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The leaving Cambridge bit THIS IS RADIO (FREE) TTCT WITH AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. Or, not really. I was going to write something to the effect that the fragmented remains of the TTT have apparently re-located yet again, but maybe it wasn't that funny to begin with and who remembers that particular joke any more anyway? In June 1, I was laid off from my job at M.I.T. This precipitated a series of thought processes and decisions, some of which had already been brewing, so Kathy and I moved to Istanbul at the end of August. As a friend of mine likes to say (about Harvard, but I feel that it is equally applicable here), "It is a world class institution full of world class assholes." In the interest of not crossing the line into sour grapes territory, nothing more needs to be added except that perhaps I am lucky to have gotten out when I did. I had grown quite fond of Cambridge. There is a lot that I'll miss. The Charles River, all the bike paths (two of my favourites are right alongside the river, one on each bank), walking across the river on the foot bridge, the wide variety of ethnic restaurants, the street fairs and festivals, and the regatta. I'll miss the emphasis on the communal: the incredible public library system, the way Memorial Drive closes on Sundays in the summer to let pedestrians have full use of a highway right next to the Charles, and being able to ride the T almost anywhere in the city. I'll miss our cozy, centrally located apartment, where friends were welcome to drop in anytime. I'll miss the different neighbourhoods in Boston: the pompous academic demeanor around Harvard Square versus the more down to earth feeling around Central and Inman Squares, Beacon Hill's old world charm and even its overbearing preppiness, eating Dim Sum in Chinatown, and seeing people from all around the world crowding the Haymarket in search of cheap fruits and vegetables on weekends. I'll miss Boston's amazingly diverse population, and especially all the friends we have made there over the years. Neither the words above nor this digialbum do justice to what I really want to say, but they'll have to suffice. Heck, some of the album is actually about New York. And it doesn't even have half the pictures I wanted to put in. Like I said, it'll have to do. All the whys and wherefores and a silver lining Every since my parents' visit in March I had been thinking more and more about how so much of my adult life has been spent so far away from home. Kathy's desire to master Turkish and learn about the country and its culture proved synergistic to these thoughts. The catalyst required was provided by the MIT job, which did not pan out to be what I thought it would have been and ended right around the time I was thinking about taking a year off to go live in Turkey. It may end up being a regretful decision since we are leaving behind a quite comfortable life, friends and contacts. It was a choice between this and potentially regretting not having gone home when I could have. Kathy's being so supportive (eager even) clinched the deal. Perhaps we are intentionally lowering our happiness index or fueling a rise in negative news about the Bush administration's performance (that the biased liberal media are sure to take advantage of), but at least it should increase all our friends' happiness levels by much more than 10%. Just think of all the Benjamins we will not be scoring in Turkey and you, too, can be happy! The Arriving in Istanbul bit Right out of the airport, we were greeted by HUGE "Welcome to Istanbul" signs that seem to have taken over almost every overpass. In English. Apparently intalled by the Municipality of Greater Istanbul, the administration of which is freely elected by the people of Istanbul. By the people, for the people? Which people? Everything seems so far away already, even though we are inundated by news from all over the world, with an almost unhealthy kind of concentration on the USA. When Bush made his famous speech about "Don't buy oil if'n y'all don' need it," there seemed to be more coverage about it here in Turkey than about more serious Turkish news. On the second day of the disaster, the biggest Turkish newspaper had front page pictures of their seasoned reporting team standing in front of a looted New Orleans storefront with broken glass. But there is a silver lining even in this: here, my cell phone comes with Auld Lang Syne as a stock ringtone. Istanbul, 30 August 2005 |
Copyleft notice: Copyright (C) 1999-2005 Mustafa Ünlü. This information is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. |