This is a day of new beginnings…

I am going to try and catch everyone up real quick with what we’ve been doing each day and then do a little reflecting as time allows. Our schedule is usually fairly laid back with breakfast around 8:15 and supper ending about 12 hours later but in between can mean a great deal of viewing, walking, stopping, going, and traveling. For instance, after flying into Ankara (pronounced by our guide as anchor-ah) on Saturday afternoon (12:15pm Turkey time) we made it to the hotel (which seemed stuck in the middle of nowhere except for a rather large football (soccer) stadium located right beside the hotel (there was a weekend tournament for teams across the area that were in the Central Bank League) and met our guide Seenay (Sha-ni) who registered us and we moved into the first of nine different hotels we’d be living in over the next 17days.
We relaxed in the afternoon by passing our for at least 3 hours (I know, we’re not supposed to sleep on the first day of a huge time change (we’re 7 hours ahead of Maine time) but when there’s not much else to do, it sure feels good!! We got up and prepared for supper with the rest of our group where we shared the dining room with Muslim men who were finishing the second day of Ramadan with a meal at 7:25 or sunset (During this holy Muslim season people each breakfast before sunrise (5:25am) and then they have nothing to eat or drink until sunset). It was an interesting meal and by the time we had finished the meal I know that I’d tried a number of foods for which I didn’t have a name though Lisa confirmed I had eaten pickled eggplant (I had an encounter with eggplant many years ago and hadn’t even wanted to look at it for the last 15 years but the color and texture was different and I got caught off guard!). It was a good meal (we are supposed to be eating a buffets each night and morning with a specific meal at lunch) but I can already tell that we are going to be eating a great deal of bread and rice as well as fresh veggies and fruits. It was time to head back upstairs after the meal where we talked about what we had accomplished in our flight and as we entered a new country and therefore a new adventure. We were both still a little nervous, anxious, and excited. What would tomorrow hold? What about the next 17 days with these other 3 people? What other wondrous foods would I eat that I had no idea what they were? And to think that as we come to this new country, there are stories here to be retold that were first written thousands and thousands of years ago? Today is certainly a day of new beginnings…