So the ministry of education is trying to decide whether to postpone the start of school in Ankara. Major water shortages along with two pipes bursting (allowing lots of drinkable water to flood the streets) have caused water to be cut off for all of Ankara for at least 3 days. You can read all about it here: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=80351

oh goodness

so the on again off again water deal in ankara is not going to stop until at least december, unless they get a massive amount of rain in the fall. the government is telling residents to leave the city and go live elsewhere for a few months.... check out this guy's story:

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=80179

drought in Ankara...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6929186.stm

two days of water followed by two days without...

I am going to miss this place...

I have had the travel bug for the longest time. I blame my parents for taking me on so many trips as a little kid. I got to see so many cool places! Now that I am actually traveling for real (those little one week vacations just don't count when compared to 10 months!), I am actually quite sad. Aside from the fact that I am going to the Middle East, I am nervous about traveling in general. 10 months is a loooooooooooooong time. Not to mention, I am terribly sad about all the things I will be missing throughout the year (see list on left). I know once I get there and settled, I will totally have fun, but this waiting period sucks. I am just trying to stay busy with class and scholarship papers, etc... It's not really helping, though. Then, there's the whole friends and family situation. It sucks to say goodbye, but at the same time, you feel like you are hurting them by leaving. They, in turn, are sad to see you go, but feel they must be supportive of what you want to do. All I can say is there will be a lot of crying and a lot of partying come that last week in August. And if you don't get to see me before I leave, you're just going to have to wait till next summer. Don't forget about me, though!

In the meantime, here are some pictures I stole (mainly from Wikipedia). These will just have to do until I get over there myself.



(Ankara is in the middle and to the left a bit. Go to the "u" in "Turkey" and go straight up)

(Looks a little bit like Richmond...)

(Atatürk's Mausoleum)

(Yeh, beats Pentagon City any day)

(Look at their airport!)

(Downtown Ankara)

Candidate for upcoming elections shot:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6902255.stm

this could be bad...

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=78245

of course, it should be over by the time i head out...

So I finally got my visa! Yay for me!

It takes up basically a whole page of my passport. It's just a single entry, but when I get to Turkey, I have to apply for a residency permit. That permit will allow me to travel in and out of the country if need be.

While I was waiting for my visa, I started chatting with a professor from Sweetbriar going to Turkey on fullbright. Shes an anthropologist and shes going to study old age in Turkey. She said that when she visited Turkey before, the breakfast was basically olives, either black or green, cheese, and lots of bread. At least that is what she got
in the hotels she stayed in. I guess olives could be pretty tasty in the morning. Olive breath is definitely better than morning breath, right?

In other news...I decided not to buy a return flight yet which means I gave up $775 of my scholarship. If you are really interested in what happened here, you can ask me. I don't feel like explaining the whole situation on here.

52 days and 16 hours left in the states