Farewell

So the time has come to leave and it has really snuck up on me. I still have stories to tell about Bulgaria and Greece and the last couple weeks in Turkey but I leave tomorrow evening so I might as well just wait to tell you in person, with pictures! My experience really has been great, the people i have met and the the things i have seen are all so memorable. All in all i like Turkey because it is different from all of the usual Europe destinations and some of their history is amazing. But as in every culture they have their down falls. I wont harangue you with all the pros and cons of Turkey now because while many people describe their study abroad destinations as some sort of inconceivable heaven on earth, i will not be so easy on Turkey. So for fear of sounding ungrateful or unhappy i will share on this later. Just know for now that I am sad to leave, I have grown accustomed to much of Turkey and now returning to the states will be strange. But i can't wait to get home for Christmas! oh man, i think this is the most excited i have been about Christmas in a long time. I can't to see you all again and Merry Christmas!

The Absurd and the Self

Sorry for the delay in writing a new blog post. It's not that things had gotten less interesting around here, I just became more preoccupied with school and friends and such.

I guess I'll start with Thanksgiving. Most of you, mainly friends at DU (Erin), get a real kick out of me eating turkey in Turkey. While I never really bought into how funny it really is, you persisted on its laughable value. So, I will be having a real turkey dinner here tomorrow night at my friends place and I am indeed excited to eat turkey in Turkey. But more laughable than that is the name of turkey here, it is hindi. And then in the Turkish language the translation for the country name India is Hindistan. So in a way in the eyes of the world Turkey is Turkey but in the eyes if the Turks, India is Turkey. Of course it is not as confusing as this since; one, the language difference; and two, in Turkish the name for Turkey is actually Turkiye. I hope that makes sense haha.

A week or two back Louis and I were waiting for our class to start (which the teacher never showed up to) and another exchange student told Louis and I that the post office on campus was looking for someone who had recently mailed a package to the USA, Louis had done so recently. So we went to the post office and imediately got lost in translation. After some time we convinced this Turkish girl that she did in fact know english and we learned that the mail truck caring Louis's package got stolen! Yes the entire mail truck, we are guess it happened somewhere in Istanbul maybe by pirates or hooligan kids. Louis and I were actually not surprised at all, this is totally somethign that would happen in Turkey. So we laughed for the rest of the week about it. But the post office ladie did say that she would gladly mail another package for him for free, yet she never offered a refund for the one that was stolen. haha

Some time after that incident, I was waiting for my laundry to finish. The time had come so I made my way down to the laundry room. No one was there but I saw my bag and took it. While I was walking out the laundry man came back in and embarked on a Turkish tiraid. He kept pointing at the door and saying the one english word he knows many times, "Problem! Problem!" Thankfully a Turkish student showed up who could translate for us, he explained to me that the laundry man was accusing me of breaking into the laundry room. He insisted that the door was locked and that I broke in. He said he was going to give my name to the security gaurds and the administration. I pleaded my case that the door was left open but he did not seem to believe me. For the sake of not getting too irretated with his incompetence I left. Recently, I had to do laundry again of course, so I got another chance to explain what had happened to him. He seemed to understand so he and I are back on good terms. But to my surprise on this visit to the laundry room I found that the glass laundry room door was shattered! haha so someone actually did try to break in.

So if you have read my blog posts from the past you know that the dorms are less than horrible but we have found a way to make it a little more fun. First the setting, all of us exchange students are on the same hall and most of us share a view of a court yard. It is not much of a courtyard though, it's completly concrete. As of late it has seemingly become a contest among all the students with a view of the courtyard to throw stuff out of their window which will make the loudest noise possible upon impact. Now our room is on the 4th floor but it is actually 7 stories above the courtyard. To contribute to the concert of falling objects Louis and I have found ammunition to throw ou tthe window that leave nearly no evidence, they is next to no clean up, and it is really loud! Shopping bags filled with water! It's amazing, it is so loud and so much fun! haha

Now more serious stuff. I have started reading God's Gift to Women by Eric Ludy. It's really good, a little corny at times but good. The book is more or less a commission to all men to wise up, notice that all you have been living for, striving for, is a lie. The target is Christ and we must turn our hearts that direction. Anyways, I have been thinking a lot about that and today it got me depressed for a little bit because it was talking about how some men have are so well versed in acting their role that we even become fooled. In other words, in terms of our so called faith we know what to say, how to act, everything so that people perceive us as possibly being righteous while we are actually far from it. The author confesses that he was this exact person growing up and through high school. I must say this hurt to read due to my, i guess you could call it "spiritual development" or more eloquently God's work, in my life the fast couple of years. Because He has changed me I have since realized that I was "that" person in high school and before. But I wont get into any sob-fest now. I want to just emphasize how consumed by self we can be and in particular the "religious" self. I give that specification because I, like others, become consumed by using religion as table to stand on and look down on everyone else. Now many of us would say, "I know I'm not that person, I am righteous, I do it right." But I think that is the very thing we must show caution towards. I am not calling everyone liars, don't hear that, I'm just saying there is a big differnce between self concept and self awareness. We may see ourselves as great people thus the concept we have of ourselves is, on our terms, healthy. But are we truly even aware of ourselves? Can we objectively and honestly say we are on the right path? It can be done, but not without a great deal of humility. And also accountibility and this is mainly why I write this I think. I need this accountibilty, don't let me become what I used to be. So thats my rant, it's not one of my finest but oh well. I miss you all and I cant wait to see you!

Reality... or so we thought

First, let me apologize for not writing an update sooner. This past week and the week to come are pretty busy due to midterms, even though classes have been inconsistent in attendance, work load, and difficulty, i still get a little stressed at the idea of taking a test. So due to the increase in study time i have had less time to think about things of more spiritual nature, which of course interest me far more than anything academic. So in the midst of tests and school I have had little time to refine my view on any specific topic but rather i have been introduced to many new things which i will have to spend time thinking about. Therefore, i will take some time now to organize my thoughts in front of you so forgive me if this is a bit drawn out.

