More Updates from the Land of Turkey!

For 6/23/07
I don't remember much from saturday but are American friends put a scavenger hunt together for us so we could get more familiar with the city and asking Turks where things were. We had to drink Turka cola, which tastes wonderful, and we also had to find a drink called shalgom or shalgam which turned out to be turnip juice. Probably one of the nastiest drinks ever! Even the turks say they don't like it. It's a red juice and it's very very salty. Theo Randon and I are still in our little competition but it seems we're losing count. I can't remember much else from that day except our ice cream friend Mehmet is always happy to see us. Everytime he sees us he yells "oh my god...you guys!" (but he pronounces god - gahhh) It's great.

For 6/24/07 (Sunday)
Chruch started at 1 pm so Theo, Randon, and I went swimming in the Mediterannean. It was amazing! The water was clear and perfectly refreshing. Some of our turkish friends went swimming with us but decided underwear was the best way to go. There was also a german guy in a red speedo near us so I felt right at home (just kidding). There were some rocks we swam out to and we jumped off them. We then went to church. It was the Turkish service so we had worship in Turkish and so was the sermon (we got to wear cool head phones and a little person inside of them would translate in english) I haven't been able to find the little person who talks in our headphones but I will before we leave. Ja Ja Ja Ja...(that's my new turkish laugh. everyone else thinks it's annoying but i don't care.) And mimi, you'll be happy to know that I remembered the word şöyleböyle, (turkish for so so). It has now become my favorite turkish word to say and everyone rolls their eyes at me when I say it. (i use for many different things). Our friend Salim, who works at the pansiyon, thinks I'm weird because I use it out of context. He still calls me tall man. But back to church. Salim actually came with us for the first time in his life!! It was great and he talked with the pastor at the end of the service. His brother also came to hang out afterwards! Pray for him...it's really exciting and he is always happy to help us with turkish as long as we teach him some new english words. I met an Anmerican from Oregon who was engaged to a Turkish woman. After the service we hung out in the garden area, had some Turkish pizza (pide), played some backgammon (tavlav), listened to Story Box, and met some really awesome turkish believers. I also got to meet a team from Texas! Some were UT fans and some, sadly, were going to A&M. But they were fun to be around and were leaving the next day. It was hot so the whole team went swimming. Somehow all the girls ended up with cuts on their bodies. Erin's got a cut on her leg that swelled up a little bit but it's better now.

For 6/25/07 Monday
Every Morning we've been studying great scripture from II Corinthians to Philippians to John. We went to the American Culture Center today and we got to talk with Turkish students that ranged from middle school age to adult working age. Esther and I got to talk with two men. One was a general practice doctor, who said I could visit him for free if i got sick while in Antalya, and the other was getting his master's in marine biology. It was really cool to get a perspective on that side of Turkish Society. We also hung out at the Cafe and chatted with some students. We hung out the rest of the day and since the weather has been so hot a lot of people use AC so the electricity goes out in the whole city for a couple mins at a time. We also had pastchio ice cream for dessert. Very ta ta ta tasty tastaay.

For 6/26/07
Our small group, which consists on Me, Erin, Esther, and Ashley prepared a little sermon, talk, testimony thing structured around Psalm 139 and the theme of identity. We are going to share with the turkish young adult group next friday. The other small group is going this week so keep them in your prayers as they do that. So after putting some time into that our small group went back to the american culture center (an english school) and we hung out in the cafe for about 1.5 hours. I got to talk to a man named Ohan about some really interesting topics like politics, our differences in culture, sports, everything...it was really awesome until erin came over and whispered into my ear "seth you need to come up to the counter with me...this guy is a little weird". She was ordering some food for us and a turkish guy kept asking if she wanted to practice english with him somewhere else. Erin said he was pretty persistent until I came over and he didn't seem as interested. Apparently he was late for class. It was great fun, for me atleast. After that We participated in a nightly english speaking club. We basically ran the whole thing for about an hour and a half. There were about 16 older students, most of them working. We talked to them about University Life, Movies(they love Nicholaus Cage for some reason), Work life, and other interesting topics. My group had fairly good speaking skills but were a little shy until they found out I had been to Turkey before and they asked me question after question. It was great fun and great preparation for when our actual language program starts this Thursday. Continue to pray for that as well! But we got back from that and all fell asleep. Each day seems to get hotter and hotter. But I love it here and I'll have some cool pictures up soon and if you have facebook I think I have enough for atleast 2 photo albums. Peace out and God bless.