Turkey Time

So I am leaving for Turkey in about an hour!!! We are leaving for a week and traveling around Turkey, which will be just fine. The last few days here at the center we have had a lot of classes, usually two hour long classes. In my Palestine class our professor Bashir Bashir was asked by someone about the current conflict in Cairo. He went off on an hour lecture, which included answering tons of questions, and I was completely captivated and intrigued. He spoke of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the U.S. foreign policy. I will refrain from going into details but lets just say I absolutely LOVED it. Bashir is so intelligent and so informed which made listening to him that much more enjoyable, add his entertaining accent, passion, and hand gestures and you have my favorite lecture yet. There were demonstrations in the Muslim Quarter Friday so we were not allowed to go out into the city. We normally have to wait till 3pm on Fridays to go out because of this reason, Friday mornings all the Muslims gather in the old city to pray and that's when they are all together and start talking and are more likely to have an uprising. This Friday they were marching to the U.S. consulate in protest of the horrible film that was published in the U.S. that mocked, insulted, and ravished the name, mission,integrity, and holiness of Muhammad. So we all had to stay inside the Center. This was fine, I got a paper done on Bursa, Turkey. Which was about as fun as watching bowling on ESPN. There was much socializing done, which was fun, I feel that our group is getting really close. This has made the conversations funny and also more in-depth. I have been playing music a lot which is always a good thing. We had a small little show in which me and Michael, the kid who can absolutely shreds on the guitar, played the blues and it was soulful and bitchin'. I have been practicing the Harmonica quite frequently to the chagrin of my roommates, but I must say that I have improved quite a bit since receiving it for my birthday a month ago. Things are really fun here, no question about it, and they are increasingly more enjoyable because of the friendships I am making which enrich all the spiritual and wondrous moments that the Holy Land has to offer.