it's cold.

(Originally Written on October 11th)

It’s officially cold today and I’m sitting on the little rug next to my bed wrapped up in my authentic Turkish towel / blanket / all purpose piece of cloth. Socks and sweater on. Steaming bird bath of tea by my side. I’d rather it were coffee, but coffee hasn’t really hit Turkey yet other than in the shape of Starbucks and its “hip” minions. It’s grey outside and something in the light makes everything seem both more vivid and approachable. Or that might just be my contacts. Hard to say. I’ve enjoyed a blissful morning and afternoon of quiet time, filled with such exotic adventures as my daily trip to the internet cafe by my apartment, a jaunt to the grocery store, and a spontaneous visit with an old lady who sold me a square of börek - a Turkish cheese kugel type snack. I was supposed to meet with one of my bosses for training, but the timing didn’t work out and I got to loiter in the market instead.

Here’s what I bought:
-two curly red peppers (think bell, not spicy)
-three earth-encrusted potatoes
-four or five carrots
-one container of white mushrooms with untrimmed stems
-three small eggplants because I’m trying to force myself to like it
-one container of feta-ish cheese
-one loaf of bread sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and shaped like a daisy. Kind of tastes like Challah.
-one bar of Milka chocolate with hazelnuts

and finally, my crowning achievement...
-one bottle of Modena balsamic vinegar.

I’ve been looking for balsamic vinegar since I got here, and I guess my mistake has been to assume that it would be next to the olives and olive oil. Instead, it’s next to sauces and spices. Right next to the soy sauce, in fact. Over the years and the various moves I’ve discovered that I need a few things to set up shop in any kitchen. There are basics that I just can’t do without. Among these necessities are good quality olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, a head of garlic, tea, nutella, a small container of milk, and usually herbes de Provence. (Which I’ve yet to find here.) Then comes the vegetable buillon, the pasta, the garbanzo beans, goat cheese, and chocolate. A girl’s got needs. It’s not that these things make any dank, possibly rotting, definitely haunted apartment a home (see: chez Maryse deJean), but they make the idea of cooking seem bearable. Which in turn makes being here - being away from my real home - easier.

The weather also helps. Though the language, buildings, street signs, faces, food, and culture are vastly different, grey + damp is something I know very, very well. My clothes were selected for it. My life color schemes are based around it. My personality accepts and loves it. It’s when I feel most like me, I guess. The love child of Alanis Morissette and Janine Garofalo.

I’m hoping to earn an A in personal time management and take the tram into town early Friday morning so I can explore Beyoğlu before I hit up the Biennale exhibition at the İstanbul Modern. If this lighting persists, there should be ample opportunity for some interesting street art documentation, and maybe a few canine candids. Freedom, and art, and photography, and cobblestones and space to think and breathe. Perfect.

Off to look over the fun-filled evening I should have planned for my upper-intermediate class tonight. Last night I made them write ghost stories and they were extremely reluctant for about a minute. And very excited for the next twenty-nine. I unabashedly love them and if it weren’t weird or slightly forbidden or creepy, I’d hug each and every one of them. Especially Okan, the college kid who was sick last night and still came to class. What a nice boy. I’m such a sucker for dudes with pierced ears.

over and out mes amis,
anya