Turkey Part 1

This has been a semester of many firsts for me. Several got added to the list this week, including a not so good one—lice. I believe I got infested from the orphanage I volunteered at, as I was constantly holding kids and kids were always playing with my hair. I discovered this the night before we flew to Turkey, which meant a long night/morning of getting my hair treated and combed out. The next night my friend Sarah chopped off my hair and treated it again…which meant another late night. BUT now I am clean and sporting a new hair style :). I was SO blessed bv the girls who helped me out! It’s true friendship when you’re willing to give up your sleep to comb eggs out someone’s hair.

On a brighter note—TURKEY!!! Wow. I don’t know where to start. I love Istanbul. The first day we got a boat tour and had a chance to get settled in our hotel and scope out our location. It’s incredibly “modern”, beautiful and filled with life. I forgot that I was in the Middle East until I heard a call to prayer. Thursday we went to Koch University and received a lecture on the history of politics in Turkey. The lecture was great, but I was enthralled by the University itself which was incredibly impressive and huge. We have sometimes two lectures a day from a variety of speakers with a variety of view points, and then we have an enormous amount of reading to do every night to prepare for the next day. I’m learning a lot about the politics of Turkey! It’s all really quite fascinating. I’m also getting to see some sites. Friday we went to the Hagia Sophia and The Blue Mosque. I remember making a short video about the Hagia Sophia in high school for Art History class, but I never imagined I would actually get to see it! Very cool. I’ve also just done a lot of exploring on the streets that are covered with shops. I walked into a Starbucks the other day; it was very strange. I even met two Americans inside (one from Tennessee!). Like I said before, I keep forgetting that I’m in the Middle East. On Saturday my friend Sharon and I took a ferry ride to ASIA which is right across the Bosphorus. We were pretty excited about it. We also went to a Turkish church service and sang some worship songs we recognized in Turkish. It was nice to be in church; I miss it. I just can’t wait to be in an English service that I can understand :)! Today we went to the US Consulate building and were able to listen to a panel with different expertise, and then we went back to Asia to explore more! We have one more speaker tonight and then we say goodbye to Istanbul tomorrow morning to head to Ankara for a few days. Part 1 of travel has definitely been a success!

Random Fact::

It is illegal in Turkey to criticize Ataturk (the founder of the country). This includes stepping on a coin with his face on it. And because youtube contained "illegal" critiques of him, youtube is banned :).