r.d

Toilet Paper

2010-05-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

Do u, like I do, have difficulties to find the end of the toilet paper roll and fight with the thing for endless minutes feeling like a crazy rat, trapped in its turning wheel???

French Women and their moustache

2010-05-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

I love how French women are so natural but yet so beautiful, they don't need to brush their hair nor put tons of make up to look beautiful. The perception of french beauty is all about beeing natural, beeing yourself, feeling comfortable in your skin. In Turkey, we dress up, we blow-dry our hair everyday by the help of various tools, haircurlers or often, very often, by visiting the hairdresser. We pluck our eyebrows, we get manicures and pedicures everyweek and so on...

I kinda like the natural beauty of the women in Paris, you can feel it everywhere, its on TV, on the streets and all around! However, there is one big reservation of mine in this whole natural beauty concept:

Its the moustache!!!

The body hair (except for those on your head) is identified with the masculin gender in most cultures, if not in all. That is why all women (at least that is what I thought) prefer to epilate the hair on their body, wherever (!) it may grow to be seen visibly.

For some reason, women in Paris DO NOT epilate their moustaches!!!! Do not try to tell me that european women are not as hairy as Turkish women because that is total bullshit after what I have seen so far in Paris!

Everytime the sun is out, I can't help my desire to particularly check if girls around me have moustache or not, and beleive me, most, and again if not all, have not epilated. I tried to check other nationalities like girls from Liban, Argentine, United States, Turkey etc. to see if I would observe the same picture, and very interestingly so, only the French girls let their moustaches grow.

I am hoping that as the weather gets warmer, I will not have to see hairy women legs or hairy armpits (and I would like to precisely say that guys with hairy armpits are disgusting as well!) , but I really do not understand how a woman can look in the mirror and not see her dark moustache that is crying out "you look like an adolescent boy!!"

2010-03-09T15:47:00.000-08:00

one month... Wooowww!!! One month without a single post!!! I must say that I have been really gay lately. -It is true that I tend to write more when I feel depressed. I articulate my emotions a lot better when I am sad.-

Anyways, I have been enjoying my Parisian life to the single minute since two months now, and damn, time passes by so fast when you do lots of stuff. I am already in the middle of the second half of my Parisian life and I dont want time to fly by!

This post was inteded to deliver my experiences in the public swimming pool near my house, which I have been visiting frequently since the last couple of weeks. YES I went back to sports and my body feels a lot better now.

So, I signed up for this public pool to pick up my swimming that I had left many years ago. Happily, I have discovered that I have not forgotten much, I can actually beat certain muscled guys in the pool!!! YES, I CAN!!!

My observations about a public pool:

- Young guys are mostly too proud to let a girl swim faster than them, they will either let you go first and come after you (most probably more motivated to check out your ass) or they will ridiculously try to swim faster which sometimes just does not help at all

- A public swimming pool is not the best place to train because it is just too crowded and you end up swimming sticked to the asses of those in front of you, and believe me, sometimes the view is just not very pleasent!!!

- If you try to swim faster and get in front of others you either end up kicking them in the face or you get beat up in your own face

- Do not try to train in a tiny two piece swimming suit because people can see everything, those are just made to get some sun

- If you dont know how to swim the breast stroke, do not try to, you end up diving up and down, which is not gonna help you get any exercise

- I saw a super cool bonnet with a shark fin on it, it is just the funniest thing and I want one!!!

Ca y est !!!

2010-02-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

This is a French expression of saying, “there or done or finally or finished”.
It comes to my mind when I think that I finally feel adapted to French life in Paris. I actually feel happy here now (even though I still think that I don’t have enough company to do things with but it’s OK)
It has been a hard process which I never thought I would go through as I am a relatively flexible person.

Weather is so much softer, the sun is literally out, my heavy school work is down to a quarter of what I had to previously do, my logistic problems are over, so being the person that I am, there is no reason for me to feel depressed and no reason to stay stuck in my apartment between my law books and my computer trying to finish papers before certain deadlines.

I am not suggesting that I don’t like my profession –which is studying law for the moment- because I love it and I find enormous satisfaction in it. I am just saying that I am certainly not used to having no social life at all. I have not been taught to live like a reading plant and I have not ever lived like that up until three months before.

I still have a lot of work to do, but it is balanceable between school life and my usual social routine that I have been longing for to find since longtime now.

