So I went back to Istanbul this past weekend for a Program called Young Guru Academy that my friends and I applied and were accepted to. Basically its an international community service society that also has branches all over Turkey. While we were there we volunteered at an elementary school to help the children understand prejudice and differences by participating in various activities

BUT, we went a few day early and stayed in Sultan Ahmet, the touristy area but it was cool... b/c were still tourist.

I took two videos of the call-to-prayer, maybe a little boring but pretty cool



Then we went to Miniaturk... its a park that has all the touristfamous attractions in Turkey but in miniature form..... its adorable and really cool



We also went to the Islamic and Turkish art Museum... we have student museum cards so we get inot all of them for free.. sweet deal


Wait... what? No ones behind the door?

So then the next day was our community service day where we met and had conversation/activites with visually impaired students from in Istanbul
have to go to turkish class... more later


More now,

So we watched this really cool guy play the turkish flute that they use in whirling dervish performances. Its REALLY hard to pla but they made me try it and suprise suprise... i couldnt even produce a sound out of it.. haha but heres my try



This is a picture of the the classroom we volunteered in. These kids were adorable and really smart. They said they picked the "bright" students for us to volunteer with which made me kinda sad b/c I would have liked to see all the students... I think this would have been more enriching for the volunteers as well as all of the students. But it was still a great time



Bye Istanbul! ... the ride back t Ankara
Well there was fun night life too but maybe ill keep that off this blog for now (HI MOM!) haha...

A lot of people have a saying "The best part of Ankara is the road back to Istanbul" I may or may not have improvised that but its something like that

However, Ive come to love Ankara in its own right and I am excited to see other parts of this awesome country... Im going to Adana in southern turkey next weekend... my friend rachels roomate is taking us to her home there... should prove to be interesting