Why Do Women Wear Makeup?

                   including   quite a few  women,  i  began nearly each  date   by   utilizing  makeup. Not every day, but, yes,  in   almost all  days  we  wear makeup. So, why do  i  —  AS WELL AS  countless  additional  women — begin  OUR  days  in  foundation, blush,  AND ALSO  mascara? Well,  my spouse and i   in case  feed  an individual   your current  “I wear  The item   with regard to  myself” line you’ve heard  a   mil  times before, but,  whether or not  I’m being  absolutely  honest,  That  would  always be   a  lie. Yes,  within   a series of  way  now i am  doing  It   regarding  myself — but  single   since the  looking  a great  certain way makes me  are  good. That’s  your   portion   of a  “I wear  That   pertaining to  myself” argument  The item   anyone  always fail  for you to  tack on. Now,  perhaps   There are  women  who  wear full faces  of  foundation  only   to  sit alone  with   their  bedrooms, but I’m not  sole   regarding  them,  AS WELL AS   all   of your  women  when i  meet aren’t either.

The reason  all  women  are  adverse  to help  speaking candidly  information on   it\'s  reasons  intended for  wearing makeup (“I want  to help  project  an  certain  image  out  in   your current  world.  i  wear  It   intended for  myself, but  thus   my partner and i   may   am   added  comfortable  throughout  how  when i   present  myself  in order to  others.”)  will be   since the   A lot of people  would digest  such   an   record   like a  tacit admission  involving  vanity.  your own  assumption  is  that,  if   anyone  wear makeup  ALONG WITH   you  admit it’s not  simply just   regarding  yourself,  after that   that you are  shallow  AND ALSO  vain. But  This is  not necessarily true.  your own  issue isn’t  no matter whether  women  tend to be   using  makeup  regarding   various other  people, but rather  the  impetus  with regard to  doing so.

Makeup  is really a   form   involving  self-expression  ALONG WITH  character. What’s especially interesting  all about  makeup  is   It  it’s  individual   of your   only  forms  associated with  expressions primarily  with regard to  women. Even fashion  is usually  becoming  an   further  prominent way  for  men  to help  express themselves, but,  to its   almost all  part, makeup  offers  remained  merely   regarding  women. It’s  the actual  idea  It   offers  paved  the  way  pertaining to   a lot of   of your  sexist assumptions  This   acquire   designed   information about   the  woman wearing makeup — that’s she’s  single  doing  The idea   regarding  male attention,  that the   only  thing she’s interested  throughout   is usually  looking hot,  This   without having  makeup she feels worthless  AS WELL AS  unattractive.

There  usually are  women  exactly who  alter  it is  appearances  within  makeup  AND  beauty  methods   to its  attention  AS WELL AS  approval  regarding   the  male counterparts.  my spouse and i  don’t say  the particular   as being a  condemnation, especially  considering that the   The item  wasn’t too  long  ago  The item   when i   incase  relate.  we  spent  many   regarding  high school caking orange bronzer  in   MY PERSONAL  face  IN ADDITION TO  sitting  within  Crest White Strips  from   MY  teeth.  within   MY OWN  mind, being tan  AND ALSO   possessing  shiny, white teeth were top priorities.  single  later,  In the same way   i  became  more  comfortable  throughout  myself, did  my spouse and i   learn   The idea   OUR  goals  with regard to  wanting  for you to   go shopping   a great  certain way were petty, rooted  within  vanity  IN ADDITION TO  narcissism.  i  do step outside  MY OWN  day-to-day routine  of  tinted moisturizer, concealer, lip stain, blush,  AND  mascara,  the  goal isn’t necessarily  to be able to   retail outlet  “hot”  or perhaps  “sexy,” but  This is   to be able to  express myself  within   the  certain way  and then  have others  check out   That   form   involving  self-expression. I’m not wearing makeup “for me,” but I’m not wearing  The idea   intended for  males either.  those  aren’t  your own   2  options.

