Christmas Time in Turkey

Well folks, it's been a while. Last time I posted it was just before Thanksgiving and now it's just before Christmas--what to do, I'm just not a very consistent blogger!

However, while blogging has been on hold, life has continued. Since I last posted, Amasya witnessed one awesome Thanksgiving blow-out, we had two official-ish visits from Fulbright people, and I went to Konya (not in that order, mind you). Add to that I had my first official sick day (two of them, in fact). Life has been full.

Let's talk about getting sick in Turkey--it's pretty much like getting sick in America, except maybe a little more glamorous and a lot more mysterious. I ended up with this weird virus that turned out to be pretty uncomfortable, considering the stomach problems, the killer headache and what turned out to be possibly the worse chills/fever of my life. Thankfully it swept in and swept out about as quickly--36 hours later and I'm pretty much back to my usual self, just in time for...

...Christmas in Istanbul! Friday morning--at an ungodly hour--I'm flying from Amasya to Istanbul and starting what I hope will be an epic Christmas weekend in good 'ol Constantinople. As many people have commented of late, it's going to be tough spending Christmas away from friends and especially family in America--no christmas cookie baking with Mom, no present wrapping, no tamales (perhaps the worst deprivation), and no caroling with the fam on Christmas Eve. Sigh. It's going to be tough, especially Christmas Eve when the entire Martinec Clan (mom's side of the family) gets together and yours truly is absent for the first time in...since birth. That's a surreal thought--unless my parents are hiding something, I've spent every Christmas Eve that I've been alive at my grandma's house, with the exception of this year. Wow. Anyway, hopefully I can find something to make up for it in Istanbul.

I have many things on my to-do list in Istanbul, mostly scout out awesome places to when Catherine and Genevieve come in February, which is going to be awesome. I'm thinking of postponing all the best touristy things until then and using this trip as a casual exploration of Istanbul versus a whirlwind see everything go everywhere trip. Also, I'm going to buy some boots--random tidbit, but I can't find a pair of boots in Amasya that fit. This is a problem. I'm hoping that Istanbul can fix this problem. We'll see.

Let's see-anything else of interest? Life in Amasya continues as usual. The cold weather has eased up a bit, which is nice. It's pretty mild right now, and absolutely comfortable when the sun is shining. You know what's not comfortable? Infatuated students...I would write more but you never know who's watching...

I mean, in general in Amasya I get the feeling that everyone is watching because everyone is watching. I think that pretty much everything I do is monitored to some extent or other. I go somewhere and later find out that one person saw me and asked another person who asked another person and...you get the picture. Basically, I get the feeling that my daily movements are of interest to people, people who sometimes I don't really know at all. Oh well, at least everyone is nice and curious instead of malicious and curious. Nice counts for a lot.

I wish that I could have real themes to my blog entries, but I guess that I post so infrequently that it just doesn't work that way. I just kind of open up a blog window and write everything down without any thought to you, the reader, which makes for really poor rhetoric, which means that maybe I'm not using my college degree very well. Again, sigh.

And on that note, I'm going to sign off. I can't make any promises, but I'm really setting my heart on one more blog post for 2011, so stay tuned. I have a lot of things that I feel I should cover on this blog before the new year begins--kind of a blog ideas cleansing so that I can start afresh (maybe with better blogging habbits) in 2012.

But for now, Happy Holidays to Everyone, whether that means Chanukah or Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Friends,

In America it's Thanksgiving. In Amasya it's just another day (not true, actually--in Amasya it's Teachers' Day, a holiday where you say thank for all that teachers do). Anyway, for my purposes it's just another day. It's kind of weird celebrating a holiday in a country where no one celebrates the holiday because it's hard to be specifically merry and joyful when all around you are just going about their usual business. I think that I felt so much anxiety today about how the day would go that I forgot to stop and give thanks for anything--it's shameful, but true. In the midst of trying so hard to remember what Thanksgiving should feel like (joy? check. unabashed good cheer? check. etc etc etc), I forgot some core aspects of the holiday, like giving thanks. Luckily, I have another two hours to celebrate it on this side of the world, and will mostly likely take advantage of the full day according to Texas time, just so I can get in as much Thanksgiving spirit as possible.

So, what am I thankful for this year? I am thankful for all of the nice people I have met in the last three months who have made my new Turkish life so much easier to live. For example, there are many people who are helping to make our giant Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday a success--I have my eye on using three different ovens Saturday alone! Anyway, Turkey without Turkish friends would be very sad indeed.

