Cathedrals

Here are the two cathedrals

This is the French one:

Here is the German one:
Love you dad. :)

Berlin

The mother mourning for her son, housed in a building that has changed hands and purposes with every war:

The statue that Napoleon pointed to:

Our first hostel!!! It was called the three little pigs :)

The "Ministry of Ministries" during Cold War communism, it was a stark building, tall and imposing bt was built to give friends of the government jobs doing very little:

A part of the propagandic mural on the Ministry of Ministries building, this was the ideal attitude towards communism, in the courtyard facing this mural, was a real-life picture the same width and heighth of people protesting:
The German Cathedral, built opposite the French Cathedral:
A part of an old train station, through wich millions of elderly Jews were shipped off, never to be seen again:

My favorite, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe:
Brandeburg Gate, the one gate almost every great army of the West has walked through:

It was so interesting hearing the history of the city in our free tour. Berlin is old. Sometimes you forget all that was going on before WWII, simply because the Nazis are so infamous. But Berlin has a very rich and vibrant history and it was fun to rediscover it. Friedrich the Great, Wilheim I and II, Napoleon, and WWI and how these made the people who they are and set the conditions for WWII. Mom, Molly, do you remember that famous quote by Napoleon when he was pointing to Freidrich the Great's statue and said "If this man was still alive we could not be standing here now."? I saw the statue!! It was one of the greatest compliments Napoleon ever paid someone. The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe was my favorite though. It was extremely moving. It takes up a city block and is made up of rectangular, grey, cement blocks. As you look out over it the blocks are of varying heights but they are all even and evenly spaced, then you begin to walk through and you discover that the gound is terribly uneven. As you continue to walk the cement blocks rise higher and higher over head. Every once in a while you catch a glimpse of someone but for the most part you feel completly alone and isolated. It is deathly silent as you are walking through, it is somewhat disorientating. You are surrounded by towering grey cement blocks it is almost oppressive. Then you begin to think about what it must have been like for the Jews. They were being forced into a trap that would most likely lead to their death, they could make friends but more than likely those friends would be gone soon, never to be seen again, they were oppressed and disoriented, helpless and hopeless. But then one begins to see more sunlightand the blocks gradually become shorter, you emerge on the other side, the hate, prejudice and injustice that had been so oppressive and strong is fading and losing power. You are free but never the same. I suppose I liked Berlin so much because the entire city is that way, they are free but not the same, they cannot and will not forget the circumstances and passions that have brought the city to it's knees many a time, but they refuse to be broken, they continue to build and hope and live fully.
That could be the exact description of the Antioch church there. They live and love so well, hoping and building. I truly enjoyed being there. Worship was incredible! I stayed with Stephanie, Shannon, and Sarah on Saturday night. They made me feel so at home and loved.

That's it for now... London coming soon.

Turkey 2

So let me tell you about Topkapi palace. We walk in the first enormous gate and we're in the first enormous courtyard, the church where the Second Ecumenical council met is on your left and the seven chimneys of the mile long kitchen is on your right. We first went through the collection of beautiful dishes of all ages (some dating beack several centuries). Then we entered the second courtyard and toured the vast collection of silver. The final gate was the ceremonial gate for coronations...attached to that was the room that the Ottoman empire was governed from for 400 years. Literally we were standing in places where some of the greatest minds in history reasoned and debated and governed. OVERWHELMING. Next was the treasure room, there was an 86 karat diamond!!! Everyone had the Aladdin song running through their head. Remember the pictures you saw of sultans reclining on jeweled thrones in extravagant headwear? It was all there, gold thrones coated in rubies and emeralds, boxes of jade, daggers of silver, gold, and precious stones, thrones of mother of pearl and ebony, crowns of jade, rubies, and diamonds, crystal treasure boxes full of precious jewels, the list goes on and on. It was insane but not quite as impressive as I thought it would be, it was all just stuff behind glass that tourists pay money to look at but can't take pictures of... just stuff. Lastly, was the ultimate treasure room... it was full of ancient relics like Abraham's bowl, Moses' staff, Joseph's turban, John the Baptist's arm, Abu Bakr's sword, and Muhammed's beard. Like I said overwhelming and a little strange, it was hard to believe that all of that stuff was real.
After the palace the firls went to a turkish bath. :) It was pretty much amazing, it felt like we had gone back to greco-roman times in this huge marble room filled with steam and beautiful fountains of hot water.
The next morning, Skylar, Jenny, and I walked through the light rain to an ancient tower, pretty cool. Ok that's it for Turkey, next is Berlin.

