Some final thoughts

After almost two months in Turkey, I am back in America and have been for the past eight days. The journey back took over 24hrs and for the most part was uneventful, except for almost missing the final boarding call in Istanbul because we were playing Euchre. The plane ride went surprisingly fast and was really nice. We got two meals, free drinks, and I watched three movies. Once we landed on American soil, we quickly picked up our luggage and went through customs. I was then greeted by my wonderful family. We all went to see where Garrett lives and spent about an hour in Chicago. I am still adjusting to the time difference and feel like such an old person going to bed early all the time and falling asleep while watching movies in the theater. Sorry Jana, I'll try to stay awake next time!

I have been meaning to post this list for a while but for one reason or another I haven't. Here are a few bullet points about the many things I noticed while living in Turkey (don't be too disappointed as my observations are pretty basic and of little importance to most).

• Backgammon is a very popular game, many people play while they are at restaurants or just hanging out and drinking tea. I learned how to play and enjoy it so feel free to challenge me (even though I’m not that good).
• Movie theaters had assigned seats and there was an intermission. The intermission was nice because you could stretch your legs, go to the bathroom, or get more snacks. At the same time it was annoying because it didn’t matter what was happening in the movie, like a fight scene in Batman, the intermission would interrupt it.
• Turks smoke like chimneys: men, women, young, and old.
• There was hardly any concept of a line. When purchasing food or drinks at the café in the university (or anywhere for that matter) we were constantly cut (or what we perceived as being cut) by Turkish students/citizens. The same thing happened when getting on the bus and tram.
• There was a NATO airbase nearby our apartment so we were constantly interrupted by low flying jets. When they flew overhead all conversation had to stop, no matter how much you tried to yell. After awhile it became quite comical because it always happened during the critical parts of conversations.
• They don’t put sauce on pizza, which was a huge disappointment when we ate at Pizza Hut (definitely better in America).
• Fountain drinks (although rare to find) are served without ice cubes.
• Water in restaurants was not free and came in bottles, so no free refills either.
• There is a belief that cold foods (like ice cream) can make you more susceptible to getting sore throats and colds. In order to counteract these effects, they drink warm water, tea, or coffee afterward.
• While driving people constantly honked their horn. At first it seemed to be for no reason, but after awhile, I realized that they did this to warn other drivers when they were in their blind spot, passing them, approaching an intersection, or a number of other reasons.
• In an earlier blog post, I think I mentioned how chaotic the traffic was, however, I never saw an accident the entire two months. There must be some order to the chaos.
• It is customary to leave your tray on the table when eating in the mall food court or at fast food restaurants.
• French fries were served with both ketchup and mayonnaise, it was awesome!
• They call large shoes “baby graves.”
• Some people had a hard time pronouncing ‘Ross,’ I thought it was funny and actually made me feel good since I had a hard time pronouncing some of their names.
• Being from America, people thought it was strange that we actually wanted to go to Turkey. They didn’t understand why we would leave a county that has “everything."
• Time never seemed to be an issue or of any real importance. The buses didn’t have a set schedule (or at least didn’t follow it if they had one), classes started around the posted starting time (many were postponed to allow people to eat breakfast or lunch), lunch breaks were 1.5 hours, etc.
• There is no word for “I’m sorry,” they typically just forget about it and move on.
• Everyone, particularly women, seemed to be really into fashion and were always dressed presentably. That’s right, no sweatpants, sweatshirts, leggings, gym shorts, or “workout clothes” unless actually working out (which hardly anyone seemed to do).
• Running was uncommon. I think the only people that did, were MSU students, and when they did, they were gawked at by the locals.
• There were toothpicks on every table at every restaurant and dining location.
• American music was played everywhere. In stores, restaurants, bars/clubs, etc.
• Many mannequins had nipples and at least one had areolas. Quite an unusual sight.
• The word turquoise comes from a French word meaning “Turkish stone.”
• There was far less personal space. People were not hesitant to sit next to you on the bus and would sometimes even pass up an open seat to sit next to a stranger (weird I know). Here, we try to avoid sitting next to people at all costs and will even go out of our way to do so.
• Grades were posted with students names next to their corresponding grade. This was extremely surprising at first and is a stark contrast to America, where student's privacy is highly protected by numerous laws and FERPA. I wish I would have asked how students felt about this and whether it makes them work harder to avoid embarrassment or if it has no effect at all.

