ive actually been busy here. the new group of americans arrived this weekend. there are 18 of them, plus 6 year long students. thats a big group. they seem pretty nice so far. its kind of fun to watch them experience all the things i experienced when i first arrived here. its also nice to be able to show them around a bit and help them do things and such. i showed them downtown last night. i got a couple of my turkish friends to join us. one of my friends was just there to hang out with me because he does not know any english. i managed to talk with him most of the night, with the help of my dictionary of course, but its cool to be able to understand most of what people say. but dont be fooled. i dont know that much turkish. he was just being nice and speaking slowly and simply.

as for that presentation on richmond i was supposed to give last week....i didnt make it to the class due to severe jet lag and sleep schedule weirdness. so i am giving it tomorrow. i had a lot of help on it....so its really good. maybe too good. whatevah

i will only get to take one class at the university this semester, thanks to turkish classes. so its another vacation semester basically.

i got my schedule today. were going on four trips, tentatively. our first is to istanbul on feb. 21. then kapadokya again sometime in march, and then there are two trips planned for april, one to amasya and trabzon, and one to antakya. hopefully those work out

now i must go because i have class tomorrow which means i am waking up at 8am or so. night