FINISHED

Ladies and Gentleman (Do I have gentleman readers?)

I am done with my religion major. Can we say EXCITED!!!

That is all.

SWAPping...

I think I have the stuff to do it to it this time... I am spurred onward and inspired by newest acquisitions in the stash- and some old ones. So at the moment, I have things I would like to make. It's honestly a matter of getting to them, and of making a cohesive wardrobe come of getting to them. Things I'd like to make... Stars mean I have fabric.

2 dresses:

*brown/eggplant retro print matched print?

*brown jersey knit

*brown herringbone wiggle dress

6 tops:

*purple sweater knit tunic-type thing unusual closure

some fun shirt featuring entre-deux- maybe dotted Swiss?

long/half-sleeve tshirt

embellished tee

purchase/purchased

purchase/purchased

2 bottoms:

*embroidered cotton circle skirt fill in w/color along top opening edge to feature embroidery

*charcoal/navy twill kickpleat skirt

plus one:

*wiggle dress

Financially, stash, and planning-wise I am in better shape this year.But first, finals...

December is INSANE.

Sooo I am getting back into the swing of things, and feeding my fabric addiction, and I suppose I should start thinking about Winter Break sewing goals, although I have a pretty awesome sewing goal to accomplish before then... Remember Dawn? The dress that never happened for a formal that never happened?

Well, that fabric was still destined for "greatness". Imagine this strapless neckline, knee length, with kick pleats over each leg, but maintaining the same clean silhouette- a sort-of straight but not pencil-skirt line.

You know, this will be easier to explain with pictures. Which I will take.But for now I used another line drawing to kinda make a point... I've drafted the pattern (using a straight skirted strapless dress as a starting point), cut, and assembled to the point of pleats pinned to insert.

Bought the lining and other unnecessary but truly wonderful things today- and the lining was the only thing I bought full price! I'll share those, jewelry made for the dress, and some other projects when I have my camera.

Thankful for 30...

I really do have SOOO much to be thankful for, and as late in the month as it may be, I committed to doing it and have done poorly, but I will have 30 reasons, one that happened on each day. And I will put them all here!

1.Bad Descisions Brunch- a time my friends and I get together on Sunday mornings and revel in Saturday evening's events... including some bad descisions, and many more laughs and remembering good ones.

2. Boys who play girls in the theater

3. Dancing in Fall leaves... SOOOO many wonderful colors this year!

4.Tech Crew fun times backstage

5. The scene in V for Vendetta about Guy Fawkes Day... "Remember, remember the Fifth of November..." ...We watched it as a study break for a big exam

6. Knowing the answers for exams

7. Naps.

8. Lunch with my youth group followed by fun with my actors... AND no big long photo call!

9. A day during the run of a show in which I don't have to enter the theater... Feels magical!

10. Playing Powderpuff Football with my sorority sisters, and having friends come watch!

11. Times to laugh with my classmates.

12. Revisiting SG (Stitcher's Guild) for the first time in a long time

13. Simple exams

14. A smooth Strike for what could be my last Strike... It is really an amazing thing to have watched an organization grow, and then to be okay with the idea of letting it go. Sitting at pizza party after Strike that night, I was really... okay with it.

15. Nintendothon! A philanthropy event for Pi Kappa Alpha's chapter at my school... I sponsored 2 members of the fraternity and was sponsored by 2 members of the fraternity and 3 of my sorority sisters. It raises money for Toys for Tots. Over the course of the weekend I played 12 hours of video games!

16. good hugs

17. feeling pretty

18. an empty feed on Google Reader

19. new media to play with in Drawing for the Theater- playing with black paper is neat!

20. Good friends who will let me take over kitchen tables and get work done

21. Piling people onto couches and getting to spend time talking and laughing into the wee sma' hours- nights you may not completely remember with people you know you could never ever completely forget are the stuff college is made of.

22. good coffee and good friends- and any occasion, even homework, that brings the two together.

23. throwing lessons- I learned to build a teapot!

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

To SWAP or not to SWAP?

I am really torn. The format is SUPER attractive this year... I could see myself wearing a grouping like this, and it would fill out the wardrobe of a Seminarian nicely...

From SG's page on SWAP 2010:

This year, to accomodate the many different clothing needs of our members, we have three SWAP formats to choose from. Certainly you may make more than one if you have time, but if you do each finished SWAP must fit one of the three formats.