I cannot reiterate it enough; Turkey is an extremely beautiful country with amazing, friendly people. It is beyond me (except for maybe lack of knowledge and misconceptions) why more people (Americans) do not travel to/vacation in/visit Turkey. I would encourage anyone who is planning a trip to Europe or that part of the world to consider making a stop in Turkey, even if it is only for a short amount of time. Turkey is rich in culture, both religious and historical, and has beautiful beaches, bustling cities, and ancient ruins. Not to mention great food, weather, and people. I am glad that I was able to have such a wonderful trip, with a great group from MSU and amazing hosts! I cannot thank all of our Turkish friends enough for being so helpful and friendly! One day when you come to America, we will return the favor.

I guess this is the end of my blog. I am not a writer nor a blogger, but hope that my posts have been interesting and insightful to read. At the very least, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Thank you!

Cappa Cappa Docia

This past weekend we took our last trip of our seven week study abroad to Cappadocia, Turkey. Cappadocia means ‘land of the beautiful horses’ of which we saw none. However, we did see four camels! They weren’t wild or anything and were used for tourist attractions to make money, but still, we were all told there are ‘No Camels in Turkey.’ Overall, it was a nice trip and we saw many different geological formations, cave dwellings, and traditional Turkish terracotta making, stone carving, and dancing.

Early Saturday morning we met our tour guide in Cappadocia at the sight of some fairy chimneys, formed from millions of years of erosion and volcanic activity, and old monk dwellings. Again this time the guide was better than the one from Istanbul. Ironically, we saw the guide from Istanbul at our first site. It was a little awkward since when we left him in Istanbul he pretty much said he hoped to never see us again. I guess I can’t blame him since we were falling asleep when he was talking and acting very disinterested (in our defense it was hot, we were tired, he talked very slowly and constantly repeated himself), but I digress. Unfortunately, all of the places we went to in Cappadocia have blended together and I can’t recall the chronological order of when and where we went, but we did visit many places including: Göreme Open Air Museum, pigeon valley, Üçhisar Castle, Turasan Wine Factory, Pot & Carpet Atelier, Onyx Plant, Kaymaklı Underground City, and Ihlara Valley among others. In all of the places we went there were many pigeon holes carved into the rocks that are used to harvest the pigeon droppings used as a fertilizer for the grape vines. Our guide was telling us that it sells for $12-15 per kilo! Time to invest!

One of the more interesting things we did was visiting the Onyx factory where we were given a demonstration on how they carve onyx into different figures, pots, and jewelry. Another was visiting a traditional Turkish pottery place where they mold, stencil, and paint terracotta pottery all done by hand. We were given a demonstration about how they make the pottery and Sean and Qianqian got to try it out. We also got to see some traditional Turkish dancing on Saturday night. During the belly dancing performance, the dancer brought some people from the audience on stage to ‘teach’ them how to belly dance but much to her surprise there was one Asian guy who was able to do the splits and every other acrobatic move that she did. It was pretty impressive to say the least and very funny. We also visited the Kaymakli Underground City in Cappadocia that is seven floors deep, although we were only allowed to go down to the fourth floor due to the risk of collapse in the lower floors. I guess there are over 200 of these cities in Cappadocia and it is thought that they were used by the Christians and other people to escape persecution from incoming civilizations. Our guide told us that they could live underground for up to three months!

Here are some pictures of where we went and what we saw:

One of the four REAL camels we saw (it's tied up).

Some fairy chimneys, kind of cool how they were formed.

Vince destroying nature, not really, but seriously, the rocks were very soft and you could easily carve them with your fingernail.

This place was called imagination valley. Can you see the camel?

They start out doing this...

...and end up making these.

Some dwellings carved into the rocks.

Traditional Turkish dancing.

A mosque (it was next to a chapel, crazy how Muslims and Christians can get along).

Some more dwelling places.

Mike taking a picture of me taking a picture of him in the underground city of Kaymakli (this was one of the bigger tunnels).

