Slow Tuesday

I saw my ill-tempered friend as I walked to work this morning. He hopped up a few levels and came through the bushes and fence for some petting. People are tired today, and it's really cold still, but the snow melted yesterday afternoon. Last night was spent with Jess and Elsa having dinner, relaxing and making light of everything that one could. There is this really great local bakery about half way between our flats, we can get these slabs of flat bread that are about a meter long and really tasty for 35 cents. If you want to live cheep in Istanbul, it's very feasible, though having my weekday meals free makes that squeeze not so hard.

Everyone's english is improving here, including mine. Having to insure the comprehensibility of everything I say is a task requiring constant attention. In the US I was very free to babble and most people would at least get the gist of what I was trying to get across to them. But in a foreign country where some of these students have only been studying English a few weeks, I really have to watch what I say, otherwise all I get in return are blank stares. Of corse this doesn't keep me from doing this when I really feel like it.

Tomorrow is the winter solstice, at least for out here. It makes me get all mushy and remember Ptolomey and want to build a bunch of instruments and start recording the hight of the sun and whatnot... Of corse I would have to be at the instrument at noon to measure the sun's hight... and the skies would have to be clear... So it's not a very practical thing, but it would be fun!