Now that
I am stuck in an airplane w wifi for 6 hours.
-Interstellar.
Saw it in a
movie theatre, dragged by my friend who suspected I dig sci-fi. A good
attestment to relativity theory where three hours was far too long with too
much packed of everything Hollywood suffers from. based on the theory that if
you stuff it with enough science gibberish, folks will think you are smarter
than them.
-uber ride
with my Ugandan driver.
We agreed
how expensive Nairobi and how bad Kampala traffic is; the Ethiopian politics
today and that Chinese are taking Africa over. We both miss our sisters; he
hasn’t seen her since 1987 when he left home as a refugee; and me only two
weeks with the barbunya pilakisi she left in my refrigerator.
-I spoke at
the alumni panel at the grad school I went to last weekend in SF.
They were
so kind to give me a tour of the new library, and introduced me to the robot
which picks up the book you wish among the one million books jailed behind a
giant wearhouse. I got so depressed to learn that all books were only
searchable on computers now and you had to know what you were looking for…
Gosh- I never borrowed or bought a book I knew I needed in my life… I used to
sit among the amazing collection of mostly hundred year old history and
exploration books in the library. It is there I found the book named Aisha; it
was there I read the first White and Blue Nile and the Schieleman’s Troy in
original prints. I insisted seeing the small office I worked in at the top
terrace of the student center. So much changed, but it felt like I never left,
there I was standing in front of my office door with Aylin. I told the folks
why I chose to go to school in SF; an American professor in Bogazici said I was
a san francisco person and that I had to go live there. I am not sure what he
meant, I was twenty four then. Today I feel I belong to Izmir.
-I am going
to speak to 200 journalists tomorrow. I will not be talking to them about the
balik meyhanesi I will go in Queens for dinner.