The Unexpected Guests (The Gambler and the Whores Part 2)

    I was going to write the second part not soon after finishing the first part but i had no motivation to do so. I wrote the intro long ago and after such a long time, feeling like writing and completing the part makes me feel like the words in intro were not my words, as if i changed a lot. I don't feel like i changed though. I am writing these words miles away from where i started to tell the story of the Gambler. When i started it, not many things were going on in my life. I stated that I am just lazy person in the previous intro. But I am not. I am wrong. It is true that I am often unmotivated. I also stated that I am writing this for the record. To some extent, it is true but there is more to that.. I also write about this incident to practise and taking a step for a new challenge in my life which i think that will keep me occupied in the coming years. Now I don't remember the chronology of what happened but i have the voice records which will help me tell this story in a better order and credible way.

    The check-in and stay of that family was a bit different than ordinary times but their check-out was as normal as any guests. I don't remember anything particular about their leaving. All the guests are allowed to check out until 12pm which is more than any other hotel. And they are served a huge breakfasts. People, who return, return for the late check-outs and breakfasts. Breakfast is nothing special. You can eat it once, twice but not three times. Same breakfast for the third time is just too much. It starts to seem not so huge. But about this family who showed up out of blue did not give me the feeling about their return. Because they were living in the same city actually. in a town only one hour away which is also located on beautiful coast which is rich in terms of virgin beaches.

   It was just any other day at the hotel where i was probably trying to pass the time with preparing the menu for the hotel, trying to lower boredom to minimum since the hotel was not even half full but not totally empty either. A co-worker approached and said me:

 ''Look, some people have come and they are using the pool. They are not staying at the hotel.'' 

I reacted this notification with a surprise  ''What a nonsense.'' 

I went to the stairs near the pool and greeted them behind the iron bars of the stairs. There were 6 people and among them i recognized one of the men. The Gambler... Even though he stayed before at the hotel, a proper visit needs a greeting and a request for using the pool. one can not use the pool without accomodating at the hotel. I told this to the Gambler.

''We are going to order food and drinks'' he replied. 

He has a look of a man that is not so auspicious. his two other male companies do not have a better look as well. I did not look at the other people. there are 3 women in Bikinis and you never know what kind of reaction you might receive from men with such look in not so free countries. That's why i avoided looking at them. Especially their women... I made a quick decision. I remembered that this man's family paid cash in the previous time and they are 6 people. My decision included a calculation that they were already going to spend an amount of money that they would pay for renting one room. So it was not much of a problem. I told them that they can use the pool in this case but right at that moment, a question arose from one of the women with a little bit of ironic yet sweet tone.she was right under the stairs. 

''Can we use the bathroom without check-in?'' 

I looked down directly at her face and replied ''Yes.'' 

                                                                                                TO BE CONTINUED...

My Trip to Spain Got Delayed

    I have a supersitition. When i am going to do something that is very crucial for me or can make a great impact on my life, I never tell anyone until i finalize it. I don't tell my friends. I feel like it won't happen somehow if i tell them before make it come true.  And also I believe I am not the only one who has this supersition.  I even didn't tell it to my family at first and waited for a few days to tell them when i got accepted for a project in Spain. I got accepted in December. 

    For a great deal of time, I have been waiting and the arrival date keeps changing. First I thought I would arrive in February then just before i had my visa interview, it was arranged to March. 15th of March to be exact... that's when the program starts for me. Everybody knows how hard it is to wait under the current circumstances.Trying to be patient, I waited and waitied and counted days for this date. I wrote a mail to the organization and i got no reply. But a friend from there called me and i thought it was okay. 10 days before the date, I bought my ticket excitedly and then i thought i am good to go!  Then i started to tell my friends that i would leave soon and won't be able to say goodbye to them. And 5 days before the mail I got a mail that i am supposed to wait until the same day next month due to some arrangements that must be done. So I was disappointed...  They asked me if i can change my flight date and it was flexible, i said yes. But to change it, the airline system charge a good amount of money.And On my new arrival date, there are a looot cheaper flights then my flight. Half price...

     a picture from a small Spanish town where i actually had to spend quarentine after getting covid

                 

    So I had to do something since the cost of my flight would bother me if i got on the plane with that ticket. I bought that  because only that company had flights on 15th of March from Ankara. But luckily i have a friend who works for the help desk of that airline and deals with problems of the passengers.  So he gave me some tips about what to do to get refund. that i should give some proofs about corona restrictions and stuff. And i got my refund submission accepted and would be  getting my money back.

    However, even though they accepted my submission,they were taking their time to resolve the case. what's worse is  they hadn't canceled my ticket yet. My friend told me that there are a few related firms that do the customer service and they don't work properly and he also wants to quit. Anyway, I called maybe 3 times at least  and talked to them about the refund and that they should do it before the flight and before it was reflected to my credit card monthly statement which is also on the flight date.  5 hours  before my flight, which was at 9:50, when i was in bed, wallowing and couldn't sleep, I remembered to check my flight ticket. And it was still active. if i cancel myself from the airline's website myself, i will not get my money. and I didn't wanna seen with ''no show'' status which also will cause a problem. So what i did  was to call the airline customer service.

