The Beauty of The Pursuit of Happyness

I would like to start with one of my favorite movies called "The Pursuit of Happyness", which I watched last night again, and felt exactly the same excitement that I had had at the first time.

I love this movie because it is natural and filtered from artificial emotions and fake characters. It is what it is and it is exactly the life itself with all of its beauties, but mixed with the disastrous side of it. When I finished the movie, which I did not even realize how long it was because it sucked me in, I felt not only how heavy on our shoulders living in this life and staying on your feet with your principals might be, but also, life is a one-time-opportunity and the important thing is how you pursue your life and how you reach your goals under which conditions. If you are looking for the answers of such questions, you will definitely find some answers in this movie.

Also, some might ask themselves why the happyness is spelled with a "y" instead of "i". To be honest I did not know the answer first, but when I searched I realized that it is a special request from the owner of the story, Chris Gardner, who has given this explanation: ""There was a place once in Oakland [Ca] near the MacArthur Park station that became very, very, very important to my son and I at the most challenging stage of our journey, and they spelled happiness with a 'y' and that's why it's spelled that way... It's personal [the spelling]. It's definitely personal."

I always thing of what Einstein has said once: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving” This movie explains this quote much better than anything does, so I recommend you to get back home after work and spend your night watching this movie. You would not regret what you have done when the movie is over.

Thank you for your interest.

Habitat for Humanity Trip down to New Orleans and St. Louis Bay Area

Habitat for Humanity is a well-known organization in the USA which serves for the society. Unfortunately, it is not popular all over the world as much as it is in the USA even though the organization works hard on it. Actually, they have a really good number of bases all over the world and volunteers. Fortunately, I took a part in this process in Spring Break 2009 (March) with beautiful people in such an exemplary environment. We went down St. Louis Bay to help people who have got damage from 2005 Katrina and built 2 almost completed houses for a teacher who has a little daughter who is one of the sweetest I have ever seen.

Firstly, I should confess that it was one of the greatest experience I had ever had and definitely I will do it again. 5 Students and one faculty from Western Kentucky University took off early in the morning for our long (10 hour driving) trip in a van. Of course there is no need to tell you that it was such a great trip. We got to know each other more and the more we learned, the more we got excited about learning about each other. When we arrived in new Orleans, we could not figure out how fast the time had passed. Actually, we were supposed to be working in St. Louis, but we just wanted to get the chance and see New Orleans which is one of the most beautiful cities in the US and which looks completely like a European city. Almost 200 years ago, Spanish people were settled there, but then the French owned it and lived there until the US bought the city, but when you are taking a walk in the city, you can still see the Spanish and French effect easily and clearly. It was exciting for me not only because of the nice and warm weather, and friendly people, but also because of Jazz music that was started in New Orleans by African American society. Even thought Katrina has made a lot of damage to the city, it is still keeping its beauty with those living there and most importantly with the music playing all around you and surrounding you as a warm blanket.


We arrived in New Orleans late at the night and were starving to death. As you can expect, we did not want to waste time and jumped in the middle of Bourbon Street that is the most popular street in New Orleans. We found a restaurant which served mostly sea food but really good one:) I tried Alligator meat and Turtle soup the first time in my life. It was scary at first, but after first chew, I realized how delicious both of them were and I could not stop myself eating and trying something new more and more, even Horse Reddish, which is like a meal that you can only find in the hell because it is too spicy. My friends preferred teasing me and they did not say anything about how bad it was and let me try a big spoon of Horse Reddish. I will never forget that day and especially the pain that I had after the first spoon. I am warning those who do not know anything about Horse Reddish. It is like a strong weapon. Please do not try it :) After eating something, we headed back to Bourbon Street and found an open jazz bar and got our drinks. It was like a decorated garden for tourists, so you can sit around the jazz musicians and listen to them really close. I felt like that I was in a dream because they were really good at playing by ear and improvising the music. Of course, it was not enough for me, so I had to find another jazz bar and I did it:) It was an old bar which had a small stage, a quite large bar and a lot of small tables. For short, it was such a jazz atmosphere that has popped up form 1920s. We spent pretty good time over there, and of course Irish Coffee that I had that night helped me a lot enjoy my time:)

