A Year in Heaven
Exactly one year ago today, I left Istanbul, the city where I was born and raised, where I existed and blended together, to settle in Paris. "Spanning over the years"The project of spending part of my life in another country" in the scope of with a last minute goal Today, it has been exactly one year since I faced the Paris option face to face.
Unexpectedly, I left Istanbul in tears in the morning, the feeling of leaving life in Istanbul behind long enough to be able to say "I can't bring myself to return of my own accord now, God, please, if something goes wrong, they send me back to Istanbul" while going through the passport. unexpected weather, sleep and life is stupid As we were, we settled into the ten-odd square meter lodging allotted to us by the company. with all the fuss It has been a year since I experienced the interesting trauma of waking up the next day and feeling like I belonged here, as if I had always been born and raised in Paris, without having the slightest memory, trace or trace of my country left in my mind.
I do not want to waste what I have experienced in this year by writing about it here, because it would be disrespectful to the beauties I have experienced to keep waiting for the day when the story of an adventure that is so rich, exciting, enjoyable, interesting and will last pages that it could be the subject of a book in itself, can be read on a single page in the vast universe of the internet.
I am writing this article to share my impressions of what I think about this issue and what traces it left on me, rather than what I have done. Because, as someone who has tried to keep many diaries before, I try to write in such detail every time that after a very short time, I can exaggerate the task to the extent of saying "I only wrote a diary today" in the evening of a day; That's why taking very short notes from diaries seems to be the best option for me to live my life more balanced.
I've been in Paris for a year. I had never thought of settling here in my life, I had never even considered it, because I had never thought of settling here at any time in my life. Fransızca I didn't want to learn :) But fate wove its nets and somehow I found myself here...
At what point in his life can a person get the chance to live with "zero problems" for a year? Of course, I have had many happy and enjoyable periods in my life. Although they are few in number, I have experienced very difficult days where I struggled emotionally and had to struggle a lot financially, but this last year, for the first time in my life, I have been in an interesting mood of living with "zero problems" for such a long time. It's like I died and went to heaven...
Where I live It is 5-6 kilometers away from the central area of Paris, in a nearby area that may be considered Paris to an outside observer, but is actually considered one of the suburbs of the city for a Parisian. I live in an area where I can get to the city center in 15 minutes, but which allows me to stay far away from the chaos of the city, and when compared to Istanbul, it can be compared to the "Koşuyolu" of my childhood. It is an extremely calm and serene region, and life flows here with all its beauty and liveliness. When you feel like doing something in the center, to the train You can hop on and go to the center in 15 minutes to reach whatever you want. Just like the old saying "I'm going down to Istanbul", so am I...
Grocers, butchers, bakeries, pharmacies, tailors, hairdressers, fishmongers, cheese shops, whatever you want, you can find it in rows of shops, or if you choose to be a bigger consumption monster, a shopping mall or a hypermarket, everything is in the palm of your hand. People are like the Istanbul of my childhood, kind, clean, respectful, well-mannered, serene and peaceful. Children are playing in the streets with laughter of joy. Everywhere is green, lush.
As someone with a weak palate, this place is full of flavors that will blow even me away. I have skipped pastry products, wine, this and that, even if you spread butter on dry bread and eat it, you still get the same taste as you had as a child, even more. Can a person eat better eclairs after years than the ones he ate as a child? It was happening here, I saw it with amazement.
Especially for someone like me, who spent his childhood dreaming of drawing palaces, mansions, castles, castles and all kinds of buildings, seeing with astonishment that these drawings actually existed in France makes him love this place a thousand times more. As I wander the streets, I find myself wandering around the pictures I drew when I was a child; I wish my literary talent was strong enough to express here the magnificence of the visual and emotional show that this mood created in my mind.
Every morning, when I go out the door and see the view I see, thanks to the clean air I breathe in and the serene enthusiasm created in me by the silence in the atmosphere, I lift my head up and with a slight wink towards the sky, I thank the power that brought me here. I have been experiencing this feeling every day, without exception, for a year now.
When I first came he was crazy from the train get off this the bus He gets on, gets off this bus and randomly goes to this bus. to the metro I would ride horses and try to get to know every part of the city inside and out. at that time Where should the house we keep be located? Doing this was also important to understand what was happening where in the city. Someone like me, who knows Istanbul like the back of his hand, would of course have to know every corner of the new place he will live, Paris, very well. Just for this reason, I preferred the bus rather than the metro. Because I didn't know what was going on where, what lives were happening where, I had to put it in my mind, and when talking about a place, I had to visualize it in my mind.
