This Weekend

I’m not quite sure if I’ve made it back onto my pre-Selçuk schedule, but I’m finally making a proper dinner tonight for the first time in ages. I’ve been craving kumpir, so I have two giant potatoes baking away in our little oven. I’m afraid they are so big it might take hours to cook through. I might take a nap while they bake. And I'm not joking.

For the last few weeks, I’ve felt tired all the time. All I want to do is sleep. I don’t know how I’m going to survive my next marathon-teaching Tuesday. And I feel horribly guilty that I just counted on my calendar that I only have five terrible Tuesdays left (excluding four weeks of either midterms or finals). I stopped drinking tea recently. Maybe that’s my problem. And I’ve started craving cola, something I’ve never liked or wanted.

Despite my laziness, I’ve tried to stay social this weekend. Yesterday morning, we were awoken by a ringing phone. One of E’s school friends, who is now at university in nearby Van (nearby means 6-hours away-ish), had come to Erzurum to retake the college entrance exam in hopes of transferring to a different university (I was kind of disappointed E wasn’t taking it himself). He came to our house with three friends, and I served a very impromptu Turkish breakfast.

Later, I went out to dinner with a bunch of colleagues from the School of Foreign Languages. One of my good friends is finally leaving for his military duty tomorrow. He lucked out and will spend 5 months in Istanbul (instead of, for example, 15 months in southeastern Turkey fighting the PKK). We had a farewell dinner at the Guest House, but I realized 5 months is very short. We only have two months left of school, and he’ll be back in time for the fall semester.

E and I also went to see Clash of the Titans. When we got to the theater, we discovered it was in 3D but also dubbed into Turkish. E really, really wanted to see it, so I said it was okay. The men who sold the tickets, though, were very skeptical. You know this is in Turkish, they said in Turkish (and I understood). Yes, it will be good practice for her, E said in Turkish (and I understood). To be honest, though, understanding Turkish takes a lot of concentration and energy that I don’t have. So I relied more on my knowledge of mythology and less on my language skills to understand the movie. And since it was an action film, the dialogue wasn’t exactly necessary.

As much as I love my husband and adore spending time with him, I have felt a bit homesick lately. It’s sometimes difficult for me that E’s family can, and does, call at any time. I don’t want to take that away from him. I just wish I was receiving phone calls from my family also. So, if anyone wants to call me, or schedule an MSN/Google/Skype chat, I would be very happy.