Hey there. I am Eren. 28 years old.

All my life, I have been told, mostly by those, who haven’t studied, that I should study so as not to suffer in life as they had had, and that an academic career was a key to successful life. So, being a somewhat academically kid, I have complied. Being originally from Istanbul, Turkey; I went to Heidelberg, Germany at the age of 20 to study. Being somewhat unsatisfied and easily distracted and excited, I studied different things, as I have found interesting phonemena in different areas of studies from political theory to earthquakes to general relativity. All these led me to study: Political Sciences and Geography (bachelors), Geography (Masters) and Physics (second Bachelor).

However, none of this made me contempt. I have come to to the conclusion that one simply does not need to study everything one finds interesting. A life long interest of me is linguistics/etymology. In the last couple of years, I have also found history, particulary the history of Anatolia, where I am originally from, interesting so I have been trying to read more about ancient Anatolian cultures as well the Hellenistic and the Roman period.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am on a Caucasian trip for 3 weeks (Northeast Turkey, Georgia and Armenia).

Any help from accomodation to suggestion to just meet and shittalk is very much appreciated! Just some human connection

Interests

Well well well, let me write them down as bulletin:

- History (Roman and Byzantine in particular)

- Architecture ( if we should be a close a classical building, I could point you to different column orders)

- Etymology ( the letter O is for example circular shaped because it comes originally from the Phonecian alphabet which used shapes of a word having the same vowel/consonant value to depict that phoneme. Ayn/Oyn in Semitic languages mean eye which is circular :))

- Diving

-Parachuting ( though I have a once in a life accident and since then I haven’t tried it yet, I can talk more about in person)

• architecture
• scuba diving
• etymology
• history
• international relations
• languages
• roman history
• political philosophy

Music, Movies, and Books

Some books that I read recently:

- Hamlet (Shakespeare)

- Macbeth (Shakespeare)

- Debt: the First 5,000 years (David Graeber)

- Bullshit Jobs: a Theory (David Graeber)

- Azgelişmişlik Sürecinde Türkiye 1: Bizans’tan Tanzimata (Stefanos Yerasimos) [From Byzantines to Tanzimat: Turkey on her Course to Underdevelopment]

- Im Westen nichts Neues (Erich Maria Remarque) [All Quiet on the Western Front]

- The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy (David Graeber)

- The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh Through the Fifteenth Century (Vryonis Jr. Speros)

- On Duties (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

- The Byzantine Turks, 1204 - 1461 (Rustam Shukurov)

- Die Kunst des Liebens (Erich Fromm) [The Art of Loving]

- Liberty or Equality: The Challenge of Our Times (Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn)

What I Can Share with Hosts

- I speak German near natively so I can help with that
- I am also good at Maths and Physics so I can help with your childs‘, your nephews‘/ nieces‘ homeworks :)

-I could share some much unneeded facts like:

Did you know Emperor Neron castrate a young boy named Sporus who looked very much like his late Empress Poppaea and then married him as his wife in a Roman imperial marriage where Sporus took the legal personhood of Poppea and the role of the bride and that Neron after couple of years married another slave young man where this time Neron became the bride?

Did you know the word "slave" is related to "Slav" and actually comes from "Slav" because during the reign of Romans many Slavs were captured as slaves?

Did you know the word "testify" come from the latinate "testicles" because people used to hold their testicles while they testify before the jury?

Or did you know that the generic mathematical unknown "x" comes from the Arabic word for thing which is "shay" and Spaniards substitued the first sound of this word "sh" with the letter "x" while this letter was still used to be pronounced with a "sh" sound in Old/Middle Spanish when they first encountered algebraic equations in the Courts of Muslim dynasties during the Golden Age of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula?

Or did you know that it would only take 78-79 mins to arrive at the same place if you were to dig a hole through the center of the Earth and you jumped/fell into this hole? So 39 mins to arrive at the exact opposite side of the Earth and another 39 mins to fall back to the place where you started.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Netherlands, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Turkey