Leaving on a jet plane....

Well, my bags are packed and weighed, all of my stuff is cleared out of my room, my bedding is in the washer, and somehow sitting here this still feels like my room... My last morning in Istanbul. I really don't know what to say. I'm about to go into Dilko and say goodbye to everyone who is working, and my students. It's been a good year. It's really hard for me to say goodbye to this "home" of mine, and yet I know that this ending is really just the beginning to a new adventure, whatever that may be: coming back in a few months, going to Korea to teach, or any other place that I may end up.
I'm off to London to visit Charlotte and see the sights! As exciting as that is, I'm quite sure that I'm going to be crying the entire way there. It's really neat because Charlotte knows exactly how I feel, having left Istanbul only six or seven months ago. So I'll have someone to cry to that knows what I'm going through.
For now, farewell. I'll see you soon enough.

We had another picnic with that class on Friday, which was really fun. One of the older ladies that used to be in the class (she's super rich) hired a little band for the picnic, and it was quite the surprise when they came marching in playing traditional Turkish music!! Everyone started dancing and it was very fun. Then, Ali (my manager) hung up flags when we were inside getting some food, and when we came back out we saw that they were these huge flags that had all pictures of us and the Dilko logo!! Haha... Mine was all pics of me, with the phrase "we will miss you, but we'll never forget you" across the bottom, with the top full of writing from some teachers and students. Anthony's was for his birthday, which was last week. That was so nice, and unexpected! :)

The last week or so has been pretty good. The universities here have concerts all during the summer, and I went to one at Istanbul University. Of course, I had no idea who the band was (Kargo), so that made it a little bit boring, but it was still a pretty fun time.
























































Then, on my last day teaching my morning class, for the last hour we went bowling! I'm gonna miss my students so much. Well, most of them anyway ;) haha.

Summerishness...

Well, I did my first 'summery' thing on Friday. Natalie and I wanted to go walk by the Sea because it was so nice. So, we hopped the train to Yeşilköy and, after much searching even though it also took us that long to find it last time, found the Sea. It was really nice walking along the sea on such a nice day. We came to one of the small, cleaned up beach areas and there were some paddle-boats there! We were curious enough to ask how much they cost, and it turned out it was only 10lira for an hour. We didn't want a whole hour, so we payed five lira for a half hour of paddle-boating around. It was so nice. And even just walking around Yeşilköy was so nice, seeing all of the gorgeous roses everywhere that are seriously the size of a small child. Well, maybe not but they're huge anyway. And as soon as we stepped off of the train I kicked myself, OK so I didn't kick myself, but I wanted to. I forgot my camera! So, I took a few pics with my cell phone, but that doesn't help me because I have no way to get them onto my computer. I've tried sending MMS messages to like facebook but all it does it charge me an arm and a leg and then not actually show up! grr...
So, Camy popped her head out! :) I'm sitting here wishing I was there with everyone... but I will be soon enough... and I'll get to see both my babies. Actually, all of my babies (ori, ronin, tierney included)!