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Ankara, Istanbul, USA - July 10, 2009

 AM Departure from the hotel. Transfer to airport for homebound flights through Istanbul.

=Commentary: = July 10 marks two great milestones for our group: departure day and Mike's birthday. Continuing his string of good luck, this coincidence of time means that Mike's birthday will stretch 31 hours and span three continents. How many people get to say that? How many people get to say "when I was celebrating my birthday in Ankara last week..."?!

Anyway, a group of us find a local cafe after dinner (on July 9) to reminisce and laugh about our trip together. Around 11:00 we get treated to a spectacular display of the Ankara Parking Authority's power and reach - they bring in a fleet of crane equipped tow trucks and literally lift and sweep 7 cars from a no-parking zone across the street from us. It takes about 90 seconds per car. Then at midnight (now officially July 10) we sing happy birthday. We head back to the hotel for a few (very few) hours of sleep. The wake-up call comes at 4:15.

We are flying separate flights from Ankara to Istanbul based on our location in the US. The Pennsylvania and New York crew are flying to JFK; Tennessee and South Carolina to O'Hare. We bid farewell at the airport to our TN and SC friends and make the 45 minute flight to Istanbul. Once we get to Istanbul Patrick books a flight to Budapest to extend his trip by ten more days.

The flight from Istanbul to JFK is long but great except for some extremely rude Israeli teens traveling to a dance competition in North Carolina (another amazing cross-culture experience on our Turkish odyssey). At one point I fear the flight attendant is going to slap the zip-tie restraints on one of the teens as he insults Big Jim in a battle over Patrick's empty aisle seat (Patrick entertains us even in absentia).

We land at JFK, clear customs, and bid farewell to our New York friends. We meet our driver, settle into our fantastic Mercedes minibus, and begin the last leg of our journey. We make one last rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike and laugh about the game Patrick and Melony played throughout the trip - basically trying to predict who would or would not buy something at every rest stop. In this case Evie and Mike make a purchase.

We get back to Kutztown and we part ways for the first time in two weeks. It doesn't seem as if the world around Kutztown has changed much but I certainly feel as if I have. I can't believe my experience is now just another small part of the very long and complex Turkish history.



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