On Sunday, it was time to leave this beautiful city for St. Louis Bay. We took a short city tour and checked some famous parts of it, had our Italian style delicious ice-cream, and headed to the place where we were going to stay at and work with other volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. New Orleans and Bay Area are really close to each other, so it did not take a long time and we arrived there early in the afternoon. We unpacked and relaxed the rest of the day. Let me tell you something my friends!!! Definitely, we needed that rest after a crazy night in New Orleans:)

On Monday we got up early in the morning, had our first breakfast at that place, packed our lunch and headed to the construction field where we were supposed to work. When we arrived there, we realized that we were not the only volunteers:) Fortunately, there were a lot, some of them were from American Corps, but most of them were from different states and collages. I made a lot of good friends over there, but especially we, my team friends from WKU and I, made our friendship stronger. I think we shared something important and precious for all of us and we are still keeping that special feeling alive. Habitat for Humanity usually builds several kinds of houses and they have the styles, so it is really easy for them to set them up, but we had to figure out what and how they were doing that, and it did not take a long time for us. For 5 days we worked hard without stopping. I was admired the cooperation and the ambition of all of the volunteers. I wish every job could be done with the same excitement. Friends, I am definitely challenging you to do something like that even just for one week. I am 100% sure that you are going to experience something great and something that can not be explained, but can be feelt. If you click this link, it will lead you to the official website of Habitat for Humanity and you can learn more about it. Also, you can reach all of the pictures taken by a professional photographer working for the organization and share them with your friends.

I have uploaded the pictures that I took on the work side in St. Louis and in New Oleans, so I would like you to take a look at this link.

Have a great life friends and I hope you can experience this great feeling at least once in your lives. It is the feeling of helping people and realizing that you are something and that you can not change the whole world once, but at least you can try and you can take one more step in changing the world in a better way.

Thank you for checking my blog.
So long.

Having a heart-to-heart talk with one of my American Professors

(I would like to post a small part of a discussion being done by one of my Professors and me. Actually, we have been emailing each other about the problems that countries usually struggle and trying to share our cultural acknowledge for a couple weeks. I think the most interesting part of this discussion is the one which is about Terrorist attacks and Islam understanding. I hope you will enjoy reading it. I would not give my professor's name, so you will see his name crossed out.)


Professor,

Tomorrow is a beginning of a holly day in Islam. We call this day Ramadan Festival which lasts one-month-period. People usually try to understand poor and homeless people's situation, so they do not eat or drink anything for a certain period of time in a day. I know it sounds interesting and different, but it is a great and beneficial habit and tradition for humankind. This is one side of the subject that I would like to share with you.

Professor, Turkey is a big and strong country not only with its spectacular beauties and values coming from its past, but also with its young population, its strategic situation, and its natural resources. Also, honestly, I can say that I am so proud of being a Turkish student studying in the US, and of having a long and rooted historical background. However, Professor, as you know, in today's world anti-islamist understanding is gaining power, and in this complex and sometimes crucial radicalism, innocent people who strongly believe in God and Humanism are being damaged emotionally and sometimes physically. Turkish Government is secular: Religious and politics are completely separated from each other, but some radical groups have been trying to push people into a big trap for a long time. What they are trying to do is to use innocent people's emotions and to force people to be a religious person by using God's name. In a secular government, everybody has the right to believe in whichever and whatever they want, but they do not want to admit it, so they are always active on this mission. Unfortunately, our president and his party have the same mentality, and I do not trust them. But professor what I'm absolutely sure and what I know is that we, as educated or uneducated youth of Turkey, will not let them make our democracy powerless and will not let them be a strong power that can set up an agony over people's believes or ideas.

Whatever happens in my country, I know that we have strong relations with our past and our founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and we will follow his way as long as we take breath.

Professor, this email might sound a little bit different, but I just wanted to share some problems happening in my country, and I hope you will be interested in that.

