I found this post in my drafts. I had written it on March 16, 2020, but for some reason not posted it. It was the beginning of the lockdown in Turkey to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in this country. My thoughts from then are resonating with the situation we are facing now; […]
Today, as the sun is setting for the last time in this decade on the other side of the Bosphorus, I am reflecting on 2019 and what it meant to me and who / what I am grateful for. The sun sets in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve 2019 for the final time in this […]
Originally written 8 May 2018, updated 17 December 2019 In a spring cleaning in 2018 I found an old diary of mine with entries from 2005 and then again from 2008. Back then in May 2008, almost 10 years before to the day, I had taken stock of my life up to that point of […]
September 13, 2017 As a foreigner working and living with his family here in Turkey, it is natural for me to learn to speak Turkish. I have met a couple of expats who have been living here for years and do not even try to learn the language instead trying to get by with English. […]
September 17, 2017 When we were still living in Germany, a colleague of Burcu’s once made her this “compliment”: “I am really positively surprised by you. I always thought all Turks were lazy and slow.” The colleague was apparently not at all aware at that time how discriminatory her comment actually was. We Germans tend […]
