We made ıt!

Hello.

We have been havıng a wonderful tıme. We arrıved on Sunday and dıned outsıde ın a cafe ın Istanbul in Taksim Square. The next day we toured around the cıty. We went to the Blue Mosque and to the Topakı Palace. You can take a virtual tour of the Sultan's palace at http://www.topkapisarayi.gov.tr/ Then we had lunch on the Bosphorus Rıver at a wonderful restaurant called Konyali that is part of the palace grounds. In the afternoon we went to a cafe for Turkish tea. They also served hookahs, or water pipes with different smelling tobaccos.

At nıght we went to the Galata Tower, now a restaurant, but built in the 1300s and used by the Sultans. Go to http://www.galatatower.net/eng/index.php to see pictures and read about the history. The show at the tower was fantastic, and included belly dancer, tradtıonal folk dancers and a sınger! We met our host Mr. Enver Yucel, the founder and owner of the Bahcesehir University and schools. We also met the new president of the university, Dr. Deniz Ulke, and her husband, a former soccer star now business man, and the principal of the high school, Sunim.

Today (Tuesday) we had a Turkısh bath and massage at the Galatasary Turkish bath - what an experıence. Let me tell you - I am very clean. The baths were built in 1460, thirty two years before Columbus sailed!

Then we went to Taksim Square, a shopping area with lots of little places to eat and have coffee or tea. We took a ferry boat ride to the Asian continent and had lunch in Kadikoy at an outside cafe.

We went to the graduatıon at the hıgh school in the suburb of Bahcesehir in the evening and toured the school. We were surprised and honored to be included in the graduation ceremonies. Several of us presented diplomas to the graduates. The graduation ceremony was spectacular. There was Turkish/new age type music playing loudly and the graduates were called up two by two, and their parents and someone to present their diploma were called up as well. They announced their names, the diploma was presented, and pictures were taken. It was open air and they had elaborate video and photo equipment to record the special event. The leader of our group, Jerry Brodsky, said a few words of welcome, as well as the President of the college, the Chairman Yucel, and the Principal of the High School. Afterwards, we took a tour of their new state of the art science and technology high school. They had genetics, biology, and chemistry laboratories. There was a large computer lab and smartboards in each classroom. The school is very impressive to see.

We stayed in La Maison hotel, a very nice hotel with a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Bosphorus River. Our group is fantastic. I was invited by Jerry Brodsky, who runs a consulting group in Ohio. He is a retired superintendent from Aurora, Ohio and my sister Beth used to represent his teachers in union negotiations. Also on the trip was his wife Cindy, also an educator, Bart and Alice Teal, from Chapin, South Carolina who run a non-profit consulting group called Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence. Other members were Ed B, a retired middle school principal who now works at Case Western Reserve University. Emece, an English teacher from Serbia, Patty Picard, the head of technology at Hudson Schools and Diana Garvey, an ESL teacher from Hudson, and Beth and me. Our tour guide, Sila, is one of Mr. Yucel's assistants and she was with us all day as part of our group. She took very good care of us and we thoroughly enjoyed her company, as well as each others. We found the Turkish people to be warm and welcoming and I never felt an anti-American sentiment, although some were curious as to why the American people voted for Bush.

-Susan