Ramble

Merhaba(hello)! Last night I had my first Turkish class. I think Turkish will actually be easier for me to learn than German. This is primarily because of the fact that (unlike German) Turkish doesn't do feminine/masculine/neuter articles for nouns; this characteristic of German is something that makes me crazy. They do have six cases in Turkish, which is two more than in German, but when have a couple of extra cases ever bothered me? Russian has six cases too, and a totally different alphabet, and I think I did ok in that language until I up and quit. Anyways, the class seems like it will be fun. There are a few young women in the class that I might get to be friends with, one (embarrassed) German policeman, an unbelievably aggressive German woman, an Iraqi man, and a nice older couple (with a vacation house there - I might get to be friends with them too!). So far my vocabulary is about 15 words, but we learned the alphabet and some pronunciation rules as well, and suddenly a lot of my students' names make sense. If only I could understand their chatter during class....
Last night I also baked Inga a birthday cake. Cherry chocolate torte. I think it turned out pretty well, especially considering how much of it is gone already. I must say, though, that I am really looking forward to my gas-powered, adequately-if-not-perfectly equipped kitchen in St. Paul. I had to sift through a lot of recipes to find one that fit the limitations here. I had to borrow a hand mixer from the neighbors - not because I'm too wussy to beat egg whites with a whisk, but because we don't have a whisk - and create a double boiler with a pot, a soup plate, and two chopsticks.
This afternoon I was supposed to have a couple hours of tutoring, but that got cancelled. Instead of tutoring, I'm going to do another yoga podcast. I find them extremely helpful. I have more excuses than anyone I know for not exercising (I'm too busy/lazy/tired/bored/hungry, all my workout clothes are dirty, my lips are chapped, my toe hurts, it's raining, I have a headache, I really need to do this lesson plan/chapter/Sudoku puzzle/email/blog entry), but I can do this anytime I'm home for awhile. I recommend them to all of you, especially if attending a yoga class would be too expensive/time consuming/embarrassing/weird.
And on that note, I guess I should get to it. Iyi aksamlar (good evening)!