    So i called and was so sleepy that i could not talk very vivaciously and my voice was kind of cracking. you know how it sounds. I did the talk in such a bad mood. While talking, i said something like ''due to corona, I won't be able to fly bla bla'' even though i didn't intend to manipulate her or make demagogy.  the girl in the customer service  directly canceled my ticket after making me hang on a bit long time on the call. My case was resolved that day.  and while she was hanging up she told me ''by the way, hope you get well soon'' in a very sad tone. she felt sad for me and thought i had corona.

    Today I have gotten my refund and I feel good about it since i will be able to buy a flight that is half price. Now all i have to do is have  patience and stay strong till my new date. So this was a little story about my flight ticket experience and a superstition's coming true. I think i will keep believing in it. Hope you enjoy reading!

My first Youtube video

 In the last few months, I have been learning on how to edit videos on Adobe Premiere Pro and Imovie. I made this video on Imovie on my old friend Ipad mini2. I can't update the latest version of it since it doesn't support the newest updates. I had fun editting and saw what i can do with camera and editting. Enjoy my mini recipe video.

The Gambler and the Whores

     The pandemic killed all the tourism business maybe everywhere in the  world. Maybe some places kept attracting tourists like they did in the past but it did damaged  the business where i worked. People did not prefer to stay at the hotels or eat at the restaurants. They tended to rent houses, apartments to avoid interaction with other people at the hotels. I heard even there were people who rented the whole of boutique hotels. And the people who stayed, acted with extra care and sometimes they did weird things. We as employees, witnessed behaviours without reasons. But even unlogical manners make sense during the pandemic. They have right to do act unlogical.

 We had to open the hotel late and close early during the season. June and July  we were desparate for the guests, customers. We rarely had check-ins. Last year July was full whole month and June was alright. The story that i am gonna tell happened in June. Right after the virus went viral and so did the restrictions became common. We were barely getting reservations and  checked in only a few guests and this family showed up suddenly and wanted to spent a room. They were two adults, one teenager girl and two little boys. I presented them the family room which is the combination of two rooms and has a transition door in it. The room is pretty alright and has a sea view. They liked the room instantly especially the kids. I don't remember the names of them but one of them told me that he liked the hotel so much. And I even charged them 50 liras more than the actual price. I don't know why i did but i just felt like doing so. I wanted the hotel to earn more money. And they paid by cash without negotiating. This is also weird because most of people try to negotiate even if they are rich. I always find this derogatory. Some say that this is why they are rich. Once a woman negotiated with me and i did not let her win but then she wanted a very small discount only for psychologic advantage. Then i gave 10 liras discount to her.

Pandemic style beach which is parted into small areas for around maximum 4 people

    When I was checking them in, they didn't have the kids' id cards with them. So i asked them if they could write it on a paper. Because they need to be entered in police system in case someone who stays at the hotel is a criminal. When you write the identity number on the system, you can see everything that is on the card. The daughter wrote her and one of the boys' number and the other boy's id number was missing. I didn't make it a problem. What first got my attention is that the woman was Georgian. You can tell it from her last name and actually had a pretty beautiful face on her id but in reality she seemed older than her age. The second thing that caught my eye is that they had different surnames. The man and woman were not married. The teenager girl and one boy had the man's surname and the other kid had a different surname but he was the Georgian woman's son. I know who is whose son/daughter because they came again and this time they had their id cards with them. I will talk about it at part  2 of this post. Anyway, I thought how nice it is that they loved each other, got together and decided to bring the kids up together to be stronger. That was really my first thought. How pure and how stupid... I did not have any doubt or theory about them. They were an ordinary family for me at the moment. After they checked in, they went up and a few hours later the woman and the daughter came down and had some beers with chips. She was 15 years old, not old enough to drink alcohol but we needed money. The boys were in the pool and they asked me if the water was chlorinated. Of course it was! I told  them not to swallow it. But one of them had already swallowed a lot. Later the woman and the daughter came to the lobby to order something to eat. I took the order and the woman said ''no problem'' when i told the prices. At the table, The youngest kid cried all the time because he had nausea due to pool water. Therefore  he couldn't eat. They paid in cash and asked and left for the closest pharmacy. The man didn't show up. He never left the room that day.

I never check the guests' social media. I just don't. Even if a super hot girl comes to accomodate, I don't look up her on instagram. It is like a personal principle.I know and saw people doing that as a first thing after check-ins.  Nosy Nellies. I started to feel that something was weird about this family. And I felt the urge to do look the man up. It wasn't hard to find him on instagram. He had pictures in a gambling hall. Not a flamboyant one but a kind of underground, very plain one. He didn't look like one who went there to play but one who owns the gambling saloon. He really looked like the owner in the pictures. He also had pictures with weird people that don't look auspcious. Kind of people that you can easily, at first glance. What he does for living seemed clear after seeing the pictures. But no one can tell how he met with that woman and where. Actually this is nobody's business anyway but i am just telling the story. Turkey used to do better in terms of economy compared to some post-Soviet countries. Many women and men from those countries came to Turkey for work and it is known that not all of them find what they had in their ideals and some do even prostitution. Once I witnessed  a woman who was from a post Soviet country and she thanked god for having a job and that she doesn't have to do prostitiution. But the thing is when you go abroad, you never know whom you are gonna meet. So it is all about luck you have. Mostly men try to abuse women who are in need of help. The world is full of abusers and the cultures are crooked,  People are crooked. But you never know sometimes. Not all prostitues are being forced for the job as well.

