My New Apartment (You can come visit!)

So I finally have a bit more time to write about my time so far in Ankara. I've been here for about 2 weeks; I spent the first week and a half at the American Research Institute in Turkey's Ankara researcher guesthouse. It was gorgeous, and I highly recommend it if your research ever takes you to Turkey. I would have stayed there for my entire grant, except they have a 3 month limit on stays...
So I moved, to a great apartment literally 4 blocks downhill from the guesthouse and the Fulbright offices (this is absolutely the easiest move I've ever done). I now live in Cankaya/Kavaklidere, just off of Ataturk Bulvari near a large park and many embassies. The building next door to mine has both a supermarket and a nice restaurant, and there's an upscale bakery across the street. The neighborhood will take a little getting used to I think, but I really like it so far.
My apartment itself is pretty darn nice. It's a 3-bedroom, as Turks don't really do 1-bedrooms or studios (they stay home til they're at the 2-bedroom stage of their lives, even in/after college). I'm inshallah getting a roommate next week, so that'll leave me with a guest bedroom/laundry-drying and ironing room. It came furnished, as I did not want to have to run around Turkey trying to find decent and cheap furniture immediately upon arriving. I'm already doing more than enough running around. I think I'll have to start having dinner parties, as I have a massive heavy dark wood dining table; otherwise, I'll have a very impressive computer desk... The kitchen will take some getting used to: most Turks don't have ovens like you'd think of ovens--instead they use toaster ovens. I originally thought that my apartment came with no oven at all til I found mine hiding beneath the sink.
The apartment is I think a mix of really nice and kind of strange: it has new appliances, it even has a washing machine, but it has a spot of water-damaged floor in the living room. And the bathroom is newly tiled and the bedrooms all have new hardwood floors, but the half-bath is a terrifying pit of despair that I am pretty sure I will just seal off and never ever enter again. So it's got character. And little by little, I'm moving my stuff out of suitcases and making the place my home instead of simply a home.
And of course you are all incited to come visit! After all, I have a guest room now.
-R