Inked

.  At work on Monday, we were handed stubs of how many vacation days we had used, and how many we still had left.  On it, it said that Joe had taken an extra four days (which he hadn’t- but after negotiation on how Joe had taken days he doesn't work as well, they conceded) and that I only had three days left- which also wasn’t true- I had four.  I went over it with them and told them that our contract had said we had from Dec 22 to Jan 3 off and we had come back Jan 2, leaving that extra day for me to take whenever.  Onder told us that was what the contract meant (that we needed to work the 3rd- to which I told him no, if you have the 28-29 off Oct off, it doesn’t mean you work the 29^th.  He then replied that “he (another boss) must have written it wrong” to which I held my tongue because honestly I didn’t care if he had written it wrong, that wasn’t my problem.  Finally he relented “Ok, since it's in the contract,” and again I held my tongue, because I got my extra day and didn’t feel the need to point out that he had tried to weasel his way around the wording in the contract more times  than I can count, but alas.  Small victories.

The weather stormed for a couple of days upon our return, but then mellowed out and we are into the start of a heatwave.  Currently the temperature is at 26 degrees (it's noon) with a high of 31, which makes the mornings and evenings quite comfortable and is daunting in the awareness that this summer will be infinitely hotter (matching Emily and Jason’s 40+ misery in Dubai).  but we havse been enjoying time with friends while it is comfortable and before Ramazan starts and then all hide for a month: I met Elif for coffee on Thursday and dragged her along to the tattoo parlor to translate for me (I had been wanting to add on to my bird for awhile) which was quite fun, and then we played a good few games of backgammon before she headed to class and I headed to Buglem.  Friday, only Eser showed up to class- and as he doesn’t come to any of the other classes, I cant help but think he comes to hang out with me, but nonetheless, we finished with a quick coffee (the pub was closed because it was Muhammed’s birthday) and agreed to meet with him on Monday at the pub when Joe could come. 

The weekend shone beautifully and on Sunday after classes, Elif, Joe and I headed back to the tattoo parlor.  We drank tea, and he gave us all bracelets that he had made, and then got to work.  Joe stayed until his class started and Elif was a champion.  She stood beside me and let me grasp her arm and mutter profanities when the pain was quite bad, her boyfriend (who showed up near the end) even ran back for my shoes when I forgot them- I told her he was a good find.  She wants one too, but needs to be able to place it in a location her parents would never see- Turkish parents aren’t as liberal as Canadian ones.

I limped home and relaxed, although I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the pain dissipated.  It was a little stiff the next morning, nothing terrible, easy to walk on and healing quite nicely!  I met Joe and Eser after I finished with Buglem and we had a lovely couple of hours at the pub, when Mustafa messaged, inviting us to breakfast the next morning (May 19 is a public holiday in Turkey to commerate the 1919 revolution that lead to modern Turkey as it is today.), we accepted and awoke the next morning.

We arrived at his house at 9am and chatted for a bit, before his wife brought out a gorgeous display of Turkish breakfast (including many delicious types of cheeses), Turkish coffee and a relaxing atmosphere.  We were supposed to go on a nature walk down the ravine behind our complex, but he was getting new balcony doors installed, so we left and he said he would call us when he finished.  About 3, he called and we hiked down the hill (it was quite steep) over the traintracks, down another hill, and arrived at the river to relax for a little while.  Mustafa is quite philosophical, which is normally not a problem, until he threw his plastic water bottle into the river and said, “that is a metaphor for my life,”  to which I replied that it simply looked like littering to me.  It was strange to have him go on and on about how nature is God’s greatest creation, and then leave garbage everywhere, but there is definitely a different mindset here than back home.  We eventually made it back up the hill, said our farewells and then Joe and I picked up some food for dinner and headed home to finish Breaking Bad.