Hello all! I finally figured out how to make albums, although it's frustrating so I won't be doing it all that often. There is too much to tell, and new things are happening constantly so, in order to not get behind, I'm going to give the highlights of my excursions, and hope that some of my favorite photos help elaborate on how wonderful it was.
Gaziantep: A wonderful town known for it's pistachio production (we had coffee made with pistachio grinds it was the most unique thing I've ever tasted). It was a beautiful artisan town (metal workers, carpenters, the best bazaar I've seen thus far) near the Syrian boarder, so it was fairly warm and dry, which was very nice. It is also known for the Gaziantep Castle, which I cared significantly less about than the dried figs and turkish delight.
Antakya: People say, "after Jerusalem, there was Antakya" because that is where the first churches were built (St. Peter's Church, the very first, is pictured below) and essentially where Christianity took shape. Antakya is a place where, although it is 99 percent Muslim, different religious groups live in harmony. Janpiyer (pronounces like the French Jean Pierre) was a local 17 year old student who showed us around town and hung out with our group. The town reminded me so much of Stone Town in Zanzibar, I was glad to have a local leading us down the narrow alley ways. He came out with us later to dinner and a hookah bar, where he coined these phrases:
"my love is Ke$ha"
"You are drink vodka? I am drink lion's milk."
"Beer is for children."
"What's your purpose?"
Janpiyer participates in an interfaith chorus group, so he sort of embodied the accepting, peaceful spirit of Antakya. Although it's the birthplace of Christianity, only about 1,200 Christians remain in the area. 80 of which are Catholics, though many more attend Catholic church services because Orthodox services are performed in Arabic. The Orthodox Priest told us that he doesn't like the word "tolerate" and that people should embrace one another, instead of just tolerating each other. He thinks that to judge another person for their religion or for anything else that they were born as is to judge their creator.
Our last stop was the local synagogue, which was almost 200 years old. There are only 12 Jewish families left in Antakya and the rabbi flies in from Istanbul once a week, but that single synagogue has five Torah scrolls, all ranging from 300 to 400 years old.
We saw other things in Antakya - Roman ruins, Turkey's equivalent of a Rosetta stone, and a beautiful mosaic museum, but the par that stuck with me the most was our experiences with the religious leaders in the community. And the lunch the Janpiyer's mother made for us. Unreal.
Cappadocia: I'm so glad we finished off our trip here, in a cave hotel looking over the valleys and mountains in the distance. The natural beauty there was unmatched by anything I've ever seen. Our guide, Sevim, took us on a whirlwind tour of Cappadocia, but it was nice to be there (in spite of the snow) during the off season. We went to Red Valley, Monk's Valley, Imagination Valley, the Goreme open air museum (essentially a ton of churches carved into rock), an underground city, and we saw carpet weavers, ceramic workers, and the whirling dervishes, which is a whole separate emotional experience unto itself.
Here is the link to the slideshow of pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/112452655084581483071/Excursion1?authkey=Gv1sRgCOyS7IydxaatTA#slideshow/5575837383425353186
I will write more about Istanbul as soon as I get the chance! First day of classes tomorrow (which could be a problem because I am only officially signed up for one course, and it's graduate level), so wish me luck! Ciao :)
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The face that launched 1,000 ships
Gaziantep, Turkey. Approximately 25 kilometers from the Syrian boarder.
I just got back from a week long excursion sans internet. I don't even know how to begin organizing my thoughts, let alone my photos, but I thought I would start with my favorite. Enjoy.
I just got back from a week long excursion sans internet. I don't even know how to begin organizing my thoughts, let alone my photos, but I thought I would start with my favorite. Enjoy.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
much too much
My mom's worst nightmare may be coming true. She was scared that I would never leave Istanbul. It's quite, quite possible. I've only been here for a little over a day and there is already much to much to tell.
After what turned into a 26 hour traveling ordeal thanks to the lovely people at O'hare, including 4 airplane meals, 10 euros spent on airport internet access, and an adorable elderly Italian gentleman dropping two suitcases on my head while trying to lift them into the over(my)head bin with his less-than-toned arms, I arrived in Istanbul at 11pm on Sunday. I went straight to the dorm (which is bigger than my apartment in Michigan, minus the single bedroom that is made in a cruise ship fashion). Here are some updates in the best way that I can organize my thoughts right now:
1) My roommates are great. I have three total. One Turkish girl I have yet to meet. One Turkish girl from the Netherlands. And one American girl from Hawaii/WashU/my Duke program.
