M. Willis Monroe

Turkey is cool. I arrived very late Monday night, took the bus from the airport to the bus terminal where Mehmet and Gulistan met me. We drove to their house stayed up for a bit talking and then went to bed.

Tuesday I walked up to the Anadolu Medenyetleri Muzesi (Anatolian Civilizations Museum). It was really interesting to go back there after studyingt this stuff. I found that now the displays seemed somewhat biased and lacking on information. But overall the Museum has a great collection. Later on I met Pinar and her boyrfriend Murat; we sat in a cafe for a bit and then drove Murat home. Pinar and I got Iskender at UluDağ in the Armada mall then we went to meet Ekin at her house. Pinar and I got on really well, we were never best friends when I was here some four years ago, but I think now we’re very similar people.

Yesterday I walked into Kizilay just in time to buy a polarized piece of glass of a street vendor and watch the eclipse. It was pretty amazing, wasn’t a full ecplise but amazing none the less. Tons of people were in the square watching it including a crazy guy ranting about the world ending. Later on I went to Can’s to visit with him.

Today I’ve just been sitting about the house I might go and buy a cell phone charger in a bit and do some revision for my exams. This weekend I’m going to head down to Konya and onto Cappadocia after that.

It’s really nice staying with the Ayvat’s again. They really do feel like family. My Turkish is pretty awful but it’s definitely getting better. I’ve been taking lots of photos and tomorrow I’ll try to record the Ezan. Well that’s it for now. I kinda miss Gillian a bit, but I think the cure for that is to do lots of cool and interesting things for myself and really try to build up a stock of good memories that I accomplished alone.

Tomorrow I catch a flight to Turkey. I’m staying with the Ayvat’s at their house in Kurtulush. I have a few trips planned to visit some archaeological digs and I’m bringing my books so I can do some revision. It’ll be great to see the Ayvats and my turkish friends.

Today was a beautiful day. The weather was really nice. Chris and I took the bus in and then spent a little time running around in the newly opened park between SOAS and Birkbeck, it’s cool.

I’m in the middle of writing this essay for tomorrow. 1500 out of 2500 words done, home-stretch now. It’s weird I’ve been waking up at around 6:45 for the past two mornings but far from being tired the rest of the day I’ve had a good amount of energy.

This week has been depressing and busy I’ll be glad when its over. I leave for Turkey on Monday that’s exciting.

I woke up this morning at 6:45 fully rested. I got up, read for my essay a bit and copied down some quotes. Then I went downstairs and cooked a big breakfast for Chris and me. Now I’m going to head into SOAS and translate some Sumerian then go swimming at ULU. I sent off my application for the Jordan arabic course this summer. Now I just have to make sure all the supplemental materials get there as well, I faxed my transcript yesterday but I’m not sure that will be sufficient for them, so I might try and super-mail it today, it needs to get there by Monday. I also have to fax a reference form to Ms. Breindel as she still hasn’t gotten the one via the post yet.

I just checked my bank balance and I have more then I thought!

Ed And Lucy As Aliens.

Life is busy.

Gillian and I broke up today. I’m kinda sad and kinda mad. We had a nice weekend together, but it was soured by a conversation we had on sunday which clearly illustrated that we have very different philosophies. I left feeling pretty down, so Monday I made and effort to talk with her about it over coffee. She acknowledge the issues and apologized, and overall it was productive. So today after class we went somewhere and she told me that she thought about what I said yesterday and decided that it would be better for both us if we weren’t together. Fine, I agree. What makes me mad is that she used my impetus to discuss our relationship to end it. I was this close to doing the same on Monday but I thought it would be better to at least bring the concerns to light and see how she address them. In a couple days I’ll be fine and I’ll look back on it as a memory.

Well enough is enough.

In other news I’ve started taking care of this older gentleman in London, the father of a friend of the family back home. He lives in a little flat by himself and he’s pretty demanding. I sat in a laundromat for two hours doing his laundry and another hour and a half cleaning his flat, not what I wanted to be doing this evening.

Now I’m home and I have loads of work to do.

Oh and Allon and Max dubler came over for dinner last night. They’re visiting London for a bit so it was nice to get to see them and hang out for a bit.

Spring has arrived in England. Lots of rather muddly rain. Today we had an actualy proper rain storm with one role of thunder and a good ten minutes of downpour. This pictures is out of the 253 bus coming from Euston into Camden town heading home to Finsbury park.

I just finished an essay for tomorrow on the Urartian exhibit in the British Museum. Gillian and I went there on Wednesday to take notes for our respective papers and then we had a nice coffee in the starbucks across the street. Gillian drinks her coffee with a straw.

I found that since I’ve given up spurious internet usage at home I’ve been sleeping better and getting more work done. I still check my e-mail occasionaly and do various banking things at home but the rest of my internet usage is restricted to SOAS computer labs which limits the time I can waste reading my plethora of ex-daily websites. I’ve now found that I’m forgetting which sites I used to read and I really can’t be bothered to remember because they weren’t that interesting.

I’ve got my ticket and my accomodation for my trip to Turkey in a few weeks. I’ll be staying with the wonderful Ayvats for two weeks and touring Ankara and the environs specifically with an eye for archeological sites. I’m meeting with Roger Matthews next week to get some input on how best to trek around to these various sites.

I’m giving up spurious internet usage at home for lent. That means no internet at home except for occasional wikipedia et al. while writing essays. I’ll answer all e-mail, update this site and check other various things at school.

Happy Lent!