Two Months

The days just seem to fly by, and I forget to update my blog! Now it has been two months since I have been here! I feel much more adjusted. I have been making friends with students from the center and a few others that I have met elsewhere. It is exciting to finally feel settled in a little bit more, but at the same time I only have about five weeks left! I am trying to keep my focus here as I am also excited to be home for Christmas.

This week is a holiday, so we have no classes or anything. We are just going to be visiting people, going to parties and resting. I am most excited about visiting people. It is such a cultural thing here. Everyone visits everyone and you simply just show up, either for a meal or just tea. Which I am learning to love almost more than coffee again.

This is a picture of a city we went to a few weeks ago. We went to go visit friends of some of our team members. This city had a much different feel than where we live because it was more remote and less Westernized. Everyone was extremely friendly and hospitable. I am still getting used to being admired as a foreigner, because we stand out here unlike I did in Russia. This next picture is of inside the house. We sat on their concrete floors in the biggest room in the house. At least 12 people live in this house. They all sleep on the floors. They were so hospitable although they have so little. I was very amazed at their lifestyle, and felt guilty for having so much, and taking it for granted sometimes.

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This next picture below is from our Center Picnic. We went to the mountains, where many people fled during the persecution of the late 80s. Many of these caves served as hospitals, bases, or shelter for hundreds of Kurds. It is crazy that now we just come and run around in these places that were once so serious
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The Kurds love picnics, so many of our students came to ours. It was a really good time of just hanging out with our students and getting to know them better.Some non-student friends came too.

Just yesterday, I got to visit the University in our city. It was very exciting because there were so many young people, and the social aspect was just so different compared to other places in the city. This is a picture of the cafeteria building on the campus. There is more grass on the campus than anywhere else I have seen here!

We also met several students who stopped to talk to us because we are American...

It has been good so far, I can't wait til I have more to update you with!