We both made it out with our wallet and only one of us was hit by a car...

Turkey was amazing! My friend Nick and I flew out of Portugl on Friday afternoon, had an uneventful flight and arrived in Istanbul Friday night at about midnight. Nick's friend, Chadis, I think that's how that is spelled, met us at the airport and we set out on our adventure.

After briefly getting lost on the highways of Istanbul we successfully drove through the ridiculously think fog to Chadis' mother's house in Edirne. Although we arrived after 2 in the morning his mother and sister were still up to greet us with large amounts of food and his friends even stopped by to see everyone and share in the food consumption. Everyone was really friendly even though there was little English spoken round the table. The highlight of the night was when one of Chadis' friends was leaving and after having spoken only a word or two of English throughout the whole evening/morning he poked his head around the doorway he'd just left through to say, "I must go now...because I'm married". Being that almost the only thing I'd understood for the previous hour was the nearly constant ribbing he'd been given over his being married and needing to be accountable for his hours it was really funny.

The next morning we woke up to a feast of a breakfast complete with Turkish tea. Being a non-tea drinker I was a bit apprehensive but drank through a glass with the help of two sugar cubes. It wasn't too bad, but I politely declined a second glass. After breakfast we all, mom, sister, Chadis, Nick and I piled into the small family car and drove to the grandparent's place. As we drove Nick and I learned about how to great the older generation with respect. So when we met the grandparents we both took their hand, kissed the back, touched our foreheads to their hand and then gave lose hugs with a kiss first on the right and then the left. After that we were treated like family. They were wonderful people and, while I once again didn't understand most of what was being said, we all got on very well. At one point during the visit each person was given a small cup of Turkish coffee. I have consumed even less coffee in my lifetime than tea and managed to take a few sips before realizing that I just couldn't get through it. There was no problem though, Gulce, the sister, (it's supposed to have two dots over the u but I don't know where that key is) nicely dumped my coffee but brought back the cup with the residue in it. We were told that mom could read our fortunes and that we ought to flip the cup onto the saucer. A few minutes later I learned that I will soon come into a large sum of money, that I will be taking a big trip in either four days or four weeks or four months, she wasn't sure about the specific time and that currently I am thinking of courting two young ladies and I would be better served to make a decision. The whole experience was done with a sense of seriousness that let me know that while it wasn't concrete it was still taken with some level of respect within the family.

After visiting the late father's grave, which was my first time in an Islamic graveyard, they have raised graves that are covered with soil so that families have planted flowers on the graves, we all went to the Eski Camii. The Eski Camii is an enormous mosque in Edirne. It was amazingly huge and absolutely spectacular. As with most old cathedrals that I've visited there was an overwhelming sense of awe of how many hours went into building such an amazing place for the sole purpose of honoring and worshipping something greater than the people who built it.

After the mosque the five of us walked around town for a bit before going to a local restaurant that is famous for it's local quisine. Our new friends didn't feel the need to tell us what we were eating until we'd already devoured half a plate of whatever was put in front of us. It turns out we were eating fried liver. And loving it. The drink was something that Nick and I didn't go back for seconds on, a sort of salty yogurt. I never imagined I would like liver more than yogurt, it even feels weird to say, but man that was a great meal.

After leaving the Chadis' mother and sister in Edirne with hugs, well-wishes and hopes to one day see each other again the three of us went back to Istanbul. We spent a few hours seeing the Hagia Sofia, an ancient cathedral turned mosque, the Blue Mosque and a basilica, which we all decided had something to do with holding water but we weren't really sure what we met up with another of Nick's friends for dinner. After dinner we drove to the Asian side of Istanbul, (I've now been to Asia!!!) to rest and get ready for a night out. As we were driving around I was struck with the immensity of this city, it is easily the largest and most confusing place I've ever been. Nick and I quickly realized how fortunate we were to be traversing the city with people who knew their way around.

That night we went out for drinks, before Chadis, Nick and I went to a rock bar. It was great fun. We were out dancing till just after five in the morning. The band was great and I even tried to sing along at one point. I'm not sure I sang any of the right words, being that they were Turkish, but we gave it a valiant effort. I then got to drive home, being the non-drinker of the group, which was cool, I've now driven on five continents, before we all crashed at Chadis' place.

The next day we went walking along the Marmara Sea. It was nice looking out over Istanbul, just relaxing a bit. Even though we'd woken up at two we all decided we could use a nap before going out that night. We later met up with Nick's other friend again for dinner and drinks and had a nice relaxed evening.

The next morning we woke up early, made sure our bags were packed and went back over to the European side to check out the Grand Bazaar. Nick and I agreed we were expecting more of an outdoor market but it wasn't that at all. It was kind of like an ancient mall with lots of small shops selling lots of very traditional Turkish type things. I managed to pick up a little magic genie lamp, which is now residing among my "trophie collection" of knick-knacks from around the world.

After the bazaar we walked around for a few more hours before heading off to the airport.

