May 20th and 21st

Sorry these are a little out of order.

hmm I am going to tell these adventures with pictures since I still had my battery for these days.

Actually it is taking forever to load and I am ready for bed so I will give a quick recap and finish loading them later.

Friday we finished orientation in the early afternoon. April and I really wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A and we had discovered there was one about 6 miles away. So we asked people if they wanted to join us. Nick said yes everyone else for some reason did not want to... We were actually allowed to use some bikes and it was only 4.5 miles not 6. The milk shake was well worth the ride.

The next morning April and I went to the Wade Center on Wheaton's Campus. They have the desk of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein as well as the wardrobe that inspired the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe. They had a lot of other fun things by different authors as well. Pictures to follow when I can get it to work better.

May 23rd

My first day is almost done...

I was suppose to sleep in this morning because of jet lag. Who wants to bet how that went? If you guessed, "not well," you would be right. I was wide awake and up by 7:30.

I went with Renata and got some TL, so the fun of trying to manage a budget with two currencies has begun! The exchange rate today was really good, at least that is what I was told. We went to the bank and the market. Renata pointed out landmarks and routes to help get around in our area.

The place I am at is very nice and safe. I can see the ocean and the mountains from the window as well as the balconies. Today was really clear and the view was breathtaking, it made me think of you know who!

I looked at and circled two different location on twenty maps for people coming in tonight from Denver Seminary for a tour. So if nothing else I know where the hotel and the St. Paul Cultural Center are on the map.

Renata and I then worked on some paper work related to the upcoming camps.

I am going to be helping with the barracudas elective, which means the swimming and hiking for the children. I am thrilled!

I then went on my first solo adventure to go put minutes on the phone I will be using. Renata gave me directions and instructions and then set me loose. Watch out Antalya, I'm free! I walked down to the mall which is an easy five minutes and found Turkey Cell and through hand gestures and some English on my part and Turkish on their part we managed to get 20TL worth of minutes on my phone. That done I looked around the rest of the mall, it was smaller so this was not hard to do. A few discoveries are that it is a lot easier to find a one piece in Turkey, I can get an adapter for my plug at the grocery store, they seem to like earth tones more for clothing, and you can buy converse at the grocery store. Yes the last one surprised me, I had noticed that a lot of people were wearing them so I guessed they were popular but finding them at the grocery store was odd. They say "All Star" on the heel in English and then the circle emblem is in Turkish.

I then had some more time so I walked the remaining few blocks to the ocean. I discovered where I could go swimming when with someone else, as well as many beautiful places to look at.

Oh something that I found interesting is the elevators. You pull a normal swinging door open step in, close it, and then push one of the highlighted buttons this button is then no longer highlighted and that is the floor you go to. But when the elevator moves there is no inner door so the wall with all the other outer doors goes by and you could drag your hand along it if you wanted. The last thing is the ground floor is zero not number one and they do have a thirteenth floor.

So yes throw in some food, conversations, and God time and that was my day.

Arrival

I started my journey Saturday evening at 7:15 ish and arrived around 9PM Sunday...

I am ten hours ahead of Oregon so it is 11 AM here on the 23rd and 1 AM there (i think the 23rd). Everyone else can figure it out from there ;-)

The flights were mostly uneventful. My domestic flight from Istanbul to Antayla was delayed. I'm still not sure why since all explanation was in Turkish. A gentleman got into a rather loud altercation with the flight attendant. It seemed acceptable to everyone for him to be bellowing. Then when we did board the flight attendant was strongly reprimanding a gentleman for hitting his wife, which is not allowed on the flight. The wife was not mentally all there and the gentleman was being rather rough with her. They seemed to be of European descent.

Something different about flying in Turkey is that everyone claps when the plane lands...

I am staying with the Bultema's for the next couple of weeks. Eventually, Christine will join me here. Tressa is staying at the house Christine and I will move to after camp. The apartment has a beautiful view of the city, the ocean, and the mountains.

The food I have had so far has been quite good, a lot of vegetables but taste. For those that were concerned about this.

