Hey y’all!
It is time. The break is over, and school is starting again. I’ve picked up most of my responsibilities again, and I’m ready to go. It’s time to call all the animals back to Pride Rock and it’s time for my life here to start again. (By the way The Lion King is pretty much one of my favourite movies ever.)
Sorry for the long delay in blog updates. It took a lot longer than I had expected to get settled back in to the Canadian way of life, and trying to get everything settled for getting back into the school year. Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. I also spent most of my free time playing StarCraft 2, instead of letting the internet know what I was up to. I do apologize for that, and hopefully my school schedule will make it easier to do semi-regular updates of this blog. I would have to say that you shouldn’t expect the updates to be daily anymore, but I will be aiming for around three or four per week, depending on how eventful my week is, or what I have to talk about.
I also have to spend some time organizing all of my previous posts and maybe polishing them up a little. Though, to be honest, I kind of like it when the author (in this case me) leaves things in their original form. It makes the writings more… lively, I guess you could say. But that will be an ongoing project, and I don’t expect it will make much of any difference to the regular viewings of this site, but hopefully (and I flatter myself to think that people will be doing this) it will make it much easier to search through older entries to find one that you’re looking for.
It has been an interesting few weeks since I’ve come back from Turkey. There is indeed a reverse culture shock happening to me right now, it’s has been difficult to get used to some things again. Traffic lights, and stop signs were the biggest readjustments that I’ve had to make. I also really miss the fresh bread that I would get at every meal, and I have given serious thought to getting a bread maker. Then I realized that I’d have to actually take the time to make the bread, and that after one use I’d be bored and would probably never touch it again. Still, the temptation is there, if only to have fresh bread that one time. Another big difference is being able to talk to and understand what everyone is saying. I had forgotten how much you learn about random strangers by inadvertently eavesdropping (or for some of us I guess it’s purposely eavesdropping) on their conversations in public. Since I didn’t speak Turkish, I was… I guess insulated, or isolated from what was going on around me. Knowing everything, understanding everything, is a surprisingly large burden to bear.
Another issue I’m having is the food in general. I’m not used to Canadian food, and in looking back at what I used to eat before I left for the summer, I’m not sure now how I ever survived on those foods. I have been making much more of an effort to cook healthier meals, and I’m loving it so far. Hopefully my enthusiasm for cooking will continue after my courses get into full swing. I was also told of a great online Turkish Cookbook that I’ve been using a little recently. It’s actually very good, and it’s in english. So if any of you are interested in Turkish cuisine, you should probably go and check it out.
Anyway that’s all the time I have to write today. I have laundry to do, groceries to buy and a long overdue haircut waiting for me. I hope you’re all well.
You’ll be hearing from me soon,
Mike