Last week our school was screening the documentary "What the bleep do we know?" It is a film which brings together a number of scholars to talk about the field of quantum physics. Need less to say i found it very interesting and thought provoking. even with the smoking break the Turks had to take in the middle of it. The film brings up too many topics for me to talk about everything but i will talk mostly about the ones that were of particular interest.

The first has to do with the reality we all live in. It is interesting to think that every one of us has a different reality, or at least perception of reality. So while there maybe this unfaltering true reality what we perceive of that reality is actually what makes up our own reality. But from there one can argue how "big" the differences in perception are. for instance, one person may view a table clothe at blue and the next person may see it as green, this is of course a very simple difference in reality but then how far does the metaphor go? there are many instances were people confuse their realities in a way that makes them more comfortable. like when a loved one dies, there are accounts of people not acknowledging their death and going on thinking they are alive. so i don't know, although there is a "true" reality, the reality that is true to us is the one we perceive and choose to accept. now keep in mind this is of course theory what you make of it is your own preference.

Now, without a doubt to some of you, to religion. They do speak of religion in this film and how can you not when something like the meaning of life is brought up. And they, as many sciences do, reduce religion. The idea is that religion is was built out of insecurity. We are all so insecure about our purpose of life that we created religion to make us feel like our lives have meaning in the grand scheme of things. While i do think religion gives us these things, i do not believe that these are the means to this end. With out getting to specific on history, would an insecurity last through generations of people and expand as it has? would millions of people dedicate their lives to an insecurity? now some might say "well the person dedicating their life to it would not think it an insecurity, thus they would not even recognize it as such." true, but then how do we account for the relational aspect of out faith with Christ that many of us have? What about the those times when God seems so real we cry? or laugh out loud? do we attribute these to mass hallucination? i think that would be very ignorant for anyone to do.

Next,still religion but different idea, they bring up the idea of "Christ in us" which they then turn into the idea that we are all gods, we make our own reality, we create our universe around us, we are god. This made me think of things in turns of human nature. Is it really a belief to think you are god? i think not, i say just go about your life as you would normally and you will in due time treat yourself as if you were god and then make yourself into your own god. this is worldly human nature also known as sin. but then i get caught by the idea of there being an even more natural human nature, or maybe a "higher calling" as some may put it. since we were created by God and created to live in and for Him, would it not then be human nature to do so? are we actually going against our original human nature in sinning? thinking of this now i feel i have answered my own question by recognizing the fall. at the fall of man, did our human nature change from living in God to living in sin? i suppose so, but i honestly like the more optimistic view of us being meant to live for Him.

All right i think that is enough for now. I miss you all!

Thoughts on missions and Turkey update

Yeah so while it is still fresh in my head i wanted to tell you all about this thing going on in my head. it started about a week or so ago when one of my roommate's friends sent him a link for a product being offered on this website: http://www.kingidentity.com/ check it out, especially the doctrinal statement, which scares me a bit. But for those who dont want to read into the website ill tell you a bit about it. Kingdom Identity Ministries is a non-profit Christian outreach ministry, and after reading their mission statement they seem like a great organization seeking to bring God's Kingdom to earth also they claim that 100% of all tithes, offerings and such received by the ministry is used to advance the Kingdom of God. So it does sound great but then upon further examination of the website you will see at the bottom of the home page a link which says, "White Christian Ladies Only" it is a job posting, but what caught my attention the most was the part that says she must be "racially pure." so then i went on to look at their doctrinal statement, and it looks all good, saying they believe Christ is the only Son of God and that salvation is through faith not of works. But then things get weird when they say, "We believe the White, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and kindred people to be God's true, ;literal Children of Israel. Only this race fulfills every detail of Biblical prophecy...this chosen seed line stand far superior to all other peoples in their call as God's servant race." Also "race mixing is an abomination in the eyes of God." This is related to what they said about the women being "racial pure" so they cannot have a husband outside of the "chosen race." They also have a sticker in the "special items" section that says "don't be a race mixing slut." So what am i getting at with this, well as said in the title i got to thinking about missions work. We do all these mission around the world to introduce people to Christ for the first time which is all good and great we are of course called to do just that. But do we forget about whats in our own backyards? are we not called to show Christ to everyone? i feel that often in the case of extremist Christianity like this we go on saying, "let them believe what they want", or we say sorry for it, "i am sorry for what has been done in the name of God." ok while i think that saying sorry for what has been done in the name of God but actually been outside his will is good i do not think we should dismiss these people as being outside our mission field. should we not try and show them the real love of Christ instead of letting them go on discriminating against other races and spreading that distorted view of God? we feel so often feel convicted to bring Christ to the people around the world who have never known or heard of him, but what about that people who have a grossly altered idea of Him than what we know to be true. I dont want to sound like i am down playing missions around the world, they are amazing and we should always do them, but what keeps us from going to places like this were people hold these views and then attach God to it to justify their racism. my mind is kind of a jumble with these thoughts and i dont think im really getting my point across well so i think ill stop there. but as a conclusion, just think about this, when we are called to spread the word to the corners of the earth doesnt that included Harrison, Arkansas where this ministry is located? Dont all people deserve to hear the Good news, even the ones who have heard it and since then twisted it? also should we fear that people are out there still using God's name to justify something as simple as not hiring a women for that secretary job i mentioned earlier? so think about those things and so will I and hopefully i can come back with a clearer view on this issue.


