August 2016

August was the month I finally made it out of Turkey, and so it has seemed long and jam-packed. My USA trip was only a couple of weeks ago, but it feels like it’s been ages. And now I’m writing this update from Kiev… Indeed, a busy month!

Best Of The Month

I visited friends in New York for a weekend and went to Coney Island for the first time. What a color cacophony! A hot weekend on NYC’s weird beach is loud, crowded, and full of motion; I was completely delighted.

In Boston, my sister came to see me for three days. She hadn’t been planning the trip but I’m glad she snuck it in– she’s my favorite.

And back in Istanbul, I spent a long lazy day in a Bosphorus boat party, drinking wine and napping in the sunshine.

Worst Of The Month

I’ve been transitioning from my old job to a bunch of new freelance projects, and I found myself at the end of the month working constantly while still worrying about earning enough money. A double stress.

I also picked up a cold in New York, and I feel like I haven’t totally shaken it– most days I feel fine, but every once in a while I feel lousy and wiped out. (Jet lag probably didn’t help.)

And the saddest– another one of my closest friends left Istanbul. I brought him to the airport, and I’m so excited for his future, but it’s always hard when friends move on from Turkey.

What I’m Loving

Reads: A few months ago, I posted a Rumi poem on Facebook and friends recommended the novel The Dervish Gate. It’s a mystery set in Konya that brings a lot of the Rumi legend into the narrative; it was perfectly fine for an airplane read but I was constantly annoyed with the main character.

The best things I read were in magazines. If you haven’t jumped into the NYT magazine’s story Fractured Lands: How The Arab World Came Apart, I highly recommended it. What a brutal and necessary read.

My dad gifted me a bunch of New Yorkers, so I’ve been sifting through that. This article, about the prison at Guantanamo Bay, was particularly riveting.

Music: My friend Julius sent me a tiny desk concert by Anderson .Paak, and his smooth staccato funk became my everything soundtrack. It turned up at every party I went to, I listened to it while I worked, it jammed at dinner gatherings, it even played as a farewell when Julius left.

Movies: When I lived in Boston, I loved going to The Brattle in Harvard Square. This old art movie theater always had an interesting program, and it was no exception when I returned: they were running a series of film noir femme fatale flicks! I saw a double feature of Lizbeth Scott films, and while they were certainly not the best movies ever made (and probably not the best entry point to the genre), I adored them.

The Film Files

I haven’t had time to get anything developed this month! Whoops…

Ephemera

The second episode I recorded of the Every-Day Explorer Podcast is out, and I chat about photography and taking walks and slowing down to see. We recorded this ages ago, so it’s a lot of fun to hear it now!

Upcoming

My family arrives in Istanbul in a few days, for their first proper visit in years. We’re going to eat our way across the city and take a detour to a Greek island… I’m beyond excited.