Halloween in Turkey.

Good Morning from Istanbul!  I know I’ve been one of the worlds worst bloggers so far but, hopefully, Insha Allah, I’ll become much more competent now that we’re on travel component.  We’ll be traveling through Turkey, Syria, Damascus, and Istanbul before returning back to Egypt for a few weeks.  A friend reminded me that I will pretty much be living out of a suitcase for the next two months.  A daunting idea to be sure, but I’m excited to see what kinds of adventures are in store! 

            Istanbul is gorgeous!  It rained the first few days we were here, which was almost a welcome change from the heat and pollution of Cairo.  We’re staying in Taksim Square, a very central part of Istanbul, so walking down the rainy streets with coffee and watching the chestnut roasters and storefront windows felt a bit like Christmas.  Yesterday it cleared up and we went to this gorgeous “castle” with outdoor grassy and leafy courtyards.  Walking through there, jumping in leaves, and playing a midnight game of tag on the playground were a perfect reminder of fall.  Basically, I think we are all in love with Istanbul- it reminds me of Seattle with random European, Ottoman, and Byzantine buildings scattered around. 

            We’ve had really interesting speakers too- so far we’ve visited the US Consulate, the ruling AK (Justice and Development) party, and spoken to a couple really interesting journalists.  I feel like Turkey is really interesting and significant in the modern state system and is kind of unrecognized in general US sentiment.  The interactions between religion, secularism, and the state as well as the actual workings between the government and military are somewhat foreign and very exciting to observe and seek to understand.  We’re leaving for Ankara on Tuesday, and, while I’ll miss Istanbul, it will be interesting to see another face of Turkey. 

            Besides all the “academic” stuff we’ve had pretty ample time to explore as a group and on our own.  It’s kind of restrictive being forced to always be with someone else and to travel with such a large group, but it is totally worth it.  When we got here we took a wonderful rainy boat tour along the Bosporus.  We’ve toured the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and adventured around the city.  In addition, I’ve wondered through the Grand Bazaar, enjoyed Turkish tea in the park, and found a multitude of quant café’s and coffee shops.

            So…I wasn’t able to post this directly after I wrote it, but I think that, due to current events, it was a good thing.  If you haven’t heard, there was a suicide bombing in Taksim Square on the 31^st.  Thankfully, Sunday was our free day and we were all safely away from the square.  However, it is pretty sobering to recognize that it happened in an area where I was walking a mere hour before.  Turkey is one of the “safest” places we travel to, so it’s eye-opening that this happened here and has really helped us step up our attention to safety procedures.  We’re all completely safe though and counting our blessings that we are all doing well. 

If you’re curious about the details, here is a link to a Turkish news article explaining the situation: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=istanbul-officials-identify-attacker-in-taksim-square-bombing-2010-11-02  

Lessons from the Sinai Penninsula

Here is a post from our first weekend trip- September 8-9.  I wrote it out but was enabled to neglect this blog by my general inability to utilize blogger in Arabic.  Anyway...pretend you were reading this two months ago :)  

Disclaimer:  Even though I still feel like I’m operating in a summer mindset, we are actually doing academic activities that might actually be more pertinent than my tourism/weekend related blog posts.  However, this is what I’m writing now and you’ll get plenty of time to hear about academics later. J

1.)  I love love LOVE snorkeling.  I’ve never tried it before and, honestly, I thought I would be pretty scared of it.  Once I got in though, it was wonderful.  It felt like the best mix of swimming and “sightseeing” that I could ask for.  We snorkeled in Dahab as well as a place called “blue hole” which is supposedly one of the best places to snorkel in the world.

2.)  The Childrens’ Bibles lied to us.  We stayed up all night on Friday and started up Mt Sinai at 2:30 am in order to watch the sunrise.  The hike up took a full 3 hours and concluded with between 300 and 700 “stairs of penence.”  The views at the top were amazing, but the hike up (and down) really illustrated the gravity and immensity of the mountain.  If this is the real Mount Sinai, Moses had a real hike, not just a quick dart up the hillside. 

3.)  Sacred sites aren’t necessarily quiet places.  When we arrived at the parking lot to hike Mt Sinai, there were a lot of tourist busses already there.  As we followed our Bedouin guide we could see the lights winding up the entire mountain and competed with tourists of every nationality and about a billion camels to maintain our place on the path. 

