The previous entries have been from Julia, but I decided to try my hand at recording reflections from our trip:
From Istanbul: Day #5
I miss the quiet.  This is not surprising if you know me, but what's interesting is that when we first moved to Northfield, MN from Rochester, NY I found the quiet rather unsettling.  I was used to the constant noises of a big city and falling asleep without them seemed almost creepy.  What was going on outside my window?  I couldn't tell.
Now, 16 years later, I have adjusted and am fully attached to the relative quiet of my small town. Life in Istanbul (or Athens for that matter) is very different.  Life is especially different in Istanbul because not only is there the constant rumbling of city noises, we are awakened every morning around 5 am by the call to prayer from the local mosque.  This is a particular kind of sound, the kind that says, "Pay attention. Something important is happening."  The hum of motors, the honking taxis, the hollering salesmen, all of these are the everyday noises of cities that I have become accustomed to at one time or another in my life.  Hearing the chant of a call to prayer broadcasted via loudspeaker from a minaret stands out. I notice it every time I hear it. Perhaps I will eventually learn to tune it out, the way people who live next to a railroad learn to tune out the sound of a passing train. For now, it still catches my attention several times a day.
What does it say about a society that broadcasts the reminder to pray 5 times a day?  It's an interesting question for me to ponder. As a person who values prayer as a spiritual discipline, I can appreciate the challenge of stopping daily at regular, predictable times to say a prayer and be mindful of the presence of God wherever I happen to be. At it's best, this sound could be a helpful reminder to make room in one's life for regular prayer, a prompt to be mindful. Right now, at day #11 in Turkey, it's still working that way for me.  When I hear it, I think about all the people who are taking a prayer break.  I often whisper one myself. Does it stay that way for people who hear it everyday, week after week, month after month, year after year?  Or does it go the way of railroad noise and taxis honking? Is it a comforting noise? An annoying one? Or is it something that people just stop hearing altogether?
We visited a mosque several days ago and the main challenge in entering was to make sure that all the women in the group were covered up appropriately.  Head, hair, shoulders, arms to the elbows, and legs all had to be covered by scarves, skirts or pants. We obliged.  Inside we could see the separate screened-off areas where women could go to pray.  Apparently being covered is not enough. Physical separation from men within the worship space is also required to maintain proper spiritual behavior.  From my perspective, this not only gives men a distorted sense of their power, but also their weakness.  It gives women a distorted view of their power, and hence, their weakness.  If a man sat next to a woman, would he be able to pray?
As an American Christian, I want to be culturally and religiously sensitive to the beliefs and practices of Muslims I encounter here. I consider myself to be a respectful person, one who listens and considers others fairly. But if I am truly honest, when I observe Muslim culture in action, it's a lot harder than I thought to limit my judgmental attitudes and suspicions. It's not just me. The clashes between Christians and Muslims have been going on for a long time. The work of getting along and trusting each other is as important now as it ever has been. Traveling to Turkey I have a much better understanding of the complexity of those challenges. I hope I can continue to hear the call to prayer as long as we are in this place, and perhaps something of it will stick with me when I leave.

Here are some pictures. Hopefully.

For someone as techno-awkward as myself, the challenges of blogging can be quite frustrating.  For instance, somehow we managed to post entries out of chronological order and I can't figure out how to correct it.  Here is our basic itinerary:
Geneva, Switzerland: Aug. 30-Sept. 4
Athens, Greece: Sept. 4-19 (this time included several trips away from Athens to archeological sites in Delphi and south to the Peloponnese)
Turkey: Sept. 19-Oct. 9 ( For the first 6 days we were on a bus tour of the south-western corner of the country)
India: Oct. 9-Nov. 13
Thailand for Fall Break: Nov. 14-22
Hong Kong: Nov. 22-Dec. 23
Beijing and Shanghai: Dec. 23-Jan. 2
Jan. 2-27: Seoul, South Korea

And now, here is a link to Marty's pictures in case we never get them posted to this site...
www.flickr.com/photos/101975997@N06/

