Sad and tired

I am back. : ( I think the sad face explains it all.

I don't think I have slept in 48 hours either. Tuesday was my last day in Turkiye and everyone there made it incredibly special! Serkan's whole family gave me presents. Funda (sis) gave me a handknit scarf that she made and a jewelry box she painted and designed, Hasan (bro) gave me the famous Turkiye eye that wards off evil, his aunt who I only met once for 10 min gave me a handknit shirt, his uncle gave me some shoe figurines, his cousin Ibrahim gave me a wire candle holder, etc. It was amazing!! These people are so giving and so nice... I didnt want to leave. Monday night Serkan's mom made me a special dinner too of breaded meat balls and salad and they were AWESOME.

Tues night Serkan, Ibrahim, best friend Tolga, and friend Fazli took me out to this traditional Istanbul-type restaurant. I can't wait for people to see the pics.... and then to a bar and we danced Turkish style. : ) I only got about 2 hours of sleep (if that) bc I had to be at the airport at 530.

Ah, the trip home.... was awful. Turkish Air was fine getting to JFK from Adana and Istanbul (10.5 hour flight), but there were bad storms in JFK and we sat on the runway for 3.5 hours on the flight to ATL. I obviously missed my connection to Tally and had to spend the night last night in the ATL airport. That was fun. I didnt sleep a wink. I am exhausted and finally got home today (had to call in sick bc obviously I wasn't going to make work). Can't wait to sleep. The flight from JFK-ATL finally left at 1110 pm or something (supposed to leave at 730) and bc we sat on the runway so long, the fuel went down and they had to stop to refuel in Virginia. I had to pee there but someone took forever in the bano on the plane. A guy knocked and the lady answered back in a southern accent "I have diarrhea- I'm sorry". Great. So I held my pee until the seat belt sign was off, and we arrived in ATL at 140 am or something. To waste time all night, I basically talked on the phone til 3 am (thanks Mom), talked to Serkan probably 10 times after that, and watched Larry King's interview with Dan Rather. I didnt want to doze off b/c I was paranoid about someone taking my purse and carryon. The flight to Tally was great too-some dog was barking the whole time. UGH! I couldnt win. So the whole trip was about 36 hours total (Turkish time to Turkish time).

BUT totally worth it. : ) Pics coming asap.