Life consists of...

• learning Turkish. I've been spending 2 or 3 hours a day on it. Between the Rosetta Stone (a computer program) and a Turkish grammar book, I'm starting to get the hang of it--theoretically. The Rosetta Stone helps a ton with my pronunciation.
• tying up odds and ends (i.e. dealing with my cell phone contract, driver's license renewal, voting registration, health insurance, blah blah blah).
• taking business casual to the next level. What will I wear in İzmir?!?! I guess the same stuff that I wear in the States, but maybe a little more conservative so that I don't look so glaringly young. According to one of the teachers I've been emailing with, "İzmir is about as relaxed as you get here. Many of the female students wear beach gear in the classes in summer- we can't do that as we are teachers but you get the idea. Of course you may on occasion have a student who wears a headscarf in your class." So no burkas, ok?
  
• seeing friends and saying goodbye (T minus 30 days).
• writing lists of everything I need to remember to take with me.
• laughing for no apparent reason. I realize in the middle of mundane tasks that my life is about to change in so many ways that I can't even begin to count. And I feel crazy and naive and all I can do is laugh because I have no idea what's about to happen.
  
• and finally, being anxious every time I get in a car for a trip over 20 minutes away. I'm always worried that something will happen and I won't make it to Turkey... And not without reason. Taking my brother to the airport yesterday, we saw this:

Yup, that's a Subaru Forrester lying on its roof with its wheels bent in. Can you believe the driver didn't die?!?! Blurb from the local paper:

Two people suffered minor injures in a spectacular accident Monday at the busy intersection of Highway 49 and Combie Road in southern Nevada County.

Jesse Maclean, 33, of Sacramento was northbound on Highway 49 in his Subaru when he failed to notice the light was red. Janice Mitsuda, 47, of Auburn was going across the highway from Combie to Wolf Road when she noticed the Subaru approaching at a high rate of speed and slammed the brakes of her BMW, Wright said.

At that point, Maclean swerved to the left, but still collided with the BMW, causing his Subaru to overturn, Wright said. His vehicle eventually ended up on its top, blocking the southbound lanes of the highway.

Maclean was transported from the scene by ambulance to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital in Grass Valley, where he was treated and released for a cut to the head. Mitsuda complained of pain to the right leg but was not hospitalized.