Off to Turkey

This is going to be short today. We're in Istanbul and I came down with a head cold so I'm feeling pretty miserable at the moment. I'm having to send this in the hotel lobby because the wifi isn't very good in my room.

I love Istanbul! I wish that I could stay longer and just wander around. As we were going to our lunch restaurant we were driving along the shore of the Bosporus and we saw a family of Dolphins about 20 feet off the shore! The driver stopped the bus and we watched them for about 10 minutes. It was glorious. I didn't get a photo but one of the students is going to send me one and I'll post it next week.

We went to the Hagia Sophia again and each time I go I enjoy it more. The Christian mosaics are glorious and I'm getting better at reading the Christian abbreviations.

This picture is of Mary, Christ and John the Baptist. There's one more abbreviation about Mary that I have to work out. I think that it has something to do with her title theotokos = "bearer of God" but I'm not sure. I wish that I had seen this mosaic when it was in its complete glory!

                                                  The students are making a wish.

This picture is of the Siloam inscription from Hezekiah's tunnel. In Israel we only get to see replicas but this is the original inscription telling about the two crews who were making Hezekiah's tunnel meeting. I may have posted a similar picture last semester, but this is a better picture.