Every year, on (or around) the anniversary of arriving in Istanbul on January 29, I reflect back on the previous year in this wild city.
But this year is a little different. I landed in Istanbul on January 29, 2013, which means it’s been ten years since I began this life. A whole decade.
Recently I was at a party and a visiting American asked me how long I’d been in Istanbul. “Almost ten years,” I said.
“Wow!” she said. “And will you stay?”
What a strange question— I didn’t know how to answer it. Because I have stayed, much longer than I ever thought I would. Istanbul has become my home, despite every unpredictable future. I moved here a few months before the Gezi Park protests and the decade since has had every twist and turn of tumultuousness, from coups to pandemics, from terror attacks to elections, from elations to heartbreaks. I grew up here, and I’m still growing up here.
Someday I will have to write a longer, more in-depth reflection of Istanbul’s place in my life these last ten years— to excavate that much of myself for an annual blog post seems impossible. For now, I will reflect just on this last year. A drop in the vast sea of my Istanbul life.
Best Of The Year
California for a wedding
When two of my dear friends told me they were getting married in the Bay Area in May, I wasn’t totally sure I would be able to go. I’m not usually on the west coast before November, and I had visitors coming to Istanbul in early and late May, leaving a very small window in between.
Then I thought, what the hell.
So I went to California for only nine days to go to this wedding, and it was an amazing trip. I loved spending time with my family in the California spring. I loved that I was only away from my Istanbul life for a little while (even though I was jetlagged for two weeks straight). And the wedding itself was just divine— it mostly took place over a multi-course meal at a restaurant called Lazy Bear, and we were sitting at the most fun end of the table. So much laughter, so many new friends, so much joy and love. It was a blissful trip.
Tbilisi with Mom
When my mom visits Istanbul, she likes to take little side trips out of the city. Usually I would insist we go somewhere in Turkey, but it was a holiday and I knew domestic travel would be mad, so instead we went to Tbilisi. It was my third time in that wonderful city, but my first since 2016, and my mom’s first time ever, and she just loved it. And I remembered why I’ve always been so fond of wandering through Tbilisi’s side streets. It’s a special city.
Friends visiting Istanbul
So many of my favorite people visited Istanbul this year, and the cumulative joy of they was a true highlight. One moment that sticks out in particular is my best friend Kelly’s last night, when we sat on my terrace in the fading light drinking wine, reading poetry, listening to Leonard Cohen, and just feeling all the beautiful feelings— it was such a glowing evening that could only have happened because we stayed in.
Escape to Datca
I took a quick trip to Datça at the end of June that was completely restorative. Sometimes I forget that I have to get out of Istanbul, and Datca had the perfect balance of beauty and nature and quiet that I needed to reset myself a bit.
Real vacation in Cirali
Many of my trips this year weren’t really vacations— I spent a lot of time working at the beach on my laptop— but my trip to Cirali in October was true vacation. We rented rickety bicycles and swam in the sea and drank wine and I didn’t even bring my computer on the trip. It was a good reminder that sometimes it’s necessary to prioritize VACATION vacation.
I published a piece in the Atlantic.
One of the true highlights of this year was working on and publishing my first piece in The Atlantic. Ozge and I worked on our story for a year, with ups and so many downs, but the story finally clicked when we went to Marmaris at the end of April and met some of the people who became characters in our story for the first time. Soon after that, I received a Pulitzer grant and then acceptance from the Atlantic, which allowed us to go back to the south and spend time in the world of the beekeepers. It’s my biggest professional accomplishment so far and made me realize that I do actually know what I’m doing.
Making new friends
Even after all this time in Istanbul, there are still so many people to meet, and my tenth year brought SO many new friends into my life. After the pandemic years where it felt so hard to make new connections, it was a nice change.
The return of lap swimming
My pool finally reopened at the end of my ninth year, AND I became a member of the Fenerbahce Sports Club to access their outdoor summer pool, so swimming laps became a very regular part of my life again. Thank goodness! It’s so good for my mental and physical health, and there was a point this summer when I was swimming four or five times a week.
Worst Of The Year
The struggle of work-life balance
I was so glad my work came back this year, but relearning how to balance work with my life was hard. I spent a lot of time scrambling to meet deadlines and failing to take real time off. I think I’ve finally got the swing of it, hopefully.
And then Abdul fell off a balcony
In June, my friend Abdul fell off a fourth-story balcony, which led to a terrifying week mostly spent in the hospital with his family and friends. He was fine, miraculously, but the stress and exhaustion of that week felt like one of the more notable negative things that happened this year.
An ending
A complicated friendship that I let back into my life this year ended, began again, and ended again, and that whole journey was definitely one of the worst parts of this last year— exhausting and sad. And now, done.
Heat wave in Boston
When I was in Boston in August, the city was in the middle of a vicious heatwave. 95° and humid is NOT ideal Boston weather and it was rough!
The Best Book I Read This Year
The best nonfiction book I read this year might be Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded by David Winchester, because it took a basic subject and made it relevant on a way I wasn’t expected. When Krakatoa exploded in 1883, it was the first massive natural disaster that happened when telegraph lines had been laid— so, the first disaster in an age of mass communication. This meant they people all over the world could connect the aftereffects to the event itself! I found the whole book just thrilling.
The best fiction I read was John Le Carre’s trilogy that begins with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (followed by The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People). I actually read this trilogy twice this year, I loved the books so much.
My Year of Earworms
I’m a year full of great music, it’s actually tricky this year to choose my favorite. So I’m going to go with a song I loved in the beginning of the year and never stopped listening to all the way through: “Love and Hate in a Different Time” by Gabriels. Appropriate, no?
And now I’ve spent a decade of my life in Istanbul. It’s the most insane and also easily the best decision I’ve ever made, and now it’s been so long that it’s impossible what my life would have been if I never came here. What surprises will this next year, or next batch of years, bring? It’s always a surprise. Istanbul is my main addiction, and I don’t plan to quit it anytime soon.
For a review of years past: A Year Abroad, Two Years Abroad, Three Years Abroad, Four Years Abroad, Five Years Abroad, Six Years Abroad, Seven Years Abroad, Eight Years Abroad, Nine Years Abroad.
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