Ihlara Valley, the Grand Canyon on anti-steroids.

In other news, to catch everyone up to speed on what has happened over the past week or so:

• Last Thursday, Alex, Caroline, Qianqian, and I were interviewed about our study abroad experience. They asked us typical questions like “why did you choose to come to Turkey and Anadolu University,” “what do you like/dislike about the city of Eskisehir and Anadolu,” “what are some similarities between MSU and Anadolu,” etc. The cool part is that I guess our interview is going to be broadcast on Turkish National Television tonight at 6:45. Hopefully it turned out okay!
• On Friday, a majority of us went to the water park that is on the outskirts of Eskisehir. It was very similar to an American water park, just with slightly less rules.
• This week we all have our final exams. Mine are on Wednesday and Thursday and on Saturday I leave Turkey and will be back in America!

Drinking Efes in Efes

This past weekend’s trip was to Ephesus (or Efes or Seljuk, they are all interchangeable...I think). It was a combination of thousands of years of history, like Istanbul, and beautiful beaches and sea, like Olympos. That being said this is going to be a long post…sorry.

We again left Eskisehir on Thursday night, arriving in Ephesus on Friday morning. Much to everyone’s surprise (and possible dismay) we did not arrive at the hotel, but rather, the Ancient City of Ephesus where our guide was waiting for us to begin our daylong tour. He was an interesting guide with a loud voice and a wealth of knowledge which made him much easier to listen to and more enjoyable than the guide from Istanbul. The ancient city was very cool with all of its ruins including the Library of Celsus, the Great Theatre, ancient temples, and many other buildings. I thought it was interesting that the city was once a harbor town with the sea only a few hundred meters away but was abandoned when a nearby river, feeding into the sea, deposited sediment causing the sea to recede to a couple kilometers away. Another interesting thing was that the city used to be completely covered with soil and was only discovered during the construction of the railroad. Had it not been for the few railroad workers that found the pieces of marble/granite this city may still be underground and lost forever…or at least until someone else started to dig. Today, roughly only 25% of the ancient city has been unearthed and will take an estimated 100 years to unearth the rest.

The Great Theatre

Library of Celsus

Stone carving of the goddess Nike. The Nike swoosh was created to resemble the shape of this stone.

Ancient toilets!

Some cool pillars

After spending the morning in the ancient city, we recovered with a nice Turkish buffet. We then went to the Temple of Artemis, which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Unfortunately, all that stands today is the one of the pillars that archeologists reconstructed to show the height that the temple once stood.

Temple of Artemis

Upon leaving the temple, we went to the cave where the Seven Sleepers resided for hundreds of years to escape religious persecution. I guess this story is referenced in both the Bible and the Qur’an along with many other accounts of what happened.

Cave of the Seven Sleepers

We then took the bus up the Bulbul Mountain to the House of the Virgin Mary. This is the place where Saint John took the Virgin Mary to live (and eventually die) after Jesus’ death. It is believed that she is buried under the house and is one of the places of pilgrimage for Christians. Something that I didn’t know was that the Virgin Mary is a common link between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Interestingly enough, our guide told us that she is mentioned more times in the Qur’an than in the Bible.

Statue of the Virgin Mary

The house that Mary is buried under

After a long day of sightseeing our tour guide had a surprise for us...and a surprise it was. He took us to a leather coat fashion show. We were the only people at the fashion show so it was kind of awkward but a great experience nonetheless. Caroline, Vince, and Ryan were even pulled on the runway to model some coats too! The owner of the shop then gave us a short tutorial on the types of leather products they make and sell and how to tell the difference between lamb and sheep skin leather. This was a full day of sight-seeing so it was nice to finally get to the hotel which was located right on the Aegean Sea, had a rooftop pool, and was all inclusive!

Vince doing his model thing

View of the rooftop pool and beyond

The Aegean Sea from our hotel rooftop

The second day of our trip took us to the Ephesus Archeological Museum which houses many of the artifacts from the excavations of the ancient city.

