It is my pleasure to write to you once again and I hope this topic will keep you as interested as before -if not even more.
So today I had an off day from work and I thought for a long time what shall I do since all of my friends were either out of town or quite busy. So I thought...lets go back to our roots. I got dressed up with a long skirt and a cute shirt, I stayed loyal to my style but I changed it to match the locals dressing style: a bit more covered.
I think I might be one of the blessed girls in town, for many reasons. But lets start with the most simplest one; where do I live. I currently live with my aunt and their house is located in the oldest place of Erbil, its literally so old that even the house we stay has an open roof. I can walk from my room to the kitchen while enjoying the fresh air and looking at the stars right above me. Beautiful huh?
Tho what bothers me is the lens of my camera or any camera for that matter because not a single camera can capture the real picture I want to share. My eyes see everything in a different way that sometimes I feel like I'm high because everything I see is just so damn beautiful! Or maybe its the way I see life, I just think life is beautiful from every view we look at it.
The picture above is taken from our street. Sorry for the bad quality, but I couldn't stay and take perfect pictures because the people already wonder what am I doing and some of them might even get offended, so from now on most of the pictures has been taken pretty quickly. Nevertheless I want to show you all what I did today. This place right here is called Kuran and it has a Bazaar that is so big that it would need more than three days to actually go through each shop. And I live right next to it. Imagine "a shopping mall" next to you, like 2min walk.
I left home with a budget of 100 000 Iraqi Dinars, which is around 70 euros and I wanted to see what can I get with this amount. Let me show you how the place looks like.
I know to some this place might look creepy and a bit weird, but let me tell you: THEY HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED. From a piece of gum to gold, from socks to shoes, from t-shrits to prom dresses... Literally everything. So a shopaholic may find this place like a piece of heaven. But you have to keep in mind that going to a place like this requires you to have an open mind and a sense of understanding the Kurdish Culture. For example, you cannot go there with a miniskirt or dressed up too pretty. You need to go to the same level with the locals. You have to act like one of them, that is the first requirement.
So me and my cousins went to a journey of "A day in their shoes". I wanted to see what can I get from this place, and of course what can I eat. So when I stepped into the Bazaar, first thing that I noticed was how everyone was staring at me. It wasn't because my clothes were "too much" it was because I was a girl with a style of the 60's. Now these people think Im actually behind, and they are ahead of me just because they are wearing jeans and Im wearing a skirt that covers 3/4 of my legs. See, back in the time girls here weren't allowed to even wear jeans, but then a revolution happened and everyone is wearing jeans and when they see me only wearing skirts they somehow think my parents are forcing me to wear skirts and I cannot wear jeans.. Each time I hear this I laugh a bit inside and I answer with a smile and I continue by saying "Not at all, this is my own style. No jeans, only skirts and dresses". Their face turn upside down and they look at me like I am a weirdo.. Anyways, don't wanna go off topic.
I wanted to see, can I buy anything that I can actually wear. So after going through some shops I found three gorgeous shirts that can be worn with skirts. Just gorgeous ones, take a look!
Look at these shirts? Can you believe I bought this in Kurans Bazaar? I couldn't believe it either, and it cost me all together around 55 euros. If had bought these in any Mall around here, I would'v needed at least 200 euros. Lesson learned: the eye can fool a lot.
It's not always about going to fancy places and spending all of your money in expensive things. You can have a low budget and still look like a superstar. Awesome huh? Yah, I definitely agree on that since that has been my personal motto for so damn long.
After some shopping, we got hungry and wanted to get something sweet. LOOK AT THESE!
Guys these were so good that I actually bought 1 KG of it, its called Baqlawa and its just the sweetest thing one can have.. I'll get so fat if I continue eating them but I cannot stop. This cost me only 6 000 IQD, which is less than 5 euros. IMAGINE!
So after eating these.. we got more hungry Hhahaha... So next stop was local sandwiches with cold coke!
How much? Less than 1 EURO! And it was sooooooo DELICOUS! Could've eaten more but naaahh it would have been too much hahha. But it was amazing!
So after our little journey was over, I grabbed some fruits with me and took them home. I have no idea what is it called but its really delicious. Have a look!
I also forgot to mention, before we went to the Bazaar my aunt was doing "Nan", kurdish bread. It was interesting to see how they do it, because honestly I could never. See for yourself.
BUT I would love to learn, since I am here to explore new things anyways. The best part of living in Kurdistan is the possibility to learn new things every minute of my staying here. Whats better than that? Our mind is taking new things every day no matter what.
After everything, I sat down on the floor, put Wi-Fi on and started to think of my current blog and here I am writing it. In many ways this day was amazing because I saw and experienced things you just have to do before you die.. Not to mention, it cost me less than 70 euros since I didn't even spend it all and if I hadn't bought the clothes, I could've managed with less than 10 euros. Now thats something worth mentioning because people keep telling me Kurdistan is expensive and Im like no its not. Here is the prove!
What can we learn from all of this? Seeing and feeling different ways of living may teach you more than you think, most of all you will learn how to be humble, how to appreciate what you have and how to learn to treat others as equals! I didn't learn all this in one day, I learned all this long time ago but that's another topic already.
With Much Love,
Taj
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