A lot has happened since I last blogged.
I met and married the man of my dreams.
We left Turkey.
We visited my family and friends in Bermuda.
I moved to Denmark with Simon.
I'm learning Danish.
I am studying Permaculture.
I have been given a job as a cook at a vegetarian cafe.
Life is good.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Ahmet is ok.
He was released from the hospital the next morning in good condition. Thank you for your prayers and kind words. :o)
Ahmet...
This afternoon instead of Trikking directly home from work, I decided to take a leisurely ride along the seaside bike path and enjoy the beautiful summery weather. About 10 minutes along the path, there was a commotion at the water's edge and a crowd beginning to gather. I usually ignore this stuff, as there are almost always too many rubberneckers doing nothing but staring, but since people were running across the bike path, I had to slow down, so I took a look and that's when I heard someone shout in Turkish, above the commotion "DOES ANYONE KNOW FIRST AID?!!!" I left my Trikke on the path, and ran down to the water's edge where they had just pulled a teenage boy out of the water and were standing around looking at him, while a woman was crouched next to him shaking him.
I pushed through the crowd and knelt next to him. She had turned him on his side, I rolled him onto his back and saw that his mouth and nose were full of foam, but it wasn't moving. I checked for his pulse and there was nothing but cold, wet, still skin. Now typing it, I can remember every detail. At the time (an hour and a half ago), all I thought was Airway, Breathing, Circulation. I cleared the foam away with my fingers, tilted his head back, pinched his nose, opened his mouth, and breathed in two breaths, looking sideways to see his chest rise and fall, but hearing the awful gurgling of water in his lungs. I then started CPR compressions.
A few months ago, listening to a radio podcast that I download every day, they reported on a medical study that found that one of the best songs to remember while giving CPR is "Staying Alive" by the BeeGees. So as a gathering crowd of curious onlookers, wailing mothers, sobbing teenagers, and useless police, none of whom know CPR stood watching, I hummed the tune to Staying Alive in my head, counted chest compressions, and breathed into this young boy's mouth, pausing to check his pulse every now and then.
His lips were cold. His chest was cold. His eyes were half open and unresponsive.
Still to the beat of "Staying Alive" I asked for his name. The answer came back "Ahmet". I breathed two more breaths and went back to "Staying Alive".
A man came and asked if I was tired and could he help. Relieved, I asked if he knew CPR, one of us could breathe, one of us could compress. His answer, No.
...Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Staying alive, Staying alive....
The screams of some crazy woman continued, the police moved the crowd back. One of his friends cried "ölmüş! ölmüş!" - He's dead! He's dead!
The BeeGees continued in my head, background music for my silent prayer... Ya'Baha'u'l-Abha! A Baha'i prayer in Arabic.
This continued for somewhere about 8 to 10 minutes. I asked the man who had offered his help to keep an eye on the time so that we could tell the paramedics.... where was the ambulance anyway? And WHY DIDN'T THE POLICE KNOW CPR???????????
I felt his neck for a pulse. My other hand on his chest ready to start compressions again. I felt it in his chest a second before my other hand registered it on his neck. A beat!
...staying alive, staying alive....
Still no breathing. I continued breathing for him. Constantly checking his pulse, feeling short of hands, but surrounded by what was now something between 100 and 200 dumbfounded, useless onlookers. There was a woman next to me. I asked her if she could feel his pulse in his wrist. She could. I put her on the job as I kept up mouth to mouth resuscitation. His lips were warmer.
In the movies, they cough as they come to. Ahmet sighed. I watched him take a breath on his own. Then another. And turned him on his side.
For the next few agonising minutes, I begged for the boys on the beach to bring their clothes to cover him with. Maybe a jacket from one of the motorcycle cops standing around uselessly? Nope. No jacket. It's forbidden to take it off. I was SO angry.
Ahmet breathed, gurgling up water. He started moaning. His heart kept beating. "Staying Alive" had switched off, but Ya'Baha'u'l-Abha still repeated in my head, as we watched his ears turn from blue to purple to white then pink. He breathed and gurgled. His heart was beating.....