Option #1:
6 tops - t-shirts, shirts, blouses, or camisoles
4 bottoms - jeans, pants, shorts, skirts or kilts.
1 your choice (not an accesory)

Option #2:
2 dresses -single pieces consisting of top and bottom that can be worn alone.
6 tops - t-shirts, shirts, blouses, or camisoles
2 bottoms - jeans, pants, shorts, skirts or kilts.
1 your choice (not an accesory)

Option #3:
5 dresses -single pieces consisting of top and bottom that can be worn alone.
4 tops - t-shirts, shirts, blouses, or camisoles
1 bottom - jeans, pants, shorts, skirt or kilt.
1 your choice (not an accesory)

2 garments may be purchased or previously sewn.
1 may be knitted or crocheted.
1 will be a matched print or stripe.
1 will feature embroidery, beads or sashiko
1 will have buttons as the star feature OR use unusual or alternative closure(s).
-----------------------
This year's emphasis is going to be on making a wardrobe that fits your needs, and showcasing your sewing and embellishing skills.

Sewing will begin December 26th, and all garments must be finished by April 30th, 2010. Because this is a shorter time frame, pattern fitting and cutting may be done whenever you're ready.

I really like option 2, and I think I could do it. Especially since 2 items can be pre-existing, and it contains dresses. I am not penalized for not finishing, and I will be sewing for my Senior Seminar in costume design... these little challenges of embellishment and matching could be practice for real things in Senior Sem! The six tops could be difficult, but at the same time, they could be my 2 pre-existing items, AND a chance for me to get over whatever "thing" I have about making tops. I have some coordinating things I bought and never even touched for SWAP and Istanbul, and need more things I make on my body... I just don't know if this is the way to do it.

I'd love some input.

Jessica with pictures!

Well, Jessica was a very nice-looking Rabbit. She was really pretty amazing until we were rained on on our way back from the dance. And when I say rained on, I mean soaked-to-the skin, shoes hidden, chilly wind, not-a-dry-stitch-on-my-body kind of rain. It was an adventure. And taffeta does not like to come off of rained-on Rabbits. Not one bit. As a result there are no head-to-toe shots of us, but I'm happy to share what exists...I had to do a bit of alteration, and even though this was made from a self-drafted pattern 3 years, a dress size, and 10 pounds ago, I found myself removing fabric. I used a combination of French and pinked seams, facing the slit that ended up being approximately 8 inches above my knee. With nude-toned micronet stockings and 5-inch heels, I felt pretty awesome.

A Show!!!!

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is up.

As of tomorrow...

We still have some things to do, but I feel pretty good about it.

Jessica Rabbit report soon, but I have exams before then.

ETA:

I will be doing Thankful for 30 this weekend- a la Mary of Confessions of a Craft Addict.

1. Bad Descisions Brunch- a time my friends and I get together on Sunday mornings and revel in Saturday evening's events... including some bad descisions, and many more laughs and remembering good ones.

2. Boys who play girls in the theater

3. Dancing in fall leaves- SOO many wonderful colors this year!

4. Tech crew fun times

Jessica is coming along...

I have a date.

I have the hairstyle CLOSE to figured out after a practice run last night.

I have the shoes.

I have the makeup, false eyelashes, purple mascara and all.

As for the dress....

The bodice is the only thing being lined, and is only lined to add support and a place for ...extra "support". I basted that lining together while a friend was working on "trial hair" and then put it on to check fit, realizing how much I have learned in the course of the past few years. The dress is being based on one I made my Freshman year. I didn't line it at all, and though I have gained enough weight and muscle to add inches just about everywhere, the dress was a bit too big.

It's a teaching moment to be sure: I have definately learned how far I have come. I wouldn't even have thought to try to do a fit of the lining this time 3 years ago... and I do now largely because of the awesome theatre work and close fittings I have done there.

I am pretty proud of myself... now let's just wait for pictures of the awesomeness.

Some Sewing!

...Not done yet. But for Halloween...

I am making a red dress....

I found the shoes last night at Marshall's... Well I found A shoe. This lovely faux-snakeskin-5"ish metallic sandally heel. For the life of me, I couldn't find the other shoe... And of course, it was the only one.

Then, at closing time, I got a call that said they found the mate! So I have shoes. They are red with one of those awful stacked heel, so I will be sanding the bases down and painting them shiny fire engine red.

For 7 dollars and a bit of work, I have shoes. Can we say exciting?

