Back Again

I'm back to Turkiye! And very happy.

It was, as usual, a very interesting and exciting time before leaving for the plane--I had some papers due as midterms and I finished all of them around one or two hours before they were due. I turned them in right on time, but the writing and everything happened very fast. The second paper I wrote just wasn't good, and this made me really sad because the topic was actually really awesome but my mind just wasn't there with it so the result wasn't good at all. But we'll see. I warned my professor about it already so hopefully not everything will be horrible.

After turning in my papers, we went home in order to get all our stuff and from there we went to the airport. We got there in good time, and got through security relatively fast despite a problem with my father forgetting his knife in his bag. Once he got rid of that we all got through and started on our way to our gate and got there in such an awesome time that we didn't really have to wait for the gate to open. We got on the plane to go to London--direct flight from RDU to London Heathrow, and then from London direct to Istanbul. Both of the flights went really well, and the times between them weren't long at all so we didn't get really tired. The flights were sort of long but I was able to sleep through most of the flight.

Arriving was awesome. Getting out of the airport and then breathing in the air was even better. Its true--the air is mostly made up of smog and smoke and gas and whatnot, and there was fog, but still, coming back has a good effect no matter how you're welcomed. The traffic is as crazy as ever. Can't really do much about it though, and I wouldn't want to change anything about this country anyways. May it be protected from harm and back-stabbing.

I didn't take any pictures today but hopefully I will, and I promise, inshaallah, to post them up. With descriptions :D

We heard the maghrib azan for the first time in a long time and it was beautiful!!!!!! I miss the sound of the azan. We've decided that we're going to try and pray at a different mosque for every prayer time. And take pictures of them, of course. Despite the fact that their use is the same in general, their ornateness, both architecturally and in design are really different and complex and very beautiful.

Its 10:51 pm here in Istanbul right now, and its 3:51 in Chapel Hill. I'm still really sleepy though so hopefully I'll be able to sleep and adjust as well as I can without suffering too much from the jetlag factor.

Much love and salaams from Istanbul!