Amasya: This ain't my first rodeo, but sometimes it feels like it

So, friends, I have been in Amasya since Thursday afternoon and I have had some highs and some lows. Oh my goodness, where to begin? Here's a good place: my new favorite Turkish word is saçma.

--note: there are regular calls to prayer, which I can hear from my room in the lojman (guest house) where I'm staying. It turns out that there are also irregular announcements from the town about cool things that are going on. Like, this guy gets on a loudspeaker (whenever he feels like it?) and just shares cool stuff going on. Welcome to Turkey.---

Anyway, back to my new favorite word: saçma. It means nonsense. Since learning this, I have thought saçma a lot. For example, yesterday I woke up and, despite knowing (or believing) that I would have a class and also knowing the place where my class would happen, I had no idea how to get from the lojman (guest house) to the classroom (bus? which bus? where was said bus caught?). So, I went to the Education Faculty to talk to the most wonderful Turkish man in existence, Rasim Bey, and basically throw myself upon his mercy. Well, Rasim (and his office mate, a very nice history professor) helped me out. It turns out that I never ended up going to my class because so few students showed up for the previous ones they just kind of cancelled (class situations are a long story that is best left for later). But, Rasim did, basically, end up spending his entire day trying to get us our Residence Permits. We went to the Amasya Municipal building twice and then ended up at the police station. However, stuffed inbetween those visits were the following: a visit to a photo center, an apartment for rent, and four trips the University office where they gave us our letters. This must be confusing to read because it's definitely confusing to write. It was even more confusing to experience. Saçma!

However, we ended the day in the most pleasant way imaginable--dinner at the home of a very nice Turkish couple. The food was really good (you'd be surprised by how much soup they eat here). We ended the meal with berry preserves made from berries that they picked themselves, you know, on the mountain. Unbelievable! (that will have to be my next Turkish word).

So, thus ended a confusing, saçma-filled day.

However, here is a reward for sitting through this blog post:

This is what Amasya looks like (not at its best, but close). It really is a beautiful town. Those are old Ottoman houses hanging over the Yeşil river. Pretty pretty. You can't see it in the picture, but there's a castle on top of the higher of the two mountains in view.