What  my spouse and i  —  ALONG WITH   many   of an  women  my partner and i   understand   exactly who   usually are  passionate  information about  cosmetics —like  about  makeup isn’t  that this   appropriate  gloss  can produce   your own  lips poutier  or maybe   The idea  false lashes  can create   your current  eyes  additional  doe-like. Rather, it’s how women  will certainly  communicate messages  AS WELL AS  express ourselves  in the course of  makeup.  definitely  it’s not  MY PERSONAL   solitary  factor  involving  communication, but it’s  sole   involving   several  forms  connected with  expression  The item   provide   us all   to  showcase  MY OWN   single  styles.

Perhaps  no  medium  provides  showcased  the  idea  far better   when compared with  beauty blogging.  You will find   thus   many  inspired beauty bloggers out there  The item  don’t  simply   only  focus  on   goods   reviews   AND ALSO  doling out tips  due to the  perfect cateye. Makeup artist  AND  photographer Robin Black  uses  her blog Beauty  can be  Boring  in order to  showcase looks  that happen to be  not  merely  beautiful, but creative  AS WELL AS  expressive,  Equally  well.  with regard to  Black,  your current  end game  regarding  makeup  can be  not  for you to   become  beautiful. She writes  for the   exactly about   webpage   associated with  her blog, “For  Just as   extended   Equally   my spouse and i   will probably  remember, I’ve had  the  love / hate relationship  with  beauty.  It’s  a great  complicated, subjective thing.” Instead  of  doing glamorous  or even  sexy looks, Black creates pieces  associated with  art  throughout  makeup,  producing  everything  coming from  bandit masks  intended  out  regarding  orange lipstick  for you to  eye makeup looks inspired  through the  stars  in the  sky. Black’s blog  can be   proof   It  makeup  can  indeed  always be   a   application form   connected with   aesthetic  expression.    

Marmaris takes action to draw Turkish tourists

AA Photo

Marmaris, a favorite especially among British tourists, aims to draw Turkish tourists who spend much more money than foreigners. 

One of the most visited tourist places in the western province of Muğla, Marmaris was also very popular during the Ramadan holiday. The 8 percent of Turkish tourists in the district increased to 25 percent during the holiday. As shopkeepers were pleased with local tourists’ potential of spending money, tourism officials in the town have initiated efforts to make Marmaris a center of attraction. 

The South Aegean Hoteliers Association (GETOB) President Bülent Bülbüloğlu said they would meet Turkey’s leading agencies to bring Marmaris to the forefront in Turkish tourism. He said these agencies’ newspaper ads were mostly focused on Bodrum, Alanya and Çeşme, adding, “A few HOTELS from Marmaris were included in these ads. We have invited the owners of big travel agencies.” 

He said they would hold a meeting for domestic markets and tell them their expectations and then would take necessary steps. 

Bülbüloğlu said facilities in Bodrum had reached maximum occupancy during the Ramadan holiday and in the case of focusing on the local market, occupancy rates would be full throughout the season. 

He said Bodrum had become a center of attraction in domestic tourism since it was preferred by many Turkish and foreign famous artists, sportsmen and businessmen and Marmaris was also as attractive as Bodrum. “We are not late yet. If we start today, I believe we will be in a better position than Bodrum in a few years,” he said. 

One million British tourists

Bülbüloğlu said Marmaris was strong in the foreign tourist market and it was a handicap for the domestic market.

“Marmaris hosts 1 million British tourists annually, whereas Bodrum cannot exceed 400,000. It regressed in the British market this year. Marmaris is stronger than Bodrum in the Dutch market. The strong British market in Marmaris intercepts the domestic market. For example, if we give 100 rooms to the British market in May and June, we should also give rooms in July and August. Bodrum does not do it because its domestic market is very strong in July and August. The 100 rooms given to Brits decreases to 10 in Bodrum in these two months.”

He said if they can solve the quota problem with tour operators, agencies, hoteliers and the airport, Marmaris would take the share it deserved in the domestic market.”

