Anna in Istanbul

I’m back in New England at my parent’s beautiful house in Durham, New Hampshire. The dogs are well (actually Billie has really put on weight. she is a fat puppy… yes you are! yes you are, you fat puppyfacesocutefattyfatfat) and Benny the cat is currently hacking up semi-digested ribbon on the porch. For the first time in months, I can hear nothing but nature and the coffee maker. No street cleaners. No honking cars. No drunk screaming and swearing as he/she weaves down Amsterdam.

Michael and I had a wonderful Bon Voyage/Birthday at The Heights on Friday. Robert got the entire bar to congratulate us after Michael proposed. Accepting a marriage-offer-of-convenience has never been so fun.

In somewhat related news, California is WONDERFUL! Please, if you live in California, don’t let the state back peddle!

Now that our Syrian visas arrived, Michael and I are securing the last logistics of our trip. We are still trying to wrangle a hotel reservation for Damascus (if anyone has suggestions, please let us know!).

I’ll post the relatively final itinerary as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I’ve found this really great organization/event/resource. It’s called Pangea Day–apparently it was celebrated on May 10th this year and brought together international filmmakers. Check out their short films-I can’t stress how wonderful the films are. Especially watch “I Remember Lebanon” and “J’Attendrai Le Suivant“. One disturbingly poignant, the other sadly adorable. Enjoy.

It looks like rain. Nothing like a bit of precipitation to clean the slate.