Thursday, May 21, 2009

first letter to the family...

I arrived in Izmir, Turkey late last night and I'm writing to let everyone know that I survived the 17-hour flight. We had a tour of the Space Camp Turkey building today and it is immense. It consists of four floors and the students do all kinds of hands-on space-related activities. I will begin training tomorrow. There are five foreign counselors at Space Camp Turkey so far, and two more will arrive later this summer. Of the foreign counselors, four of us are from California, the other one here is from Holland, and the two counselors that will be arriving later are from Tennessee and Poland. Aside from the foreign counselors, there are about 50 Turkish counselors that work here year-round.
I am very excited to be in Eastern Europe. Izmir is very modernized and Westernized. Although the country of Turkey is considered Muslim, very few women actually wear headdresses, and most of them wear the same styles I wear in Los Angeles. Today we did a tour of Izmir and I noticed that the city is very urban. We went to the coast and walked along the Mediterranean and we ate some dessert (I had asure pudding, which was a sweet pudding with different kinds of nuts and dried fruits inside), and after that we went to Starbucks. At certain times during the day we can hear a beautiful chant coming from the mosques nearby.
I took a few pictures today, but because the sim card I'm using is too big for this laptop, I won't be able to upload any pictures until I get home from Turkey or unless I can borrow someone else's laptop to do it. As soon as I can get them on line I will send them to you.
Although I miss everyone at home, I am having a wonderful time in Turkey and I'm looking forward to a fantastic summer.

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