if you jump...you won't fly

Ortakoy....
it was like a mystical elusive place that everyone i talked to had been and loved, and told me i HAD to go see. But no one could explain it to me they just said "oh its amazing, you have to go!" of course when people say that they usually mean the shopping is great, you can get cheap Prada, or that there are plenty of tourists so you have a good chance of speaking english to the waiter at your restaurant/cafe and not getting a blank stare in return.
This was not Ortakoy.
It was a spur of the moment decision between Begüm and Ahmet and myself. We were walking back from class...(i was coming back from an unproductive day at the library) and i said i wanted a kumpir, which is a great potato mixture that i have fallen in love with. We decide that it is worth waiting for the bus in the heat of the day for a quick trip to Ortakoy.
The bus ride was as usual, interesting, between almost falling over repeatedly and being smooshed and tossed around like a rag doll i made it in one piece. I felt so bad for Begum and Ahmet having to put up with me wandering around like the tourist i am, but they managed to keep my head out of the clouds long enough to get kumpir and find a seat by the Bosphorous.
The view was spectacular....as many trees as you see driving through West Virginia, and the smell of the water of course is intoxicating...like a dream, water waves lapping the concrete and the caw of sea gulls. Then straight ahead is the huge blue Bosphorous Bridge that looms like a link to the past. I wondered how big it was, how high over the water, when it had been built, but at the same time i didn't want to break the silence and ask my questions. So i kept them to myself....a mystery for me to discover on my own i guess...in any case it was just a quick trip with my new Turkish friends, but it was once again, a memorable one...They are so loving as friends, when i am with them i feel so comfortable as if i am with my own family, i can laugh and smile and they just laugh and smile with me, and we dont have to talk in order to have fun...
in any case...
Ahmet did mention the sad fact that sunday when there was a marathon, some guy jumped off the bridge and committed suicide...and we all agreed, that is one way to go...get attention and fall through the air like a peregin falcon swooping down to get its prey...HOwever one important point to make...if you jump...doesn't matter how high or what you jump off...you will not fly...you may feel like you are flying for a few amazing seconds....but you will not ever fly.
So i think we also agreed, its better to live...if all life is suffering, then at least we are all suffering together right? So its not all bad : )
Ciao
Jessi