The Rest of Turkey

 I’m a stressed little blogger right now. Super behind. So here’s the rest of Turkey:

Wednesday we went to Assos and Pergamon. Places where Paul preached. He docked his boat right across from the island of Lesbos (English majors unite- you know Sapphos and Lesbos.) They were beautiful ruins in an amazing country side view.

Then we went to Ephesus! As in, Ephesians the book in the Bible. Yeah. It was sweeeeet. There are a ton of cool ruins, including the full façade of the library and the full theater, which seats 25,000 people. That’s right. Twenty.five.thousand.  I already did a post about it.

Then we went to Sardis, where we saw a synagogue next to a Greek gymnasium, which shows the Hellenization of Judaism way back when. John ripped his pants while he and Kyler were wrestling. It’s fine.

Then we went to Prienne! There was just the usual stone ruins, columns, theater, but then three cool things....an untouched Temple of Athena and sheep and flowers. 

Mos ancient sites are found like this, they're put back together. But this one is interesting because it's how it would have been found, and also because the pieces weren't stolen. 


That night we went to Bursa and went to the Grand Mosque. We

Muslims have to ritually cleanse themselves before each time they pray (5x/day). So devout.

the rest in the next blog.

M

Ephesus

Thursday in Turkey we went to Ephesus! It's one of the main places where Paul preached. It was sweeeeet. There are a ton of cool ruins, including the full façade of the library and the full theater, which seats 25,000 people. That’s right. Twenty.five.thousand.  So remember the picture in the back of the bible of Ephesus? I took a picture of a picture. Twin pictures. Then we went to Prienne, which is more ancient ruins and it was so beautiful!

the library

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Kyle and Ido model poses....at every site. 

Bro Huntsman and Bro Ludlow. Two of my favorite people here. 

Turkey: Day 2!

The words don't exist for how much I love Turkey! I had no idea it was so full of history, culture, religion, art, architecture, and beautiful scenery like it is. 

We call Turkey “the best kept secret.”

So our second day, we went to Troy! It’s sad to admit, but the students liked taking pictures and getting in the big imitation Trojan Horse than we liked the ancient sites….basically it was a bunch of rocks.

 After, we went shopping and on a cruise up and down the Bosphorus Strait. Saw some amazing things. Loved life. 

We had to recreate the Titanic pose.....obviously. 

Then we went on a very long, yet fun, bus ride to Canakkale and pulled up to our hotel…..which was right on the beach of the Dardanelles. After dropping our bags in our room, we ran as fast as we could out to the beach. We felt the sand, climbed up onto the dock, took pictures, and ran around like calves right out of the stall.

But we had no idea about what was to come that night….Fatih our amazing tour guide got the hotel staff to throw a bonfire for us right on the beach. They made a massive fire on the sand right by the dock, put up big speakers, a disco light, and let Wes do his thang.

Here are a few of my favorite things:

- dance parties

- being with friends

- the beach

- the beach at night

- loud music

- my best friends

- the moon and stars

- exotic places

So that night basically all of my dreams came true. Because all of those things I just listed were combined. Plus we were on the banks of the Dardanelles in Turkey. NO BIGGIE.

First Day of Turkey!

Istanbul! One of my new favorite cities ever. We decided Turkey is the best kept secret of famous places. As in, everyone's obsessed with Paris and London, but Istanbul is so full of culture and history and it's just so fabulous. 

on the right: the base of an ancient sculpture brought here from Egypt.

inside of the Blue Mosque (so anthro?)

Hagia Sophia, inside of Blue Mosque, my roommate Analise and me, and my favorite people in the world! 

ceilings of mosques. amazing.

me doing the classic asian tourist peace sign (notice: running shoes with jeans, 5 coats, and the camera hanging around my neck. too good!) and the Blue Mosque. ~a little obsessed. I still like Sophia better~

xoxo

2 hours to Turkey.

So one day we finished finals.

Then one day later, we left for Turkey. We had a short delay.

Then three hours later we were there. And the minute our tour guide picked us up, I had Turkish delight for the first time.

Then one second later, I fell in love. With one of the most cultural, artistic, historical, famous, amazing cities in the world. ~ Constantinople aka Istanbul~

xoxo

finals week.

few words. many photographs. this will consist of one picture of the negative side of finals week.

1. we fall asleep any time, anywhere. example: Logan. Floor. Lounge. Almost missed his Arabic final.

2. we have ipod dance parties. for those of you whose lives have not been blessed by ipod dance parties, it is this: you all get the same playlist and press play at the same time and dance around. no speakers, just silence. but music running through your body. SO FUN. don't tell Dr. Jackson that a few anonymous students might have danced on the tables in the library...whaaaa? Then we visit Feras and the other guy. We love them.

3. we go to the waffle bar in West J and eat a waffle that is actually for 2 people all by ourselves. #fat.

4. it snows. in Jerusalem. First time in quite a while.

5. then we leave for Turkey

xoxo

Life in the Jerusalem Center!

This is life in the Jerusalem Center! 

 Sometimes we go out to movies! 

 Sometimes we have Valentine's Dances!

Then J-Rowdy comes to our dance. And then we blow kisses with paper lips.

 Sometimes we make cookies, we get packages, and we watch SJ get cute packages from her missionary and we squeal like little girls.

Sometimes Sarah gets packages and we eat candy.

Sometimes we go out to West Jeru and there are regular malls and stores and we feel so modern. Guess who can read MAC in Hebrew? ME! Look- right to left- Mem (m sound) Aleph (silent) and Koof (k sound) MAC woo! Haven't been to yogurtland yet but....it's a shout out for my provo buds!!!

xoxo

Passover Seder

Seder Dinner

So a long time ago, a lot of stuff happened and I forgot to blog about it....so we had a Passover Seder! It was so fun! We are enrolled in both a Palestine class and an Israel class. For Palestine, we had the Arab Dinner, which I posted about. But this was the cultural dinner for Judaism! They usually have the Passover Seder during Passover (suprise!) but we had to do it a little while ago. So they pretty much read, sing, eat, sing, eat, sing, eat, and then repeat. It's interesting and fun! I helped set up and decorate tables and Ophir (our Judaism teacher) and his son came to lead us in song and reciting of Hebrew stories. 

Me decorating tables! and...Ophir and his JCrew child model son.

My decoration of the head table. And the Passover platter. Symbolism. Look it up if you want to learn something cool.

the cooks *Ahmed my favorite on the right!*
Grace, Megan, and Sarah
Meredith, Kyle, Me, Josh
The Jacksons, Rasbands (pres of sev) 

xoxo M