I really had an amazing time in Turkey. The people were all very friendly, the city was amazing to behold and it was a fun adventure. One I would certainly recommend to anyone looking for something very different from the norm.

Oh yeah, and the car thing...

We were walking down to the ferry port and weren't sure which way to go. For some reason, which I definitely don't remember now I stopped in the middle of the road to look at a sign, not that I could read any of the signs but I must have thought it a good idea. Anyway, the driving in Istanbul rivals that of Freetown for the craziest drivers I've ever encountered and stopping in the middle of the road is unadvisable. I heard the briefest of "heads ups" shouted by my friend before I found myself flat on my back and a car wheel rolling up on my foot. I was more surprised than anything else at the moment and popped up laughing like an idiot. I think it was my bodies way of dealing with the stress. I limped off the road, waved to the man who looked aghast at hitting me that I was o.k. and trudged off down the road. I was and am fine, my leg ached for a bit and my shoulder was sore, but I'm fine and can now say that I've been hit by a car in Asia.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Last night was about as close to being perfect as it could be.

I went to Lisbon last night for the Salsa class that I'm taking now with an incredible instructor. He's really cool, does a good job teaching and just in general is a really great guy. Last night he brought his children, who were probably less than two and maybe four, and the kids were running about the class. Since I had shown up early for the beginner class I took it upon myself to entertain them for a while so others could focus on the steps they were being taught. We had a good time playing around in the hall, watching some guys playing basketball in the gym downstairs, "Uma bolla!!!", and in general just having a good time. Then it was the intermediate groups turn to dance and so after playing with kids for an hour I then got to dance for an hour. I'm not real sure what could be better than two hours with two of my favorite things. It was funny because a few times while I would be dancing with someone the little boy would come up with arms upstretched and wouldn't go away until I picked him up. I then was able to dance with him and my partner, who luckily thought it was fun rather than being annoyed by the disturbance. Anyway, all that is to say that I had a wonderful time last night in class.

This morning I recommited myself to getting in touch with God. I have once again become remiss in this and want to make myself more available to Him. So from now on, instead of reading random books on the bus on the way to school, I'll be reading His Word. This morning I read the first 7 chapters of Matthew. As I was reading the first chapter and reading the geneology of Christ I was struck with the fact that each of these men, and the few women mentioned too, are not just names in a book but at one point walked around on this earth. These people faced trials and tribulations, stubbed their toe, admired sunsets, loved their children, were frustrated by noisy neighbors, and all of the rest that goes into living a life. These people also lived their lives for God. There were three series of 14 generations which is like 30 something generations (or something like that, it's still early) and while I read their names in the span of a minute or two their lives spaned thousands of years. Thousands of years worth of stubbed toes is a lot of stubbed toes. Thousands of years worth of devoting their lives to God, stumbling, rededicating their lives, falling again, making good again, is a lot of years worth of what I am going through in my own life. It helps me to know that I am not alone in this. The things that I struggle with have been struggled with for years. The welcoming arms that God opens to me have been opened for years.

Pretty amazing...

Catching up

So, there aren't any months in between July and mid-October, right?

Ok, so lets see, what's been going on?

I feel my biggest crime is that I went to the Açores and somehow didn't right about my time there. Unforgiveable! I had a blast! I went with several of my friends from here in Portugal and was able to meet one of my friend's family who live in San Miguel, which is one of the islands of the Açores. The most beautiful island if rumors are to be believed. We stayed for five days and traveled the island over. It was absolutely amazingly beautiful. There were black beaches, waterfalls every few miles, amazing vistas over green rolling hills, hot springs which we layed about in for hours, and lots of happy cows. The Açores are actually known for their happy cows. I often wondered what made them happy but when I saw the amount of lush green grass that they had available to them and the relative ease with which they lived their life then I kind of understood better. My friends family was wonderful. They welcomed us in and spoke very slowly for me, which helped a lot as their accent made Portuguese even harder to understand. We even went whale watching and saw two or three Sai whales and a pod of bottle nosed dolphins, which I was able to watch play at the front of the boat as I hung off the front by my toes, or so it seemed at times. That was fantastic!

Since returning to the mainland life has resumed in it's normal busy manner. School resumed and I, for the first time ever, am teaching the same grade for two years in a row. I have 16 students this year, which seems like half the number I had last year, even though it is only 6 less. I have 5 students who are in ESL1 or English for the first time and a student with MS, so there is a lot of planning lessons with differentiated aspects to do. My kids are pretty cool this year though. I'd forgotten how far my students from last year had progressed throughout the year and so was a bit surprised at the level of my new students at the beginning of this year, but we've figured things out pretty well in our first six weeks. I'm now the fourth and fifth grade basketball coach for the school, which has been a lot of fun. Trying at times, but overall very rewarding.

