We had planned to go to Sanliurfa Friday, but decided it would take us too long to get there and we still had many things to do. One of those things was laundry. The Fulbrighters pooled their money to purchase a small washer that is quite loud, but otherwise works fine. It was one of the larger items needed to be moved later today. We packed and then went to a late lunch with one of the English instructors from the University at a place in the local mall. I also purchased a sweatshirt, as I forgot to bring a jacket.
Emily went back to her apartment to finish moving some stuff to the University.
I decided to go back to the copper bazaar area to take a few pictures. I walked for about two hours. It is interesting to see how many metal working shops the are on such a small area.
After getting back to Emily's, we headed to dinner with Erdem and another Fulbrighter David. We shared some small plates of food and drank a glass of Raki.
After dinner we went to the apartment of Austin, another American working in Antep. He and some of the other people there are part of the relief aid for displaced Syrians in the area. Antep has grown over the past few years from 1.5 million people to about 2 million by taking in about 500,000 refugees. Of course there are many other refugees in other cities in Turkey and other countries. Many are well educated professional people who had the means to leave, thus leaving Syria with a drained intellectual climate. Two refugees were there also and did not seem hopeful that they could return home anytime in the foreseeable future.
We came home and did some additional cleaning and packing. David stopped by and we talked about travel plans. Matt left early that day for travels in France with his family. David will be heading to India for a few weeks. Laurel will be in Istanbul for a few days and then head home.
We finally got to bed after 2 pm.
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