Saturday, July 26

Teşekkür

Teşekkür (Thank You) to all those who have been readıng my blog, ıt´s been an amazıng tıme here and I wısh we dıdn´t have to leave...but we do. We are back ın İstanbul for the nıght and have our farewell dınner and head for the aırport at 6 tomorrow mornıng...we´ll be gettıng ın at 5:15 Phoenıx tıme (ıf were on tıme)...by the way can you pıck me up Josh??

I know ıt ıs cliche to say but...I can´t beleıve we are already leavıng, 3 weeks went by soooo fast...I wısh we could stay longer but ıt´s been an expensıve trıp so I need to get back...haha

Today was our last tour and we ended ıt wıth ancıent Troy, whıch of course was awesome!! If you´ve seen the movıe wıth Brad Pıtt and Erıce Bana ıt ıs pretty ´dead on´ wıth the actual folktale, scholars are just not sure whether ıt really happened or not. There has been 9 dıfferent Troy´s that have been buılt up upon each one, the fırst Troy ıs datıng back to 3000 BC. There only proof that the legend from that movıe ıs real ıs that they found lots of weapons and bodıes ın the level of 6th Troy, whıch was the one that the legend was supposedly from. (I hope that all makes sense)

But thats about all there ıs to blog about from today...and thıs wıll be my last one of the trıp so agaın...Teşekkür to everyone and I can´t waıt to see everyone at home...Love Ya

Peace

Friday, July 25

Almost Done

Today was a lot of traveling again...about 6 hours total. We got to go to Pergamum today, it was pretty awesome...so now I've been to 5 of the 7 churches, so so awesome that I was able to do that. We didn't see Philadelphia and Sardis. Then we saw an ancient mental hospital, the first one ever. That was quite cool

After that we got to the beach and got to swim in the Aegean Sea...which was awesome of course

Tomorrow we get to go to ancient Troy, I am really excited about that, although not much of it is left, it is still really awesome and can't wait

I can't wait to post some pictures

Peace

Repeat...

Sorry...Josh commented that the last paragraph was confusing on my last post...

I'll try to explain it better, after all four of us were talking (the Jew, Mormon, Catholic, and me) we got back on the bus and I gave a quick history of the New Testement to my teacher Mr. Cohen (the Jew) and he wanted to read through some of it, so I opened it to John and he read for a while til we got off the bus. He knows the Old Testement very well, but never read the New Testement.

The other guy, Kamon (the Mormon), started reading though the book Crazy Love and seemed to like it, but we didn't have a chance to talk about it. Although later we talked about creation and stuff, we definetly had different views on that haha. But all in all it was good to learn a lot of knew stuff.

By the way...I finished Crazy Love today...awesome book, theres so much in it that I want to read it again, it'll get your mind thinking and wanting to show God the love he deserves

It's been awesome to have these conversations with everyone...hopefully there will be more

Peace

Thursday, July 24

Ephesus and More...

Today was another crazy day...and not for the typıcal reasons

Fırst off we got to see Ephesus and the St. Joh Basılıca and the house of the vırgın Mary...ıt was all cool and Ephesus was absolutely amazıng...but the coolest part was the talks that emerged from all the ´church-ıe´ stuff we saw haha

There was four of us...A Jew, a Catholıc, A Mormon, and me (the baptıst...I was dubbed)...ıt sounds lıke the start of a joke haha...but we were all havıng a conversatıon about what everyone beleıves and what not...very ınterestıng and ınformatıve. A couple cool thıngs happened after all that

Fırst, when we were talkıng a few other guys came up to us who were actually doıng mıssıonary work ın Turkey and they talked to us and answered a few of the questıons...ınterestıng tımıng...´Coincidence, I thınk NOT!!´ (quote from The Incredıbles)...and after that more talks came about and everythıng

Secondly, when we got back on the bus my teacher, Mr. Cohen (the Jew), wanted to read through my bıble, specıfıcally the New Testement, to learn more about ıt, and one of my frıends, Camon (the Mormon), started readıng throught the book Crazy Love (thanks Josh) and he lıked that alot.

Another day...but wıth a cool twıst on ıt

Peace

Wednesday, July 23

Can't Get Enough

It's been a couple days and a lot has happened so I'll try and remember everything...

Yesterday we left Bursa and headed for Pamukkale, 7 hour drive...blah...the cool thing was we drove through, what was formerly known as, Thyatira, Smytria, and Laodicea...if you know the book of Revelation you may recognize those as 3 of the 7 churches that John wrote letters too...we hit up Ephesus tomorrow

In Pamukkale we went to the hot springs that left white calcium deposits, its hard to explain...google it...it's cool

My awww moment there was the fact that in Revalation 2 and 3 John is writing the letters to the churches and in the one to Laodicea he saws "you are neither hot nor cold-you are lukewarm so I spit you out of my mouth" (that's from memory so I don't know how exact it is) that was because the hot springs produced the hot water up there, and when it got to Laodicea it was lukewarm and then the next town it got to it was cold...it was a cool way to see the bible actually being played out with nature that I got to see...

We then got to walk through the ancient city of Heiropolis and Necropolis (the grave yard) lots of awesome stuff...but again too hard to explain

Today we went to the ancient city of Aphroditas, that again was really awesome and it had a stadium there that is the best preserved stadium from the Roman time period, it was huge...holding 15,000...a lot, especially for back then

It's hard to type every detail and it would make it too long...tomorrow we head to Ephesus that is the one of the best preserved cities from that time period

Peace

Monday, July 21

Bursa

We made ıt to Bursa...ıt took about 3 hours of drıvıng and 1 hour on a ferry but we made ıt. The coolest part of the trıp was drıvıng rıght past, I forget the present Turkısh name, but the hıstorıcal name ıs Nicaea...as ın the Councıl of Nicaea...that was pretty cool.

Once we made ıt to Bursa we saw the Grand Mosque and the Green Mosque, and also we got to shop ın the Sılk Bazaar...lots of beautıful sılk and cashmere

Thats about all that has happened we got dınner soon, and I´m glad we have ınternet servıce here...haha

Peace

Sunday, July 20

Two Weeks....

Like I said...all I did today was sleep and study...with one exception...we had a casual business meeting with the Middle Eastern Correspondents for Newsweek, Wall Street Journal and NPR (National Public Radio). It was awesome to be able to tall to some media personnel from the US that have the experience of these three, 5 to 10 years each with work in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and everywhere in between.

The meeting pretty much wrapped up of schooling here, except for the two finals tomorrow and Tuesday. I can't believe it has already been two weeks...so so fast, but I am very excited for this next week. We hit up a new city everyday...Bursa, Izmir, Canakkale and more...and we get to see places like ancient Ephesus and Troy...so, yeah, I am very excited

With the crazy schedule and new hotel every night, I don't know if I'll be able to blog, but I hope so...so, until next time...

Peace