1. Mountains!
2. An amazing museum with lots of mosaics.
3. A nice Catholic church that has boarding houses.
4. Accidental grammar lessons. Attending mandatory mass, I noticed that, like the "No Smoking" signs (yes, they do have those in Turkey) that are written in the passive aorist and technically say "Smoking is not done here," Jesus says "My body is eaten here."
5. Awesome exercise machines in a park.
6. They're proud of their students. These two did very well on the national test. I also saw a sign by a school that said "Please be quiet. The children are taking an exam."
7. Hummus!
8. Künefe!
9. The first church ever, which, unfortunately was closed because the people in charge were on vacation. We got to hike around the mountain, though.
10. Cute streets and buildings in the old part of the city, where St. Peter most likely lived.
11. People are used to tourists, because of all the Catholic groups that come through, but with the exception of at the otogar, they don't harass you the way they do in the touristy parts of Istanbul. They also don't try to speak English to you.
12. A lot of people speak Arabic, so everyone loved Jen.
13. I swear the people in the house next door to us were playing "The University of Chicago Middle East Music Ensemble's Greatest Arab Hits."
14. For once here, I didn't get the sense that people looked down on Arabs.
15. Things were a lot cheaper, even though Jen was in shock at how expensive everything was compared to in Syria.
16. Ice packs!
17. A Cubs fan! Well, sort of...
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