Tis Almost the End of a Journey Thus Far

I realize now that I take certain things for granted: friends, family and Mom's cooking. I'll miss hugs and familiar faces. I'm almost ready to go, to move to Istanbul. You see, if you've ever tried to find an apartment in another country, from another country you tend to go a little insane. ie: today I received an answer to an email in 90% Turkish. The 10% I understood were numbers. For instance..blah blah blah caddesi 8... Most flats come furnished with stuff and cats and a roommate. This worries me. One place showed photos where it was crammed with stuff and it came with 3 cats. 3 cats??? Can't you take one with you kind sir? And it had a statue of a Buddha. Buddha got his own picture so I'm assuming this "sculpture" is a selling point for this person. I just don't know about that... Never mind, I know exactly how I feel about that. I don't need a rock sculpted into an obese man. Now, I'm not culturally insensitive, but this is my blog, my opinion!!!!!!!!!!! So, no bulging bellies staring at me as I make my way to the loo! My decesion, final decesion, end of story. Here's a little geography.... Istanbul is split by the Bosphorus so Turkey is split between two continents: Europe and Asia. My school is located on the Asian side, but it looks like I will be living on the European side. Hence forth, I will be taking a daily ferry ride. Ive heard this is a wonderful experience! I can only imagine drinking coffe, listening to Mozart as I cross the Bosphorus in a world of early morning fog. Maybe I should write a book; this is the stuff romance is made of! I'm not talking about men and women, I'm talking about man/nature/God. This city has soooooooo much history. And so in 3 days I am off!