The view from apt. 23

Here's what you see when you look in one direction off our kitchen balcony: the lazy strays who hang around on this patch of grass 24/7. The yellow one was here first; the black one has joined him recently and may be a new girlfriend. We're still not sure if she's right for him, but at least he doesn't chase her off snarling the way he does with other canine interlopers (of which there are a couple). Both of these layabouts get fed by kind-hearted faculty from our buildings.



Here's what you see when you look in another direction off the same balcony: the dogs of WAR! Yeah! Football! And I'm talking REAL football, not this mamby-pamby pantywaist soccer crap. These are the manly men of Bogaziçi U., out there putting it on the line against, uh, other manly men from somewhere else.



Witness my awesome action shot:



Chalk one up against homesickness: I get football in the autumn. How cool is that? (The crowd, such as it is, even does American-style rooting, and they just played a little "Sultans of Swing" on the PA system. Hmm, maybe there will be cheerleaders next...)