The paramedics came a few minutes later. They had an aspirator, which they put down his throat, and started sucking salt water out with. It wasn't the lungful that I was envisioning in my head. I stepped away from Ahmet, and talked to his friends. Where is his phone? Can you call his parents? I asked the police which hospital they were taking him to. The paramedics continued aspirating, and checked his pupils for a response. He moaned again.
Ahmet is at the hospital now. The police have my number and promise to call me and let me know how he is doing. I am afraid that his friends, who thought he was joking, and estimated that he had been underwater for two minutes, misjudged the time, and maybe he was down for longer. I don't know if his brain will be able to recover from the oxygen deprivation. I don't know if his lungs can recover from the salt water that was in them. I don't know anything.
I do know, however, that of the huge throng of people who stood there helplessly, I was the only one who knew CPR. And this makes me VERY ANGRY. I'm not going to "what if". I was there in the right place at the right time, and that's that.
Please, my friends, family, acquaintances...... please please learn cpr. You will probably never need it. I haven't needed it for the 20 or so years since I first learned it. But when you need it, you REALLY need it.
I stood there after the ambulance had left, and got very angry at the crowd, who was there begging to find out what had happened. They acted as though what I had done was magic, and I was some kind of black witch doctor from a foreign country. I told them that the Kizilay (in the muslim world, the red cross is the red crescent, as it's the red star of david in israel) teaches cpr. I urged them to go and learn. I told them that that could have been their brother, their mother, their daughter or son, their best friend.... and all they could do was stand there and watch him die.
I am still angry now. The police didn't know CPR!
Please. Go and sign up for a course, take your friends and family, do it together.
And please pray for Ahmet.
I pushed through the crowd and knelt next to him. She had turned him on his side, I rolled him onto his back and saw that his mouth and nose were full of foam, but it wasn't moving. I checked for his pulse and there was nothing but cold, wet, still skin. Now typing it, I can remember every detail. At the time (an hour and a half ago), all I thought was Airway, Breathing, Circulation. I cleared the foam away with my fingers, tilted his head back, pinched his nose, opened his mouth, and breathed in two breaths, looking sideways to see his chest rise and fall, but hearing the awful gurgling of water in his lungs. I then started CPR compressions.
A few months ago, listening to a radio podcast that I download every day, they reported on a medical study that found that one of the best songs to remember while giving CPR is "Staying Alive" by the BeeGees. So as a gathering crowd of curious onlookers, wailing mothers, sobbing teenagers, and useless police, none of whom know CPR stood watching, I hummed the tune to Staying Alive in my head, counted chest compressions, and breathed into this young boy's mouth, pausing to check his pulse every now and then.
His lips were cold. His chest was cold. His eyes were half open and unresponsive.
Still to the beat of "Staying Alive" I asked for his name. The answer came back "Ahmet". I breathed two more breaths and went back to "Staying Alive".
A man came and asked if I was tired and could he help. Relieved, I asked if he knew CPR, one of us could breathe, one of us could compress. His answer, No.
...Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Staying alive, Staying alive....
The screams of some crazy woman continued, the police moved the crowd back. One of his friends cried "ölmüş! ölmüş!" - He's dead! He's dead!
The BeeGees continued in my head, background music for my silent prayer... Ya'Baha'u'l-Abha! A Baha'i prayer in Arabic.
This continued for somewhere about 8 to 10 minutes. I asked the man who had offered his help to keep an eye on the time so that we could tell the paramedics.... where was the ambulance anyway? And WHY DIDN'T THE POLICE KNOW CPR???????????
I felt his neck for a pulse. My other hand on his chest ready to start compressions again. I felt it in his chest a second before my other hand registered it on his neck. A beat!
...staying alive, staying alive....
Still no breathing. I continued breathing for him. Constantly checking his pulse, feeling short of hands, but surrounded by what was now something between 100 and 200 dumbfounded, useless onlookers. There was a woman next to me. I asked her if she could feel his pulse in his wrist. She could. I put her on the job as I kept up mouth to mouth resuscitation. His lips were warmer.
In the movies, they cough as they come to. Ahmet sighed. I watched him take a breath on his own. Then another. And turned him on his side.
