from Liz--about the girls

Mandy and Ali at the Bosphorus

Randa and Liz at the Bosphorus

Hi!
And welcome to another of addition of, "Updates from Liz". Right now I am going to tell you about all of our adventures from the past 24 hours. Yesterday morning Randa, Mandy, Ali, and I decided to rise at the crazy hour of 4:30am in order to watch the sunrise over of the Bosphorus. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but as Mandy roused me from my sweet sleep, I began to doubt whether it was worth it. As the four of us left the house and headed down to the water, the city of Istanbul was just beginning to stir and the sky was already a blaze with color. We finally found a spot right next to the water and we all sat down, now quite content with our decision to leave our beds. You can see in the pictures below some of the amazing color,but always it was better in person:). While Randa, Ali, and I were busy taking pictures and watching the sky we discovered that Mandy was busy talking to a colony of jellyfish she had spotted near the shore. She proceeded to point out which was the Mama, Papa, and little Squirt. Apparently when she was younger she had wanted to be a marine biologist and the desire still pops up every now and then:). Later that day Randa and I happened to see a plethora of kids wearing tee shirts with a picture of Max, who as of late is the character on all our favorite ice cream bars. We immediately wanted to know where they got the shirts and if we could have one too. Soon after a nice family pointed us in the direction of the soccer stadium,and before we knew it, we found ourselves in line to enter the stadium! Much to our delight we were handed a free shirt on the way in, and now I am the happiest girl in all of Turkey! Plus Randa and I got our pictures taken next to Max which made the day even more amazing. So that my friends is just another day in the life of Liz Gross. I miss you all very much and cannot wait to tell you all my stories in person!