Hey everybody! Its been a few minutes since I rapped at you, but I wanted to throw out a hearty “Merhaba” from Istanbul!
Being here again after six years is like having a good recurring dream that hasn’t recurred in a long time. The places look oddly familiar, the people do to, and the hills are just as tough on the calves as ever.
The slightly melancholy feeling of the city, combined with the tremendous hospitality of people I just met, such as the young Turkish guy who works at this hostel I am blogging from, make this town something of a continual enigma, unable to fit neatly into categories. Even the climate is such: Is it Mediterranean or temperate? The wishy-washy spring temps add to this identity crisis.
People have been telling me that picking up and moving here is “adventurous.” I am grateful for all the well wishes. It makes me wonder, though, about what being adventurous is. My friend in Portland mentioned that he would like to buy an old house there and fix it up. To me, that is very brave, somthing I would be very intimidated by. THAT is very adventurous in its own right. It takes commitment, patience, a desire to explore an unknown corner of the world, and even a bit of soul searching.
If I move to a city I have been to a few times, get a 9 to 5 job teaching a language I am fluent in, go home to an apartment and kick back with a friend and a beer. Is that an adventurous lifestyle? I suppose a lot of it is in the spinning.
But I hope to do some traveling, and some things I have never done, such as visit eastern Europe (Turkey borders Bulgaria, and places like Croatia and Hungry are not far away). There are still broader horizons to be sought, but learning to speak Turkish fluently and plunge back into the culture. Learning a language like Turkish is an adventure in its own right. Right?
Stay tuned for a post from what I hope will be my new apartment!
