So, it seems that blogging has been feast or famine so far. I hope (sincerely, sincerely hope) the trend will end soon because that means that I will finally have internet at home.

This evening I broke down and decided to go to a cafe to use their wi fi. Interesting fact, after a couple weeks of using Turkish computers, I feel rusty typing on an American keyboard. It's kind of weird. Even though it's still really hard for me to type correctly on a Turkish keyboard, I've obviously become used to it.

There are other things I've become used to as well...For example, a lot of people smoke in Turkey--a lot of people. In America I was skittish about sitting down on a patio with too many smokers around. Here I have learned not to blink if a person lights up in a building, even though people are technically not supposed to smoke inside University buildings.

People drink a LOT of tea here. A lot. If you go to visit someone in their office at the university, they offer you tea. If you visit someone in their home, you better believe that tea is going to be part of the occasion! But, more interestingly, sometimes it's even offered if you are just in a shop. Tea is always (almost always) served in 'tulip' shaped glass cups. Tea is offered with every meal. It is also served very hot--too hot to drink. At our hotel in Ankara they served tea with lemon as an option, but otherwise I only ever see tea served with sugar cubes and NEVER with milk. Adding milk to tea and buttering bread are two things that, as far as I can tell, are just weird weird weird from the Turkish perspective. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I, thankfully, enjoy tea and quite enjoy all of my tea drinking throughout the day. Apple tea is pretty good, too.

Speaking of consumable items...there aren't many things here for vegetarians because a lot of food has meat in it (that was only a little redundant). I am not above picking meat out of my food (I would starve otherwise), but sometimes there are limits. Yesterday, I reached my personal limit. I was forking through an orzo pilaf, trying to work around all the pieces of (lamb? beef? I really don't know), when I saw something...with a valve or a socket. For all I know it was a piece of heart, or eye, or ugh...I don't want to know. It was a tough lunch. Anyway, just had to share. It's probably pretty normal for people who eat meat to come across these kinds of anatomical things, but I eat tofu and beans and those things don't have sockets or valves or tendons and I like that about them. I like that a lot.