For the next few agonising minutes, I begged for the boys on the beach to bring their clothes to cover him with. Maybe a jacket from one of the motorcycle cops standing around uselessly? Nope. No jacket. It's forbidden to take it off. I was SO angry.
Ahmet breathed, gurgling up water. He started moaning. His heart kept beating. "Staying Alive" had switched off, but Ya'Baha'u'l-Abha still repeated in my head, as we watched his ears turn from blue to purple to white then pink. He breathed and gurgled. His heart was beating.....
The paramedics came a few minutes later. They had an aspirator, which they put down his throat, and started sucking salt water out with. It wasn't the lungful that I was envisioning in my head. I stepped away from Ahmet, and talked to his friends. Where is his phone? Can you call his parents? I asked the police which hospital they were taking him to. The paramedics continued aspirating, and checked his pupils for a response. He moaned again.
Ahmet is at the hospital now. The police have my number and promise to call me and let me know how he is doing. I am afraid that his friends, who thought he was joking, and estimated that he had been underwater for two minutes, misjudged the time, and maybe he was down for longer. I don't know if his brain will be able to recover from the oxygen deprivation. I don't know if his lungs can recover from the salt water that was in them. I don't know anything.
I do know, however, that of the huge throng of people who stood there helplessly, I was the only one who knew CPR. And this makes me VERY ANGRY. I'm not going to "what if". I was there in the right place at the right time, and that's that.
Please, my friends, family, acquaintances...... please please learn cpr. You will probably never need it. I haven't needed it for the 20 or so years since I first learned it. But when you need it, you REALLY need it.
I stood there after the ambulance had left, and got very angry at the crowd, who was there begging to find out what had happened. They acted as though what I had done was magic, and I was some kind of black witch doctor from a foreign country. I told them that the Kizilay (in the muslim world, the red cross is the red crescent, as it's the red star of david in israel) teaches cpr. I urged them to go and learn. I told them that that could have been their brother, their mother, their daughter or son, their best friend.... and all they could do was stand there and watch him die.
I am still angry now. The police didn't know CPR!
Please. Go and sign up for a course, take your friends and family, do it together.
And please pray for Ahmet.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Lots to Say, No Inclination to Blog it...
I honestly forget about this blog sometimes, for weeks and in this case months on end. That, coupled with the frequent disinclination to blog, menas that my last post was in October introducing a new blog, and not only have I not blogged here, but I haven't blogged there since the first week either. I'm busy, what can I say?
Instead of trying to summarize the last 7 months, i'm just going to talk about what is making me really excited now.
After years of playing around with ideas, hoping, wishing, dreaming, I've finally decided and am taking the first big steps toward starting my own business. I have always wanted to be my own boss. Anyone who knows me knows that that's my personality. A few years ago the plan was to open a cafe, but since I've been in Istanbul teaching, there has come to mind a completely different plan. I want to start an English Training programme. I'm not really inclined to call it a course. It will involve highly commnicative techniques for improving students' fluency and accuracy in speaking English as a second language. I'm developing my own programme and materials, and I'm really excited about it. I don't want to put too much info about it here until I have a website and a contact number and brochures and business cards. But I'm excited.
The most surprising thing to me has been the rections of my friends and acquaintances. I am really nervous about this, as it's a big step, and it's a dream I've had for years, and probably the biggest thing I've done in my whole life. And as I tell people around me about it, I notice there are only two reactions. The first is always a surprise, it's the people who are absolutely thrilled about it and are immediately curious and very supportive and encouraging. I didn't really expect this. I mean, I know it's a big step for me but I don't expect others to think it's such a big step. And I'm really heartened by the waves of support and encouragement coming from all directions. The second reaction, is always even more surprising.... it's the people who have a very strong negative reaction. I don't know where it comes from. Friends have told me it stems from jealousy, but whatever it is, it's these people who, without even knowing any of the details say things like "oh how are you going to make that successful?" or "you can't do that in turkey and make money" and I guess if I even believed them a little bit, it could be discouraging, but I have full confidence in my ability and in the ingenuity of my plan and the method I plan to use, the originality and the fact that there are no competitors, also make it a sure thing.