I am thankful for old friends in America, particularly those willing to skype and facebook chat at odd hours, or any time at all. Staying in touch with people at home makes it so much easier to live more fully here. Let me explain: it's a lot easier to take things that happen or don't happen with equilibrium when I have a life in America waiting for me.

I'm grateful for my family, especially the 'rents who seem to think I'm great, no matter what I do or how whiny I am on the phone. It's nice to have some kind of fan club, even if it's run by your mom.

I'm grateful for sunny days--we've had a few of those lately in Amasya and it all just makes me so happy. Today really felt like a classic, crisp fall day. Love it!

I'm grateful for all the fresh fruits and vegetables that one can get in Amasya--no joke. Having good produce around always puts a spring in my step. I am especially grateful for recent finds including cilantro AND fresh rosemary. The only thing that would be better is if I found fresh sage for tomorrow's dressing (but we can't have everything, now can we?).

Anyway, I don't usually make these kinds of lists, much less blog about them for my nearest and dearest, but I don't usually spend Thanksgiving in Turkey, so this is obviously a time for atypical occurrences.

So that's all I've got for now. I should go and clean something in preparation for guests tomorrow. Will post soon about the upcoming successes (and failures?) of our gigantic Thanksgiving bash on Saturday.

Thanksgiving to All and to All a Good Night! (I'm just itching for the Christmas season to start)

Well look at that: another post only a day later. BAM! I'm back.

So, at the end of my previous post, I alluded to crazy happenings and good stories from my Kurban Bayram holiday. I thought at first that I would ignore said happenings on this blog, but have been convinced otherwise by my partner in Kurban Bayram Holiday Crime, Carla, to share some stories.

My journey began in Kırrıkale, a city about 1 1/2 from Ankara. Kırrıkale exists...that's about as much as I'm inclined to say about it. I mean, I don't want to knock it too badly because after all, someone out there must love it, but I didn't really find much to interest me. However, I did meet a lot of great people there, and thus will remember it fondly. Life in Amasya is pretty quiet, but life in Kırrıkale is anything but, apparently. In my 48 hours or so there, I saw a lot of stuff happen--went to a lookout point "above" the city at 3 in the morning. Saw some stars. Ate at a Burger King (I've never been to one in America, so it was kind of weird having my first Burger King experience in Turkey). We we

nt to Ankara for half a day and shopped at two HUGE shopping malls that made me feel almost like I was back in America--they had an H&M and a Zaras. Wow. You see, in Amasya I never ever have moments where I just stop and think: "wow, it's almost like I'm back in America." It's just not possible--there are no spaces (restaurants, shops, walkways) that feel like any place but Turkey. Being in Ankara I definitely got that feeling, and it was both alien and comforting. Living abroad can be a real kick in the pants sometimes, so it's nice every once in awhile to have a little slice of America. But, after a day spent shopping, I was ready to return to real Turkey (whatever that means).

After Kırrıkale we continued on to Kapadokya, where we met many Fulbright friends. It was great. We stayed in a very touristy, but interesting, town c

alled Göreme. It has lots of caves and cool rock formations. Here's a pic:

So...in Göreme, we discovered that there is a lot of Marijuana in Kapadokya--who knew? We met these two guys, one of whom turned out to be a bit of a creeper in my opinion and the other who I really don't have an opinion about at all--anyway, they just lit up a joint, right in front of us, and were like, "yeah, lot's of tourists just come here for the marijuana." Go figure. They also said that there are really so few police in the area that the ones who are there don't really care if you smoke it, as long as you don't sell it. Anyway, just to be perfectly clear, I have never and will never smoke marijuana, but it was just such a bizarre experience I had to write about it. Other crazy things happened, like aforementioned creeper saying wildly inappropriate things. I won't go into details, but I will say that though many things are often lost in translation, skease is not--it always comes out loud and clear. Though not all Turkish men are skeasy--many of them are not--many of them are and I feel like I met most of the skeasy ones over this holiday, my first time acting as a real tourist in Turkey. All of have to say to the lady travelers out there is watch yourself because they see that you are foreign and they jump to all kinds of conclusions.

Anyway, apart from some uncomfortable social situations, Göreme and Kapadokya was really really nice. It was great to get away from my daily routine and be with a larger group of Americans--it was really nice to complain together and laugh together and everything else together. However, being away from Amasya also showed me how must I really like Amasya--after a few days I really began to miss my life here, which is an excellent sign, in my opinion.