Turkey update: So Martine was here this past week and it was awesome! So great to have a familiar face here and it is just fun to have a friend here to share this experience with. We just had an awesome time, we went and saw a lot of stuff I have already been to but we did some new stuff like go to these islands off the coast of Istanbul called the Pricess Islands. There are no cars allowed there so we rented bikes and rode around the island for a few hours. We went up these massive hills because at the top were monasteries and great views. I think the best way to hear about what we did is actually to look at the picks on facebook. I mean a picture is worth a thousand words and if its an album of 60 pictures thats a really long blog post, and i dont type that fast. So check them out, it was a lot of fun. A few other highlights are that when Martine and I were on our way back from the airport there was a piece of the road on fire, not too big but traffic was still diverted. We saw these really cool carnie people who were a traveling band in which one of the instruments was a tuba. We climbed Ataturk mountain, not really its just a hill. and we saw some of the coolest sunsets ever! alright other than that school is just like it has been the first 6 weeks, slow, uneducating, and no class half of the time. but the sight seeing and stuff is great! I miss you all!

Religion and some Politics

Oh boy, assuming anyone reads this you probably just cringed a little. Religion and politics never seem to fit together very well because often we choose to put at least a tidbit of our faith on hold while we vote. Of course i am guilty of this too. But recently i was sent an email that has apparently become very popular on the web that is claiming Obama to be the anitchrist. now some of you more liberal friends of mine maybe thinking that i am going to agree with the email but i assure you i do my research before believing just anything, just ask Will and the argument about the copper roofs. So any ways the email included this: (i dont know who it is written by)

According to The Book of Revelation:

The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will
deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal... the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.

And now: For the award winning Act of Stupidity Of All Times the People
of America want to elect, to the most Powerful position on the face of the
Planet -- The Presidency of the United states of America -- a male of Muslim
descent in his 40s and who is the most extremely liberal Senator in Congress (in other words an extremest).

Have the American People completely lost their Minds, or just their Power
of Reason ???

I'm sorry but I refuse to take a chance on the 'unknown'
candidate Obama.

The End


Ok, well yeah... i read that and i was like whoa! so i did some research, Revelation actually never uses the word "antichrist" so that is cool. the "beasts" in the book are never actually referred to as the antichrist but i guess the idea came from the "beast" being the one opposing God in the book. So lets suppose that Revelation is talking about the antichrist, still it never mentions the man being in his 40's or of Muslim decent. Now dont get all bent out of shape on whether or not Obama is Muslim, save that for another time. Islam did not even exist when the Bible was completed, it did not come into existence for another 400 plus years.
Now what is based on truth is that he will have "Christ-like appeal" Revelation 13:3 says "the whole world will be astonished and follow the beast." also he will have political authority, and be persuasive with his words. (read Rev. 13) So these qualities could be found in Obama but please do not think I am about to accuse him of being such. I am merely entertaining the argument. the word antichrist is actually only used in 1 & 2 John. in these contexts many people believe that an antichrist is anyone who does not believer Christ to be the son of God. so instead it is not one person but multitudes of people. Also it would seem that the antichrist is slowly coming into this world, not all at once, but slowly winning our appeal and praise. This sounds a lot like what we usually call "worldly things." so possibly the antichrist is as simple as sin. I don't know and honestly i lost my train of thought. but it is interesting that people are even considering calling Obama the antichrist, and others are calling him the messiah or the second coming of Christ. This is what worries me, that people view him is such a holy light. Have we been deceived in anyway? Now let me remind you i am not ranting so that i may convince you to vote republican, i just want to discuss these things without the predispositions so many of us take into religious and political conversations. This takes me to the next article i came across:
(please read this without the mindset of defending the candidate you will be voting for, just read and listen to the opinion, i dont agree with everyhting in this article and i doubt you will either, but please dont be so ignorant as to dismiss any opinion opposing your political beliefs)

Why I Can't Vote For Obama
By Huntley Brown

Dear Friends,

A few months ago I was asked for my perspective on Obama, I sent out an
email with a few points. With the election just around the corner I decided
to complete my perspective.

First, I must say whomever wins the election will have my prayer support.

Obama needs to be commended for his accomplishments, but I need to explain why I will not be voting for him.

Many of my friends process their identity through their blackness.

I process my identity through Christ. Being a Christian (a Christ follower)
means He leads, I follow. I can't dictate the terms He does because He is
the leader .

I can't vote black because I am black, I have to vote Christian because
that's who I am. Christian first, black second. Neither should anyone from
the other ethnic groups vote because of ethnicity. 200 years from now I
won't be asked if I was black or white. I will be asked if I knew Jesus and
accepted Him as Lord and Savior.

In an election there are many issues to consider but when a society gets
abortion, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem-cell research, and human cloning wrong, economic concerns will soon not matter.

We need to follow Martin Luther King's words, don't judge someone by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character. I don't know
Obama so all I can go off is his voting record.

His voting record earned him the title of the most liberal senator in the US
Senate in 2007.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Obama: Most Liberal Senator in 2007 (1/31/2008).

To beat Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton as the most liberal senator takes
some doing. Obama accomplished this feat in two short years. I wonder what would happen to America if he had four years to work with.

There is a reason Planned Parenthood gives him a 100 % rating.
There is a reason the homosexual community supports him.
There is a reason Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, Hamas, etc., love him.
There is a reason he said he would nominate liberal judges to the Supreme
Court.
There is a reason he voted against the infanticide bill.
There is a reason he voted No on the constitutional ban of same-sex
marriage.
There is a reason he voted No on banning partial birth abortion.
There is a reason he voted No on confirming Justices Roberts and Alito.
These two judges are conservatives and they have since overturned partial
birth abortion--the same practice Obama wanted to continue.

Let's take a look at the practice he wanted to continue.

The 5 Step Partial Birth Abortion procedure

A. Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby's leg with forceps.
(Remember, this is a live baby.)
B. The baby's leg is pulled out into the birth canal.
C. The abortionist delivers the baby's entire body, except for the head.
D. The abortionist jams scissors into the baby's skull. The scissors are
then opened to enlarge the hole.
E. The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted. The child's
brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then
removed.

