oops - did i forget to mention that my roomate was deported?

Okay, okay, so the feds didn't knock down our door and stick her on the next flight to the US of A.... BUT it went something like this:

Expired visa, employers not helpful AT ALL in getting proper legal paperwork (contrary to what they had promised contractually....more proof that contracts don't really mean much in Turkey), trips to various government offices, special paper saying she can stay, some saying she needed to exit-re-enter from Bulgaria, some saying she needed to leave for a month, some saying three months....
Well, after a brief "vacay" in Bulgaria and numerous fruitless trips to the (clueless) Turkish consulate in Sofia, the truth comes spewing out that a new law is in effect this year for American citizens. It requires that US citizens with 15+ days expired tourist visas leave Turkish soil for 3 months (less than 15 days leave for one month), so Sarah, my roommate and conspirator in all things absurd and ex-patriotic, has flown the coop for the languid shores of Maryland, where she awaits her luminous return to Istanbul (read: hangs out with her family and friends, stocks up on good books and American snack foods to bring back here, and annoys the heck out of the DC Turkish Embassy...)

Bytheby, read about her adventures here.

But now her paperwork is in line and only one more month of living alone with a cat like a 40-something spinster (inşallah!).

mr. boncuk patlıcan tinkles playing like a fiend in my dirty laundry