Araz Gholami

With the holidays and leave over, yesterday I packed up my heavy suitcase (I mean it) to head back to Ankara. Back? Or go? It felt strange not feeling any sadness when leaving Tabriz. Even stranger was the “home sweet home” feeling when arriving in Ankara. For now, I’ll just leave this here to remember what happened and reflect on it later. Feels like I’m actually becoming a citizen of the planet.

This time I wasn’t alone. Sasan accepted my suggestion to set sail and came along. Together we went to the airport and, in the most tragic way possible (Really, I mean it), crossed the passport gate. The baggage officer overlooked our 10 kg overweight, and after waiting an hour and a half in the transit hall and meeting Younes Jaele, we boarded the plane.

I finally managed to buy my ideal laptop (after the late MacBook, of course) in Iran for $1200, which put my mind at ease about freelancing. The Asus Zenbook UX430. I didn’t buy it in Turkey for two reasons: the $1500 lira price difference (thanks to higher taxes in Turkey) and the European-layout keyboards on laptops in Turkey, which is basically torture for someone who’s worked with the US standard keyboard all his life.

We landed at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport at 5 AM Turkish time, and after a 7-hour wait in a café near the terminal, we caught the bus back/to Ankara. The heavy load and broken suitcase wheels wrecked me and left my hands bruised. The next struggle was that it was already morning and I had to show up at the office with no other choice. I’d preferred to stay with my family as long as I could and not return too early.

The Kindle I’d ordered before the trip didn’t arrive, and I just hope I can find someone to bring it over for me.