Hoş Geldiniz!

One week ago today Amanda and I boarded a plane in Boston to begin our Fulbright year in Turkey. So, I decided now was as good a time as any to put together my first post for the third iteration of the blog and kick off another year of sporadic updates.

Everything feels a bit different this time. Not only will I be here longer than I ever have before, but Amanda will be with me and I will be living a less structured life outside of a planned program. As of now, I'm still in the pre-game period; I won't begin my archival research until the fall and I'm still three weeks from beginning my big Ottoman program in Cunda. All this was fine last week when Amanda was still here and we were preoccupied with settling ourselves and the two cats into the new apartment. But, now that she's off at the dig and I'm faced with a large block of free time, I'm struggling to keep myself productive.

I should start at the beginning. Amanda and I made it through the long flight from Boston to Frankfurt to Istanbul, but more importantly so did our luggage. We hopped in a taxi from the airport and met up with our new landlord to get settled into the apartment where we will hopefully be living for the next year. It's a very nice 2-bedroom on the second floor with a bit of a glimpse of the Golden Horn from our balcony. Since we're pretty close to the water and at the top of a hill we get somewhat of a nice breeze to keep the place cool. With no air conditioner this has proven to be a lifesaver, though still not perfect since trying to keep two cats from investigating the screenless windows is almost a full-time job. We spent most of our first week exploring the neighborhood and doing the necessary but tedious work of provisioning the apartment. Luckily, the place is already furnished, but picking up all the odds and ends that really make the place home took a little effort, especially when there is no Target Superstore around the corner that will let us pick up everything at once. All in all, the place is a bit more like home now, which has made the transition much easier. Something about being back here with Amanda and not having anything too pressing to do for the first few days reminded me a lot of our honeymoon in Turkey a few years ago. We even got to spend our third wedding anniversary together (for once!) by enjoying a nice dinner out around Taksim Square.

Now she is off at her excavation in the Hatay for the next two months and I am faced with the prospect of entertaining and fending for myself for a while. I'm using my time before the Ottoman program to reintroduce myself to speaking and reading in Turkish. I have been able to get out into the city at least once a day since we arrived and have had a couple nice chats with the guys at the cell phone store and the locksmith. I'm also getting back into the practice of reading thanks to a new novel I picked up by Ahmet Umit. I tried reading one of his books a couple summers ago in Ankara, but found it difficult to stick with, especially after I returned to Boston. He is almost Dan Brown-like in his weaving of murder mystery with bits of historical fiction, which helps keep me interested in a way that jumping straight into historical scholarship might not for now. I have an ambitious plan to read for at least a few hours a day and get through most of the book before I get to Cunda, though reading a few lines and flipping back to my dictionary is rather laborious and can be difficult to stick with when I'm not properly motivated. I will keep you all updated on my progress.

So, for now my life is a little boring. The apartment is quiet without someone to share it and no TV to fill the empty space with noise. Maybe it will be a good adjustment period to get me ready for a long year in the archives starting in September. Though, since I'm not getting out much this space may not be all that exciting for a little while. I will update when I can and when I have something fun to share. I'm sure things will pick up when I make my way down to the Aegean for my summer of deciphering old Ottoman handwriting.

P.S. I will put up a few pictures of the new place when I can. For now, I'm working solely off a 3G key for internet in the apartment and it is just too slow and too expensive to justify uploading photos. We'll see if I can't make it to the internet cafe in the next few days to give you all a glimpse of our new life here.