Escape to Izmir, Part 2

This trip is starting to fade in my memory, and I keep thinking of other things I want to post about, so I better finish this up. We'll see if the photos decide to cooperate with me this time.

The day after Ephesus was museum day. Izmir has both an ethnographic and an archaeological museum, right next to each other. We started at the ethnographic museum, which is free, and has some really beautiful stuff, like wedding outfits and inlaid wooden shoes (ouch!).

The archaeological museum was equally cool, with the addition of a few creepy items, like this floaty bust with vacant eyes.

The best part was the garden outside, where they've randomly scattered some artifacts that apparently didn't fit in the museum itself. They're just out there for people to look at, sit on, use as pedestals while they pretend to be statues... Seriously, these things have to be over a thousand years old, and no one seemed to care that we were sitting and/or standing on them!

We walked up the hill - a rather frightening task in itself, considering the hairpin turns on the road - and attempted to visit the toy museum, but it was closed. We did get to see several sculptures outside, like the one in the picture. As near as I can tell, the 3 figures on the right are mocking the ones circling the tree because they're tied together and can never escape - they'll just keep going around and around the tree forever.

During our bus tour, we had passed the site of some ruins called Agora, which looked pretty amazing from the road, so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of any of the informational signs, so I don't remember the details, but I actually liked this site better than Ephesus. I also met two lovely young girls who asked me to take their picture, then followed me around the ruins for about a half hour. I kept waiting for them to ask me for money or something, but they seemed quite happy to just be my shadows for a bit.

One of our goals the whole week was to go to a shop that specializes in the evil eye jewelry that everyone wears here. We finally managed to find the place, but it was closed. We tried again the next day - still closed. Finally, on our last day in Izmir, we got lucky, and it was definitely worth it! This is apparently the shop where all the other shops get their supplies. It was absolutely filled with beads, necklaces, bracelets, wall hangings, anything you could imagine to chase off evil spirits. It was a little tricky to walk around, because there were beads all over the floor, hanging from the ceiling, and everywhere else they could conceivably put them.


















Sadly, the trip came to an end, and I had to return to Malatya. Rather than taking a taxi or the usual airport shuttle, one of the workers at the hotel offered to drive me for the same cost as a taxi, but asked me not to tell his boss. He's got himself a little side job, but he's probably not supposed to be making money off the hotel guests. I was happy to help him out, and to get a chance to ask about something I'd seen on the way in from the airport - there's a giant bust of Ataturk carved into the side of the hill on the outskirts of town. Think Mt. Rushmore, but bigger. He confirmed for me that it is, indeed, the father of Turkey, and it's only been there a few years. I wasn't able to get a picture of it, but if you happen to fly into Izmir, you'll definitely see it on your way into town.

So that was my journey to Izmir. Very enjoyable, and I can recommend a great hotel if you're planning a trip there!

Escape to Izmir

Last week was a holiday in Turkey, so I took the opportunity to explore a bit more of the country. One of my fellow ELFs suggested that we meet in Izmir for a few days, and I was able to get a direct flight there from Malatya (which is not always an option), so we found a hotel & the adventure began.

I arrived late on Saturday night, so we headed out on Sunday to explore the city a bit. It was the first day of the holiday, so most shops & museums were closed, but we discovered that the city bus tour was running. It was a nice chance to have a look around & decide what we wanted to go back to in the coming days. Oddly, the bus driver was hesitant to let us pay in Turkish lira - I guess most of his customers come from cruise ships & only have Euros. We did finally convince him that we didn't have any Euros but would be happy to pay him in the local currency. The drive around the city was relaxing & we saw a few spots we wanted to take a closer look at, namely a couple of museums & some ruins.

The next day we wanted to go to Ephesus, which is (according to Lonely Planet) "the best-preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean." We asked at the front desk of our hotel & were told we could take a bus, or they could arrange a private tour for us. Being somewhat frugal, we decided a bus was fine, and headed off to the closest office for a bus company. The hotel clerk had told us to go to Selcuk & get a local bus from there, but when we told the guy at the bus office that we wanted to go there, he said, "No. You want Ephesus." OK, fine, if you say so.