We then had another surprise stop, but this time it was to a local carpet maker. We were shown how they hand spin the silk from the mulberry silkworm larvae cocoons (caterpillar cocoons), how they make the carpets by hand knotting each individual strand, the difference between a Turkish and Chinese carpet, and a lot of other interesting information about carpets (like the best way to clean one is with Ivory soap and cold water and that the average lifespan of a Turkish carpet is three generations). They served us drinks (tea, coffee, beer, and wine) and was a very enjoyable experience. I will definitely be investing in a Turkish carpet later in life!

Picking up the cocoons to hand-spin the silk...

...to hand knot the carpet...

...eventually making these.

Then we walked to the Basilica of Saint John, where Saint John is buried. Not only did he bring the Virgin Mary to Ephesus but he also helped to convert many of its citizens (eventually all of them) to Christianity. They started a new city of Ephesus with the city center being the Basilica of Saint John. Next to the Basilica is the Isa Bey Mosque which is one of the oldest and most beautiful mosques in that area.

Saint John is buried under these four pillars.

Isa Bey Mosque

After another buffet style lunch we went to the Şirince Wine Village. The name Sirince mean "pretty" but previous to this name the city was called Cirkince meaning "ugly" in order to keep the inhabitants from being bothered by foreigners and sharing the village's beauty. Here we got to taste test nine or ten different types of wine and enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of the village. One of the local artisans even crafted most of the jewelry worn in the movie Troy.

With the end of day two, we have the beginning of day three and the trip back to Eskisehir. We left Ephesus around 10am and headed for Pamukkale and Hierapolis Ancient City. Pamukkale in Turkish means “cotton castle” which is exactly what it looks like. The whole place is covered in white, calcium carbonate deposits which harden into travertine. Hierapolis means “Holy City” and is situated just above Pamukkale for its abundant supply of water and hot springs.

If you are reading this, you made it! Thank you for your dedication and I commend your effort! Our last trip is to Cappadocia this upcoming weekend and I am expecting another amazing trip, possibly one that outdoes them all!

24 Hours in Ankara

This past weekend was our free weekend, nine people went to Ankara, Turkey’s capital city, and six people went camping on a mountain. I was one of the nine to go to Ankara. Fortunately, we had our friend Baris as our tour guide and translator. Ankara is Turkey's second largest city with over 4.5 million people and is very modern. This is how we spent our 24 hours in Ankara.

Leaving on Saturday at 8am, we arrived in Ankara at 9:30 via high speed train (250 km/hr, 155mph) and bus. We ate at a little café and then headed to see Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s tomb. Born Mustafa Kemal, he was given the surname ‘Ataturk’ meaning ‘Father of the Turks’ after becoming Turkey’s first president and leading much reform. Today he is simply known as Ataturk. He is beloved by the people of Turkey and there are pictures/monuments/symbols of him everywhere (in cafeterias, offices, street corners, etc). I guess it is also common for people to have his signature, K. Ataturk, tattooed on their forearm (maybe I’ll get G. Washington or something, I think it’d catch on). I make the comparison to George Washington, but there is really no single person throughout America's history that I can compare to Ataturk. Simply put, he is Turkey. The complex that he is buried in is huge and on the top of a hill, making it visible from all over Ankara.

Flowers in the Ataturk complex

Where he is buried

His tomb

The courtyard

After visiting with Ataturk, we walked down Aşgabat Street (or at least I think that’s the name). This street is full of cafes, shops, and pretty much everything. It is similar to İstiklal Street in Istanbul. We ate some ice cream and then were off to see Atakule Tower. The tower is 125m or 410ft tall and over looks all of Ankara. We were able to bring our lunched to the top of the tower to eat, which was pretty cool. Also, one side of the tower overlooks a military base and the president’s house so you’re not allowed to take pictures from that side, but I think we all managed too anyway.

Ankara has an IMAX theater in one of the malls, so of course we had to see The Dark Night Rises. Like all movies in Turkey, there was an intermission, and it couldn’t have come at a better time during one of the fight scenes. There were also three “power outages” during the movie from the generators failing, where the screen went blank and then the scene had to be replayed. In the end, it took over 3 hours to watch, but it was still worth it.

Before the movie...

