Tag: Turkey

  • Time Travelling Postcards: Anatolian Road Trip, 2003

    Time Travelling Postcards: Anatolian Road Trip, 2003

    I didn’t always live in Shanghai. Or Hanoi. Although this blog places my online identity firmly in heart of east Asia, I have actually spent more time living in Turkey, both in European Istanbul and Asian Anatolia- 6 years in total.  Sometimes even I forget what a huge chunk of my formative adult years that…

  • These Were The People In My Neighbourhood: Notes on Istanbul, Tear Gas, Riot Police, Memory, Identity and Stuff

    These Were The People In My Neighbourhood: Notes on Istanbul, Tear Gas, Riot Police, Memory, Identity and Stuff

    About four and a half years ago, I left Turkey. I had been living there for six years at that point, mostly in Istanbul. I was both very ready to leave and not at all ready. I spent the next several years feeling quietly sick with grief and regret, snarling irrationally at Shanghai and building…

  • Shanghai is trying to kill me: The self-care edition

    Shanghai is trying to kill me: The self-care edition

    About 5 years ago, during my last year in Istanbul, I was living in a lovely old flat in Osmanbey, a neighbourhood at that time populated by old man bars, Armenians, artsy types who couldn’t afford to live in Beyoglu, and very small scale industry. The building next door, above the plumbing and wiring shop,…

  • Who Needs A Comfort Zone Anyway? Building Character Abroad: The Employment Edition

    Who Needs A Comfort Zone Anyway? Building Character Abroad: The Employment Edition

    Back when I lived and worked in Canada, employers generally expected me to be qualified for my job. They wanted the certification from year-long+ accredited courses, plus, say five years of verifiable, solidly referenced on the job experience. This was difficult when I was 19, as I’d only been working a few years at utterly…

  • I May Have Just A Wee Bit Too Much on My Plate

    I May Have Just A Wee Bit Too Much on My Plate

    It’s just after 7:30am on an inexplicably cool morning. Shanghai is invisible under the fog. It’s just as well as I’m still in bed, under several layers of duvet, strong, lightly milked coffee in hand. I may or may not be staring at the wall opposite . I’m freaking tired. I just spent four days…

  • Blue Skies, Fake Britain and Imaginary Friends: It Gets Better (For Now)

    Blue Skies, Fake Britain and Imaginary Friends: It Gets Better (For Now)

    Four days ago, I was quite dissatisfied with Shanghai and with living abroad in general. I wanted to go home to Canada, to go live in the forest and bake bread and raise goats and make really awesome goat cheese and to say, quite pleasantly, fuck it to this whole expat/travel lifestyle. I was fried.…

  • A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #2: Connie Hum of Connvoyage

    Welcome to the second in my series of interviews with expats, re-pats, un-pats, quarter-pats and half-pats. For this one, I bring you Connie Hum of  Connvoyage. Once upon a time, not too long ago in a parallel universe, Connie had an awesome apartment in New York and a job at an international consulting firm. She…

  • Death by Exposure: Expo 2010, Part 1

    Death by Exposure: Expo 2010, Part 1

      Also in this series: Despot 2010: Axis of Awesome and Stan!   After we spent the first day of the Dragon Boat Festival being slothful, alternating dragging our bodies out for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, and lying dugong-like on the sofa, reading and drinking coffee, we decided to be ambitious for the second…