Frustratingly Sharing-Impaired!

Hey, y'all. So this week I was all geared up to give you a tour of our excellent little apartment. I cleaned, I photographed, I... can't find my camera's data cable. :( It is, presumably, somewhere in amongst the still very disorganized stuff that is strewn about some areas of the apartment. And, probably, I'll find it soon. But I'm so frustrated, I wanted to show you NOOOOOOW. My style has been seriously cramped here. ::pout::

Until I find that darn thing, I'm using my inferior phone pictures to show you around. Right now I'm just going to show you the view from our windows, because I love that part! Lately it has been cloudy and rainy most of the time, but I still like the colors and shapes and shadows... it's like a kaleidoscope in every direction! The colors are not done justice in these pictures, but trust me, it's cool. Oğuz thinks it's ugly, but I can't help but love it.


This is the view from the living room. The road that goes from the bottom left to the mid-right of the screen is the main road, Gen. Dr. Tevfik Sağlam Caddesi. That's where we catch buses and have done a lot of our settling-in shopping. The intersecting road that heads toward the upper left of the picture is Bağcı Caddesi, which also has quite a bit of shopping opportunities. And the advantage there is that it's level, whereas heading down the main road requires quite an uphill hike when coming back home. I'm within a 1 minute walk of 2 yarn shops, by the way, but I have yet to investigate!

This is still the view from the living room, this time looking out to the right. The same orange building is in the foreground of both pictures; it's the Etlik Lisesi, a middle school. That large asphalt yard you can see part of belongs to the school, and we see the students gather there and line up before entering the school, play volleyball and basketball, run around for gym class, etc. It's fun.

This is the view from the bedroom, and although the sky looks very different this picture was taken mere minutes after the last one, which reveals the ephemeral nature of the weather conditions here right now. As you can see, there are mountains in the distance, over which the sun rises. This morning they stood in silhouette, under imposing steel-gray clouds, with a fiery orange sunrise beaming out from between the two.

The view from the office, whose windows point in the same direction as the bedroom's, but this time I'm looking straight out from the building instead of off to the right. There are several other tall buildings around us, and some greenspace around them. Remember, Ankara is the second largest city in Turkey, with a population of 4 million or so. Although I am nowhere near 'downtown', this is still pretty densely populated territory.

I am really enjoying this lifestyle, being able to fully function without a car is great. We walk to local stores for bread, food, electrical supplies, cleaning supplies. Yesterday we went to the local bazaar and bought almost more produce than the two of us could carry for around 30 YTL, which is less than $20.

We just found out yesterday that the ODTÜ shuttle has a stop right outside our building, in front of the middle school. That is great for me, since I'm going to have to start going there regularly starting NEXT WEEK! :) Yeah, that's my awesome news, that after some waiting I have been hired by the university and will begin my teacher training immediately. I am so happy!

More good news: Today is Oğuz's birthday. Happy Birthday, honey!!!! I'm not sure how we will celebrate, but we're having fried sardines (Hamsi) tonight, one of our favorites! Hamsi is one of the only fish you really find here, it is brought from the Black Sea. They are very small and you can't feel the bones, and they are EXCELLENT coated in corn flour and fried. YUM. This weekend we will be visiting friends and family in İzmir, so I am sure they will help us celebrate. :)

Ok, I have one more thing I want to prepare for you, and I'm going to put it in the next post. Hope you're all doing well, byeeee!