Wow.

I know that is has been a while since I last wrote and for that I apologize... but I plan to catch you up to speed and fill this page with the happs in the past few weeks : ) There is a lot. My time here is quickly coming to a close and I can't believe it. In the beginning, once I first arrived and was trying to learn my job and how to live here and make friends time seemed to stretch on and on. But this end has come like lighting strikes... fast. I think that is a good sign. It shows that I have learned to live here, and that I like to live here. That I somehow, somewhere in there, life started flourishing around me and swept me up into it. I have come to really love it here. I feel as though I've just scraped the surface of what it means to be turkish- how the people here operate, communicate, and just live. I have been soooo occupied and busy with my purpose here of teaching and living and being an aid to the families that I am serving. I haven't had a lot of time to concentrate on devoting myself to learning language or making many turkish friendships... but some of that has come along now at the end.

Anyways, on to the happs. So, in the past few weeks I have finished school with 4 of my students, visited a beautiful area of Turkey called Kapadokya (one of the places of the early church where they hid out in caves and built underground cities and a part of star wars was also filmed there), the other family has moved out to another little village area up in the mountains (that I love!), and I have had to say goodbye to the Kaisers (the family that I have been living with in the city for the past few months) as they just left for some time back in America. This weekend is a festival called the May Fair at the Cultural Center/International Church that I ma involved with and I am excited to help out tomorrow. I will painting faces and helping with the rummage sale. There is also a baking contest with lots of yummy goodies and people from all over the city- internationals and turks alike pass through to participate in the Fair. This nest week I will be traveling up to a city on the Agean coast to meet the Albers and go see Ephesus with them! I can't believe that I will be able to visit this amazing place. In between all of this I have been trying to squeeze in my last days of teaching my other two students and saying some goodbyes to other friends that I have here- while still meeting new people. It's the nature of living and working here in an ever-changing community.

I have really enjoyed the different commute the past few days up to Duaci (pronounced Doo-ah-jah) which is the new village that 2 of my students moved to. It takes about the same amount of time to get to from where I live by the sea in the city but the bus route is completely different and has allowed me to see new parts of the city and outskirts. Duaci is beautiful- it is up in the mountains and is surrounded by forest- it actually smells like Bend/LaPine area in Oregon. It is a village area that is a mix of foreigners and turks, some permanent residences and others vacation homes. It feels much like a small town and is very pretty and more put together than Varsak the other village I work in. There are fruit trees blooming and flowers everywhere this time of year and I've noticed that the snails are out everywhere to- sort of funny. The tortoises keep them company though- or maybe they are just out to eat them, I'm not sure what tortoises eat?

Here are some pictures of the beauty that I saw in Kapadokya (Cappadocia).