Dear friends, sorry again for such a long, gaping silence. Blogging is hard with unreliable internet access and a foreign keyboard. However, you will be happy to know that I now have internet at home and am currently typing on my very own Mac. It's about time. I have apparently gotten used to the Turkish keyboard layout and am now

mistyping everything on my Mac. Oh well.

So, what is new? Halloween is just around the corner and to commemorate the holiday we are having a Halloween party in Amasya. I'm not sure who, if anyone, will come. But it will be a party, regardless. We are going to carve pumpkins and (maybe) have home made Halloween cookies. We'll see. I want to dress up as something, but I can't decide what. There are so many jokes that wouldn't be culturally relevant here--like if I dress up as Julia Child--it's hard to decide what to do. I thought about just coming as a 1950s housewife, but I'm not sure that anyone would get that either. Basically, my options are quite limited. I'll let you know how it goes.

So, I recently made a short trip to a place called Niksar (a small city in neighboring Tokat province). Niksar is quaint and has some interesting cites. It boasts Turkey's second largest castle, if you can believe that!

This is a picture of me under and arch at the castle. The entire castle complex is actually pretty large and spread out. I hadn't really planned to rough it, evidenced by the fact that I was wearing black slacks and flats. However, part of the road up to the castle was being worked on, so we ended up off roading and climbing up a pretty steep, damp patch of land to get to the castle. It was not glorious, and I am glad that no one was watching, but it was kind of fun and at least makes for a good story. Also, let's all make a note that, though I am kind of famous for tripping and falling, I did not once slip and fall. Not once. Maybe Turkey has given me the grace and poise I have been missing--ha ha, probably not.

Amasya has turned cold. It is mostly overcast these days, but not as gloomy as I expected it to be--check in with me two months from now! The mountains are misty, and that is kind of a new thing for me. We don't have mists or mountains in Austin. The coal smoke from home heating is getting a bit annoying. I think that I may develop black lung (while this is an exaggeration, I have been coughing a lot this week. Just saying...). But all things considered, I'm feeling pretty good about autumn in Amasya. The apples are ripe, and we do have the best apples in Turkey.