I'm using the extra fabric from Sunset (there is about 3 yards) for the dress, and then I'm set once I find purple gloves.

I am also doing a bunch of sewing associated with Rosenrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. It's been fun to be back in the costume shop, and we have boys down there right now who are learning. It makes my heart happy!

And after Jessica Rabbit, there will be a little bit of craziness getting R&G up, and then onto my gold dress for sorority formal! I might be able to work a bit of everyday wear for the winter in as well, but I HAVE been buying things. It's putting my refashioning side to shame, but at the same time, there is much going on in my life. So I need the time.

Hope all is well! Sorry for long absences.

Absentee blogging

Wow...

I cannot believe life got so crazy- But you know what? It's been good crazy. And I am in the midst of being more myself, and finding me and really living life.

I used the internet as a crutch last year, and am successfully seeing it as more of a tool, which means you hear from me less often, and I think that might end up having to be okay for a while.

With Halloween, some awesome hats being made, and another formal coming, there will be some pretty awesome sewing things popping up, and I think after this week I will have a post a week. Maybe it'll be Wednesdays. These are my thoughts for the moment. Feel free to hold me to them.

Now to study. I am catching up from pesky Bronchitis. Lots to do, not lots of sleep...

Baack...

It has oficially been a month since I have touched this blog.

Sorry.

I've had lots to think about, and even more importantly, I had some family and friends to catch up with... And before I knew it, I had been home for almost 3 weeks and it was time to pack again... narrowing down the things I really need to take back versus the things I didn't.

The experience of going there and living in another culture, another language, completely out of my element made for a very liberating environment and let me do things and explore more about me. It was a lot to process and I still have a lot to process, which means a change.

You might see more diary-like entries in the future, not rants but sounding boards. I can't promise it'll be all about sewing anymore, but it'll still have things about sewing, because sewing is a part of who I am. I'll try to make sure I post about sewing and crafting once a week- and maybe it'll be on the topic of ceramics or drafting part of that time this semester since I am taking a ceramics class and a drafting class.

I'll leave you with another Istanbul picture... These dogs were all over campus. There was a puppy who was a tiny squirmy thing when we got there and had grown quite a bit by the time we left. Half the fun of this trip were the little things like that- the places we went to dance or have a cup of chai, and the other things like that. The sites were beautiful, but the people- American, Turkish, and otherwise- taught me just as much.

What? It's over?

My time in Istanbul is coming to an end in, oh... 8
hours. It'll be a jam-packed 8 hours considering the packing I have to do, and the journals I have to finish. But I learned SO much while I was here, and I really and truly know in my bones I will return to this place. It will never be the same, but when a professor said Istanbul is a city that grabs hold of your heart and doesn't let go, he wasn't joking. It's an awesome awesome awesome place. I am going to miss the sunsets... The ones at home really won't have much ground to stand on after 6 weeks of views I havn't seen and water on at least one side of me. Not having minnarets in every picture or visual representation of a skyline will be one of the weirdest things when I get home, and the rhythm that hearing a call-to-praryer 5 times(I totally sleep through the first one since our dorm window doesn't face a mosque) will be missed too... Some of us have spent a good bit of yesterday and will spend a good bit of time today thinking "this is the last..." but something tells me we will all have many more experienced in this city. July 2009 is over, but it was one of the best months of my 21 years. I learned more than I ever thought I would, and about things I didn't think I would be thinking about. But it really is unequivocally a life-changing thing to take yourself out of normal, and doing it in such an adventurous, some would argue unsafe, way made for meeting amazing people and doing things I know I never would have done otherwise.

I could wax nostalgic about it, but that's not what you all come here for. Tell me what you want to know about this city.

How I can get YOU to come and see it for yourself!

Sinfully Delicious: A word on Food and Drink

Well, I know I talked about food once before, but now comes the really good stuff. Desserts.

The sweets here are SO amazing... I have seen enough baklava to make my head spin, and the ice cream... oh, the ice cream. Really good and cheap, and it's everywhere. It's called dondurma, and it's a delicious cross between gelatto and custardy ice cream. And there are things like Turkish tiramisu and Turkish flan and gorgeous fruit tarts and waffles loaded down with chocolate and fruit and oh-my-waistline-can't-take-all-of-the-cute-places-that just-serve

-coffee-and-desserts... But you have an excuse when you travel, right?