God help him.

There is a reason Obama opposed the parental notification law.

Think about this: you can't give a kid an aspirin without parental
notification, but that same kid can have an abortion without parental
notification. This is insane.

There is a reason he went to Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years. Obama tells us he has good judgment, but he sat under Jeremiah Wright teaching for 20 years. Now he is condemning Wright's sermons. I wonder why now?

Obama said Jeremiah Wright led him to the Lord and discipled him. A disciple is one in training. Jesus told us in Matthew 28:19 - 20 'Go and make disciples of all nations.' This means reproduce yourself. Teach people to think like you, walk like you, talk like you believe what you believe, etc.
The question I have is, what did Jeremiah Wright teach him?

Would you support a white President who went to a church which has tenets that said they have a:

1. Commitment to the white community.
2. Commitment to the white family.
3. Adherence to the white work ethic.
4. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available
to the white community .
5. Pledge to allocate regularly, a portion of personal resources for
strengthening and supporting white institutions.
6. Pledge allegiance to all white leadership who espouse and embrace the
white value system.
7. Personal commitment to embracement of the white value system.

Would you support a President who went to a church like that?

Just change the word from white to black and you have the tenets of Obama's former church. If President Bush was a member of a church like this, he would be called a racist. Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton would have been marching outside.

This kind of church is a racist church. Obama did not wake up after 20 years and just discover he went to a racist church.

The church can't be about race. Jesus did not come for any particular race.
He came for the whole world.

A church can't have a value system based on race. The church's value system has to be based on biblical mandate. It does not matter if its a white
church or a black church--it's still wrong. Anyone from either race who
attends a church like this would never get my vote.

Obama's former Pastor Jeremiah Wright is a disciple of liberal theologian
James Cone, author of the 1970 book, 'A Black Theology of Liberation.' Cone wrote: 'Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him.'

Cone is the man Obama's mentor looks up to. Does Obama believe this?

So what does all this mean for the nation?

In the past when the Lord brought someone with the beliefs of Obama to lead a nation it meant one thing -- judgment.

Read 1 Samuel 8:6 when Israel asked for a king.

First God says in 1 Samuel 8:9 'Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.'

Then God says, 1 Samuel 8:18 ' When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.'

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. 'No!' they said. 'We want a king over us.

20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.'

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD.

22 The LORD answered, 'Listen to them and give them a king.'

Here is what we know for sure.

God is not schizophrenic.

He would not tell one person to vote for Obama and one to vote for McCain.
As the scripture says, a city divided against itself cannot stand, so
obviously many people are not hearing from God.

Maybe I am the one not hearing, but I know God does not change and Obama
contradicts many things I read in scripture so I doubt it.

For all my friends who are voting for Obama, can you really look God in the
face and say; 'Father, based on Your word, I am voting for Obama even though I know he will continue the genocidal practice of partial birth abortion. He might have to nominate three or four supreme court justices, and I am sure he will be nominating liberal judges who will be making laws that are against You. I also know he will continue to push for homosexual rights, even though You destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for this. I know I can look the other way because of the economy.'

I could not see Jesus agreeing with many of Obama's positions. Finally I
have two questions for all my liberal friends.

Since we know someone's value system has to be placed on the nation,

1. Whose value system should be placed on the nation?

2. Who should determine that this is the right value system for the nation?

The End

Ok, please hang with me if you're reading. I don't agree with all of this (for example the part about gay rights and such) so dont think im trying to bash Obama or liberals, again just trying to have a discussion. I by no means think you can say the pray above for McCain, this is not a pro-McCain post. So what this got me thinking about is how far do we take our faith into politics? is all hope lost to merge the two? do we live christian and then vote secular? I know the answer we want to say is "no" but how do we live? i think it would be hypocritical to bring half of our faith into our politics, stand for God on one issue but then ignore His word on another. So think about this, im tired of writing. but please if you are even the least bit angry or agitated right now from reading these articles dont respond yet. come at this with a clear mind not one that is already made up on who you voting for. remember for many of my friends reading this your faith is in Christ and in no human, so approach this with that in mind. again i am not hoping to convert you to the republican party i just want to urge us all to think about all of this.

let the angry responses begin... haha!

p.s. you know i love you guys so i am sorry if any of this felt like an attack, i would never condemn you for your political beliefs or would i ever want you to feel like i have. You are my brothers and sisters in Christ, that is primary. all of this is meaningless compared to that which we share.

And so it continues...

So the excellent experience of the Turkish education system continues. Thus far this week three of my teachers have started to talk about our midterms but it was a little different from midterms in the U.S. The teachers all asked, "when would you like to have your midterm? you dont have to decide now but think about it." This was shortly followed by, "We can discuss what you want the midterm to be, if you have any ideas or suggestions let me know." I was caught a little off guard, i mean seriously I didnt think you would give us this much freedom. So anyways this next week we are supposed to figure out when our midterm is and what it will be. sweet!

So the dorms are kinda like a prison. today as in the past, the cleaning ladies came in and scoured the place resembeling how the gaurds in a prison over turn mattresses and look for shanks and such. louis and I are sitting in our underwear and boom the door opens and two ladies start sweeping, mopping, wiping, spraying, and so on. We are apperantly inanimate objects because they act as if we are not here. They mop under our chairs with us in them and clean the desk with us working at them. We decided to give them their space so we left the room and watched as they continued their clean sweep of the room and bathroom. by the way, to clean the bathroom they take the shower head and spray everything! walls, mirrors, toilet, and floor. they make a mess which they them clean up. so after some time they finish and we return to our regularly scheduled morning.

