just a quick update...

Hey folks,
So lots is new since my last post, I've moved for one, but that'll have to wait til I either get Internet in my apartment or find a free wireless spot with a plug, as I'm on limited battery power. I figured I would, though, update with a wholly exasperating observation: Turks almost never tell you they don't know something, at least in the customer service/business front-counter world.
Last Thursday, I closed on my apartment, and to get the cash for my deposit (USD, they're pretty fond of the $ still for some reason) I needed to cash in some of my travellers cheques. No big deal, I thought, I'll just go to a bank and take care of that early. Oh, but boy was I wrong. The first bank sent me to a second, which sent me to a different branch, which suggested two different banks, and by the end of the day I had visited 10 banks, walked over 4 miles, and had not cashed any of my travellers cheques. Every single teller I talked to told me that a different bank "absolutely," "guaranteedly" would accept/exchange travellers cheques. It was moer than a little frustrating. I started crying in the second HSBC I visited, the eighth bank I'd been to that day, after they almost exchanged my travellers cheques, only to say "oh wait, these are American Express travellers cheques, we don't accept these." And of course all these transactions were in Turkish, so about half the tellers would, noting that Turkish wasn't my native language, ask the lobby at large if anyone spoke English, at which point I would try to explain that I did, really, understand what they'd told me in Turkish, but would have to sit through the same explanation, this time in questionable English. And of course at each bank I had to take a number and wait in line for 10-40 minutes. I was in various banks for hours on Thursday. Incidentally, if you're planning on going to Turkey with travellers cheques, the PTT will cash them, I've found. IsBank will as well, but they want to charge 30 YTL per check. For reference, a $50 travellers cheque is currently worth about 55 YTL. If one was particularly desperate, I suppose that might be an option.
And this week, I get to go through the whole thing again, luckily at a slower pace. I tried to get internet set up for my apartment (sadly, all my neighbors saw fit to secure their networks) this morning, and after having checked with the TurkTelecomNet website that post offices here were licensed resale points for their internet services, headed off to my post office, and asked for internet. They handed me an internet sign-up form, so I figured I was golden, filled it out, and handed it back in. At that point, they told me (twice, in Turkish and English....) that I needed to go to the more central post office in Kucukesat. So, after a wifi cafe stop to check the address, I headed out to Kucukesat, and waited in line at that PTT, only to get to the front and be told that they couldn't sell me internet, and that I'd have to go to the Turk Telekom office for that. They gave me directions, and off I went again, only to find the TurkTelekom offices definitively boarded up and locked. Fantastic. At least this time, I think I've wised up and will not spend time walking to 10 places on the advice of people at each preceding place. Instead I just asked my waitress, and I'm pretty sure that tomorrow I'll be able to get my internet at least ordered, if not set up. This lack of internet at home is really not fun.
On that note, I'd better save my battery. Stories from my first legit week in Ankara (I went running with the Hash House Harriers; it was quite an experience), along with pics of my new apartment, will be forthcoming pending internet, of course,
Hope everyone's doing splendidly,
-R