"Make voyages! Attempt them... there's nothing else." - Tennessee Williams (Entry 17; Day 11/12)

Thursday, August 22, 2013; 12:46 AM; our room

I fear that this must be very brief, because we have to wake up before 9:00 tomorrow.  Well, today.  Whatever.  This etry is for the 21st of august, so... yeah.  I might not hit the page count; if I don't, I'm sorry.  I'll make up for it at some point.

This morning was fairly uneventful.  I woke up at around 9, had cereal for breakfast, painted my own nails, hung out on the balcony with my iPod for a while.  I was the only one awake, so it doesn't count as being antisocial.

I woke Gen up at 11:00 ish, just so I could have someone to talk to after a while.

After she was properly awake and showered and stuff, we hung out in the living room for a while.  Buse was up by 1:00; Begüm was up around 3:00.  At 4:00, all of us except Buse went to the pool and swam around a bit.  I remained radioactively pale.  It's rather unfortunate.

After that, we came back and made fried chicken and salad for dinner.  Buse and I played piano for a little bit.  I had a flashback to a piano recital when I was 7 - one of Buse's books has Bach's Minuet in G.  Muscle memories die hard, especially when established young.

When Hülya arrived, we all had a brief, joking discussion on how we should make sure to get the ferry back from Princes' Islands when we go - apparently (jokingly) there are vampires and werwolves on the islands.  We decided that Buse would be the bodyguard, because she's seen the most episodes of True Blood, so she knows best how to fight them.

Starting at around 11:15, Günay, Hülya, Gen, Buse, and I had a really intense game of 51.  We didn't play the full 11 hands - we only gout to around 8 before we decided we were tired enough to want to go to bed.

I WON!  The point is to have the fewest points, and I had 150.  Buse had 160; Günay had 168.  It was all really fun.

I was established in the first round as the biggest competition, because I made Gen, Buse, and Günay all get the 100-point penalty for not opening their hand by the time someone closes.  Günay is really competitive in n amusing sort of way.  He calls the Joker "JoJo" and ill frequently say something along the lines of "Where's my JoJo?  Where's my friend?  Hülya, do you have my JoJo?  Are you split between JoJo and me?" (that last bit was only once or twice, and definitely in a joking manner).  He frequently would talk as he inspected his hand, his cigarette wagging in his mouth and everything coming out in a really amusing manner.  It was hilarious.

In all, I think this evening has been one of the most memorable, because this evening we laughed the most.  It was the first time I've hung out with the whole family together, and it was great.

Now, sleep.

I should have written before.  Oh, well.