Identity Crisis - Classification of Expatriates

[Rich D]

Some of you will have noticed my (I suspect unlamented) absence from this forum which I can now reveal was due to a number of factors. The first was a silent protest at the Administrators’ inaction on following up a complaint I had made regarding a Moderator but then I realised I was punishing my readers for this which, after some months of reflection, seems ill-directed. The second was the sheer upheaval of uprooting myself and family from orderly Singapore to here in Istanbul – a process which is still ongoing as evidenced by the fact that all of our audio-visual entertainment sets are currently perched on units comprising of (mostly) empty cardboard boxes supplied by the removal company.

The third and biggest impediment to my contributions though has been an identity crisis – I am not exactly sure what I am now. In the good old days I was a British citizen working in Singapore on a work permit. Simple, done and dusted, home and hosed. Granted I did make things a little bit more complicated by marrying a Singaporean and going PR but the answer to the question “where are you from originally?”

[sundaymorningstaple]

Hope it twernt me you are wizzed at!

Anyway, welcome back. We've missed you AND your posts!

Hope you are settling in okay although it sound like you might be decorating in a style that we used to call "early orange crate". Maybe in your case we might have to update it somewhat to "recent date crate"?

[Plavt]

Welcome back Rich D was wondering what happened to you. Hope I didn't do something to upset you either.

[Rich D]

No, it wasn't either of you two but I am not going to narrow it down any further.

To be honest the last few months have been pretty difficult professionally and personally - it's been a lot harder than settling down in Singapore and there was a time a couple of weeks ago that I seriously considered packing it all in and going home (wherever that is!!!)

When you are at the orientation evening of the school which purports to teach in English and where you are about to send your 3 and 5 year old kids but all the registration forms are in Turkish, the importance of where to get your favourite bum fodder tends to diminish exponentially.

The Turkish people have all been wonderful - I have never come across such sociable people, it is just a shame that I can't really converse with a lot of them but I hope to put that right in the coming months.

I am some way from producing a definitive origin of Turkish street names but the name of 1 chain of white goods retailers did intrigue me. They are called "Arcelik" from where we got a beautiful fridge/freezer with the brand name plastered across the door. Took me a little while to get my appetite for chocolate ice cream back at home after we bought it though.

[Murat - if you are reading this I know it is a "c" with a cedilla pronounced Archalik but these yabanci will never find out!]

[ozchick]

Well Rich D
An interesting little read I've just had ! You write well ! I'll be checking this site for new amusing anecdotes from life in Turkey by the British/Sing/....world nomad ! And no more fibs about your rude brand-names that just sounded a 'little' like some other word we know ! Methinks you may be prone to embellishing !

[sundaymorningstaple]

ozchick,

just do a search with his nick, you'll spend a whole evening laughing your butt orff!

sms

[Rich D]

\British/Sing/....world nomad ! And no more fibs about your rude brand-names that just sounded a 'little' like some other word we know ! Methinks you may be prone to embellishing !

Fibs? Heaven forbid! You'll be casting doubts on my road name origins next but they must be right - after all they can be found on the internet!

Not much of a nomad to be honest, only here and Singapore but found enough to write some nonsense about. My wife came back from Carrefour yesterday with some packets of chicken marked 'pilic but'. Pilic is chicken and fortunately 'but' has a different meaning to its English homonym.

[ozchick]

Yeah there's nothing like the amusing 'words' and language confusion we see in other places and I'm not sure that I can beat 'chicken bums'.
But at my condo where I'm renting an apartment, a sign on a wall next to the communal swimming-pool reads "Those using this pool do so entirely at owner's own risk"
Very generous of them I reckon !