Welcome!

Dear friends from whereever you are from and whereever I met you! Welcome to my new webblog that I designed for the post-Erasmus, post-Istanbul, post-Turkey part of my life (or at least for an uncertain period of it)!

I'm proud of telling you that welcoming you warmly on this page means that you managed to enter the V.I.P. lounge of my mind and remembrance! Truely, when I left behind Istanbul and Turkey on 19 July 2006 I terminated a period of unique experiences that I made with people from different places from all over the world. The fact that you are now here to read what has happened and will happen to me after this time, means that I want you to keep on being part of my life despite the spacial and temporary distance that is between us. That's why I just can repeat: Welcome! Welcome to my world!

Infact it is this moment of welcoming that brings people together. Now that I'm back in Germany, back to my family and my old friends I feel of course good and comfortable. But this time of being back is something else than the moment of coming back, of seeing a person for the first time again after a long period of being separated. This moment is special since it may be filled with true and honest friendship or life. Do you know this feeling?

I just may tell you about my return to Germany - or first and foremost about my leaving from Istanbul since it is once again necessary to thank to Can and Dimitris who took me to the airport in order to say goodbye. Isn't it a good feeling when you realize that a Turk and Greek wanted to do this together??? Vaybe, let's praise the new era of intercutural peace!

Well, and as I'm asked quite often since I came back I now want to give a public answer to the question how I felt when leaving: Yes, I was sad. When the plain took off Sezen Aksu's Sen ağlama and İstanbul hatırası that I was listening to at the same time helped me crying some silent teardrops.

Anyway, I was taken from the airport by my brother Georg and a very good friend Alex who I know since we were at high school. Now after having graduated at Munich University he will start to work as a communication consultant in Frankfurt/Main. I was very surprised and happy to see him since he will leave Munich and me soon! Together with Georg I went home to our parents' place in Ingolstadt, about 70 km north of Munich. I stayed (and of course very enjoyed) some days with them and some relatives and friends until going to Munich for some more days for swimming, joining the beer gardens and occasionally the summer party of the Oriental Studies Institut that I stady at. You can imagine how I enjoyed this evening drinking cool Efes beer and eating some sigara yaprak while sitting on kilims in the grass and listening to Turkish music! Let's say, I felt like being at home...

Since a couple of days I'm now back again in Ingolstadt with my parents, Georg and some friends. The weather is hot but a mix of blue sky, clouds and rain. At the moment my main task is to read a lot about Turkish politics - information that I will need for the internship that I'm going to start on Tuesday, 1 August. It will be at the Orient-Institut in Hamburg for four weeks, and believe it or not, I'm looking forward to go there, to see new places, meet new people and be at the seaside again.

It will be from Hamburg where I will tell you next time about my state of being. I very would like to read some comments on my blog and this post. You can write to me by e-Mail or at the end of this post. Finally I hope that everything is fine for everyone and that I soon get news from all of you!

Best wishes

Lütfü