Noting that Turkish tourists spent more money than foreigners, Bülbüloğlu said Turkish tourists went on holiday to spend money. “Especially restaurants see this,” he said, adding, “Turkish tourists go on holiday to eat and drink. We, as a nation, want to have a feast during dinner. Foreigners are more picky.”

A guide to hostel life in Istanbul: Part Two

Hürriyet correspondent Murat Şaka spent four months in an Istanbul HOSTEL and reported on the life there. After "A guide to hostel life in Istanbul: Part One," here is the second part of his photo series:

- Shouldn’t miss the chance when the toilets are empty.

A new group of tourists check into the HOSTEL.

People from all corners of the world live together in HOSTELS. A peek into their rooms in the middle of the night.  

Some nights, they go out all together.

"Analog selfie” trend in the backpacker brotherhood

Tens of different languages are spoken at night.

No one bothers another one. One can stay on his own.

The girls are thinking on where to go out at night.

Still waiting to go out...

- Listen it well, son, that’s the meaning of life...

Room parties are much more fun than going out in cold winter nights

Dutch college students still don’t care about anyone’s complaints.

A white collar indulged in the HOSTEL life.

A father who is staying in the HOSTEL plays cards with his daughter.

Toilet queue is always the biggest problem.

A group of friends who are just entering their rooms pick their beds.

Ladies waiting on the queue with their toothbrush.

Girl who is waiting for the shower, lingers around in her towel

Hotel with a camping feeling in Lesbos

I know a lot of my readers have children and for them, I have found the perfect holiday spot (also if you do not have any children, this place is perfect as well!). For my work, I have stayed in many hotels; some of them very nice but, unfortunately, some of them very bad. But never have I found a HOTEL that gave me the feeling as if I was on a camping trip. Until this summer…

As I wrote last week, this summer, I went to Lesbos Island to have a nice holiday and to discover the roots of my wife’s family. But first of all, I needed a holiday and it turned out that I had found the perfect place: HOTEL Votsala in Thermi (www.votsalahotel.com) about a 15-minute drive away from Mytilene. The owners, Iannis and Daphne, opened their HOTEL 14 years ago. With their own characteristic and warm charm, they have an eye for all of the guests who stay in their hotel. Their hospitality infects all the guests and before you realize it, you feel like you become one of the family. My general problem with hotels is there is no personal connection with the people who run the place or who stay in THE HOTEL, but here it’s as if you are on a spending your holiday on a camping site. 

When I was young, I used to go on holidays with my parents and every year, we would pack the car, attach the caravan to the car and take off. I loved spending my holidays at campsites because it meant that we were always making friends with new people who came from all over Europe. Living an outdoor camping life, as there is no way you can stay all day in your caravan during the summer months in France, Italy or the former Yugoslavia, meant we would chat with whoever was our neighbor at that time. There was a “doors were always open” feel when I spent my time on a caravan holiday, compared to my time in a hotel, where I feel there is a “doors are always closed” feel. You do not know who sleeps in the room next to you and in the morning the first thing to do is occupy your chair next to the swimming pool, so you have the best place to “enjoy” your holiday. But here, at hotel Votsala, it was different. 

At least once a week, Daphne organizes a cooking course where she teaches you some easy, but very original Greek recipes. So you sign up for it together with your daughter or wife and go there. The first thing Daphne does is start mixing the group, so everybody is forced to work with someone else. This creates a much more active and dynamic group. Together with Daphne and her female cooks, you suddenly feel yourself a master chef preparing yet another Greek dish. The fun part is that in the evening all the participants, together with their families, sit around the table next to the sea and share the food they all prepared together that afternoon. This creates an atmosphere where there is no distance between the “guests” of THE HOTEL anymore. Iannis, on the other hand, is famous for the hikes he organizes. After 3:00 p.m. he takes the people who signed up for the hike to some nice and interesting places on the island. While walking, he talks and talks. It can be about Greek mythology, olive production or some plants or birds you see while walking, but one thing is for sure; his conversations are fun and interesting and believe me, it’s never boring to be out with Iannis.

