Waking up in Uğurlu
We woke up on the beautiful beach to a peace, quiet, and a view. Usually, we take care to have relaxed mornings and on rest days like today, even more so.
Börek
While we were enjoying perhaps our second cup of coffee, a man approached me with some börek. Börek is a flaky, savory Turkish pastry that can be filled with cheese, potatoes, spinach, meat, etc. It comes in all sizes and shapes and you can find it almost everywhere. My favorite is su böreği which means “water börek” because it’s boiled. Here’s a recipe and some photos. This kind of börek is not as widely available but still fairly easy to find.
A Gift Just for Alyssa
The man indicated in body language and words that it was specifically for me. And in fact, had approached me when I had stood up to walk towards the sea rather than when I was seated next to Selim. I was a bit confused. I approached Selim and explained what had happened. Perhaps he had some idea how to interpret this situation?
Time for Selim to Confess
Turns out, he knew exactly what was going on. Selim shared that it was the same guy from yesterday who had given him blackberries. And went on to explain that, in fact, he had eaten the blackberries he was supposed to share. And furthermore, was caught in the act. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, Selim had very good reasons not to share the blackberries but just to re-iterate as he is very good at sharing!1) He was really, really hungry and 2) Even more so, he would’ve had to cycle uphill with berries in his hand which would’ve crushed them. Furthermore, he offered to pick me more.
When the man saw us again the next day on the beach, he remembered that Selim wasn’t trustworthy. 😉 He waited until I was at a distance from Selim to approach and to present a second gift. I like to imagine that it was to prevent a situation where Selim would inhale all of the börek as the man was extending his hands to give it to me. Of course, he brought it specifically to me in jest but it was quite hilarious. We didn’t expect to see him again! And actually, at that point, I didn’t even know that Selim was supposed to have shared the blackberries with me.
It was kind of funny because I even asked Selim the day before, why the couple had given him blackberries and not me? He had said something to the effect of “I don’t know” and quickly changed the subject. I continued talking about it for probably two minutes, wondering if it was because he seemed more friendly? Is it because he looks more Turkish so it’s easier to talk to him? He was behind me on the road? Turns out, they had given me some. The secrets we keep from each other 😉
Çay to Enjoy with the Börek
What goes great with börek? Çay! They brought us some, too. Not just any çay, but çay from what I believe is a samovar which they had lugged with them to the beach! Impressive.
Washing Clothes
On rest days, one thing I like to do is catch up on laundry. If I’m in a pinch, I can wash my clothes when I take a shower but I really prefer to soak them. When I want to do that, all I need is to find 5 L plastic water bottle. Unfortunately, this type of trash is easy to find scattered along the beach. I use the scissors Selim has in his tool kit to cut off the top of the water bottle. I fill the bottle up with water and a little bit of shampoo and then insert the clothes to soak for a few hours. On this particular day, I not only found a bottle to use but also a discarded dish detergent container, with a bit of soap still inside! Big score.
Free Time
When we have down time, I try to find some way to practice French with more focus. My go-to methods currently are reading a book, watching a Netflix series, or listening to a podcast with more concentration. On this particular day, my laptop had some charge and I had several episodes of Plan Coeur downloaded so I watched that. I don’t necessarily recommend this show aside from for learning very informal French. If anyone has film or series suggestions in French or French plus Arabic, let me know, as I will soon exhaust Netflix’s French library. Selim has been so generous to watch many episodes of it but today, he had other plans.
YouTube
This was Day 1 of me more actively getting involved in Selim’s YouTube pursuits. I had previously made appearances in his videos and help edit English subtitles but aside from that, YouTube is his thing. Before I met Selim, I did not have any social media (aside from LinkedIn) so I think I’ve come a long way. He is very gifted in the art of YouTube videos. And patient. It takes an incredibly long time to produce one video, from script-writing, to filming, to editing. I prefer to read content rather than watch. I just did a quick google search and it appears that more than 70% of folks prefer watching videos to reading so I am definitely in the minority.
Consumption Preferences and Relationships
This actually presents an interesting dynamic in the relationship because I tend to send Selim articles and he’ll send me videos. Whereas the exact opposite would produce more successful results. People talk about love languages but not about content languages. We send our partners information we would like them to consume whether that’s news, relationship advice, or just cute animal images. When we read (or watch) something, it’s super easy to click the “share” via WhatsApp or Instagram button. I think it would take a lot more effort to try to find the same information in our partner’s preferred medium, consume it to ensure it’s good quality, and then send it. Relationship goals?
My Début as a Videographer
Selim had already picked out a spot for me to film him. I didn’t have a lot of creative liberty as the talent was working as star, lighting, direction, sound, etc. We all have to start somewhere! I think it gave me a taste for all of the elements that go into video documentation, though, and it was quite fun.
Sleeping in the Boathouse
Some time after filming and dinner, a group of men arrived to the beach in a hurry. They had come to move their fishing boats further up shore. They anticipated a high tide as the result of a storm. And they were right. They recruited Selim to help move their boats which left me in charge with running all our splayed-out belongings to dry land before it got taken away by the sea. It was a hectic fifteen minutes. They ended up suggesting that we sleep in their boat house that night as they didn’t know how far the water would come up the shore. We took them up on their offer and slept under a roof, still in our tent, for the first time in several weeks.
