Picture Time

Sorry for the very long wait, but I finally have some pictures for you all to see!

Here is the team at the airport right before we left Raleigh:

Here is one of the meals that I had early on at a little restaurant in the city:

This is one night when a bunch of us played street soccer with some local people:

Here's a view of the city from the top of Galata Tower:

Here we are playing Settlers of Cataan with some Turkish people who attend this English class every week:

These city walls of Constantinople are over 1600 years old.  It was very windy that day:

Here is a team photo from a pickup soccer game that we played with a few locals:

And finally, here is a recent photo from our trip to Ephesus this past Saturday:

A New Week Begins

Hello again,

Well, it is now Monday again.  It's hard to imagine that two weeks ago today I arrived in this foreign land.  The weeks are truly flying by, so everyday I have to focus and make sure that I'm not wasting my time here.  This past Saturday was such a fun day, because our team got to travel to the ancient city of Ephesus!  The destination made leaving our neighborhood at five in the morning a little more bearable.  We took a short plane ride to get to  the city, and arrived in the area at about 8 o'clock.  We then proceeded to pile into a van that included a tour guide for the day.  We went to was is said to be the place and house where Mary, the mother of Jesus, spent her last days.  Then, we arrived at Ephesus.  I was a little overwhelmed when we got to Ephesus.  In one sense, the entire area is just a simple collection of rocks.  However, in another sense, the the area is a breathtaking piece of history that blew me away.  I can't wait to show all of you the pictures that I have.  The entire event was very sobering and humbling.  We went to a nice little restaurant (which included a buffet) for lunch, and then went to see ruins where John, who wrote one of the four Gospels, apparently attended church and was buried.  The day was packed full of history, excitement, and more.  Needless to say, we were all extremely exhausted that night, so a few of us watched the championship soccer game between FC Barcelona and Manchester United and then called it a night.  Sunday night, our team had a going away party with some of the workers here for two guys that left for America tonight, so that was both fun and sad.  We just hung out and had some snacks and talked with one another.

Today, we got to sleep in because our schedules have finally become slightly less structured, and we didn't have anything specific planned for today.  I was able to sleep until about 9:30 and then enjoyed some time to read.  We met up with a couple of other guys from our team and had some pizza type food, called pide, for lunch, and so that was cool.  Afterwards, two of the guys got their hair cut at a barbershop that has become somewhat of a hangout for us.  We visit there often, though the barber speaks no English at all, and he is amazingly generous.  We really hope to get to know him much better as the weeks go on.  The haircuts were very nice, though, and the guys now look very European.  Later we met up with some friends we met last week to place some more soccer.  That was a lot of fun, but I am hoping to play some basketball sometime soon.  I'm really in the mood for it, considering my favorite basketball team, the Miami Heat, are playing in the NBA Championship!  But I digress...

Thanks again for reading and for all of the encouragement you constantly pour out, and I can't wait to tell you in person about everything that's going on here.

The End of Week Two

Hey again!

I hope all of you are doing well today.  I have a few free minutes right now, so I thought I would jot a couple things down about the last couple of days.  Lately, our large team has been divided up into smaller teams, and we've been led around by a different worker.  This past Tuesday, we did some more traveling around the city, and we took two buses and a minibus to get to this one part of the city (and I can't remember the name).  Then we walked several miles to get to one of the highest points in the city, and I was able to get some amazing pictures of the entire city from this particular spot.  I felt so small compared to the rest of the world, so this was an exciting and humbling experience.  We tried a few new foods on Tuesday as well, which is always fun.  We even went to this burger place called Monoburger, which was very tasty.  The restaurant even had country music playing!  It was extremely nostalgic.  

On Wednesday, we went out with the same groups and tried to be very intentional about meeting people and learning about the life and culture here.  We hung out with a barber friend that we made last week, so that was fun.  He knows no English, so that made things interesting.  He led us to the train station, though, and was so friendly and helpful.  He even offered to pay for our train rides.  Our team eventually ended up at a private university campus, and we split up into even smaller groups in order to meet some people.  Two other guys and I walked up to this one student, after looking around the campus for a few minutes, and asked if he would show us around campus.  Long story short, we ended up in a room surround by the dean of students and six other administrative people.  They asked us a few questions about why we were visiting the university and what we studied in America, and eventually one of the International Relations men took us on a tour of the campus, which included an insightful conversation with four budding scientists who were studying breast cancer in the biology lab..  We had some great conversations yesterday and got some contacts that we're planning on meeting up with early next week, so it was a successful day.  Later that evening two team members and I had our mentor dinner, where we ate and had fellowship with a husband, wife, and their four month old son.  They served us barbecue chicken to eat, which was amazing.  This was a really fun night, and we'll be doing this every Wednesday night, so I'm really excited about that.  Yesterday we spent awhile at a nearby park, where we met a few more people and played some more soccer for a few hours.  Then from there a few of us hung out at the apartment of one of the workers, where she lovingly took time to prepare an unbelievable meal with chicken and mashed potatoes.  We are meeting many different people and have many different conversations, so I'm optimistic about the rest of this trip.  

And tomorrow we are going to Ephesus!  We're leaving our houses at 4:30 tomorrow morning and flying to the ancient area, and I'm so pumped to experience this blessing tomorrow.  I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures.

