Çay: tea
(pronounced "chai")
Anyone who knows me well knows that I love my caffeinated
beverages and drink them in excess. Thus I was understandably excited to hear that the Turks
shared my love of both tea and coffee. When brainstorming ideas for a blog
name, it seemed only fit to incorporate one of these soon-to-be staples of my
life in Turkey. It seems like wherever I go, tea especially unites people across boundaries of background and culture.
Whether green tea in China, boba milk tea in Vietnam, yak
butter tea in Tibet, spiced black tea in Uganda, or chai lattes in northern
California, some of my favorite moments have involved tea with
friends. It is there that friendships are developed, stories swapped, memories
relived, and lives shared.
And that is what I want this blog to be: a pseudo-tea table
to which I can invite my friends and family near and far. In fact, I hope to
post less of a travel-log detailing everything I see and do (I have not proved
very successful at this kind of blogging in the past: http://kealyjaynes.wordpress.com/)
and more little vignettes of my life as I live, teach, learn, and grow in
Turkey during my time with Fulbright— the kinds of brief snapshots, couched in
laughter and tears, that are customarily pulled out and shared around the tea
table.
A recent conversation with a mentor of mine inspired me to
be more aware of these little moments— the magic of the present, found in the
middle of the mundane or the chaotic alike, where we catch glimpses of God’s
hand in the unexpected, beautiful, and poetic. These are the experiences I want
to be sensitive to, the memories I want to record, share, and file away to
relive years down the line. I hope you enjoy them.
A few other random notes:
- For
those of you curious about Fulbright or what I will be doing:
- The
United States Government would like me to remind you that this “is not an
official Department of State website, and the views and information presented
are your own and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the Department of
State.” Just in case you were confused… :)
No comments:
Post a Comment