After our sojourn in Kapadokya, we went on to Antalya, which was warmer and sunnier and just altogether nice. Antalya is on the southern coast of Turkey, right on the Mediterranean. It is beautiful, really beautiful. I actually was not that impressed by the city itself--it just kind of felt like another big city, and it was hard to escape the touristy spots, but the scenery made up for anything that the city itself lacked.

We stayed in a nice pansiyon in the old part of the city, which was quiet and clean and nice after our 12-person dorm room in Kapadokya. We did some shopping--I bought a new hat (it has a flower on it--my favorite kind of hat). Antalya also had it's share of sorely mistaken, skeasy men, but they were pretty easy to shake off. On one occasion we were walking down to the beach at sunset--fully clothed (scarves, jackets, etc), and a car with two young guys pulled up beside us and asked if we would like to "tour Antalya...together." Uh, no. So we walked on down the winding road to the beach and they followed us (car in reverse), "Ladies, maybe we can spend some time together...blah blah blah." So they parked their car and followed us to the beach, and sat down on either side of us. Five minutes later, Lothario (can't remember his real name) turns to me and says: "Mary (because for some odd reason almost all the men in this country under the age of 30 drop the second part of my name. WHY? I AM NOT MARY). Anyway, "Mary," he said, "You will kiss me now?" "No, " said I. "But Mary, today is my tatıl (holiday). Tomorrow work I go to. So we kiss now?" End of the story is that I ended up jumping up and running away and I hear him behind me say (in English) to his friend, "She is crazy." Yes, I'm INSANE for not kissing a man I'd just met who didn't even know my NAME. UGH, the feminist indignation! The absolute feminist INDIGNATION. Too much for words. But a good story, right?

Anyway, by the last day in Antalya, I was pretty ready to go home. Two bus rides later (a total of 14 hours or so on the road), and I was home. Thank goodness. The end...until we see each other so I can tell the REALLY good holiday stories in person :) A hint, potatoes and birds are involved. Cryptic, isn't it?

So, in some ways this week has been really great. In other ways it has been the week straight from hell. Let's talk about the good things: I am going to my first Turkish wedding tonight, where I will wear a new pink dress that I like very much. What could be better? Last night I attended the bride's henna night, where female friends and family members come together to dance and put blobs of henna on their hands (this is a gross simplification, but you get the idea). Unlike other cultures I've seen where henna is used for marriage, in Turkey they don't really make designs with it--just a large circle on the palm. The long and short of it is that right now it looks like I have a weird rash on the inside of my hand--oh well.

Other good things this week: I have a new office. I share it with three other people, which means it's a little cramped, but at least I have a desk and a place to put stuff--it's also really close to where I live, which is very nice. Maybe I will finally be able to have students visit me (probably just a delusion on my part).

It is both cold and dark in Amasya--a magical combination. It's dark by about 4:45 these days, which is just a tad early for me. I really like sunlight and...you don't get so much of it here. Yesterday is was legitimately sunny for about an hour, and then it got cloudy. The good news is that it's not nearly as cold here and it is other places in Turkey. Inner Anatolia gets COLD. All and all I feel pretty good about the weather in Amasya.

This coming week is important for two reasons: mid-terms and THANKSGIVING. It's going to be weird celebrating Thanksgiving away from family, but I think it's going to be an OK week. On Thursday I'm making a small Thanksgiving dinner because I don't have to work that day, then Friday I'm planning on Tex-Mex Thanksgiving (because why not?), and then Saturday we are renting out an old Ottoman house and hosting a BIG thanksgiving for a few Americans (maybe) and a bunch of Turkish friends and colleagues. I'm quite excited. I just hope that it all goes off well. Yesterday, after mentioning that I longed for cornmeal to make cornbread dressing, a wonderful friend found some for me and gave it to me as a gift. Warmed. My. Heart. It's weird how much I miss things like cornbread or the taste of masa--apparently corn is a really important part of my diet in America.

But, now that we are getting closer to the holiday season in America, it is interesting to note the things that I miss. For example, this morning I woke up and wanted so badly to be in my mom's kitchen while gingerbread cookies were baking--that was literally the first thought I had when I woke up this morning. There is something so comforting to me about the smell of molasses. Too bad you can't get it here. Or, even more random considering I don't eat these often in the states, I miss home-made rice crispy treats. Why? I don't know. But if I could find corn syrup and rice crispies you know what I'd be doing!