Nowadays, I started to expand my travel areas outside the city. It has always been impressive to jump on a random bus and go somewhere far away, seeing the serenity that increases as you get further away from the city, while also witnessing that life actually continues at the same value.
Those who know me know that I can't just sit at home and read a book; I have to go out to read a book, I have to travel on the bus, train, whatever I can find, so that I can read comfortably. I'm trying to do the same here, too, but I can't say that I can read much because I'm looking around with admiration while traveling in new places I don't know :) However, after passing the same place on the same bus a few times, it is possible for me to bury my head in a book again.
When I was a child, we started to see small fields after Bakırköy; After Küçükçekmece, those magnificent sunflower fields... That scene is so engraved in my mind that seeing the endless fields that start as soon as I get out of the city in Paris gives me a great feeling of freedom, just like when I was a child, and then I love this city even more. .
Let's say this city is built on making human life easier, life is already hard, if you make it easier, it will become easier, so let's say it was built on making it beautiful. Nobody has to embroider a doorknob, but here a doorknocker, the corner of a shutter hinge, every place you can think of is embroidered, a visual feast enriched with a unique aesthetic concern. The thousands of details in the courtyard that you see when you walk down any road and look through any open door, or the statue that you will see on top of one of the roofs when you raise your head, are always there to reward your awareness. However, even though that statue, which you cannot see through the roofs by turning your head, is magnificent enough to attract tourists in droves if you were to place it in the most famous square of another city, it was removed and placed at the very top of a roof just to please the eyes of those who are aware of life.
parks gardens There is no need to even explain; especially the unique ones in the immediate vicinity castles, endless meadows and forests; nature... Paris is a city built on both banks of a river passing through the middle of a plain meadow. It was created by embroidering an ordinary natural structure. Because there are always concerns about making life more beautiful. Aside from the subtle state of mind, it is also very important to raise the awareness of preserving and protecting these subtleties.
Of course, as in every city, there are good and bad things in this city, but the percentage of bad here is so low that I have never come across anything that would disturb people. Maybe that's how my eyes see it, if you came you might not get the same taste as I do, but what a shame; I found myself here, I remembered that I am human again after many years, this taste and pleasure is more than enough for me.
One of my biggest fears was that a person would take his troubles and troubles with him wherever he went, but that was not the case. When I came here, I realized that in my life in Istanbul, especially in the last ten years, I was like a little child trying to put a star into a triangular hole with my plastic hammer in my hand. However, when it came here, that plastic star suddenly entered that star-shaped plastic hole; All the templates in my head fit into life here; At that moment, there were no worries or sorrow left, my mind was refreshed, I became a brand new me, I became the old me again.
I didn't miss Istanbul even once during this year, because I missed Istanbul even when I was in Istanbul for the last ten years. On the contrary, here I got the chance to live the Istanbul I lost, the old magnificent life of Istanbul again; Maybe this is my indescribable happiness.
Is there anything wrong? If I try hard, maybe I'll find something :) First of all, the hardest thing is learn french have to do! I have never had an interest in this language at any point in my life, even though many people claim that the most beautiful love songs are sung in this language. bellowing love song It never appealed to me for some reason :) All jokes aside, if my plans had worked out properly and I had settled in Toronto last year, my English would have become perfect in the last year, but of course, starting French from scratch and also requiring six months to start, that is. Just the fact that I have been learning French for the last six months has put a lot of pressure on me and made me tired. However, I was lucky, I might have had to settle in Slovenia and learn Slovenian or something :) Now, at least I have the happiness of learning a useful language. Moreover, as a person learns a new language, he also learns to study his own language and enriches himself by becoming aware of many things that he has not been aware of until now.
