Many foreigners, who live here permanently, often complain that there are no activities in wintertime, and that they are tired of the permanent vacation. It takes a while to get bored from daily sunbathing and walks along the seashore. When the entire coastline is walked for miles around, you are satisfied with your suntan, all the see sights are examined and the pictures of them are taken from all the possible angles, you get really bored and start to think, “What do I do now?” That life in a paradise with sea and sun is not as attractive as it seemed before and turns into a routine; you start to miss your job, family and friends back home. Or keep on waiting for them to visit you in summer, when you take them out to show local see sights and have fun, trying to see everything through their eyes.
Sometimes, local foreigners Associations organize various events and dinners for their members, but it does not happen too often. So, what can we do to entertain ourselves and break the monotony of our lives?
As they say, “If you don’t do it, nobody will do it for you”. If you miss extra activities, you can to organize them yourselves. This simple idea did not occur to me until my friends invited me to their regular meetings at one cafe in Mahmutlar, where they meet up once a week to paint the wooden jewel boxes, which are sold in several stationery shops in Alanya. I am no artist, but I accepted their offer for the simple pleasure of communicating and meeting new people. I even bought a box and picked up some acrylic paints. So, here we are sitting at the café, turned into our workshop for a while, drinking tea and doing own business: some of us, like me, is painting the wooden caskets, someone is making beads jewelry, someone is painting the glass bottles, all of us chatting along peacefully. The other visitors of the café are watching us with interest and ask questions.
Several meetings later – and voila! – my jewel box is ready! You can hardly call it a piece of art, but it is made by me, and my son is proud that he has helped me with it. And I have some other projects such as the box for the tea bags and a workbox for storing scissors, needle and stuff like this. Still, on our meetings, one can even do nothing, just chatting and having good time.
I think you got the idea. At this kind of meetings, you can knit, make beads, read books aloud, tell the fortunes, play chess or just drink tea. You can meet at someone’s home or at cafe – I’m sure that any café would be glad to host such a “hobby group”.
So, invent, create and chase the boredom away!
Have a good weekend. See you next week.