Ankara [GP:Ankara], low 20s, rain. It’s cold and I wish I had a jacket.

Typing this on the spot, which is as unusual as the layout of the keyboard that I’m using.

I’ll write something more detailed later – There’s really not so much to say about days of lectures and another visit to the Anıtkabir. Remind me to tell you all about Richard.

Last night, I ventured out wıth Rob and Ali, our tour guide for the next portion of the program, to a local club about the size of my living room where a live band played covers of songs that were never really popular in the first place. It was fun, but we were out late, and my mental attitude was less than stellar today. I’d like to blame it on the lack of sleep and the fact that the only thing more stupid than Rob continuing to order more rounds of beer last night is the fact that I kept drinking them, but I really can’t.

Now is the portion of my journal where I sit in the pool hall/Internet cafe and tell you about all the people on the trip that are annoying the crap out of me. I will try to keep it short enough so as not to acquire emphasema while I type…

There are questions I have about why some of these people are here. Witness the one woman who asked the following question. We were at the offices of the Southern Anatolia Development Project (GAP), a multi-zillion dollar endeavor that is supposed to bring the area of the southeast hinterlands into the 21st century, stem the flow of rural to urban migration AND piss off Iraq and Syria all at the same time. The President of the project, who took time out of his schedule to meet with us in his office (a schedule which included face time with the President of Syria the day before), and this woman, whose questions we save because they’re worth writing down, asks the following question: Could you tell us a little about the knick-knacks on your desk? (You think I’m kidding? I wish…)

Then we have our hyper-Christian who refused to set foot in one of the mosques in Northern Cyprus because it had originally been a church and she couldn’t bear the idea of sanctioning that kind of desecration (given that the Ottomans have been gone for nearly a century, one wonders exactly how her entrance could be construed as sanctioning anything). She has no filter between cerebrum and tongue and has absolutely no ability to tell when she’s asking inappropriate questions – of any one at any time. Given that I brought Ray to our last dinner in Austin, I’m sure you can imagine some of the conversations the two of us have had. This morning we had a faculty member from the Department of Theology at Ankara University speak to us on Islam and she sat and wrote postcards the whole time. I repeat – why, exactly, are these people here? Oy, vay.

At any rate. I have enjoyed Ankara fully, cult of Atatürk and all. Ankara is just a bit too familiar – last night at dinner in a restaurant in an old Ottoman house on top of a hill overlooking the city, I was struck by a wave of homesickness and a realization that despite the fact that it feels like I’ve been gone forever, there’s still a long way to go before we’re done. I’m game, but tonight I plan to go to bed really early. Even the most ardent and enthusiastic of us need to vent and keep to ourselves for a little while from time to time.

Off to Cappadocia in the morning. Sorry to leave Ankara (sorrier still to try to figure out how to get all that stuff in my suitcase again), but happy to move on all the same…