Yes another laundry story. Every trip to the laundry room is an interesting experience because the guy down there only knows two words in English: "tomorrow" and "Bush". But this time it was slightly more interesting/frustrating. Louis and I are trying to figure out what time we are supposed to come back to get our clothes. We understand that that guy wants us to come back at one o'clock tomorrow. Of course we assume that this means 1pm, wrong! 1:30am roles around and I wake up to constant knocking on the door. I assume its something not important and that the person will wait till morning, but they persist. I get up and answer the door to non other than the laundry man. He invites himself into the room and sets down our laundry, i say thank you, he goes off on some tirade in Turkish, i say goodnight. Looking back i suppose it was ignorant of me to assume that picking up our clothes at 1pm made more sense than 1am but then again it's Turkey and very little makes sense.

Oh yeah, Louis and i found a chinese restaurant and a dunkin doughnuts in a mall kind of near campus. there was much rejoicing.

To explain the picture above, we found a restaurant that is maybe serving Sodexho or they use Sodexho food, i dont know but it was cheap and amazing! For those of you unfamiliar with Sodexho it is the glorious company that feeds us at DU, they make amazing food that people tend to complain about. But that's fine dont eat it and leave it for Beeble and i to eat!

In Turkey you don't have class when...

So it has been a great time learning just how the Turkish education system works. It is fit to say that it is at the very best horribly inconsistent. So here is the list of times when you don't have class in Turkey:

1. It is the first day of the week. You can't learn too early in the week!
2. It is the last day of the week. And this is different for everyone since individual schedules vary.
3. When it's the middle of the week. Turkey adopted the idea of a siesta and then improved it.
4. It is too sunny out. If its too sunny it's too hot and you can't learn in the heat.
5. It's rainy out. Not only is it too cold to learn but all transportation stops when the roads are wet, buses, cars, dolmus(minibus).
6. Classes only happen between 11am and 3pm, also don't forget the one hour lunch break from 12pm to 1pm.

Keep in mind all of these criteria are followed by the professors as well.

When there is class, periodic breaks are taken merely to smoke. All of the students stand right outside the front door to the building and don't spread out. So a dense cloud of smoke forms on the threshold of the building. When the break is over evidence of the smoke fest is seen in the hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground, some still smoking if you're lucky! I have even had a teacher ask us, the students, if we could take a break so he could go smoke. Also when you have class it is not unusual for the teacher to answer their cell phone! Yes the professor will answers theirs! And students are permitted to leave the class room to answer any calls. In addition, class will often be cut short because the teacher has a meeting or has to be home by a certain time. In addition, just to make things interesting, professors will just out of the blue decide to change class rooms. They wont tell you, email you, or even leave a note in the old classroom, they will just move and assume you will figure it out.

In short, time in the class room is not a priority here. Oh well, it is all part of the experience and it has been great!

The Internet in Turkey

Some of you may have picked up from blogs or other messages that the internet is not as reliable or accessible here in Turkey and since being at school the internet has stopped working for at least a day every week on average. But myself and other international students have developed a theory and we think we have the internet in Turkey figured out. Over the past three or four weeks when the internet stops working, i have noticed that the truck pictured above is always in front of the administration building. you may be able to see in the picture that the truck has many cables and cords and electrical equipment. Need less to say it looks really expensive! anyways the truck is there all day with its cords and wires running up to a window and into the building. where they are going we don't know, until we produced the theory. And the theory is:

Every week our university essentially "runs out" of internet, the "tanks run dry" so to speak. So every week the internet delivery truck come to campus and fills up the internet tanks, it takes all day and around noon the internet usually starts working again. Evidence for this is simple to see, the administration building is basically like a water tower for internet, it is higher than the dorms but not all of the dorms, once you go above the 6th floor in the dorms the internet stops working. This is obviously due to the physics of the situation, the upper levels of the dorm are above the administration build thus gravity cannot naturally feed the internet to these floors. This can also be seen in the fact that the internet is always working in the administration building. Of course because it is closest to the internet tanks. Also we are all aware of the "refresh" button on our browsers. Well this is because internet goes bad over time, ergo it needs refreshing. Internet has a shelf life comparable to milk, this is why the tanks need refilling every week, if we had bigger tanks and filled them every two weeks, yes we would have internet longer but the internet at the bottom of the tank would be old and therefore the internet news, facebook updates, and emails would all be roughly a weeks behind. While this is of course not the case in the U.S. because we sit on a wealth of natural internet it is sadly how it works in Turkey where they have to import every kiloliter of internet form the United States or Europe.

Thank you reading our latest thesis and have a great day.

Learning experiences

Ok so there are a lot of situations here that are just funny, at least i laugh and so does louis (my roommate) we find a lot of Turkey funny, now dont misunderstand we are not laughing because we think the country or the turkish people are stupid or anything, its merely situational, the situations are some that you would never find yourself in in america. thus they are funny, i hope these are not stories in which you had to be there to enjoy them as much as i.

