weekend update

all in all it's been a great weekend. we had dinner with family for iftar on friday-- new family whom i hadn't met & are quite lovely (more on that later). we ran errands on saturday, shopping for paint & furniture for the bedroom, taking an unexpected trip to 'old ankara' where ben's aunt tried to help us find cheap furniture & took us to lunch. saturday night ben's grandmother had more dinner plans on her own so we ate the dolma she prepared for us (delicious stuffed peppers served cold) & then found a bar for a saturday night drink, enjoying being out of the apartment & having quiet conversation before taking the long way home to see some of the city lights.

today was a bit less relaxing, starting out with more errands (buying MORE paint, as the paint we bought yesterday turned out to be a bright pumpkin orange rather than the burnt orange i was looking for). a trip to the grocery store was a bit disheartening as i found almost none of the items i was hoping to (hair products, crackers, tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, the list goes on... ben & i have decided upon our next trip to the us we will be bringing back a year's supply of several things... the list has already begun!) we got home, saw his grandmother off to yet another of her social obligations (she really is something) and dove into painting. this was around 3:30pm, and we didn't stop until 11pm. we are exhausted with aching backs, but very pleased with the results of the bedroom!

i will post pictures of all weekend activities very soon, but for now i'm going to enjoy the white russian ben has made me, watch the end of the soccer game (rooting for besiktas of course), and then go to BED.

good night!