...And We're Back

I've kinda put off writing a new post, mostly I wasn't sure how to go about condensing the last four weeks into something readable. Plus, it's been a weird period with some lovely highs and some sad and sickly lows. Suffice it to say, I am happy to be off the emotional rollercoaster and back to normal life in Istanbul...which is why I decided to just go with a quick summary...

I was on a lot of airplanes in the last few weeks. After Lake Como, my grandmother and I flew to London where we spent an afternoon/evening with my aunt and uncle in their little town of Cranleigh. We were supposed to depart the next morning for Miami but alas, we got kicked off the plane. Yes, actually kicked off the plane, in one of the more humiliating experiences of my life. On the bright side, we got to have free breakfast twice in the hip space-agey Virgin Atlantic lounge.

Once in Miami, things sort of settled down; my mother arrived to help my grandmother and I headed off to Dallas. (The second photo is from the Fort Lauderdale to Dallas flight; although you can't see it, the cloud illuminated every few seconds with lightning.) Cagatay came soon after for our two-week vacation. We spent some time in Dallas and at the lake and then headed off to San Francisco for five days. We had a wonderful time...until I got food poisoning, throwing a wrench into our plans for our last day there. Then we flew back to Dallas, spent about 12 hours at the lake again, and then packed up our massive suitcases for our flights to London and Istanbul.

I'm tired just thinking about it.