People who stay in hotel Votsala are encouraged to initiate some activities as well. This can be Yoga, dance classes or a pottery course. For all the events people have to pay a symbolic fee and the money Daphne and Iannis collect will be donated to charity. A lot of refugees who try to cross the Mediterranean Sea end up stranded and living in difficult and harsh conditions here. So Daphne and Iannis try to help these refugees by providing them with the money they collect through their workshops. Believe me, you definitely will not be bored when you stay at their place, but of course there is so much more to do and to see in Lesbos. 

Fatoş is a guide in Lesbos and works for Mitilene tours (www.mitilenetours.gr). Together, with her we, traveled around and she showed us some amazing places. Just five minutes from THE HOTEL, you can see the remains of the oldest residential place on the island; a very old thermal bathhouse. All that remains are the foundations of the bathhouse, but you can clearly see the different rooms where people would once use as healing baths. In the background you can find the remains of a very stately hotel: the Sarlıca palace hotel, which was built in the early 1900s. Once the residence of rich and mainly old people who came to Thermi to have healing baths, now it is standing there and waiting for another glorious time to come. Unfortunately, plans to rebuild the hotel have been canceled due to the, much older, Roman bathhouse in front of the hotel. I climbed over the gate and walked around in the hotel. It gave me a creepy feeling to walk around there and I could still feel the grandeur of what it once used to be. A gorgeous entrance, after which I saw beautiful decorated stone floors stretching out from one side of the hotel to the other. The whole hotel was empty and wrecked except for one room; here was a grand piano standing and waiting. It was as if the musician just went to the bar to get one of the famous cocktails they served and then the music would continue. At this moment, I could not stop myself from thinking about the film Casablanca and how I could picture Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman drinking a cold glass of Champagne. 

Fatoş brought me to Mandamados, a communal village where you can find the Taksiarhis monastery, which used to be down at the seaside, according to local stories. It was there that pirates attacked the monastery, killed all the monks except one novice who, for some reason, decided to sleep on the roof that night. The novice witnessed the killing of the monks but could not do anything to save them. Once the pirates were gone, the novice went down and buried all of the monks’ bodies. With the blood soaked earth, the novice decided to make an icon shaped sculpture and this sculpture is, until today, in the cathedral. Numerous people come to see and pray in front of this icon. I even saw people who were crawling on their knees towards the sculpture. Most of those people either have a relative that cannot walk or have problems walking and therefore want to identify themselves with the archangel Michael. The best time to visit the cathedral is late afternoon, as the light creates an unforgettable light show in the cathedral. This is also the time that mostly local people visit the cathedral to pray for health. After visiting the cathedral, one should definitely have a nice cup of yoghurt with honey that is prepared by the monks who live in the cathedral. 

It was late afternoon and there was one more place for today that Fatoş wanted to show me. Back in the car and, after a 45-minute drive, we arrived in Skala Skamnias. In this little fishermen’s place you can find a couple of nice authentic souvenir shops and some beautiful restaurants. The main attraction, though, is the church of Mother Mary, a church that is the symbol of protecting the fishermen. Built on a high rock bordering the sea, the church seems to be untouchable from the destructive waves that we love, but also fear. It is under the Mulberry Tree restaurant that you can find some amazing appetizers, like filled zucchini flowers, octopus, calamari or their home made marinated dried fish. Combine this with a good glass of Ouzo and you will have the day of your life

Take a tour of Turkey’s women-only beach

On my visit to Sarısu Beach, the free-of-charge, women-only beach in the southern province of Antalya that has recently caused such a stir, it perhaps should not have been a surprise to see that a Salvador Dali image was the only reference to a male in sight. 

While at the beach, I met with Neriman from Trabzon, who said she wanted her youngest daughter to be a model, and also with Özlem, a burka-clad women living in Lyon who is fluent in French. I was also very impressed by Kerime, who told me that she had “bought a bikini for the first time in her life” for her trip to the beach. 