So, those who read this, come join me quick to share my new life in Paris!!!!

2010-01-23T09:58:00.000-08:00

"Life is so much easier" once said a friend if you are a girl.

Here is an example:

Alice, going back home late at night, misses her last metro connection so she has to take a cab. The line is of course heavenly (!) and there are many, yet so many people waiting for those never coming cabs. All of a sudden, a Spanish accent asks her:

“Where are you going?”

And she says:

“… not so far, I m just on this avenue.”

And so the Spanish accent finds the perfect formula that would save her night and offers her to share their cab so she would not wait any longer. Alice, very pleased, accepts the offer and goes on the very front of the line with other Spanish accents, and so she has saved around half an hour of standing in the line and in the cold. Even better, when she gets home, they don’t let her pay for the taxi, so she thanks all the Spanish accents from the bottom of her heart and meets her warm, soft bed and goes to sleep.

Little Alice

2010-01-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

Continued from www.tadaimaa.blogspot.com

Alice is a tiny little girl
She is very lucky, she doesnt know!
She wants too much, she wants it all!!!!

U got it rite! ;)

Its all about the attitude, the sun is out!!

2010-01-20T16:36:00.000-08:00

I have just decided that I am tired of my ongoing melancholy now, and I am going to radically change my Paris attitude from this moment on!

I WILL feel happy, I will fucking stop complaining (I am the one who wants to be here afterall) and I will make the most of my year.

I think that I need to insert a little detail here, my exhausting first semester will be over in two days and I will have much more space for myself during the second semester which will gimme the chance to actually live the life that I was expecting to live when I wanted to come here.

So, wuhuuu!!!

Loving a City

2010-01-19T11:48:00.000-08:00

I realise now, feeling not so happy and fulfilled as I thought I would before I came, in a perfectly beautiful, artsy, historical, lively city that feeling good within a city is feeling comfortable where you are. It mostly depends on where you are installed, where you have your family and friends, where you have your activities centered.

I realise as well that, I could actually perfectly get used to Paris (I would probably need to move elsewhere from this appartment-it's way too expensive and way too tiny, really!) as it is one of the best cities in the World, but I dont really want to because I used to live in another one of those best cities in the World and that is where I will be going back.

So I realise that the hardest thing is actually to leave where you live and where you are well for a short period of time (like one year or a couple of months). Because you need time to like where you go, to make new friends and to share with them, you need time to discover your favorite market, your favorite movie theather, your favorite bookshop, your hairdresser, your favorite restaurant(s) and all that. By the time you get to do all this, you actually end up having spent most of your time, sadly, and you feel depressed once again that you have to leave.

Nevertheless, my suggestion to myself is not to stay where I am in the future because I know I will want to discover more, but ... I actually do not suggest anything at all, I just observe and describe for now.

so hard to be different

2009-12-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

Well,I had realised long ago that I was different than most people, that I did not have the same thinking process, that I mostly never had the same thoughts and reactions with others.

Bohooo! I thought, what does it matter, I can live in my frame, in my thoughts, in my brain, in my world!!

But nope, actually nope, it figures that I can't, that I am not allowed, that I have to cross in some way or the other at some point with others cuz if not, they will take my happiness away, they wont leave me alone! The worst part is, they think that they do it for my own good, to make things easier for me, to make me happy within the society.

WELL DAMMIT, it actually pushes me to feel depressed, it pushes me deeper in my differences, it pushes me to stick with my fucking alterations more and more than ever.!!

It is damn hard to be different, I wish I could think, feel, function the same with the crowd, how easy would it be for happiness???? uummmm but I CAN NOT, cuz I CAN NOT!!!

"Dost"

2009-12-27T16:15:00.000-08:00

Sometimes some words are so powerful that you dont even need to say more... The word "dost" in turkish for which I can not think of a perfect translation means "longtime friend" or "real friend" or something to that effect.

So beeing back home, I realised how important those people are, who know you since you dont even know when! When you say something, they know what you mean without any further explanation or when you dont say something, they know what you dont wanna say kinda thing... A certain person called me tonight, late at night. We quickly catched up in some minutes of our say "frozen" time in three months. Yea we have been communicating through various messengers on and off line; however actually hearing the voice and hearing the tonation of the words in a conversation is really different!!!

