Someone's going to emergency...

I spent the better part of yesterday in the former capital of the Ottoman empire and the better part of last night in the hospital. Despite feeling incredibly ill, Virginia (Virginia of the fireworks and Turkish weddings reported previously) trudged through Bursa. "Trudged" being the operative word here -- the tour was terrible.

(I did, however, manage to get some good pictures, available here. More on the awful trip later.)

By the end of the three-hour bus ride back to Istanbul, Virginia could barely walk straight. At one o'clock am she called, telling me she had decided she needed to go to the hospital. I met her downstairs where the dorm security officers and Suleyman (soon to be a major character in this story) were helping her make some phone calls. Within an hour, we were in Suleyman's car with his friend Hasan headed to the emergency room. They stayed with us at the hospital, helping translate and telling jokes, until we finally left (without Virginia) at four o'clock am.

Although her MRI came back clean, Virginia's blood work indicated the presence of an infection. That coupled with severe dehydration caused the doctor to keep her overnight. While Virginia was being examined I had plenty of time -- over three hours -- my new Turkish friends. Suleyman will be an assistant professor of finance at Bosporus University next year; Hasan is practically weeks away from earning his masters in industrial engineering. Both, as indicated by their willingness to spend the night at the hospital for two American strangers, were extremely kind. They harassed me a little for not speaking to them exclusively in Turkish (Suleyman speaks English fluently but Hasan's speech was more halting) but 24 hours without sleep did little to improve my already somewhat lacking foreign language abilities.

Virginia should return to the Superdorm today -- I'll keep you updated on her progress and my future adventures with Hasan and Suleyman.