Arriving in Antayla, I asked a local 20-year-old gas station worker for directions to the women-only beach. He blushed and then started to look at me with a teasing smile, as if I had asked “Where’s the nudist beach?” He then told me to turn left after about a kilometer… 

“Soon enough, guys like this young man will be trying whatever they can to get a peek at such a beach,” I thought to myself.

The beach is located very close to the Konyaaltı neighbourhood of Antalya, and I found it easily with the help of road signs. It has kebab and fish restaurants, a tea garden, a beach buffet and a marketplace made up of a market and six shops. I don’t know if it was because it was only the fourth day after its opening, but it was the cleanest beach I have ever seen. The grass was green and the flowers were beautiful. The women responsible for rubbish collection waited until I finished my bottle of water and then took it away. 

Even though it was Wednesday, the beach was quite crowded. All 300 sunbeds and the 150 umbrellas placed on the beach were taken. I sat in the cafe after changing my clothes inside a harmonious wooden cabin. Thinking that it would break the ice, I ordered a Turkish coffee as soon as I sat down. Guess who I met? Salvador Dali winked an eye at me from the coffee cup…

Rather than getting lost in the Dali details, I looked over to three young girls sitting at the next table. The group was made up of a junior high school student and two senior high school students. All three were dressed casually, but they were there to accompany their headscarved mother, who they appeared to be a little annoyed with. But, after all, this is their duty as daughters. 

On the beach, there was a shared feeling of discomfort. Everyone seemed to mistrust one another because everyone was “undressed.” No one spoke with the person on the next sunbed. I only heard one woman say, “Here is some tea if you want it.”

When I started taking pictures half an hour into my visit, a woman yelled at me, “Put your mobile phone back in your bag.” When I asked why, she explained: “I heard that there were journalists around here.” I smiled when I saw the same woman topless within a couple of hours.

Going back to Neriman from Trabzon, who wants her youngest daughter to become a model, she told me that she felt uncomfortable with the atmosphere on the beach. “I’m not coming back again. It has a strange feeling. It made me anxious that women are so distant from each other. There will be many fights here,” she said.

I spent a long time chatting with Özlem, who has lived in Lyon for eight years. She came here with her little daughter and her sister from the Turkish province of Isparta. She was happy in her hashema, the Islamic-style full-body swimsuit. “Even the Frenchdon’t treat every headscarved women in the same way. They can distinguish an educated person from 10 meters away. But we are different,” she told me. Did she sense that I was a journalist?

However, I got a different impression from Kerime. “I have bought a bikini for the first time in my life, it’s so delightful to swim in it. Thank God!” she said, playing with the waves as she shook the skirt of her bikini. She must have been cooling her body in this way for the first time ever.

Saime, who approached me while swimming, asked me: “Do you wear a headscarf?” I said I did not, then made up a story about my fiancée being a jealous person, which is why I had come to the beach. After hearing that, she replied, “You’re right, there are people like you, too.” We talked about how relaxed we were without men around, not caring about whether our breasts were seen or feeling that we had to cover our bodies on the beach.

I also saw a woman with a crescent-star necklace. She turned out to be a teacher and a staunch republican, but said she came to the beach out of curiosity. “They are using women to control society. Even democratic parties have done that. We were not allowed to take off our nylon socks until the May 19 national holiday celebrations. The ideology is different but the point of view is still the same in my opinion. Women shouldn’t fall into this trap,” she said.

All over the world there are facilities that provide autonomy alongside liberty. We don’t find nudist and adult-only beaches to be strange. From this perspective, the Sarısu Women-Only Beach could be considered in the same category. However, we can’t share the same enthusiasm when a cleric, whose salary is being paid by our state, declares that it is sinful for men and women to dance together. I wonder how Dali would picture that scene?

Lesbos, finding the roots

‘The castle is the only building on the whole island that was built by the Ottomans. It must have been in the year 1757 that they built it and the reason was pirates.’

