This Will Probably Be a Dry Blog Month

I'm traveling at the moment. Wait for it. Okay, I'm stationary. Let's do this.

I just left Istanbul, where I was for about a week. There, Holly and I stayed with an American family, the Connells. Doug and Jessica let us sleep in their apartment (I got top bunk in the Lego Room; Holly slept next to the crib of the family baby, Moses) in exchange for baby sitting four of the five children on Wednesday. We watched The Sound of Music. It was amazing. I guess it's been a long time since I saw it last. I still have "Edelweiss" playing in my mind (on vinyl, of course - mine is a hip mind). When the Doug and Jessica returned from their date, Doug told me that not only was "Edelweiss" not Austria's national anthem (it was written expressily for the musical), but that in the eighties the Reagan administration played it for the visiting Austrian ambassador, thinking it was the true Austrian anthem. I bet the ambassador wished that was his anthem.

Doug and Jessica live twenty minutes walk from the tram that runs through the heart of Istanbul, so Holly and I would eat breakfast with the family, maybe watch a twenty minute episode of Liberty's Kids (the educational cartoon about child reporters in the Revolution who work for Benjamin Franklin - voiced by WALTER CRONKITE) with the family kids, then trek into town. I won't tell you what we saw. The government made me swear. But I can tell you that it rained, and apart from being cold and ruining everything I was okay with that. The best thing that happened - well, the oddest thing, at least - happened because, after 45 minutes standing in line outside the Hagia Sofia (in the rain), we broke off and went down a backstreet to have lunch at a Turkish self service cafeteria. While we were eating, a Turk sat next to us and, through conversation it was revealed he worked at a hamam (in turn, I revealed that I was a teacher and that there was a coin behind his earn). He offered us a discount, and, without planning, we ended up at a Turkish bath. In separate buildings. Full of steam. Glorious hours, really.

Not Pictured: Me. I'm hiding from the old Turkish men in towels.

I'm in Rome until Tuesday, then to London and Paris and then, for one week, back in Fayetteville. My mom really wants to see me. This does not surprise me, since I am probably the best, if not favorite, child. I'll be back in Turkey near the end of the month. Not like you care, though.