tik tok, turkey and the novel coronavirus

We begin where we last left off, somewhere in July. It was in July that I discovered that Joyland: Rawalpindi Edition™ was a thing that existed, and so I forced Minahel, Fatima and Aaliyaan to visit it with me. A short trip, made even shorter by our inability to have estimated the sheer volume of the crowd that had amassed outside the ticket booth. Nevertheless, we got our 6 minutes of stomach-sinking, freefall emulating Pirate Ship fun, even if Fatima, in true Fatima fashion, chose to wait outside the ride instead of actually experiencing it with us. 

Another notable moment: I got my first prime lens, a nifty fifty, and I love it. Took a still-in-her-nightsuit Fatima outside to take some test shots, and ended up really really loving them. Other subjects of said lens: Breeha, Shayan, Ameera and Chip. 

Sometime in August Baba discovered that a new chain of the famous Mian Jee truck hotel from somewhere between Kharian and Gujrat had opened up in Pindi, somewhere on the GT Road. And so a plan in favor of that ever-glorious tandoori paratha and channay ki daal was made. Good call, even though we had to stop at a couple of fake Mian Jee's along the way.

September was when I was unabashedly greedy; I didn't want to waste my time simply because I didn't have much of it left. No, I wasn't dying, I was just moving to Istanbul for a six-month internship. And because of that, I tried to spend every passing minute of it at home, with mama, baba and Chip. 

Would you consider it a good omen that my first day of work was on my birthday? I've always liked my birthdate: 30th September has a good feel to it, it just sounds right. Good omen or not, it was the start of six very interesting months in my life. 

I had never experienced a formal work environment before, let alone a non-Pakistani formal work environment, and it was both different but also the same. I got a chance to shed some of my sometimes-restrictive South Asian takkaluf - here people did not think twice before initiating a conversation with you, a stranger. Nobody seemed to get offended if you asked them seemingly personal questions, age differentials didn't matter too much, if at all.  

I did stay true to my disbelieving political science student self, and reaffirmed my suspicion of the United Nations as a concept. Also to be found was the usual petty politics. The fact that a 24 year old working at an actual UN organisation could still end up embroiled in petty drama, was mind-blowing. Drama is eternal y'all. 

On 3rd November a bunch of my new friends had a potluck and I had tteokbokki for the first time!! Love you Hyeonsoo! (I wonder if her listening to me rave about how much I wanted to try Korean food was similar to goray saying 'omg I luv India I luv butter chicken I luv Indian food'?). Anyway, I took with me Achari Aalu and Haleem, capitalised for I don't know what reason. I found it fascinating that the spice from the Korean rice balls (Jumeok-Bap) was making me cry, but Yeni and Hyeonsoo were fine, and the spice from the Achari Aalu was making them cry, but I was fine??

On 30th November Fatima and I went to see Mac DeMarco in concert (30 again!!). We had great 'seats' (the general admission stand right by the stage) and we stood for 3 hours under the glowing lights listening to die-hard fans singing along word-for-word next to us. Thora sa guilty feel kiya, because we weren't die hard fans, just fans, and that too, barely. Oh, and he threw a guitar at us. Not me and Fatima specifically, and not because of our admission of not being big enough fans, but because Mac Demarco is insane and that's what he does. It landed in the row right in front of us, and there was a 2-minute long stampede as people scrambled to grab it. Eventually two people were taken out by security because they would not stop fighting over it. Did you need to know this much detail? 

Honorable mentions: a holiday party at Karen's that I was embarrassingly early to, and at which I somehow managed to meet other Pakistanis? A cute Christmas party for people alone on Christmas, where I had really terrible food but the conversation was nice? Being home alone at New Years Eve because Fatima had gone out with her friends and so I Skyped with Nimra for 3 hours and showed her the fireworks outside my house at 12 AM? Happy new year. 

In January I discovered Cajun seasoning, and subsequently made Cajun fries for dinner almost every night. I also went to Bogazici University for the first time and fell in love, as I followed the muffled sound of someone playing the drums in a small studio tucked away on the basement level of one of the buildings. Did I proceed to stare in through the window like a creep? Yes. 

Also at Bogazici was the dog shelter where I went once, but (rather unrealistically) planned on going every weekend. Needless to say, I fell in love with every dog. Also saw the reincarnation of Scooby-Doo, rather blasphemously named Omar. Turks, amirite? 

February was when I saw my first snowfall!! It was magical! I loved it! This month also comprised of a lot of coffee cup fortune telling, and a lot of photoshoots with unassuming victims. Zeynep took me to an expensive Turkish kebab place, which was amazing. Can't wait to go back. In return, I took her to a Beatles cover band, which was not so amazing. And then we went to her place where we made our new years resolution lists. I left her house next morning to meet my next model, Yunus, who was surprisingly alright with most of my editorial decisions, even if they involved pink blush. In return, I took him to see Leprous, a band neither of us had listened to before. I'm beginning to realize that maybe taking people to see mediocre bands isn't a good enough return for their kindness...

Hey! I threw a party this month! It was a nice cute small Valentines Day party for people who were deeply sad and lonely. Ha! Just kidding, it was for my friends, who just happened to be deeply sad and lonely. I loved it so much. Fatima and Minahil also invited their friends, and it was just a nice weird mish-mash of university kids and UN employees (how weird is the word mish-mash?). I also made a googly eye cake. As you do. 

I went home to Pakistan for a week for my graduation, met my parents and my dog and my friends and my lovers Mr. Johnny and Mr. Jugnu. LSE did not disappoint, the graduation was a trainwreck. But it was an excuse for me to meet everyone; Amal had also come back from Karachi, so the gang was truly complete. My mother met Shayan's mother for the first time since I started LSE :)) About time? 

And then back to Istanbul in March. And what a bizarre month, because no one knew how crazy the whole coronavirus thing would get, and how my time would get cut short by a week. So while Fatima and I Great Dong Fang-ed (an all-you-can-eat Chinese Buffet that I miss so deeply), and Hazal, Zeynep and I Gozlemio-ed (a fast food style Gözleme place that I miss so deeply), we didn't really think about doing all of that fast enough and frequently enough. And we definitely didn't think about when we would say goodbye for the last time, and unbeknownst to us, our last Gozlemio day became the last time that we would see each other. And so, on the 20th of March, when we were flying back to Pakistan, I hadn't said goodbye to Hazal, Zeynep or Yunus before I left, which pained me immensely. I needed closure, dammit.

So there you have it. A very quick recap of basically my entire last year. That nobody asked me for. But it's okay, because this is more for me than it is for you, truthfully. I have no idea what August holds in store for me, but I hope that everyone is safe and the coronavirus just fkn goes away already yaar, bass ho gai hai. (Sidenote: is it normal to feel like a sell-out for italicising urdu phrases?)

Ok bye. See you aglay saal.