Back in New York October 1, 2009

I’m a loyal person. I am! Then, why do I keep ignoring this blog. It’s been almost three months since my last post. Apparently we need to do a lot of catch-up!

Well, here is what happened. I was in Indiana, left for Istanbul, spent five weeks there, came back to New York. Fullstop. Not pretty exciting, huh? Immediately after I came back to New York, classes began. So here I am, trying to catch up with everything and not necessarily being successful at that. Most of the time.

But I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to be with New York. Sometimes when I get out of the subway I look around, look at the buildings surrounding me and look at the people passing by, and I say to myself: “I’m in New York.” It makes me feel better. It was my dream to come and live here. Did you know that? I made that promise when I first saw New York 9 years ago. I missed this city when I was in Indiana and I missed this city when I was in Istanbul this summer.  Can you believe that? I told no one. I saw 3 other big US cities this summer: Boston, Chicago and Washington DC., and none of them made me feel the way I feel about New York (Chicago almost captured my heart. But I say almost. – It’s a beautiful and lovely city btw). I’m glad to be back (but I miss my family a lot).

Well, to make a long story short, I’m back in town, back in the business, and will try to write more! We’ll see how this semester unfolds!

In the Land of Hoosiers July 2, 2009

It’s been ages since my last post. What have I been up to so far?

Mostly studying. I’m almost done with the analysis part of my thesis and gonna start working on the theory section next week. I have to do some reading. That’s the world of academia: You read and write, when you’re done with writing you go and read some more! Well, that’s my world at least!

Oh, btw I started reading Twilight! That was the only reasonable book at Walmart that I could afford reading. I bought it a month ago and it’s been sitting on my desk since then. Last night I couldn’t sleep so I decided to give it a shot and voila! I liked it (Well I only read the first chapter). Maybe it’s because I’m reading and writing all this “serious” stuff during the day and feel the need to read something shallow. I’m not that into vampires but we’ll see.

What else? Oh, I have a twitter account! How the hell that happened? Let me explain. I found out that some authors and music groups that I like reading and listening to are twittering such as Coldplay. You may think it’s lame but everyone does lame things once in a while. I’m in just for their updates, and I’m not tweeting much. But I’m following these guys currently traveling around the world, their journey started in Fiji then they went to Australia, next to India now they are in Dubai and if my memory serves me right they’ll be traveling to Africa soon. They are posting pictures, it’s really cool. AND, for Coldplay, since they are on a world tour right now, they are tweeting around the world; today they landed in France for instance. They are posting pictures, etc. You still think it’s lame but I’m kinda enjoying it!

This week we’ll have a loooong weekend because it’s 4th of July. We canceled our trip to Chicago (hopefully gonna do it next weekend, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!) but we’ll be driving around Indiana tomorrow.

Have a TERRIFIC weekend and stay tuned!

New Girl in a New Town May 27, 2009

It’s official: I’m done with school! (until September, of course)

School is over but it does not mean that work is over too..! I still have to write my thesis before the end of July. I have various other plans, too (abstracts, reviews, etc.) My priority is my thesis, of course.

I’m not in New York anymore. Came to Indianapolis a week ago. So far so good. It’s different, it’s small, it’s … I don’t know. I think I can manage to live here for a while. I’ll be working/studying most of the time. Plus, there is a gym downstairs and a swimming pool outside. The weather is good. It’s like having a very long vacation in the Mid-West.

Still it’s great to know that I’ll be heading back to New York in the fall. I don’t want to be part with her.

Not now, not in a near future.

A Marriage Proposal May 5, 2009

Have you seen how Derek proposed to Meredith on Grey’s Anatomy??

Even I -someone-not-so-romantic-and-hates-all-that-romanticism-bullshit-we-are-exposed-to- liked it!!

I mean not that I’d like to be proposed that way.. I’d be bored I know.. But it was lovely to watch. Knowing that it’s fake, that it’s television..

I think that’s the best ”fake-TV-show-marriage-proposal” I’ve ever seen!

love them or leave them? April 30, 2009

Although I enjoy traveling as a tourist a lot, I have a secret to confess:

I don’t like tourists! I don’t. Especially not on 34th street. I get out of the subway, turn around the corner and bum! there they are.. carrying victoria’s secret bags, staring at the Empire State Building and BLOCKING my way! Nobody seems to be affected by the huge coverage on the media of the Swine Flu. Nobody seems to give a damn about it. People are happily and carelessly strolling down my street!

Maybe they should close the borders and ban traveling. It doesn’t sound like a bad idea after all..!

the Procrastinator April 26, 2009

Procrastination is evil, yet that’s what I do when I have a lot of stuff to do.

Having deactivated my facebook account yesterday, what other alternatives do I have aside from blogging to spend some time on?

Geez, should start working…real soon!

Summer in New York April 26, 2009

Central Park

It was a strange year, to begin with. So cold. So dark. So rainy. I lived in the Netherlands for almost a year (4 years ago), and don’t remember it was this cold. Although I was wearing gloves, I could still feel may hands getting frozen. I was afraid that I’d lose my mimics and facial expressions due to cold. In the end I’m a Turkish girl from Istanbul, and I’m not used to this type of cold weather.

OK. I’ll break the good news: Those cold days are over. (yeahhhuu)

Hold on! I also have some bad news: Summer has arrived to New York City!

I cannot believe this! Where has spring gone? How come we skipped it?

It’s 27 degrees today! I bet all New Yorkers are in either Central Park, or Conney Island, or any other zillion parks that exist in this city! I can hardly leave our apartment. I have no intention whatsoever.

The school is gonna end in 3 weeks and I have a lot of work to do. And now as the sun keeps calling me out, it seems even harder to get focused and study.

I want those dark days back!

Yeah, I’m an insatiate person, but in the end we are all insatiate, aren’t we?

NY Times Interview with Ishak Alaton March 8, 2009

I was told by a friend that there was an interview on New York Times with one of the prominent Jewish businessmen in Turkey. Although she could not remember his name, I was pretty sure it was Ishak Alaton, a highly prominent and respected businessman, the chairman of Alarko holding, that I had a chance to meet and dine with at a reception at the Dutch Embassy some years ago. In the interview, he talks about his childhood, his own experience of Wealth Law (Varlik Vergisi) which resulted in the misery and perishment of many non-muslim Turkish citizens. As part of the Turkification process of the nation, Wealth Tax paved the way for the exchange of capital, from non-Muslims to Muslims. Alaton not only talks about his past but also discusses his expectations from the future as a Jewish Turkish citizen born, raised and aged in Turkey.

You can reach the interview from the link below:

Interview with Mr. Alaton

sunshine March 6, 2009

It’s been a while (a long one) since my last post. This semester started real fast and I suddenly lost track of it.Finally, the work part is over now. I’m left alone with my courses, homeworks, papers and -my darkest nightmare- my thesis. I cannot work efficiently and I don’t know why. It seems I fail to catch up with everything. I have to pull myself together, I know. Spring is coming, although it still snows in New York, I know it’s somewhere out there and approaching slowly.

I’m so sick of dark and cold. All I need is sunshine. Warmth.

Am I asking for too much?

Highlights of this week January 16, 2009

This week was a blast. It kicked off too quickly and I thought whole week would be like that. Well, it turned out that I was wrong. The work just knocked me of whole week. But I managed to write, no matter what. I wrote down three reviews for Review Stream and I’m waiting for them to get processed. (I hope I can get the full rate). But the highlight of the week is that I published my first article on Helium, and it ranked to top the very next day.

Stay tuned and have a great weekend!!