Outside of school things are going very well. I continue to dance with the Historic group that I started with last year. We have a performance in the Castele San George in Lisbon. It is great to be working with them again as they are a great group of people and we tend to have a lot of fun in our various adventures. They help me out with my Portuguese a lot to and are generally very patient with me.

In addition to this I have been going to a Lindy hop lesson that has just started in Lisbon. I am really excited about this since I have wanted to learn this style of dance for years. The woman teaching it is really cool and has become a fast friend. Actually I've gone up to Porto a few times to see all of my new friends up there and to work on learning Lindy as they have a group that's been established up there for about a year. The people up there are great and I love the city, if we could move our school I think I'd be game for living in Porto.

I've continued playing football/soccer with the group I played with last year and continue to love doing that. They are a lot of fun and have helped me to learn the kind of Portuguese I should not be learning from my students. :) I occasionally get to play on the offensive side of the field now, which has been fun as I've been a defender pretty much the whole time I've played. Still haven't scored a goal yet, but I had a "brilliant" cross for an assist in our first game of the season and that was pretty exciting.

I am still single, which, as I just told a friend I'm talking with on Facebook, is o.k. because it gives me the freedom to fill my hours with all sorts of things and make snap decisions about where I want to go and what I want to do without checking in like a lot of my friends have to do. Having said that I will admit to having joined a Christian online dating website and have talked to a few people. If nothing else it's fun talking to new people. I continue to want to be a father and have continued to do research into adopting at some time in the future, which I think will be absolutely amazing, when it happens.

So I'm thinking that, if everything works out, I'd like to stay on in Portugal for a while longer. I really like my work and have found several niches that I feel I fit in well with outside of school as well. Add to that the fact that I am now, finally, getting to the point where I can hold brief if not totally correct, conversations in Portuguese and it all adds up to making more sense to stay on here for a while longer. If I can straighten out the details I have nothing to complain about.

I'm looking forward to going to Turkey at Thanksgiving. I've heard a lot of amazing things about it and my friend and I have a lot that we already want to jam into the few days that we are there. I have some friends from college coming over at new years. They will be my first official, "International Visitors" but I'm hoping to get many more. My parents have said they are coming out in the spring and I am superpsyched to be having them, they are going to love it! I specifically rented a place that is too big for me so anyone else who wants to visit and have a free place to stay, this is a not so subtle hint that you're invited! :)

I'll write more soon (as in more soon than two and a half months later)!

Hope you are all well!
God bless,
Justin

p.s.

I bought an old man hat the other night at the fair by my house. It's awesome. That's all. The end.

In the interim...

Bulgaria...

I loved the fields of sunflowers and am working on a creative way of describing the beauty of filds upon filds of the yellow flowers that lay at the feet of mountains.

I learned that these flowers are called girasol. When I proclaimed to one and all that they were missing the beauty around us they politely took note and then went back to their conversations. One friend though took it upon herself to make sure that a field wasn't passed that wasn't brought to my attention and so for the next three hours to our destination and the entire four hours on the way back to the airport a few days later anytime a sunflower was spotted a cry of "girasol" was announced from the depths of the bus.

Our dancing went well, we danced in an old castle along the banks of a river that seperated Bulgaria from Romania to an enthusiastic crowd. We were able to meet new friends from all corners of Europe and I witnessed forms of dancing that I was previously unaware existed.

I was able to lose all of the weight that I'd put on in the states during our five days in Bulgaria. The food was slightly less than wonderful, but the bread and butter were good.

I had a really great time with the group though and was able to get to know my fellow dancers a lot better. My Portuguese improved as that was pretty much all that was spoken. They did take mercy on me and when I had the truelly lost look in my eyes would make sure to catch me up on what was being talked about.

I was able to make a self observation during our trip. A few years ago I took an improv class wherein we talked about different levels of humour and comedy. While on our trip to Bulgaria I realized that at this point in my life, at least here in Portugal, I am at the most basic elementary level of humor. I am constantly using physical, almost slapstick type humor to make people laugh. I'd like to think I'm more sophisticated than this and that it's my limited language that is causing me to act this way but I can't say diffinitively. Just another thought with no point but which will give me something to think about in the future.

I'm back in Portugal now. And I'm really excited to be here. I've been coming into school for the past couple days, slowly getting things together for the next year and trying to brainstorm different ideas that will make me into a better teacher. It's been nice, quiet, and it's o.k. if I get sidetracked with things like facebook and infrequently updating my blog.

My house is clean. Like for real. Like I even did the windows. It smells all nice and clean like too. It's a habit I'd like to get into, this keeping a clean house. I feel a lot better when things are clean and now that it's clean I'm finding that it takes a lot less effort to keep it clean rather than when it got ridiculous and then took days to clean. So, this is my official announcement... Justin Wallace will now be keeping a clean house! For all the naysayers out there, you're probably right, but I'm going to make an effort, which is more than I've said for myself, well... ever.

So I'm sitting outside of a Starbucks in Augusta, Georgia when a guy at the next table pulls out his sitar...