The Nest

Tomorrow's the big day. We are FINALLY getting married. Everything's ready. The apartment is just the way I imagined it would be, maybe even better. 

I feel like a bird, who builds its nest in one continent, and then without even blinking an eye, flies away to another, once the time to go has come. As the seasons change, no matter how much they are settled in the nest, they just migrate, for the right conditions and a more convenient life. 

This reminds me of one of my favorite cartoons when I was a toddler. I have a vague recollection about it, and don't really remember the entire plot, but I loved "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils". The protagonist boy named Nils would ride on a flying magical goose and visit all these foreign lands. I have a very sweet memory of it. I wanted to be like Nils I guess. 

One of my favorite pastimes as a child was imagining flying. When I was in pre-school I actually even opened the windows to make the room windy, climbed on the highest couch, aimed for the carpet and flapped my arms, hoping that the winds would make me drift. To my surprise, I fell quite hard. Maybe it was because I watched Peter Pan too many times. Hah.

Last night, Doruk and I looked at our apartment. Finally done ! It was beautiful. Did we put too much effort? It seems way too pretty for a temporary place to live. I thought about it. No, not at all. Traditionally, nests are used as a metaphor for the newly weds' house. But tradition assumes you will stay in one place. What they've forgot about the nest metaphor is that the nest is a temporary dwelling for migratory birds. I'm happy to be one. And I'm more than happy to accept that metaphor, and build my life in a nest. It suits my situation perfectly.

Building sandcastles...

Hi Everyone,

Doruk and I have been pretty busy. We've been seeking furniture for our new flat, getting our home prepared for our new life ! So posting on the blog was completely out of the question, I- personally- was flat out tired. Doruk has been extremely helpful while I worked for this Inter-Asian Conference held in Istanbul last week, and even more helpful and responsible while I was extremely sick this week. But I'm doing much better now. Oh, the Inter-Asian Conference definitely has ignited and increased my longing and urge to move to Taiwan.

Doruk went to the municipal offices to get our electricity, gas and water hooked up. He's been very hard working. I wasn't much of a help, busy working and having to spend time in bed-rest following immediately after I had work off my schedule. I just love it that Doruk is always there for me. He's super precious and dear to me... Once we move to Taiwan, I think I'm going to make up for all the times I was absent and be very proactive in municipal businesses (well, I think that's a given since I'm the one who knows some Chinese !! But anyway). :)

It's exciting to know that next year, around this time (as soon as I finish my thesis that is), we will be doing pretty much the same things, at the other side of the world !

Again, I'm extremely glad that the material things aren't holding us down, or distracting us away from our goal. We have found a great flat with cheap rent, we are furnishing the interior exactly the way we want it, but we know that this is temporary and definitely not permanent. A lot of people don't get it. Why bother? Well, the reason is that Turkey is not a good place to stay in the long run. We will definitely be in our comfort zone in our new apartment, isolated from the traffic, the rudeness, the corruption. But being escapists and living the good life in a bubble (as most yuppies, upper middle class people and elite do) is not the solution. Unfortunately, most people do that in Istanbul, they can shut their eye against what's going on, send their kids to private schools, live in gated communities, spend all their time in shopping malls, away from the chaos and ignore all the terrible things happening in this country, until it touches their lives. I don't judge them, but I wouldn't want that as a life. In any case, even if I wanted to, I doubt I could afford such decadence, even if I had the money.

The good thing is that I was dreading about the idea of another year here in Istanbul,  but now things have changed since our flat is so nice and I will have my beloved boyfriend by my side; it's not going to be that bad to spend time in this city after all. I'm willing to spend the time and effort to have a wonderful time here even though it's for a relatively short time. It feels like I'm building sandcastles; once the tide comes and I'm ready to let go of it, we will rebuild a more permanent dwelling, this time far away from this side of the world. The whole point of building sandcastles is to seek the pleasure within the ephemeral, it's the beauty and fun while creating them that matters the most.  I'm definitely looking forward to it.