On Strays, Backgammon and Nargile

Strays:

There are tons of cats and dogs wandering the streets of Izmir. We have about three cats that hang out by the lojman (faculty housing) and there are three or four more that loiter at the south gate. They look a bit like the cats in Grey Gardens - small, with tongues hanging out and lethargic. The dogs are even more lazy, finding a shady spot and parking it for the day. The interesting thing about all of these strays is the way the community takes care of them. As I was leaving the school lunchroom a couple days ago, a guard approached me. I was about to drop off my tray when he gestured to the chicken bones on my plate. He then indicated with a nod that he'd like to add my chicken bones to the tray he was collecting. "For dogs," he said. After this, I noticed in the evenings after dinner, walking along the streets, these small squares of newspapers upon which sat leftovers - köfte, lamb, bones and rice all sitting in glops. Whilst walking down to the bay, I interrupted a cat in the middle of a dinner of fava beans by a streetlamp.

Backgammon:

I'd not known that backgammon is such a popular game here, but walk down to the bars any evening and you'll see men and women young and old sitting over a table playing backgammon - others sit and play a game that looks like mahjong. I love backgammon so I'm gonna have to get me a board and play a few games with the locals. The thing people like to do while playing backgammon besides having a drink is to smoke the Nargile.

Nargile is the Turkish counterpart to the Hindu hookah. I've smoked a nargile twice since coming here. Both times at the Garden Cafe. Our ever-friendly waiter suggested we try cappuccino flavored tobacco, so we did. After a bit, friendly waiter arrives with the glass water pipe puffing away at the end of it to get it going. He then sets it down and throws a few wrapped plastic spigots or mouthpieces on the table and we go to it. It's a pretty social event, this water pipe smoking. The mouthpiece gets passed around and the heady smoke fills the evening air. Every few minutes happy waiter came through puffing on another pipe as he brought it to the table. Quite the enjoyable occupational hazard.

We hit Ikea today to get a bunch of stuff for our apartments. Tomorrow? We're off to Istanbul for three days. I'm hoping to get to see the hotel Agatha Christie used to stay in there. Apparently it's pretty chichi.

Penguin Diversion

I've had a fairly productive morning so far after having a fairly unproductive evening (thesis-wise). Instead of working on the chapter that's been plaguing me for a couple weeks now, I watched SCTV with Chadley. We laughed ourselves silly and then I read Abeng until I fell asleep on the Kuyper couch - thanks for letting me crash at su casa again amigo.

Well my brother's blog is up and running, so I've added him to my list of ween dogs - Welcome aboard, Brew Guru. I checked his site this morning and found this fun little entry. Tired of school? Stressed out? Work got you down? Bat a few penguins; you'll feel much better.

The eternal questionnaire

Three names you go by:

1. Matt
2. Matty
3. Hey you

Three screen names you have:

1. anskov
2. denbloabe
3. nsmchristensen5

Three things you like about yourself:

1. My eyes
2. My coif
3. My six-pack abs

Three things you hate about yourself:

1. My eyelashes (so long, they bang against my glasses and make my eyes do weird twitchy things)
2. My inability to remember uh... uh... hmmmm.....
3. The fact that I am a world famous push-over

Three parts of your heritage:

1. Danish ("All hail the Speardane!")
2. Dutch (not to be confused with Danish, all you dimwits)
3. Mestiza

Three things that scare you:

1. Eric's screenname
2. Babies that won't stop crying
3. Michael Jackson

Three of your everyday essentials:

1. A pocketknife
2. Two pieces of flint
3. Toilet paper

Three of your favorite bands/artists (at the moment):

1. Flaming Lips
2. Pink Martini
3. Turn Pale Mary

Three of your favorite songs at present:

1. Crocodile Rock
2. All American Recreation (all we sell is fun!)
3. Right Here Waiting

Three new things you want to try in the next 12 months:

1. Write my thesis and graduate
2. Get a job teaching overseas
3. Get accepted into a good school for my doctoral work

Three things you want in a relationship (love is a given):

1. Intelligence
2. Wit
3. Creativity

Two truths and a lie:

1. I'm the nicest guy in the world.
2. I'm the nicest guy in the world.
3. I'm the nicest guy in the world.

Three physical things about the opposite sex (or same) that appeal to you:

1. A nice neck.
2. Small of the back.
3. Toned abs (like mine - sans treasure trail)

Three things you just can't do:

1. Pee through a...no wait...that's Kuyper.
2. Get pregnant (hard as I try)
3. Sit through an Adam Sandler movie.

Three of your favorite hobbies:

1. Drawing
2. Playing Viola da Gamba
3. Reading

Three things you want to do really badly right now:

1. Pee (I'll be right back)
2. Make a marionette puppet
3. Find out who Jack the Ripper was

Three careers you're considering:

1. Lit. professor
2. Own my own bakery
3. Vivisectionist

Three places you want to go on vacation:

1. Copenhagen
2. Faroe Islands
3. England

Three kid's names:

1. Hector
2. Vincent
3. Hortense

Three things you want to do before you die:

1. Live
2. Co-write a mystery novel with the Dodge
3. Learn to put down the toilet seat.

Okay, someone else's turn.