No need to say how sad it is that I have to be constantly studying in my life during all those precious moments with those precious people mentioned above. I hereby declare (!) to those people that no matter how far I am, or no matter how long I dont call or give signs or whatsoever, their importance never changes, would and could not change, prooven by the fact that only a couple minutes are enough to catch up on the "lost/frozen" times that are spent miles away from each other!!!!

Geldim eve geldim !!

2009-12-26T16:38:00.001-08:00

Geldim, Parislerden eve geldim, denizi görmeye geldim.
Bol uyumaya, yemeye içmeye geldim.
Ders çalışmaya, çalışamamaya, geldim!
Forumdaki Starbucksta kahve içerken kebap koklamaya geldim!
Ciğer yedim, Okan Bayülgeni izledim.

Ülkenin politik durumundan huzursuzluk duymaya geldim,
İktidara sinirlenmeye, hukukun işleyişinden korkmaya geldim,
Öyle oturmaya, bakarken görmemeye, sıkılmaya geldim,
Politikacılara sinirlenirken düşünmeye, düşündükçe yapmaya geldim,
Kendime ceket diktirdim.

Sonra evde karar verdim, okuyacağım öğreneceğim dedim
Geri geleceğim, yapacağım edeceğim değiştireceğim dedim!

I HAVE A QUESTION!!!

2009-12-21T15:29:00.000-08:00

I have this question which has been bugging me for some years now and I might have shared this with certain people during those “lost in my deep thinking” trips that I get every now and then… I would like to “publicize” this question to see if somebody has some answers!

CAN ALLIGATORS JUMP???????

I know that they can jump from inside the water to outside the water (to land) when they are hunting, but that is not my question. My question is that, when you have an alligator following you on land and you manage to climb on a rock or whatsoever, can they jump to bite you? Or are you safe once you are on some higher location than ground level?

Or say that there is an alligator down the stairs in your house, can it climb the stairs? I wonder if it can push and pull itself up the stairs with its huge jaw… I guess not given the fact that the jaw would not fit on one step, but I still can not persuade myself that it is entirely safe.

Does anybody have any answers???

I came home by bike

2009-12-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Having drowned in my reading for the last couple of weeks(!), I decided today after my spanish class that I didn't wanna go back home right back to studying. I didn't really know what to do as I am a little broke this month, I decided to walk around on the streets but L, my friend, suggested that I should check out the Bon Marche, the oldest department store in Paris. So, I did, as depressing as it was to see all the super stylish stuff, I played a little Polyanna and thought, well.... I ll buy all this during the upcoming sales season. A couple of hours later, I felt really tired so I headed back home, that's when I decided to take a bike, rather than taking the metro.

Paris offers public bikes where you can take one from one station and leave it at the station closest to your destination. The bikes (or the system of biking, I haven't quiet totally figured out yet) is called "velib".

I took a velib, put some Etta James in my ears and started pedalling. I lived the romantic side of Paris under christmas lights (even if it was pretty damn cold). Etta James helped me dive deeper in my melancho
ly.

I am gonna keep preferring velib over the metro, to discover the most out of Paris. If you ask me this in person, I will totaly deny it but even though I might hear a lot of insults due to the fact that I don't really understand every little Parisian traffic rule, I will not let this little detail ruin my velib experience in Paris.

Life on the Moon

2009-11-14T04:11:00.000-08:00

So they ve discovered water sources on the moon!! "First lights of hope for founding life on the moon.." is the expression that throws me into my imagination:

"Hi, Where are you from?"

"From the moon....

Then I started thinking, wait!!! there s much less gravity on the moon, which means your face, your ass,your boobs are not subject to gravity!!!! Does that mean u can stay younger fo longer on the moon????

Then wait!!! less gravity means one step can take you three times further!! SO you get where you wanna get in less time?!! So time passes much slower on the moon??? Does that mean less stress, happier people???

Then I start to wake up from my imagination with the title of the next news: "YOU HAVE A PAPER TO PREPARE FOR MONDAY, GET BACK TO YOUR WORK!!"

KARL LAGERFELD

2009-11-08T08:55:00.000-08:00

November 7, 2009 Paris, St. Honore....

My sister: Excuse-me sir, I wanted to meet you, I am a fashion student in Istanbul, Durin Dagli (and she offers a hand-shake)

K.L: (shaking my sis's hand) Nice to meet you young lady...

Awkward silence....

Me: Have you been in Istanbul at all?

