By seeing the image of my flight ticket, title of this post and hint that I left before, you might noticed that this is my last post for this blog. So, I know that my topic of this blog is based on restaurants, but, for today there will be my story after 6.5 years in Turkey.
This flight ticket shows the date that I first entered into Turkey which is 13 Feb 2011. I came with my dad and the rest of family arrived after a month due to my brother's school in Korea. When I first got a news from my dad that I had to leave Korea for 4 years for his business, it was not a pleasant message. I had to make new friends and adopt to new environments. As you know from my introduction, I lived more than 13 years abroad and what I wanted is to settle in my own country. But, in real there was not any other option that I can do alone in Korea since I was not an adult at that time.
So what? I took a flight and entered my house in Etiler, Istanbul. The place that I lived in Istanbul was quite nice. The safety and leisure that I may enjoy were equipped in my compound and 'Bebek' which is my favorite place in Istanbul was only 5 minutes away from my sweet home. Up to this extent, everything was not too bad. However, two months later severe homesick accompanied and I had to hold my cellphone all the time in Turkey until 6 months. This homesick was relieved after I began to make my true friends in Istanbul. They introduced many places such as 'Nusret' and gave me some advises to overcome my hardships since they already had same experiences like me. All of them are international students.
By the way, I did not know that Salt bae was going to be that much famous these days. (Never knows how people's destiny would change later on)
But, since there are always beginning and the end, I had to graduate MEF international high school and draw a new road map to my life. There were many reasons why I did not go back to Korea and States. I believed the potential power of Turkey and loved the cultures and kindness of Turkish people. Since I am Internationale relations students, some political information are inside in my mind. But, besides the potential aspect of Syrian refugee crisis, Turkey has admitted tremendous number of people in its territory and most of Turkish people are generous and benign to those poor and home-sicking refugees especially children and elders. This is the part that I love about Turkey. People have souls and faiths on their heart. In other words, these all factors attracted me.
After the graduation, I came to Ankara and Bilkent provided me second life in Turkey. Ankara was less crowd than Istanbul. But, in retrospect Ankara and Bilkent seem to be places that guarantee some quality of standard living and this similar environment with Istanbul extended my affection to Turkey.
At the beginning of my campus life, I again had home sick and missed my families and friends in Turkey and South Korea. But, just like before time cured me from those pains. And these experiences brought about the courage that I can deal with any new environments in any countries.
The day after the graduation in Bilkent I will take my flight to Korea. 6.5 years in Turkey was so precious experiences so that never cannot be comparable in the future. It is my one of strong foundations that will guide me to success and I will never regret the great times in Turkey.
Special thanks to all my friends in Istanbul and Ankara and many professors who treated me with the respect and kindness. I will never forget their consideration. Furthermore, the chance to post international restaurants in Ankara led me to look many places in Ankara.
See ya fellows and hope you have great time in any places ! (Inshallah) My Turkish skill is still... poor... damm.. hahahahah