We've had that and more. The table in the photo is covered in traditional Turkish foods, and at that point the entrees had been whisked away in favor of desserts. There were several kinds of dried fruits and nuts, and a custardy thing that reminds me a little bit of pumpkin pie filling with the texture, but tastes like caramelly heaven.

It was also really amazing, but I can't remember the name of it. We had really gracious hosts sharing al of this delicious food with us, and in the name of paying it forward!

I only hope to have the oppurtunity to do that for someone else one day, because it was exactly what many of us needed. There's something that

crosses over all

borders, politically and culturally speaking, about a home. Dorm rooms, resteraunts, and hotels just don't have that feeling that a family lives there and is ready to welcome you with open arms. Just the very essence of hospitality and relaxation you can find nowhere else are really spectacular, and you never know how much you miss it until you've been without it for a while.

The drinks are pretty amazing too. I think I talked about how Coke is made with real sugar, and that make it SO good!

There are tons of flavored mineral waters too, and I've even seen some juiceboxes.

In exploring and being a part of the nightlife here, we have experienced everything from neat hole-in-the-wall, non-touristy places where the alcohol* is really delicious and really cheap to traditional taverns to high-class places where you can feel the music. A traditional liquor we see everywhere here is Raki, and it's pretty nifty. I have only had it twice, but I like it a lot.

It tastes like black liqorice, and goes down very smooth. I had it the way Turkish people do, with melon and appetizers. It's got about the same proof as vodka but is much more delicious. Whiskey is pretty uncommon, but gin and vodka are readily available, and there are many DELICIOUS flavors of vodka... hazlenut and watermelon tie for favorite at the moment.

The beer everyone seems to love is called Efes, and it's comparable in flavor to a light beer, and in alcohol content to some heavier beers. As I am not a beer drinker, I havn't tried it, but I do have a baby mug our guide gave me as a souvenier!

We have one more week before we all head for different places, and 2 more weeks and I will be home. Tomorrow we leave for Cappadocia and our long excursion. I am beginning to see that one of the American professors here wasn't joking when he said Istanbul is a city that grabs hold of your heart and doesn't let go. I'm already thinking of when I could possibly come back!

*On the issue of alcohol:

I do my best not to make a secret of the fact that I drink. I am of legal age, and learned from long before I turned of age to treat alcohol responsibly. I am sorry if talking about alcohol offends the sensibilities of any of you, my darling readers, but I won't hide the fact that I drink every once in a while or appologize for it. When I do, it's socially and with people I know and trust. It's not responsible to do otherwise or get carried away. Moderation is my policy!

Indulgences

This is our last full week in Turkey, and we've been going-going-going... We have a future event planner working with our group to take us awesome places and has it ever been an adventure! It's also meant I have been dead tired upon walking in my door every night, and havn't really looked at my computer.

But I promised you some fashion. And some shopping. Wardrobe Refashioners will want to look away now because I went to...gasp...Old Navy before I left and...gasp... a mall last week.

Old Navy wasn't too remarkable, I got some awesome tops and a sweet spring-and-fall weight trench that saved me while travelling and didn't pay full price for anything.

Shopping here was an experience. I was looking for some things to wear out to nightclubs and

was surprised at how...trendy everything is. The stores take trends we find in the states, put them a size smaller, and throw them out there. It could be because I am in a big city, but I also saw lots of American stores like the Gap and Bananna Republic and Guess and most of the big designer names. We steered clear of these, and I now have a pretty cute outfit I wore out last weekend that has things in it I know I will definately wear again. I can speak for the girls in the photo for sure and say we are all wearing Turkish clothes. The black dress is pretty cute, and you can't see the strapless, distorted paisley dress my other friend is wearing but it speaks to the trends here. I got the vest and top at the mall, and the skirt at a store I would compare to Target. There are lots more dresses and the level of formality is a little higher, and I'd honestly say people just dress better than those my age in the states for some things, but better may not be the right word. But more later. I have to get my face from out in front of this computer and enjoy the few days we have left here!

I am sure I will have another post or 2 here and a week or 3 of catch-up/nostalgic posts upon returning home.

Midterms in foreign countries still mean procrastination

It's reassuring that some things really never change. Really, procrastination came across the Atlantic with me... Can't beat that.

But I have to if I want to go to a Turkish movie theatre tonight.