Laundry: To get your laundry done the past week or so a male would have to bribe a female into taking it to the laundry room in the female dorm and doing it for you. not many of us were successful on this endevouer. but thankfully news came that the laundry room in the new male dorm has opened. so i go to the make shift front desk that is located in just another dorm room and say "laundry?" they look at me, i look at them, a lot of looking, then they call this guy over and he motions for me to follow him. we then embark on a 15 minute journey into the bowels of the building looking for the laundry room. after going up and down unfinished stairs and walking through all sorts of construction areas, we come upon an oasis of light which is the laundry room. but the laundry man is not there so we leave. 5 minutes later we finally find our way back to the main level and i can now find my room. i would have gone back to the laundry room later that night to see the laundry man but there is no way i could have found it again, plus it was now dark and there were very few lights down there. so the next day louis and i go to the same make shift office and say "laundry?" the same blank stares are exchanged and then we go into the hall and meet another guy that can apparently lead us to the laundry room. but before we set sail a man who we have now found out is the boss man comes into the hall too, and he goes bananas! he starts to dish something crazy on the guy who is about to lead us, we dont know what he said but it was loud and stern and it all concluded in the poor guy that was going to lead us carrying all our laundry to the laundry room. so we start walking, but who knows how but the guy with our stuff disappears, just poof he is gone. so louis and i take the elevator (which is now working) down to the -2 floor. (yeah the ground level is 0 so anyhting below is minus) and from there we find the laundry room but it was different from the day before because some walls have been built in the last 18 hours so the lay out of the dungeon is different. but the guy with our stuff is not there, so we wait, but then the electricity goes out. so now we are just waiting there in the dark. but then we see a little door open and some light comes through and the man with our laundry appears and the lights turn back on, we rejoice! so we pay the man for our laundry and we are just waiting for some change and then the power goes out again. once more we are standing in the creepy dungeon laundry room in the dark just waiting. ligths come back on we leave our laundry and they say it will be done in 6 hours. yeah they wash it by hand. no they actually use these sweet magic washing contraptions that wash and dry all in the same thing a ma jiggy! its great! so i hope that was kinda fun to read, trust me it was a fun little expereince.

Electric outlets: Last night louis and i are laying in bed trying to go to sleep and then a POP! and a flash come from the wall. after moments of confusion we realize that my power strip blew up. but it didnt make sense because it was plugged into a voltage converter and everything. the electric socket under my desk doesnt work anymore so we try it in his, it works and then he plugs in his computer, POP and flash again and now the power in the whole room goes out. we blew 3 fuses.

Turks like corn: We go to dinner tonight and the cafeteria has a new addition, a kiosk in the shape of corn on the cobb. From which a man simply dishes out corn. you can get corn in cups of three different sizes and you can pay extra to have a sauce out on it, like BBQ sauce. louis and i just had butter, salt and pepper added and boy was it good! maybe it was just the fact that the corn came out of a giant corn koisk that made it good but none the less it was good corn.

I think that all for now but this is probably what my blogs will consist of now since i dont have anymore trips planned as of now. but i will still be seeing a lot of cool places around istanbul so keep reading. as always i miss you all and i miss DU but things here are awesome!

Ruins, Hot Springs, and the Legend of the hair cut Samurai

So let me begin with my most recent experience, a haircut. The reason i am including a normally boring thing in my blog is because this haircut was just a little crazy. There was one actually barber and the other four guys there just smoked i think, but i came to realize that they also had very long pinkie finger nails so i think they may do some crack too but who am i to say, they may have the long nail for another purpose, like digging small holes. anyways the barber was a samurai with scissors! he never stopped clipping the scissors open and closed, even when they were away from my head, snip snip snip snip he kept them going! so he just cut away for about half an hour (yeah it was a long appointment, i think his method of cutting hair is impressive but not efficient) he called to one of the smoking drug dealer guys and they brought us some tea, so in the middle of the haircut we stopped and had a tea break and he had a couple cigarettes himself. he then continued cutting and cutting. i feared i would have no hair left but i think he misses the hair he is trying to cut often. so, an hour later my hair is done, i bargain the price down a bit and i tell them him ill come back again. i think i will because even though the barber shop may be a front for a crack cocaine ring he still gives good haircuts.

On to the trip. It was soo cool! im going to try and write so that the blog coincides with the order of the pictures on facebook. our first night on the trip we had dinner in a barn like thing but the food was great! it was just some family that offered to feed all of us students. we then proceeded to our night time accommodations in the woods, it was nice we were by a lake but it was darn cold and we all bought crappy sleeping bags that are good for about 59 degrees fahrenheit but it got down to 41 degrees. so we pilled into a few tents and snuggled.
The next day we went to the Midas City, the place were the one and only King Midas lived! the one with the golden touch. it was cool, more caves like cappadocia, and then some cool walls carved out og the stone with intricate designs.
We then went on to our hotel for the night, they had a friendly flock of sheep that pooped all over the place and mowed the grass. haha but it was a nice place, we finally had a breakfast that was almost as substantial as an american breakfast, they had potatos, cereal, fruit, etc. it was great. they also had natural hot srpings here, they were nice. (sorry there isnt anything really exciting about hot springs)
Now moving on to a castle on top of a hill. im sorry i dont remember what the name of the city is, but they have a really cool caslte on top of the highest hill in the area and we climbed to the top! it was a good work out and you will see some cool pictures looking down on the city.
Next was a temple built for Zues. very cool, and it has survived the years very well. it is interesting, these ruins are just in peoples back yards or just in the middle of tiny villages. so its not like a city is thriving off the toursim to the ruins. shortly after this the buses got stuck in the mud! the guys got out and pushed them out it was a fun little experience.
Then we went to what was described to us as the underground Pammukale. some of you may be familiar with Pammukale (white mineral deposits left from water, hot springs) well its that just underground. it was so cool, it was a natural oasis in the middle of nothing, it was like a little rain forest underground. from there we went to the real Pammukale (above ground) it is an entire ancient city in ruins. there is a theater, cathedral, tombs everywhere, and a martyrium. Here myself and just a few others walked up to the place where the apostle Philip was stoned and crucified up-side-down. It was great experience, in a place where a man died for the same thing myslef and many others believe in.
The next day we went on to Aphrodisias, named after Aphrodite. You can see in the pictures, it is the one with the green grass around it on the sunny day. This place had beautiful ruins, including a theater and a stadium.
Then on to Ephesus, where they sell genuine fake watches. yes that is how they advertise them. they are genuinely fake, interesting. haha Ephesus was great! of course it is the people Paul wrote the book of Ephesians to, but also he also spoke in the theater here! it was awesome to stand where Paul once proclaimed the Gospel! how cool is that! well i though it was haha. near by is what is thought to be the house where Mother Mary died. it was cool but it had been restored so i think it lost some of its euthenticity. and i am a little skeptical of it being anyones house let alone hers. but either way some people have a very spiritual experience there, i think mainly catholics because they are more into saints and the virgin Mary kinda stuff.
Next, was one of the seven ancient wonders of the worder, the temple to Artemis in Ephesus. This was a more spiritual expereince for me because in Ephesians Paul talks about how the temple of our God is in us, not temples or churches. and centuries later there is a single column of the temple left that was recunstructed yet the temple of Christ is still standing strong! I really like that!
Ok then to Pergamum. We went to the acropolis in Pergamum, it was really cool. again, temples, theater, whites rocks, etc. Pergamum is another of the Seven Churches of Revalation, along with Ephesus. After that we went to Troy but they dont know if it is the actual place where Troy was, they dont even know if Homers story of Troy is true, so that aside it was more ruins of an ancient city.
That is all of the places we went to for the most part, I did forget to mention the night we slept in a contruction site. (dont freak out mom) we were supposed to sleep outside but it was raining a little and it was supposed to get worse so we went into this half built hotel, not windows, doors, lights, or water. i dont think it has been worked on in a year or so but it was good enough for us. but i couldnt help but laugh at how creepy it was! seriously a very good horror movie could have been filmed there, and there were a lot of cats around.
Now as for more serious things, God continues to work in great ways here. So many people want to talk about religion and many people want to read Mere Christianity now! its really cool, many of the other exchange kids are just generall interested in religion. I have been having some great conversations with people about God and love and such. i am seeing the remains of a lot of lives hurt by religion or at least people that have been turned off by religion so it is really cool to reintroduce faith to them. (well hopefully im doing that, God willing, i wont for a second think i represent Christ perfectly) it is has been great! i really enjoy having these conversations. and anyone who would like to hear more about them feel free to ask, i dont want to go into too much detail in this blog because of the simple fact that this is a public forum and think the conversations should be shared with some discresion.

