& hello.

Hi there.

My name is Meagan, and this is where I shall be chronicling my ongoing questing. In less than a month, I'll be headed to New Zealand, and then, next year, I'm studying in Istanbul.

This is...well, let's just say that it's amazing; for multiple reasons:

1. I have a wicked travel bug. I've been plenty of places already (Kenya, China, France, Switzerland, and Italy), but there are just so many places in the world I haven't seen yet.
2. I love learning about different cultures. And I believe the best way you learn about them is to be dropped smakdab into the middle.
3. I want to be an architect, and Turkey has history. The kind that goes back to when Athens ruled the world (parts of what is now Turkey were once a part of Greece), so their architecture history is some of the most rich you'll find anywhere.
4. New Zealand is actually a writing course (yes, I'm getting credit for going to Middle Earth), which is, I think, one of the most powerful mediums in the world. And I really like it.
5. I grew up on The Chronicles of Narnia, and the films (which were primarily filmed in NZ) matched the Narnia in my head almost perfectly.
6. I love photography. I'm not saying I'm any good, but with New Zealand, the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar, and just Turkish life in general, I'm thinking I'd have to try to take bad photos. I've had some practice with my previous travels. For example:

And my favorite:

So, just in case you couldn't tell, I'm a bit excited. I still need to get through finals before this happens, but they're both for sure things now. Originally, I was supposed to do a London/Florence thing, but that didn't happen, so then it became Belfast. For one reason or another, the program didn't take anyone (that's never happened before), so I switched again to Istanbul. After almost a month of waiting--and two weeks after all the other programs had heard, to boot--I received an email this morning, informing me that I will be a student at Istanbul Kültür Üniversitesi next year.

On a different note, here are some things I adore:

1. architecture & stained glass windows
2. interesting rocks & mugs
3. travel & writing
4. C.S. Lewis & Butch Walker
5. coffee & Earl Gray Tea
6. math & stories
7. ampersands & parenthesis

m.