Right now I’m listening to some Sufjan Stevens music, whose lyrics mainly talk about different parts of the Midwest. So, I’m feeling a little nostalgic and homesick. I’d like to describe my few days in Cappadocia, but it will be hard. I can’t adequately write how amazing and inspiring it was. We were in a small town in the region of Cappadocia. I went with Kate and with two friends who live one floor below us. Aunt Dianne strongly suggested going on a hot air balloon ride while there, but since it was so expensive, I had to resist the temptation. [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend was great. On Sunday, my roommate Kate and I took a ferry to one of the Princes’ Islands, which is about an hour and a half away from the shore of Istanbul. It was quiet, gorgeous, and there were NO cars! Well, there was the occasional police vehicle and a couple of delivery vans, but that’s it. There’s a rule that there are no personal motorized vehicles allowed on the island. It was a great day trip, and cost us approximately one dollar each way on the ferry. We treated ourselves to a dinner of fresh fish and tea. [View Full Entry]

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Munich was great. As soon as I stepped off the plane and felt the fall air that I’m so accustomed to in mid-September, I was smiling pretty much non-stop. I was only there for a weekend. It might sound crazy that I would fly to Germany just for two and a half days, but honestly, I don’t know if I would have stayed sane if I didn’t have that weekend away. September was a rough month getting adjusted here, and going to a place where I understood people and where I was more familiar with was much-needed. There were two people [View Full Entry]

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A couple of weeks ago, my roommate and I met up with her friend's sister who was here. The friend's sister's friend (try to say that 5 times fast!) was here too. They're taking a trip around the world. So, we met up with them and walked around the whole day. We went to the Toptaki Palace, which is beautiful. We also went to the Blue Mosque. That about sums it up! It was a fun day. The other portion of pictures I'm adding is from school. I love some of the kids a lot. [View Full Entry]

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Well, don’t know where to begin. Turkey is taking getting used to, to say the least. I’ve met some great people, though, and I know that this year will be rewarding in many ways. The school I’m working for is, let’s just put it, interesting. Very, very interesting. Actually, it is so interesting that one of my roommates and I seriously want to make a documentary about it or write a book about it someday. There’s no way to compare the school to any other educational system in the world that I have either seen or heard of. This school has [View Full Entry]

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So far, it has been great. Unfortunately, my jet lag is a lot worse than I expected, so here it is, 3:40 am, and I have to be ready to go to my first day at the school in exactly five hours. But, I had 13 hours of sleep last night, so hopefully that will make up for tonight. Also, I found out that school doesn’t actually start until September 8th. So we have this week as kind of an orientation. Tomorrow is when we’ll go meet other teachers, then each get taken to our individual campuses and get shown around. [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Fort Collins, we made our way down to Denver, and surprisingly had no trouble at all finding the skate park that John wanted to go to. We were there for about three hours, including a stop at Jay's Cafe, where I ate cactus for the first time. It came on a sandwich and was really good. Then, after John was satisfied, we drove to Aprylisa's house. She's my mom's old roommate; she was living with her in Lawrence at the time I was born. We saw her once in Hawaii when I was 7 or 8, but not since [View Full Entry]

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Mom, John and I, after Yellowstone, made our way to Fort Collins. We got there on Uncle David’s birthday and I immediately jumped in Grandmama’s pool - it felt amazing. Kaia and Uncle David were already in it; Aunt Susan, Grandmama, and Mom hung out near the pool. Cousin Pat and her daughter Carolyn arrived shortly after and we all went to Lulu, a really cool East Asian restaurant. I am using that broad term because there was Thai, Chinese, and Japanese food - maybe other countries were represented, not sure. I got my favorite kind of sushi (eel) and was [View Full Entry]

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The first portion of the pictures were taken on the way to Wyoming; I've never taken pictures before of the drive from Minnesota to Colorado, so I decided that it was time. Mom, John and I drove to Colorado to see our family (lots of family!) We made a detour and spent a couple of days in Yellowstone National Park. It was John's and my first time there; I can see why so many people travel from so far away to see it - it is amazing. As my mom says, it shows that the earth is indeed alive. One of [View Full Entry]

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Last week, after camp was over and after my night in Zuerich, I spent 5 days with a really cool girl in Berlin. I had never met her before -- her mom volunteers in my mom's ESL class every Thursday. This past spring when I was at a potluck that my mom's students had, I met Sarah's mom and she told me that her daughter lives in Berlin. I got her email address and wrote her to see if there was any way I could visit her in Berlin after I was done in Switzerland. She very graciously wrote back and [View Full Entry]

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