So it's been almost a month since I last updated. I can't really remember half of the stuff I've done. I finished the insanely academic classes at Taylor. So much happened while studying there. It's hard to sort it all out. We played lots of frisbee, both golf and ultimate, we ate a lot of delicious food and came up with some crazy concoctions during meals. We got some amazing professors teaching us, some were very traditional while a few were so smart it hurt our heads to try to grasp everything they had to say. We had to read a lot and write at least 3 papers a night, not to mention the research we had to do for our extra classes.
    I was in Contemporary World which was a history/model United Nations class. We were all part of a group that represented a certain country from the Middle East. I ended up being in the group that represented Syria. Kid that grows up in Turkey has to defend Syria... I thought that was ironically amusing. The other countries were Israel, Jordan, the USA, the PA, and Egypt. The goal set for us students was to come up with a plan for peace in the Middle East. Well... the morning of the third day of class a militant group within the PA took over the Gaza strip and kicked the other half of the PA out. This made the class really time consuming because we needed to make decisions as a country according to what was happening in Israel at that very moment. That's why we spent so much time doing research, because if we were asked a question and didn't know what the other country was asking about we got points taken off of our grade for not knowing what we should have known. I learned a lot through the class and really enjoyed it. Our professor was someone who doesn't teach during the school year because he's so busy, so we felt really blessed to have him teaching us. I would go up to our classroom up to an hour before class started just to get the chance to sit down and talk to him.
    College is going to be fun. I didn't see that a month ago but it is clear as day now. I can't wait to pump my brain with such a wealth of information and wisdom from solid Christians. I hope everyone in Turkey is doing well. I miss you all so much... Lord willing I'll see a lot of you at Christmas.

God bless you guys,
J3

    In 22 hours I'm going to be hopping onto a plane and flying out of here. It's been a busy month preparing to leave home to return "home". Lots of good times with friends You guys have no idea how much I love you all. The youth group: You guys are a bunch of nuts I'm going to miss singing, talking, and eating Mrs. Meyer's delicious food with you guys. Ya'll will always be in my heart and in my prayers. And thank you to everyone who wrote in the defter. I'm going to read it all when I'm leaving on the jet plane. God bless you all. I'll see you in December!

John Fowler III