Personal space

Brandon gets speared in the stomach with an ice cream cone. Interestingly we'd just finished having a conversation in which the students talked about their perceptions that the Turks have different notions of personal space than most of them do.

Adventures in ice cream

Traditional Turkish ice cream is sticky and elastic. Here the vendor is taking advantage of these characteristics to snatch back the ice cream cone from David before David has a chance to take it from him. This type of ice cream traditionally comes with a little "show" in which the vendor teases the buyer before finally handing over the treat.

A few photos from day 2

Alex and Sterling looking exhausted

Ariel falling asleep at lunch

Ivan and David listening to Amanda's description of the hippodrome

A fairly typical back street in Istanbul

Day 1

Today is August 25, 2009 – the day when our La Sierra Honors group landed in Istanbul, Turkey. Nikki, Hayden and I (Ivan) spent a fantastic time in Russia and flew into Istanbul approximately five hours earlier than the rest of the group. Since there was only one hour difference between Moscow time and Istanbul, which meant that we didn’t have to suffer from jetlag, we immediately decided to explore the city. Since I am the first one to make the contribution to this blog I will say this – Istanbul is a great place! Being prejudiced, I did not expect that this city would capture my heart entirely the minute we drove away from the airport. I used to think that Istanbul would be more like Southern California, but much older. Well, there is a lot more to it than that. First, it is a lot greener; Second, as I already mentioned, it is MUCH older than SoCal; Third, people are extremely friendly and talkative; and finally, this is just a whole new world in which every corner of a building can tell you something fascinating about the past civilizations. In our free time we went to see the Blue Mosque (which is about a 10 minute walk from our hotel) and as we arrived to the site there was only one word left to say – wow! What is more fascinating though is when you look at the Hagia Sofia church and think to yourself: “Man, this building has been there for 1,500 years…” As I’m writing this blog, the rest of the group has arrived and has been safely taken to the hotel. I bet everybody is tired and needs to get some sleep. After everybody dropped their bags at their rooms we went to a Turkish restaurant and had a variety of delicious Turkish dishes. This was the summary of our first day in Turkey, and I’m sure my colleagues will write more about our exciting trip so keep checking for the updates.

For all those parents reading this blog and worrying about your kids here is some info: everybody looks somewhat alive and made it to the hotel. We were placed in a touristy area in a (from what I can tell) safe place with lots of little shops and cafes. The hotel has extremely small rooms due to the age of this part of the city but they are renovated nicely with AC, a small flat screen TV, 50X50cm shower cabins, and comfortable beds. Also there is unlimited wireless internet so, if your dear child doesn’t email you for a few days (like I tend to do) please don’t blame it on someone else :)

Mosque

11 pm Istanbul time - Well, there's definitely a mosque directly behind the hotel! And of course the Blue Mosque and the Kucukayasofya are only a few blocks away too, so we're getting stereophonic (and out of sync) calls to prayer here. It's beautiful but may seem a bit loud to the group in the very early morning after they've had such a long trip. Hope they brought earplugs if they want to sleep through it.

Advance team has arrived in Istanbul

OK, I admit it, the "advance team" is only me, but I've come to Istanbul a day early to prepare for the students' arrival tomorrow. I am getting transit passes for the students and setting up a lot of the details for some of the activities they will be doing here.

Our guide from last year met me at the hotel when I arrived, and he and his wife will be traveling with the group once we leave Istanbul. I think the students will enjoy him and his wife. Both are informed about Turkey and are able to talk intelligently about the issues facing the Turkish Republic today, and it's really helpful for the students to hear their views.

I have to say the weather here is gorgeous. There's a lovely breeze off the Bosphorus, and the temperature is just right. Last year it was pretty hot while the group was here, so this is a welcome relief.

Our hotel is in the old quarter of the city, only about a block from the Blue Mosque and Hippodrome and only a bit farther to the Haghia Sophia. We can see the minarets of the Blue Mosque from the roof terrace of our hotel.

The photo above is of the view of the Bosphorus from our hotel terrace. I'm looking forward to the arrival of the rest of the group tomorrow.

Map of our travels

For those who are interested in seeing exactly where we'll be going, here's a map of our travels. We'll be in Istanbul for about 9 days and then taking an overnight train to Ankara. After we visit some of the historical places in Ankara we will go to Konya (home of Rumi) and then Cappadocia before returning to Ankara and flying home.