Sunday, January 30th, 2005

Well it has been a very relaxing weekend, for the most part. I have done a bit of work, and a bit of chilling out. So good things. I’ll give you a run down…

On Friday I skipped work because my friend Başak came to visit me. We had a great time wondering around Ankara, in Kızılay to be specific. I was going to take my camera but, being the goon I am, I forgot it. We wondered through book stores, ate some tasty dinner, hung out at a café drinking çay, and talked about all sorts of things. Oh, one interesting thing. At the book store we were looking at a book which tells the significance of dreams. Well, before I went on my Christmas holiday, I kept having these dreams where all my teeth would fall out. One would be loose, and I would wiggle it, and then it would pop out. Then another, and another… until all my teeth were in a bloody pile cupped in my hands! Bummer. According to the book, this is not good. Well duh. Apparently it means that I will either die or have really awful bad luck. So I guess be prepared for bad news from me sometime soon!

What else… on Saturday I woke up at noon and stumbled down to the café for lunch. There I ran into one of the Russian exchange students who lives here with us. Her name is Jenya, and she’s from Moscow. She’s here studying Turkish and is quite accomplished, as well as having perfect English! We chatted about our experiences as foreigners here in Turkey; all the good things and the bad things. All in all, I think she has a much more difficult time being here. There is a certain stereotype of Russian girls here in Turkey, because many Russians females have come to Turkey to become prostitutes, or “Natashas”. So Jenya has to be careful, otherwise men assume that she is one of these girls, and treat her as such. So that means no wearing sexy clothes, only speaking in Turkish on the street, and generally being very careful, especially at night. I was reminded of my time in Cuba, where the girls received piropos, or cat-calls, from men whenever they walked down the street. It must be frustrating at times.

In the evening I went out with some friends to the Rock Bar, a place in Kızılay with live music and beer. It was fun, although I ended up going back at about 11 p.m. I just couldn’t handle being out late. For some reason I have been so tired lately. I went with my good friend Mehmet, another guy from the dorm named Omer, and someone I had never met before named Alperen (I think). We had a good time, with lots of joking around and laughing. Omer and Alperen were chasing the girls, with little luck. Alperen would should “Negative engery tonight!!!” whenever he would come back from a failed endeavor. Ah well, maybe next time.

Today (Sunday) I did hardly anything. I spent some time reading my latest book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast. Fascinating reading. I also spent a large part of the day editing an academic paper written by a friend at the Çankırı Forestry School, entitled “The Usage of Multiple Correspondence Analysis in Rural Migration Analysis.” It was heavy going. He’s submitting it to an academic journal but they needed the paper to be reworded a bit before they publish it. So I tried my best. Who knows if it’ll help him, but at least I’ve finished it on time.

And now I’m just goofing around, listening to music in my room and playing my Settlers of Catan computer game. It’s 10 p.m., my eyes are getting heavy, and before too long I’ll probably drop off to sleep. I’ve been downloading David Sedaris mp3s, so I’ll probably play some of those and hope to drift away into slumber land.

So goodnight, everyone…