Returned and anniversary!

Well, I'm home, if only for two nights.  Today has been mostly dedicated to unpacking and repacking and trying to figure out what I do and don't need to bring to school.  (For some reason, this information can easily slip out of one's head in a year's time).
You know what's NOT something that easily slips out of one's head?  ANNIVERSARIES!   Yes, this blog has officially, as of today, been around for a year.  It's interesting to look back and forward - to what has come along, what hasn't, and to what prospects I have for the future - and to see all the differences.  This summer was definitely different from last year - if only because I didn't really have a job this summer.  Yes, I wrote a lot and knitted a lot and reopened my Etsy page and all those things, but I didn't have a technical "job."  That being said, I was able to travel farther and wider than I was able to last year, which is really nice.  The time in the middle - yes, school - taught me a lot about a lot of different academic topics, how to sprint through an essay and still pass it, and how to deal with people as an introvert (pro tip: STUDYING ON YOUR OWN HELPS YOUR GRADES AND YOUR INTROVERSION).

In business news, the coolness of Turkey is mind-blowing, and everyone is extremely nice.  We learned a ton about history, religion, and culture, and I learned a bit about the issues that sparked the Taksim protests.  (in its simplest form, it involves people getting fed up with government favoritism and then people getting mad at the police violently ambushing protesters in their sleep).  Anyway, as what happened in Peru, I kept a journal; I will be typing those up, as I did for Peru.  The difference is that this time you will be getting occasional BONUS ENTRIES!!  Since Byzantium was founded in 667 BC, and therefore the city (or the concept of it, at least; there have been several citywide fires) has been around for 2500 years, there is a LOT of history - and a lot more recorded history than the Inka had, since the Inka didn't have a writing system and Istanbul/ Constantinople/ Byzantium was under the influence of Greeks and the Romans before the Ottomans.
In short, there's a lot more recorded history - a lot of which I didn't get to in the journal.  Since I'm moving back into school early (aka tomorrow), I will have almost a week in which I can do absolutely nothing except type and research old mosques to every extent I feel like.

With that, I must return to packing.