Life is about choices

Each day we get choices to make. We choose to wake up or get out of bed. We choose to go to school/work. And most importantly we choose how we react and respond to things that happen to us. Simply put, I can choose how I respond to the challenges that each day presents me. To be honest I don't think my choices here have been very good so far. I seem to have been choosing to look at the negative all the time. I fear this is a personality trait of mine. I'm a perpetual pessimist. Sometimes I am just being realistic, but other times I am failing to see the positives in a situation.

So here I have been focussing on my dislike for studies. How hard it is to motivate myself. How useless I feel. And it occurs to me this is only a downward spiral. It can only lead to me becoming depressed. Instead I need to look at the positives. School offers me an opportunity to meet and make friends with some really interesting people. I don't have the extra stress of a job. I can relax and just learn Turkish. It's gonna take about 2 years anyway!

So the major thought... We can't always choose our situation, but we can always choose how we respond to it.

Too fast, too cold

Wow, I can't believe a week has flown by since I was last on here. It's really ridiculous how fast time is passing. Hello! Christmas in 1 month (+ a few days...) Where does the time go? I guess we all just get busy with stuff and when next you look, *poof*, you're in retirement!

This morning I woke up to a beautiful day. It was raining on the weekend, but today the sun was shining and the sky was a beautiful blue! The I walked outside and my earlobes froze! Looks can be deceiving. It's been absolutely freezing today, all day! It's a good thing I don't mind the cold. Our house isn't heated and to save on costs we don't really have heaters running. Unless we have guests, then the heaters are out. As it gets colder we just keep adding layers.

Hopefully my bought of depression is over and done with now, and I can get on with learning Turkish. My mind has been working really hard to figure out what the problem is. I guess I just have to decide to accept my current situation and make the best of it. Instead of crying about it.

Difficult time

I'm having a bit of a difficult time at the moment. Thus the lack of real posts the last few weeks. I'm really struggling with motivation, has can be guessed. The apparent futility of the university classes and the difficulty with grasping the language. I'm also missing everyone back home. I don't really have people here I can be social with yet. I really miss being able to call people and go out on Friday or Saturday evenings. I just haven't found anyone I'm confortable with yet.

I was also a bit sick this last week. I don't know whether it was a real bug or something in my head. You know, hypochondriac style. A way to avoid class....

Somebody once told me this happens after about 2 months. A real bad patch of loneliness and home-sickness. I'll see how long it takes to get over it.

Motivation

Well, today I had little motivation to go to university. So I didn't! I'm struggling with motivation as I was never really the student type. So this studying business is a real test. Add to that the fact that we have the rest of the week holiday, because of the end of the holy week, and you can see how my motivation could be low. But I did do some constructive shopping, preparing for winter, so not all is lost. It's getting pretty chilly here now. No rain yet though...

My ADSL application is done. Should be connected in about 10 days. I can't wait! This dialup is sooooooooo sloooooooow! And costly too!

The earth continues to move. We've had over 2000 tremors in the last 2 weeks. It really does make you feel seasick. And just when things got a bit quieter we had another big jolt yesterday. It still has the "experts" guessing.