(i) the holiday season here is over and today everyone is back at work. our four friends said bye (the first two on tuesday, the second two yesterday) -- leaving behind a mellow feeling: it was a lovely week...perhaps the fastest of the past year. woke up today thinking it did feel like real time off -- away from everything. it is unusual for me to feel that about a holiday... a good sign, i guess -- but i am going to miss having friends around. on one hand it may be tiring: with all the preps, the tidying up, the cooking, planning and trying to be cheerful and welcoming all the time... but on the other it is amazing to have a different vibe around the house; listen to different stories and see beautiful places in good company.
we enjoyed amazing weather (verging on 25 degrees...!) which made our day trips look like easter family outings... and we also enjoyed great food and fab sightseeing. everyone said they were expecting turkey to be a great place to visit -- but all commented they were mostly impressed by how nice, friendly and cheerful turkish people are.
i always love to have guests - i love to treat and surprise them. plus, whenever i have any kind of personal interaction i always end up realising that what people need the most is a mix of attention, care and the knowledge they are being listened to. hardly ever for advice, really -- mainly for a wish to share and "let stuff out"... ((come to think of it -- the same quite often happens in your professional life too...with colleagues, students, employers, etc.)) i have a huge respect for this type of dynamics and try my best to keep my ears (and heart) available and alert. my idea is that the more diversity of messages you take in and reflect on -- the more you keep your own diversity alive...preserving your more empathetic, bubbly and curious side...keeping it on the lookout for whatever may come along.
in addition to that -- i do think different people put together (even at random) naturally create an "esprit de corp" that provides an endless stock for a good laugh and a taste of how mellow and actually light this wacky life can be.
p.s. it seems poignant to add that as a memento of turkey each and every kind guest was given a family pack of toothbrushes from leading local brand "BANAT" - to me a product that is the epitome of technological emancipation here. i did however spare everyone my initial plan to pair the "banat" gift pack with the interestingly named "CANDIDA" whitening toothpaste...
(ii)
now that the turkish "holiday season" with all the religious festivals is up... i may have to think to arrange something for "our" christmas in turkey... which, as experienced last year, is a rather tamed kind of affair... however - am already focusing on the presents' side of things... and found the thing i really wanted for my 3 year old... a bright red camping tent. it is a tiny, igloo shaped tent -- ...i had been after something like this for months. as a child, i seemed to have a predilection for sleeping everywhere apart from my own bed - and would daydream about camping somewhere (even on the kitchen floor!) or building shelters up some tree... i guess my "hunt for the red tent" sprang from all these "tom sawyer"-fuelled childhood fantasies! will now need to create some special pantomime around the unusual christmas present. hope my little one warms to the enthusiasm...
(iii)
have recently developed an unprecedented fascination with new york and hope to travel there at some point. never had this urge before -- but may start to collect infos and tips on the big apple and eventually check it out for myself. all those don delillo and paul auster reads on n.y. may be contagious after all, i figure!
(iv)
realised by reading my students' essays yesterday evening that turkish people use the adjective "crowded" when they actually mean "impossibly messy; unbearably swarming with people; loud; out of control; insane; devastatingly chaotic and hopelessly noisy"... they in fact use "crowded" to describe wild packs of people; unruly hoards of hooligans; the traffic in istanbul and buses they never manage to catch because of the legions of people already on them; the local market populated by screaming masses and the public offices clogged with queues and angry faces. "crowded"... they say. so to speak...
(v)
was intensely engaged in my daily jog yesterday when some guy stopped me by frantically waving his arms in the air. paused my ipod (and legs) for a second and looked at him in puzzlement. "any problem?" i mumbled - expecting some major emergency on the way. he produced a digital camera and asked "no...no problem. but... can you take my picture for my girlfriend?" which sounded surreal and in truth demanded some kind of (dignified... if not offended) reaction like "can't you see i am running? / busy? / exercising?"
but somehow managed to make me laugh. that's the thing about turkey that always manages to amuse me immensely -- how unhinged and (very!) random people and things here can be. i believe my students would dismiss it as a very "crowded" matter...
(vi)
keep on thinking about a quote from "looking for eric" by ken loach. "...she nourishes everything she touches" -- which is used to describe a woman and her caring, sweet attitude to things and others. i find it very beautiful. deep but gentle. it is hard to find women you would use those words for - and perhaps it would be lovely to described like that.
(vii)
on the less sweet side -- went back to listening to loads of franz ferdinand's music. terrific stuff. i remember seeing them in concert in singapore and have always been a fan. some of their lyrics kill me.
(viii)
hope to make it to the pool today and forget for a couple of hours it is actually monday... no more mellow thoughts and after thoughts... no more friends around... alas...
...just hope the swimming pool will not be too... C R O W D E D.
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