nicea

Here's me and my cute roommates! We missed each other this week because they oaired us up with a different roommate during our trip.

This is the site of the 7th Ecumenical Council. They discussed the detruction of religious icons and statues.

Right down the path from this sign was a small little restroom. Outside sat a lady who I think looked after them and cleaned up and such. While we were waiting in line we watched a little boy come up and give this woman a HUGE hug. He ran up to her and was so excited to see her. It was precious! After we were done, she tried to say something to me. I honestly had no idea what she was trying to say. We both kept on trying to communicate with each other for a minutes with words in different languages, facial expressions, and hand gestures. It was nearly impossible. I think the only thing we established was that I spoke English. But one thing that was communicated in that conversation was HAPPINESS and KINDNESS. I'm so grateful for this little encounter that reminded me of the simple power of a smile. I wish I would've taken a picture of this cute old lady!

We waited all week to get to iznik for our tiles. It was so hard to decide what to buy because they were all gorgeous! I wish I had my own home to decorate.

This is the Grand Mosque. It was so hot in here and smelled like feet since you can't wear shoes. It was not the most pleasant smell. This mosque has 20 domes and a fountain in the middle that is used for ritual washing. It also has a lot of calligraphy. As we learned later in our Palestine class, all writing is considered sacred and man is seen as different than all other creatures because of his ability to write. The overall color schene in this mosque was green.