GÖKÜ'DEN NOTLAR

Merhaba ve yazıya başlangıç şarkısı 7.10.18 Köln/Almanya Haruki Murakami'nin Sahilde Kafka'sını  2018'de  Almanya'da yaptığım bir tren yolculuğumda  okuyordum. Kendim de bir  kum fırtınasının içinden geçmekte olduğum için aşağıdaki yazı beni çok etkilemişti  (Aynı alıntıyı  yedi yıl önce de paylaşmıştım .) . A nlamlı bir zamanda bana ulaşmıştı... 

“Çağımızda geçmiş yüzyılların bilmediği, kısa ömürlü bir yaratık yaşıyor. Sinemadan çıkmış insan. Gördüğü film ona bir şeyler yapmış. Salt çıkarını düşünen kişi değil. İnsanlarla barışık. Onun büyük işler yapacağı umulur. Ama beş-on dakikada ölüyor. Sokak sinemadan çıkmayanlarla dolu; asık yüzleri, kayıtsızlıkları, sinsi yürüyüşleriyle onu aralarına alıyorlar, eritiyorlar.” Yusuf Atılgan/Aylak Adam Özgün’le Film Ekimi için biletini aldığımız filmin tarihi tez savunmamdan bir gün önceye denk geldi. O akşam evde birkaç kez pratik yapmak yerine güzel bir sonbahar akşamı, herkesi evinden çıkarıp sinema salonunda toplayan festival filmine gitmek tatlı bir düşünceydi. Gittim. O sabah ablam tez savunmam için İstanbul’dan gelmişti. Haliyle, evde beni birkaç saat beklemiş oldu :). Açıkçası, evde beni bekleyen birinin olması güzel bir histi. Son servisle eve dönebilmek için filmden biraz erken çıktım. Sinemanın önü bomboştu ve hava biraz serinlemişti. Tunalı’dan çıkıp Tunus’a doğru kalabalıklaşa...

Here is a  beautiful song  by Yan Frenkel with his velvety voice to accompany your reading; this man deserves to be known. 

16.11.18 Leipzig/Germany It's been almost six years since I took this journey. How time flies.

Pedro Almodóvar's striking and gripping movie Talk to Her  was the point that I somehow found a ground to  describe the moments  that suddenly pop up in daily life, which ignites  very ethereal feelings inside.  I dedicate this series to these precious experiences.  I watched Talk to Her last summer. One of the unique parts of the movie was highlighting the sentimental moments that Marco (Darío Grandinetti) experiences in a drama or music. Showing tears with such pleasure mixed with poignant feelings was not given as a vulnerable side of him; it was even introduced poetically. That was the part that I nodded and thought how beatifully they pictured and grabbed the audience's attention and interest to this very emotion. To read more about the film,  please click here .  Everybody is in a rush in modern times, people  grumbling   for being busy and crushed under the loaded schedules. We all somehow lose the meaning of values and deep thin...

First, I may say "some"  dreams come true. After the BS, I was eager to begin a Master's degree immediately. It took three years to make this dream come true the way I wish it would. So, second, some dreams  come true when  "the right time comes" . Life has its own pace.  Three years after graduation, I ended up doing my MA in Developmental Psychology at Bilkent University. That was a surprise and a sharp turning point since I was determined to study clinical psychology and very interested in psychoanalysis. Although it is not the era I wish to live in one more time for some reasons (:)), it made me make the right decision. I like what I do now and for the future plans that I took the first step last year. Bilkent was not my main aim initially. It became a good alternative in the process. But, it gave me even better than what I have been dreaming of, very proud of being a part of here :).

Click for the welcome song . 30/5/18 Izmir/Turkiye Once upon a time, to be exact, in 2018, my ex-boyfriend and I were hanging out at my fav place, Ikea 💛💙, in Izmir. Having had dinner, we passed by the food market. I bought a candle box full of cookies. As a romantic person, no chance to help your candle love :p. The surface design of the box was illustrated with Nyhavn’s beautiful buildings. When I saw Copenhagen writing there, I commented, "I do really want to go to Denmark one day," with a childish traveller’s excitement and longing. He responded, "North countries are too expensive to travel to." Years later, life made me end up living in Denmark for one year, let alone just travelling there, lol. It was not pure joy but a challenging experience. I was working with disadvantaged children in a special school there. That’s another story.  I went to Copenhagen a couple of times that year. The first time I arrived in Copenhagen and then went to Nyhavn, I admired wh...