2) My sheets are not so great. They provided us with sheets that can only be described as straight up tarp. Like, the kind you lay on the ground before you put your sleeping bag down when camping. The bag says 'cotton' but it's discouraging when I can hear my roommate turn over in her bed in the next room because of the 'swishing' sounds. And when my bedspread repeatedly slides off onto the floor during the night in one swift motion do to its incredibly waxy surface. Nonetheless, things are good in the dorm.
3) Amongst the important things I remembered to bring (a bathing suit, a lint roller, goldfish) I forgot my contact case and solution. The food here is cheap and incredible (8 or 9 lira for a kabob with rice and salad and pita/naan like bread with about 1.5 lira to 1 dollar, plus the chai and bottled water are complementary), but everything else is expensive. Therefore, my contact solution was near 20 U.S. dollars... not ideal. And last night, at a club, a bartender tried to sell us a bottle of Absolut for 200 lira...HA! This is what it would cost to live in an Istanbul apartment for a month, to put things into perspective.
4) Ataturk is everywhere. Statues everywhere.
5) The walk to the university is UNREAL. Overlooking the Bosphorus. And it was sunny and warm here during the day so I didn't even have to wear a jacket. (pictures below)
6) Stray animals everywhere, and they flock to our group. Stray cats chill in classes with you and the teachers don't care. I named one dog Mr. Bojangles and another Norbit (Melissa - he is a white version of Jersey, aka his legs are shorter than the length of his head).
7) I'm walking so much my ass might actually be falling off (not the worst thing that could happen, I can't lie). Yesterday we walked to Bebek, the area down the hill from Bogazici's campus by the water with nice shops, hookah bars, bakeries, etc. The roads were so steep we had to lean back as we walked down and the way back up was quite the shlep. We were all sweating, had taken our coats off, and were panting heavily as we attempted to make our way to the top of the hill (not without stopping a few times to rest of course). Needless to say we burned off the pistachio baklava we had just purchased. Tourists typically take cabs up the hill, but some said they saw old men with canes and mother's pushing their children in strollers up the hill faster than them, so it's obviously something the locals master.
8) I almost died last night in a cab ride. It was like Fast and Furious (if Vin Diesel had been 75 years old). This man had NO FEAR people. No. Fear. We went over a city speed bump at 70 mph and literally all flew off of our seats. Apparently this is normal behavior.
9) We have been doing a lot of wandering aimlessly. I can't wait until we know our way around, or know enough Turkish to find our way anywhere. That's another thing, many people in the city don't speak english well. And they only seem more confused when we butcher simple conversational phrases as to why we would attempt Turkish. The people seem wonderful though. They come off kind of harsh, as all Eastern Europeans can if you ask me, but mostly they just don't want to be embarrassed if they speak english poorly, which is only all the more adorable. Besides that though some people definitely just think we're obnoxious, as they should. As they should.
10) Never say never. Youtube works here. My month of what I assumed to be justified video streaming was laid to waste.
11) I HEARD THE BELGIAN SONG that I posted at a Turkish club. Everyone on my program thought I was strange for knowing it.
Here are a few pictures I shot quickly on my way to and from campus today. Not the best but I just wanted to upload something so you could get the general idea!
Sorry if this was boring, I love and miss everyone back home. Soon I will tell you about today's orientation, which was unlike anything I've ever seen... Also, if anyone knows how to make a slideshow on blogs so I can stop looking like an idiot please let me know!
After what turned into a 26 hour traveling ordeal thanks to the lovely people at O'hare, including 4 airplane meals, 10 euros spent on airport internet access, and an adorable elderly Italian gentleman dropping two suitcases on my head while trying to lift them into the over(my)head bin with his less-than-toned arms, I arrived in Istanbul at 11pm on Sunday. I went straight to the dorm (which is bigger than my apartment in Michigan, minus the single bedroom that is made in a cruise ship fashion). Here are some updates in the best way that I can organize my thoughts right now:
1) My roommates are great. I have three total. One Turkish girl I have yet to meet. One Turkish girl from the Netherlands. And one American girl from Hawaii/WashU/my Duke program.
