|
Updates, logs, and reflections
|
|
Jennifer |
Simone |
Collette |
Sierra |
Jay |
Kelly |
Stephen |
Luke |
Chi-su
|
April 22
I’m eating Turkish pistachio nuts now while reflecting on today. Our group met at Bethany at 11:30 (well...Sierra was late because she was visiting at Elias’ house...Oooops). We had a very long trip from Chicago to Antalya. Everyone looks very tired but they are excited about the rest of our trip in Turkey. Well, I should go to bed now so tomorrow I’m not tired. Good night :-)
April 23
I couldn’t wake up by myself today morning because I was really tired from yesterday. However, the sunshine woke me up nicely and then I took a perfect shower with hot water. After we ate breakfast, we visited at St. Paul’s Cultural Center and then left for Perge with Jim. While we were going to Perge, we saw so many children and their parents because today was the children day in Turkey. When we arrived at the Perge, we saw the Roman stadium. I was so speechless! Also, I felt like I was a man who lived in the past. I really enjoyed looking around there because otherwise I could only see pictures of the place from history books. Jim explained about Perge very well and it was really helpful to understand about the site. After touring at Perge, we visited the beach which is near by our hotel, and we jumped in the water as soon as we arrived there. We must have seemed like little children! The most interesting time was in the evening, when we had a conversation with three Turkish people who came St. Paul’s to learn English. Even I am not a native speaker, I tried to teach English to them as much as I could. Actually, I learned much about their culture and customs from them. Also, I found that their culture is very similar to Korean culture. For example, they have a public bath place. We did so many great things today but I can’t mention all of them so I am going to mention rest of them in my own journal. Good night (Iyi geceler)!
April 26
Yesterday was the last day to stay in Antalya. We visited Kumluca to looking around greenhouses and the agricultural festival. We joined the parade in the agricultural festival and our group was in a Turkish TV program. We met really nice guides in Kumluca and they offered very good tomatoes and cucumbers to us. They made me think of Turks as very hospitable people, as did other Turks. After that, we visited one of the international schools in Antalya and I saw another side of Turkey, the wealthy side. The school was really fancy and big. Today, we finally arrived in Istanbul. We ate breakfast on the roof terrace in the hotel and then we went to Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, and the Grand Bazaar. The Blue Mosque in particular was really huge and beautiful. I was surprised at the many beautiful mosaics and pictures that were inside the mosque. Many tourists from other countries were there too. After we visited there, we went to the bazaar. I saw it on a history program on TV when I was little. I bought many gifts for friends and families, such as a very cheap soccer jersey, tea set, and cashmere. Most of stuff was cheap but all the sellers asked for high prices first before we bargained the price down. To be honest, I didn’t like the lies about prices and gossiping about the other sellers in the bazaar. That made me feel bad about Turkey, but all sellers tried to say hi in each countries’ language to their customer.
April 27
It's not only me, but all the guys get up late since arriving in Turkey. But I woke up at 7 am this morning! You know why? Because I am so excited about today's touring schedule! Especially since we are going to see Turkish belly dancing tonight. First of all, we visited TEGV to do service there. To be honest, I couldn’t smile before we arrived at TEGV because today was especially hot. But I couldn’t stop smiling when I was spending time with the Turkish children at TEGV. They were so cute and they tried to teach their language to me even though they made fun of my Turkish pronunciation. I also read in English to them and they enjoyed my reading. In fact, I had a bias that Turkey is kind of poor country but I wonder how they built TEGV to offer free extracurricular activities to Turkish children. Baba (he is Jennifer’s husband and we called him "Baba" during the interterm) said that the government collected some donations and it was appropriated to build TEGV or other buildings for children. Finally, we went to a fancy restaurant to watch belly dancing and other traditional folk dances. One of the best things was that I danced with a professional belly dancer tonight! I was not shy at all but I enjoyed dancing. It was really good time and it will be good memory in the future.
April 28
Oh no! Today is the last day of our stay in Turkey. How sad it is! I’m pretty sure that I am going to miss this lovely country forever...Today, we visited Akmerkez and the fortress. The fortress was really big and I saw such a beautiful view of Istanbul from the top of the fortress. Our group also met Katie and Katy, who are students in Turkey. They talked about being American Christians in Turkey as we sat together on the top of a tower. After that, we got on board a big boat on the Bosphorus and looked around at the nature of Istanbul. There were many big mountains, trees, and bright sunshine. Turkey...I learned many things about life in this beautiful country. All Turkish people were nice and kind to our group during the trip. Also they seem happy all the time. I hope that not only I but also our group members will tell about Turkey to other people when we go back to the U.S. Love you, Turkey!!!
|
|
| Webmaster: Chelsea Germeyan |
|
|
