Hooray for the weekend!

Today is Saturday thankfully!  It was hard arriving here and going right to work but now we have a couple of quiet days and it feels nice.  Also the weather is beautiful today.  Renata, the mama bird kicked me out of the nest today so I could start getting to know the neighborhood and become more independent of her.  Next week she's going to show me how to walk to St. Paul's and then how to take the bus home if I am just too tired to walk.  Here's a picture of Renata (sitting), Ishay and Belgen discussing next week's menu:

 

So I walked all over the place trying hard not to get run over, pedestrians do not have the right of way and they drive fast!
I met a very nice turkish young man who spoke english his name is Ozgen.  He works in a clothing store I went to.  His brother graduated from Annapolis and now is a captain in the turkish navy he told me very proudly when he learned I was american.  He thought I was german at first!  Someone at the cafe yesterday thought I was french, I like that. 

As of today I can say a few things in turkish: good morning, hello and thank you, I can ask where something or someone is, and I know a few nouns. I'm not breaking any records here!!  How I wish they spoke french or even spanish!!

St. Paul's church has commissioned a stained glass artist to make 7 window panels representing the seven churches found in the book of Revelation.  Jim, who is the pastor has been helping with the design ideas.  Four of the windows are ready and a group of people went to preview them yesterday and I got to be one of them!  Eight of us piled into Jim and Renata's van and off we went, 3 americans, 1 german, 1 turk, 1 brit, 1 korean and 1 brazilian!  Later some danish people joined us.  The artist who's name I think is Mecca is from Finland, again the cultural blend which I love!

Here's a picture of the artist standing next to the windows, sorry she is in the dark, next she's showing us some of her tools and then me sitting and enjoying the windows.

until next time!