I'm excited! I need your prayers and good thoughts....
Instead of trying to summarize the last 7 months, i'm just going to talk about what is making me really excited now.
After years of playing around with ideas, hoping, wishing, dreaming, I've finally decided and am taking the first big steps toward starting my own business. I have always wanted to be my own boss. Anyone who knows me knows that that's my personality. A few years ago the plan was to open a cafe, but since I've been in Istanbul teaching, there has come to mind a completely different plan. I want to start an English Training programme. I'm not really inclined to call it a course. It will involve highly commnicative techniques for improving students' fluency and accuracy in speaking English as a second language. I'm developing my own programme and materials, and I'm really excited about it. I don't want to put too much info about it here until I have a website and a contact number and brochures and business cards. But I'm excited.
The most surprising thing to me has been the rections of my friends and acquaintances. I am really nervous about this, as it's a big step, and it's a dream I've had for years, and probably the biggest thing I've done in my whole life. And as I tell people around me about it, I notice there are only two reactions. The first is always a surprise, it's the people who are absolutely thrilled about it and are immediately curious and very supportive and encouraging. I didn't really expect this. I mean, I know it's a big step for me but I don't expect others to think it's such a big step. And I'm really heartened by the waves of support and encouragement coming from all directions. The second reaction, is always even more surprising.... it's the people who have a very strong negative reaction. I don't know where it comes from. Friends have told me it stems from jealousy, but whatever it is, it's these people who, without even knowing any of the details say things like "oh how are you going to make that successful?" or "you can't do that in turkey and make money" and I guess if I even believed them a little bit, it could be discouraging, but I have full confidence in my ability and in the ingenuity of my plan and the method I plan to use, the originality and the fact that there are no competitors, also make it a sure thing.
I'm excited! I need your prayers and good thoughts....
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
On Facebook
Hi5, Orkut, Friendster... remember sixdegrees? There are a jillion websites out there designed to get you reconnected with all your old friends. I tried them all and only found that I became a member and never used them. All I ended up with was extra mail in my inbox and the occasional picture. About a year go Neisan told me to get on Facebook. I was like, no thanks. If it's like Friendster and Orkut and those others, I'm not going to bother.
Now I'm hooked. I log in every day. I put pics and videos there. I look at all my friends and see what their statuses are and their pictures and their pictures of each other and of me. I look at my friends' friends' and see if there's anyone I don't know. I play games like Wiki Races. I join and create groups, serious and stupid.... Dude! I love it.
Small print.... NOT recommended for people who don't have any spare time!
Now I'm hooked. I log in every day. I put pics and videos there. I look at all my friends and see what their statuses are and their pictures and their pictures of each other and of me. I look at my friends' friends' and see if there's anyone I don't know. I play games like Wiki Races. I join and create groups, serious and stupid.... Dude! I love it.
Small print.... NOT recommended for people who don't have any spare time!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
An Afternoon in Sultanahmet
Sometimes I forget where I'm living. It's easy to go to work every day, come home, chat online, check e-mail, watch movies, do puzzles, plan another days' work and keep repeating it throwing in an occasional something else here and there. I sometimes forget that I fell in love with Istanbul not just because of the fact that I already speak the language! I love my flat. I love the area that I live in. But sometimes I forget that I also love the Grand Bazaar and Sultanahmet and all those things that tourists come all this way to see. It's sad that they don't get to see the day to day Istanbul that I love, but what they do see is great.
Yesterday Stephanie and I were both off, and since she had never been to the Grand Bazaar, we decided to go. We set off in the ferry from Kadiköy near our home on the Asian side of Istanbul and crossed to Eminönü, on the European side of Istanbul. We then crossed the Bosphorus...
Europe is on the left, Asia is on the right....
After the crossing (which takes about 20 minutes) we got on the tram and headed for the Grand Bazaar. It is a pretty bizarre place, all sorts of stuff for sale, side by side, so the vendors have to find different ways of getting your attention. All in all a fun time though. Here's a couple of pics of that.
