a perfect pace

“I think the two primary marks of lack of focus are either overwork/busyness and boredom. If you’re having fun and enjoying what you are doing – I don’t think you fit in that category”

A friend I was chatting with tonight (or this afternoon, his time) spoke these fitting words when we were discussing prioritizing by maintaining focus on what’s important.  I’ve spent too much time as a student experiencing overwork and busyness – or in rarer moments, feeling restless and bored when I don’t have tons of things going on.  These past few days, neither has been an experience of mine.  Since arriving in Turkey a few days ago, I have never felt overly busy nor has there been a moment of boredom.  Even right now, as the BF is out for the night visiting his parents and I’m at home as the pastor and another friend cheer on Barcelona as they face Manchester United for some sort of big soccer/futbol championship*, I’m not bored.  I’m enjoying this downtime to catch up with family and friends via the internet, upload photos, and update this blog while I munch on sunflower seeds.  It’s been a great pace these first few days – exactly as a true vacation should be.  The only thing I would change would be more sleep, as jetlag was rough on me a couple of nights ago, but I think I’m starting to adjust.  I’m sure next week will be better.

So, a little photo tour.  This is the view from the couple’s bedroom of where I’m staying –

Did you remember me mentioning pet rats in the last post?  She kept me company tonight as I watched TV with the family after dinner.

Two days ago, we drove up to a cafe on a mountain overlooking the city where I tried to enjoy my first cup of Turkish tea (çay, pronounced “chai”) along with beautiful views.

Unfortunately, it started raining pretty heavily soon after I snapped a few pictures and the çay was too bitter for my taste, but I’ve since enjoyed less bitter cups of çay at various places.  Even tastier than çay was my cup of salep from last night.

Salep is a drink made from orchids and tastes like Starbucks chai.  I have no idea if this cup was actually made from orchid or an artificially flavored powder, but man, was it delicious!  I enjoyed it in Bornova, an area near the university, with the BF and some of his friends from church – an American dude, and a young Turkish couple who are studying American Culture and Literature – as we smoked hookah and discussed our lives, faith, families, theology, and I practiced my Turkish by trying to read everything on the menu and guessing what it meant.  We had already spent the afternoon with these friends and others, playing games and eating tons of snacks.  Six of us had spent a couple of hours playing round after round of Sequence, a game that doesn’t really require language skills, and I had such a blast with them, even though I didn’t enjoy 95% of their apparently hilarious table talk.  But we all had fun, rejoicing with our team’s wins, taunting our opponents, and laughing at our frustrations with the game.  Turks love to pull practical jokes and make fun of one another, so I felt perfectly at ease joining in on some of the good-natured teasing and laughter.  I told the BF today that I feel like I’ve known some of these people for more than just a day, which is a very good feeling indeed.

After sleeping in and enjoying another delicious breakfast, we took a ferry across the bay to . . .

. . . Kordon, an area of town I had first heard about through the Turkish Muse blog.  We walked down the bay, with the original intention of going to Gloria Jean’s, an awfully-American sounding coffee shop that promised free wi-fi.

Unfortunately, elections are going on right now and there was a big loud campaign rally gathering to start near Gloria Jean’s, so we walked back the quieter ferry port and settled into the first bar/cafe we found, a place called “Karnaval: Disco-Bar and Restaurant.”  Barbara is right – every bar looks the same in Kordon, as did every bar last night in Bornova (I joked with my new friends, “How do you decide where to go, these places are all the same?  Do you just sit down when you’re tired of walking?”), but it was really pleasant to plop down on a shaded patio to enjoy çay and hookah while watching the bay and conversing for a couple of hours.
I was too shy to take pictures of the campaigners who passed by on the street, but I did sneak these ferry passengers arriving with their campaign flags.

Even though we spent a lot of time waiting on public transportation to get out there, I really enjoyed my afternoon in Kordon and hope to return again before the end of this trip to spend more afternoons like that.

*The kids keep asking me which soccer team I support and if I’ll become a Fenerbahçe fan like them, though the BF keeps answering that I’m a Beşiktaş fan like him.  I keep saying that I don’t have a team because I’m not interested in soccer, but that doesn’t stop the kids from asking again.  To not support a soccer teams seems unfathomable to Turks.