alışmak

this week i took a quick trip to a small rainy seaside village near the black sea. its an unmistakable sensation to approach the lush green forests and turbulent sea and it gave me an instant flashback of my thorough black sea trip i took about two years ago. women dress in these puffy flowery pants (i forgot what they are called) and the men sometimes resemble people from ukraine with their blue eyes. the small houses are covered in forestation and there is this looming sound of the tulum (an instrument similar to the bagpipes) making its high pitched whine somewhere in the distance constantly. people have obvious difference from those whom i have gotten used to in istanbul and i find them to be extremely welcoming however.. you know, different.

the truth is that the black sea, like most places in turkey is unique and magical, its not something i have ever experienced back home or any other place in the world. whereas english hardly exists in istanbul it is essentially nonexistent anywhere down this magnificent coast. i can get by quite well in turkish but the accent there is so crazy that i still come off as a lost foreigner although there is something enjoyable about being in that position again.

i had the strangest thought when i was gazing from the rainy windows of a bus upon exiting the village; somehow i've gotten used to living out here. i came to turkey about two and a half years ago and that distance hardly measures itself until i meet new-comers. i remember choking when the waiter at a bar would approach and i was lost to find the words for 'one more beer please'.

if anyone has ever considered moving to turkey they would surely be in for a treat. one of the best things about integrating into the turkish culture is that there are endless benchmarks (as i call them) that come along with the learning process. with all due respect, turkish is a very cute language. the farther you advance in your turkish you will pick up more and more expressions and bits of proverbial speaking that are a different take on things that people from our cultures have come to know. you will learn more about history than you could ever imagine and simply being in istanbul is enough to drive your imagination crazy for what could have happened in the last centuries.

although the sensation comes over me sparingly, there are times when i say to myself 'holy shit, i live in istanbul, turkey' and its really quite exciting all over again. i've gotten very used to being out here but i've made a promise to never take for granted the beauty and curiosity of my life in this ancient city. i'm leaving soon and i have a very uncertain future but this isn't the end of my stories to write from my favorite city in the world.