Into the Wild East….

We’re leaving on a ferry, don’t know when we’ll be back again….

Anyways Team Turkey is taking the show on the road. We’re heading on a 17 day excursion into the unknown and untamed wilderness that is Eastern Turkey…. Well that’s not completely true. We actually have a plan (more like an outline) and Eastern Turkey has only been inhabited for 10,000+ years, but we are taking a 2.5 week road (that part is true).

On our trip we will be going to Bursa, Cannakkale, Bergama (Pergamum), Izmir, Ephesus, Pamkkale, Antalya, Konya, Cappadocia, and Ankara among other places. Our primary transportation will be buses, but we’ll also be taking ferries and trains to complete our grand tour. We’ll be taking photographs along the way, we’ve been promised a wonderful architecture tour (and maybe some nice beaches… maybe). Many people gave us advice as we planned this road trip and we’re very thankful for the guidance.

Team Turkey has also added a new “temporary” member to the Team. Let’s call him a German “Guest Member.” Lukas is a 2 meter tall (you do the conversion) German from Hanover. He’s a political science major in the Netherlands and studying at Middle Eastern Technical (MET) in Ankara for a semester. He’s English is great, which is good because our German is poor. He was selected after a grueling review process and initiated only after intensive and disturbing hazing (which means he agreed to our begging for him to come along). He is fine addition to the gang.

Two other non-Turkish World stuff to report on.
1) Tim Rinaldi, our blogs official groupie has been asking for a shout out in the blog for weeks. Well this week he earned one. Tim is the head of student organization at Tulane called Mission Honduras. This organization just completed a new medical clinic in the mountains of Honduras (quite an achievement). This past week Tim was told that he will be sitting down for a face to face meeting with the President of Honduras to discuss how to improve that countries healthcare and education systems. (Sorry mom… I could only get to Turkey, after four years of College)
To learn more about Mission Honduras go to:
http://tulane.edu/studentaffairs/orgs/missionhonduras/


2) Lee’s cousin Brian popped the question this week and to everyone's surprise she (Annie) said yes. Congrats to both. May I suggest the Hagia Sophia as a wedding location (but only for a small wedding).