I have finally returned from a far off distant land, with a little less in my pocket.

Well where to start where to start. maybe with this story.

Today Meghan, my roommate who I have mentioned several times, Hayley Allen, a new be-loved friend I have made, and Stephanie Dear, the girl who is always on her toes, returned from four glorious days in the Isle of Santorini. Yes Yes, while all you people back in the states were slaving away at work, I was frolicking around on a Greek Isle, on my best behavior of course. We were exhausted seeing as how our eight hour ferry this morning left before the sun had even stretched it's legs out of bed. Not to mention that Greece has a daylights saving time as well, and it happened to be on the morning that we had to catch a 6:30am ferry. Nevertheless, we lost a whole glorious hour of sleep. After being on the ferry four eight hours, and barely getting any sleep last night cause we stayed up and talked like a bunch of high school girls, we were sluggish walking into Athens this morning. Our "Blue Star Ferry" cruised from Santorini to the port in Athens called Pireaus. Once off the ship we collected our luggage and made way for the metro to lead us to food. We also had with us two companions we had met while in Santorini, and who happened to be on our ferry this morning. Don't worry mom they were nice, a boy and a girl. I was not stupid I promise. Anyway, as we led them to the metro we all got our tickets. I have not been in Athens on the metro in 18 days so I was a little forgetful on proper metro etique. Unfortunately, I did not make sure my wallet was all the way down in my purse, nor did I have my bag in front of me like I always do in Athens. As we all pilled in the metro car, there was this group of around 4 people who were pushing everyone around. There was an older man, a woman, a younger boy, and a middle aged man. All of a sudden all of them got off the metro, and just then I hear Meghan say that guy just tried to get in my purse. Then Hayley yells "MY WALLET IS GONE!" Instinctively, I reach my nervous hand into my bag, there to my demise is the absence of my olive colored Wal-mart wallet. Immediately, I jump off the train, and start going after the guy. Hayley quickly follows. At this point I was so mad, I was yelling at this guy to give me my wallet back. I catch up to him, and tell him to give it back. Then he starts calling me a crazy...bad word...bad word. He is cussing me out and everyone is watching. Finally, I turn to Hayley and ask her if that was the guy, and then he was gone. I then immediately run into the cafe in the metro station, asking for a phone. The lady doesn't speak English, but notices the tears in my eyes and my hand at my ear miming phone. She says follow me. At this point I remember that my luggage and the rest of the group is still on the metro. I run back to see if they got off, luckily they did with mine and Hayley's luggage. I run back to the woman, and she takes me into this office. I think it was just the information office for the metro. I ask for a phone, and at first they tell me no. Probably thinking I will call a long distance number. I tell them it is local. She hands me the phone. I get the phone number card that Tim gave us at the beginning of the semester. I dial, Tim answers. I have to repeat who it is who is calling about four times before he understands who it is. Each minute losing time that the theif could be cracking into our bank accounts. First he tells me that he cant call anyone cause he is not at the Artemis, and I am like "CALL THEM ON YOUR CELL PHONE!" he says oh yeah. Then brilliantly he tells me to text him the numbers. I say Tim we dont have cell phones! Then I tell him to write them down and he says he cant. and I said get someone to write them down. Basically, I am the one who is in the crisis who is having to think logically. After getting him the numbers, he tells me that he will have to wait till he gets back to the Artemis. I said TIM NO! You must call our parents now! I told him to not stop calling until they answer, he says ok and we hang up. At this point I remembered that my passport and my camera were in the bag they stole from. Calming I ask Meghan to look for them, THANKFULLY SHE FOUND BOTH OF THEM! Hayley had her passport also. So the worst did not happen. Our new friends were there this whole time waiting asking if they could help. The woman Jackie even let us use her phone to call our parents even though it was long distance. They were wonderful. We reached our parents revealing the annoying news. In my wallet was 100 Euros which is around 150 dollars plus my debit card. Plau two calling cards that were new that I had spent 10 euros on. Plus my patches from the countries I visited. Luckily, I did not have my drivers liscense in there or insurance or social secruity card. Which Halyey thinks she did have that in her wallet. But we have our passports. and I have my camera. It is just money. No one was hurt. We were all so bumbed; we just headed back to the Artemis. Oh yeah. After we got on the metro to go to Porto Rafti, it ended up being down and we had to get off and take a bus. So we called Tim if he could pick us up from the station which is only like 15 minutes away from Porto Rafti, he tells us no. He says that he only comes and picks people up after the buses aren't running. He was a real help today. So we figured out how to get back guarding our bags all the way. It ends up that Tim felt bad and ended up going to where we wanted to be picked up, but since he wasn't going to we couldn't go to that station cause no buses run there. Luckily, Rebecca, Tim's wife, was on her way to church and saw us waiting for the bus and called Tim to pick us up. He apologized for not helping the situation. We arrived back at the Artemis finally. I called Travis, ate, took a shower, and watched a movie. Now I am here writing this. Hayley and I are very bumbed. It is just so unfortunate because we had not been in the swing of taking the Metro; therefore, we were taken off gaurd. But other than that all is well!

