The latest with me

It is the middle of summer. These days are simple but full. If you only look at the moments when I am with friends, everything is fun filled and exciting, and as someone else I would think just looking at those times gosh I wish I had his life. So in that way it is like any sitcom. You never see the long day at work, the trips to the bathroom, the conversationless lunches, or the commute. So my life, like anyone's is a balance of the tv-worthy parts and the day to day. But I mention this so that you don't think I am trying to deceive you when, in giving an account of my life as I remember it now, I describe only the most exciting parts.

Half of my life now takes place in the office of KEMA or in the car in between work and home. That cannot be too exciting right? Well, I like my job and I don't mind the drive. Furthermore, there is a huge advantage for me with all the traveling to work. I put a map here showing in green, places of interest (friends, home, work), my two main routes to work (shown in red and orange), and places where I sleep over (green dots with bright green dots inside). You can see from the map, that my commute takes me near a couple places that I would otherwise not go anywhere near, notably Framingham and Boston. In Framingham I have a couple friends from school, each with whom I stay the night once a week. In Boston there is another friend from school and a new friend from Turkey.

I stumbled upon a website called meetups.com which is for people of a common interest who want to get together and hang out. Turns out that there is one for people to speak/practice speaking Turkish. So I signed up and I went to Boston a couple weeks ago to meetup with these Turkish people at a middle eastern restaurant. As expected, they are a fun bunch of people and I had a great time there. There was live Turkish music and someone was having a birthday. The music and atomosphere reminded me a little of a bar that I visited while in Aydın called Çatı. Anyway, I was too shy to speak Turkish because the people there all knew English. Still I got to talk about Turkey with them, which was almost as good. Then after a short while I learned that the woman sitting across from me, who was the mother of one of the folks there, didn't know any English at all. With her, I had no shyness and I spoke with her for 10 or 15 minutes, until the limits of my Turkish were pushed too far. For a short time after that, her daughter translated for us.

Within a few days of the meetup, I checked my email to see that a member had seen my profile and written to me. Her name is Safiye. She is a student who has been in the US for a few months but has had difficulty meeting Americans and wants to practice English more. She must have seen the opportunity presented in an American wanting to learn Turkish (me!). So we met last week and walked around the Copley Square area then walked toward the Common. We talked about a number of things relating mostly to Turkey and so forth. It was a nice evening. Since then we have talked and taught each other things about our countries and languages. I feel compelled, perhaps by gratitude for the many ways various Turks and other foreigners have shown me kindness and hospitality, to look after her while she is here. Besides, hanging out in Boston is always fun. I have another friend living in Boston as well, Amy Castonguay. She is from WPI and we have a lot of theatre and comedy friends in common. The other day, the three of us spent some time in the Boston Common together. There, we watched a performance of Shakespeare's "As You Like It", with Amy helpfully translating it from Shakespearian into layman's English. She was in a performance of the same play last year and amazingly could still recite some of the lines. In my -limited- acting experience, I have always had an incredible ability to forget my lines immediately following the last performance.

Anyway, Safiye and I continue to meet a couple times a week. She teaches me Turkish phrases, I help her with English sometimes. This Friday we will go to the next Turkish meetup together. Actually, it is kind of ironic that I will be taking her there for the first time.

This is my life now. Day to day I am happy, hopeful. I am happy to be keeping in touch with friends, old and new. I am hopeful for a good year ahead. There are a few things I want to write more about, which I will do in my upcoming posts. Take care.

4th of July weekend

Fourth of July weekend was one of the best I have had. After work on Thursday, I drove up to Maine. On the drive there, I called my two sisters and brother to talk with them. For almost the entire state of Maine, I was on the phone with one of my siblings. It really helped kill the time and it was nice anyway just to talk with them. In no hurry, I drove at gas-saving speeds the whole time and made good use of cruise control. Later I calculated that I got 34.5 mpg for that trip which is rather good for my car. I got to the house and a little while later my dad and step-mom came home from a dinner they had been invited out to.