The trip on Lesbos to the remote village of Sigri is, considering this is just an island, quite long. Slowly the landscape changes, from the lush green forest, it slowly changes into a bare, dry landscape. It is as if I am driving through Central Anatolia; dried grass bleached by the summer sun. Signs of the Petrified Forest are placed aside the road. 

Lesbos is the place where, 20 million years ago, a volcano exploded and threw out its lava. All the trees in this area were burned, but it happened so fast that the trees, after the volcano eruption ended, remained like tombstones in a graveyard. As so many tombstones, some of them were still standing straight, some of them toppled over and all of it was covered with ashes. Over time, the trees transformed into stones and created an almost spooky landscape. Nowadays, this place is a nature reserve and you can find all about the how, when and why in the museum of Sigri. If you want to visit the Petrified Forest, I advise you to go late in the afternoon. During early noon, it is too hot to enjoy the walk. 

Of course I wanted to see the Petrified Forest, but the reason why I came to Sigri was the history of my wife’s relatives. Her grandfather came from Sigri and last year Gonca visited this place, but was not able to get much information. This time, there would be a man in the village who might be able to help Gonca, so we went. During the weeks ahead of our holiday, Gonca did quite a bit of research and learned something that shocked her, as it did to her father. 

It turned out that the family actually came from the region of Konya Karaman, the people were called Karamanlılar and were Turkmens. It was during the reign of Fatih Sultan Mehmet that this group was constantly clashing with other people that also lived in this region. They had a very strong identity and did not want to assimilate with any other tribe or group of people. This caused quite some problems and therefore the Sultan decided this group had to be sent to another place so he could control the area of Karaman more easily. In 1462 the sultan had conquered an island just in front of the coast: Lesbos. This would be the perfect place to send those people; out of sight and no people they could harm there. 

Soon, 2,000 people were deported to Lesbos and the sultan felt relieved. It is interesting how people always try to find a place that resembles their place of origin. Lesbos, being such a nice and green island would be a possible place for me to live, but if I could choose I would choose the green area of the country where there is a lot of water. The Karamanlılar, on the other hand, found the driest place on the island, a place called Sigri. This is where they felt at home and this is where they stayed until 1923, when they had to return to Turkey as a part of the Treaty of Lausanne. 

Gonca was quite excited about the meeting with one of the village’s elder men and thanks to our guide Fatoş Lazari of Mitilene Tours, she would be able to receive some precious information from him. Over time, of course, the village had changed. The old man pointed out a couple of places that used to be important. The mosque, now converted into a church, the police office, an inn and, last but not least, the house where Gonca’s grandfather had lived. One part of the building was a normal house, but the other side had a darker past; this used to be the village’s prison. I went into the old house and inside, it was as if time had stood still. It was all still there; the bed, some lamps, furniture and even some decorations. While we were in the house, the old man suddenly started shouting, “Come out of the house, come out please. The villagers will get cross with me,” so all of a sudden, we awoke and were rudely called back to reality. Gonca went with the man to his office, but this part was, I am sorry to say, a bit boring so I took my daughter and walked around in the village. 

After a short walk, we ended up at a castle of which the main gate was closed due to the building’s dangerous situation. Being an adventurer and discoverer, I promised myself I would get into this castle and yes, at the back side of the castle I found a small hole in the wall just big enough to work my way in. This old castle is a very special castle; it is the only building on the whole island that was built by the Ottomans. It must have been in the year 1757 that they built it and the reason was pirates.

During that time, the seas were controlled by pirates and for that reason they needed a safe haven to protect the people and the wealth of the country.

Walking around with my daughter, I noticed she was not too overwhelmed by this beautiful castle. After all, it was just a lot of stones put together: What does that mean for a five-and-a-half year-old girl? To explain a bit about the history to her, I decided to tell her a story about how the pirates used to attack the castle, how the soldiers would defend it and how the pirates, all of a sudden, would attack the castle from a different point from the sea. Şira was fascinated by the story and wanted to know all about it and what happened to the pirates. 

