i heart istanbul

i seriously heart istanbul! it's so great here, today was especially fun. maybe because i hung out with two uber funny boys. so in the morning, the entire group went to hagia sophia together, sooo pretty and so much history to it. then a few of us went to the archaeological museum...there was supposed to be a children's museum where there was a life size trojan horse that's...CLIMABLE! BUT...the children's museum's been closed for a year for renovation...BLAH. i was so disappointed. afterwards, enoch, tyler, and i wandered around the area...so much fun with the boys, bahahaha.

yesterday, we went to the topkapi palace...that was a lot of fun too, it's where the sultan used to live. it was HUGE. wah wah wah. then we went to a cafe overlooking the bosphorous. amazing.

the day before, we had a boat ride on the bosphorous. my goodness, so beautiful, so many houses by the water, i picked out so many as "my house" hahaha.

this has been an amazing few days, i absolutely love it. thank you Jesus for this opportunity. i can't wait for the upcoming adventures in the following days! :D

WHEE

I'M IN TURKEY!!!

more to come later...but for now...

I LIKE TURKEY!!! WHEE!!! SO FUN! :D

Two Months

wow wow wow! I've been here TWO months now! and there's exactly a month before i leave! i cannot believe it, thinking about it is so bittersweet...i'm really excited for the new and last semester, but i also really don't wanna leave these people. these people are so great and freaking hilarious. i haven't updated in so long and there's been so many exciting events! two weekends ago, a bunch of us went to a Palestinian wedding, haha it was a lot of fun. the guys and girls were separated...but both were just partying it up! bahahaha, it was just crazy loud music while everyone's dancing. the girls were crammed in a small room and the guys were outdoors...but it was still fun~ the next day, we went to Galilee/Golan Heights/Capernaum/Nazareth! doesn't that just sound exciting? all these bibilical places! we were on a boat on the sea of Galilee (i tried walking, but apparently not enough faith...), visited Peter's house, ate at an amazing shawerma shop in Nazareth...that was a great day. God is so good!

this past week/weekend has been fun too, but i really can't remember what we did, we've been doing so much stuff...man, i really can't remember...hahaha, oh well. yesterday, we had a halloween party, i dressed up as Tyler, bahahahaha, so fun! i don't have pictures, but i'm sure people will be posting it on facebook soon...

anyways, we're going to turkey this friday!!! we'll be there for two weeks, and then back to Israel, and two weeks...then we leave.....i'm pretty darn excited for turkey! yay!

Mafia

on thursday morning, after arabic, we got on the bus to go to Petra, we got there around evening...we checked into our hostel and hung out on the roof. i went with a few people to explore the city at night, not very exciting...hahaha, but when we got back, we played mafia on the roof, and that was fun. the next morning, all of us left for "THE PETRA" at 8am! we spent the entire day there, hiking, exploring, admiring God's creation, and bonding with people. i got to ride a camel and a donkey! that was definitely my highlight! it was super fun. afterwards, 8 of us went to dinner, i had this local dish, it was so much like nasi lamak...hahaha. then the next morning at 6:45am, all of us left to come back to Tantur...we all crashed on the bus, it was so quiet...anyways, t'was a good weekend, i had a lot of fun and i'm thankful for God's provisions and blessings. now onto the week of quizzes and paper...

CAMEL! FUN!

another week

on sunday, we went to Al-Quds University in east Jerusalem, there was a girl who was obsessed with Korean stuff, came up to me and asked me if i was korean, and kept talking to me, her english was limited, so our conversation couldn't go very far...hahaha but then she had to go to class, so she asked for my number, haha, I MADE A FRIEND! :P other than that, this past week has not been super exciting...in two days, we're going to petra! where indiana jones and transformers 2 was filmed! wahahaha, BUT there's more hiking...i do not like. i'm gonna die there...hahaha apparently to get to the top it takes 8hrs. there is no way i'm going to do that. i'm just gonna stay at the bottom and admire it's beauty. hahaha. anyways, got arabic midterm and islam quiz coming up...gotta study! gotta write papers! gotta work hard!

oh, i almost forgot, it's confirmed that we're not going to egypt...but they haven't said what we'll be doing for those 2 weeks yet...hm, pray for us! pray for the safety! pray for the world!

One Month Anniversary

please forgive my lack of updates, i have been busy writing papers...hahaha, turned 'em in yesterday, so finally have a breather. but as i wrote last post, we've just had writing days, so nothing exciting happened...on sunday, we started arabic again, we're doing arabic and islam now, which i like moreee! arabic is getting harder because she's going through a lot of stuff, but i really like the writing, it looks so nice...anyways, i've officially been here a month and i have exactly one month left before turkey and egypt...and then the trip is over...it's really sad thinking about it! i mean i miss home, but i can't imagine not being with these people all the time! anyways, today was service projects, i feel like it was the best one yet...haha praise Jesus! anyways, time to study for arabic!

K4 and K5

Writing Days

our schedule for today was titled "writing day" and it is so for the next two days because we have two papers due sunday. wo de ma ya! so i'm here writing...on my blog. hahaha. i can't remember what happened these past few days though except that yesterday we went to the dome of the rock! inside it! we're gonna start Islam class soon, i'm excited! finally in my hood! bahahaha, no more political stuff! well i'm sure still A LOT of political stuff, but at least if from a religious view, i'll be more familiar with it! oh! how could i forget about this! on Monday we went to visit Elias Chacour, if you don't know who he is, you should, because he is pretty darn cool! he's the author of Blood Brothers which was a good book! he's such a wise old man, i liked hearing him talk. he's one of those people where i'd just sit there and listen and write down all these wise quotes from. i'm really glad we got this opportunity. God is good. all right, ending with a picture of my amazing photography skills.

Dome of the Rock