Off to Portland

After coming back in town for less than two weeks I'm finding myself on the road again. This time I'm headed to Portland, Oregon, for almost the entire month of July. I'm told it's the most beautiful this time of year, plus there are going to be plenty of waterfalls to check out around the area. I'm arriving on July 4th so I can pretend all the fireworks are for me.

Multnomah Falls

Punchbowl Falls

All excitement besides, I have no idea what to expect when I get to Oregon. If any of you know anything about Portland that you think I ought to know while I'm there this July, please don't hesitate to write about it in the comments section. I'm kind of just figuring out as I go, and any help would be great!

And finally: a quick update in Turkish news. The new parliament has begun after the June 12 elections... or it was supposed to. However, some 170 elected members have been boycotting the new government because of a refusal (by whom I'm not quite sure) to allow some of the elected members who are currently in prison to serve. It's a sticky situation and I'm confused about how it might ever resolve: both the dissenting CHP and BDP parties seem as stubborn to get what they want as the near-majority party AKP doesn't want them to get it - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan insists the government will function just fine without these 170 members. In the end, what it seems to mean is that the push to rewrite Turkey's constitution is on hold for the immediate future.

As far as I can tell, this is much bigger news in Turkey than the tightrope Erdoğan is walking when it comes to the Syrian refugees flooding the southern part of the country.