Tomorrow is Labor day and one more free day for everybody. I hope you will have a calm and peaceful day professor.

See you in the class on Tuesday.



Yasar,

Thank you so much for such a nice and very informative post. I am interested in the Islamic religion and way of life. This is the beginning of a holy day in Islam, but I really don't know very much about it.

Yasar, I must be very honest with you and tell you that many leaders around the world and many people are extremely frightened of the Islamic extremists. The huge problem we face is that we cannot tell who is an Islamic extremist and who is not. I have several friends who are Islamic, and I love and respect them very much, and they, too, are frightened of the Islamic extremists. My friends tell me that those Islamic extremists do not accurately represent the religion of Islam or their individual views. It shocks me that any religion would condone strapping suicide belts on innocent children, women, and mentally retarded men and women and then, blowing them up using remote controls when they get on buses or in populated market places. Yasar, that is wrong for anyone to do and to think it is done in the name of Islam is deplorable beyond words. I do not understand why peace-loving people of Islam don't speak out and condemn such behaviors and rise up and revolt against it. Why?

On a very different subject, I pray that you do well on your GMAT exam. I am sure you will make your family very proud and be an important asset to your beautiful country of Turkey.

Turkey is located in a very strategic part of the world. It is poised to play an important role in world politics. I suspect, however, that the image of the United States has been damaged over the last several years because of the poor leadership we have had governing our country. No matter which party wins the election coming up here in November in our country, our relationship with most of the other countries around the globe will greatly improve, including with your country of Turkey.

I enjoyed reading your post, and cordially invite you to write more and tell more about your country and your views toward the topics I have posed in this post.

Dr. ----



Professor ----------,

Firstly, thank you so much for your prompt answer. It is a great pleasure to share daily events and realities with you.

Professor, I always believed in Humanism which is a smooth and soft understanding based on love and respect to each other. In today's world which has endless problems among people and also countries, the only solution to this crucial situation is to respect each other and show your love by taking care of everybody even thought they are not good people. So, humanism is the only philosophy that I strongly support and think about. Professor, I want to say that first, Islamic understanding is totally related to Humanism. It says just love each other. Whatever happens to you, good or bad, fair or unfair, just continue to live in such an honest way and love others with their true or false attitudes. By the way, this does not mean that you must not do anything against something bad threatening you. We must protect ourselves as countries or as individuals, but professor, as I told you before, we must not harm others' believes and misinterpret their believes to the world. I'm so sad about what happened on 9/11 in the USA; I'm so sad about what happened 5 years ago, the big explosion which was a terrorist attack happening in Istanbul, Turkey. Moreover, It was one of the biggest explosions that Turkish people experienced in Istanbul, and a lot of people died. Also, I was taking a Math test at my university, and I heard the explosion as if it was next to us. It was scaring even though it was so far from us. What I'm trying to say is that they are not Muslims; they are not Christians;
They are not Jewish people. Therefore, Professor, I believe that terrorists do not have a religion and innocent believes. They are just brainwashed puppets, as Americans call, losers. I think they will not stop their terrifying attacks all over the world and I hope governments could come together to solve this second biggest problem coming after environmental problems. Professor, our government and our people showed their angers to these stupid terrorists and their damn mentality. For example, maybe Turkey is the best example as a victim suffering from terrorist attacks. Turkey is a big country, but in the south-eastern part of Turkey there has been some attacks which have caused the death of lots of innocent people. So, I know the importance of the situation.

Again Professor, I would like to underline that Islam understanding is not bad;in fact, the bad thing is those killers.

Have a good night and see you in tomorrow's class.

Introduction to My First Blog (longrunlife)

Hey folks,

I'm Yasar Tekin, an international graduate student majoring Business Administration in the U.S. Since I set foot in America, I have been thinking about creating a blog page that I can share my feelings and ideas related to not only Economics, Business, Politics, Religion, but also other things happening in such an incessant way in our daily lives.

Actually, I intend to reflect my thoughts over this blog page as fast as I can, and I will be looking forward to your comments and sharings.

Thank you for visiting my blog page Fellows.