2) My sheets are not so great. They provided us with sheets that can only be described as straight up tarp. Like, the kind you lay on the ground before you put your sleeping bag down when camping. The bag says 'cotton' but it's discouraging when I can hear my roommate turn over in her bed in the next room because of the 'swishing' sounds. And when my bedspread repeatedly slides off onto the floor during the night in one swift motion do to its incredibly waxy surface. Nonetheless, things are good in the dorm.
3) Amongst the important things I remembered to bring (a bathing suit, a lint roller, goldfish) I forgot my contact case and solution. The food here is cheap and incredible (8 or 9 lira for a kabob with rice and salad and pita/naan like bread with about 1.5 lira to 1 dollar, plus the chai and bottled water are complementary), but everything else is expensive. Therefore, my contact solution was near 20 U.S. dollars... not ideal. And last night, at a club, a bartender tried to sell us a bottle of Absolut for 200 lira...HA! This is what it would cost to live in an Istanbul apartment for a month, to put things into perspective.
4) Ataturk is everywhere. Statues everywhere.
5) The walk to the university is UNREAL. Overlooking the Bosphorus. And it was sunny and warm here during the day so I didn't even have to wear a jacket. (pictures below)
6) Stray animals everywhere, and they flock to our group. Stray cats chill in classes with you and the teachers don't care. I named one dog Mr. Bojangles and another Norbit (Melissa - he is a white version of Jersey, aka his legs are shorter than the length of his head).
7) I'm walking so much my ass might actually be falling off (not the worst thing that could happen, I can't lie). Yesterday we walked to Bebek, the area down the hill from Bogazici's campus by the water with nice shops, hookah bars, bakeries, etc. The roads were so steep we had to lean back as we walked down and the way back up was quite the shlep. We were all sweating, had taken our coats off, and were panting heavily as we attempted to make our way to the top of the hill (not without stopping a few times to rest of course). Needless to say we burned off the pistachio baklava we had just purchased. Tourists typically take cabs up the hill, but some said they saw old men with canes and mother's pushing their children in strollers up the hill faster than them, so it's obviously something the locals master.
8) I almost died last night in a cab ride. It was like Fast and Furious (if Vin Diesel had been 75 years old). This man had NO FEAR people. No. Fear. We went over a city speed bump at 70 mph and literally all flew off of our seats. Apparently this is normal behavior.
9) We have been doing a lot of wandering aimlessly. I can't wait until we know our way around, or know enough Turkish to find our way anywhere. That's another thing, many people in the city don't speak english well. And they only seem more confused when we butcher simple conversational phrases as to why we would attempt Turkish. The people seem wonderful though. They come off kind of harsh, as all Eastern Europeans can if you ask me, but mostly they just don't want to be embarrassed if they speak english poorly, which is only all the more adorable. Besides that though some people definitely just think we're obnoxious, as they should. As they should.
10) Never say never. Youtube works here. My month of what I assumed to be justified video streaming was laid to waste.
11) I HEARD THE BELGIAN SONG that I posted at a Turkish club. Everyone on my program thought I was strange for knowing it.
Here are a few pictures I shot quickly on my way to and from campus today. Not the best but I just wanted to upload something so you could get the general idea!
Sorry if this was boring, I love and miss everyone back home. Soon I will tell you about today's orientation, which was unlike anything I've ever seen... Also, if anyone knows how to make a slideshow on blogs so I can stop looking like an idiot please let me know!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
A jet plane and a big idea
For my last post in the states, here are my final internet farewells. My favorite 'bits', if you will. Nothing can top the original Ode to Youtube, but I will genuinely miss these clips that bring me so much comfort.
1) Dave
2) Ellen
3) Dane (I don't normally like him, but this is too good)
4) Wanda
5) Jafar.....
There you have it folks. The next time I write to you I will be in Turkey. I'm still planning a trip to Cairo as well, because you can't let the man keep you down ;) <-- just kidding mom
Off to pack! Although Erica tells me, "don't pack too much, buy it there. Everything is better in Turkey."
Ciao for now. As Penny Lane would say, it's all happening.
