We're in the para

Hi all! Sorry blogging is sparse but that's our busy life. Good news: Last week I jumped through what seems to be the final hoop to get my "promotion" to Assistant Professor (Yardimci Doçent) status, which was a two-hour language exam. I think I did fine; the funniest thing was that the guy who supervised the exam was one of my Turkish teachers back in 1996 when I did the Bogaziçi summer school. "Just like old times," I told him as I handed in my pages. Besides the inherent satisfaction of showing how much linguistic butt I kick, this will (or so I am told) also mean that when the university gets around to paying me for all the hours I worked before signing on as a full-time faculty member, I will already have been promoted, so I will get paid at a higher rate. We'll see if it happens, since as I have tried to intimate, this university ain't much for fulfilling promises; but if it turns out as they say, we will receive a nice financial boost right around Christmas. 'Tis the season!

In other news, Meltem and I are now the proud and happy owners of new cell phones, ones which can take pictures. Supposedly I can even take a picture and e-mail it to people, and EVEN directly to the blog. I'm still getting the hang of it (I was happy enough that my old phone could send text messages!), so don't hold your breath, but with any luck ol' MelbaBlog should have some nice new images coming very soon.

And for those of you who haven't heard, Meltem and I are going to be visiting the States for about two weeks in January. Start organizing the parade!