Hi dear friends and family,

Just a brief note. I've arrived in Istanbul and am settled into the hotel I'll be in for the next few nights. I took Robin's advice and treated myself to a nice place to rest up and settle in before I have to move again. I may travel in Turkey next week before moving into my apartment on Oct. 1. So tonight I'm sitting in a walled garden (with wireless Internet access) that's part of my hotel. One wall is the exterior of a Turkish bath from Roman times (now a partial ruin). Hotels in this part of town have rooftop terraces. From ours, I can see both Ayasofya (Haghia Sophia) and the Blue Mosque. There's also a small mosque across the street with one short brick minaret and a larger mosque that appears to be on the grounds of Ayasofya. All three mosques broadcast the daily calls to prayer through bullhorn-type speakers on their minarets. It sounds like something between a lyrical song, a public service announcement, and an air-raid siren, the two big mosques calling antiphonally to one another with the little one just singing along as if oblivious to the other two. I can hardly wait till the dawn prayer calls, though tired as I am, I might sleep through them. Then again, with this one little mosque with a big voice across the street, I can't really imagine sleeping through it at all. I hear that in some parts of Istanbul, anyway, during Ramadan people go around beating drums before dawn to get people up so they can eat before the sun comes up, since observant Muslims are supposed to fast from dawn to dusk during that month (which starts this weekend). I'll let you know.

I also reconnected with my friend Terry Olson tonight. He and I played baseball together for several years until he moved here in August a year ago. We walked around a bit and found the apartment building I'll be moving into, then had dinner. He took a cab back home and I walked a mile or more to get back here. It's a beautiful evening.