I just wanted to do a quick post to tell you what's coming up... I will get to some shopping questions and reply to some things, and Wednesday there will be a guest blogger hanging out in the land of anachronisms. I am participating in a blog swap through 20-something bloggers, so it'll be a little different. A is pretty nifty though. She is a Canadian student, and I'm excited to write on her blog over here.

So shopping, fashion, and a guest. Hope you're ready for it!

Food, food glorious food...

The food really is pretty amazing/wonderful. And a dear friend of mine asked me about it on Facebook, so here we go.

We eat lots of startes, and clockwise from top left is a yougurt/garlic thing, eg

gplant puree, a coastal veggie. a traditional salad, stuffed peppers, and

traditional cheese. This was our first sit-down meal here, and it was the day we wen

t to the beach. I made the discovery that I am not overly fond of yogurt in that use or cheese. And that Turkish people put pickled cabbage in EVERY salad in the country. And that stuffed peppers might just be as good as stuffed grape leaves. mmmmm... the grape leaves don't have a picture, but are really good.

Much of Istanbul is also on the coast, so we get lots and lots of fish. And I don't make a secret

of the fact that I am not the biggest fan of fish...

But my friend Igor certainly is. He likes to try new things, and this mackeral was new to hi

m and he tried it. And played with it. The boy fish met the girl fish. They were having a conversation.

An awesome traditional dish I did get to try- although it was at a resteraunt- ia a pasta-type dish called manti. It is a bit like ravioli with a different shape and a yogurt (They use it a lot in this cuisine, it's pretty good and definately interesting) sauce. A Turkish friend of one of the professors invited us over for a traditional meal and served the homemade casserole-style version and it was pretty awesome too.

The street food, doner, is pretty awesome.

I don't have pictures of it, but it's like a giant spit that turns and makes wonderful wonderful roasted meat... It's pretty lean meat when all is said and done. And the produce prices don't have a comparison factor, they are so cheap. I am thinking about doing a post on shopping... Yes? No? What do you think?

And the drinks are good too! Soda is made with real sugar, and it's

DELICIOUS.

And it comes in smaller cans... 330mL, which is about 10 ounces or so by my guess. I like Coke. And Fanta. And Diet Coke is Coke Light.

Which made me giggle.

And you can't hold that against me because I was jetlagged just then. We'd only been in Istanbul for about 3 hours outside of the airport.

And the lemonadey wonderfulness in the bottle over there with the snack mix? Delightful. Truly great. The snack mix is just okay.

And I'm not going to go too far into guilty pleasures here, but the sweets are pretty awesome. There's some home cooking that might need to have some praise too, but later. If you wish. Let me know. But I have a midterm to work on now.

On that note, I have done my best to make the comments section accessible, and especially when away, I LOVE hearing from y'all. So do me a favor and try to leave a comment, no matter who you are. If there's not a box to write in, you should be able to click on the word 'comments'. I want to see how accessible it is. And hear from you. Here's 3 questions.

• Can you name the musical assocoated with the title of this post?
• What are YOU up to this summer?
• What do you want to know about what I'm up to?

Catch-up!

With a birthday weekend and impending midterms, I have fallen behind. But I am okay with that. One of my professors at Transy never worries when she doesn't hear from her students after they've been abroad for a few weeks- She says they're too busy having experiences to tell her about them.

And I love telling you guys about everything. I've hit a lot of the broad strokes and touristy

things and academic things without telling you about life here. You know, the ins-and-outs. Like the weather. Or the food. Or how we have had a stomach bug going around(Another reason I havn't posted... Sunday night to Monday afternoon it got to me. Don't worry Mom, I am fine and completely re-hydrated and almost caught up on school stuff...)

Or about the giant hills covering our campus. Or our dorm rooms.

So today, a post in bullets. About life.

