chess games

hey everyone!!! i write to you from a little internet cafe in kas, in southern turkey on the aegean coast.

i left istanbul on saturday night by hopping on a bus to fethiye. i'm all by myself, and this trip is definitely a leap of faith on my part, having no experience truly traveling alone. i was determined, though, as previous blogposts have expounded on, to get to this coast before summer weather expired. SOOO i got to fethiye on sunday morning with the plan of sort of lazing around for a few days and then taking one of these "blue cruises" to olympos on tuesday. however, once i got to my hostel in fethiye (which was an adventure in itself), tuna (the owner of the hostel) made some calls and discovered that the "company of choice" was booked until thursday...UNLESS i got on a cruise THAT DAY. since i was totally planless, i was just like, ok sure whaever, hahaha. so in 10 minutes there was someone there to pick me up for this cruise. got onto the boat and i've been "cruisin" (hahaha) ever since! *note: i'm not talking about like a cruiseline princess/celebrity cruise or wahtever - this is a nice little boat that fits about 15 ppl.

some shots of my uber surreal life from the boat:

near oludeniz:

where we docked for night one:

today's first stop with a turtle sighting (that i couldnt get a picture of)!

a rare picture of me in the pristine waters of the southern aegean:

and to, perhaps belatedly, get to the title of this post. somehow chess has come back into my life over the past week. my friend from tomer, a saudi named mohammed, has been urging me to play chess with him for a while and despite my incredible insecurities i caved on thursday evening. we sat at haciagolu, ate lahmacun and pulled out his chess board. the reason i've been SOOO hesitant to play chess is because, well, i dont have any moves! i dont remember any of the strategies, playing styles or anything that my dad taught me years ago...and without a long-term plan or any kind of idea about how to tackle the game, i dont even want to start.

my life is sort of like this. i'm pretty obsessed with long-term plans, big picture life maps, etc. but this game of chess reminded me that long term plans are crap. things evolve, change, and half our lives we dont really have control over. how my opponent moved shaped what my choices needed to be, what life gives me is what i need to fumble or deal with the best i can. turned out that i could hold my own against mohammed (and my latest chess partner stanislas - a russian/kazak/german on my cruise). just need to trust myself, take a leap of faith even when i dont have a long term plan. just take things one step at a time. having realized that this is basically the theme of my little vacation to the turquoise coast, i thought i just had to share it with you. so yeap there it is! learning life lessons while floating around on the gorgeous southwestern coast in turkey, missing all of you and hoping to hear from you soon.

kızılcahamam

on friday right after class, i met volkan up in levent where we would take an isbank service bus to ankara. we were on this bus from 6 to 11 ish, and i really enjoyed just seeing more of istanbul by bus. as i've mentioned before, i much prefer traveling by bus than plane since you i see the landscapes better. the route followed the sea of marmara coast for some good time, and i was able to see the huge build up of turkish industries lined along this major fault line. as in, earthquake fault line.

we got into ankara late friday night. volkan's dad picked us up and brought us back to their home, where we basically called it a night. saturday morning we were up brightttt and early (well, i was SORT of up haha) to pick up a few of volkan's friends and 15 loaves of break from the bakery. after a big reunion among volkan's super close friends from home, we set off for the forest!

my first animal sighting (and only). i thought it would appropriate to attach a little side story to this turtle about this phrase that my turkish teacher uses 24/7: "yavas yavas." it means "slowly, slowy." the pace of life here is so fast, so busy - or at least it always seems that way because the city is so FULL! and yet that phrase "yavas yavas" comes up so often. kind reminders to slow it down, to be patient despite the immediate reaction to try and go at the same pace as istanbul...

sorgun lake, okan and emrah cooking up a storm...

possibly my favorite moment of the trip:

when volkan described this camping trip to me, he said this: there will be a lot of men, drinking, eating, dancing, and joy. so, so true hahahah!! but really, a bit about how fun this was: in the morning we packed up camp and moved down to where we had parked the cars. volkan put the radio on and found a station with the right kind of music (something we could "sik sik" to) and
volkan, mehmet and ahmet immediately started the party :). emrah and okan spotted them and sprinted down the hill, despite each carrying tons of leftover food, sleeping mats and tents, dropped the stuff and joined in. when i joined in, it was just so, sooo fun.

one of the best moments of my entire trip, where despite any-all language barriers, my timidity, self-consciousness..it all just fell away and i shared in on this moment of happiness among friends :). huge thanks to all the gentlemen who made me feel so welcome that weekend.

and food food food - another universal language of love.

playing "bluf"

a parting picture of the whole gang

on the drive back to the city. a few glances of turkish landscape:

after a wonderful time in ankara, we hopped on a night bus back to istanbul and arrived at 5am!

since it was my last day in my flat, i took some very necessary pictures of the view from my bedroom....

and my daily (or multi-daily) trek up and down these stairs - from akyol to the coast.

this post isn't really "done" but its so damn long and i know you all despise these uber long posts hahaha. so i'll just end it here! next post will hopefully come from the turquoise coast. i begin my travels tomorrow evening by bus to fethiye..and i'll figure it out from there! toodles!

living by the water, living at the beach

on september 5th (i finally decided!) i'm going to hop on a bus at take off for fethiye, the fulcrum of the turkish turquoise coast. in doing so, i'll be fulfilling a long desire to visit this strip of gorgeous mediterranean sunshine, sand, and relaxation.

i'm looking forward to my reunion with the coastline, as i've been thoroughly homesick for blacks, the shores, and our fave "private" beach in santa cruz. i'm nervous to travel by myself, but determined to get to the beach asap. being next to the water, soaking up the sun -just makes me so happy and is the ONLY way i want to spend my 2oth birthday :).

came across this article today. it's a story that made me smile, and zero news about iraq has been smile-worthy (especially in the last few weeks). since it's sort of relevant to this blogpost: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/world/middleeast/24habbaniya.html?ref=middleeast

enjoy!