Yes, there are pine trees in Turkey

OK, so I got here last night, at about 10pm here time, after traveling for about 28 hours (including a 13 hour layover at O'Hare.....most boring airport I've been in on this trip).  Anyways, the flight overseas was pretty long, and the food was mediocre (as expected.  Hey, you don't get fois gras out of a microwave).  Well, when I arrived and got my keys, I found my apartment, which is at the end of a quiet hall, so I have this nice little corner to myself.  The apartment itself looks like something out of an Ikea catalog, which is fabulous!  It's very modern minimalist, with leather and dark wood and steel.  The cupboards were full of dishes and pans, and the fridge had cheese and bread, water, milk and juice for us, and there was a little plate of coffee and tea on the counter.  And the best part is, in the foyer there's a new, well tuned piano!!!  Today, we met with our supervisor, who took us to breakfast at Starbucks (which was fun, since it was familiar, with a language twist.)  We then went shopping for cell phones and supplies.  I got a hot pink Nokia slider (old school, no keyboard, cause I didn't want to spend a fortune, cell phones are expensive here, but minutes are super cheap.)  The supermarket is really just that, kind of like Meijer or Walmart, where you can get appliances, clothes, office supplies, electronics, etc all in the same place.  I'm finding, however, that the language barrier is getting really frustrating, and I hope our Turkish language classes start soon.  My friend and I missed our bus stop because we don't speak the language and we don't really know where we're going yet.  Tonight there's a dinner at 6pm, so I hope we can figure out how to get where we need to go.  More stuff later!