1) Dave
2) Ellen
3) Dane (I don't normally like him, but this is too good)
4) Wanda
5) Jafar.....
There you have it folks. The next time I write to you I will be in Turkey. I'm still planning a trip to Cairo as well, because you can't let the man keep you down ;) <-- just kidding mom
Off to pack! Although Erica tells me, "don't pack too much, buy it there. Everything is better in Turkey."
Ciao for now. As Penny Lane would say, it's all happening.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Bits of Ann Arbor Winter
Until August, farewell Second Home.
Ann Arbor Folk Fest January 2011
Susan Werner (mc)/The Avett Brothers/Citizen Cope/Vienna Teng with Alex Wong/The Spring Standards/The Paper Raincoat/Anais Mitchell/Theo Katzman/Newfound Road/The Doyle and Debbie Show/Eilen Jewell /Kaplansky/Red horse ft. Eliza Gilkyson /Mavis Staples/Judy Collins/The Swell Season
Ann Arbor Folk Fest January 2011
Susan Werner (mc)/The Avett Brothers/Citizen Cope/Vienna Teng with Alex Wong/The Spring Standards/The Paper Raincoat/Anais Mitchell/Theo Katzman/Newfound Road/The Doyle and Debbie Show/Eilen Jewell /Kaplansky/Red horse ft. Eliza Gilkyson /Mavis Staples/Judy Collins/The Swell Season
The Whole Shebang
Make for yourself a world you can believe in. It sounds simple, I know. But it’s not. Listen, there are a million worlds you could make for yourself. Everyone you know has a completely different one - the woman in 5G, that cab driver over there, you. Sure, there are overlaps, but only in the details. Some people make their worlds around what they think reality is like. They convince themselves that they had nothing to do with their worlds’ creations and continuations. Some make their worlds without knowing it. Their universes are just sesame seeds and three-day weekends and dial tones and skinned knees and physics and driftwood and emerald earrings and books dropped in bathtubs and holes in guitars and plastic and empathy and hardwood and heavy water and high black stockings and the history of the Vikings and brass and obsolescence and burnt hair and collapsed soufflés and the impossibility of not falling in love in an art museum with the person standing next to you looking at the same painting and all the other things that just happen and are. But you want to make for yourself a world that is deliberately and meticulously personalized. A theater for your life, if I could put it like that. Don’t live an accident. Don’t call a knife a knife. Live a life that has never been lived before, in which everything you experience is yours and only yours. Make accidents on purpose. Call a knife a name by which only you will recognize it.
Now I’m not a very smart man, but I’m not a dumb one, either. So listen: If you can manage what I’ve told you, as I was never able to, you will give your life meaning.
- Jonathan Safran Foer, "A Convergence of Birds"
Now I’m not a very smart man, but I’m not a dumb one, either. So listen: If you can manage what I’ve told you, as I was never able to, you will give your life meaning.
- Jonathan Safran Foer, "A Convergence of Birds"
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Ode to Youtube: Part III (the plot thickens...)
I can't stop watching this old music video from Belgium. Remember the Turkish fashion blog I mentioned before? Well, the girl in charge posted this and it's strangely addictive (be warned). But also, how did the Turkish girl post a youtube video if youtube is banned? Hmmm.... There could be hope yet...
Since most of the songs I listened to as a child are on Billy Joel's greatest hits album, I'll let you listen to those gems on your own. Instead, here are some great Liz moments. Because I want to be Tina Fey.
1) Liz knows Jerry
2) Liz knows Family
3) Liz knows Dance
4) Liz knows Sex
5) Liz knows Food
6) Liz knows Beauty
7) Liz knows the truth (for Erica)
8) Liz knows Fitness
9) Liz knows Men
10) Liz knows Greatness
Does anyone like this show as much as me?
Since most of the songs I listened to as a child are on Billy Joel's greatest hits album, I'll let you listen to those gems on your own. Instead, here are some great Liz moments. Because I want to be Tina Fey.
1) Liz knows Jerry
2) Liz knows Family
3) Liz knows Dance
4) Liz knows Sex
5) Liz knows Food
6) Liz knows Beauty
7) Liz knows the truth (for Erica)
8) Liz knows Fitness
9) Liz knows Men
10) Liz knows Greatness
Does anyone like this show as much as me?
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