Old City vs. Downtown

We have been doing a lot of administrative prep for camp. Yesterday, I spent time creating covers for the song books and word study books the campers receive at the beginning of camp. I'll continue that today, giving my "boss" a few options of graphics from which to choose. I'm having fun with it!

Renata and Jim are out of town for a couple of days, so Krista and I are "watching over" Talya (their daughter) and the dog. Last night we made brownies with Talya, but she and Krista would not let me bake the normal way! They tied us all together and blindfolded some of us and made some of us not use hands and...oh my goodness it took forever. I wasn't so into this game, but in the end we got some tasty brownies out of the crazy.

Something I've noticed straight away this week is that my Turkish experience last year was greatly different from what I'll be experiencing this year. First of all, last year I did not actually interact with a whole lot of Turks since our main focus was camp, while this year I will be in the city more with countless opportunities to interact and make Turkish friends. Also, last year when I was not at camp, I stayed in Old City. Paul's Place (the main center for Christian activity here) is located in Old City and so was my Pansiyon (hotel), La Paloma. I did not realize that downtown Antalya would have such a different feel from Old City. With that said, however, Krista and I are making a great team. Since she arrived almost two weeks before me, she knows downtown and the bus system pretty well, while I know the walking paths of Old City. I've been really grateful for her help in navigating this urban jungle.

SO, we are going to Old City today! Renata left us with a few tasks to finish up and then ordered us to "rest up", so we're going to throw a little fun into our day as well. Once we're done with our admin. tasks for the morning, we'll bus over to Old City where I will show Krista all the wonderful shops and cobble-stone paths. We're also going to get döner for lunch...I can't believe we haven't eaten it yet! Again, different locations within the city bring very different experiences.

Above: downtown Antalya...the view I have from the kitchen window!