Sunday, January 31, 2010

You keep sending me angels...


Cultural differences. They can be pretty visible, especially for someone coming from Sweden to Turkey.

As I wrote yesterday, one of the first things you see in Turkey is a face. A man that is everywhere. Statues, posters, on souvenirs, he has got avenues and schools named after him.
If you scroll down to the my last post there's a picture of him. It's Atatürk. So I made some research in order to become a more enlighten person, and I see no purpose in not sharing this information. Like that if you ever come here to Ankara you will know who he was, instead of walking around for two weeks wondering, like I did.

"Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (indeterminate, 1881–10 November 1938) was a Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, and founder of the Republic of Turkey as well as its first President.

Atatürk became known as an extremely capable military officer by being the only undefeated Ottoman commander during World War I. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, he led the Turkish national movement in the Turkish War of Independence. Having established a provisional government in Ankara, he defeated the forces sent by the Allies. His successful military campaigns led to the liberation of the country and to the establishment of Turkey. During his presidency, Atatürk embarked upon a program of political, economic, and cultural reforms. An admirer of the Age of Enlightenment, he sought to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern, democratic, and secular nation-state. The principles of Atatürk's reforms, upon which modern Turkey was established, are referred to as Kemalism."
(Wikipedia)

Now you know... and I! Haha, since today was the first time I actually took time to look into who he actually was.
He died at age 57, if I remember correctly (closed the wikipedia tab, and have no energy to go back).

Tomatoes are another interesting thing here in Turkey. They are tasteless!! We've tried to buy them in packs or per kilo... no difference.

Oh well, enough about that today!

Just got back from a night out with the parents. We went to the "pool pub". We, as you might tell by the name, played pool, had an unhealthy dinner and had some drinks. A really nice place I have to say. In the summer I'm sure it's even better. They had an outside part in the back where they had a bar, rock chairs and a huge TV. Too cold and rainy for that today thou, well tonight.

Because this morning the weather was really nice. Clear blue sky and sunny. Pretty warm too, almost 10!!
I know this because I took a walk this morning, had to find the bus stop that I need to take my bus at tomorrow morning. And since I don't want to wake up extra early just to look for it tomorrow I did it today.

Otherwise my day consisted of studying Micro economics and Spanish. Am really stressed out that the level of Micro and Macro will be too advanced for me. Hopefully it isn't thou. What I read today was pretty ok.

In addition to all that I had a pretty nice "surprise" on fb this morning. Haven't decided what I think about being this excited about it... or excited might be the wrong word, maybe just the fact that I feel something...

Anywho... I have some other things I really wanted to write about too, like the prejudices people have towards Turkey and the Turkish people and also about breathing (!!!!!). But all that will be talked about some other day. Don't want you to get bored, even thou the wikipedia paragraph about Atatürk most likely made half of you return to where you came from(0:


I like this song... it's cute!

Now I'm gonna watch a movie, more precisely: Did you hear about the Morgans? . Hopefully it's better than "The princess and the frog" which I saw earlier today, it wasn't bad but not good either.

Off to bed now, to the night routine... Skype, movie, sleep...

Puss på er alla.

2 comments:

  1. Intressant, jag tycker tomaterna smakar så mkt mer och så mkt godare i Turkiet :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vi kanske bara har kollat på fel ställen. Har kommit fram till att den organiska marknaden skulle kunna vara ett alternativ.
    Annars kan det ju hända att det inte är säsong! (0:

    ReplyDelete