I have a confession! I forgot my camera battery in Chicago, so it will be a little while before I have pictures to share :-(

That about sums up my last couple of days

Top Ten Ways to tell I’m not in Eugene

10) When people say Washington they mean DC not the state

9) People refer to “the loose and liberal west coast”

8) I don’t have a clue about any of the colleges they are mentioning

7) There are no recycling containers anywhere

6) The colors green and yellow are just colors

5) No pan handlers on the corners

4) Gas cost $4.52 a gallon

3) There aren’t hippies about

2) The city is clean

1) The boxes of Soda say “Go Cubs”

A random freebie nobody knows where Eugene is…

Chicago Art Museum and Millenial Park

Just because it struck my fancy

I don't get modern art

Yes they have a lawn called "Great Lawn" and you are not allowed to touch it...

Little India

This is a plate of the food we were served. It was all good tasting if not a little different. Dessert was fragrant rice with milk and something else I don't remember what...

After Dinner mint :-) it tasted like black licorice and I thought was nasty

Team Turkey!

The person on the left was a driver center is Beckie who is a PT going to Pakistan and right is Lexi who will be a teacher at Black Forest Academy in Germany

Naan bread with "food" on it :-) (really good)

Hmm I did not know Pizza was Afghani?

Some type of pastry

April going to the Czech

Naama bread cooking

Chai Tea

More of the group

Trying to find Pakistani appropriate clothes :-) (we eventually found two shirts)

More Training

So today was more training... we discussed the need for finding lost sheep (intriguing), servant hood, shared personal testimonies (amazing to hear what God has done), met a bunch of TEAM people, ate some great food. We also discussed some financial questions which was really good and provided some clarity. Then, of course, we had a team building section. For part of it they showed a video (I wonder if it was the one we never got to see at NHCC ;-)) which was really good and I enjoyed what they had to say.

We then did the infamous games... for one of them we were all so packed together that...well lets say sardines. You all know how much I love physical contact (yes this is sarcasm). It was actually good and we discussed communicating in groups and being willing to try new things and listen to suggestions that go against the norm...

We had Chicago Pizza for dinner. I now have to say that Boston/East Coast pizza is better than Chicago pizza.

A group of us then went to, the apartment of the couple who will be in Turkey, and we played Taboo. I have to say that I am so thrilled that they will be there for July. They will add so much to the sheep herding of this trip.

Your prayers are much appreciated! I will be heading Turkey on Saturday....

It has Begun

I left last night out of Portland for O'Hare, it was a overnight flight and is usually the case on such flight quite with lots of people trying there best to sleep.

I was picked up at the air port in a long white Limo...yeah it seemed odd to me to. I guess we most get a nice discount :-) It made me miss my college group. It is a lot funner riding with a bunch of friends as compared to by yourself.

I was dropped off at the apartment building on the TEAM campus at 6:30 AM and I was ready to sleep for four hours. But to my disappointment my room key was missing :-( So I used someone else key to get into the locked hallway and left my luggage to try and find someone with a phone or information at 6:30...I did not have any luck so pink elephant and I got comfy and started to fall asleep.

But a gentleman who knew who to talk to came along and saved the day :-)

I have two other room mates... One is going to teach in Germany and the other is going to Czech Republic.

For dinner they made us all wear these long cardboard things on our arms so we could not bend our arms... so we ended up all feeding each other. It was really funny!

I'm a graduamated ;-)

So the day finally came and on May 5th my sister and I stole the show and graduated! We both graduated Summa Com Laite (which means where smart :-) ) and Bre was valedictorian. We both also received are creditials, along with one other gentleman. It was a lot of fun and really rewarding.

The family had been arriving in stages and we had Mom and Dad and the five youngers there from Japan. It was amazing to have all of them there for the big event.

Cousin Amy and Aunt Sherry put on a fundraising /goodbye party for me and it went really well and they raised a LOT if money. God is so good and He really has been providing in amazing ways.

The two brothers from TX arrived Sunday night and on Monday we took off for the OR coast for some needed family time.

We have been having a great time at the coast, playing in the surf and sand, finding seaglass and agates, walking, talking, frisbee (yes the wind actually allowed us to play frisbee one of the days), kickball, aquariurms, and many other family fun things!!

Arielle is a sister after my own heart and we both have managed to get rather wet...but yesterday we stayed dry! I know gasp of suprise all around :-)

Bre and I had partially packed our apartment before we left for the coast.

Bre and I have also found a third room mate for when I get back from Turkey in August! Marca I am so excited, it will be great!

We have been doing many other things I know this is only a overview but I have to run.

Oh three days till my Turkish adventure begins!!!!!