The Absurd and the Self

Sorry for the delay in writing a new blog post. It's not that things had gotten less interesting around here, I just became more preoccupied with school and friends and such.

I guess I'll start with Thanksgiving. Most of you, mainly friends at DU (Erin), get a real kick out of me eating turkey in Turkey. While I never really bought into how funny it really is, you persisted on its laughable value. So, I will be having a real turkey dinner here tomorrow night at my friends place and I am indeed excited to eat turkey in Turkey. But more laughable than that is the name of turkey here, it is hindi. And then in the Turkish language the translation for the country name India is Hindistan. So in a way in the eyes of the world Turkey is Turkey but in the eyes if the Turks, India is Turkey. Of course it is not as confusing as this since; one, the language difference; and two, in Turkish the name for Turkey is actually Turkiye. I hope that makes sense haha.

A week or two back Louis and I were waiting for our class to start (which the teacher never showed up to) and another exchange student told Louis and I that the post office on campus was looking for someone who had recently mailed a package to the USA, Louis had done so recently. So we went to the post office and imediately got lost in translation. After some time we convinced this Turkish girl that she did in fact know english and we learned that the mail truck caring Louis's package got stolen! Yes the entire mail truck, we are guess it happened somewhere in Istanbul maybe by pirates or hooligan kids. Louis and I were actually not surprised at all, this is totally somethign that would happen in Turkey. So we laughed for the rest of the week about it. But the post office ladie did say that she would gladly mail another package for him for free, yet she never offered a refund for the one that was stolen. haha

Some time after that incident, I was waiting for my laundry to finish. The time had come so I made my way down to the laundry room. No one was there but I saw my bag and took it. While I was walking out the laundry man came back in and embarked on a Turkish tiraid. He kept pointing at the door and saying the one english word he knows many times, "Problem! Problem!" Thankfully a Turkish student showed up who could translate for us, he explained to me that the laundry man was accusing me of breaking into the laundry room. He insisted that the door was locked and that I broke in. He said he was going to give my name to the security gaurds and the administration. I pleaded my case that the door was left open but he did not seem to believe me. For the sake of not getting too irretated with his incompetence I left. Recently, I had to do laundry again of course, so I got another chance to explain what had happened to him. He seemed to understand so he and I are back on good terms. But to my surprise on this visit to the laundry room I found that the glass laundry room door was shattered! haha so someone actually did try to break in.

So if you have read my blog posts from the past you know that the dorms are less than horrible but we have found a way to make it a little more fun. First the setting, all of us exchange students are on the same hall and most of us share a view of a court yard. It is not much of a courtyard though, it's completly concrete. As of late it has seemingly become a contest among all the students with a view of the courtyard to throw stuff out of their window which will make the loudest noise possible upon impact. Now our room is on the 4th floor but it is actually 7 stories above the courtyard. To contribute to the concert of falling objects Louis and I have found ammunition to throw ou tthe window that leave nearly no evidence, they is next to no clean up, and it is really loud! Shopping bags filled with water! It's amazing, it is so loud and so much fun! haha

Now more serious stuff. I have started reading God's Gift to Women by Eric Ludy. It's really good, a little corny at times but good. The book is more or less a commission to all men to wise up, notice that all you have been living for, striving for, is a lie. The target is Christ and we must turn our hearts that direction. Anyways, I have been thinking a lot about that and today it got me depressed for a little bit because it was talking about how some men have are so well versed in acting their role that we even become fooled. In other words, in terms of our so called faith we know what to say, how to act, everything so that people perceive us as possibly being righteous while we are actually far from it. The author confesses that he was this exact person growing up and through high school. I must say this hurt to read due to my, i guess you could call it "spiritual development" or more eloquently God's work, in my life the fast couple of years. Because He has changed me I have since realized that I was "that" person in high school and before. But I wont get into any sob-fest now. I want to just emphasize how consumed by self we can be and in particular the "religious" self. I give that specification because I, like others, become consumed by using religion as table to stand on and look down on everyone else. Now many of us would say, "I know I'm not that person, I am righteous, I do it right." But I think that is the very thing we must show caution towards. I am not calling everyone liars, don't hear that, I'm just saying there is a big differnce between self concept and self awareness. We may see ourselves as great people thus the concept we have of ourselves is, on our terms, healthy. But are we truly even aware of ourselves? Can we objectively and honestly say we are on the right path? It can be done, but not without a great deal of humility. And also accountibility and this is mainly why I write this I think. I need this accountibilty, don't let me become what I used to be. So thats my rant, it's not one of my finest but oh well. I miss you all and I cant wait to see you!