Re-entry...
I'll be coming back to the United States in a week, along with a room mate, for a two week whirl-wind trip to visit EVERYBODY. As we ate lunch yesterday, we started to rattle off a list of the things we missed and looked forward to. I pressed my memory to remember as many of those things as I could below:
A cooked bird
Stuffing
Hash Browns
Waffles
Filtered Coffee
Milk Shakes
The Greasy Diner
Thai Food
Options other than Turkish cuisine
Making fun of Democrats
Driving
Infrastructure
Grids (City Planning)
Personal Space
People not caring about our behavior
Guiness
Red Stripe
Being funny
Being understood
Talking to girls
I'm excited to be heading home.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
I'm not smoking cigarettes...
... this year.
In the tradition of recycling New-year's resolutions (in 2007 and 2008, I resolved to brush my teeth three times a day), I've decided that the cigarette I smoked the morning of January 1st is my last for the year. Since I wasn't smoking that much to begin with, this is more like an extended Lent, as I'm giving up a pleasure and less an addiction.
Turkey is the reason I smoke at all, and a testament both to the power of peer pressure and nostalgia. The conniving, insidious Turk, is always ready to offer their cigarettes to others: leaving them on tabletops to be plucked at will, offering them with glasses of tea, and insisting that the always-within-reach pack be shared. Also, and I know non-smokers won't understand this, a cigarette ties together the experience of a full Turkish meal quite nicely.
Three years ago, my friends Gregg, Mahir, and I, took a trip to the south-east of Turkey, hitchhiking our way around. You meet a lot of people that way, and Turks are probably friendlier than most Americans are either used to or able to fully appreciate. This "Turkish hospitality" often involves offering whatever is available to be offered: tea, food, wall decorations (true story), or smokes. After a week on the road, I had mostly filled an empty pack, graciously taking the gifted cigarettes and storing them away. After that week, I just started trying to smoke them, and thus, another bad habit was born!
I've never been more than a pack a month smoker, and often much less, but the considerable body of evidence showing how bad smoking is for me, and the mysterious cold I've had of late, have led me to abandon the practice... for now.
I haven't been put to task yet, but temptation will surely be a problem the next time I sit down for mezze and fish, reach for my rakı, and watch all my friends light up.
To be honest, just thinking about the experience makes me a little sad that I've taken the vow.
Maybe I'll just try to keep the number of cigarettes I smoke this year under twenty or so...
In the tradition of recycling New-year's resolutions (in 2007 and 2008, I resolved to brush my teeth three times a day), I've decided that the cigarette I smoked the morning of January 1st is my last for the year. Since I wasn't smoking that much to begin with, this is more like an extended Lent, as I'm giving up a pleasure and less an addiction.
Turkey is the reason I smoke at all, and a testament both to the power of peer pressure and nostalgia. The conniving, insidious Turk, is always ready to offer their cigarettes to others: leaving them on tabletops to be plucked at will, offering them with glasses of tea, and insisting that the always-within-reach pack be shared. Also, and I know non-smokers won't understand this, a cigarette ties together the experience of a full Turkish meal quite nicely.
Three years ago, my friends Gregg, Mahir, and I, took a trip to the south-east of Turkey, hitchhiking our way around. You meet a lot of people that way, and Turks are probably friendlier than most Americans are either used to or able to fully appreciate. This "Turkish hospitality" often involves offering whatever is available to be offered: tea, food, wall decorations (true story), or smokes. After a week on the road, I had mostly filled an empty pack, graciously taking the gifted cigarettes and storing them away. After that week, I just started trying to smoke them, and thus, another bad habit was born!
I've never been more than a pack a month smoker, and often much less, but the considerable body of evidence showing how bad smoking is for me, and the mysterious cold I've had of late, have led me to abandon the practice... for now.
I haven't been put to task yet, but temptation will surely be a problem the next time I sit down for mezze and fish, reach for my rakı, and watch all my friends light up.
To be honest, just thinking about the experience makes me a little sad that I've taken the vow.
Maybe I'll just try to keep the number of cigarettes I smoke this year under twenty or so...
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