However, the thing, that I have no hope of getting, that I will miss most this Thanksgiving, is cranberry sauce. You can't find cranberries or cranberry sauce in Turkey (to my knowledge) and the berry here that is most like a cranberry (and still not very much like a cranberry) just went out of season. I asked at the market today and the man mad an X in the air with his arms and said "bitti" (finished). I walked away like a sad puppy.

In other news, I've made some important decisions of late--namely that I'm going to be applying to Middle Eastern studies programs in the fall (2012). It took me a long time to decide what I want to go back to school for (I've been thinking about it for the last year), but I think it's the right decision. That means that I need to improve my Turkish rapidly. RAPIDLY. It also means that I need to study and re-take the GRE (not so rapidly). Math is the problem, but so far I've been really good--I study math for about an hour every morning. Do I make progress? I don't honestly know. But, I'm sticking to it, so that has got to be worth something.

I can't think of anything else to report. I went on a 9-day holiday, which I returned from a week ago tomorrow. It was crazy, but enjoyable. There are many stories that I could tell, but they are probably best told in person, so I'll store them up until I'm back in the states.

Will post again soon because I've made an new initiative--two posts a week! Watch out for them.

Hello friends. I am currently sitting on my very own bed in my very own apartment using my very own internet. Praise the powers that be for all those things! Internet at home is revolutionizing my life in Turkey!

So, this week I don't have any students. Not a one. Some of the showed up, but not enough for a real class. So, I am kind of wandering around aimlessly this week, doing this and that. Editing something here, researching graduate schools there, you know the like.

I had my second Turkish lesson with my Turkish teacher Ibrahim--it was a little lacklustre because I was distracted by other things. However, my Turkish is coming along (not nicely really, but it is coming along). For example, this morning I was able to negotiate paying my water bill using only Turkish and not having to draw any diagrams. How, you ask? Well, I started by explaining (roughly) that I am a dumb, but lovable, American. It turned out to be a charming exchange and he even evinced some interest in Texas. I felt pretty triumphant.

The time has changed in Amasya and it is getting dark pretty early. I am not such a big fan, I must admit. For example, by 5 o'clock today it was dark dark dark. But the daylight that we did have was pretty and pleasant. That is definitely worth something.

At the end of this week (friday morning), I am going to leave Amasya for Kırrıkale (sp?) to meet up with a friend and then continue on to Göreme to see awesome land formations, like the fairy chimneys (yes, that is what they really call them--awesome!). After Göreme may come a trip to Antalya. We shall see. Antalya is supposed to be one of the most visited or the most visited place in Turkey because so many Russian tourists come down to see some sand and sea. It should definitely be very pretty. You can expect some good photos in the coming weeks.

I wish there was more to report at this point, but there really isn't. Oh, one interest thing: I learned how this dish called çiğ köfte is made. Çiğ köfte are made from bulgar, spices, onion, and traditionally RAW meat. So, you can't get real çiğ köfte in the stores anymore, because of the RAW meat problem, which makes it a great thing for me to eat. Anyway, some research assistants from the university came over to make it at our apartment. It was quite a production. It turns out that it should be made on the floor (not literally on the floor, but you should sit on the floor and make it). So, there is this big pan that looks like a spring form, but isn't. In the pan you mix the bulgar mixture with water and over the period of like an hour or so you add in different things until the bulgar has soaked up the water and the mixture is dry enough to squeeze into köfte balls (not really balls because the shape is the inside of your fist when you squeeze the köfte together. Anyway, it was interesting to see it made. There was also some dancing. After the çiğ köfte is ready you eat it with lavaş and/or lettuce with lemon juice. You drink this thing called ayran with it, which is water and yogurt. Pretty tasty. They were also nice enough to make me some before adding in the raw meat. I'm still doubtful about whether eating raw meat "cooked" by spices is advisable, but everyone else seems to have survived.

Also, I should add that this çiğ köfte party came only one night after a rather successful Halloween party staged by yours truly and housemates. We carved melons that looked like pumpkins (because the pumpkins here are green) and were generally merry. We had candy and played pin the leaf on the pumpkin. It was cultural exchange galore!

Dear friends, sorry again for such a long, gaping silence. Blogging is hard with unreliable internet access and a foreign keyboard. However, you will be happy to know that I now have internet at home and am currently typing on my very own Mac. It's about time. I have apparently gotten used to the Turkish keyboard layout and am now

mistyping everything on my Mac. Oh well.