We then headed down through the back roads to the spice bazaar, which I like even better than the grand bazaar, but for some reason, I didn't take any pictures.
After the Spice Bazaar, in the big area next to the mosque that it's underneath, we took this picture
and then we headed across the Galata Bridge to find a cafe. The Galata Bridge spans the Golden Horn and is a floating bridge. On the upper level cars and buses and trams pass from Eminonu to Karakoy. On the lower level, on both sides, restauranteurs and cafe-owners compete for trade. On the top of the bridge Turkish men find their escape in fishing. As a Bermudian amateur fisherwoman, I really don't understand how these men spend hours and hours with rod and reel to catch sardines about 10 cm long. But they do it and it's part of the culture. There's a public holiday on Monday so the city is festooned with flags.
There's also a fountain in the middle of the water! I like that.
We went to the cafe and ordered a strawberry nargile. Nargile, for those that don't know, is an Arab water pipe. To dispel any ideas that there are strange goings on in the nargile, it's flavoured tobacco treated in molasses, and then filtered through water. It's a very Turkish (and I guess Middle Eastern) thing. The flavours range from fruity, the most popular being apple, but also strawberry, melon, banana, blackberry, lemon, and others, to more aromatic like mint, rose, and jasmine to the more trendy caramel, cappuccino, and vanilla, and everything in between. Sitting in a cafe with nargile, tea and backgammon... couldn't be any more Turkish.
After talking and laughing for a couple of hours, we watched the sun set. It was gorgeous and I took a million pictures, but you know pictures.... you can't capture the sunset. Here's my small attempt anyway
At almost 8 we decided to head back to Kadikoy. We had done the day, and were happy with it. I couldn't resist a last sunset picture though.
Here's a couple of pictures of the restaurants and cafes under the Galata Bridge that I took on Saturday night....
Back in Kadikoy, to end, here's the Haldun Taner Theatre. A famous landmark....
Yesterday Stephanie and I were both off, and since she had never been to the Grand Bazaar, we decided to go. We set off in the ferry from Kadiköy near our home on the Asian side of Istanbul and crossed to Eminönü, on the European side of Istanbul. We then crossed the Bosphorus...
Europe is on the left, Asia is on the right....
After the crossing (which takes about 20 minutes) we got on the tram and headed for the Grand Bazaar. It is a pretty bizarre place, all sorts of stuff for sale, side by side, so the vendors have to find different ways of getting your attention. All in all a fun time though. Here's a couple of pics of that.
We then headed down through the back roads to the spice bazaar, which I like even better than the grand bazaar, but for some reason, I didn't take any pictures.
After the Spice Bazaar, in the big area next to the mosque that it's underneath, we took this picture
and then we headed across the Galata Bridge to find a cafe. The Galata Bridge spans the Golden Horn and is a floating bridge. On the upper level cars and buses and trams pass from Eminonu to Karakoy. On the lower level, on both sides, restauranteurs and cafe-owners compete for trade. On the top of the bridge Turkish men find their escape in fishing. As a Bermudian amateur fisherwoman, I really don't understand how these men spend hours and hours with rod and reel to catch sardines about 10 cm long. But they do it and it's part of the culture. There's a public holiday on Monday so the city is festooned with flags.
There's also a fountain in the middle of the water! I like that.
We went to the cafe and ordered a strawberry nargile. Nargile, for those that don't know, is an Arab water pipe. To dispel any ideas that there are strange goings on in the nargile, it's flavoured tobacco treated in molasses, and then filtered through water. It's a very Turkish (and I guess Middle Eastern) thing. The flavours range from fruity, the most popular being apple, but also strawberry, melon, banana, blackberry, lemon, and others, to more aromatic like mint, rose, and jasmine to the more trendy caramel, cappuccino, and vanilla, and everything in between. Sitting in a cafe with nargile, tea and backgammon... couldn't be any more Turkish.
After talking and laughing for a couple of hours, we watched the sun set. It was gorgeous and I took a million pictures, but you know pictures.... you can't capture the sunset. Here's my small attempt anyway
At almost 8 we decided to head back to Kadikoy. We had done the day, and were happy with it. I couldn't resist a last sunset picture though.