• The weather would make any of you East of the Missisippi jealous and some of you West of it jealous, because the humidity is next to nothing. I mean it. We have been here for 2 weeks now and it has only rained once. And there hasn't been a day over 90 degrees, and I have lived rather comfortably without AC. Most of the time.
• Which would naturally bring me to our dorms... The beds are typical dorm beds, only they flip up and have storage. Cool huh? And we have one of the dorms that has good airflow, which makes our lack of AC more bearable than in other rooms. Our shelves and desks are great, I have rather adequate closet space, and the bathroom is ours and ours alone. And the girl I am sharing a room with is a friend from Transy. Peggy's pretty awesome. And in that picture on the coastline on your Left.
• The hills... deserve pictures. I don't knowthe math but I can tell you they are STEEP. And I will have legs of steel for walking up them. All the time. I walk up this hill to get from my dorm to the rest of campus, and up an even bigger hill to get to the outside world. It's kinda crazy but I don't think I mind too terribly much due to the legs of steel factor. And the fact that there's occasionally a campus shuttle running that takes us up the hills.
• The greenery... I am living in a climate for foliage. I don't know that I have ever seen so many roses in my life. They are everywhere... As are other of my favorites... Like Hydrangeas in every color under the sun, and we have pine trees and marigolds and hollyhocks taller than I am and lots of other stuff I see at home. But really, the roses make my heart happy. And if I saw honeysuckle I would think I really were in Paradise.
• Food... Oh I have reading to do for class. Guess you'll just have to wait and see, she said with a sly grin.

2 giant sites, one long day...

It's been a long and crazy and wonderful week. I had a quiz Thursday and yesterday was an excursion day. Once a week the program director takes us all to the European side and we see sites of historical importance and cultural wonders... We do the things tourists do too.
We saw Hagia Sofia (some of us, me included, for the second time, and 2 or 3 for the 3rd!) and the Blue Mosque in one somewhat long day yesterday... It was crowded at both places and totally worth it at both places.
But my, is it ever beautiful.... Hagia Sofia is under restoration and renovation right now, so there is scaffolding up all over the place, but it's still breathtakingly beautiful. The sheer size and scale of the place.... WOW.
And I LOVED hearing out professor tell us what speculation says it would have been like in its original splendor. Getting to see these awesome and ancient places is...amazing.
It's also an interesting experience to see the way some of the elements of the architecture work together... Mary as Mother of God is depicted and on either side of her are roundels with Muslim names- I think the name of God and Muhammad.
I'd show you pictures but Blogger doesn't want for me to.
Kay. Enough for now. After celebrating a bit too hard for my birthday last night, I need a nap.

Paradise has homework.

This place is awesome, but the STUDY part of Study Abroad is definately coming to the front of the room... I have tons of reading to do... But tons of pictures to share too. So, as I write this, I am reading 20 pages/writing a paragraph/reading 20 more pages...
Where was I? Oh yeah. Pictures.
Today's site? The Basilica Cistern. Well, it was actually Monday's, but the reading's getting intense. It was built with the same kind of plan some early churches used, so we visited it with my Christian Art and Architecture class. It's another one of those places you really have to see because pictures have no way of capturing the atmospere of a place- time really stands still there.
The idea of a nation being awesome enough to gather the columns for the place- stealing them from all kinds of places- is so neat... And the concept of a place having been expanded and improved upon is pretty awesome too. More than one group of people took pride in this place and kept it alive. This desire to leave a mark has always existed, but has been exemplified there in some way, shape or form for
Over.
1000.
Years.

There's no parallel for that in my narrow, Vanilla picture of life. No place where I can experience the inspiring power of innovators of centuries past. I see what they mean when they say travel changes your outlook on life. The awe of generations is contagious.

What the distance and the environment can offer makes things so clear in some circumstances- I can't wait to be able to get home and continue some of the conversations I started before I left. It puts me in a great place to reflect while I'm here, and I will be much healthier and more sure of myself for the experience.

And none of that would happen without the foundation I have- the innate lessons to keep my eyes open to God in every corner- the push of Divine inspiration I have been taught to see- and the desire to do my best to see and serve and show God in every way I can has made me a sponge in all of this. It's amazing, and I know this wouldn't be nearly as awesome of a journey without the family- genetic, church, and otherwise- that brought me to where I am.

Aonther beautiful site.

... Is the church-turned-mosque-turned museum, the Kariye Camii, one of the most well-preserved works of mosaic and fresco from the 13th/14th century. When they turned it into a mosque, they plastered over the mosaics everywhere except for in the sanctuary, where they tore everything out. So we have ot imagine the ornate sanctuary, but it's pretty incredible to see what IS there and know it's been there before Columbus was a twinkle in his mother's eye, much less out making discoveries.
As a museum they charged us an entrance fee, but it was SO worth it. I am gonna let the pictures do most of the talking. This is the last of the real sites we saw Saturday, and I saw 3 today! It's awesome to have class on-site.
This first batch is frescoes- amazing and vibrant colors.
There others are the mosaics. Words cannot describe and pictures simply don't do justice to the complexity and beauty.

