I knew it was going to be an interesting week when...

Well it all started when we were at some friends on Sunday evening. We were enjoying a lovely time on their new back patio, eating treats like rotel and doritos and drinking sweet tea when all of the sudden a bird pooped on my head. Yes it is true. I thought it may have just been a leaf or a bug, but unfortunately when I reached up to brush it away I discovered otherwise. This has never happened to me before and I have to say I hope it never happens again! That was Sunday. Things were calm until Wednesday. Early Wednesday morning before I went to Turkish class I was hanging out our laundry on the back balcony. I am usually very careful to shake things out on the balcony so we don't have any clothes lost over the edge. I thought I had shaken out the towel well and leaned over to hang it on the line when an unsuspecting pair of my underwear fell out... and fell down.. the wind was blowing so I watched as it carried the pink undergarments down down down.. I held my breath, hoping the wind would carry them to the ground and not onto someone's balcony below.

Alas, things were not in my favor. I watched in horror and sheer embarrassment as they landed ever so precariously on the 2nd floor balcony ledge and stopped there. I had no clue what to do but I was ready to count it as a loss and never see those panties again. I called Jared to relate this horrible event and he laughed out loud and insisted I recover the lost underwear. I then had to go to class and ask my Turkish teacher to help me with the needed vocabulary to go to my downstairs neighbors (I have never met them) and ask for my underwear off their balcony. We went by their house on the way home but no one was home. I left for the rest of the afternoon to teach. As I pulled in later that evening I noticed that the underwear were actually gone from the ledge they had been resting on. I was thrilled and also curious - where were they? I gathered up my courage and stopped on the second floor again to ask for my underwear, however, again no one was home. When I got home Jared explained how he had saved the day. He was actually taking the clothes off the line and he looked down to check on the underwear - and guess what, apparently the wind had picked up again and blown them off the balcony into the driveway. He quickly ran downstairs and nabbed the underwear - hopefully unseen! Potentially super embarrassing moment was definitely averted!

Journeys Through Turkey

Sorry it's been a few weeks. Here's a video from our trips to the Mediterranean, Antioch, 7 churches of Revelation and Paul's 1st journey, as well as some events from the past two months.

Our First Turkish Test

As of yesterday, we have been here for exactly 4 months and so it was time for our first language test. And it was a doozy! We haven't received our results yet, but I am sure Jayme passed with flying colors and they may ask me to start over or come home. Seriously though, there isn't supposed to be a grade involved but it is supposed to show us areas where we need improvement. However, every question had a point value, indicating that there will be a score. I imagine they told us the score won't matter because they didn't want those of us that aren't linguists to throw in the towel. But it sounds to me a little like my neice's tee ball games, where they don't keep score and allow both teams to bat through the order twice and then call the game. My thing is that you know secretly most of those dads are keeping score in their head and they may not say, "We won!" But you know they are thinking it, because you've been there too and you've participated in games or tests when "they didn't keep score" and you know they only say that for the slow people. Well, I'm finally one of those slow people. But don't get me wrong, I don't think we should stop keeping score anymore because then I wouldn't be able to tell my Turkish friends that always want to play Turks vs. Americans in basketball that, "We won!"

Istanbul and 7 Churches

We just returned from a long and wonderful week of seeing the BIG City as well as some very old towns. Last week we joined Pinelake in Istanbul for a few days in the city with over 15 million people. We had heard that our city of 1.5 million was a village and we didn't believe that to be true until trying to get around with 10x that many people. From there we headed to Izmir (Smyrna) and began our tour of the 7 churches of Revelation. We saw incredible sights that were home to churches, theatres, librabries, gymnasiums and cities from 2000+ years ago. Some places were still in decent shape, others you had to use your imagination. But none-the-less, it was incredible standing in front of some of the greatest historical sites of our faith. It was an uplifting time for us as we made new friendships and received lots of encouragement and support, as well as a few goodies. Thanks to all those who brought and sent love from home, they are certainly appreciated. After the tour we spent a few more days in Istanbul and our friends showed us some more interesting sights including the spice bazaar, the Blue Mosque (the 2nd largest mosque in the world) and the Ayasophia (which is one of the oldest churches, which became a mosque and is now a museum, in the world.) We had a great time, but are glad to back home to our village. Here are some pics from the trip. (click on them to enlarge)

Pergamum Ampitheatre

Sardis Gymnasium

Ephesus Library

Ephesus Ampitheatre

Baptistry at St. John's Church in Ephesus