I hope you enjoy them!
Shana

Greek ruins and sandy beaches

Yesterday we got back  from an amazing 3-day field trip to Nafplion. Nafplion is a beautiful city on the Peloponnese peninsula with lots of historical sites. The trip included going to Mycenae and the Mycenae museum, (a very important and famous site) Tiryns, (another important place) the Archaeological Museum of Napfplion,  and Epidaurus. These are all major sites and cities in the history of Greece.  On the way to Nafplion, we stopped in Corinth and went over the Canal that separates the mainland and the Peloponnese. we got to Nafplion we checked into our nice hotel and then went to find a place to eat dinner. I went with some of the group to a lovely little restaraunt and had delicious food. The next morning we went to Mycenae and the Mycenae museum, which was very cool because our professor specialized in the site of Mycenae and had participated in the archaeological digs there and he knew a lot about it. After that we had our beach time, which was my favorite part of the trip! After walking around in the hot sun it felt amazing to jump in to the Medeterranean  and swim for a couple of hours. The water was clear, the weather was great and everybody had a good time. Some of us swam a little farther out and saw lots of different kinds of fish! I got lots of freckles and re-applied sunscreen a lot. When we got back from the beach we ate our dinner at a grill that was almost fast food-like, except with Greek food. The had delicious Gyros and souvlaki.

Turkey

Last night we arrived in Istanbul. For the past 7 days we have been traveling around Anatolia, staying at gorgeous hotels and seeing ruins. There were lots of highlights. Making pickles with the locals, going to an olive oil factory museum, going to a hot springs and staying at a 4-star hotel with thermal pool, going to the beach for an afternoon, and seeing all the towns and various ancient establishments. The food here is really delicious! In Turkey, meat is a main part of the diet. They have something called meatballs, except instead of being round, they are little strips of seasoned ground meat. They are really tasty and I have eaten them a lot. Turks also eat a lot of shish kabobs and flat bread. Last night we ate at a little pizza place which is also common. Since coming to turkey, I am now in love with black tea. They serve it in little glass cups shaped like fat hourglasses. Apple tea is really good too, served again in the small glass cups. One of the things I don't like about Turkey is the women's role in public. It is very rare to ever see a girl driving a car or working in a restaurant or store. It also puts a damper on how women get treated by men on the street. For example, there are lots of random strangers who have called out to me, and other girls on the trip. They will just come up to you and ask you where are you from, but usually they just want you to buy something. Instead of mostly talking, I usually get the stares. When even the entire group is walking about, men stare at the women and it makes things really uncomfortable. The shop keepers are even more obnoxioius, and they just yell at you to buy something or that they have the best and cheapest of them all, but usually they try to start up a convorsation so they can lure you inside the store. Other than that, it's been one of my favorite countries so far!

Julia

Delphi

Saturday morning we boarded the coach bus for the 2 1/2 hour trip to Delphi. But before we even reached Delphi, we visited a Greek Orthodox Monastery, Osios Loukas. It was built around 1000 years ago, and it was just stunning. The great view of the valley mixed with the historic buildings and church made a great visual experience. We went inside the churches to see original mosaics, paintings, and beautiful icons. 

     After seeing the Monastery we went to the small town Delphi, one of the most important places in Greek history. It is so famous because  in the legend, Zeus (A Greek god) sent to Eagles to fly around the universe and they met up in Delphi, which was the supposed center or "navel of the universe". Back in its height, the town was basically made up of offerings and temples  to various gods, and it was all rather flashy. Representatives from various cities would bring elaborate offerings and gifts to persuade the gods to give them good advice.  The advice came through the Oracle of Delphi, an older woman who had been chosen to receive the word of the gods.  Over the centuries, many women filled this role. Ruins of the site are still in pretty good shape, which was very interesting and really aweome! Blocks of marble from buildings lay all over the ground, ancient Greek writing on walls and pieces of stone. Huge columns still stand and it makes everything seem stuck in time. I was so amazed at the ruins and all the things that still survived! It was hard to imagine that people walked around in the city in 8th Century BC, and their market is still there. We saw the theatre, the stadium and various other things. The stadium became the site of the Pythian Games, something similar to the later Olympian Games. Pieces of pottery and artifacts lay all over the ground but it was strictly forbidden and illegal to take anything, even a pebble on the path.  