Turkey is amazing. The terrian is much like Greece. It is a beautiful country with rolling hills and endless seas just like Greece. I met some amazing people along the way. I will now have facebook friends from all over the world. haha. I had a turkish bath, which was outstanding! I watched the sunset in Ia in Santorini ontop of the white houses and blue roofed churches like you see in postcards. I have so much to write.

When we were on our cruise of the Greek Isles, we had a dance party on the boat. It all started as a joke because me and some of my friends walked into the "Moonlight Disco" room, and all these tennie boppers were standing akwardly on the dance floor pushing their friends out to dance, and then giggling and running back. There were also the girls that had on the way to short skirts, and even the backless shirts. A guy in our group named them "prostitots". oops. So one of our quarky guys ran out on the dance floor and started dancing akwardly. haha. Then this guy in our group named Larelle(yes black man) ran out there also. Let me desribe these two guys. First of all they are both over 6 ft tall. But John is this skinny, lanky, white boy who can't dance for anything. Then Larelle is this huge black guy who dances like he is on "So You Think You Can Dance". Basically, the perfecty pair. It was hilarious. After watching this scene for a while, the rest of us run out there and start dancing up a storm. Don't worry this is no public school prom dancing. This is white kids running around having a blast just moving anyway they can. In other words we looked like fools! BUT WE WERE HAVING THE TIME OF OUR LIFE! The dance part went on for two hours. In which at one point I think half of our HUG group had joined the party, and about twenty 13 yr. olds. To say the least it was a party. We had so much fun! I have never had that much fun dancing ever! I was sweating up a storm, my hair looked like I had just jumped in a pool. haha. Oh I didn't ever mention that there was music. Don't worry we did have some sort of a beat going, even if we didn't follow it all the time. I danced for two solid straight hours. It was amazing. The next night we danced again, but I had a toenail that had gotten ripped in half so I couldn't move that much. Oh we also played "Sardines" on the boat. Which is the opposite of hide and seek. Only one person hides and everyone else is trying to find them, and when you find them you hide with them. It was alot of fun!
The only bad part was I got sea sick. Don't go on a cruise on the Aegean sea in the winter. It is awfully rocky.

Santorini was a blast. It was four of us girls. We rented four wheelers to go around the island. We found a light house, a Red Beach, the cute twon of Ia. It was one of the most beautiful places I have been. Ia was the best city. It literally was out of a postcard. We had delicious food, accompanied with great laughter and friendships! I had an amazing time just enjoying life and God's creation. One night we were almost out of gas in a town that was 20 minutes away from the next gas station. I am still not sure how we made it without funning out of gas. It was an adventure! I have now planned, booked, paid, gone, and returned from a vacation all on my own! I think I am growing up! Ok I did end up getting my wallet stolen. dang it.

Oh my favorite biblical place in Turkey was Ephesus! It was HUGE! and only 10% had been excavated. I will post pictures soon. Paul went to Ephesus on his missionary jounreys. It had the third largest library in the world at that time. Next to Alexandria, and Pergamum, which we visited. It was all around a great trip! I love traveling! It makes me not miss home as much. When I am here at the Artemis I get sad, but when I am out experiencing the world I don't let myself be sad. We are the only HUG group to ever go to Isreal, Egypt, and Turkey! and maybe the last. I am so blessed to see the places I have seen. I am in the top 10% of the world and I don't deserve my life, but I am eternally grateful. The guys that have become my best friends here all the ones that I usually am able to talk to about the greatness of this trip. I have had so many experiences that most people only dream of, and still I find something to complain about. I have always needed to learn contentment in my life. It has always been something I have struggled at finding. Rebecca said something on the trip when we were in Philippi, the place where Paul casted out the demon in the woman. She said "Being fully in the present is the closest we will come to understanding eternity." It is so true, because the present is what eternity will be like for eternity. It will always be present in heaven. So if we can find away to be content in the present maybe we will have a little understanding of eternity.

I am going to go edit some pictures so I can put a few up tomorrow. I love you all with all of my heart. Places to visit in your life: Jerusalem and Istanbul.
I live in the present, that is why I can not help but think that if I lived today like it was my last I would do great things. That is why if I lived this summer as if it was my last I would stay in Nashville with my family. Therefore, I have made a decison. I will live in the present and spend the summer in Nashville with the people I love the most in this world. I have made a decision. I don't know where it will lead me, but I know that if this was the last summer I had I would want to spend it with my family. "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, there you will hear my voice saying"This is the way walk in it".