5-22-2011

We started off our day by heading to Oz Turkman Carpets.  Here they showed us how they make their Turkish rugs.  We were given a demonstration of how they tie the knots on the rugs and harvest the silk from the cocoons.  As a gift we were given a silk cocoon to take home.  Then we were herded into another room and were shown various different rugs ranging from small place mats to gigantic room sized rugs.  They can use combinations of wool, cotton and silk to make the rugs, with silk as the most expensive material used.  One of our favorite types of rugs were the cotton on cotton because they changed color depending on the direction you were looking at the rug.  When the entire demonstration was over some of us bought ourselves our own rug.

Our bus then dropped us off at the Bazaar in Kusadasi.  We split into groups to do what we wanted such as : shop, get coffee and tea, or explore the city.  By the late afternoon we all met at the pool to hang out and tan a little.  Then after dinner we decided to check out the night life.  While out we got to experience the excitement caused by the soccer team Fenerbahce who had just won the Turkish League Cup.  Turkey was roaring with excitement as people walked around carrying their teams flags and honking their cars.  Some of us participated in their small parade they had at the bazaar as they sang their teams cheers and circled part of the bazaar.  It was definitely an exciting day for us.