So, what is new? Halloween is just around the corner and to commemorate the holiday we are having a Halloween party in Amasya. I'm not sure who, if anyone, will come. But it will be a party, regardless. We are going to carve pumpkins and (maybe) have home made Halloween cookies. We'll see. I want to dress up as something, but I can't decide what. There are so many jokes that wouldn't be culturally relevant here--like if I dress up as Julia Child--it's hard to decide what to do. I thought about just coming as a 1950s housewife, but I'm not sure that anyone would get that either. Basically, my options are quite limited. I'll let you know how it goes.

So, I recently made a short trip to a place called Niksar (a small city in neighboring Tokat province). Niksar is quaint and has some interesting cites. It boasts Turkey's second largest castle, if you can believe that!

This is a picture of me under and arch at the castle. The entire castle complex is actually pretty large and spread out. I hadn't really planned to rough it, evidenced by the fact that I was wearing black slacks and flats. However, part of the road up to the castle was being worked on, so we ended up off roading and climbing up a pretty steep, damp patch of land to get to the castle. It was not glorious, and I am glad that no one was watching, but it was kind of fun and at least makes for a good story. Also, let's all make a note that, though I am kind of famous for tripping and falling, I did not once slip and fall. Not once. Maybe Turkey has given me the grace and poise I have been missing--ha ha, probably not.

Amasya has turned cold. It is mostly overcast these days, but not as gloomy as I expected it to be--check in with me two months from now! The mountains are misty, and that is kind of a new thing for me. We don't have mists or mountains in Austin. The coal smoke from home heating is getting a bit annoying. I think that I may develop black lung (while this is an exaggeration, I have been coughing a lot this week. Just saying...). But all things considered, I'm feeling pretty good about autumn in Amasya. The apples are ripe, and we do have the best apples in Turkey.

So, it seems that blogging has been feast or famine so far. I hope (sincerely, sincerely hope) the trend will end soon because that means that I will finally have internet at home.

This evening I broke down and decided to go to a cafe to use their wi fi. Interesting fact, after a couple weeks of using Turkish computers, I feel rusty typing on an American keyboard. It's kind of weird. Even though it's still really hard for me to type correctly on a Turkish keyboard, I've obviously become used to it.

There are other things I've become used to as well...For example, a lot of people smoke in Turkey--a lot of people. In America I was skittish about sitting down on a patio with too many smokers around. Here I have learned not to blink if a person lights up in a building, even though people are technically not supposed to smoke inside University buildings.

People drink a LOT of tea here. A lot. If you go to visit someone in their office at the university, they offer you tea. If you visit someone in their home, you better believe that tea is going to be part of the occasion! But, more interestingly, sometimes it's even offered if you are just in a shop. Tea is always (almost always) served in 'tulip' shaped glass cups. Tea is offered with every meal. It is also served very hot--too hot to drink. At our hotel in Ankara they served tea with lemon as an option, but otherwise I only ever see tea served with sugar cubes and NEVER with milk. Adding milk to tea and buttering bread are two things that, as far as I can tell, are just weird weird weird from the Turkish perspective. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I, thankfully, enjoy tea and quite enjoy all of my tea drinking throughout the day. Apple tea is pretty good, too.

Speaking of consumable items...there aren't many things here for vegetarians because a lot of food has meat in it (that was only a little redundant). I am not above picking meat out of my food (I would starve otherwise), but sometimes there are limits. Yesterday, I reached my personal limit. I was forking through an orzo pilaf, trying to work around all the pieces of (lamb? beef? I really don't know), when I saw something...with a valve or a socket. For all I know it was a piece of heart, or eye, or ugh...I don't want to know. It was a tough lunch. Anyway, just had to share. It's probably pretty normal for people who eat meat to come across these kinds of anatomical things, but I eat tofu and beans and those things don't have sockets or valves or tendons and I like that about them. I like that a lot.

A little bit of lit in the morning

This morning, as I was brushing my teeth my hand grazed our soapholder and it just fell off (the soapholder, not my hand). And, instead of cursing or throwing something, the only thing that my tired and beleagured mind could think was--Things Fall Apart (Chenua Achebe anyone?). So, I have been prompted to express my life in Turkey through film and book titles:

Things Fall Apart--this not only refers to the soap holder, but also the glass shelf in the bathroom that slid out of it's holder one morning and shattered in the sink. This also refers to the tub, the outside casing of which is always coming apart. Whatever.

O Brother Where Art Thou?--one man, upon hearing that I only have one sister shared that he also has two daughters and then said--wistfully--for a father to have a son is very lucky (translated from Turkish). Doug Shea, what do you think?

Vanilla Sky--there's no vanilla extract here because it contains alcohol--never mind that plenty of Türks drink rakı, which happens to be alcohol. Whatever.