After the movie

Later, we met up with some of Baris’ friends who live in Ankara and hung out at their apartment. They were really nice and spoke English well. We hung out until early in the morning, went to a bar until 5am, the bus station at 6am, and finally the train station at 7am. At this point we were all very exhausted and glad to be getting on the train to Eskisehir. The trip was a lot of fun and I’m glad we were able to make it! Our next trip is to Ephesus this weekend, which again, should be another great time.

So much culture!

So last week on Tuesday a few of us met our friend from our class, Hakan, for baklava and dondurma (ice cream for those who have forgotten) at his apartment. To my surprise, we did not eat these foods separately, but rather spread a generous amount of dondurma on top of the baklava and ate it that way. I guess this is the traditional way to eat these foods together. It was unbelievably delicious, but extremely sweet. We also conversed with Hakan, his friend Gulse, and his roommates about Turkish and American culture. They were all very friendly and even made us some Turkish tea to drink while we talked. During the conversation, Gulse asked if we would be interested in attending a Turkish wedding the following night, and of course, we said yes!

The next day we rallied the troops, met Hakan, and headed for the wedding. After about 45 minutes on a tram and then a bus we made it to the wedding. The wedding took place above a supermarket in a pretty elaborate banquet room (I would compare it to Royal Scot, for those who are familiar, but instead of a bowling alley there was a supermarket). We were a little late, but apparently Turkish weddings are similar open houses where people can come and go “freely,” so it wasn’t a big deal. When we got there we met Gulse’s dad who shook all of our hands and walked us into the wedding. Only to reiterate how kind Turkish people are (as if I haven’t done so already), a group of men gave up their table for all (14) of us to sit at when we got there. Then we were all introduced to the groom and brought on to the dance floor to participate in a traditional Turkish dance. After the song was over, they played an “American” song for us to dance to. All of the Turkish kids loved it and started dancing with us. I guess at one point the DJ even announced us as “the groom’s American friends” (or something to that effect, pretty cool!). Everyone at the wedding seemed to enjoy us and we definitely enjoyed them. For a majority of the people there, I think it was their first encounter with Americans, so I hope we made a good impression! We all had a great time and it was interesting to see the similarities and differences between American and Turkish weddings. Here are some things that I noticed:

• The dress was more casual than American weddings with hardly anyone wearing ties or even suit coats for that matter.
• There wasn’t a meal served but just plates of little cookie type things.
• I don’t think there was a wedding party (or at least not an obvious one).
• The wedding cake that the bride and groom “cut” was fake but they had an actual cake to feed each other and the guests.
• Toward the end of the wedding, guests formed a line to give the newly married couple their gifts (as opposed to impersonally putting them on a table).

It is still unbelievable to me that we all went to this wedding and I am very glad we did. I feel that something like this would never happen in the U.S. because we are very inflexible and guided by lists and order. There is no way that an extra 14 people could be invited to a wedding the day before and if they did it would be chaos at the reception. Anyway, I hope that the bride and groom and everyone there had as memorable of a time as I (and I'm sure the rest of us) did.

The venue

Bride and groom

Traditional Turkish dancing

"Cutting" of the fake cake with a sword

Do I need a caption?

Actual cake that was actually delicious

Well, since it is the halfway point of this study abroad, I guess it's a good time to give an update about my classes (that is of course why I am here…right?). Wednesday, I took my first exam in hydrology and I think it went pretty well. We should get the results this next week but nothing on the exam was surprising so that's always a good start. My transportation class is still almost 100% in Turkish. We have an exam next Tuesday (which should be interesting and definitely going to be more difficult than hydrology) and our project is 2/3 done, so that is nice! The project makes me feel like I’m in 2^nd grade because it is a bunch of tracing, measuring, and drawing lines (contours, stations, roads, etc.). It’s not hard just very time consuming. The classes here seem to be progressing at a much slower pace than at MSU. The other day however, I learned that it is hard for the Turkish students to understand the technical words that are presented in English (ie. precipitation, infiltration, etc.). So for them it’s like taking two classes in one because they have to learn a new language on top of the new course material. I could not imagine trying to learn an engineering course in another language, so I commend their effort!

This weekend is our free weekend, so I think some of the people in our group and I are going to go Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It should be a good time so stay posted!