TO BE CONTINUED...

What Kobe Bryant Means to Me

When i think about Kobe Bryant, his name never reminds me the three pointers, lay-ups, dunks or all those awesome perfomance he had. What i remember is that i spent 8 miserable days in the United States in 2015. And i smile now when i remember those times. I spent my first 8 days in the US without anything. No shirts, No shorts, no socks, no underwears... Nothing. My luggage was sent to another airport and then to another place and then to another place... It took 8 days to reach me. Right before getting on the plane, to lighten my backpack, i transfered some stuff to my luggage. My shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrush, towel and everything was in it.  I kept only my phone's charger and hairdryer. I had some amount of money. I had a little ripped jeans on me and i went to the work with that and i was told that i couldn't wear such pants because they are considered as fashion. And also i was given a t-shirt as a uniform. So i went around and bought some stuff to wear. Also I gave half of my money for accomodation for 2 weeks and deposit. 2 days later, a friend of mine came and gave me brand new socks because he had many. I didn't know if i would ever get my luggage. I was calling the airline company's help desk every day but i was getting no help.

So I started working and in the first week i didn't get many hours. probably i worked less than 20 hours. It didn't go well because i couldn't focus. I was constantly thinking about how i would wash my socks and underwear to wear them next day. One day i went to work for night shift but I was told that i was supposed to come for the morning shift. I lost that day's earnings and every day i was spending money and also i didn't want to spend money for the things that i already had. When i didn't work, i stayed at home and killed the time with friends in the balcony. The house had got two floors. I was staying in the second floor. While staying at home once,  a bald guy called Mike showed up. He said  that he was going to Baltimore and he was selling his clothes to make gas money. He had a bag of clothes and took them all out and showed. The clothes were very ordinary. They were mostly t-shirts and shirts and they hadn't attracted me until i saw the LA Lakers jersey. It was Kobe's. A big player... I could wear the jersey everywhere and it would fit me well i thought. And my friend pushed me to buy it. He reminded me that i had nothing to wear. I asked how much the jersey is. Mike replied ''15.'' I told him that i could give 5 and he lowered the price to 10 and then again i told that i could give only 5.Then i bought it for 5 dollars.  What a bargain!  I was overjoyed. He threw the jersey to us and i dropped the 5 dollar bill to him. And he left. We were checking the jersey if it is original and it feels new and were happy happy that it is alright. Finally i was able to think of trying it on. I tried it and i was not happy anymore. It was way too big for me that it felt like a skirt. And I am a tall guy actually. I was literally lost in it. I checked the tag and saw it was an extra long one. And i have never worn it. It did not feel like a bargain anymore at that point but now it feels like something that i can keep as a memory forever. A good memory indeed...

This guy called Mike showed up again with bags in his hands a week later. In bags there were food this time. He was trying to make his way to Baltimore like the last time. I told him to come up. We sat and he poured out everything. There were many canned things and a pack of burgers. Burgers were the only food among them that attracted me. I didn't know how to cook but i could fry things. I asked how much he wanted and he said ''a couple of dollars.''  What a bargain again! What a nice guy this Mike is... the pack had 4 big burgers and i was thinking that i was doing a nice trade thanks to Mike. I ate those burgers 2 days. I didn't again look at its tag to see expiration date. But hopefully nothing happened. And i didn't mention about the jersey to him. I couldn't blame him.  And I never saw Mike after that good burger trade.

The city was full of churches. Even there were 2 or 3 that were very close to my house. During the summer, on specified days, they serve dinners, lunches for free. There was one which serves breakfast every day. One of them was giving everyone a shower kit which included towels, shampoo, soap in the first visit. It was what i really needed when i discovered that church. Thank you church people... I took it  one day before my luggage arrived. How lucky. Even for one day it made me feel a bit more safer. It made me so happy at that moment but i didn't get to use them much. The next day i got the good news and rushed for the student center. I was coming back joyfully with my luggage. Directly took the desserts that  i brought from home out and shared with people.  Back to the topic, all summer long we went to those churches to eat free food. In one way they were doing something good for the community and in other way,  they were just doing their missionary work to convert people. They were planning sometimes events, raffles.  I even won tickets for mini-golf facility once  yet i didn't have chance to use those tickets.

In the last weeks of my summer, we discovered a church which was a bit away from my place. Like 100 streets away... On Wednesdays, the church was serving lunch. Homeless people, lonely people, old people, students were going there. The food was the best among all the churches i tried. Moreover, they were not just serving food there. There was a table in the middle in the church and you could take donated clothes for free. There was one table and there were so many bags of food. The food was mostly canned food in green bags and they seemed very familiar to me in the first sight. And then i remembered. And then I got it... Damn Mike...