Here's a couple of pictures of the restaurants and cafes under the Galata Bridge that I took on Saturday night....
Back in Kadikoy, to end, here's the Haldun Taner Theatre. A famous landmark....
Stupid Mistake
Back in July I was getting "comments" from people that were just trying to link to their site and sell things. So I changed my blog to moderate comments. Unfortunately when I did this, I neglected to put in my e-mail address. Since I generally post to blogs from e-mail, I had no idea I had 26 comments sitting here waiting for moderation... I thought everyone (including my mom) had just lost interest! hehehehe. Anyway, the problem has been rectified, your comments are here, thank you all, the stupid ones have all been deleted, I think, and I'm back to blogland. Yayyy!!!
Now I'm going to try and coordinate blogger with flickr to get you a blogged album of thumbnails of the pics that i just posted on flickr. Of course, if you have no faith in my ability to do this or can't be bothered waiting for it, here's the flickr link http://www.flickr.com/photos/krisia/
Now I'm going to try and coordinate blogger with flickr to get you a blogged album of thumbnails of the pics that i just posted on flickr. Of course, if you have no faith in my ability to do this or can't be bothered waiting for it, here's the flickr link http://www.flickr.com/photos/krisia/
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
New Computer
I just got a new computer, and an internet connection at home! I'm in cyberspace!!! Pretty cool I think. This means that I'll probably be blogging more often and will be able to upload pictures and stuff more regularly. I say probably because you know, sometimes I just don't feel like it. But theoretically it should be good. I also have skype set up at home so skype me!
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Long time no blog
Last blog was from Plovdiv, where I spent a wonderful day, met some new people, met up with friends from Istanbul, and made friends on the bus ride home. In a nutshell, Plovdiv is a beautiful little town and I'm definitely going back there for another visit.
Speaking of visits, my next trip is going t obe to Barbados to visit the parents. I am planning to leave here on or about January 19 or so. Unfortunately though, my wallet was stolen last week so I have to figure out some solution to the problem of being without a drivers' licence. We'll see what happens. Hopefully, some morally upright Turk will find it and turn it in to the police..... Inshallah!
As far as my life lately, I still go to salsa classes on a weekly basis. My partner is Cameron, another teacher. He's an Australian yoga teacher whose job before coming here was teaching English to some monks in Tibet or India or something.... He's definitely a character, and he's fun to dance with.
The cats are doing well although with winter coming, Baris's lungs are sounding wheezy again. Apparently his lungs are too small for his body. Not surprising since his body is huge! Savas takes good care of him though.
I have another friend here Cengiz, who I met at a Language Exchange website. I get to practice my Turkish and he his English so it's a good deal for both of us. We've been getting together about once or twice a week to chat.
All in all life is very much the same. I still have a private lesson with a Baha'i in our community once a week. In fact, we have a class now.
Anyone reading this, drop me a note to let me know what's going on. I'm tired of opening my inbox and finding it full of only junk mail. My email address is my first name at gmail dot com.....
See ya!
Thursday, October 26, 2006
In Plovdiv
Random trips.... Get on a bus. Go to a place. Explore. Go home. That's what I like. I arrived in Plovdiv, Bulgaria at 4 this morning. Lucky for me, the taxi driver I got knew of a 24-hour Internet cafe. I'm still here, although I'm not sure how I will pay, I have Euros and not the local currency, which, since I don't know what it is, I will call "bullies". The Bulgarian alphabet is the cyrillic script, like Russian, so I have no idea what it says when I see prices written. When Scott, another teacher, first came to Turkey, he didn't know the currency's name. It was written YTL (for Yeni Turk Lirasi - New TUrkish Lira) so he called them "yertles", and still does. So it is with the BUlgarian bullies for me. My taxi here cost 3 bullies. The Internet cafe will probably come to about 5 bullies. Hopefully, if I give him 5 euros, I will get bullies for change. The exchange rate is about 2 bullies to 1 euro...
