Feliz cumpleaõs no longer applies...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY! (albeit technically late, but utterly convenient because it's still your birthday in your time)

For your birthday, I got you two things:

The first thing is the Bosporus. It's very beautiful, I'm sure, only I don't think that I've technically seen it yet. The only catch is that you have to come and get it, and I'm fairly certain that the Turks have worked pretty hard to secure it, so they may not be too happy with its new ownership. You will, however, enjoy controlling passage to all of the great trade routes of the Orient. (Your birthday present, also, is way cooler than even the coolest present thus far, which was for Emily on her eighteenth (?) and was, indeed, Boston Sand and Gravel Company (First and Finest!).)

The second is a beautiful, effervescent daughter who is safe near said Bosporus, who, because she's a weentsy bit antisocial and independent (and was the only one who could understand the Turkish that the woman checking us in was speaking, so she knew to say, 'Ben' instead of standing around looking lost, so she was put all alone), is the only one in her group not staying on the floors with the rest of her group, and who is staying with a lovely Turkish girl, and they are having the most wonderful time communicating in broken English and Turkish, and setting up the internet, and all manner of other things. Don't worry, though, because this old building is a university dormitory, and there are only five floors. Your favourite daughter is on the fifth, which always seems to happen. The neighbourhood is very safe, and there's not only a police station around the corner, but also university police as well, not that they're needed, because the neighbourhood is, as mentioned, very safe.

It's now time for your beautiful girl to finish unpacking, although there was talk of moving me to-morrow, (I'm totally fine here, because I can practice Turkish, but the only problem may be different waking up times with my roommate and my lack of alarm--we're good for to-morrow, though), and then time to maybe get a bit clean, because a day of travel and the humidity here has made me rather icky. Don't worry, though, I'm still gorgeous.

S.B.

ps My Turkish name is İnci, pronounced 'In-gee.'