Who Let the Dogs Out?--there are big, ugly, unkempt dogs everywhere. The other night I was walking to the gym and crossed the street because I saw that there was a dog ahead on my side of the road. I get to the other side of the road and realize that there was an even bigger dog on the side I crossed to. Whatever.

The Idiot (shout out to Dostoyevsky)--Whoever constructed the finer details of our apartment was...an idiot. As you can guess from the 'Things Fall Apart' entry, the apartment I live in is not exactly high quality. I mean, it's nice and big and bright and has a great view, but there are strange things--strange angles that hover close to but never quite reach the 90 deg. mark. It's weird. Also, the tiling work is ridiculous. I mean, the tile itself is fine, but whoever did it left SUCH a mess. I am still scrubbing off the excess grout. What is that about?

On reflection (it's time for me to go get ready for class), only two of my complaints are listed under literary titles--sorry if you feel cheated. I will however take a minute to tell you about this fascinating book I've been reading, called The Seed and the Soil, written by an anthropologist who lived in a Turkish village for two years in the early 80's. In the village, at least the way it used to be, women had it rough. Rough. Anyway, I recommend that you read it. It's very interesting. Also, you won't even believe how important bread is here. It's really really important--eaten often and should never be wasted. If you read Seed and the Soil you'll understand why.

Ok, plan to write more soon. Later!

Hot Water, I Forgot How Much I Love You

That is right, friends--yours truly has hot water again ın the kitchen AND the bathroom. Shabam. Sha. Bam. You dont even know how good hot water feels until you go without it for a week.

So...lıfe ın Amasya contınues. I just fınıshed a class wıth a room of students who clearly dıd not want to be present. When class started there was a grand total of 2 (2!) students ın the room. The others fıled ın after some tıme, but I stıll dont actually know how many students are supposed to be ın the class because there has not been a sıngle day where they have all been present. So that ıs fun.

I took away my fırst cell phone today. I felt kınd of lıke a meany. I announced several tımes over the last week that I would take cellphones away ıf I saw them beıng used ın class and today I turned around and one of the boys was just textıng hıs heart out, so I just swooped ın and took ıt. BAM. He got ıt back at the end of class, though, and looked approprıately sheepısh.

I feel lıke I am makıng small strıdes. But hey, a strıde ıs a strıde. For example, I have one students who for the fırst week and a half spoke to me ın Turkısh and nary a word of Englısh would he speak. He has sınce bought a dıctıonary and learned the phrase ´one mınute, teacher´ and that ıs what he says when he ıs stumped. One mınute, teacher. At least he has started usıng Englısh.

That ıs all for now. Wıll wrıte more soon!

Dear Readers I appear to be faılıng at thıs whole bloggıng thıng at the moment. Not to go ınto too many detaıls but let ıt suffıce to say that lıfe has been very busy of late and I am just now gettıng back to an equılıbrıum. An equılıbrıum whıch makes the luxury of bloggıng entırely possıble. I bet you are wonderıng two thıngs rıght now--where are her commas? closely followed by--where are her dotted I´s? Both questıons are valıd--at the moment I am typıng ın a Turkısh keyboard. I´m certaın taht wıth a modıcum of ıngenuıty I could fınd the comma and wıth a bıt more tıme to spare I could be more concıentıous about typıng wıth the dotted I, but ıt turns out that ı am both lazy and dumb, so you wıll just have to suffer wıth my poor punctıon (please note that I have just found the comma key).

So, let us dıscuss lıfe ın Turkey. It has been WILD. I fınally have an apartment, but alas do not have hot water yet. In the last month Turkey has taught me many thıngs about the world and myself. Fırst, I wıll never wear shoes ınsıde my house agaın because ıt makes everythıng so much dırtıer so much faster. Everyone here takes off theır shoes when they enter homes. Very good ıdea.

Revelatıon about myself--I would rather take a cold bath (whıch I have been doıng for 1 week now) ın a clean bathroom than a warm bath ın a dırty bathroom. Its a tough call but we all have to draw our lınes ın the sand.

Turkısh food ıs good but has lots of meat ın ıt. As a result I have been takıng turns eatıng the same three or four dıshes, rotatıng them ın and out of my dıet on an almost daıly basıs. I now eat eggs--one of the few non-cheese sources of proteın I can fınd ıs a dısh called Menemen, whıch ıs basıcally lıke mıgas but wıth a lot more tomato sauce. It ıs pretty good. I cant complaın yet but just waıt untıl I hıt the 3 month mark--there wıll be plenty of complaınıng then, I expect.

