Endings and New Beginnings

First, I think we should all send our condolences Marloes' way. Last night she lost her grandfather. It was very sudden and unexpected-she will be going home tomorrow to be with her family, but will eventually return before the end of the project. We'll all think about her a ton the whole time she's gone, and we can't wait for her to get back so we can be together again.

Now, on a much lighter note, I'd like to tell you about our weekend...

On Friday Onur, Marloes, Nikola, and I went to a bar called Ivory. Yes, I know I mentioned something about Danza before, but most people weren't really in the mood to go out and I don't think anybody was in the sort of mood to go to Danza. Ivory is a nice place, that I bet rocks in the summer time because it has a nice patio area out front. I've only been there twice, but both times I've been there they've had live music. It's mostly Turkish songs that everyone (every Turk, that is) knows and, depending on how late it is and how much they've had to drink, the bar will sing along with the few performers that usually consist of a girl singer and one or two acoustic guitars.

On Saturday Ewa (Yes, she's recovering finally!!!) and I went to a teacher's house from Milli Piyango. We had breakfast with Banu (the teacher) and her mother. It was a great way to start the day-crepes, cheeses, her mom's homemade jam, mmmm... then we all went over to Tan school to have a fun sports play date-there was basketball, volleyball, a swimming pool, and a game of indoor soccer. But the day didn't end there! That evening we had an awesome dinner at a journalist from bursa's house. We polished off a good amount of food and then sat around talking about the history of Bursa, Turkey in general, and singing songs.

I guess that brings us to today (Sunday), where I didn't really do a whole lot of anything. I caught up on a lot of emails and other things I'd been meaning to do, as well as made a list of things to do for next week. Now I just have to get them done...

Ewa and I will start our day bright and early at 9 am. This week we'll be going to a school called Tunç Siper.