Turkey is a proud country whose culture and historic treasures combined wıth its friendliness and grand hospitality have made this trip an unforgettable experience for me.

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Today is Jaimi`s Bırthday!  Happy Birthday Jaimi!!!!  May your year unfold to find you surrounded by new adventures, new friends, and happy memories!  Enjoy!!!

Okay, so I’ll definitely admit that I thought that I would have a bit more free time to devote to this blog while I am in Turkey. I was told that we would be busy but never thought I would be *this* busy! We usually wake up at 8am, have breakfast with our host families, and are out the door by 9 or 9:30. From there it’s a full day of sight-seeing, eating, meeting people, eating, presentations, eating, tours, eating, eating, and eating (yes, we are eating a lot, but we love it!)! We often get home around midnight and are so tired that we haven’t the strength to do much besides crawl into bed. The drinks imbibed with dinner every night only serve to aggravate our exhausted-ness.

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As many of you know, I broke my foot  2 weeks prior to leaving for thıs amazing trip on April 1…April fool`s Day! It has turned out to be a blessing for me.  At home I normally run around at 120mph and here I am forced to slow down a bit to absorb all of the beautiful things around me.  I actually have the patience on this trıp to listen to the very educated tour guides explain the history behind all of the ancient ruins and museums that we have visited instead of runnıng through the sights quickly just to get to the next.  Yes, I have over analyed the irony that I am broken and so is everythıng around me….hmmm.  And pretty much everything I seem to touch is breakıng. Tucan and Irem were so patient and forgiving of me when I stayed wıth them in theiır beautiful home ın Bursa and my electrical converter broke and as a result blew up my blow dryer…and almost burnt down their home.  (I`m really sorry about that!)  After that, our group went to Iznik to see the kilns and ceramics where I tried my luck at creatıng my own pottery…but it broke.  So I bought a beautiful hand painted ring from Iznik instead to remind me of all the love and care that the Turkısh people have in creating jewerly here.  Later that day….it broke.  I am very grateful for these experience because I truely beleive that everything happens for a reason.  I have learned how to ask for help.  Which I have not had to do very often in Turkey because Turkısh people are the friendliest, most cariıng loving people I have ever known.  My cast comes of the day that I returned home to the USA and I am glad to be able to heal here ın Turkey.  As far as the blow dryer….who needs ıt…my hair ıs healthier as a result!  Sometimes it must be broke to be fixed. 

Cats and dogs roam freely here. They are everywhere and don’t belong to anyone. They seem to be friendly (not scary like the roaming dogs in Southwest Detroit), but maybe too friendly as the cats will come right up to us as we are sitting at outdoor cafes. Nusret told me that Cunda, the island she lives on just off of Ayvalik, is famous for all of the cats that live there. She says that the legend is that people who didn’t want their pet cats anymore used to take them by boat and drop them on the island and leave them. We have even watched some “cat porn” as a male cat was obviously trying to mount a female and also protect his territory (and prospective mate).

Today, in Pumakkale, we saw a cat window shopping at a jewery store - I think that Scott got a picture of it. But overall, it was a dog day more than a cat day today.

I’m not sure if I have mentioned it yet, but driving here is crazy! At first I thought that they were terrible drivers, now I realize that they are actually very good drivers – weaving in and out the way they do without hitting anyone, squeezing in between cars or a car and a building, taking curves in the road without slowing down – or even thinking about slowing down… I often find myself sucking in as if holding my breath will make the car narrower. Then, there are the times that I think it would be best if I just closed my eyes, well, that may actually be most of the time, but I keep on watching and being amazed that things come out as well as they do.

Jaimi again. I know that others are planning to post but we have all been kept extremely busy and we have been pretty tired from our long days and internet access hasn’t been quite as easy to get as we had hoped so I fıgured that while I have access I would post another day (I am usıng my host’s computer wıth a Turkish keyboard wıth extra letters on it so please excuse punctuation problems).

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Although I have known that I would be going on this trip for several months, it is hard for me to believe that it is already here. I got dropped off at the airport at about 8:30 p.m. for a 10:30ish flight from Detroit to Frankfurt. I met up with Jana while checking in and we then found Mark and Angie at Chili’s. Scott joined shortly after. We all headed to the gate together and the flight was not that crowded. I sat across the aisle from Jana and Scott with two empty seats next to me. Mark was sitting one row ahead of us and since Angie is on crutches (with a broken foot) she had her seat moved forward in the plane. We chatted a bit before take-off, but once we were in the air, I turned on Enchanted, watched about 30 minutes and fell asleep and slept the rest of the almost 9 hour flight – missed dinner, missed breakfast, which were served in the middle of the night our time.

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