     Once we had finished seeing the ruins, we went to our cute little hotel and ate dinner at a delicious  place, serving many kinds of traditional Greek foods.  We sampled lamb, veal, pork, and chicken dishes. Greek food is the best! In the morning, we got up and went to the same Delphi site but we saw the museum which was filled with most of the artifacts from the town, because you could not keep them outside or they would get ruined. I have to say that it was a very cool musuem because you knew everything you were seeing came from right outside the window. The only thing bad about that day was that a wasp got in my shoe and it stung me on the bottom of my foot, but luckily a fellow tourist saw what had happened and helped because she had some kind of cream for bee stings. I think going to Delphi and seeing the ruins was probably my favorite thing we have done so far, because it is so amazing! 

I will post more soon,

Julia 

Jetlag and Geneva

To start off here is a brief description of our global trip.
4 days in Geneva, Switzerland
2 weeks in Athens, Greece with 2 or 3 day excursions to various other cities
3 weeks in Istanbul, Turkey
4 weeks in Mumbai, Bangalore, and New Dehli, India
1 week in Thailand for fall break
4 weeks in Hong Kong
10 days in China
4 weeks in Seoul, South Korea

Global Semester Abroad is a program that takes college students from St. Olaf College around the world for one whole semester. (5 months) The college students take a total of 4 courses from different professors and colleges or Universities around the world.  Throughout this entire trip they are also taking a class called Traditional and Popular music: Global Perspectives taught by my dad, Marty Hodel (though i'm guessing you all know who that is). Since my dad is the field supervisor and my mom the assistant field supervisor for the trip, I get to come along! :) Here is some of what happened in Geneva Switzerland.


Day 1: Jetlag in Geneva
My global semester abroad all started when I got off the plane in Geneva, Switzerland. I was feeling tired (jetlag; I had been awake for almost 30 hours), excited and nervous. We got our bags at baggage claim and went outside where our tour guide was waiting for us with a sign that had our names on it. We got on the coach bus and started our tour of the city. Geneva is a beautiful city, but we weren't exactly looking great with dark circles and zombie-like appearances. During our tour we saw Lake Geneva, the biggest and clearest and bluest lake ever, the Jet d'Eau, a big fountain in the middle of the lake 460 ft. tall, and the coolest of all, the United Nations OG. When our bus tour was over, the tour guide took us to a very fancy restaurant in the south of France, called Yvoire, for lunch. It was a cute little town about a half an hour out of  town. The lunch was delicious with the entire menu in french so we had to get our tour guide to translate for the entire group. After the great food and service (we had all felt very underdressed) we went to the John Knox Center, a retreat center usually for church groups. The college students got rooms with two beds, but the family got to stay in the upper floor of the Petite Chalet, an apartment that had 3 bedrooms and a kitchen and a bath and living room, which was very nice for our first place to live. I am pretty sure I can say this for everyone that once you fell asleep, you didn't wake up for awhile.
     On the second day we had our free day, which we spent on the lovely Mt. Saleve, a mountain in
the swiss alps (although it was technically in France) Some people chose to take the gondola, a cable car up the  mountain and others chose to climb up but everyone took the gondola down the mountain. While we were over looking the beautiful view of Geneva, people with big backpacks came onto the hill we were on and started laying down what looked like a big tarp. We then realized that they were hangliders that were using the mountain as a take off point. It was very cool to see them run and jump off and start to fly. Overall, the mountain was amazing. There was a small cafe with killer ice cream that I will never forget.
     Once we took the bus back to John Knox, everybody crashed and ate dinner and went to bed. That was a great day. On the third and fourth days we went to the United Nations for briefings on different programs and associations like the WHO (World Health Organization) and many others. These lectures were extremely interesting and we got to tour the UN buildings and see the libraries and conference rooms and eat lunch at the cafeteria, which gave you large portions of super good food. It was very cool! I think the UNOG was my favorite part and even though everyone was very tired and jetlagged, it was very amazing and the lectures were just great! I think Geneva was overall a good experience and the best possible way to start off the 5 month long adventure.

I will post more soon!
Julia