fazil can graduates!

my brother-in-law, fazil can, graudated from university this week. it was an extra special occasion for ben, since it came exactly ten years after his graduation from the same university. we were very happy to attend and cheer him on...

...and celebrate with him after.

next stop, northeastern university!

on our way home however, we encountered some more excitement. we were heading up the highway when we noticed stopped traffic and some cars turning around to drive back down the highway, the wrong way. soon enough we discovered why: a huuuuge hail storm/rain storm trapped us on the highway for at least 45 minutes.

river of hail down the highway

it was a bit scary at times when the hail got really heavy, and the current running down the highway started getting worse. but luckily we waited it out without incident.

when it ended and traffic began to slowly move (many cars were stuck in the foot or so of hail that had accumulated in some parts), we discovered getting home may not be as easy as we had hoped. we ended up at the top of the hill only to have to turn around and go back down as the way was blocked with traffic & flooding.

the hail had plugged all of the drain pipes and there was a small river running down the other side of the highway.

luckily ben's navigation skills steered us up and over the mountain behind our house over back roads, away from traffic.

when we got home, we saw on the news that just about a block from where we'd been stopped (and passed by on our way home) was entirely washed out, and we were very fortunate to have waited out the storm on higher ground.

highway underpass entirely filled with water, and some cars

top of truck submerged in water

all in all, an eventful day! we were glad to make it home safe & sound.

the rat

yesterday started off uneventfully enough. ben was out hosting a visitor from ny while i worked in the office. it was a busy morning with plenty of students calling about scheduling a visa appointment, etc. it was also a beautiful, sunny day so i opened windows in the front of the office as well as the back to get a nice breeze flowing. not long after that i was typing an email when a sound caught my attention and i looked up. there, on the floor of my office staring up at me was a RAT. only i didn't realize it was a rat at the time. at first i thought it was a squirrel (yes, that big), but it didn't have a squirrel tail. then i thought it was a ground hog or something. anyway, as my first priority was not to determine the species but rather to get it OUT of my office, i banged my fist on my desk to startle it. it ran out from my office, down the hall toward the kitchen.

for a moment i just sat there in a state of semi-hyperventilation, trying to register what i had just seen and what i was going to do about it. i jumped up from my desk and searched the 2 other offices to make sure it hadn't run into them, shutting the doors behind me. that's when i noticed droppings in the conference room... alllll over the floor. i shut all of the windows, as i still think that's where it entered from. then more droppings & urine on the floor of the kitchen made it clear that was where it was. i paused for another brief hyperventilation before opening the front door to the office. i stood there for a while, thinking, maybe it will just leave if i leave this door open. then i realized i didn't want to be anywhere near it when it left, so i went outside into the stairwell and climbed a few steps where i could watch the door.

after 15 minutes passed, i realized it wasn't coming out. i wanted to get our maintenance guy's attention but for the first time ever he was not hanging out in front of the building with his son. still, i started to think how far my turkish vocabulary might get me in trying to explain this situation to him or some stranger on the street. i decided to walk over to my friend's bar, just around the corner, knowing he'd help me if he was around... but of course he wasn't. i headed back to the office, considering asking the valet attendants, restaurant waiters taking a smoke break, and security guard across the street if they might help, but i couldn't think of how on earth i'd explain this.

back in the office, i tried opening the front door for another ten minutes. no luck. the thing was making sounds, even a few squeals, and i was getting reaaaallly creeped out. just then our landlady's daughter came out of the elevator. she asked me how i was and i said 'not good! i want to help you!' yeah, what i had practiced in my head didn't come out so well when the time came. but she somehow understood i needed help. she offered to get the maintenance guy and i thanked her. he returned with her and went into the kitchen where he declared this was the biggest mouse he'd ever seen. he then asked if i had any cheese (really? cheese? really?). i gave him a string cheese and he broke it up into bits and put it near the door to the patio, hoping it would be lured outside. it was hidden under the sink at this point and he kept trying to get me to take a closer look, but each time he pointed i ran out of the room. he then left to get some glue, returning with two large boards which he covered in the stuff & left on the floor, shutting the door behind him.

ben came back to the office later in the day, took one look in the kitchen and declared it was a rat. a BIG rat. i hyperventilated one more time for good measure. the trap didn't work, neither did the cheese. we left for the day with the thing still in the kitchen. today i'm working from home - ain't no WAY i'm going back until that thing is gone (along with all of the treasures it's left behind). ben's got an extermination crew coming in at some point today and hopefully that will be the end of that.

this is the first ben has seen or heard of a rat or any kind of rodent in his 15 years of living in ankara... so no, this is not the norm here! just a random happening (it BETTER be). this morning i tried to find a picture and this is, i think, pretty accurate. though it's not as big as the one currently residing in our office... can you imagine?!

blogger and i are still fighting, but i wanted to let anyone who may still be reading this know that i'm still around. also, the home reno project is pretty much done (well, kinda), so i thought i'd post some pics.

my favorite piece is the coffee table we had made in ulus ('old ankara'). there are plenty of treasures to be found in ulus. one place a friend of mine introduced me to is an antique dealer run by a father & son. they find antique pieces and refinish them, or turn them into furniture. so ben and i decided to see if they had anything interesting for our new living room. we found this carved wooden piece, something that was once a part of the facade of a house. he explained to us how he might turn it into a coffee table, giving us some options for the dimensions, design, etc. we agreed to a price, and 3 weeks later, voila!

i think it turned out quite nicely. now to find some colorful throw pillows for the couch.

the other item is the dining room furniture. another piece that turned out perfectly - and fits so well in the space. the fabric i picked for the chairs is eggplant and the table has a leaf inside to expand for entertaining... love it.

hooray for a successful home reno! we've still got plenty of decorating/hanging of pictures to do, and there is more yet to come... but i'll explain that part later. in the meantime, it's finally beginning to warm up here. it still rains once a day, but the mornings are sunny & beautiful, and the roses are in bloom. happy june!