Oh, and Lory asked me about the weather!
There is next to no humidity with highs between 80 and 90 during the day and nice breezes, and nights are a balmy 70something. There's not really AC, but the breeze with wide-open windows and an open door is plenty of cross-ventilation, and really without the mugginess I don't miss it. I know. Weird right?

What else do y'all want to know? I want to end each post with a question, and I know comments are having a hard time for some, so for those of you who are facebook friends, you can send them there. Another good place is anachronismsarah@yahoo.com

A walk on the European side

Yesterday we visited our first batch of sites.
We went to the Eyup Mosque and saw the tomb of one of the Prophet Muhammad's right-hand men who died in the fall of Constantinople in 670. It's a whole complex of buildings and a very important Muslim pilgrimage site. It's gorgeous... We saw the inside of the mosque too, and because we were in places of prayer and worship, had our first experience with the head coverings. We looked much more like Hollywood's old movie stars than devout Muslims visiting a pilgrimage site, but we all wore the head covering as a matter of respect for the people who WERE pilgrims.
And my pants loosely based on a McCalls pattern I couldn't find on their website made their debut experience.
I had full intentions of making them myself, but after re-drafting the legs and going to Camp, my Nana ended up doing all of the stitching for me after I drafted, cut, and pressed.
One thing about these pictures though... They never seem to do the sites they depict much justice. Without seeing the whole picture, feeling the stillness and the age in everything we are blessed to see.
After seeing this astounding mosque, we went to a hilltop cafe. It had traditional Turkish tea and graves lined the hillside on the way up. They weren't grass-covered though, they were like flower gardens.It was a heck of a hike, but the view was totally worth it.
As in, I took this sitting at our table and wow.
These are the pictures God gives us. This is the reason I feel like this trip is going to redefine my perspective on life.
But I feel like a me-monster. What do YOU want to know about?

Oh my gosh has it really only been 3 days?

Really?

So much fun stuff... I mean, we took the ferry from Asia to Europe. And I had tea under a bridge last night.
And the view from the bridge? Amazing. And went to one of the Princess Islands today!
We walked along the shore before we took a ferry. This is the ferry station.
Then we bargained for bikes to ride to the beach, and it was really hilly...
Which meant we had an appetite when we got back to the other shore for dinner at this beautiful resteraunt.

I know it sounds like we're doing an awful lot, but really, the pace of life here is SO leisurely. It puts some of the girls, myslef included, in mind of Charleston or Savannah. I love it. It's not as fast-paced and cut-throat as life could be in the New York of Turkey... We're nowhere near any type of downtown, and I love that... And I love having moments where I realize this is the trip of a lifetime and a gift, truly truly a gift.

I'm home...ish...

Which means I got to Turkey safely. Mom dropped me off and I didn't remember we were matching until I opened this picture... I was shocked when Blogger popped up in Turkish and I don't know if the formatting will be quite the same, but life's good anyway.
It's really an amazing place. On the ride to the university we saw a ton of local architecture and the way old and new are juxtaposed is quite... well, I am not used to seeing it. And the buildings are closer to a rainbow than anyhthing- my dorm is built of green bricks.
Last night our professor was a tour guide of sorts and took us down to the Bosphorus, which is the channel of sorts that runs between Europe and Asia. We stayed on the Asian side, and watched the sun set on the way out there-it was AMAZING. We went to a pub of sorts and tried some of the local food and most people had local beer(I hate beer so I drank water) but it was a great experience. It meant we learned about the bus system and the ferry system, bith of which it appears we'll be using frequently.

The people here are really nice- 5 Turkish students led us around campus and to a local pub-type setup and to their version of a superstore- Carrefour. They were really really nice about the whole thing- and I think the men seem to be more chivalrous in some ways than in the States. They took things and weighed them at the store and carried things for us and were just really polite about all of it.
This is most of the people in our program and all of our Turkish guides. We had a reception for all the study abroad students so it was pretty cool to meet other Americans and some Europeans as well. We were served AMAZING cake that tasted like tiramisu and had fruit and chocolate between the layers. Light and summery, but delicious. Trust me.

It was awesome to do so much so soon, but really, I am jetlagged a bit so I think I need a nap. And I might be meeting people for dinner- I have no memories for this thing. Which will get better as I get used to not having a cell phone all the time at my disposal.

More pictures soon!