turkey: part two

ahh, i'm so behind on blogging! i don't think i'm ever going to fully catch up, to be honest. there's too much stuff to blog about it all. so here's the rest of turkey:

the next few days were  spent going to a lot of ancient sites...the main theme of our trip was the journey of paul in asia minor, so we went to a bunch of places that he taught and lived. we went to assos, which is so pretty i can't even describe! it's an ancient greek city that looks over the aegean sea and this beautiful island. pictures just don't do it justice. we had a devotional overlooking the sea and while my professor was talking, there was a storm coming at us from across the water...you could see the dark clouds and rain coming at us. right before it hit the land, the storm just quickly moved south and missed us. it was the coolest visual. oh, and this explains the windy hair pictures! 

i actually stil need to upload some pictures on my computer, so i'm going to skip a few sites and talk about ephesus! ephesus is amazing. you could spend an entire day there. why is it so cool? it's a whole ancient city! not just, like, an ancient pillar here, an ampitheater there...the whole city is still remaining! that a quarter of a million people lived in. how cool is that? 

this ancient greek symbol is now the familiar healthcare symbol. 

this view is one of the pictures in the back of the bible. 

apparently the residents of ephesus still dress like this? (just kidding, they were filming a movie.) 

after ephesus, we went to priene, which is the most beautiful site on a hill that overlooks a valley that used to be part of the sea. it's where paul gave his last lesson before returning to jerusalem to be arrested. the people knew they would not see him again. we had a really great devotional about loved ones that pass away and brother huntsman told a personal story about his dad's death. i'm pretty sure everyone cried a little. it was my favorite devotional and i kept thinking about my grandma passing away at home and what a special time that was for our family, even though it was sad. it was very memorable, especially at this gorgeous site. 

then, we had the rest of the afternoon to play at our hotel. oh, what would you do for a whole afternoon at your hotel, you ask? play board games? not at AQUA FANTASY! that was the name of the hotel we stayed at for two nights. it has like, three giant swimming pools and a water park just for the residents. and hammocks all over the place. and it's on the beach, too. i kept thinking about how if my family came here on vacation, we would never stay somewhere that nice. it was ridiculous. but i am not complaining! we just played all afternoon and then laid on the dock at night and talked. 

the next day, we went to sardis, which was really cool, but instead of taking pictures by ancient ruins again, i wandered off and found a group of school kids to play with haha. 

they were so stinking cute!! they taught me some turkish words and i taught them some english words. they reminded me of my kids in china. i still miss those kids so much. man, i miss teaching. 

ok sorry. the next day was our last and we spent it in nicea and then back to istanbul. nicea is where the nicean creed was written, so we went to constantine's summer palace that overlooks the sea of marmara. 

this is my roommate ashley. she is such a champ. her luggage got lost on the way to istanbul and so she went a whole week without anything. luckily some girls rounded up a few things for her, but still, i love how positive she was. so awesome. 

we took a ferry back over to istanbul. wouldn't it be cool to be one of those young sailors that sails around the world solo? aye aye captain. 

once we got to istanbul, lots of last minute shopping and site seeing occurred. we went to the hagia sophia and the blue mosque. SO INCREDIBLE! the mosque is literally filled with nothing but blue tiles inside. it's the most beautiful mosque i've seen here. 

awful picture, i know. the point and shoot is a little disappointing sometimes. i think i might save up my money and by an slr for myself for christmas....

the hagia sophia is really beautiful and i think it's cool that one of the most famous christian churches is right next to the one of the most famous muslim mosques. see this picture? one of the rulers of the byzantine period had a picture of him, his wife, and jesus put up on one of the walls in tile. when the next ruler came around, he didn't want to take the tiles down or replace the whole thing, so he just cut out everyone's heads and had new ones of him and his wife put in.  that was the second oddest thing of the hagia sophia. the first is that a boy came up to me, grabbed my upper arm, kissed it really hard, and then walked away before i could say anything. and he left bread crumbs on my arm. what? 

brother huntsman and his daughter, rachel. 

ok, i am all pictured out, so i'm going to end things there. that was my trip to turkey! i loved every second of it. it was so beautiful! i really hope i have the chance someday to go back. it was so nice driving into the JC and feeling like i was coming home. i've got lots more to blog about. the weekend has been exciting so far for everyone. think music video makings, meeting shaun white in jerusalem, and a spontaneous jon schmidt concert in a lutheran church. whoah.