House Rule #1: No counting down how many days we have left in Ireland.  I’ve managed to convince myself that I’ve only been in Europe for about a week.  The thought of returning to school, work, and three straight weeks of job training starting literally the day after I return to the United States is depressing. (BUT I’m really excited to see all of my friends and family again)

To avoid breaking the house rule, let’s just say I planned to be abroad for ten weeks, and last week was week nine.

Fear not!  I have plenty to look forward to!  In January I will be venturing to Turkey for my “Perceiving Islam in Turkey” class.

I’ll be travelling to Istabul, Mardin, Urfa, Gaziantep, Adana, Cappadocia, Konya, Pamukkale, Izmir, and Bursa.

According to the course description, this is what I’ll be doing:

“While traveling across Turkey, visiting sites essential to the development of Islam, sharing meals and conversations with Turkish Muslims, and reading about Islam from both insiders’ and outsiders’ perspectives, we become familiar with the basic beliefs and practices of Islam and its influence in Turkey including worship, family life, politics, modernity, gender relations, relations with other faiths, and intellectual and artistic traditions.”

Cool, no?

Some of you are probably wondering why I’m taking this course.  My university requires three theological courses, and I needed to finish up my 300-level this year.  I knew I wanted to take a course on something I have little to no knowledge about, and I wanted to take something that would immerse me in a completely new culture (I’m sure this is shocking).  So, I picked this, and I couldn’t be happier :]