I went to bed early because I was tired and because that is what I do every night when I have work the next day.
Accordingly, I woke up at around 7:30 the next morning. It was the actual 4th of July. I had a bowl of cereal and listened to the chickens in the yard clucking around. We all sat around the table talking about plans for the day. It seemed simple: go to the Harborside "Parade", come back, load the kayaks onto the car, and then go kayaking all afternoon. Well, that is basically what happened, but it was not easy. My step-grandmother wanted to come along with us to the "parade" which meant we had to drive through the "parade" before it started to drop her off so that she would not have to walk far. Also, we had to bring the dog, Maude, because grandma had made a fourth of July outfit for her to wear. The weather was good and the "parade" was enjoyable. Oh and I put the quotes there because I think of a parade as an unstoppable wall of enthusiastic and/or motivated people, but given the size of the town (extra small), it was more like a quaint old-fashioned affair, like a scene one would expect to see in a Norman Rockwell painting. Well, minus my dad running around with his camera taking pictures, my step-mom casually trying to avoid her local enemies, and Maude freaking out because of all the people and the other dogs. I found it hard not to feel like a complete outsider.

The very moment it looked like things were wrapping up in Harborside, I turned to dad and asked if I could go get the car before all the other traffic. He said sure. The car was parked a ways away. I walked until I was out of sight of the other people. Then I ran. Jumping in the car, I turned it on quickly. I hit the gas but it took a couple moments for the engine to engage and I nearly peeled out of the parking spot. Then, driving with the determination of a madman, the aggressiveness of an old man, at the speed of a dead man, I crawled through the street past all the young and old smiling faces. I wore a big smile to hide within me the dire sense of imprisonment and maniacal hate caused by all the foot traffic in my way. I stopped the car in front of grandma and the family. I was about to climb out and let dad drive, but the next thing I knew, everyone was in the car. Someone said "drive," but it probably was just the voice in my head. We made it away from Harborside with no delays. When we got home, I made the mistake of asking my stepmom what she thought of the event. She pulled a couple of brewskies out of the fridge and handed one to me. It was 12:30 in the afternoon.

A bit frazzled from the morning, we loaded the kayaks onto the car and drove for the town landing. Out on the water, we all felt much better. I discovered that I am amazing at kayaking. I am so great! Also I discovered that my camera strapped nicely to the front of my lifejacket so I took some videos from that angle. Anyway, we paddled on over to a beach when suddenly my cell phone started making noise. I had a voicemail!. I must have hit a pocket of reception. I stepped on to the beach and listened to the soft angelic voice of the sweetest girl I know. Everything was just peachy at this point. We parked the kayaks and went for a swim. The water was like ice. It was rock hard! Haha, no actually it was really cold. I went under briefly.

Tired and sore we returned home. Dad and I walked the dogs while my stepmom made dinner. Dinner was homemade pizza complete with vegetables from a local garden. We watched a movie that night. "Love in the Time of Cholera" it was called. I expected it to be horribly depressing but it was actually alright. I went to bed but left the computer on in order to download the latest Young Turks podcast.

The next day, we went kayaking again. In the car we listened to The Young Turks show. It was hilarious as usual. We decided not to pick up junkfood for the beach, a decision we later regretted but made up for.

So we kayaked on. We stopped at a beach, but I didn't swim this time, because I had been cold all afternoon (temperature-wise... not cold-hearted) the day before as a result of having swum. We listened to some more TYT on the way home and stopped for junkfood at the market. We ate some more delicious organic food for dinner.

The next morning I left to join the herd of all the other people driving south after the holiday. I stopped at the blueberry farm in Orland to take a picture of the wind turbine there for the New England Wind Forum website and magazine. One of the chief editors of the magazine had asked this favor of me when we met in Houston at the AWEA convention.

The rest of the drive totally sucked and I'd rather not talk about it. When I got home I relaxed for a while and then rested my head. As well as my sore, sunburnt arms. Reflecting on the weekend I have to say it was awesome. Don't know when I will get to see my dad and stepmom again or even kayak again, but I hope it is soon.

Late June adventures

Sunday was a full day. I went to a friend's lake-house in Charlton, a dinky down to the south of the Woo. Actually I had been to Charlton twice before at astronomy outreach events at their middle school. Anyway, I was there enjoying the weather and the company of some friends. We grilled some cheeseburgers and had couscous with black beans.

