He's here!

My boy Caesar Augustus is here. He's actually a university student in another city of the country, but earned the name Caesar by beating myself and four of the V boys in a massive game of Risk, the game of global domination, a couple nights ago. He is a fair, just, and honorable ruler.



But he has come to enjoy some of his break from his university classes. I don't know if he's really getting much rest, but we're having a blast. The first night he was here, we had a big dinner with all our new co-workers over at the V house. That was when he showed his military prowess in the war to end all wars (which I would've won if it hadn't have been for West Africa who held off my offensive despite the fact that I held a 26-18 advantage going in). Then yesterday, he got to experience Turkish church for the first time. He said that he was really encouraged to see people worshipping God and doing church together in a place where it's not really all that common or accepted. After church we met one of his friends from university (yeah, he visits me and we spend time with his friends!) for dinner. We had an awesome spread, as you can only get in this city, and Caesar got to experience some of the local cuisine. We had a lot of good conversation over dinner and then we left there for some time at the pool hall. I wiped the table with these poor boys (they teamed up to play me). One game, the only one of their balls to go in was one that I sank accidentally. So to get revenge, this other guy wanted to play some ping pong. Well, he did end up beating me in three of the four games we played, but I took one from him and sent another one into quadruple overtime before he snatched it from me. It was really a ton of fun and I declared it the best day of 2007, so far! I know it's only been a week, but you got to set the bar sometime, and last night it was set pretty high.

So we came home and sat around talking and working a puzzle my roommate had gotten for his birthday. We talked about everything from life to love to the Holy Ghost. It really felt like both of us were just unloading all the thoughts and emotions we'd been storing up over the last couple months. To go this long without any meaningful conversation with someone that I feel can relate is really tough. But now that he's here, I took advantage of it. We talked LATE into the night, into the early morning. We covered every imaginable topic that had been concerning us. Time management, what our jobs are, do we "need" recreation, can you find God in the NBA or in the music Dave Matthews makes, what we're going to do after this time here is over, what it'll be like trying to readjust to life in America, learning this stinking language, how to handle awkward times with the opposite sex, what'd we'd like to see happen and change, not just around us, but in us. There was much more to it than that, but I can't recall everything we talked about in all those hours of conversation. I can just tell you that it felt great and it's such a blessing to have this guy around for a few days. He's a great friend, a friend that's as close as a brother.

And with this brother, I'm making my first trip to a Turkish bath today. I will not be posting pictures of this trip, but you can be assured it will get a blog entry. I can't wait!