To all of you thank you for your prayers, school is finally starting up for real this week and im excited to get going! i miss you and love you!

Brit

Before I go...

I just wanted to give you all a quick update before I leave for another vacation. Like i said before there is rarely two weeks of school without a week long vacation. so i am going on a trip to Ephesus, Pamukkale, Pergamum (modern-day Bergama), Smyrna (modern-day Izmir), all of which are some of the seven churches of Revelation with the exception of Pamukkale. Pamukkale is a place with cool hot spring things! yay for exfoliation! So i cant wait to get back and tell you all about this next trip because so much has happened in these cities! wow its going to be cool.

As far as school that past week haha, well as i said before turkish students dont come to class the first week because its just introduction stuff, well they dont show up the next week either because the week after, the week im leaving, is vacation! haha so need less to say i have learned nothing academically and i have only have like 9 weeks of school after this! some notable occurances this week: i have met a lot of cool turkish people, one girl is burning me the entire second season of heroes onto dvd! haha another girl paid for my photo copies, it has been great! oh i think i should tell you about the culture of my university if i havent already. Yeditepe is the DU of turkey, but even more so. all the girls are dressed to impress in designer clothes and hand bags and all the guys are sporting abercrombie and fitch appareal. it is crazy! i mean i thought we were driven by out word apperence at DU and in the states but it is crazy at Yeditepe! either way the people are great and always willing to help a confused foreigner. Oh and we got a new dog on campus, it is a really cool one, its a campaign colored golden retreiver! seems nice, we will see how the other dogs accept him.

Alright, well i will have plenty to tell you about when i get back, until then pray for safe travels and know that i miss you all at home!

much love,

Brit

p.s. Remon took the picture above, we tried getting an advertising gig with Gloria Jean's.

A lot to cover!

