And so it Ends

Here I am sitting in my room at 1:30 in the morning and it is the last night i will spend here in Istanbul. I am actually quite sad to be going not because i dread going back to California and starting another year of school but because i have felt so comfortable here in Turkey. Even though I dont feel like It is my home and I dont feel i am leaving any piece of my heart here I will dreadfully miss my stay here.

These last few days have actually been extremely busy but in a very relaxing kind of way. This week I had an art class where I was given an old page out of an Arabic script book and paints so i could "Illuminate" the manuscript. I painted a map of Byzantium and I have to say that i am very ple

ased with it. Unfortunately I do not have a picture.

Sunday was a partial day off so i decided to go to the Archaeology Museum again (I was not feeling good the first time) and take the audio tour around the Anatolian Civilizations exhibits. I love being around ancient things and felt completely at peace looking at the massive stone carvings, the Cuneiform texts, and the different types of Seals.

Later that evening we were under the direction of our wonderful school photographer Natan. I own a Nikon D90 but i have always been upset with it due to my lack of any knowledge regarding the art of photography but Natan was quite willing to help me understand white balances, apertures, iso, and shutterspeeds. Now that I have been taught the basics I am really beginning to appreciate my Camera to a greater extent.

Yesterday was Monday, and it was by far the busiest and yet most fun day iv had all week. We had a day off from classes, and at 9am a bus arrived to take us to the Black Sea unfortunately I was alittle late so I had to run after the bus as it was driving away to catch it. The water at the Black Sea is wonderful, it is not too hot or to cold, it is not too salty, it is really shallow, and the waves dont cause any trouble. I was surprised to find that it can actually be quite dangerous for ships and swimmers too far from shore. Xander offered to let us burry him in the sand so i turned him into a Murman/maid lobster. My artistic talents in sand

sculpting are quite less then my painting.

That night I went with a small group to attend a third Sema. It was completely different then the other two. I have always had a draw to the archaic and Turkish tourism really plays off of people with similar interests so they have tourists Semas made to capture the Mystery of Sufism by focusing on the whirling dervish ceremonies. This ceremony was not different in form

but in practice. The entire congregation sits facing the Sufi masters and they start chanting, then swaying back in forth. The words dont change but the intensity is always fluctuating until the air becomes thick with their voices. The Dervish takes place behind the congregation and dance with the same intensity as the others but they are not viewed as a spectacle but rather are a symbolic part of the ceremony symbolizing the spread of God's love. I really felt something at this one that the other two Semas were lacking.