Hotel explodes, many injured, many dead.

Hotel Marino, located on the outskirts of Istanbul, Turkey, exploded last night, causing the collapse of the building. There are 73 dead, 20 missing, and 80 injured.

Officers from the local Police Department are working under the assumption that the explosion was caused by a small gas leak in the kitchen, located in the basement of the hotel. "All of the kitchen staff were killed instantly during the explosion, along with most of the waiters," says Murat Buyrukolu, the man in charge of finding any trapped in the collapsed hotel.

An international school, I--, was having its school retreat at the hotel. There are 5 missing and 29 heavily injured. The search and rescue continues.

The owner of the hotel, Murat Ali, was put in the intensive care unit of a local hospital, along with many of the injured visitors of the hotel. "We will pay for all the medical bills of the injured," the manager of the hotel said.

The hotel had been out-of-date on their safety policies, with the last checkup made 2 years ago. "An incident like this should never have occurred, and hopefully will never occur again" says Doruk Algas, head of the local police department.

Simple school retreat: 20 missing, 80 hurt, 73 dead.

A school retreat results at a explosion of hotel building last night, cased to cave in, resulting in many major injuries of a group of students on a school retreat.

On the outsides of Istanbul, Turkey, a simple school retreat was taking place. "It was our first time at a new location for the retreat. We simply could not fit all the students into the usual camp facility", said Mrs Pamela Sanderlin, student advisor, and a member of the planning committee for the retreat from I--.

The incident, taking place about 11:30PM (local time), resulted in a total 173 victims, including 54 students from I--, 5 of which are missing, and 29 who are heavily injured. "I just wish this incident would never have taken place. All we can do now is sit tight and wait for the best," Mrs Clark, principal of I-- stated.

Local police think it may be the result of a simple leak in the kitchen gas stove. None of the residing kitchen staff survived, along with a few of the waiters at the hotel. "I just wish I had gotten a safety regulations check last year," says Murat Ali, owner of Hotel Marino.

"Suing the hotel will not make this incident just go away", says Michael Lee, Secondary principal of I--, "however, we will require that the hotel take full responsibility and pay all the hospital fees to the cent. We are upset that their negligence could have such devastating effects."

The hotel owner was taken into intensive care right after the incident, but will live. The rest of the hospital bills of the injured will be taken care of by the hotel. "We have great regret that such an incident has occurred," the manager of the hotel said.

Money, the Root of all evil.

As I write this, the thought of being rich really appeals to me. I could do so much with lots and lots of money, but I guess it comes down to a simple question: 'Would I be happy?'

Money can give us so much, but I think it just doesn't fulfull. I've seen families torn apart because the love that was once there, became a lust for wealth, of personal gain, and it really does not appeal to me. I really think the phrase "money is the root of all evil" makes sense, because we just keep on wanting more and more, rather than being satisfied with what we have.

Love on the other hand, would fulfill. Although I wouldn't have money, basically living destitute of anything that one wants, if the love was still there I would be happy. It's because when we don't have money, our true selves seem to come forth, stripped of all the glamourous stuff that seems to characterize who we are. Having someone who really loves me for who I am, rather than who I am trying to be, someone I can talk to, and lean on, would really fulfill.

"True love cannot be found where it does not exist,

Nor can it be hidden where it truely does."

-Unknown

What I would like to be doing in the year 2019, if money and education were not a problem...

Well, this is a really hard question to answer... there are MANY things that I would like to be doing in my future... choosing just one is harder than it looks.

I've been thinking a LOT about what I would be interested in doing. Although I guess I could do a lot of stuff with my life, such as becoming some crazy engineer, I wonder what HE would want me to do. I really think that I should do something that HE wants, not something that I want, because what he has in store for me is so much better.

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about medicine. I do like math a lot, but whenever I ask myself "what is the best possible thing that you can do with your life?" it just seems like saving lives... both physically and spiritually. I would probably want to study in the field of medicine, especially surgery. Although some people say surgery is NOT for me (especially after I "took apart" a fish in for biology once), it just intrigues me. It just seems fascinating that people can help others survive, and live on.

After becoming a doctor, which would take me 10 years anyways (so it'd be 2019... or 2020), I want to become a christian worker. I think it is the best I can do, especially if I want to save lives, especially spiritually.

Hmm... I guess we'll see in 10 years :P