Finally a plan

After nine months of blowing in the wind, I finally have a stable plan. It is so difficult to concentrate on work or make time to develope yourself in areas of personal interest when your constantly trying to figure out if next month you will be in South America learning a whole new culture and a whole new life during an eight month traineeship, or if you will just take a week long vacation in Egypt so that you can be home for Christmas. Finally I feel free. Instead of always worring in the back of my mind what I will be doing next month, I can be fully engaged in my work and play. It feels wonderful.

The Plan:
I will stay in Istanbul until the middle of January. I will then travel to India for one month with Alex and then return home to Minnesota to find a real job in the middle of February.

I am really looking forward to having a more stable life and better living conditions and a higher income. I am not ,however, looking forward to the monotany of a 9 to 5 office job. I swear I will kill myself if I have to sit in front of a computer all day working on Excel.

Sefer plans to come to Minnesota in the summer for a Civil Engineering program or internship if he can find one. It is really difficult to get a visa to come but we are working on it.

A little clarification about Muslim sections

One day I was looking for some information after I had read an article about some stuff going on with the new Iraqi government. I was a little confused about the Sunni and Shii groups. I emailed and asked Sefer for some clarification and this is what he wrote. I thought I would share.

Nikki in the year of 632 Muhammed died without telling the new leader for the Muslims. So, some of the muslims said the new leader is "Ebu Bekir" who was Muahmmed's wife's father. The other part of the muslims said no, the new leader has to be his nephew Ali. So, Islam is divided into two main groups:

1. Sunni: They are the Ebu Bekir ones. Sunni's are living according to the sunnets. Sunnet is the behaviours or life styles which Muhammed said its good. Sunni's are divided to 4 groups and they are "hanbeli", "hanefi", "shafii" and "maliki".

Hanbeli: This is the most strict one. They dont have grave stone or anything, they try to live with the same situations or behaviours as Muahmmed (s.a.v) did.

Hanefi: This means right way, true way. 45-50% of Turkey is belong to this group and they dont like other groups. They think they are the chosen group.

Shafii: This one is a lil bit different than hanefi's and this is the other most common one. Most of the Kurds are belong to that group because the Kurds were living with the Christians and this group is like Christian Orthodoks. They cant touch a dog. They cant touch a lady when they are going to for prayer. Alcohol and drugs are strictly forbidden.

Maliki: Its coming from the religion education of Mekka schools and i dont know very much stuff about them because i dont know anyone who is maliki.

2.Shii: They are the Ali ones. It's coming from Sia i Ali ehich means the ones who are going on the way of Ali. They have 12 big imams who are all Ali's children and Huseyin is the oldest of them who was the leader after Ali. They dont have the one's face because they believe that God took him to the heaven when he was 5 years old and he will come back as the new Jesus to the world. Their prayer is 3 times a day.

So how the hell did it happen? The main questions is that right? After Muhammed (s.a.v) died, one group said Ebu Bekir and the others said no Ali is the new leader. But, Ebu Bekir fans were more than the Ali fans so Ebu Bekir was chosen by VOTE! (i think this is may be the first voting for a leader in the world.) After that the Sunni's (ebu bekir fans) killed Ali's oldest son Huseyin in KERBELA. So, the big fight began and the Shiis didnt want to obey the rules of Ebu Bekir and the Shii's wanted to move to Iran and most of them did but some of them didnt move and still live in Iraq, Suria, Malaysia, Palestine and the other middle east countries.

There is one more group but they are not very crowded but i want to tell you about them because my 2 bestfriends are from this group and i think the best people are coming from this one:

Alevi: Its alittle bit Turks and Kurds old religion before Islam which is Shamanism (this one of the oldest religion with paganism and you can see how much it effected the main religions). They respect Ali too. They have really big philosophers, they live the religion as a philosophy and they dont obey the rules of Islamsuch as festing, praying, kiling the animals for god. They believe that god is inside of you and you can feel it. They respect women very much and women is very important for them. Women and men is equal in this group and women dont cover their head or sth. They are the most modern group thats why in the history they always killed by the others because thier religion is the different. From 1930 until 1995-1996 the main mosque or religion rulers made lots of stupid things about them and they made people in Turkey to believe that Alevis\' are bad, disqusting people so the Alevis wanted to have part in the left side of the ideology and then the pressure became worse and worse on them. They couldnt even go out from their house. These people are so open and you can see how gentle they are. Respect is the most important thing for them and for them you have to live your religion inside, you dont need to show it to anyone by praying or doing other things. "Alevi", is a really good life philosophy and even turkey just started knowing about them and i think in 20-30 years lots of the people in the world will have a chance to know their philosophy.

Thats all, I hope I could help i little bit.

-Sefer

Home Sweet Home

There were a lot of emotions and unsual feelings about going home and being home once I was there. But quite honestly the culture shock was definitely not the same as the first time coming back after going abroad. Yeah there were a few things that I "couldn't believe," about our culture and there were so many things that I looked at in a new perspective, but overall it was just a warm feeling to be back with my friends and family.

My oldest brother Jeff, Me, My brother Dave, and my Dad for a family photo. How sweet :-) 

My dad and his wonderful summer flowers. They were the most beautiful this year than any other year I have seen them.  

My brother, Jeff, and I at his new cabin in Wisconsin.  

My room with the roses Sefer sent me for our six month anniversary :-) 

Eric, Jenny, and Ryan. This is Laura's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, they are so cute!

I just had to hit up a Bloomington party when I was home. "Hey I heard Tom Royer was throwing a pig roast!" was a common phrase of the week. I stopped by only for an hour but it was definitely a good time. I haven't seen these people in ages! Honestly, its been since high school for many of them. I missed them. The party seemed to be a complete replica of the party scene in high school. I was even the designated driver yet again. 

Laura Me and Jess at our first time being all together in an entire year. Its been a long year and we have all grown as people in many different ways but we will always and forever be best friends from home.