First im sorry i havent updated this in a while the internet at school is really weird right now because one its Turkey and two the new guys dorm doesnt have internet and because of that internet all of campus is out of whack. i dunno? ok so there is a lot to go over i hope i can remember it all and have it make sense. so here it goes, classes were postponed for a week because the guys dorm was not finished so men could move on campus so classes couldnt start, so we had a week off. the dorms still are done really, our bathroom floods and there is construction dirt and dust all over the room. so the international office planned a trip for us all to go on during that week. We first went to Cappadocia, this place is ammazing! There are pictures on facebook, the ones of the caves and carvings and all the white rock! Early Christians lived here to escape persecution, it is soo cool! You can see beds they carved out of rock, shelves, windows, its really really cool. We also went to a valley near by that is the same rock and cave dwelling but this place literally is an oasis in the middel of the desert. it is beautiful, i dont have pics of it because my camera ran out of batteries, sorry guys but take my word for it. There is a river running through the valley that feeds apple trees and grape vines and so many trees and grass it is beautiful. we all picked our own grapes and had a feast. So while i was hear i couldnt help but have a somewhat spiritual experience. I mean in the face of certain death God provided these people with an oasis in the desert which provided every need even protection. i mean that is awesome! so it was so cool to see how God has provided for these people and this idea came up again later this week, ill cover that in a bit. While in Cappadocia I had a great convo with my new found friends from Holland, South Africa and such and we talked about religion and more importantly spirituality. It was great! it is amazing to hear what other people think about God and Christianity, they spoke of how the church has been percieved and how they percieve Christians and such and it was great to hear and then respond to because so many people have been hurt by so called religion. oh i almost forgot, we went on a hike on these hills just a few of us and we explored some caves and dwellings and when we were walking back to town we were further away than we though, so we started walking up this long long road to town and the tractor driver drove by and just stared at us. we were a little confused but we waved and he stopped. we ran up to him and he gave us a ride to town on his tractor hauling sand, it was so cool, and he didnt ask for a sigle lira, how mnice of him haha. (the currency is lira here) anyways, on to Konya, this was a short stop. Konya is where the Islamic sect called Sufi or Suffy or Suffi-ism was created. (not sure how to spell it) but we saw this tomb of this guy Roomey, this guy who stressed spirituality and mysticism in faith and so created a new sect of Islam. It was kinda cool, form this the whirling dervishes were founded, they are the guys who spin for a long time and it is merely a form of worship really. its interesting. the hotel we stayed in was a freaky nightmare of a place, everything was pink and they had mothballs everywhere. the lights were white crystal and the carpet was pink too it was so weird i felt like i was living in bubble gum or some old cat ladies house. ok from there we went to Side, you will see pictures of Roman ruins i took there. This place was beautiful, touristy too though. The Mediterannean is soo warm! The ruins were great too, in Turkey they dont really block you off from any history with gaurd rails of nets, so i could touch and climb on these ruins and it was so cool. We went out on the town that night and while we were eating dinner this shop owner guy came up to us and asked if we wanted to share is water pipe (hookah) we were like... ok. so we went into his shot of plates and glasses and weird airbrush paitings and we drank tea and smoked peach hookah and watched the Turkay football team play on tv. it was great! so that all ended we went to bed. the next day we drove up the coast to Fetiye, a beatiful little beach town, there we stayed in bungalows well they were more like tuff sheds with beds in them but bungalow sound better. here we just kinda relaxed, a lot! a day and a half of just beach lounging, it was great! We then drove back in the night and made it back to Istanbul at 11am, i then stood in line for 4 hours to move into the new guys dorm. it was not amusing, if there is one thing to know about turkey it is that it is unorganized and inefficient. so two things. but we got a new room and its half way finished like i said before. ok back to what i was saying about God providing, i have been worried and praying about just being a follower of Christ while here in a place that is 99% Muslim, i was just worried about not have a faith community or fellowship whatever you wanna call it. but this is not to say that much cannot be learned while you are on your own, God has worked in great ways in me all while I had no other believer to talk to. but after many prayers i meet a guy in the international office here and he is a MBA student from america who is a Christian, so out of no where i have a brother in Christ, and he invited me to church this weekend. also just today i met a new girl from Germany and we got to talking and she is also studying religious studies and she is a believer. its just so cool! where there is seemingly no probability of meeting a follower of Christ, God has put two right in front of me. I guess when i talk about it now its not THAT cool but i am just so happy that i dont want to write it off to coinincedence. i read through 1 John just the other day and right at the end he says, ch.4 "14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him." wow! i read that the nigth before i met the guy in the international office and before i met the girl. so cool. remember to pray always, it is so freeing in a way, just how because of Christ we can call God father and speak to him like a father, like a best friend and he hears it all and responds. so thats my experience till now, i write again about classes and how Turkey again has no real rules, expectations, procedures, its just kinda do whatever and if it works out great. they have a saying here,"inshallah" it means if God wills it. so they say this with regards to everything. if you plan to meet for lunch with someone they say inshallah, so if they dont show up they are off the hook, it was Gods will that they did not show up. just another way people have used the name of God to excuse actions. great.

First few days in Turkey!

Hey everybody! Let me just start by saying that I miss you all a lot but the affects of that are wearing off because Turkey is so stinkin' awesome! My very first cultural experience was the highway. The driving is a bit like Mexico if you have been there, so its crazy, lane lines are optional to follow and so are stop lights. The are street vendors on the highway, they stand in between the "lanes" and sell anything from bananas to t.v. remotes. random yes. also police men patrol the highway on foot, it doesn't make much sense but they do. oh yeah and our bus stalled on the highway! lots of angry turkeys! We finally got to campus and it is beautiful, you can all see the pictures on facebook, but it is very secluded. It is in a small corner of the city and we have everything we need on campus, bank, grocery, post office, its impressive but that doesn't mean I wont be going out. The night i got here i introduced some Dutch kids, Greg, Gerkin, and Remen, to PIG (the cue ball and eight ball game on the pool table) they loved it! we almost broke a window too! The next day Louis and I, my roommate, met up with some girls from South Africa, Poland, and Holland. We walked around the neighbor hood near the campus, it was great, lots of markets, bakeries, and cell phone shops. i bought a customized Ethernet cord (meaning they cut the length and made it for me there, i think its awewsome!) That night we went down to Kadikoy, the big business district near our school, there we saw a swan (see picture haha!) and we ate at a restaurant that cook an entire sea bass for us! sooo good. we looked around some more and then headed back because it was getting pretty late and public transit only runs so late. one thing to know about turkey is that they are obsessed with there first elected president Ataturk. His face and statue is everywhere! picture an eight year old girls room covered in Hannah Montana pictures, then change that to a creepy guy and put it all over Istanbul then you have an idea. today was orientation, there are only four Americans here (sweet!) out of 130 international students, a lot of Germany and Holland (Netherlands) kids. Most of them are very nice and we all talk a lot to each other and its in english!!! haha i have been happy to learn that most of the people in our generation speak at least some English and turkey is pretty easy to learn, all of their words sound like ours just they are spelled horribly wrong such as felefase= philosophy. Oh! our campus has dogs! yeah there are like a dozen dogs that just roam campus and we have been told that they are for our safety! and sure enough when it is late at night one dog at least will follow you, during the day they just sleep. also there is normally a pigeon in the cafeteria. haha love it! our classes have been postponed for a week because the new male dorm has not been finished yet and they want us to move in there before they start classes so that means i will be going on a week long trip down to kapadokya and up the Mediterranean coast. also that means that my semester is only 12 weeks long! haha because of religious holidays here we rarely so a week without a break of some kind. so i will be out of touch for the next week or so but leave me something nice to come back to on facebook. ill update you all again after my trip, miss you and i hope all is well!

With love from above,

Brit