Başda: In the Beginning

Fortunately, Alex enrolled in the Near Eastern Studies program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Unfortunately, it is far from friends and family. Fortunately, I find a job and a place for us to live right away. Unfortunately, the job is a spectacular disaster and our venerable cat, Miranda, dies from her thyroid problems. Fortunately, Alex is taking Turkish classes and studying full time. Unfortuately, learning Turkish is a slow process. Fortunately, I find a great new job teaching ESL at UA and Alex applies for summer language study in Turkey. Unfortunately, he doesn't get the Foreign Language Area Studies scholarship for the summer. Fortunately, he gets the FLAS for the next academic year and we both have summer teaching assignments. Unfortunately, Tucson is hotter than Hades during the summer. Fortunately, we adopt a darling cat, named Athena Kim, to keep us company. Unfortuantely, we have to find a summer home for her because, fortunately, Alex does get the summer FLAS! Fortunately, we are going to Turkey after all!