Its finally up :)
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JoshuaGigliotti.com is now officially mine and is online. Im pretty terrible with web design still, so I apologize for its ugliness. For the time, until I can learn how to make it prettier, it’ll be linked with my Wix site.
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…..and - I now have my own email address - Joshua@JoshuaGigliotti.com
I feel way too professional for all this stuff! :)
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See it here:
JoshuaGigliotti.com

Its finally up :)
.
.
JoshuaGigliotti.com is now officially mine and is online. Im pretty terrible with web design still, so I apologize for its ugliness. For the time, until I can learn how to make it prettier, it’ll be linked with my Wix site.
.
.
…..and - I now have my own email address - Joshua@JoshuaGigliotti.com
I feel way too professional for all this stuff! :)
.
.
See it here:
JoshuaGigliotti.com

I’ve finally finished my website, designed through Wix….and should have my new domain name soon.
Thanks Monica, for the SEDO help :)

For now….here’s the link:

Joshua Gigliotti Photography

I had to check the computer to find that out.

Days have been blurring together recently. The line between one mindless day and another is a rather blurred one. Days…into nights…into days again.
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My camera has dust on it.
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My journal has a handful fewer pages than it did a month ago today.
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im ready for the next step, lord.
whenever you are.

Friends,
hello.
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well…..its been a while since I’ve written.
I’ve been home for nearly a month now, and many things have been mulling in my mind since then.
my scheming about what’s next for my life :)

I’ve had so many things I’ve been meaning to write, so many things I want to say still, both about the past few months of life in Iraq, and also some things on the future.

After a very needed break from technology (i kinda just stopped with the email and the blog for a few weeks) i think its about time I get back into things. Ive missed it.

So….I’m coming back, so dont delete me from the bookmark yet, I guess.

Merry Christmas friends :)

Jess and Chris are on their way home now.
I get to meet this little guy so soon :)

Here I sit.

The mug I brought from home, now full of a strong black coffee, steaming into the air.
The place is called Muddy Waters.
Its been my favorite coffee shop for years now.

From my seat, I look out on the water, watching lobster boats make their way slowly from pot to pot, checking them after the night.
I watch the ferries as they leave and enter port, ushering people back and forth between the islands that surround the area.
Seagulls fly by, swooping down into the water, then rising high in the air to drop their new caught crabs onto the rocks below.
In the distance, the ringing of the train sounds as it approaches the station below, causing bridges to shift and move, and boats wait for it to pass before entering their slips.
The fireplace is going to my right, as the very American playlist of Sinatra and Christmas music fills the air of this little shop.

This is home.
…I guess.

The two middle aged men to my left sit and play with their new smart phones, comparing and bragging as they can..”oh, is yours touch screen, or do you have to use a stylist?”
“Well mine just zooms this way, a lot easier than yours…”
“I think my screen is full High Definition. Is yours….?”

The men to my right sit together, though instead of comparing phones, they are on them.
There is talk to clients and customers it seems about the days stock results and financial reports.

Yup. This is home…

Friends, its been strange coming back.
I realize it hasnt been that long since I’ve been back here….
But five months in a middle eastern country sure seemed to have change me more than I realized.
Things are so….different to me now.

Everything from the disgustingly tiny excuse for dresses that I see on girls here,
to funny things, like the overwhelming amount of bacon for sale in the grocery store.

Anyway.
This is my home.
And its good to be back.
Strange…
At times, foreign…
But its home.
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And for now…
For as long as I’m here.
Its good.
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And….
I’ve finally made it back to the beach, to this beautiful place where countless hours have been spent.
Sine most of my thinking is done here, so I thought I might as well show what it looks like :)
This, friends….is my beach.
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Its so strange saying that again.
Its been a long time now….but I’m finally back in America again.

After a great few months in the Middle East, this Connectiuct kid is back home…..still in time to see some colorful trees :)

I’m pretty exhausted still…
I’m feeling the effect of the time zones on my body (I’m not even sure how this works, but I left Frankfurt, Germany at 5pm and was standing outside in Washington, D.C. by 7:15pm.
This may take a few days to get used to.
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Well…this wont be long now,
but I promise to write more once I wake up a little more and get adjusted again.

Appreciate you guys….thanks for following this all these months.
It was never my goal, or even expectation that so many would follow my time in Iraq, but Im grateful to have been able to share my experience with so many of you….so thanks :)

Joshua

This is it.
I’m about to walk out the door of this hotel lobby and board my train for the airport.
There are so many things I need to write about still….its crazy how time escapes.
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Though this is my last day overseas, I’ll still write in this blog.
Its the end of my physical presence here, but not the end of my learning, we havent even begun to have some time alone to think back on it all.
I think the lessons learned in that…in taking intentional time to look back on my time will be a powerful teacher. I feel I will learn a great deal from it.
Please keep reading this though, even after today is finished.
I have many people to thank….many more things I would be wrong in not saying….so even though I’ll be back in America…please give me a few more days at least :)

I need to leave now.
I should make it back to the States around 11:30 tonight (Wednesday), flying into Providence, RI.
Again….thanks for reading this blog all this time.
It was the greatest encouragement knowing I had people back home (…and thanks to Google Analytics, 19 other countires!) following my time. I owe you a big thanks friends.

So…..
Goodbye from Istanbul. :)

Tonight, I’m back to the same hotel I spent my first night ever overseas.
Its fitting.
and I like it this way.
The same roof I went to to think and to pray about the trip to Iraq I was about to take…
is the same one I go to now to stop, be alone, and reflect back on my past months there.
I’m glad its ending this way…

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I dont have an adapter to charge my laptop here, so this will be pretty brief and my photos unedited. I just wanted to show you that I’m alive, and I’m well - with some Turkish pride for you…

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It was a hard day….
I watched two Iraqi mothers, holding babies with healed hearts board a plane.
I gave hugs to the two little girls who have won my heart.
I watched as they were helped on the plane by the two men I have worked with very day for the past five months.
Its strage.
and it was hard to see them leave.
I’ve known we were separating, but to actually watch them walk away was rough….

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So…
Tonights my last night overseas.
After months of living life in Iraq, tomorrow it finishes.
Tomorrow night, Im back to my little Connecticut town, back to my mother and my father, back to American food, English language, and the people I have known my whole life.
It would be wrong to say Im not excited…..
but its also a little sobering, i guess.
Ive grown used to living outside of America…..grown used to this non-American culture.
So to return to it now……well, its just a weird feeling.
It was hard saying goodbye today.
The moms, babies, Jeremy and Awara boarded their plane back to Iraq today, while I took the train back to this hotel.
The hotel I came to a few months earlier, not knowing what the near future would hold for me.
…

It was a nice day today…..I spent most of it walking around this beautiful city….then got tired and felt like an old man as I ate chesnuts from the street vendors and sat watching the water.
I took a nap back in the hotel room when the rain started, then walked around tonight, seeing some of Istanbuls gems.

Dont have time to edit sorry….but here’s what I was looking at.


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I need to finish up to save my batteries, just in case anything goes wrong tomorrow on the way home (like it did on the way here).
I’ll write more tomorrow morning before I leave….

But for the last time in a foreign land….goodnight friends.
Appreciate you :)