After the lake-house, I went to Kent's parents' place. They were having a get-together. It turns out that just a few miles from their place, I got lost and so I showed up a bit late. In fact, I had already missed the soccer match between Spain and Germany. Just a quick word on that. So to recap, Turkey was the most amazing team in the Euro, but they lost to Germany for a number of dumb reasons. Germany therefore advanced to the final but lost to Spain. Now, I am glad that Spain won because not only do I not forgive Germany for what they did to Turkey, but also because Turkey is going to get their chance to play Spain this winter and spring. Why would I care about that? Well you see, if the conditions had been more natural, I think Turkey would have beaten Germany and gone on to play Spain. Which makes me wonder, what would happen in a Turkey-Spain match-up? Now we will all get to find out. And it's not just going to happen in friendly matches, no, no. Spain and Turkey are in the same group for World Cup 2010 Qualifying. And if Turkey beats Spain in both those games, I will say there ya go. They should have won the Euro. But if not I will say shucks-a-bummer, they would have gotten second place.

So now you're all wondering, how was your first day with the new internship? Great question, great answer. It was great. I am working for a Dutch consulting company called Kema. So it turns out that I will be working some of the time with a guy who heads up their community wind feasibility study branch, and some of my time will be helping out with some green building projects. Windpower? Green buildings? Yeah, I know it is sweet.

The only real drawback from my internship is that I have a lot of driving to do just to get out there. However, I am taking some steps to reduce the amount of driving I have to do by staying a couple nights a week with some friends in Framingham.

So that's the latest. With little time to spare during the week and so many interests, I find I have to allocate every moment for something. I guess it makes my day to day more predictable, but then again is my life ever predictable? Rarely.

Another summer in the Woo

I am back in Worcester for the summer again. This time I have an internship about an hour away so I won't be here all the time, but I happy about my situation. Here are the reasons.

1. I have a number of friends here. First of all there are a bunch of other WPI people who are here for the summer and that is nice. That includes my Turkish friends who are endless fun. Secondly, the local Ecuadorians all hang out together on the weekends and I like to join them. They call me Jeremias and we share a lot of laughs. Every Sunday they get together to play soccer and I joined them yesterday. It was fairly informal but the rule was that the team that wins stays and plays the next team. The problem was that the team I was on kept winning. So I played like 5 games in a row, each lasting roughly half an hour. Now I am sore, but it feels good. This leads in to reason 2.


2. Football. The real one (you know where you use your FEET to hit the BALL). I love playing this game because it is intense, aerobic, and lots of fun. Some days I do great, some days not so great. So I love the exercise but I also like the fact that I meet a lot of people, I get outside, and I have something to look forward to on the weekends. Also I should mention that watching football is so much fun. Right now the UEFA Euro 2008 is happening and I have been hardcore rooting for Turkey. What an amazing run of games they have had! down 1-0 against Switzerland they came back and won 2-1 to eliminate them. Down 2-0 against Czech Republic, they came back in the final minutes to win 3-2 (if you're unfamiliar with the sport this is totally unheard of). Then, get this, they played Croatia in the quarterfinal and were tied 0-0 the whole game. It went into extra time and with one minute left in the game Croatia scored a goal. I was devastated. But then! On the last play of the game, in the final seconds Turkey got a miraculous goal to even the score. The game went to penalties and Turkey won. It was absolutely epic. Now they are going to play Germany and I am hopeful, but Turkey has lost a lot of players to injury and suspension so it is not looking too good. We'll see. The game is Wednesday. Ok, I am not here to blog about sports but what a great Euro this has been. Onto the next reason why I like Worcester in the summer.

3. I have a car and I am mostly centrally located. My sister and one of my best friends are about a 2 hour drive to the west. Mom is a 30 minute drive to the north. Dad is about 5 hours to the northeast. My brother is a few hours south. My job is an hour east. That leads me to reason 4.

4. I just got a summer job! It's with a Dutch company called Kema. They do consulting and feasibility studies and stuff like that. That starts in a few days, and I am very excited. I drove to their offices this morning in the pouring rain, had the interview (went really well) and then drove home. The commute is long and will probably get annoying soon so I am looking into some options for staying a little closer by a few days out of the week.

Anyway I included a picture here of one of my close Turkish friends, Merve. She lives in a nice apartment that has a pool. I really enjoyed the chance to swim (as you can see above).

I will try to keep up with this blog and upload pictures form time to time to show the friends I hang out with and the different aspects of my summer. Feel free to leave comments or ask me questions. And if you are in the Woo this summer too, or just passing through, give me call.