An American Life in Istanbul

Yesterday, I decided to bring my running clothes and shoes with me to work, with the intention of runnning home. “Dude man, why?” was Murat’s reaction. He had a point though, it’s a pretty crappy run. There isn’t much traffic, but the terrain is not very good, and the scenary is terrible. Of course, I had taken these things into account. The route is somewhere between 1.5 and 2 mile and seems relatively safe. Furthermore, running home after work gives me an oppurtunity to have some regular exercise scheduled into my week. I figure if I do this three times per week or more, I should be able to stay in relatively good health (of course it will also be combined with some anaroebic exercise). It will also keep me in shape for the occasional soccer game.

Since it is warm enough out, I figured why not get started as soon as possible. I have to get inform before it becomes very hot in the summer, so I can still run a reasonable distance in the heat. So, come the end of the day, I started putting on my running stuff. Again Baris and Murat were amused and suprised. After a quick goodbye, I threw my stuff in the back of the car and began jogging home. Since it’s mostly uphill, and I am out of shape, I didn’t quite make it non-stop (I know, it’s sad).

When I got home I did some floor exercises for my abs, shoulders, sides and lower back. After everything Murat threw me quite a compliment, or at least I took it as one. He said “[the difference between you and me is the differnce between you and me is the difference between America and Turkey. It’s why America does so well… I admire you man]” (Murat says man and dude a lot). He didn’t explicitly say what those differences were, but I like to think it’s the proactive, go-getter attitude.

While I do not agree with the decisions of my government, I think that it’s important that we do not become ashamed of who we are. In many of my travels, I have gotten the impression from the so called “worldly Americans,” that many of them are somewhat embarassed, and ashamed to say they are American. I think this is terrible. We are the way we are because we grew up in that culture. Your culture and evironment shapes you just as your parents did. We should not force it upon others - the opposite extreme - but we should atleast acknowledge that our home culture is a large part of who we are.

So yeah, I guess I am a little patriotic.

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