Busy busy week

Thursday through today was probably the busiest chunks of time we have had since we have been here. Thursday we went to a multicultural fair of some sort. It was for a festival that Turkick people groups celebrate on the first day of spring. It was explained to us as a celebration of the new life. Our friend Asylbeck from Kyrgyzstan took us. The countries that were represented were Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Turkey. There were also several Russian states that are home to Turkick people groups. Each one had a little house with stuff from their cultures. It was a lot of fun. Friday we went to Asia to play basketball with some friends. After we played we went to a Fenerbahҫe basketball game. That is a pro team here. We had front row tickets and only paid 17 TL (about 7 US Dollars). Definitely well worth it. Yesterday Clay and I went up to Sariyer to meet with our coaches and their families. They took us up to Rumelifenerli, a village on the black sea. We ate lunch at a restaurant that sits where the Bosphorous meets the Black Sea. While there we met up with a friend that Rhett had made earlier in the week. He took us to meet his family and we drank ҫay with them. After that we went to a some ancient ruins of a military outpost. I think this is from Byzantine times but I am not completely sure. It was awesome though because we could walk through the ruins and climb on the and stuff. Then today we got up and went to Asia to scout our next opponent while they played another team in our conference. That was followed by practice. All in all it was a great weekend even though it was super busy. I am tired but in a good way. Below are some of the pictures. 

The entrance to Topkapi Palace, an Ottoman palace.

 Asylbeck and I inside a traditional Kyrgish (sp?) house

 Clay, Me, and Matt in from of the traditional Kyrgish house

 Just Matt being Matt

 The Black Sea

 The lighthouse where the Bosphorous meets the Black Sea. We ate lunch right under it

 Part of the ruins

 A guard tower

 view from the top of the wall out to the Black Sea

 looking out through an arc in the wall

 guard tower again

 If we don't, the rocks will cry out HIS glory

 me next to the guard tower with the Black Sea in the background

Best night ever

The past two days were the so pretty it was ridiculous. Yesterday I went over to the Asian side and spent all day hanging out with a teammate. It was sunny and in the high 50's. We went and ate some delicious Turkish food and he showed us around that part of town. Today it was high 50's again and Seth and I went to shoot some basketball at a local park. The court was not really nice but it was so nice to be out in the sun and be able to be out in the sun in shorts and a t-shirt. Tonight was one of the best nights I have had since I have been here. Two of my roommates, Matt and Seth, and two friends of ours, Emily and Stephanie, and myself went up to Kilyos tonight to hang out and drink some tea. Kilyos is on the very northern edge of the city right on the Black Sea. Seth new about this little cafe right on the beach. The first awesome part was that we took the back way and drove through the woods to get there. It was incredible to be out of the city and not hear anything. The next really awesome thing was that it was still in the high 40's tonight and we could walk around and be comfortable. We went down to tea place and hung out for a little bit and then we went and walked one the beach. It was really cool to look out at the Black Sea and hear the waves. It was also awesome to see stars for the first time in two months. As I stood there on the beach looking at the stars I was hit this incredible sense of the enormity of creation. It was awesome to look up at the stars and know that these were the same stars that I looked at at night thousands of miles away. All in all it was incredibly to be refreshing to be there tonight with friends. The scenery and the time with friends was great. I used to like the silence, now I love it.

Soccer???

Saturday I had one of the most intercultural experiences that I have had yet. Saturday night one of my roommates, Matt, and I went with some of our Turkish friends to a professional soccer game and brace yourself for it...I liked it. The sheer fanhood that I witnessed from the thousands of crazed Galatasaray fans was impressive to say the least. I have heard stories about the soccer games in other parts of the world and I was skeptical. I still refuse to say that I actually like the game. I do respect it much more than I used to and I can't help but be impressed by the athletic skills that those men have. However, I do not understand the game and I hate the fact that every time some one gets close to another player they fall down and act like they broke their flippin leg. I understand a small bit of acting to draw a foul, like falling down to make sure the ref sees the charge in a basketball game, but I hate flopping. Soccer is riddled with flopping. But the fact that I really enjoyed myself and I would definitely go back. That made for a great weekend. I am going to try to practice today but there is no telling how the ol' knee will feel. The rumor is that the weather will start getting better and I am really looking forward to that. It will be awesome to start exploring more of the city and meeting more people without having a huge coat and raincoat on.

