03. Ennui. And Exceptionalism.

Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things—air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky—all things tending toward the eternal or what we imagine of it. ~Cesare Pavese

Six weeks felt like an eternity for an extrovert like me to take crawling out from under the fog of general apathy associated with relocating to a foreign country. But today, at the International Women of Istanbul event, I was introduced to the U.S. Consul General's wife. She pleasantly exclaimed that she couldn't believe my ennui had passed so quickly. Those were encouraging words!

     en·nui [ahn-wee, ahn-wee; Fr. ahN-nwee]
     noun
     a feeling of utter weariness and discontent

Yep, ennui. That sums it up. Mrs. Kilner went on to tell me that the State Department actually has a class about the topic. I think I'm going to recommend that the DOJ also provide such a class. It would be very practical, not to mention reassuring, to learn a few basic coping skills to use when settling into life in an unfamiliar culture.

In other important news, I noted that it's very European to wear short hair. I had been feeling like odd man out living among the Turkish women with their beautiful, long tresses. Today, I was able to feel stylish and like I fit in someplace. Yay!

I also snagged the latest issue of Time-Out Istanbul. In English! Turkey is known as one of the very few European countries that never adopted English as their second world language. Why is that?

Apparently, despite Turkey’s openness to the world and global commercial activities, English proficiency is lacking partially as a structural issue—the elimination of English in the compulsory school curriculum. Some suggest a lack of interest due to the effort required to learn a world language properly. (Oy, I can relate to that sentiment.) This lack of English speaking ability also has to do with nationalism and its attendant navel-gazing and exceptionalism.

Exceptionalism?! And here I thought that was a solely American trait. Well, every day's a school day: Other countries are as patriotic and self-absorbed as my own. People are people are people—and when I'm not finding that truth to be a scary prospect, I find it to be comforting. xx