Plovdiv. Everything about it sounds dowdy and Russian. It looks like how I imagined Russia to look back in the days of the cold war when the word "Russia" was a bad word. Looking outside, it is kinda like looking at a t.v. show from like 20 years ago. There's colour, but it's not very vivid. It feels like whole chunks of the spectrum are missing, and got taken over by shades of grey and brown. It's weird because in such a setting I would expect to find kinda greyish people walking around hunched over and standing in line for food or coal... Instead all I've seen so far are the teenage boys up all night gaming on the internet, and they are just as vivid as teenagers anywhere.
I'm going to go out now and take pictures of Plovdiv. See what it looks like as it wakes up. Then I'm having lunch with Georgina and Rachael. We may even meet up with Sean and Kelly as well... We'll see.
Off to Plovdiv!
Friday, September 15, 2006
I got the music back...
I've been in Turkey for a year and a half now and there's been something missing the whole time. I've made several attempts to find and connect with musicians, because the thing I really missed was sitting down with friends and making music together. None of these attempts had really panned out into anything. Last week in conversation class I met a guitarist, Levent. His brother Freddie plays the ney, a Turkish bamboo flute. He arrived in Istanbul last Sunday. We have been playing almost daily since then. I can't believe how much I have missed this. My fingers are calloused, my throat is sore, but I'm extremely happy! :o)
Thursday, August 24, 2006
No News is....
...no news. The thing about blogging is that it's really easy to think of excuses not to when you're not in the mood to blog. My latest excuse is that the air conditioner in the teachers' room at work is not working, and hasn't been working all summer. Because I don't have internet at home, this means that my e-mail gets neglected. That includes my blog.
The last couple of weeks have been dominated by Ertu and I's "break-up" which is in quotation marks since we were never technically "together" but we were together enough for us to "break-up" and it's taken a while to get over it. We learned a lot from each other and love each other dearly, but sometimes that's not enough, and life goes on.
Istanbul is sweltering hot right now. We've been going through cycles of hot and extremely hot, with little respite. With the aforementioned airconditioner in the teachers' room out of service, this means that I spend less time planning classes, and more time at the gym, where it's nice and cool. I can't wait till september.
My flatmate is going away on Sunday. She's visiting her family for the month of September. I will have the flat to myself. The cats will probably be neurotic at first (apparently Savas missed me a lot when I was gone, and that made Baris act crazy). Rebecca is Baris's favourite so I'll probably be stuck with 7 kilos (that's 15 lbs) of neurotic cat, and Savas (another 6 kilos) will be crazy from Baris's weird mood. Other than that, it'll be nice to have the place to myself for a change. Won't have to close the balcony door every hour when she goes to smoke.... If nothing else it'll be cooler. :o)
Sunday, July 30, 2006
On Doing Nothing...
Well, I'm back home in Istanbul after a wonderful, meditative vacation in France and Spain. I got to see friends I hadn't seen in too long, visit places I've wanted to see for a long time, and, most importantly, relax. I stopped everything, and spent quite a few days doing absolutely nothing, and loving it. There's something about seeing a person doing nothing that really bothers people. I think we tolerate it for a few minutes, but when it moves into hours or days, we get worried and nervous.
My life is busy. I go to work in the morning, spend the afternoon with friends, or sightseeing, or just walking around, and of course, going to the gym. In the evening I work again. My days off aren't really days off because I have private students. OK so my work isn't a constant, 9-5 kinda thing, and I do have a lot of free time, but very rarely am I just doing nothing.
Before I left for this trip, my friend Erturul gave me a book on meditation to read. One of the things that it made me realise was that I wasn't giving myself time and space to think, and listen to myself. By filling my days up from waking to bedtime, I didn't have time to sit and just be.
I let myself do that this holiday. And it was great. I learned so much about myself. It's funny how when I was at home and had nothing to do, before, I would be bored, and go and do something. Now I actually make time for not having anything to do and spend it meditating. It's so refreshing and has changed my outlook on life. The only problem is, when people see that you have nothing to do and are doing nothing, they get worried. It's a big obstacle to get over. Now when I see people doing nothing, I don't ask them if their bored, or try to fill up their time for them. I leave them be, and hope they enjoy it.
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