Thankful for Meatballs

I wrote the majority of this post last night.  But internet is slow, and I couldn't post it til now.  Since then we went to a temple of Zeus, an old fashioned olive oil factory, and swimming on the beach.  I was stung by a sea urchin on my hand, but am perfectly fine now.  After getting back, we found out Pastor Koenig had died.  To keep calm I went on a long walk with the boys. We had been talking with QB (see below) earlier about being thankful for being where we are in life, for little things like meatballs for lunch.  I really don't know how I feel about that right now.  I have never liked counting my blessings.  It usually ends with me yelling at God about the world being  unfair, that I could have so much when others do not.  But anyways, this is my post from yesterday:

Turkey!  I have been making a really big effort to come in with as few preconceived notions as possible.  But even so, Turkey has already surprised me.  Most of the girls, in an effort to be on the safe side, wore skirts today.  Last night Annika and I even had a discussion about whether her pants were too tight.  We didn’t want to stand out.

Oh but we stood out!  We were the only ones in skirts!  Ok, that is a lie.  There was one other group in skirts.  They were also from America.  Everyone else was in tight fitting pants.  Pants, to be sure.  But they left little to the imagination.

The city of Istanbul is beautiful (or at least the little that we have seen.  We drove right though on our way to Troy).  Where Athens was jumbled mix of crappy apartments and nicer apartments, Istanbul is filled with cute, well-built white buildings with clay roofs.  While there are rich areas and poor areas, I feel like their poor is less poor than Athens.  Honestly, the city looks more western than Athens ever did.  The countryside reminds me of the Midwest.  There is a lot of room for big crop fields over gradual hills.  Apparently sunflowers are a big part of the crops we have seen.

Around the airport were signs about Istanbul being a candidate city for the Olympics.  Apparently they have been trying for a while.  Just like they have been trying to get in the EU for a while.  I honestly believe that they could be a great host.  I wonder why they haven’t been chosen yet.

If it wasn’t for the mosques and the flags, I could easily believe that I was in Greece or some other Mediterranean country right now.  And maybe that will change the longer we stay in Turkey.  But right now, the idea of Turkey being part of the scary entity that is “the Middle East” seems ridiculous.

We are going to spend the entire week touring down the west coast.  Our guide, QB (that is what he told us to call him) is a very nice upbeat 30 something with almost perfect English.  It makes me feel kind of bad about not speaking more languages.  Anyways, QB gave us each a bracelet with a charm to ward off evil.  I saw this same charm (a blue and white eye) back in Greece (the connections just keep on coming).  His only real flaw that I have seen is that he is ridiculously biased against the Greeks.  And not in the fun, joking way.  Admittedly, that is really weird to see.  He has mentioned several times that we will talk about politics over tea.  I really hope that we have entered a land of teatime.  I have always loved the idea of teatime.

Today has mostly been driving.  And a ferry ride from Europe to Asia.  Which just seems down right ridiculous at the moment.  We are staying in a mountainside B and B right near the ruins of Troy.  Which is pretty cool.

I just realized that I left my sweatshirt on the plane.  I am really upset about that.

Bed time!  I am about to collapse of exhaustion.

Andrea