Thanks again to each of you for being so thoughtful and gracious to me throughout this brief journey, and I'm so thankful for all of you.  See y'all in a few weeks.  

One Week Later

Hey everybody!

I hope you all are doing well on the other side of the world.  Today has been a pretty good day.  We are just finishing up this several day long lesson on culture and other aspects of local life here taught by a very smart professor from America.  Afterwards, several of us got together to try and meet some local people at a nearby park, and we ended up playing soccer with a few new friends for a couple of hours.  It was a lot of fun, but very tiring.  I also thought I was a pretty good soccer player until I played with some guys here haha.  We were all exhausted after playing and so we found a really cheap place inside the park and bought several water bottles, which we all drank immediately like we hadn't had it in days.  Tonight we just had some fun in the house with our host family.  We had a pasta-like dish for dinner here, as well as Pepsi to drink, which was a real treat.  Honestly, the food here is oftentimes delicious but it does get old sometimes eating the same thing over and over again.  So this was a very tasty and much needed change.  We took some pictures, played with the kids, and had coffee for an after dinner drink.  I'm not much of a coffee drinker at all though, so I drank three small glasses of water to get rid of the flavor.

Yesterday was very exciting.  Sorry to be so cryptic about this, but just know that I was participating in the same awesome event that many of you were participating in yesterday.  I didn't understand much of what was going on, but it was really cool to take part in regardless.  Thankfully, a brilliant elderly woman took us upstairs and translated what was being said for us, so that was nice.  There was an English speaking man there, too, which was nice.

We are pretty much in the stage of our journey where we are visiting and trying to meet different people, while still really trying to learn as much as we can about the culture and the people here.

Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to youinsis again soon.

A Quıck Update

Today was a very long day, fılled wıth many lectures and lessons from dıfferent people throughout the day.  Thıs ıs stıll part of our orıentatıon, and we covered a wıde varıety of topıcs, from cultural taboos to language traınıng to the growıng church ın the area.  All of these meetıngs held wıth the workers here take place ın a place called a Dernek (whıch I mıght be spellıng ıncorrectly).  It ıs basıcally a club or hangout place where, ın thıs case, people come and speak Englısh.  I thınk we wıll be goıng there often.

Tonıght several of us went to Moe's Mexıcan Grıll ın the foodcourt of a mall that just so happens to be the largest buıldıng ın Europe.  It was probably a lıttle too early to be eatıng thıs kınd of food, avaılabe ın Amerıca, but we dıd ıt anways.  My chıcken taco was so worth ıt.  After that, three of us stuck around wıth one of the workers to hang out at game nıght ın the Dernek wıth a few Turks.  People were playıng backgammon, scrabble, and, one of my personal favorıte board games, Settlers of Cataan.  It was a really fun nıght gettıng to meet new people who were learnıng Englısh and to hold dıfferent conversatıons wıth them and get ınto theır lıves.  I thınk that ıs about all for now, but I'll update agaın later.  It's way past my bedtıme rıght now...

Hey!

Today was a very exhaustıng day.  We got up about 8 and had breakfast, followed by a traın rıde to the Taksım Meydan, whıch ıs a square ın a very large part of Istanbul, followed by a metro rıde to what wıll be our maın meetıng place for the duratıon of the trıp.  We met many of the workers who lıve here for two years, and so ıt ıs great gettıng to learn from them.

They gave us some outlınes of schedules and other thıngs, then set us out on our own.  We all dıd thıs Amazıng Race-type actıvıty whıch ınvolved a lot of walkıng and many dıfferent traın and metro rıdes, all the whıle prayıng we dıdn't get lost.  We saw many awesome sıtes, ıncludıng the Golota Tower (whıch ıs huge and has an amazıng vıew) and beautıful sıghts from the ferry.  It was a great day overall.  Tomorrow we are havıng more orıentatıon and dıfferent speakers who wıll educate us on many dıfferent topıcs.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great nıght, and I love readıng the comments you all are postıng.  I promıse that I wıll put some pıctures up soon :)

Love you all, and talk to you agaın soon.

And So It Begıns...

Well, after many long hours of flıghts and aırport securıty, we fınally made ıt to Central Asia!  And only one person's suıtcase got lost.  It turned up in Munıch, though, so everythıng turned out great.Our team arrıved ın the cıty about noon thıs tıme, whıch is about 5:00 a.m. in North Carolına.  As you could ımagıne, the jetlag ıs terrıble, but I thınk that I wıll be sleepıng well tonıght.

I am staying wıth a local host famıly here ın the cıty for the duration of my time here, and they are an amazıng group of people.  Two other team members are stayıng here wıth me, and we are all sleepıng ın thıs lıttle room.  I'll be on the top bunk.  We are staying with a husband and wife, and theır two kıds, a son and a daughter.  The mother and her mother prepared an awesome meal tonight, and the maın course was thıs natıve soup that I had never tasted before.  I'm really looking forward to all of the dıfferent types of food we wıll be havıng.  I think the famıly is going to try and prepare a meal local to thıs area every Monday night for dınner, so that should be fun.  The parents do speak some Englısh, especially the father, and I am learnıng some of the native language as well, so it's been exciting. 

Anyways, I wıll try and post some pıctures and wrıte agaın soon, but for now, your prayers for our team, as well as the people of the city, are greatly apprecıated.  Talk soon!