Back to Football...Maybe...

This week has been pretty fun. It has been probably the best weather of any week that I have been here until today. I practiced Tuesday for the first time since I  got here and had a blast. My knee has been catching some and there has been some pain which is to be expected. I have been in touch with my doctor and hopefully I will be able to keep playing. I went really hard Tuesday and I think I may have just done too much. I hope that is the case and for right now I can do whatever does not hurt. I have been more homesick this week than I have been since I got here. I do not really know why but I would love to get out and about in some woods or somewhere where there is actually quiet. I am going to my first professional soccer game tomorrow evening and I am very very excited. I think it is going to be crazy and I am not exactly sure what to expect.

Bringing a little of the South to Turkey...

This was what took place in our kitchen Sunday morning. We were really excited when we found a place that we could by bacon. It is next to impossible to find any kind of pork here so this might have been the find of the trip! We were also taught how to make biscuits from scratch since you can't buy the tube biscuits here. My roommate Clay and I got working on this Sunday morning. We shredded some potatoes for hashbrowns and we cubed one for just regular fried potatoes. Of course with biscuits and bacon grease we had to make gravy. It would have been better with some sausage in it but we didn't have any. Our standard country style breakfast was awesome and I am really excited about doing it again soon. We have heard about a butcher where we can find bacon a lot cheaper than where we bought it last time and its rumored that he makes pork sausage as well. That is definitely a good thing! I must say that it was tough getting this all done in our super tiny kitchen but definitely worth the effort. Today was beautiful so I went and walked around Taksim. Taksim is where most things happen around the city and I like it there. I walked around a good bit and then drank some Ҫay (hot tea) at a little outdoor shop right at the base of the Galata tower and read. It was a really nice and relaxing afternoon.

Just stealing ideas

A friend of mine likes to free write and he recently wrote an essay about art and how he would rather be an artist than an athlete (even though he is an athlete). He wrote about how art lasts and sport does not. This thought process came from our viewing of the 17th century Dutch painters exhibit that I posted pictures from. He wrote about finding art where he can. Even if that place is a football game. I think I would like expand on that thought.

Sport itself is art. Maybe not to the unknowing eye, much like modern art is nothing but scribbles to the regular joe, but there is magic in its movements. The October Friday night or Saturday afternoon are the canvas. The background is the smell of the grass and the lines, the band, the cheerleaders, and the thousands of fans that gather to witness their modern day gladiators do battle in the arena. Every movement is a brush stroke. That perfect down block that ends with a defender on his back, that pass that got floated across the middle that ends in a bone crushing hit, the perfectly executed snap, hold, and kick, the incredible spin move that ends in a sack, or the great jump a corner gets on a short route that he turns into a "pick-6". This is art to us. These are the brush strokes that are placed so perfectly because of the hours and hours of practice that are put into achieving perfection. The game can not be perfect but that is what is strived for. Just as each painting is not always as good as the previous one, some games are not always better than the last. The key is that they are striving for perfection, always growing and reaching to attain some untold glory. We interpret a game how a coach would like us to. His play calls influence our view of his team just as Rembrandt uses a slight dab of color here and there to change lighting so that we view his painting a certain way. I can not and will not argue that athletic competition does not satisfy our instinctual desire to physically assert our dominance over each other. It certainly does this and that very well might be the root cause of our world wide obsession with sport. This, however, is not its only function. Whether or not we want to admit it, we see this art unfold on the field of play. We describe it as beautiful when a play works to perfection or a bad pass turns into an increcible dunk. While we might not remeber the athletes of yesteryear, we remember the whole. We remeber the team and what they stood for, we remember the brotherhood they shared, we remeber the barriers they broke down or the great feat they accomplished, we remember the art because we keep trying to create that perfection that our predecessors could not attain just as each modern painter or sculpter attempts at reach a perfection in their work that none of the greats have been able to create.  I am no great artist, nor do I have some untold appreciation for all that others can so stealthily portray through so many different mediums. I am but a football player. A kid who figured out what made things fit for me in this life. A person who sees the art in the steps, in the hand placement, in the hits, in the plays, in the way the game can mold boys into men. I guess might just see art a little different than most. I will end this with a quote from my friends essay " I do wish I had a little more art in my life. A little more color. A little more transcendence. So until I learn to produce it, I will be content to appreciate it wherever I find it. Even if I find it in the unlikeliest places. Like a football game."