what a long strange trip it's been

Ankara, Turkey

The walkabout is over, so you'll just have to think of the title as My research trip: A most unplanned adventure. I don't seem to be doing well at staying in the country.

I don't know where to start. But I've just discovered how to put the keyboard on the english setting instead of the turkish setting, which seems to be a start. It's been a long crazy trip and I've already had my first interview, although have only had 6 hours of sleep in a bed since I left.

The flight to philidelphia was all nice and normal, but then my flight to munich was delayed by 2 hours. First the plane got there late, then the caterers (whose food wasn't good anyways) took too long and then they had to fix the navigation system, test it extensivly and do some paperwork. In short, by the time we had landed in Munich my plane for Istanbul had already departed. So the lovely people of Lufthansa rerouted me through Berlin and then I got to take a turkish airlines flight to Istanbul. I have to say that turkish airlines beates US airways on food, hands down. But then, is that really a surprise?

I got met at the airport (at 8:30 pm turkish time) and taken to the ulusoy bus station. The bus left at 11, and there was a bit of confusion as I tried to explain that Canguzel's mom, Inci, had my ticket, but would be getting on the bus in about half an hour. The guy was nice and decided that I could stay on the bus. Inci did get on the bus later and explained everything. It was really nice to see her. There was some falling asleep and then some snow. We stopped half way there (2:30 am) at a rest stop and had some yogurt soup. And then I remembered why I love turkey so much. The bus arrived at 5:30 and we got to Inci's appartment/house at 6 where I got my sleep in an actual bed.

Some sleep, food and a shower can do wonders for a person. And then I had my first interviews. I don't think I'm asking the right questions. And I was trying too hard to stay awake to think of some better ones. But they were really nice and told me I could come back Friday if I have any questions, and also found me someone else to intervew Friday. So it should come out okay.

I can't think of anything profound. The icicles at the rest stop last night were 1 meter long and it's been below 0 (in celcius) since I got here. It's kind of nice to see snow. I'm still a little confused on what time it is, and how I lost a day, but oh well. Another interview tomorrow, hopefully it will yield more information.