After an hour on the bus, the driver pulled over to the side of the road & told us we were at Ephesus. We got off, with another couple, and discovered that we were about 3 kilometers from the ruins. A taxi driver at the side of the road offered to take us there for 40 lira. Considering we had paid only 12 lira for the bus ride, that seemed a little steep. We discussed it with the other couple, who spoke some English, and decided we didn't mind walking. I'm actually glad we did, because I probably wouldn't have noticed this sign otherwise.

It seems slightly ominous, unless you know that it's on a very narrow road & there's no way anyone could even turn around. It might have been nice if there had been a small shoulder for us to walk on, but we made it to the parking lot safely. And were greeted there by more

taxi drivers who wanted to take us to the other end of the ruins - for 40 lira. Again, we declined. After all, I had just bought new hiking boots & was very anxious to break them in by walking among ancient ruins.

At the ticket window, we discovered there was a discount for students & teachers. Rachael (my traveling companion) had just received her ID from her Turkish university, so she was able to get the discount. My university doesn't seem to have ID cards. I tried using my UO ID, but the woman just glanced at it before telling me, "No discount. Same price." Oh well.

As we walked into the ruins, we chatted a bit with the couple from the bus & found out that they're from a town in the south east - even farther south east than my town - and that they're Kurdish. They had traveled 20 hours by bus to come to Izmir for the holiday, and were staying at the same hotel we were - the woman recognized us from breakfast that morning.

We wandered though the ruins for a few hours, oohing and aahing over really old buildings. Some of the highlights were the library facade, the remnants of some mosaics, and a backgammon board carved into the seats of the theater.

I was also really struck by this small piece of lettering left behind. It's hard to tell if the rest had worn away or been covered up.

I was fairly impressed by Ephesus, but Rachael says Afrodisias is even better. I hope to see it sometime soon.

I still have two more days of the trip to write about, but it'll have to wait until I have more patience - the photos are taking WAY too long to upload tonight. Until then, I hope everyone is well. I wouldn't know, since none of you are bothering to comment on any of my posts.

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!

Insert Catchy Title Here

I'm wrapping up week 2 in Turkey, and feeling like I've made a tiny bit of progress. I met one of my classes last week, and have so far managed to convince them that I know what I'm doing. It'll be interesting to see how long I can keep that illusion going.

Part of my difficulty at this point is that my books haven't arrived yet. They were in Ankara about a week ago, but didn't get forwarded on to me until 2 days ago. I'm told they'll be here early next week, but that doesn't really help me to plan tomorrow's lessons - 3 hours of Listening & Pronunciation, and another 3 hours of Approaches in ELT (don't ask, I'm still not sure what it means). I'm fairly sure I can wing it through most of the day, but I'd feel more confident with a book to fall back on.

I'm also still waiting for the 2 boxes of personal items I shipped to myself. I'm just about out of the 2-week supply I brought with me, thinking that would be plenty of time for the boxes to arrive. I can survive a bit longer without them, but things are going to start getting uncomfortable soon.

I'm spending a fair amount of time with the other ex-pats in town, particularly the 2 living next door. Of course, that's mainly because they still don't have hot water, so they've been using my shower. We need to have a brief conversation about appropriate places to leave one's underwear, but I'm happy to help them out.

I took the free shuttle to the mall yesterday to do some shopping, and learned that you shouldn't leave your cart unattended in a Turkish grocery store. I had 2 items in my cart and had walked away from it to try to find something. When I came back, my 2 items were sitting on a shelf & my cart was gone. So I ended up carrying my shopping, and bought less than I would have as a result. Which may be a good thing.

After I got my groceries, I went into the liquor store next door & set off the alarm with something in my bag. The security guard spoke German, so we had a nice chat while he searched my bag & found 2 theft-prevention stickers on my bottle of Neutrogena face wash. Apparently, people are really desperate to wash their faces here, to the point of stealing. (????) Whatever, we removed the stickers & I bought a bottle of Turkish wine. It's not great, but I'm willing to overlook that at this point. I've got a whole year to find good wine, and I plan to apply myself fully to the task.

Next week begins the real work of teaching, which I'm really looking forward to. And the following week, I'll be cancelling 4 of my classes so I can go to an orientation in Ankara, which I'm also really looking forward to. But mainly, I'm hoping to get into a routine soon, so things will start feeling slightly less - well, I don't want to say "foreign," but that's the gist of it. As for the rest of today, I've got a very exciting day planned - laundry, more grocery shopping, and lesson planning. Here's hoping your Sunday will be half as fun as mine! ;)