What are they doing there anyhow?

I suppose it might be helpful if I explained more about why we're there.  Dennis was accepted into the prestigious Olmsted Scholar Program (Link to Olmsted Foundation Page), and I can't explain it any better than the way they describe their mission on that website:


"To provide outstanding young military leaders an unsurpassed opportunity to achieve fluency in a foreign language, pursue graduate study at an overseas university, and acquire an in depth understanding of foreign cultures, thereby further equipping them to serve in positions of great responsibility as senior leaders in the United States Armed Forces"


It's both an amazing opportunity and a really sweet deal.  Istanbul was at the top of our list, and we consider ourselves pretty darn lucky to have gotten it.  We'll study Turkish for the first 6-7 months in-country, then he will (hopefully) be attending Istanbul University to study International Relations or Political Science.  I suppose I'll figure something out to do as well, in between all our traveling around Turkey and the rest of the region.