And it reminded us that, in the 15 years we've been here, we've only known two American people well -- both were American women. And, we haven't a single 'close' American acquaintance left in the country after next month -- when our last American friend leaves to teach English in China (near my birthplace Shanghai).

And except for a very few old friends from the States and the occasional Yankee LPT website visitor that we've hosted here at Gümüldür sur Mer, we can count on one hand the number of Americans we've met face-to-face, in all that time.

I guess we've 'gone native', huh?