International Relations

Istanbul has a population of 15 million, and most of them drive it seems. The traffic is crazy. We are staying in the "newer" section of town. Old Istanbul has all the ancient classics and is a good 40 minute trip. We may move to the old section later in the week if we can - we'd like to be able to walk everywhere. I went to The Grand Bazaar yesterday for a few hours. Kind of like Canal Street in NYC only about 1000 times bigger. The merchants are fairly aggressive and have numerous ways to try to lure you in. It's kind of amusing but I was really ready to leave after a couple of hours.
Today is the last day of the conference. The Turk Ministry of Justice has been wining and dining us since we arrived. Last night they hosted a dinner at this great restaurant on the Bosphorus, the body of water that separates the European side from the Asian side of the city. Spectacular view and dinner. The people they are hosting whose company we have been enjoying are from all over the world: Italy, Belguim, Brazil, Scotland, Norway, Spain, Canada and the US. Most of the people know English. The Americans are the only ones who only know one language! Most of them are following our political primary going on and have a hard time figuring out Rick Santorum. Yeah, well we do too. Some of them have different "day" jobs - like a bio-ethicist and college professors. Makes for very interesting conversations, from cognitive behavior to philosophy and religion. The Turks are trying to introduce victim offender mediation in their court system and are eager to learn.

The dinner was all different fishes - the entree was a sea bass covered in salt and they poured liquor over it and lit it on fire. They had 5 musicians who were quite entertaining. Mark was one of the "chosen" to do the traditional dance.