swiss human is easily frightened

our school shares its fifth floor with a beauty parlour specialised in sun beds.

was teaching on the fifth floor tonight and there was techno music blasting from their side.

how bizarre.

i tried to get some empathy from my students - but, as usual, they laughed my puzzelment off and commented (as usual) "it' s nooooormal. it's turkey. NOT IMPORTANT".

when they say (all the time, actually) "not important" i gather they mean " it does not matter" - one of the first things (no wonder) i have learnt to say in turkish.

"bosh-var" - that is.

if you translate it word by word it means: "empty-there is", which i somehow find (perhaps twistedly so) rather fascinating...

some interesting quotes from tonight's session:

1. "i heard that now in england it is very hard to enter. they give very few visas to foreign people. i read in the paper that actually even english people... people with english passport - they now have to get a visa to go into london".

2. "my friend went to rome with her boyfriend and they throw coin into, you know??, the LOVE FOUNTAIN ((trevi)). they pray for all of us when they throw coin. then my friend say that in rome people when there is green light for people walking... yes, pedestrians i mean... my friend say that the cars stop. not like turkey. i was shocked when my friend say this. i think WOW... very different..."

3. "i know that in switzerland if you use your horn (beep) when driving in the street... if in the street there is an old human (man) walking - they give you penalty (fine) and you have to pay money because of scaring the old human"

then, since they seemed fascinated by how civil european drivers seemed - i tried to find some enlightment on why in turkey people drive like schizofrenics on high doses of crack; and, also, why people here stop at crossroads to insult and threaten (if not beat) each other; and, while i was at it, why people here are 100% colourblind and cannot perceive any significant difference between a green light and a red light...let alone an orange one.

my students seemed to identify only two (2) plausible explanations:

1) "it is the government's fault. they do not do anything about it. people die constantly on the street. every day. because of terrible driving. but the government does not care";

2) "it is because they sell fast cars. they should sell cars that go maximum up to 140 km/hour. i do not know why they sell fast cars when you cannot drive 160 in the city".

this time, surprisingly enough - i was lucky enough not to get "IT IS NOT IMPORTANT" as a final remark...

at least that!