Click for Joe Cocker's perfect performance  in Woodstock ✌🏻 7.10.22 Bilkent University - Ankara/Turkiye P.S. Two lucky hedgehogs since, apparently, they found each other. :) This is the writing that I've been putting in a few sentences whenever I captured a moment to do so the whole pretty demanding year in Bilkent. So I made it July to share it with you, finally :). Let's get started to talk about hedgehogs, then.  I have a feeling that reminds me from time to time that makes me close to hedgehogs, for some reason, which I want to talk about here. I hope to touch on some common points other hedgehogs in this writing. Why? Cos, I want to defend and normalise this feeling experienced.  What does being a hedgehog sound like? What are the first associations in your mind about it? Being untouchable.. cute.. a half smile on a face.. sharp and risky quills that could be harmful at any moment, a thing that makes you hesitant to contact it anyway?! ..and more and more. This conc...

Note. This lovely drawing belongs to Ece Tuğlacı. Thanks very much for her support of the blog in this way. :) Who am I?  As a blogger, I wanted to briefly introduce myself here. I am Gökçe. I was born in Aydin, a very close city to Izmir, Turkiye. I love Izmir. 🌴 I spent my five youth years there. Izmir made me an absolute different person and helped me shape myself, a priceless experience in human life. I've met wonderful people close to me in both places. I have recently completed my Master's degree in Developmental Psychology at Bilkent University. With the help of what I have learned, I aspire to contribute to children's lives, and in particular  those living in disadvantaged conditions.  I believe in love. I do love my loved ones. This makes my life more fulfilling in many possible ways. When it comes to love, I'd like to say, " love's the greatest thing ." These are lyrics from a song played in a movie that shook me a bit emotionally; it was touch...

15/7/21 Skive/Denmark It's been quite a long time, roughly 6 years since I encountered one of Noam Chomsky's quotes while watching Captain Fantastic  :). Briefly, Noam Chomsky is a well-known linguist. He made priceless contributions to the related literature. Because it helped me a lot to change my perspective and cope with certain obstacles in my life while trying to move onward, this quote is special. It always encourages me to think that all is manageable somehow with the help of HOPE insistently .   So here it is: “If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.” ⭐ In my humble opinion, besides patience and dedication, to making some “dreams come true” (I will create a series based on this in close future:)) hope is indispensable. It is even a must, actual...

Intro Note. This quote series basically consists of inspiring and encouraging notes for me. I do hope that some of you also find some courage, hope, or whatever it makes you feel after reading these writings.  In this second part of the series, I'd like to mention a well-known primatologist, Jane Goodall. Having searched for something to listen in  The New Yorker Radio Hour section, I encountered an interview done with Jane Goodall; naturally, I felt the urge to read it. A part that was so striking made me feel so strong. Whenever I read this part, it reminds me of how important being determined and resilient in any circumstances is. So, keeping it here to make it permanent and visible, I think, is a good idea. 

21/12/21 Izmir/Turkiye While I, as something of a Wes Anderson aficionado, was reading an interview about his latest movie ( The   French Dispatch ), I came across his reflections on living abroad, which made me recall a similar thought I mentioned in one of my previous writings, The Polar Express-4 . I think, therefore, the expression below genuinely impressed me.  Regarding the interviewer's comment,   Interviewer: When I saw the movie, I told you how much Lillian Ross, who died a few years ago, would have liked it. You said that Lillian’s first reaction would have been to demand, "Why France?" Anderson said this: ⭐ Wes Anderson: Well, I’ve had an apartment in Paris for I don’t know how many years. I’ve reverse-emigrated. And, in Paris, anytime I walk down a street I don’t know well, it’s like going to the movies. It’s just entertaining. There’s also a sort of isolation living abroad, which can be good, or it can be bad. It can be lonely, certainly. But y...

“ Mehmet Bey düşünüyordu. Acaba Ahmet Bey ne yapmak istiyordu? Ahmet Bey hiçbir şey yapmak istemiyordu. Sadece seviyordu. Yaşamak istiyordu. Sevilememiş insanın bütün hırsıyla sevilmek için, en sevilemeyeceği yerden, çabalayıp duruyordu. Istırap çekiyordu. Hiçbir şey olmayacağını hissetmemesine imkan yoktu. İşte yaşamak istiyordu. Bırakalım insanları istediklerini yapsınlar. Herkes kendi hikayesini yazacaktır.” Mr. Mehmet was thinking. He was wondering what Mr. Ahmet would like to do? Mr. Ahmet was not willing to do anything. He was just in love.  He was willing to live.   With all the passion of someone who had not experienced love, he was struggling to be  loved from the point where he would not be loved.   He was suffering.  It was impossible that he would not feel that nothing  would happen.   He was only wishing to live. Let people do whatever they want. Everyone will write their own story. 

A retrospective writing to illustrate as a metaphor that The Polar Express has arrived where it started this journey. 🌟  It's been 4 months since I returned to Turkey. ''How is my country's current situation?'' This is an absolutely different topic, but I will mention it briefly in the following sections. Based on the calendar, I grew one more year, but this is not the only measurement of how much we do grow. So, I am much more mature now than just one year older version of me (expected to happen), after last year. This is life and it generally takes the form by experiences (number of them, their intensity, and so on). Sometimes external situations you face force you to grow up immediately and fast; as a result, growing two times more than usual is normal. :) I had to grow, I had to expand and redefine my boundaries, and I had to be more flexible to not be fragile when there were plenty of factors outside insisting to stretch me; I then did so -still not enoug...

