sign for me to move, but I admit it could have easily been a sign not to! Of course if the vehicle had been a say a Dodge Ram, I wouldn't decide to become a goat herder.

Signs from the Universe aside, I proceed with my plans. I got my phone unlocked today, which means it will work with a foreign SIM card. I also applied to a TEFL/TESOL course. Some lunch, some shopping, out to dinner with dear friends, and then some weekend planning will commence. Wish me luck. In the meantime, I'll work on a post that more precisely describes my plans.

Apologue

I usually break long periods of silence with a piece of news. That news will arrive soon enough.

I have been living in a bit of a reprieve lately. On principle, I object to life slowing down at my age. This is when I need to make every year another chapter of awesomeness. When I am/feel old, then I will begin to slow down and think back on all that happened. Of course, I wont just think about all those things. I will read about them from here and elsewhere. I will tell these stories to younger, wide-eyed folk. I will try to remember exactly how I felt at this time, and I will wish I could tell my past-self many things. That being impossible, I will take this opportunity to do the next best thing and tell my future-self something.

Hi Jeremy (already I'm assuming you haven't changed your name),

First of all, I'm sorry that I haven't provided any good stories for the last 6 months. I have had a lot of time to reflect and not knowing what could have been, I have adopted the attitude that everything happens for a reason and that while nothing great happened, neither did anything bad. I am choosing to believe that I will one day be thankful for the things I have learned of late. That having been said, I would like to inform you that my life will be changing rapidly very soon. I'm sure you're sharing a knowing chuckle with me now.

I'm trying to live our life as though I already lived it and yet got to go back and make it more awesome. I still make mistakes, but I am learning from them. The lessons of late:

1. Pursue the more exciting version of the future.
2. Don't invest much more in someone than they invest in me.
3. Get a couple of hobbies to consume my free time.
4. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
5. Throw things out, give things away.
6. In some cases I deserve better.

Some of these I learned the hard way, others I just trust to be the way to go. I would rather this life be a glorious and adventurous story of cunning, care, wisdom, humor and love and not simply the accumulation of hard-learned lessons. I really hate those.

I wish us both the best. Now there's something only I can do at this point. Hayırlısı.