My Wanderings

I have been so busy this past week I have had no time to blog. Since my last post, we have gone to both a Greek Orthodox service and a Jewish Synagogue. The Greek Orthodox service was really cool. We were able to come and go as we pleased and simply observe the men chanting for about 3 hours. The only problem I had was that it was fairly warm and they were burning a LOT of incense. The entire church is covered in religious sculptures, relics and paintings. One of the coolest relics is supposedly the post that Christ was whipped on. It is very neat to see. The Jewish service we went to was very different. First of all, it was one of the most intimidating moments I have had on this trip so far. We were all taken to a side entrance with large iron doors where there was a blank hallway as an entryway. Next, we were taken one at a time through a room with three security guards. There, they x-rayed our bags and confiscated our cameras and had us walk through a metal detector. We also had to give them all of our passports - and this was just to enter the Synagogue. The reason for all of the security is because of the violence in Israel Palestine and I believe the Synagogue was bombed about 10 years ago. The service was really neat to be a part of, but the best part was the meal we shared with the people afterward. They invited us to take part in a traditional breakfast meal. We tried communicating with some of the people there and found out that not only did they speak Turkish, but many also spoke Spanish or French. So, we were at a Jewish Synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey speaking Spanish! It was an amazing experience, and we got to learn a lot about different cultures and religions in this part of the world.
The hospitality we have come across here is absolutely astounding. People are completely welcoming in every way. If someone speaks English and hears us talking, they will just come up to us and ask us where we are from and we then have a conversation until we get to our bus stop or have to leave wherever we are for whatever reason. A lot of people have been given free meals and invited to join families to break the Ramadan fast, called Iftar. As of yet, I haven't been invited to spend Iftar with anyone, but hopefully I will be!
We are going to a soccer game on Tuesday and I am super excited! It is Manchester United against a local Turkish team - Beshiktash. Today we went to a local artisans bazaar where I got a necklace and a ring. It was really cool to see a bunch of local crafts and things.
I don't know if all of you have heard about the floods here in Istanbul, but so far they have had the worst rain in 80 years. The streets about 15-20 miles from my hotel flooded and caused 21 people to lose their lives. It is so weird. Us Minnesotans are used to this type of rain (moderate showers every day for the past week), but I guess that is pretty much unheard of here.
I have about 200 pages of homework to read for tomorrow's class so I am off to do that! I hope to hear from all of you soon. I love getting e-mails!