Trabzon

Another beautiful weekend away with friends! We jumped on a plane Saturday morning and soared up to the Black Sea. A teacher at our school has a house in Trabzon and had her driver pick us up and drive us around for the whole weekend.

the teacher's house with a beautiful view!

 

our group with the driver and house caretakers

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea." - Isak Dinesen

Konya

This was the trip I had been waiting for! The birthplace of the whirling dervishes and a place of pilgrimage to see Rumi's shrine. After reading "The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi" by Elif Shafak I knew that this city would be a magical place.

"Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process. What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be so shortsighted as to not be able to see the outcome. The lovers of God never run out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full."

"Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?"

“A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western.… Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. “Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! “The universe turns differently when fire loves water.”

On Sunday, we jumped on a bus and hopped off in a tiny village called Sille. It was a beautiful place with the kindest people. Aya Elenia Church was being restored and was therefore closed to the public...but that didn't stop us. I was lucky to have a Turkish friend with me, as when she explained that we were teachers and had really been looking forward to seeing it, the man rushed us quickly inside and gave us beautiful books on the history of the church. Wandering around under the scaffolding and lifting sheets of plastic was an unbelievable experience.

“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come.”

“Travel brings power and love back into your life.”

-Rumi

Bursaspor v. Fenerbahçe 2

Alright. Wednesday night I went to the Bursaspor v. Fenerbahçe game for another wonderful experience with Turkish football! The game was crazy but so much fun!

Bursaspor v. Fenerbahçe

Amasya

This weekend I went for a wonderful get-a-way to...Amasya! A few friends and I hopped on a bus Friday night for a six hour bus ride to the north east. We simply walked around the city, climbed a mountain to see a castle, and ate some maraş dondurma. But I have to say one of the highlights was watching the Fenerbahçe vs. Galatasaray football game on the big screen T.V. at the hotel. There were a ton of people there to watch the game and they were separated: Fenerbahçe fans in one room, and Galatasaray fans in another. It was so intense. When Galatasaray won everybody ran out onto the street and I felt like all of the men from the city gathered with flares and flags to celebrate. People were driving up and down the street for hours, just honking their horns and yelling. It was quite the experience. The next day we hit the museums and had lunch by the river. It was so beautiful and exactly what I needed to recharge for the long week this week!

Duman Concert and Cino de Mardi Gras Ball

Duman concert at Mayfest on the Hacettepe University campus last Wednesday night! It was so nice to get off campus and go to a concert...even if I didn't know a single word!

I almost forgot! Last weekend the U.S. Embassy put on their annual Mardi Gras Ball, but it just so happened to be on Cinco de Mayo! So much fun. A great night with friends, good food, and lots of dancing!

 

Stradella's

I can't remember what standardized test it was, PSAT, SAT, maybe even something from grade school, but the essay question simply stumped me. It was something along the lines of “Where do you go when you need to be alone” or think or something similar to that. I thought immediately of a physical place: my bedroom. Not a very exciting child I guess. Some of my peers said their tree house, the beach, or a park. My teacher tried to explain that it didn't need to physically go to that location. This confused the heck out me.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with my administrators to “discuss two serious problems”

Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't handle confrontation very well. I tend to cry. Pathetic, I know. So needless to say, I've been stressing out about this for the past few days. To help myself calm down I have been practicing what I might say in front of the mirror. Guess what. I even cried talking to myself in the mirror! Majorly pathetic!

Anyways, the point of this is that as I was just trying to fall asleep without getting too worked up again, I (unintentionally) began to picture myself in a favorite place of mine: Stradella's. Stradella's is a little cafe that used to frequent on a daily basis in Aviano. I would just swing in, get a macchiato and fruit tart, and people watch or read my book for hours on end. It was my way of winding down after school or simply a way to clear my mind.

This week, with so many things floating around in my head, I desperately started wishing I could simply run away to Aviano, and specifically, Stradella's.