4.)  National Forest outhouses aren’t actually that bad.  Egypt is the first place that I have visited where I am continually told that bathrooms are “very nice” although there is a long line, a twenty cents to a dollar charge and no running water or toilet paper.  I honestly felt like I spent a lot of my time on Mt Sinai and St Catherine’s monastery trying to figure out bathrooms, waiting in line, or waiting on other people.  This reality is just one vivid example of a “necessity” which we so easily take for granted in the US. 

I definitely had a wonderful time this weekend bonding with our group and enjoying a change of pace from Cairo clothing standards and pollution to tourist cafes and the Red Sea.  So many of our activities were absolutely awe-inspiring and impossible to capture with a camera.  I’ll never have a concrete reminder of the colors and life in the coral reefs and the ease with which the Beduins on Mt Sinai jump from rock to rock, but this weekend was full of awesome experiences that will definitely stay in my memory. 

One of the commonalities of the experiences this weekend was the reminder of the magnitude and presence of God.  We were only able to explore a few hundred yards of coral, but the diversity there was astounding.  We only saw the stars from one area of desert, but there enormity and number made God’s promise to Abraham much more poignant.  The Sinai Peninsula is a perfect opportunity to appreciate the immensity of God and the strength of His promise to such a quantitatively insignificant portion of His creation.  

The Pyramids.

A lot has happened in these last two weeks, but I did warn you all that I am horrible at keeping a blog up to date.  Hopefully I'll make time to summarize parts of that time, but for now I think I'll just move on to the present :)

Today was our first "weekend" where we had a chance to decide what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go without having any other commitments.  Most of our group decided to go out to the Pyramids.  First off, the Pyramids do not look like the national geographic pictures.  There are two different "gates" in and either road to the pyramids is pretty much part of Cairo.  The far side is desert, but the actual Pyramid complex is really accessible and not "out in the wilderness" by any means.  Also, the pyramids are surrounded by ropes to prohibit climbing, lots of police, and merchants who are excited to sell memorabilia to "rich Western tourists".

Our taxi brought us to a different entrance then the rest of the group.  We tried waiting for a while, but it's really a bad place to wait because everyone and his brother wants to show you around or take you on a camel ride.  Eventually we walked up past the Sphynx (it is much smaller than I imagined) and around the Pyramids.  After trying to go inside a pyramid, we were told to walk to the OTHER gate to pay for the inside ticket.  It was pretty awesome to be inside of a Pyramid, but honestly it was just kind of claustrophobic and non-climactic.

It was also a very strange sensation to be surrounded by so many tourists!  We've grown so used to being the "strange" people who stick out that it was almost comforting to be surrounded by so many scantily clad westerners.  We did notice that, even with our more conservative (western) dress and minimal grasp of Arabic, the merchants seemed to offer us more respect.  Even with those precautions, I was draped with a turban/headcover thing, asked about my marital status, and semi-side-hugged by a camel driver.  The people at the pyramids are quite aggressive and seem to know how to get what they want- but, in general, we stayed strong and persevered in our desires and bargains :)

We were only out there for a few hours, but we still came home exhausted- I have absolutely no idea how the Muslims are able to do Ramadan and don't eat or drink ANYTHING in this heat.  We got back around noon, drank bottles of water, had our first fabulous lunch as a flat, and fell into bed for afternoon naps.

Cairo!

Well, we finally made it!  This is going to be a short post since I'm in an internet cafe, but I thought I would just leave a quick update.  The trip was long, but it included soo many fun and interesting first-time experiences and views!  Although Egypt is the focus of my trip, it was fun to get to see Europe from the sky on the way over :) 

We've really only been here for 24 hours, so I don't have any completely fascinating stories.  We went on a  three hour sight-seeing from a bus today.- The city is just so amazing and different than what I'm used to that it's hard to describe and put into words yet (it's also very difficult to photograph from a bus :)).  I'm really excited to do more exploring in smaller groups and to know what to say and do in different situations- the everyday interactions still some extremely foreign and I'm never sure how to not be rude while staying within boundaries.  In general the people seem really nice though, last night we were walking to our apartment to move in with all our luggage and adorable little girl on a trycicle welcomed us in English.  I'm still not exactly sure what I'm doing, but   I've really enjoyed it so far and am looking forward to the adventures the next couple of days will bring. 

Off I go.

Well, I'm not sure what I think, but I finally have a blog.  I'm hopping on a plane for Egypt on Monday and  I'm pretty excited about it!  I may not be completely ready in a material sense (although I am getting close!), but mentally I am SO ready to finally be starting my adventure.  

I plan to use this blog as a means to keep all my friends and family (you!) updated on my adventures.  I really appreciate all your support and encouragement and would love your continued prayers as I launch into this exciting chapter of my life!