Amasya ıs turnıng cold. Fall has kınd of arrıved. The aır here (mountaın aır, you know) ıs very crısp and at nıght quıte chılly. I lıke ıt. Its also dry, whıch means I dont have to deal wıth huge frızzy haır all the tıme. Thıs ıs a relıef.

Everyone here ıs very nıce. For example, the guy who made our curtaıns (our perdici--perde ıs curtaın and ıf you add ci on ıt means the person who makes curtaıns--yee haw language acquısıtıon!). Sorry, let me start that orıgınal thought over agaın--the guy who made our curtaıns gave me a rıde to the buıldıng where I teach classes today, whıch happens to be a vıllage outsıde of Amasya. He fırst offered to take me to the bus and then when he notıced that I had mıssed one bus he told me (ın Turkısh) that he would just take me there so I dıdnt have to waıt. Super nıce. Pretty much everyone here has been nıce so far.

I wıll wrıte more soon but must go now to prepare for the fırst Mexıcan dınner of the year (I am so excıted!). Wıll be ın touch!

Amasya: This ain't my first rodeo, but sometimes it feels like it

So, friends, I have been in Amasya since Thursday afternoon and I have had some highs and some lows. Oh my goodness, where to begin? Here's a good place: my new favorite Turkish word is saçma.

--note: there are regular calls to prayer, which I can hear from my room in the lojman (guest house) where I'm staying. It turns out that there are also irregular announcements from the town about cool things that are going on. Like, this guy gets on a loudspeaker (whenever he feels like it?) and just shares cool stuff going on. Welcome to Turkey.---

Anyway, back to my new favorite word: saçma. It means nonsense. Since learning this, I have thought saçma a lot. For example, yesterday I woke up and, despite knowing (or believing) that I would have a class and also knowing the place where my class would happen, I had no idea how to get from the lojman (guest house) to the classroom (bus? which bus? where was said bus caught?). So, I went to the Education Faculty to talk to the most wonderful Turkish man in existence, Rasim Bey, and basically throw myself upon his mercy. Well, Rasim (and his office mate, a very nice history professor) helped me out. It turns out that I never ended up going to my class because so few students showed up for the previous ones they just kind of cancelled (class situations are a long story that is best left for later). But, Rasim did, basically, end up spending his entire day trying to get us our Residence Permits. We went to the Amasya Municipal building twice and then ended up at the police station. However, stuffed inbetween those visits were the following: a visit to a photo center, an apartment for rent, and four trips the University office where they gave us our letters. This must be confusing to read because it's definitely confusing to write. It was even more confusing to experience. Saçma!

However, we ended the day in the most pleasant way imaginable--dinner at the home of a very nice Turkish couple. The food was really good (you'd be surprised by how much soup they eat here). We ended the meal with berry preserves made from berries that they picked themselves, you know, on the mountain. Unbelievable! (that will have to be my next Turkish word).

So, thus ended a confusing, saçma-filled day.

However, here is a reward for sitting through this blog post:

This is what Amasya looks like (not at its best, but close). It really is a beautiful town. Those are old Ottoman houses hanging over the Yeşil river. Pretty pretty. You can't see it in the picture, but there's a castle on top of the higher of the two mountains in view.

A little bit of Anıtkabir

Hello Everybody! Another day in Ankara. Another day without an iron...

I am so desperate that I have started bringing my shirts into the shower, hoping to steam some of the wrinkles out. No. Such. Luck. I wore a wrinkled shirt the day the US Ambassador to Turkey spoke to us. OH WELL!

Things in Ankara are going well for all intents and purposes. I met the representative for my University yesterday (Mehmet Bey) and he was wonderful. He even invited us to a dinner with his family (which we just returned from). Yesterday, during our alloted "school reps" time, he sat for most of it and taught me words in Turkish. He even drew some street diagrams to better explain words like: "round about" and "4-way stop." Now I know how to not only handle, but narrate, most Turkish traffic situations. Hurray!

Aside from meeting him, orientation has been going strong since Tuesday. It's one thing after another--we've met with embassy people, and Turkish language people, and English language people, and all kinds of people, really. It's quite impressive. It's also quite exhausting. I'm back to a normal sleep schedule, but still have weird symptoms of jetlag, like I get hungry at the wrong times and still feel sluggish in the early afternoon (which is when I would normally be asleep).

