I arrived safely at the CPT house in Suli Friday at 2am. Friday is the team's day off so I was able to rest and try to shake the jet lag. The traveling went well. I was worried something would go wrong and I would be stuck in Istanbul or something but that didn't happen. The flight to Istanbul was ten hours long. I sat next to a young Turkish woman who wants to move to the US. Her English was pretty good so we talked quite a bit. When I told her I was on my way to Iraq for a couple months she was pretty alarmed. "But aren't you going to miss pancakes, cheeseburgers, french fries, and Dr. Pepper?" She wasn't kidding. It seemed like her favorite part of Western culture is processed food. She was in the US for twenty days and went to a diner for pancakes every morning, no joke. She told me her luggage was filled with marshmallows and Oreos since she didn't know when she would be able to go back to the US. As we talked more it was clear that her love of the West went deeper than food. She explained that she is very independent and that doesn't go over very well in Turkey. Eventually she would like to move the to US but she doesn't think she will be able to get citizenship without marrying someone in the US. She then said if she wanted to get married and stay home with kids she could do that in Turkey.

The people on team here are super nice and helpful. The biggest challenge so far is the jet lag. I've read a little bit about jet lag and I'm definitely feeling it. When I got to the house in Suli, I felt exhausted but I had a hard time getting to sleep. Eventually I fell asleep but it wasn't until 10am and I slept til 6pm. So the next night's sleep was off too. I was pretty tired and felt terrible yesterday but I did my best to be present and enjoy the day. I went to bed at 9pm or so and woke up at 5am. I don't know what it is about 5am but it wakes me up every time. I'm hoping I can sleep past it tomorrow morning. I also had a pretty killer headache which is associated with Jet lag but I think that is over with.

Also, I'm thankful for Skype. I was able to talk to my parents Friday. That was awesome. I knew I would miss them but I was taken aback a little at how emotional I felt hearing my mom's voice. She is pretty awesome so I shouldn't be surprised. It took my dad a minute to believe it was me calling. Eventually he asked how I was calling and after I explained he kept saying "woah!". I love that dude.

Well, thats it for now. I don't if anybody is reading this or not but feel free to tell me what you think.
Much love, Stefan

ps: I don't have time right now to check this for typos and grammatical errors so please forgive me for any mistakes.