And I'm back (at least for now)!

Hey folks!

Apparently the Turkish judicial system figured that banning all of Blogger and Blogspot in reaction to one or two blogs it found offensive was not a good deal. At least for the moment, Blogger is back up and running.
The latest news on what caused the banning is that a television channel pushed for the ban because there were a few blogs, hosted by blogger, that detailed how a sports-loving Turk could watch their soccer/football matches of choice online for free, instead of paying for this channel's premium sports service. Yeah. A bit of an overreaction, no? A pretty detailed (and in English!) article can be found here.
One thing that was news to me is that Turkey has blocked over 1100 websites; I've come across a few, but definitely nowhere near 1100. I would love to see a list.
As a short update on life-at-the-moment before I return to the rest of my Bayram trip, my days have been getting more and more full here, as I've started up Turkish lessons again with a vengeance. One of my tutors is based out at Bilkent University, which takes me over an hour and a half to get to, so for every 3-hour lesson, I'm gone for over 6 hours. Not so easy to get things done.
This weekend, a friend of mine stopped in Ankara on his trip round the world; I hadn't seen him since he graduated BU 3 years ago, so it was great to catch up and do a little gossiping about our mutual acquaintances (that'd be you, Boyd House residents...). I took his to Anitkabir for some good old Turkish nationalism and personality cult fun, and we explored my neighborhood. I made the discovery that the bakery across the street from my building is gourmet and goooood; also spendy, but not ridiculous, so this may be a bad discovery for me in the long run. After Kevin left for the bus station and Goreme Sunday morning, I went running with my running club and headed to the expat-ish meet-up at Minna's in the evening. Apparently, I have become a regular at Minna's, which is a bit odd, because I'm not normally a regular at anything.
Monday I went to the Ambassador's residence, as one of my friends and fellow Fulbrighters was giving a speech there. It was on Ataturk in the Turkish War of Independence, so all the military guys with the Embassy were there, as well as pretty much the entire Turkish military leadership (I don't know exactly who they all were, they stuck to themselves a bit). That was a bit overwhelming, I don't normally hobnob with military brass, but the speech was really interesting, the food was great, I met up with a lot of friends there, and I met a military attache from the Embassy and am now going to the Marine Ball in November. Now I've got to find a dress...somehow I neglected to bring a formal to Turkey...
The rest of the week is far less highbrow for me: I had class today, where we discussed how Turkey was totally in the right to take Alexandretta, no doubt about it, what there are no Arabs there. We did get to more neutral ground, but it is fun to study Turkish foreign policy inside Turkey itself, that's for sure. I have more Turkish tutoring sessions throughout the week, and am starting with a new tutor on Friday who's supposed to be excellent, so I'm excited about that.
Today was damp and rainy, perfect soup weather, so I made a large pot of chicken vegetable stew. I still have yet to try out my oven, as it's under the sink and a little scary looking, but I hopefully will soon, as I've not made chocolate-chip cookies since arriving in Turkey, which is a bit of a travesty.
Ok, this is more than long enough, so on that note I'll leave off,
-R