Day 1 Istanbul

     Today was our first full day of Istanbul! Geez it was tiring, but it was jam packed full of cultural adventure and beautiful sites! I especially enjoyed connecting both Christianity and Islamic faith to the land of Anatolia. I suppose it's like when you read two completely separate stories, but find a connecting passage in each that ties the two together. Maybe Istanbul didn't necessarily link Christianity and Islam together, but somehow in my mind the two finally coincided somehow. Maybe it was seeing both the Christian symbolism and the Islamic mosque features in the Hagia Sophia that really meshed the two together. It's truly amazing how much history Turkey has and how it has shaped religion, the country, and the world.
     I think what fascinates me the most is the astonishing age of these historic buildings. I can't even imagine how incredible these structures must of meant during that time period. Considering the technology they had back then, the amount of time it took to build these churches and mosques, the intricate designs and delicate details inside make it a masterpiece then and now. Perhaps it's also the timelessness of the building that amazes me the most. Usually we think of something old as dingy and useless, but these ancient buildings are so important to our understanding of history and are still incredible artwork in itself.
     Chenk discussed how a whole civilizations history would be wiped out and these archaeological finds are the key to rediscovering those histories. It's like history is a huge puzzle with missing pieces and with every discovery or piece we can get a better view of the big picture. I think that's why some ancient texts like Homer's epic poems are an important part to culture. Even though they may not necessarily be true, it depicts real Greek values and emotions.
     At the Archaelogical Museum, there was a small section dedicated to Troy and discussed Homer's tale of the war. Although the Trojan War actually did occur, most people would agree that the love story behind the war is false. However, I feel that Homer's story is an accurate portrayal of greek civilization at that time in terms of their values like honor, hospitality, and piety. In World Cultures 4, we read the book "The Things They Carried," which described the experience of a soldier in the Vietnam War. It is considered a metafiction because the characters were fiction but based on some stories that actually happened to the author during the war. However, the author would say that his story is completely true because it describes real emotion that the soldiers felt. Sometime the true story or facts don't accurately portray the actual sentiment of the story, which I believe applies to Homer's epic poems.