I must admit that living in a half-assedly developed country seems like a lot better idea when it's not -4 degrees Celsius (25 F): when the beautiful view from the windows of the lovely old apartment with no heating system is not obscured by snow and of much less importance than the wind blowing through the cracks in said windows; when the periodic black-outs that were such a laugh when you could weather them drinking wine on the porch don't mean waking up in a cold room to no space heaters and no hot showers; when the charmingly cobbled, rutted, and uneven streets are not slick with ice; and when two guys in a pickup truck don't throw dirt at you with big shovels as they drive past. On the plus side, there's... uh... there's... sahlep?
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It's dreadful. I have been here forever, and when I first got here, the water heater was this torpedo shaped thing that you had to put kindling and newspapers under, burn them and wait for 45 minutes just to take a warm shower. Of course, you would get about halfway through it, when the water would begin turning cold.
I could live in a land where people were shorts all year.
Sounds like I have little to complain about these days in comparison!
My hot shower lasts a lot longer after a friend who also lives in an old house explained her trick for turning the water on just a tiny bit and then increasing the flow ever so yavaş yavaş. I don't know why/how it works, but it does...
No matter how good life gets I can find SOMETHING to complain about. Being cold is a favorite of mine.
After my first year here, I realized there were a lot of things that I thought I would die without that we were pretty unnecessary but heat, warm water, fresh food, clean clothes and comfortable place to sleep are all necessities. Now look at me, I am back to think I would die without internet and digiturk. :)
As far as Izmir, I would say we have only 4 more weeks or so of winter left.. with some cool days thrown in. By April, God turns the sunlamp on and we proceed to roast. So I suppose I can hold out that long though I won't like it much.
Berlin is also freaking cold and our windows are dreadfully drafty (though you can get this felt tape stuff that helps a bit) but I guess the good news is you can rely on the electricity working. For some reason, I thought it never snowed or got all that cold in Istanbul. Guess it's just my California soul, longing for any nearby place with a milder climate....
It's not like it gets THAT cold here -- a few degrees 0 C is about the lowest it'll go -- but my California soul wants even less winter too! It's also like SF in that it's a damp cold; winter is usually very rainy. Mediterranean Turkey or Cyprus are probably better bets for a nearby place with a milder climate -- there were reports while we were in snowstorms a couple of weeks ago about people going to the beach in Antalya. Damn them!
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