it's official! well, almost.

last week ben and i headed back to the police station to pick up my residence permit, having been told it would be ready by the 8th of october. this will serve as my official ID here in turkey, once my visitor's visa expires in november. of course, it's only valid for one year, so next year at this time i will have to go through the entire process all over again, and it's not a fun one!

when we arrived at the police station to pick it up, it was a bit hectic. the semseter has begun for all turkish universities which means that all international students have arrived... and all of them require residence permits. there were people of all different nationalities, none of whom seemed to know any turkish. they all looked pretty panicked, and again i was really grateful to have ben as my personal interpreter!

once we got up to the counter to give my name and ask for the permit, a police officer stepped forward and told the crowd that though we were told our permits would be ready, they were not. this was clearly a lie (as we had watched several others pick them up), and an attempt to be rid of the crowd. ben insisted mine was ready and luckily there was another officer willing to go back & check... mind you, they do not use an automated or electronic database for the permits, but instead they keep track with a giant book that the officers have to leaf through, looking for a picture that matches the face standing before them. if we had believed the first officer and accepted that the permit wasn't ready, it would have meant coming all the way back on another day, waiting in line all over again, etc. thankfully the kind & willing officer was able to locate my permit and we went on our way.

this is definitely one of those experiences you just have to chalk up to 'life in turkey... ONLY in turkey.'