Transition Takes Longer Than You Might Think.

It feels weird to sit down and try and write something that's not about the latest Bush administration outrage, or Baghdad related, you know? On my smugmug page, my Baghdad gallery gets more hits than most of the other galleries combined, and I have a feeling that writing about some happy little jaunts around other less interesting parts of the world will reflect the interest level here, also... at least, I know that I myself feel that way. Somehow it almost doesn't seem worth it to sit down and try to describe Istanbul, because I've got nothing to complain about! Well, that's not entirely true; Every morning at 5:30am, I am woken by the sound of Islamic chanting coming from the towers of the Sultan Ahmet mosque, more famously known as the Blue Mosque and which has a direct line of sight to my hotel room window. It's really loud and obnoxious, and is actually more than I was ever subjected to in Baghdad. It certainly doesn't put me in the mood for praising Allah, which is what I understand is the intent.
The only other complaint I have is not so much a complaint as an observation chock full of wry amusement about Istanbul taxi drivers... this is no exaggeration, but every taxi I've been in here, the driver has had to stop and ask for directions! I don't think I've come across that particular idiosyncrasy anywhere else... my hotel is in the center of the most touristy area of the city, and the guy didn't know where it was...
Otherwise, Istanbul is great. Good food, very nice people, cobblestone streets, and alot of old stuff to see... just what I like in a vacation.
I'm not sure that I really believe yet that I am no longer in Iraq, or that I don't have to go back... in a weird way I miss it. It had a sense of immediacy that I doubt I'll ever get to experience again. It's a heady wine, being in the middle of world events, even peripherally... maybe I'll start looking for another job over there. Just kidding! Sort of.

Comments

[TF]

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/res.nsf/doc212?OpenForm

Reliefweb has a vacancies page. There seem to be a lot of openings in the Middle East (and pretty much everywhere else).

[ken]

Half Empty/Half Full Moment: No matter what all kinds of hell you went through to finally get out of Iraq, it could have been worse. You left before TODAY!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/05/dujail.saddam/index.html

[messiestobjects]

I always seem to be out of country when big things happen to Saddam... When he was captured, I was on my first vacation and was in the States visiting my family. Now they go and sentence him to hang, and I'm off eatin' Turkish Delight. Not sure how I really feel about all that. I guess it's a good thing, 'cause I'm not around for the chaos, but it's also a missed JFK moment: "Where were you when they caught Saddam?" Iraq! grr. Hey, it really is a half-n-half moment. Good call.