Sunday, October 9, 2011

Diary: October 8th, 2011

     I'll be using these Diary entries to record my thoughts and emotions as I live and travel around the world. I lost my diary on my trip and it was a great loss as it had all of my feelings and thoughts written down from my time in Costa Rica. So I'll be using this medium to write things down.

     I've just taken a sip from the green bottle of Jagermeister to build up my confidence to write about myself. It's funny it's one of the hardest things for me to get started on is just sitting down and writing. As it warms my gullet and my mind feels as if it's opening and loosening up much like a dancer stretches his muscles, loosening up so he can perform the difficult jumps and taut forms that are required; my mind also loosens up to let loose the words to bring to life my thoughts and actions from mere words.

     The last few weeks have gone by in a bit of a blur. Starting the new school and having a lot of the memories and cultural lessons I learned while attending the masjid(mosque/camii) in Iowa flow back to me as I began working at a conservative school. Things were pretty disorganized but having experienced this in South Korea I was less disturbed by it than my colleagues. I just took things in stride and figured everything would work itself out. So far they have. It's crazy how fast this first month has gone though. In one month I've organized three cooking events at different peoples homes which allowed me to meet locals, I joined in a photowalk, and I even hosted a few people at my new home. I did all of this while having NO money. I lived off of peoples charity and goodwill. To be honest I really didn't like it because it feels like I'm mooching from them. It's really embarassing when I can't foot my own bill.
    But alas, on Monday I'll receive my first paycheck from my new work. It's funny how I keep referring to this paycheck like it's the holy grail that will end all of my problems. One thing is for sure though, it will end my dependence on everyones money and goodwill. I've learned that I'll be receiving a full paycheck because our orientation week will count so I'll be able to pay back my debtors and since I was able to put a small forbearance of one month on my student loan I'll be able to put some money into savings so I don't end up stuck in a hard spot again. Atleast I'll try for this savings.

There are so many things I'm wanting to do. I'll join a climbing gym for one month to see how I like it and how often I go. I may join a gym as well but I'm still speculating as I dont' want to waste my money by paying and not attending every day. I'd like to do a dance lesson of some sort. There are so many things I plan to do. I wonder how my budget will work.

     This past week itself was just great. On Wednesday I decided to go to the Wednesday night CS Regular meetup in Taksim. It was alright. I saw a lot of people that I've met over the past month but to be honest I was a little bored. I didn't feel like randomly walking up to somebody and talking about nothing or trying to leverage my way into a conversation. So instead I began to ask people if I could take their portraits. That proved to be fun. Afterwards a small group of us including my friends Pelin and Gulcen decided to go out dancing. We went to a club called Araf. A dj was playing a huge variety of music so there was always some different style we could dance to. I'm talking everything from swing, salsa, rumba, bachata, rock and roll, I even heard country music playing as I was leaving. It was hard to leave that place but I was dying of thirst and wasn't feeling well. I didn't have money to buy any water while dancing so I figured it was best to go home and not risk my health.

      I slept for most of Thursday which happened to be a public holiday in Turkey, some kind of liberation day I guess. When I wasn't sleeping I was reading. I've been reading A LOT lately. After a suggestion from my friend Nicolas I searched out the author Edgar Rice Burroughs and his series about John Carter on Mars. I never imagined that a book published in 1917 could be so good. The books are nearly 100 years old but speak of things such as spaceships, space travel, and technology that didn't exist then but are now common. It's really amazing how ensightful this author was. If you dont' recognize the name, this is the same man that brought you the Adventures of Tarzan.

    Another author that has recently caught my attention and I'm unable to pull myself away from his books is the almost prophetic author Paulo Coelho. His writings tend to be just over 100 pages or less yet his words are so full of meaning that you must come back to his books again and again. Each time you feel an 'Ah HA!' moment and an almost enlightenment. His books are like spiritual food. And I'm not even that spiritual but they just speak to me. The first book I read was the Alchemist which spoke of following your Destiny. The second book I just finished was titled Brida and spoke of finding your soulmate. However this book was written in the perspective of a woman named Brida who was going through the path of Magic and witchcraft or the occult and finding her answers through this tradition. Yet while it is offputting for some monotheistic readers as it goes into reincarnation and different practices of witchcraft, it is also eye-opening to see how connected both Christianity and witchcraft really are. I highly recommend all of these books to EVERYONE. I think you'll learn something and perhaps have your own 'Ah HA!' moments.

      Also, I'm feeling like I need to be doing more even though I've got a whole list of things to do on my plate. I really want to get serious with my photography. I've been inspired lately seeing so many people starting their own pages, a young teenage friend in Korea even started her own business at just 16 years old shooting weddings! She didn't take no for an answer and went online offering to shoot weddings for free at first until she got a few under her belt and it seems now she is beginning to make some money. I was suprised with how quickly she was able to take off and am so proud of her. Way to go Dahee! You can see her page here. Every shoot she is getting exponentially better. It got me to thinking why can't I find my niche? I've got over 10,000 photos and a wide variety of genres under my belt. All I need now is to get organized..develop the photos that have turned out the best and make a diverse portfolio from everything I've done. Perhaps then I can set up an exhibition with the help of photographer friends and I'll finally do what I wanted to do which was start on me way to being a serious and respected photographer.

     On Friday I had so many plans but I first had plans to meet a CSer that first contacted me when I made a post about finding new friends since I was new. We finally met up along with her friend and found we had so much to talk about. I lost all track of time and found it hard to end the night because it was going so nicely. Even when we were discussing a point of conflict (I wanted to go to school for marine biology so I could become a dolphin trainer and she is against all wild animals in captivity for the sake of profits and human enjoyment). She had some great points but so did I :) What is clear though is our love for the animal itself.

      Today I spent the day reading and catching up on leaving references for people I've met through Couchsurfing. Now I'm finally catching up on my blogs which I slacked off on this past week. Hopefully I'll keep up for next week. Well..this is me signing off on my first diary entry.

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