I decided to do an entry prior to leaving to give a better idea of what I am doing, and why I started an online journal for traveling.

I decided to start one of these because the way in which I am traveling is changing, and I hope it continues. I am hoping for more long trips and more trips on my own or with a few friends...goodbye to "organized traveling" and hello to traveling my way!

On June 13th I will be leaving for Istanbul, Turkey and I will return home on July 13th so for an exact month I will be living in Istanbul. I am participating in a Travel Study Program through SIUE so while there I will be staying at Yeditepe University on the Asian side of Istanbul. Turkey sits on two continents, Europe and Asia. The city of Istanbul itself is the splitting point by way of the Bosphorus. So everyday I will leave the Asian side and take a ferry to the European side to do site seeing. While there I am taking two classes: Islamic Aesthetics and Islam and Modernity. I am very excited to be taking classes on Islam while surrounded by the religion itself.

I will try my best to update this as often as I can while there, and hopefully add pictures as well. Be sure to leave me comments. One warning though. If I am not updating this dont worry, it means I cannot access the website. Certain websites are blocked where I am staying (facebook :() I am hoping this is not a blocked site but it could be!