Acerca de alondras y ruiseñores

If you want to read the whole story, click here and read it from bottom to top (Part 1, Part 2, Final Part). They are planning to have lunch. As for me, I have nothing in my pocket. The transfer to the airport was paid in advance, and I have only one hundred U.S. dollars, which I have not changed, and not a single Turkish lira. I tell them I have already had something to eat; I am not hungry. It is not completely true, but I'd rather wait a couple of hours for the tray on the airplane. Just around the corner from the hotel, as it is summer in Istanbul , a small bar with its tables displayed on a pedestrian street shows its daily specials on signs hand-written in chalk. My friends order exotic soups served in clay pots which come along with a basket full of pieces of bread, so many that four people could barely finish off. I shyly take one and satisfy my urge. In my backpack I carry a bottle of water. I do not need anything else. So we started a conversation about many things, ...

If interested in Part 1, click here . I pulled out a handkerchief to blow my nose. "Flu?" she asked me, her English accent being peculiar. "No”, I decided not to lie, "I’ve been crying.” Her gesture was equivalent to a question mark, mouth half open, an eyebrow barely raised, inviting me to keep on talking. "My mother-in-law died during the conference; I loved her; I knew of her death in the middle of the conference but have not been able to internalize it. I was just worried about the fact that my husband was alone with our children when this happened". Her expression of intrigued interest softened into a look of tenderness. "My mother also died two months ago", she said; "How many children do you have?” I told her about Emiliano and Leandro, fifteen and nine years of age respectively, and her expression turned into surprise. She said: "Your face is very sweet, like the one of a newly wedded wife, or even a single woman; I would hav...

(Mis amigos de habla española: no me hago la sofisticada... es que hay gente que no entiende español y me lo pidió! No me censuren!) My bags are ready; I have just handed them at the reception for safekeeping until my final departure, and I'm in the lounge beside the entrance door facing Abdulhakhamit street , which appears quite tranquil for what the rest of Istanbul is like at noon. I realize that this is the time that I have been waiting for since I heard that my University had financed the trip to this conference in Turkey : my return. I generally do not like travelling, I do not like leaving the children outside the aegis of my control, I dislike to overwhelm my husband with long lists of activities and recommendations. But this time it was a little worse. Not only because I'd never made a trip to such a distant place, but because my mother-in-law died in the middle of my stay. I still remember the shock the word provoked in me -"died"- when I read the emai...