9.00 pm Istiklal Street, Istanbul, Turkey.
We are sitting on a table outside of a pub on Istiklak Street, one of the busiest street of Europe (since we are on the side of Istanbul that is still considered European continent). We are sipping cold beer and eating salty peanuts. Me, Javier and Katerina.
And while all the happy and quite wealthy Turks (so they are the ones hanging out in this area) passing by are getting ready to enjoy their Friday night and some of them rushing for some last-day shopping, I suddenly realized what will happen if one of them would come close to us and ask us where we are from and what we are doing here. One Italian, one Spanish and one Greek. Me, graduated from University and with an MA diploma in my hand, Javier, with a past of editor for a web newspaper in Spain, and Katerina, who is doing her Ph.D. on Ottoman history in Athens. All of us graduated, with a fair knowledge of English and some basics of Turkish at this point.
The answer would be: we don’t know what to do back home and we came here to work as teachers and enjoying the sparkling mood of this city, forgetting the decadence of ours. The Turk who would have stopped by would be really surprised. For him/her Europe is richness, tidy streets, and good businesses. Then we will have to explain that is not really like that. That there is a little bit of a crisis back home and that we cannot build our careers.
But he/she wouldn’t believe us. He/she would still think that we are rich Europeans who came here to enjoy our euros in their expensive cafes.