My tour in the castle was finished and so was Gonca’s chat with the man. She learned the house we were in less than an hour ago was indeed her grandfather’s house and she even found older documents belonging to her grandfather’s parents. For Gonca, it was great to learn all of this information, to find some important traces of her roots and for me it was another piece of history about the Ottoman time that opened up in front of my eyes. I did not know there was this rebellious group of people who used to live in the area of Karaman and were deported to Lesbos Island and I BET many Turks also do not know about this part of their history.

An ordinary day in Turkey’s 'Mathematics Village'

A brief introduction to Turkey’s ‘Mathematics Village'

Being surrounded by the post-elective atmosphere in Turkey, I really need some time away from the political tension. So, a week later from my departure from there, I think it is time for my second piece on Nesin Mathematics Village. 

This time, I would like to narrate an ordinary day in Mathematics Village. 

I would wake up at 6:30, welcoming the day with the company of cicadas’ endless symphony. I would step out of my cozy tent and walk toward the village under the shadow of large pine trees, to get ready for a refreshing breakfast at 7. I had really enjoyed my morning tea with tasty cheese and olives, fresh tomatoes and delicious (probably home-made) jams, together with all the other sleepy eyes around me.

I would generally have half an hour of free time between my breakfast and the first lesson of the day, at 8 o’clock. That’s when I would stop by the library’s porch and have my daily news update on my smartphone. There, actually, was my favorite zone in the whole village. I would leave myself to the comfortable large sofas, facing the green hills as the light breeze cools me down.

Then, I would head to the open-air class with a pencil and a notebook in my hand. The lessons were rarely stressful or boring. The lecturers were as relaxed as the students were. It was fun to chat with successful academics from well-known universities, on their research areas, with their slippers and shorts on. 

After the first lesson, I had two hours of free time before lunch, which I would generally spend in the library, working on the random books that I got ahold of. Believe me, taking a quick look at various mathematics textbooks can teach you a lot.

Lunch time may be really chaotic if you are late. About 300 students rush to the lunch hall and the line sometimes feels endless. However, thanks to my free time right before lunch, I was fine, except for the few times when I sank in the books and lost the track of time.

Lunches and dinners are really tasty and healthy in the village. The chef, Asım Usta, creates wonders for such a large group of people in such short notice. 

The duties are simple tasks to be completed by groups of participants to keep the village running and most of them are scheduled right after the lunch break and don’t take more than an hour of work. So, mostly my after lunch free time would be occupied by cleaning toilets, washing dishes or sweeping. Some of the tasks were quite tiresome, but I had never felt exhausted after finishing them. I would appreciate the effort of the people who take care of these in my daily life and I would feel happy for contributing to village life.

Afterward, I would have two more hours of lecture and then I would be free for the rest of the day. My free time in the village was mostly dedicated to revising my past mathematics courses and devouring any new knowledge that I could make sense of.

After dinner, I would generally take a seat on the porch of the library again. During the night time, the green hills would be hidden by the darkness and the wonderful sky would take the leading role. Thanks to the absence of light pollution, the view of the stars is stunning. Relaxing on the porch and watching this scene with the cicadas singing in the background, is possibly the most relaxing experience I have had in my life.

After a while, I would start walking around to find one of my new friends there to dive into a deep conversation. One day, we would discuss politics and the other, our plans for the future. The day would end in such a calm mood, in my relatively cool tent. 

As I said, it has been a week since I returned to my normal life and I still miss the atmosphere of Mathematics Village. I think those two weeks were really a unique experience for me.

On my next piece, I will try to evaluate what I gained from Mathematics Village.



* This piece is a follow-up to “A Brief Introduction to Turkey’s Mathematics Village." If you have any questions about Mathematics Village, you can contact Altuğ Karakurt by emailing to altugkarakurt@gmail.com and if you are a Turkish speaker, you can find his Turkish Village Diaries at altugkarakurt.blogspot.com.tr