Endure

Endure,
march on my soul. 
For I must:
Overcome the ruthless crowd,
triumph over mediocrity.
And breathe meaning into a lifeless shell.
Listen! To the incessant nagging, 
telling me there is more,
more to life than the soul-crushing rigor of servitude.
Endure.

We're getting married !

Dear blogheads !

So, bureaucracy is really pathetic right? To avoid it at the fullest, we have plunged into a big task, we're fighting bureaucracy with even more bureaucracy. We're getting married ! :)

The past couple of weeks has been pretty hectic. We've finally set the date though. We're getting married in three months. Its been really busy since we had to gather all sorts of documentations, health reports and all that. But at least we're going to benefit from this since it will ease our process for moving to Taiwan. 

Now it's all wedding preparations + my side job + supposed thesis readings, which end up being pushed aside. But all will be fine. That I'm sure of.

Life's been very beautiful. Lots of hugs to you all. Will keep more updates coming.

XOXOXO

Irene

Getting ready for my new life : Decluttering

Stuff. Stuff everywhere.

Books, hundreds of books, many many DVDs. They all look pretty and colorful, and they remind me that I've spent a decent amount of time and money on them.

Then I have knitting supplies, polymer clay, many different types of paint, acrylics, watercolors, markers, color pencils, I have tons of felt, felting needles. Jars of buttons. It's a real crafter's haven.

But then, I have a dirty confession. Although I possess all these cool stuff, I don't get to use them as much. I have a closet full of clothes and at least of quarter of it has been worn only a few times. Same goes with my shoes, my sewing machine, my scuba diving gear, my underwater camera housing, my brooches, stickers, postcards. Don't get me started with all the stationary.

Yes, I love them all, and have a fond heart towards them, but I don't need most of them anymore. And here's the biggest catch, I can't carry it all to Taiwan.

My university years have been very eye opening. Although I never was a consumerist, I got to realize how each and every person gets to gather up so much clutter. People buy stuff, they get all the things they don't need, and I don't blame them because everything is just so well packaged and appealing. But for me, this has to change. I don't want to be part of the system, and getting rid of a lot of stuff is going to help a lot. I feel all these stuff are creating a burden on me, putting a huge weight on my shoulders, gathering dust. Spiritually speaking, I was never greedy, I've never wanted luxurious stuff, and most of my things were very useful. The books I read were enjoyable, I always bought my DVD's from the discount rack, and the stationary is so cheap that I brought them from Taiwan. But I really really don't need all this anymore. Doruk and I decided that we wanted to get to read good books and watch good films, but we don't necessarily have to possess and display them all over the place. And the technology is so much better now, paper books are so ephemeral, keeping them in a digital archive will not only save us more space but it will de-clutter our lives too. I think it's a good exercise, getting rid of many stuff, it cleanses me from any potential greed and I find it very liberating, it makes me help prioritize. It reminds me what's important. And I feel that my activities, friendships, my experiences are far more important than possessions.

So I'm going through my things, one by one, making an inventory of them. I'm going to put a lot of stuff on sale and many others will go for donation. Some have a sentimental value, such as the bags and junk my aunts gave me through the years, but it's just too much.

I had a tiny speck of hesitation, when going through all my stuff, partly due to my parents being keepers and that they really have trouble throwing out or giving away anything. But I went to a friend of mine's thesis defense and the eldest professor who was in her committee told us that he donated a whopping 4000 books to the university's library and went digital when my friend offered to give him a hard copy of her thesis. He asked her to send a PDF.

Times are changing. The way we think about space is changing too. By getting rid of these, I will be saving at least 3 metersquares of wall space. I won't be able to take much with me, and when we start a new life with Doruk in Taipei, space is going to be very valuable. It makes me feel great that we approach space in similar ways and we don't get caught up with the consumerist culture, which is quite prominent here in Istanbul.

They are just stuff after all. And if you want books, DVD's you can always go to the library. If you want to craft, you can always go and buy enough supplies for a given project. My room is quite empty but through the years I notice that I have stashed a lot. Given the fact that most people buy so much more than I do doesn't legitimize it, but now I'm busy fixing it, and it feels great !

Turkey: Current State of Affairs

It is a period of civil unrest.

Protesters, secretly organizing through social media, has staged the first massive demonstration against the government.

During clashes, members of the resistance managed to unmask the government's ultimate tool for spreading fear, THE RIOT POLICE, a legion of ruthless officers who can cover an entire city block in tear gas.

Pursued by the government's sinister agents, protesters seek out ways to make their voices heard, as a young couple struggles to leave all the turmoil behind in search of a new hope...

Meet the bloggers: Doruk

Hi there!

I am a 30-year-old internet news editor at CNBC's Turkish affiliate in Istanbul and the proud owner of the silliest hamster ever.

My girlfriend Irene and I decided to move to Taiwan in hopes of building a brighter future for ourselves , as well as having a more fulfilling and meaningful life than the one that is being imposed on us here in Turkey.

We will spend the next year prepping for our exodus from Turkey and our new life in Taiwan and keep posting updates on this blog as we go along.

That's pretty much it for now..

Cheers!

Meet the bloggers : Irene

Hi everyone. Welcome to the blog. Now it's always a bit tough and awkward when you start a blog, it feels a bit intimidating, but as a warm up I'd like to present myself.

My name is Irene. I just turned 25. I live in Istanbul and am pursuing an MA degree. I love knitting, crochet, sewing and DIY. I'm a die hard crafter, but doing an MA actually has caused me to do much less this year (craft-wise). I'm hoping to pick up from where I left after this hiatus called the MA degree.

Moving to Taipei will be my dream come true. I have a lot of hopes of starting anew. The life standards in Istanbul are not stellar and since I'm originally from Taiwan via parents, I think it will be great to be back "home" which I only got to visit as a tourist in my late teens and early twenties. I also crave for adventure. Desperately and terribly. So starting a new life with a huge leap of faith is going to be extremely fun, not to mention that I can't wait to learn more about the culture and food. I can speak fluently but cannot read or write in Mandarin. So that's another thing I want to achieve when I go there.

There is a lot of corruption and political unrest here in Turkey. I am a polyglot and was unable to find a decent job in which I could maintain a middle-class lifestyle alone. So I chose another option. My university gives a reasonable stipend upon which the work-pay ratio is satisfying. Therefore I ended up going to graduate school.

I think you guys will get to know me better as I continue posting things. This blog will enable me to process how things are going, it will reflect and document my mood as well I guess. My boyfriend and I can't wait to leave this place and start a new life full of excitement and adventure as well as important things such as respect, justice, dignity and better life standards.

So that's pretty much it. Welcome to the blog !

-Irene