the wheels on the bus

I don't have any pictures from our bus adventures but I thought it was worth mentioning. I won't even add up the amount of hours spent on the bus but it was more than any human should spend sitting down.

So what did we do to pass the time??

IPOD IDOL
one person has headphones on and is given a random song to sing. the audience dies in laughter because of how good (or not so good) the "idol" is at singing that tune!

WORD GAMES
the question game, mafia, hand game, smurf, you name it.

SLEEP
you can never have too much of this

TALKING
our relationships definitely improved with our classmates on this trip. we spent so much time together!

INFORMATION OVERLOAD
sometimes Yasemin or our teachers would talk to us about the land or the cultures or about a place we were going to on the bus. this whole semester has felt like a fire hydrant of information being put in our brains!

Occasionally if it was a really long bus day we would make stops. Snacks and bathroom breaks were a must.

We kind of dominated the back of the bus, but we always made the most of it regardless of whether it was one hour or seven.

night life

Something fun about our Turkey trip was that we got to go out at night! It was a blast exploring cities that we completely foreign to us! We also got to take the metro in Istanbul! I missed those! It definitely a highlight. The first night we went out to a place called Taksim Square. It's kind of like the Times Square of Istanbul. It was alive and well at night and we just walked through the streets, checking out some stores, listening to music in the streets, and people watching. 

These ice cream guys were hilarious! They had these metals sticks that they used to scoop out the ice cream and they would do all sorts of tricks before they even put it in your cone. It was highly entertaining!

The second night we made probably one of the best decisions of our lives. I don't have all the pics yet but I wanted to get these posts up! We went to a place called the Sapphire which is a mall, a restaurant, and residential. It's the tallest building in all of Istanbul and all of eastern Europe!  It was unreal! You could see for miles. All the city lights, the bridges, the water. It was amazing! We just stood there in awe! You have to go up 54 stories on an elevator and then 2 more levels up on stairs. The elevator goes so fast your ears pop! You really do feel like you’re on top of the world. I was with JT, Jezz, Thomas, and Spencer. They made us feel pretty safe. I’m glad Jezz and I are both in agreement about how it’s just so much more fun and chill to be with boys haha! We stood at the top just enjoying the view and talking and taking pictures for over an hour. There was a huge Turkish flag up there as well. JT is obsessed with it haha! 

These next few pictures are taken in Canakkale, which is not too far from Troy. This horse is the one that was used in the movie! This hotel was on the water too and we really enjoyed walking through the little town and then sitting on the water, talking for the rest of the evening.

priene and sardis

This is the one picture I have from Priene. We were there just shortly before sunset and it was a lot of people's favorite site. They loved the forest and how peaceful it was up on the mountain (you had to hike up a little bit to it). The cool thing about this ancient city is that it was built using the grid system just like the saints used in Utah. 

We also talked about Paul's experience with Priene and Miletus which is not far from there. Paul had a meeting with some elders of the church from the surrounding area. It talks in Acts 20 about how Paul looked to trials and embraced them because they kept him close to the Lord. He also listened to promptings. Dr. Whitchurch reminded us that throughout this semester it may be exactly what we were expecting or the Lord could be preparing us for a different course. If we listen to those promptings we will be where we need to be and figure out what we're supposed to be doing. Paul told the men here that this is the last time he would see them. He warned them of apostasy and when it was time for him to leave, they all walked him to the ship, weeping. Appropriately, we talked about apostles "graduating" to the next life not only with the example of Paul, but also Elder Scott who passed away the day before. Each of the apostles that recently passed away has had such a huge influence on our lives and it was a nice time to reflect on what they have taught us.

The theater had thrones!

This is Sardis. The synagogue below is the largest ancient synagogue discovered outside of the Holy Land. It was so pretty with floor mosaics and decorative walls.

This is the gymnasium! It had baths with both hot, warm, and cold water.

The other side of Sardis across the street is the temple. It was an Ionic temple which means the columns are thinner and stand on a base.

ephesus

This was BY FAR one of my favorite sites that we visited. It just felt like such a real city and was so "modern" cmopared to a lot of the ruins and tels we've seen.

NIKE. The goddess of victory. Can you see the swoosh?

This is what you look out upon as soon as you walk through the gate. A temple is down on the left, some houses are on the right and then straight ahead is the library.

This is the theater. The main focus of our trip here in Turkey was to study not only the history of the land and the people, but also the 7 churches that Paul writes about in Revelation. As you can probably guess, the people here were the Ephesians. A whole book in the New Testament is a letter written to the people that lived here! How cool is that?! In Revelation, the Lord tells commends the people in Ephesus for resisting false teachers and patiently enduring trials. He then warns those who have fallen away to repent {Revelation 2:1-7}

We sang Onward Christian Soldiers and at first I was a little bit uncomfortable with it because I felt Like we were “those people”, some weird religion that does weird things especially in front of all these tourists. But then the spirit hit me and I felt ok about it. I knew we were singing about truth and that we all have the same God who loves us and wants us to have his truth and we should share that.

 This picture may look a little bit familiar to some! (see Bible photos)

Another reason we were in Turkey was to learn about the Seven Ecumenical Councils.  These were meetings held by the leaders of Christianity following the death of Christ and the apostles. These were men who were looking for truth. Evidence of the apostasy were apparent throughout this whole country. The Third Ecumenical Council was held here in Ephesus at the church of St. Mary. In the back right corner of the church we found this. A baptismal font! 

 Isn't it absolutely beautiful? As with all things the Romans built, this is big and extravagant to show off. The book nerd inside of me just loves these old libraries. I wonder what kinds of books they had and who would be allowed to study and what all the shelves looked like! The one here in Ephesus was second largest in the world, the first being the library at Alexandria. 

 Friends!

Apparently it was white tee day!

 Our cute class! I have seriously loved being with them 24/7 and getting to know everyone and learn together! We are so blessed!

istanbul

We spent our first two days in Istanbul and I absolutely loved it! The city of Istanbul exists on both the European and then Asian continent separated by water. It reminded me a lot of home because of all the green and the bodies of water with bridges and ferries, etc.

We toom a private boat ride along the Bosphorus Strait. I was in heaven. I think I was made to live by water and spend as much time as possible in it. The following pictures are just some from the view. The sun was shining bright, the wind was blowing in our faces, and it was just so relaxing to take it all in. We looked at the architecture of the buildings, saw plenty of minarets, and even a couple palaces!

We also took ferry rides! They are so fun! It reminded me of those summer days when we would take the ferry to Andersen Island!

This was at the Grand Bazaar. Inside are just tons of shops! Shopping isn't really my thing, but it is kinda fun to look around! Somewhat annoying though when you are the Americans and people are trying so hard to get your attention and get you to buy things.

Turkey has the best rates for gold and as a result, there were gold shops EVERYWHERE in the market.

They LOVE their flag. We seemed tk see it everywhere. Maybe it's just really easy to pick out.

We stopped at McDonald's to get cones at the end of our shopping extravaganza and my name was printed on the wall! It was so random.

One morning as we walked to the city, we stopped by a University. Yasemin told us all about the education system here and it's legit. Everyone in high school takes an exam and that places them in a university. It's very competitive but tuition only costs $30 a semester. What a dream! I'm picking up my life and moving to Turkey. just kidding!

photo cred for these next pictures goes to Claire!