K.L: You know what, I don't know why, but I have never been there, I hear that its very beautiful!!

M: Yes, it indeed is, you should come, we would be glad to have you...

K.L: I will do come one day...

Awkward silence........

My sis: Nice to meet you again, good day...

K.L: Nice to meet you too....

Who said French people wont speak English??

2009-11-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

I guess that there is this general understanding or experience for most people to think that French people do not speak English even though they can or they do.

Well, I did and do not experience so at all! Obviously I have a certain non-francophone accent when I speak French, so people realize that I am not French at all when I speak the language. I most frequently get the "where are you from?" question when I speak, but even worse, sometimes people reply to me in English. I kind of feel offended for my french when this happens but I try not to loose my cool and reply back in french and say, "dont worry, I understand and speak french". Sometimes it is persuasive enough and I get to continue the conversation in french,but sometimes it is not the case and they still talk back in English. So then, I wonder why so many people get the idea that French people would not speak English even though it seems like they can to some people around me.

2009-11-01T03:13:00.001-08:00

reference to a friend

2009-10-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

My life goes on in Paris, better and better everyday! Throughout my busy life, I felt the need to write a blog referring to a friend who suggested I do not write enough on my blog...

In a few weeks, I will start to begin the next quarter of a century of my life having completed the last one. I start to get the notion of what "feeling a lot younger than your age" means. Nevertheless, I do feel close to my real age( yea only a couple years younger yet) maturing slowly and still getting to know myself through my daily experiences. So I realize over and over that I am a perplexe mind, always lost in details, never very decisif, always thinking "what if... or should I... or shall I..." though I get to find my way out after a tiring thinking process which leads me up to the more or less "a better solution for me".

As sad as I get when I see the new gray hair every once in a while, I prefer to think that it is a form of knowledge spurt and that the more is always the better!!!! SO, I am looking forward to the new quarter of century coming up for me, I will be partying really hard for this occasion, a little sad to be away from home but still happy to have many nice and good friends here, close to me!!!

Onur, kapitalizm nedir diye sormussun? kapitalizm, halkın cıkarlarının parada erimesidir bence.. e senin ornegin de bayaa somutlastırılmus hali, hahhah!

Paris is little spaces

2009-10-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

As most of you know and as I have mentioned it a couple of times in my blog (well,yea, all in turkish,sorry!)I am mostly settled in Paris after a little traumatic housing experience...
So now, I have started to hang out in "Café"s rather than walking up and down the streets looking for real estate agencies or visiting appartments. As I visit bookshops, get coffees here and there, I have realised how little personal space you get in Paris whether in your house or out on the street or even in shops anywhere in town... You can not stop in front of a bookshelf and get some time for yourself to look around, you gotta let people pass or you gotta move out of the way just in a few seconds after you spot what you need in the shop. The situation is not any better when you wanna sit down and breathe a little; you only get enough space for your ass in the Café because the person sitting at the next table is just next to your shoulder also squeezed in his/her chair getting some coffee.

Even so, Paris seems lively and artsy and stylish. You wanna dress up, get your music in your ears and walk the streets to run into a nice park or a nice boutique which seduces you. So I am looking forward to the upcoming year to enjoy the little time I have in Paris, study as much as I can and the rest of the time to enjoy what Paris has to offer, a little Opera or art exhibition or a fashion show maybe throughout the year!

2009-10-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

yazmak istegi geldi... genelde huzunlu ve sıkıntılı olunca daha cok yazmak isteyen birisi oldugumdan uzuntulu ve sıkıntılı oldugumu dusunuorum.. dusunuyorum?? oyleyim! neyi dusunuyim ki!? Geldim, gelirken içimde bir sıkıntı bunaltı vardı ki burnumdan geldi hakkaten.. nasıl olduysa begendigim ev bok gibi cıktı... kokuyo, inanılmaz pis, eski, huzunlu, uzgun, korkunc... OK , hadi dedim temizleyim, kokusu gider.. yatak kılıflarını 90 dereceden yıkamaya basladım, onları cıkarana kadar canım cıktı takana kadar bi daha! perdelerden halıya kadar yıkadım, halı yıkama makinaları kiraladım gittim aldım getirdim, tasıdım yoruldum...
basladım eski kiracının esyalarını kutulara koymaya,eski, pis, dagınık, tozlu... pislikten aklınız cıkardı, dusundukce inanamıyorum! esyaları cıkarırken arasında fare kapanları buldum, korktum, sordum, ewt vardı dedi.. ya gene gelirse??
bir temizlikci buldum, bulduktan 3 gun sonraya randevu verdi, bir gun geldi ertesi gun de gelcekti sora aradı ev cok pis yapamıcam dedi!! temizlikci yaa temizlikci!!! ev cok pis, temizleyemem dedi!!!! e oturdum ben temizledim...
biliyomusun, yazmak istemiorum. sinirim bozuluyo...
simdi sonucta Pierre e soyledim, ben cıkmak istiyorum yapamıcam.. ayıp oldu, muhtemelen kızdı da.. herneyse nolursa olsun burada yapamayacagım cocuklar, baska yere yolum duser!!!

