And Cancel Christmas!

Turkey, as a country, has had a rough couple of weeks. First, a bombing killed 26 soldiers. Then, an earthquake killed more than 500 in the south east - the official number keeps rising.

Yesterday was the 88th birthday of the Turkish republic - Republic Day. Primary schools had planned celebrations and there were to be parades in city centers. The prime minister cancelled them all. The stated reason is the earthquake.

I'm confused. I would think that a time of national mourning is the perfect time to celebrate the existence of your country, and to remember how you got here. What better way to begin healing?

I was at a private primary school on Friday when they received the news. The teachers were really upset about the cancellation. None of them seemed to believe that it was due to the earthquake - they said that was just an excuse.

I'll be the first to admit that I know very little about Turkish politics, and the little I've gleaned has been mostly second-hand. However, I'm truly shocked that this particular celebration was cancelled. It's roughly equivalent to cancelling Independence Day.

I'm hoping to bring this up with my students tomorrow, but I plan to tread lightly. If the government can cancel the country's birthday, it's hard to imagine what else they might do.

Travel Updates

In the past 3 weeks, I've visited Ankara twice - once for an orientation & once for a teaching conference. Both visits have made me think that I'd really like to live there next year, although I'm not making any definite plans quite yet.

The orientation was an opportunity for all the Turkey ELFs to get together in-country and find out a little more about our job description. It was also a nice chance for us to see each other again & dish about our sites & experiences so far. We stayed in a pretty nice hotel, went to a reception at the US Ambassador's residence, and had a good time in general. An extra bonus for me was spending time with my friend Norma, who's been teaching in Ankara since last January. I saw very little of the city, but had a wonderful time seeing great people.

My most recent trip was for a conference presented by the Turkish version of TESOL. I was able to help one of my colleagues attend with me, which was a nice opportunity for us to bond a little, and I did some networking while I was there. Someone from one of the Ankara universities seemed ready to offer me a teaching job on the spot, which was a little awkward, but certainly flattering. I met some really great people in my field, and heard Penny Ur speak about grammar. And again, I spent some quality time with Norma. I managed to do a couple of touristy things this time, including going up the hill to the castle, although I didn't go in. Maybe next time.

I took the direct flight back to Malatya this trip, and had a nice chat on the plane with a man whose ex-wife & son live in the town in Poland where I did my Peace Corps training. He helped me figure out how to get back to my apartment from the airport, which was a great relief for me, since my Turkish is still almost non-existent. I'm really hoping to start learning some verbs soon.

And tomorrow it's back to work. We've got 2 more weeks of classes & then a week off for a sacrifice feast holiday. I don't fully understand the reason for it, but apparently every family is supposed to sacrifice a sheep and share it with the less fortunate. I'm a little torn about how much of that tradition I want to witness. My plans are still up in the air, but I'm hoping to travel at least a little during the time off.

And I think that about catches me up for the moment. I'm doing well, recovered from my cold, & ready to plow ahead with some potential projects. Oh, and I wasn't even aware of the earthquake until someone asked me about it on Facebook - it's much farther east than my city.

I hope everyone's doing well. Please keep in touch!

Do You Like My Grumpy Pants?

I have every intention of posting about my trip to Ankara last week, but it'll probably have to wait until after my trip to Ankara next week. I picked up a cold on one of the flights, and I haven't managed to get myself any cold medicine, in large part because I don't know where to get it or what to get. So I'm feeling fairly out of sorts at the moment, which is not terribly conducive to writing anything entertaining, or even worth reading. I just wanted to let my legions of readers (two is considered a legion, right?) know that I'm still alive, just not up to doing much beyond crashing on the couch & staring at my computer screen.

Climb Every Mountain

I spent all day yesterday exploring the wonders of the region of Turkey where I live. My neighbors arranged an outing & invited several of their fellow ETAs to join us. They all arrived on Friday evening/night, and some of them crashed in my living room, so I awoke to 4 strangers on my couch & chairs, but none of them tried to kill me in my sleep, so I figured they were harmless.

We set out at 7 AM & stopped for breakfast around 8, at a restaurant where the doors apparently don't close. It was freezing, but very tasty.

Our next stop was a 500-600 year old tree. Sadly, lots of people have carved their names & other random messages in it, but it's still pretty amazing.

After that, we headed for a cave city that was built during the first century. There are all kinds of benches & beds carved right into the walls of the caves.

Our next destination was an old Roman bridge. There was a nice informational sign that probably gave lots of pertinent details, like the age of the bridge, but it was too worn away to be readable. There was, however, a sign with the name of the bridge:

I choose to believe he was a long-lost ancestor of Professor Snape. There were also a couple of panels with words carved in them, but again, they were too worn to be legible, even if I did know how to read ancient Latin.

The last stop of the day - after lunch - was the one we'd all been looking forward to: Mount Nemrut. Also from the 1st century, it has several carved stone heads that used to be on top of carved stone bodies. The bodies are still upright, but the heads fell off at some point, so are now arranged at the feet of the bodies.

The drive up the mountain was one of the more terrifying rides of my life. It's basically a one-lane road with dozens of hairpin turns & a fairly sheer dropoff. Our driver was great, but it was still pretty scary. When we finally got to the parking lot, it was about 1 1/2 hours before sunset, so we strolled up to the top & wandered among the ruins, then climbed up on one of the rocks & watched the sunset over the mountains. Then we raced back down while there was still enough light to see the path, and discovered that the road back down is much safer than the one up.

We stopped for a late dinner at the same place where we had breakfast - still freezing, still tasty - then got home around midnight. All the visitors headed home this morning, and I've been nursing my sore quads all day.

In all, I'd say it was a great way to start exploring Turkey. Next week, Ankara!