Easter weekend was a mix of pure exhaustion and just having a great time. We scrimmaged Thursday and I played literally every play. I also got water once the whole time. It was a great time but I was exhausted. Friday we went and got Turkish breakfast and then headed to see some more sights. We saw the Blue Mosque which is huge and over 500 years old. We also went to the Basilica Cistern. Basically this is just an underground water tank that was built in the 6th century. It was incredible to see the engineering and building that they could do so long ago. They built this underground cavern that is about is about 105,000 sq ft. It is supported by 336 marble columns that are 30 ft tall. Almost every column has some sort of carving or engraving on it and two of them have huge Medusa heads on the base. The Cistern is by far the coolest thing I have seen since I have been here.
Saturday we went with all the coaches and met some players for and INCREDIBLE Turkish breakfast before heading off the to airport. After that Matt and I spent the rest of the day with some other American workers celebrating Easter. We dyed Easter eggs and really just enjoyed being around other like minded people. Sunday Matt, Clay, Asylbek (our Kyrgyz friend), and I went to our coaches house for an Easter cookout. We had some awesome burgers and homemade mac'n'cheese. We also read some of the Easter story and worshiped together (Clay brought his guitar). It surely is a good thing that we are only told to make a joyful sound to the Lord, not a good one. All in all it was a great weekend to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. It is my favorite day of the year and, although I desperately missed celebrating it with my family, I enjoyed it here as well.