Written a week ago

ok, these are in the oppostie order, this is one of te main fountains at Topkaptapi Palace:

This is the entrance to the first court of the palace, Sandy, Sara, Tanya, Jenny, Emily:

Me in front of the Second courtyard gate:

This is the church where the Second Ecumenical Council met:

This was one of my favorites, the underground cistern, isn't it beautiful?

This is in the Hagia Sophia at the front, this is the niche for the Muslims and then above it are Christian mosaics and stained glass:

Emily, Tanya, and Jenny huddled over our faithful tour guide, Rick Steve's:

The interior of tha Hiagia Sophia:



The interior of the Blue Mosque:

The Hagia Sophia:
The giant Egyptian obelisk, it's 3600 years old!!!

The Blue Mosque:

Hey!!I'm a little tired so please forgive any bad grammar or misspellings. :) God has been SO good, there really is no where else I would rather be right now.(I do wish all of you were with me though) These past few weeks have simply been insane, I've been in 4 different countries, visited some of the most famous places in the world, and have made some incredible friends.If I could describe Istanbul in one word it would be overwhelming. Standing in the Hagia Sophia or in front of the church where the Second Ecumenical Council met was absolutely incredible. I almost fainted, that was a strange experience. But it's like all of the sudden you are face to face with everything you have read or studied about the church and history and it's just there right in front of you, you can almost imagine how it must have been centuries ago, how they debated about whether Christ was god or man,how many people fought and died, how fragile life is, how short life is, how only what God says matters, how great HE is. Now imagine all of that times ten running through your mind at once, that's why I nearly fainted (and teared up twice). It really was overwhelming. Then there was the traffic...riding in a taxi felt like you were a video camera on the hood of a nascar racer, it was insane, though everyone does pay attention to the traffic lights. No one drives in the actual traffic lanes, so a road that is supposed to be 3 lanes is at least 5, and they just all swerve in and outgoing whichever speed they wish, I think they have to get their brake pads changed a lot too. School started this week, that has been a little stressful because theyschedule classes so differently here. I'm taking International Relations,Intercultural Communication and Philosophy, Dutch Art History, and Spanish5. It's been really fun so far, philosophy is definitely going to be myfavorite, that teacher is brilliant, he speaks seven different languages andteaches in 3 on the day he teaches us. Yeah. And I feel ridiculous onlyknowing one language well and one ok. Everyone here speaks at least 3.Ok I need to run to class, last couple of things, I love the people I amhere with. We had an EMP (early morning prayer) this morning, it was sogood. I am going to Berlin this afternoon/weekend. I'm meeting up withShannon on Saturday night and then church on Sunday. :) Next weekend we're flying to London, the plane ticket was 10, that's right 10, euro. Life is beautiful!

Brussels in Pictures

Brussels was our day trip right before leaving for Istanbul. We got off the train and headed to the chocolate museum, the guys were the most excited about that one. ;) Next we went to the art museum and the lady told us if we waited 20 minutes we could get in for free, so we had lunch in the middle of this really busy circle. Most of the pictures are form that.
This is the clock tower in the circle (Skylar, Christy, Jenny, Emily, Johanna, and Steven):
This is one of their "must-see" statues, it was a little awkward (Johanna, Skylar, Me, Steven, Molly, Emily, Jenny, and Christy):

The girls in front of the Carnival posters that spanned several years:
This is for you brother, I love you and miss you:
This is in the center square, everything is decorated here, it's incredible:

Brussels reminded me a lot of D.C., there was a lot of marble everywhere. We ended up going to the art museum, where Johanna and I fell in love with a man in a painting :) and the museum of instruments, which was really interesting. Once again, thank you mom and dad for all those years of violin lessons. :)

Home in Maastricht

I have way too much to tell you in this blog....

1. Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium

2. Thursday travelling to Istanbul and experiencing Taksim Square

3. Friday

a. The Hippodrome

b. The Blue Mosque

c. Hagia Sophia

d. The Grand Bazaar

4. Saturday

a. Boat tour of the Bosphorus

b. Lunch

c. The Palace
1. The church the Second Ecumenical council met at
2. The armory
3. The treasure room
4. the room from which the ottoman empire was ruled for 400 years
5. Ancient relics room, including Joseph's turban, Moses' staff, John the Baptist's right arm, Muhammed's beard, and Abu Bakr's sword, to name a few

d. Turkish Bath

5. Sunday, Travelled back home to Maastricht

That is alot to write about in one blog, so here's what we are going to do... tell me which day you want to hear about the most and I'll write about that first. My internet is still cutting in and out so I'll try to put pictures and video up when I have more patience.

I would love to hear about Juarez training and which team everyone is on. :)

That's all for now...

megs

Bruge

So we went to this amazingly beautiful town, but my internet keeps cutting in and out so I can't post them right now. We, being Molly, Jenny, Christy, Julia, Johanna, and Emily, stood on our first train platform and embarked on our first, belgian adventure. The train was a lot of fun and time passed quickly as we talked and laughed and got to know each other even better. Everyone is a lot of fun. Molly and Christy are super-expressive and so entertaining. Julia knows the most random facts. Jenny and Emily are just fun. Johanna is our friend from Finland. Skylar, Molly and I met her at church. Oh yeah, we went to church on Sunday night with Esri, the lady who serves us dinner. It was a lot like Antioch with Hillsong songs in dutch and english. She and I clicked immediately. I like her a lot, she is very sweet, and loves God. Skylar asked me tonight if she and I were "like soulmates or something." We pretty much are... Back to Bruge, the town we visited, it's also known as Burgess. It is straight out of a fairy-tale book, every time you turn a corner you are awed by the beauty of the town, it is gorgeous. We climbed these incredibly narrow, winding stairs to the tope of the tallest bell-tower, it was quite an adventure and totally worth it. I have a video but once again, this crazy internet isn't working so well. We ate the best chocolate I have ever had in my life and I bought a little lace hanky with my initials on it, for when I run out of kleenex. (kinda gross, but kinda cool and old-fashioned). That was yesterday, today a very out-going Greek male named Panoas moved in across the hall. He is funny and somewhat inexplicable, we went over to take him a sandwich because everything is closed here for carnival, and he ended up talking to us for an hour. He's not creepy or anything but he's very much a i-want-to-know-you-now kind of person, which means he asks very personal questions very quickly. I think he already thinks of me as a little sister (he's 24). He informed Jenny and I that he thought we were nice but wasn't attracted to us, but he would help us find good-looking, nice guys if we would help him find a good girl. He thinks we should find and have a boyfriend for the three months we're here. I think he likes to talk a lot about girlfriends and boyfriends and stuff like that but really he's a good guy who loves his family and little sister. We'll see but you'l probably hear more about him, since he's decided to take me under his wing. Ok I need to go, but coments are always encouraging. We leave for Turkey on Thursday morning but are going to Brussels tomorrow.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhod

This has been my most favorite day so far... Molly, Christy, Emily, Jenny, and I decided to try walking to the building that we have classes in. We made it there and decided to simply get lost in Maastricht for a couple of hours... Here's what we found: I love this Door:
This is the main church in the city center (Vrijthof):
Jenny and I on the bridge over the river Maas:
The more commercial side of the river:
Cute heart, attic windows:
Maybe it dates from roman times?
A little river right next to the building our classes are in:
There is alot of random art everywhere, from r to l this is Jenny, Emily, and Molly:
My most favorite church so far, it's actually part of Maastricht University:

I really liked this door as well Christy, Molly, Emily, and Jenny:

Mom, this one is for you, I thought you would like the red brick, love you :)
I think this one might be one of my favorites, this is where I want to go for quiet times:
Me trying to be artsy:


Part of the very old defense system:

And that was our day, now we're all resting and getting ready for Carnival tonight, there should be some funny pictures from that, people dress crazy.