The End

Well. here it is. My bags are pretty much packed. I bought most of gifts im gonna get. my last day of work was Thurs. My 2 month adventure has come to an end.

First though? How grateful i am to have been able to do this. It's such a blessing to be able to do something like this. From playing with coke bottles and sticks as a kid in Croatia to a 2 month expenses-paid internship from a top liberal arts school. That is progress. Thanks mainly to the parents and friends. So props to all you.

Thoughts about Istanbul/Turkey? First, it's a pretty fuckin' clean country. I live in the hood and even here people wash to roads and sweep trash every day. Second, it's not a cheap country. It's actually pretty expensive if you consider the average income, which I've heard is something like $700 a month. Just like in my own BiH, the numbers just don't add up; people should be able to survive here. But they do. How? By doing what I rarely see in the states: squeezing every penny (or here, kuruş).

Then again, there's construction everywhere. Massive skyscrapers mingle with the minaret's of Istanbul's 2500 mosques. I once saw a dirty, poor old man selling worthless crap from China...while listening to an iPod. If you came here for a weekend, you'd think all anyone does is eat, drink, play backgammon, and smoke nargile. I would forgive many people just who came to Beyoğlu or Sultanahmet for a weekend and came back with the most orientalist point-of-view. But go out of the old city to the "new Istanbul" or east towards Ankara and wow, projects galore. You then start to realize, barely, what a 12.5 million people increase in population over 50 years looks like. When I first saw how congested all the apartment buildings were the first thing I thought of some child playing with legos. they really do just look like hundreds of legos stacked together across rolling hills. it's almost surreal looking. even stranger when you look closer and see the thousands of barnacles all over every building - satellite dishes.

But go outside of Istanbul and everything changes. Green, forest covered hills, small quaint villages by the Sea of Marmara. The last 150 km's of the bus ride from Izmir were really beautiful. it looked like someone moved Bosnia a few hundred km's west and gave it a coast line (which would involve flooding Dalmatia and Herzegovina...no loss really, and probably a reality in 50 years thanks to Al Gore).

People are genuienly nice here too. They'll gladly help you get somewhere or find something. My co-intern Johanna says she never knows if they're just hitting on her or are really just that nice. For me, I don't know if they're trying to sell me something or they are that nice. Most of the time, it's a mix of the two. Oh and being Bosnian helped sooo much. I can't say that enough. Everyone with me noticed it too. Plus the whole Muslim thing.

I don't know what else to write. I always start thinking but then look out my window and kinda get lost. I'm excited to discuss all my "adventures" with everyone in person though! And show off my AWESOME pictures. over 1,000. niiiice.

So now I say, goodbye to this blog and görüşürüz to İstanbul!

-Edin