Jihad Tomatoes

Yes JF and I are so excited. Right now we've named him/her Pepin, which means seed or bean in French ;p Pepin la Boule.

But I have to confess my mind is not at ease at all.
I try to find positive things, but it feels like every fibre and molecule of my being is rebelling against this place.
If I took a snapshot of my mind, it would probably look like Edvard Munch's goulish painting.
Yes...SCRREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

It doesn't help that people seem to be out to scam us all the time.

From the real estate agent who when asked basic questions like "What are the monthly maintence fees for the flat?" replies, "It's not my job, Don't ask me." And then harasses us to sign a blank lease without any fittings or fixures listed. (BTW over here WE are the ones paying the 12% commission and NOT the property owner. In spite of this fact, he doesn't give 2 shits about finding out basic info for us.) WTF!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?

To the fish place that tried to charge us 80YTL (about SGD$92) for ONE miserable 1kg fish when we agreed on 50 YTL before ordering, paid a 20YTL deposit ONE DAY IN ADVANCE AND waited 1 hour 30 minutes for.

Tell me, how not to get pissed off and depressed?

Recently I met a Singaporean Malay lady who has been living here for 17 years. (She married then divorced a Turk) She's the ONLY Singaporean I know of here so far. She told me that most ppl here, especially landlords don't give a shit about the tenant, they just want to "take your money, and trample on you."

Water and electricity cuts are looming everyday. When they first came into effect in the capital, Ankara 2 weeks ago, the mayor publicly announced that "people should go on a holiday to save water." All the local papers were outraged by this comment especially when they discovered that this mayor was told THREE YEARS AGO of the looming water shortage but did nothing about it.

The upcoming presidential election is also big news here. The ruling party have chosen and backed Abdullah Gul, the guy who announced his candidacy in April which then resulted in mass demonstrations by the Turks and worldwide press coverage. He withdrew his candidacy back then after much pressure, but now he's back in the sadle and announced that he won't back down. The millitary here is strongly secularist and wary of him because he is seen as an Islamist. Hmmm.....I doubt a coup here will be as peaceful & fun as they are in Thailand, with people selling spring rolls and cold drinks to demonstraters and handing flowers to soldiers.

Lately, about twice a day I've been hearing this truck pass by with a loud hailer, some angry-sounding guy shouting away, calling for jihad for all I know. (Maybe it's just the language that sounds angry.) So I look out the window, and turns out he's selling potatoes and tomatoes by the truck load. Wow. The karang guni man's comical beeping horn sounds so much friendlier in comparison and doesn't make me fear for my life. It seems like funny misconception, but just adds to make me feel distrubed living here.