On transitions and bus accidents

Tomorrow, my full research grant starts, and I'll officially be a Fulbright researcher here. I've been here on a supplementary Critical Language grant up til now, tasked with learning as much Turkish as I can sram into my brain. I'm still on the language portion, which will run concurrently with my regular grant until December, but now my main focus of being here will switch to Turkish foreign policy. It's a bit of a transition.
Of course, this month so far has been all about that transition: I now have a flat and a roommate, and on Friday I picked up my residence permit, so I am now a legal resident of Turkey for the next year. This week, I'll be getting Internet, registering for classes, starting my classes, and figuring out my Turkish lessons. So I feel like I'm at long last fully settled. It's kind of nice.
My week was full of errand running and such, although this weekend my intestinal system finally surrendered to the sketchy Ankara water and I came down with a pretty fun bug; luckily after living in Niger I am well-versed in intestines and anti-biotics. Still, I took the weekend pretty easy to recuperate. Today, I figured I'd get up and about and go to Mass, since I was confident I could find it this week easily. However, things happened, as they do here in Turkey: I took a bus, because it went within a few blocks of the Vatican Embassy, and while trying to make an illegal left turn, it got in an accident. Fun times. Everyone was just fine, both in the car we hit and on the bus, but the bus was in no condition to finish its route, so I set off walking, got lost, and somehow ended up on Ataturk Bulvari, 4 blocks from my apartment, half an hour after Mass was supposed to start. So I didn't make it this week. It was a little strange of a morning. Next week I'll try again, and inshallah the bus won't hit anything or make illegal turns and such.
On that note,
ttyl,
-R