veeeeee son!

2009-10-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

he hee ingilizce yazcaktım.. yazcam yazcam.. su anda ruh durumum ve halim musait diil kusura bakmayın!

Parise yolculuk yakın, depresif duygular harekete geçmis bile, gittigim evde yatak bile olmama ihtimali yuksek!

bir hafta saga kos sola kos yerlestir temizle...

sora Polise git rapor ver, geldim, hastalıklı diilim, param var sukrolsun, size muhtac diilim multeci diilim (olsaydım da zarardan cok faydam olurdu), ewt geri de donecegim, kalmayacagım ...

sora git telefon hattı actır banka kartlarını topla, muhtemelen 15 gundur orada olmadıgın icin kartların gelmis bir de sonra donmus olsun, otur 15 gun daha onları bekle...

neyse, ben mi kasındım? ewt kendim istedim.. haaa bir de , ders programımı bilmiyorum, ders secme tarihlerini kacırmıs bile olabilirim, sınıf toplantısının oldugu gun Parise yolculuk ediyorum, yani onu da kacırıyorum... neyse herhalde hallederim bir sekilde, her zaman oldugu gibisinden...

ben depresifken beni arayın sorun olur mu?? gurbet malum, kolay degil ilk baslarda ...

2009-09-30T15:03:00.001-07:00

uffff plan yapmak ne zor yahu, ozellikle benim icin.. detaycılık zor is, mukemmeliyetcilik ise bu dunyadaki en buyuk hammallık olabilir!! o da olsun ama o olurken bu da olsun, su da olsun... Su olurken bundan eksik kalmayayım; istediimi de yapayım gerekeni de yapayım hepsini yaparken vakit kaybetmiyeyim... yoruldum, ben kendi kendimden yoruldum! Gel gor ki degistiremiyorum, ben boyleyim, beeeen boyyyyyleyim!! (Yılmaz morgulden alıntı bknz. Okan Bayulgenin medya arkası)

2009-09-30T00:45:00.000-07:00

Summer house,silence...Sleeping till late, sleeping by the pool, silence... Reading a lot, eating a lot...Birds...Pool side, light music, silence... The sun, hot sun! Boring, peaceful,relaxing,lonely. Old friends, good friends,close friends. Marriage,dancing,fun,tiring,drunkenness and yet more silence...

4 days Paradise

2009-08-30T00:50:00.001-07:00

It feels great to be on vacation, having accomplished all kinds of responsibilities for the current phase of my life before I start the next one. I can actually enjoy my time on the beach under the sun without worrying about what next to do when I go back.

I am in Gocek, on the west coast of Turkey, a perfectly preserved nature and sea, where you ask yourself if this may be the paradise you have been longing for during those endless nights of work. The weather is great, just as hot as I would like on a day under the sun. Water is not too cold, nor too hot... The restaurants on the coast of various little islands spread around Gocek are very primitive, yet so warm and delicious, I can hardly believe that this place is so preserved without the invasion of masses of tourists...

r.d.

why I will write in English

2009-08-30T00:36:00.000-07:00

I feel blessed to have many friends that I deeply love, mostly turkish from childhood; but many more from all around the world as well... This is why I prefer to write in english as weird as it would be; but I would like to share parts of my life with all of my friends and not only those who are Turkish. So, here is my blog, some thoughts, some ideas and some memories from my life...

İşte böyle başladım

2009-08-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

Blog yazmayı uzun zamandır istiyordum ancak yogun hayat temposunda bir turlu blog oluşturmak bir yana bloguma isim ve başlık seçmek bile zor geliyordu ama en sonunda bugun böylece başlamış oldum. ..