Another problem may seem to be staying away from friends and family. Both my luck and my misfortune are that "accessAs a selective person who uses the concept of "very carefully", I have always been a lucky person in terms of friends. With the advantage of being born and raised in Istanbul and always making friends in that city, and of course being aware of the effort put into friendship, I have always enjoyed the chance of making so many friends throughout my life. Everything was normal up to this point, but settling in Paris at this stage, leaving all our friends behind, was a bit surprising... But we tried to solve this by going to Istanbul on average every three months. Nowadays, social communication networks are perfect for these tasks. It cannot be said that we are very disconnected from each other. Of course, nothing has the taste of face-to-face communication, but sometimes I think about it, didn't we see even our closest friends every two or three months - except for one or two - due to our busy work lives in Istanbul? Therefore, when I look at it from this perspective, it seems like there wasn't a big deficiency in my life.
I know it's not easy to make new friendships, but it's never impossible either. First this Fransızca Let's solve the issue and then the doors will open somehow. For someone like me who loves his own solitude as much as he loves being with his wife and friends, this last year has been a unique blessing.
A few of the people I met during the course for the purpose of teaching Turkish have already started to step forward; We met with them more often and shared more things. Even though it is incomparable to the friendships in Turkey, there is no situation that would make one feel lonely here.
My biggest luck is that I came to Paris with my traveling companion. If it weren't for him, everything wouldn't look so beautiful. I'm aware of that too, so I try to protect what I have by wrapping it in cotton and using crystal bell jars.
And this is what is known meteorology 🙂 Actually, I don't consider this as a problem, but it is still a fact :) I literally spent the summer of 2012 under the clouds :) There is winter and autumn in this country; It can't be said that we see much of spring and summer.. I'm not complaining though, not really; As long as it doesn't rain or prevent me from traveling. Because this city is beautiful even under gray clouds; Especially if the sun accidentally shines, then this paradise becomes delicious. Actually Now I understand better why the people of the north spread out like that when they see a drop of sun., why they spread themselves freely on the meadow and grass; Let the sun shine; I swear, I will throw myself into parks and gardens at the first opportunity. Let me go somewhere in the south for summer vacation, if possible to Kalkan, and I will release this body that misses the sun into the sand and the sea :) What I mean is, yes, this city is gray and the sun is not very charitable around here...
Actually The single biggest difficulty I have with being here Legal difficulties arising from not being a European Union citizen. Of course, there are always legal solutions regarding visa issues, but the correspondence I have to make for these solutions, the documents I have to prepare, and even though I feel like I belong here, the fact that my transactions are ultimately carried out in the foreigners' office reminds me of the bitter truth from time to time :) French bureaucracy is the French version of Turkish bureaucracy 🙂 If my tongue was much better, I would have it removed, but for now, I would be lying if I said that it is not unpleasant to struggle with the difficulties of having to do what you are told. Yeah yeah, "What's the hardest thing about living in Paris?If anyone asks, I can say, "As a Turk, getting a residence permit and trying to extend this permit when the time comes, that is, bureaucracy." After all, when you follow the rules to the letter and are a little patient, it is possible to overcome all legal procedures and achieve your goal, there is no problem in that respect, but for me, I can say that the only moments that prevent me from feeling like I belong here are the times when I have to contact the foreigners branch :) I think 365-9 days out of the 10 days I spent in Paris were spent dealing with these unpleasant things. Well, this shouldn't be such an unpleasant thing overall.
The most important issue for me was to see that your troubles and troubles can be left behind when you pack your things and go to another country, but seeing that this is not the case was enough for me. Now in a while French course When I step out of the door, I will breathe in that fresh air, listen to the serenity, raise my head to the sky and wink in that direction to say thank you.
Today is the first year since I settled in Paris; This year has passed like a dream, we don't know how the next one will go. Human life is full of surprises, everything can turn upside down for no reason. But the important thing is to remember that at every stage of our lives, no matter where we are on the chart, life always has good days. Rather than telling you "I had such good days, I had such good days", what I have written is an outlet to remind myself of these days in possible unpleasant periods of time that may occur in the future, to realize that there may be good periods in life and to get rid of the vicious circle of possible dead ends I may be in and return to the good days again. open the door.
While it is like this; A year passed with these feelings and thoughts. I hope to live many more beautiful days with many beautiful feelings.
from paris
With love
...
Note: The above article was published on my personal blog on March 26, 2013. You Should Be HappinessPublished in. Since I could not take care of my personal blog after Pariste.Net started broadcasting in January 2014, I decided that it would be more appropriate to post the article within Pariste.Net and published it as it is, without even touching a comma. However, there is so much more to add...