Viva Melli!

Sorry about the lack of updates, everything seems to be winding down this month.  Friday afternoon I went to see a football (that's soccer) match between some faculty and students from the school.  I taped the match for them which gave me a good chance to practice using the new video camera.  They all demanded CD copies of the match and I think I can oblige.  A funny thing happened as I came home, it was right before sunset which comes about 8:30, and my neighborhood seemed waaaay too quiet.  I knew the second I walked in the house and flipped the light switch, no electricity.  I started laughing, this was something you just heard about happening in far away foreign cities, it's normal for them not to have power, right?  It was totally weird, looking at other apartment buildings you could see people moving around with flashlights, having a later dinner by candlelight, or just sitting near the windows taking in the last few sunbeams like I was doing.  It was like someone hit the breaker on my entire neighborhood, the night was deep and dark and light showers fell on our quiet neighborhood.  I hope everyone slept as well as I did!  The power came back sometime early Saturday morning.
Yesterday I hit the Beshiktash clothing bazar again and picked up a few more dress shirts, they may be imitation or stolen, but they've got good stitches and all the buttons, that works for me.  Later that night I went to eat and Haci Baba's and found myself chatting with the cook and his friends for a good hour after dinner.  This man was amazing, and really gave me proof of a discussion I was engaged in back in America.  "Do good societies produce bad people?"  This man has never been to school, works seven days a week, and came at me in six languages.  He only speaks three fluently, but WOW.  Turkish, Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish, English, and Russian.  He has to be much more resourceful than an American in the same social economic situation, so is he a better person because his life is harder?  Does having a society on the top of the list make us fat and lazy because we know by the end of the day we'll probably still have Air Conditioning and a Coca Cola?  He told me his dream was to move to Holland and make kebabs there.  So, more power to him.
And today, lovely Sunday.  I learned a valuable lesson, namely why I hadn't shaved my beard for two years.  I look terrible without one!  Well, two weeks and my beard shall be back, more powerful than your could imagine.  And the big let down, my boys Team Melli lost their debut game in the World Cup.  Buck up, there's still two more matches!