This week I spent most of my time worrying about apartments and roommates. At the end of the week, I am in many ways back where I started. True, I found a couple guys who might want to get an apartment together with me. But I'm not really sure what to do. Part of me wants to live alone and part of me wants to be more efficient and integrated, which I perceive to be life with roommates. It is hard to predict this, and of course it depends a lot
on who the roommates are. In this case it turns out that one of them is a fashion model and the other hosts a music tv show. I think that if a person is kind, clean, and stays out of my way, then I can live with them. But should I risk it? There's something sort of romantic to me about having a place to myself in the big city... peaceful times alone, learning to cook, reading a book, working on my Turkish. This is what has been on my mind all week. Even while I am hanging out with friends and trying to forget real life, I can't stop running the possibilities in my head.
Side note: I think this is how I want my life to be. I want to be constantly thinking about the challenges and the other aspects of my life. To clarify, I don't want it to be I go to work and then come home and forget about work completely. Or I don't want to go to work and forget who I am in my home life. I want my thoughts to kind of blend everything. This is in sharp contrast to the mentality of a Danish person (or so I learned when I was there).
So on a daily basis, I hang out with friends and think about what I will do with my life in the short term. I was doing these things almost all weekend. I hung out with Safiye on 23 Nisan (basically National Children's Day ). We met up in Taksim and there I met some of her friends. We went to a French street (really beautiful section with cozy French restaurants). Afterward, Safiye and I had some time
to kill so we decided to catch a movie. We were at the theater at an awkward time, so we didn't have many choices for what to see. However we decided on the How to Train Your Dragon movie (in 3D!), which I kinda wanted to see. Since it is a children's movie, it was dubbed instead of subtitled. I was worried that I would get bored, but in fact I really liked watching every bit of it. Most of the time I could tell what was being said anyway from the actions and expressions, but occasionally there was a streak of a couple of minutes where I understood almost all the dialog. I loved the movie! It was a great story with a message of non-violence (nicely done for a picture about vikings!). Also I thought the voice acting was great for the most part.
After the movie we went to Beşiktaş to a party at Mehtap's. It was chill and fun. I drank rakı, Tuborg, and a mixed drink that was fruity and minty. We ate fish and börek. Both were amazingly good. I had a great time and even made some new friends at the party.
Saturday, I hung out in Fenerbahçe with a bunch of friends. We
watched a football match, ate dinner, and then much later went to a rock/blues club. There was live music! It was lots of fun, of course. Most exciting to me was that I met up with a friend I made the morning before while riding a dolmuş (cross between a minibus and shared cab) to the European side. She was Turkish but new to İstanbul like me. We decided to hang out and get to know the city together, so I had invited her to come to the club. I met her there and we relaxed and danced.
Sunday was fun. I helped some friends of Kuthan move into their new apartment. Later I went to Etiler near Akmerkez to meet with my friend Mine, get coffee and beer, and watch the Galatasaray - Bursa match. I met some funny Fenerbahçe fans there who thought they could convince me to change loyalties with a history lesson and some peer pressure. A brief and friendly yet intellectual and passionate conversation ensued, at the end of which all the Fener fans shook my hand, said I was one of them, and told me that I should remain a fan of GS. It's amazing the respect one can earn with a healthy knowledge of Turkish football.
At the bar I also met an American who had been living in İstanbul 2 years. I asked where exactly she was from but first ventured a guess. She said I could have 5 guesses. I concentrated on her accent. There was definitely a hint of Michigan in there. I guessed Michigan and she said she was born there! But it turns out she grew up in Iowa (my 4th guess). We had a fun conversation. I treasure those rare, good interactions with foreigners. I respect her though because she loves the country as much as I do, and she is knowledgeable about the culture.
After the bar, I played football in a very intense 6 v. 6 match. I almost scored with a left-footed shot, but the castle-keeper (as they call it in Turkish) made a great save. Tired, winded, and in a great mood, I came home and wrote this blog post. And that about sums it up.
The truth is, every day has been an adventure. From a short ride with a friend in a cable car to a vista.
To a chill moment while waiting for the boat to Bostancı after a long day.
In between these special moments, moments that warrant the use of a camera despite the message it sends to the locals about my role in the society, there is life. I am referring to the things that either make a blog too boring or too personal. There are the afternoons spent trying to deal with legal things. There are the moments when I am uncertain or sad. I tend not to write about those here. Anyway, there are so many great moments shared with friends.
These next few days will be some of the busier, but I hope to be able to keep you updated on where I am with everything. There should be some pretty excited news coming very soon. Ba dum dum dum!
