Turkey-Ege University

Monday morning we woke up and began what we had come there to do. The official title of our trip was a "cultural exchange" so we took our college students to the university in Izmir, Ege (eh-gay) University. This campus, with over 50,000 students, housed the traditional music conservatory. They learned traditional Turkish folk music, dance, and instrument construction. Traditional Turkish music is AMAZING!!!!! Andrew and I immediately fell in love and were able to communicate with many Turkish people through the universal language of music. Andrew met a man in the recording studio that had lived in the US for a while and get this.....went to LSU and recorded the LSU Tiger Band every Saturday! After we listened to the music he had just been working on, Andrew showed him a Youtube video of the LC marching band. That night we took the LC students to a show one evening with traditional Turkish dancing and music. It was easily one of the best nights we had there. One day we casually met a beautiful Turkish woman named Çimen (pronounced chi-man). She took us on a tour around parts of the conservatory. The second day we saw her, she and her boyfriend Sinez (shi-neez) took us to a museum on campus. It housed many musical instruments and costumes from different times in Turkey's history. It was fantastic! And even though there was a severe language barrier we were already becoming very good friends!

More to come......