Wednesday 25 October 2006

Living in Turkey

Today is the last day of Ramadan. Yes, I live in a Muslim country so I will not speak about Christmas or Easter .

People celebrate these days, they are very happy; finally they can eat after fasting for one month. I cannot feel the same joy, but I was happy to finally have some days off. We were at home this time, we could not go anywhere because of Zuhal’s very busy program. She has just finished her PhD and started to teach some theoretical subjects at university like “visual perception”. She is busy preparing these and also preparing for the admission exam as an assistant to the university.

For a change we moved furniture around the house on Monday. Can has finally a big bed as he is a big boy now. He is very happy with it and his new Superman beddings. However he still prefers to sleep in our bed and we carry him to his bed after he sleeps.

Even after so many years in Turkey I still cannot say that I am very comfortable with the difference in customs and habits here but I try to live with it. Yesterday we went to an engagement party of a relative of Zuhal and I came in touch again with the traditions, folk music and dance. I danced and everyone was surprised (including Zuhal) and happy that I enjoy the folkloric dance. I felt very good. I was amazed seeing Zuhal's auntie who is 68 being so happy and dancing more than the younger participants. I was also pleasantly surprised how well educated are the children in their respect towards the others and towards the elders. They take care of each other and older brothers look after the youngest ones in a very mature manner that really surprised me. This is I think the result of living in a small community and is something that it is very difficult to achieve in a big city like Ankara.

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Saturday 7 October 2006

New components

Today I added a comment component to my site so visitors could add comments to the articles. I think it is a necessary component for a blog. Also I removed the old guestbook and installed a new one that is more successful in preventing spam messages. Both components are moderated.
The only thing left to do is to write more often .

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