Anyway, enough about me, let's talk about Ankara! So, since posting last, I have seen more of Ankara and I really really like it. It's surprisingly quite for such a big city and is fairly clean and seems to be well-organized. There is a park nearby (that I may have referenced in an earlier post) that is very pleasant to visit before dinner time. I also had my first trip to a Turkish bookstore, which was 5 stories! The yabancı (foreign) books were on the 4th floor. I definitely got some exercise hiking those stairs! I bought a book of poetry by a Turkish poet named Nazım Hikmet. Apparently he is quite famous in Turkey. I think I will enjoy torturing myself with reading (and not grasping) his poetry for the next ten months. We'll see. Turkish literature is pretty interesting because when they changed to the Latin alphabet about 90 years ago the entire country became illiterate, so it seems like there is a real disconnect between the literature of the Turkish Republic and the Ottoman empire. It's interesting to think what American literature would be like if everything after the WWI was essentially disconnected from whatever had come before (by the way, these are just my musings, don't take any of them too seriously).

So, pictures. I almost abandoned this blog for a Tumblr because I thought it would be easier to upload pictures. Well! What's not easier about Tumblr is figuring it out in Turkish! I spent 30 minutes tonight alone, just scrolling through pages, hoping to be able to find a log out or log in or sign-up button. Something! Instead, it just kept taking me to "Mehtin's" Tumblr page. Mehtin has one follower. I have since abandoned both Tumblr and Mehtin and am sticking to Blog Spot. Whatever.

Anyway, I finally got to upload this picture:

How do you like my 'fro? This was taken at Atatürk's Tomb (Anitkabir) in Ankara. It's really cool because the site is (huge) and on a high hill that affords a great view of Ankara. The city is kind of dusty and hazy, but once you are on the ground it's quite nice. It's a third of the size of Istanbul (population: 15 mil.). Though 5 mil. is still a lot for one city, at least in my opinion, it's nice.

Going to Atatürk's Tomb helped me understand a lot about the Turkish love of Atatürk as a leader. No matter how patriotic you can get as an American, we do not have a single leader who we revere and love in the same way that Türk's love Atatürk. It's very interesting. At the Mausoleum, they have tons of his stuff, pictures of him, quotes from his speeches. Everything. It's very interesting. The entire complex is huge!

Anyway, tomorrow we get to go to a castle. A CASTLE! I really really love castle's. I will definitely have more pictures. I think that's it for now. I'm going to go to sleep and rest up for another fun fun fun filled day of orientation!

Vege on the Edge...of a landmass called Eurasia

Wow, it has been a crazy ride so far, ladies and gentlemen. I am in Ankara at my hotel (The Niza Park, in case you were wondering) and I just finished my first _______(Ex: long, interesting, trying, exciting, terrifying, wonderful) day of orientation. I am overwhelmed, but in a good way.

So, part of this whole Fulbright thing is that they buy your ticket. In my experience, you get what you pay for and that means that when you pay nothing you get...well, a long long travel schedule. It took 24 hours to get from Austin, TX to Ankara, Turkey. But, I was flying with some great people and when our flight was almost delayed (break problems, whatchya gonna do?) in Detroit, we stuck together like troopers. Thankfully we made all of our connections and arrived at our hotel last night, tired and scared and mostly nonverbal (turkish + jetlag = trouble), but alive!

Today was our first day of orientation and as I referenced earlier, it was really something. Actually, it was great. The problem was jetlag. It's hard to listen to even the most interesting lecture when all you want to do is crawl back to your hotel room and sleep for a day. But we persevered.

This evening we went to a Turkish bar, which turned out to be a lot like an American bar. Due to my already scattered system, I passed on the libations, but for anyone who's wondering, yes, Turkey does in fact have beer towers (Don't know what a beer tower is? You're better off that way, so just leave it).

Surprisingly, there have been no really remarkable events so far. At dinner tonight we were discussing how much it sucks to read boring blogs where people just bullet point all the stuff they did. I feel like this current entry could very well fall into that category, but sometimes you don't have much to work with. Maybe tomorrow will bring a mild disaster that I can exploit for a good story on here. Fingers crossed!

I will say that I have had two successful exchanges in Turkish with only minimal use of gesturing. I asked for an iron so convincingly that the hotel desk clerk responded in rapid fire Turkish. I'm 50% sure that he's going to have the iron sent to my room when it's available. He definitely took down my room number (which I gave him in Turkish). I also bought two (2!) bottles of water from the shop next to our hotel. It wasn't nearly as invigorating as the experience with the iron. Oh well.

That's all for now. Iyi geceler! (good night)