Yesterday the group pretty much had their greatest day so far for many on the trip. We met with dignitaries yesterday such as the Deputy Speaker of the House of Parliament, Mr. Nevzat Pakdil; the Minister of Education, Ms. Nimet Cubukcu; and the Minister of Family, Children and Youth.

We began our day by heading to the Mausoleum of Ataturk, a national monument that reminded many of Washington, DC. The museum underneath the monument consisted of personal possessions of Ataturk as well as murals by Turkish artists that recreated scenes of the War of Independence, in which Mustapha Kemal Ataturk was victorious in centralizing the defenses of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Virtually single-handedly, Ataturk galvanized the renments of the defunct Empire after World World I that were dispersed within Anatolia. By 1923, the new Turkish Republic was born.

After the Ataturk Mausoleum, we visited the Anatolian Civilization Museum where we were able to view artifacts from several ancient civilizations such as the Hittites and the Selcuks. Pottery several thousand years old was a favorite of Carisa Griffin from Grayson High School. In her remarks to me on the bus, the fact that the process was so similar to that of the Native Americans proved that peoples in the ancient world several thousand miles away had common methods and techniques.

Up next was the Minister of Education who graciously spent about 30 minutes with us out of her busy schedule. Next was the Minister of Children and Family, which was then followed by lunch at the Turkish Parliament amongst the heavy hustle and bustle of congress people heading back and forth to and from meetings, sessions, and offices.

Tarik Celik, Istanbul Center's Executive Director, was with the group facilitating these dignitary visits.

And that wasn't all! We then had to pack away our possessions into locked cabinets to step into a live legislative session! Sitting atop the legislattive floor just a bit high up in the rafters was amazing as we saw the timer ticking off the seconds of the speech limitations of the congress people.

For dinner, we ate several courses of salads, meats, fish and vegetables at Etman where we were greeted by the Deputy Mayor of Kecioren and picked up Mustapha bey who later would lead us to Kecioren Castle and the largest aquarium in Turkey for a night visit with fish and turtles. The sky was a clear bright navy holding up a slim, beautiful crescent moon and single star.

Included in this visit was our surprise host of Mustapha bey who is with the Municipality of Kecioren, a large suburb of Ankara, and also around which there is apparently the home of the Prime Minister of Turkey.

And was still not all!!



In the evening, we crashed a Turkish engagement party! Kecioren Castle is a modern castle that holds a museum about Ottoman life in the Ankara area with a resturant on its top floor where there was thumping loud music and a large dance circle of women kicking their feet. Several of us were invited and indeed pulled into the dance circle by our new Turkish friends.

Mustapha bey took everyone around the castle pointing out the exhibits of Ottoman life including the special exhbition of handicarafts by Turkish women found on the ground floor of the castle. To top this off, we rode cable skycars high across Kecioren's rooftops! I was really scared personally, but kept talking to distract myself :)

We had Turkish ice cream after the cable skycar ride and hung out amid the twilight of the night, chatting lively.

We turned in to our hotel after that and we're starting our day today at around 11 am to congratulate ourselves on a hard day's work with the dignitaries yesterday as well as its full activity yesterday evening.

KCW