15/09/22 Bilkent University-Ankara/Turkey Golden hours in my room - with t he company of this very chill song - a pure slowdown 17/04/2021 Skive/Denmark Note. Short hikes made up one of the biggest parts of my daily life last year and this place was my routine destination for a break and appreciation of both the beauty of nature and silence. This day I saw this bird watching chair for the first time after it was built. That priceless pleasure I got at that time was poetic, with the company of this song . 08/04/22 Istanbul/Turkey 18/01/22 Izmir/Turkey Skive/Denmark Skive Bibliotek-Skive/Denmark Note. The first coffee from the new coffee machine in the library, which was a little piece of happiness for me during long working hours 💗 28/06/21 Middelfart/Denmark Note.  Sailed off into the glorious sunset 18/07/21 Aarhus/Denmark Note. Lovely breakfast with Ana - after the dance night, before the church concert,  a very  fresh morning 03/07/21 Stockholm/Sweden Note.  The...

“Yerimden kalktım. Aynaya doğru ilerledim. İki hanımın sessizce beni dikizlemelerine aldırış etmeden baktım. Ben de perişan bir haldeydim. Potinlerim çamur içindeydi. Şapkamın kurdelasında beyaz beyaz lekeler vardı. Yüzüm sapsarıydı. Gözlerim kıpkırmızı. Kenarlarından fırlayan saçlarımı toplamak için şapkamı çıkarınca şöyle parmaklarımla bir tarasam elimde kalacaklarını sandım. Şapkamı giyip kenarlarından fırlayan saçları içeriye tıktım. Dışarı çıktım. Merdivenleri indim. Vapur Kadıköy'den kalkmış geliyordu. Haydarpaşa İstasyonu'na baktım. Kocaman kapılarından ötede kırmızı yeşil fenerli, demir yollu, trenli, yolculu, meraklı, düşünceli, perişan, yerini bulmaya çalışan bir alem vardı. Her gün yüzlerce tren binlerce hikaye getiriyor, binlerce hikaye alıp gidiyordu. İstasyonun kapıları insan alıp insan veriyordu.”

For the beginning... ''If the daylight breaks and you're still miles away You should move into cover''   3/4/21 Copenhagen/Denmark   Spring has arrived. Denmark is greener. It is full of sunshine and bird songs right now. We have been longing to see these spring forerunners for a long time... I would like to start with this song above. In a way, it reflects my inner world, so, literally poignant and utterly unique to me. It's been eight months since I arrived here, without a visit to my home country. It sounds quite a long time. After my experience in Germany, which lasted five months, I have now expanded my maximum period of living abroad. As I see, it comes by time. I hadn’t imagined that I would be in this situation. It was beyond my expectations , but here we are: I am walking in the reality of my dreams. What life brings us is impressive.  This journey has started to change me gradually. I am reforming. It is as if something is brewing inside me. It i...

Here is a song for the beginning... 13.10.20 Spoettrup/Denmark I've always believed in love and its chance to continue till the end of life. At first, it will probably sound childish, but on the contrary, I believe it is a very mature thing. It requires many personality traits, such as the capability to love and stand by someone, the ability to show tolerance and respect and to be patient. Surely, we also need to be a little bit lucky somehow... Because maybe love is everywhere -you know this cliché- but love is a subtle thing at the same time, so the existence of love is not enough to live it. :)) Sorry... No doubt, love has so many forms in the world. To be honest, when I started to write this essay , my main purpose was to talk about romantic love only from a very romantic perspective, but right now, I am totally aware of the romantic love shared by two (or more?) people is just one of the innumerable forms of love. You can love your pet or your plants. You can feed them with l...

A very soft song  from Aphex Twin   for the beginning. 26/09/20 Vedersoe/Denmark 04.10.20 As you can see, Denmark is mostly cloudy. This weather was not usual for me until I started to live here. Coming from a Mediterranean country (moreover from the West!), I sometimes miss the sunshine. I think I will get used to it in time.  These days, I fully feel the autumn; fallen leaves, mizzling rain, circulating warm wind around, and Halloween time coming soon... Nature is yawning and completing the last preparations to sleep. Denmark is a super silent country, let's say ''peaceful'' -if you can feel it this way-. I guess it will be more silent in wintertime. People will spend their time at home with their families. Sounds pretty. :) Maybe one day, I will be able to do so in Denmark too. Who knows?.. It is a totally cosy portrait for me. Come to mention cosy, I would like to talk about ''hygge''. It is the most popular habit in Denmark culture. Danes love i...