One of the young guns I hired is named Wouter. He has been my housemate too this summer. I just asked him if he had some sort of question because I knew I had this piece of writing coming up. He asked me how I experience training in general. He had a Dutch word for it that I find hard to translate (trainingsbeleving). He refers to the transition of going from everyday mode into ‘the zone’. He feels the excitement and anticipation flowing through his body when his body tells him it is time to hit the gym.
We Are All Istanbulites
I am still in awe about the message I received from my Turkish friend Eda Bozköylü yesterday. She let me know she is fine, not in danger. She has been protesting together with her friends and thousands of other young Turks in Istanbul and – by now – in 70 other Turkish cities. I heard news about the riot police coming down hard on the youngsters and I felt concerned.
What I did not see coming was to receive a message filled with bliss and peace (read it if you haven’t yet!). Otherworldly almost and that was indeed the word Eda used as well. “Taksim doesn’t belong to earth anymore” she wrote. And: “Taksim is another planet, Atalwin. I wish you to experience it.”
A Blessed Man in No Man’s Land
I’m in between the border of Jordan and Israel. It is kind of eerie: I am literally the only ‘client’ that is on the premises right now. I have the whole customs building to myself, no waiting in lines, nothing. I was the only one at the exit tax window, alone at the passport check, the only one walking through the tax free shop and now I’m the only one waiting for the empty bus to drive me to the border (the bus driver went for coffee and wants to wait till more people come so I am assuming that this could take while). I guess not many Israeli’s are going to Jordan these days. Must be strange to work here. Must cost a lot of many too because apart from me there is plenty of bored, not too friendly personnel.