Now, I do understand that my blog doesn't usually talk about these things too much, but this time, I just couldn't stop myself. This seems too big, too terriying to not write about it.

Also, I have been wanting to write a blog entry about my new life here in Turkey for weeks - I started two already and gave up again - but I have not really come to terms on what to write. There are two reasons for that: one is that I respect the privacy of the family I am staying with and do not want to write too much about them and the second is that I still feel - after a month now - that I have not really finished the transiation from the life I lead on the road to the life I am leading now, because they are just too different. I will write something soon, but how soon that will be, I don't know.

In the meanwhile I wrote this to entertain you:

So, after the first shock has passed, I have come to the conclusion that - not so surprisingly - the world just goes on, even on "the day after". This was not such a hard conclusion to come to, especially not since after last night's "end of the world" thunderstorms, this morning the skies were blue again and the sun actually made her appearance again above the beautiful landscape that I am looking at when looking out of the window. It's a very reassuring thought, that, quite obviously, the natural forces like gravity are stronger than the hate spread by you know who, and also the lives of the flamingos I can see from the windows are just going on like they always did.

The last 30 or so hours I spent mainly in disbelieve, reading all the articles and opinion pieces that all my faithful Facebook friends so generously shared. I read all of them, looking for an explanation. Not so much for an explanation how, on Earth, so much hatred can be found within so many people that a person like him, could possibly win such an important election. It's not that. As the holder of an Austrian passport, I dare say I have some experience with elections going painfully wrong because the people is disappointed with the governing elite. Rather, I was looking for some guidance, for some hint as to, how to continue after this event that I had thought would mean the end of the world. Because, since I had thought that the world would end if..., obviously I had never thought about how to go on from there.

I am shocked, not because you know who will be the president. This is bad enough. Also, by the way, I have been saying this ever since I first heard him speak: you shouldn't allow this person to speak in public (after which my American friends were horrified about how I could want to deny somebody his right to free speech - I still strongly believe that free speech should be limited to the free voicing of opinions and should not necessarily include the telling of blatant lies and unjustified insults, but even so...), by this I meant and do mean: do not support his cause by actually showing him on TV or writing about him on the news. Which is, why I decided to stop using his name. Maybe it helps. One of the opinion pieces I have read said that the media helped him to win, I guess that may be right, too.

But what I wanted to say is, and I am sorry if I get a little egoistic here, but I have literally just come out of a two-month trip through Europe with the (not so surprising) revelation (which I also wrote about in my blog), that faith in humanity, and trust in the strangers that surround you every day are some of the most important ingredients to a happy life. I have said this before and am happy to repeat it: I feel deeply sorry for all those people who do not have this trust and therefore apparently live in constant fear. But, really, yesterday I had to fight very, very hard to not let my faith in humanity vanish as the election results started coming in.

So, the question, I was trying to solve is: how do we go on from here? And obviously, the best way is to start looking at the positive sides. And, after you've overcome the shock, actually there are a few (and many of them I am actually stealing from those articles I have been reading):

- A really strong left, anti-racist, anti-discrimination movement is bound to start forming now (or rather the already existing movement is bound to increase its forces)

- Most likely he will not be as stupid in the office as he has been on the stage in the campaign because even he knows it was all show then and it's different now

- He may open the door to real change, something which Mrs. Clinton would certainly not have managed (nor wanted)

- And, most importantly from the perspective of a Non-US citizen: maybe, just maybe we can finally overcome our endless admiration for the US and come to the conclusion that actually, we do not want to be like them!?

So maybe it will be for the better in the - distant - future.

But the most important thing, why I am writing this (other than the fact, that I just needed to write something to voice my frustration) is to tell you my conclusion on this one: I will not, in no way and by no possible event, stop believing in the good in humans. I have been through a lot and the only conclusion I ever came to is that trust in other humans is what will help you forward and what will, in the end, make us happier. I also learned that hate often wins in the short term but love really is a stronger power and that hate is just a materialisation of fear, and we all know that fear is weak. Whereas love - true love, not the one you see on TV - can only come from personal strength. So love will always win in the end, I know how this sounds, but I also truly believe it is true. I also know that people - irrespective of their faiths and political believes, irrespective of who they voted for - these people didn't change over night. So even though it is hard, even those who voted for you know who, they can still be good people (just like probably a lot of a**holes voted for Mrs. Clinton as well) when you meet them personally. The results, although they clearly look like it, they do not mean that every other US-citizen is likely to kill someone because of the colour of their skin - well, not any more so than they were a week ago. Or two years ago, for that matter. The world has not changed over night. The world is going down fast because the systems we have been putting our trust in for so long are finally showing their shortcomings. It is time for some serious change, and, while I know that most of you who read this, would not have doubted this even before yesterday, I think yesterday might have just woken up a lot of people who thought - like Mrs. Clinton and her supporters - that all was just good.