The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

I took my first long-distance bus trip in Turkey last week, to celebrate Christmas with a couple of ELFs - it seemed appropriate. One of my neighbors in Malatya, Taylor, was planning a trip to Antakya (also known as Antioch - maybe you've heard of it?) and invited me to go along, especially after I told him there was an ELF there we could probably stay with. He arranged our bus tickets for late Thursday night/Friday morning and got us a ride to the bus station in Malatya. And then the fun began.

It turns out that, in Turkey, when your bus tickets says 00:30 23.12.2011, that actually means it's good for the next night, which is actually 24.12.2011. Well, sure! Who wouldn't realize that? Yeah, I'm not even going to try to figure out the logic of it - I gave up before I even started on that one. Luckily, there was an empty seat on the bus for me, and Taylor only had to ride in the jump seat for 2 hours before he got a seat too.

We left Malatya around 12:30, and were told we'd arrive in Antakya at 8:30. Our hostess, Margot, instructed us on where to get off the bus & told us to call when we arrived, as her apartment is just around the corner from the bus stop. Unfortunately, we arrived an hour & a half early, so I had to call & wake her up at 7:00 AM. She graciously came out to meet us anyway, rather than making us wait until a more reasonable hour.

The weather was less than ideal for seeing the town, but I felt right at home - it rained the whole time we were there. It was just like a Seattle winter! We spent the afternoon at the museum, which houses an impressive collection of mosaics - with only a few questionable translations and/or typos.

We ate some great kunefe, which is a dessert made of shredded wheat & cheese, drenched in steaming hot sugar syrup. Trust me, it's tasty, albeit super sweet. Antakya is known as the home of this particular delicacy, so everyone told me I had to eat it while I was there.

That evening, I decided to try to make egg nog. It turned out pretty well, though I didn't get the consistency quite right. No matter, with a little Jack Daniel's it was very enjoyable.

The next day we met up with another ELF, Rachael, who had flown in from Denizli (a city in the west of Turkey) and we all headed off to see what Lonely Planet claims is "the earliest place where Christians met and prayed secretly." It's a church carved into the side of a mountain, and, shockingly, the walls didn't collapse around me when I went inside. They hold a service in the evening on Christmas Eve, which Taylor attended with a whole group of ETAs who came into town just for that, but the other ELFs and I decided that just seeing it in the daytime was enough, so we had a quiet night in.

The next day was Christmas, but I didn't really notice. It's not really a big holiday for me anyway, and I spent most of the day on a bus going back to Malatya. Sadly, the trip home was not shorter than promised, probably because it was during the day & we made about 100 stops. OK, maybe only 80.

One nice aspect of bus trips in Turkey is the drink & snack service. Every so often the bus host will wheel a little cart up & down the aisle with tea, coffee, soft drinks, and usually snacks - although for some reason, I was on a drinks-only bus. They also have little TVs in the back of all the seats, just like international flights, so I had a chance to catch up on my Turkish TV watching. In all honesty, I napped & played games on my Kindle most of the ride, but there were other options if I had wanted to take advantage of them.

Overall, it was a nice Christmas weekend with friends, and I really enjoyed getting out of Malatya & seeing another part of the country. I have a longer trip coming up next month, and I hope to have many more adventures to write about after that.

So for now, happy new year to all!

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I find myself, once again, in the unfortunate yet all-too-familiar position of having a job I love in a location I'm rather less than thrilled about. And now I have to decide whether or not to stay here for another year.

I feel like this should be an easy decision. I don't want to live here any longer than I have to, so obviously I'm not renewing my contract. But then I have this nagging guilt about abandoning my students, so I should renew. But the thought of living here for another year is incredibly depressing - I already don't know how I'm going to get through the next seven months. But my classes are really fun, and I feel like I'm gaining some great professional experience. (So I can clearly not choose the glass in front of you!)

You see my dilemma, right?

I've pretty much decided not to renew. Of course, that leads to another question - where do I go next? I'm considering some universities in Ankara, or possibly Istanbul. I'm also thinking about going back to Poland. And, of course, there are all the countries I haven't lived in yet. Coming back to the US is also a distant possibility, if I found the right position. And next fall seems so far away, it's hard for me to even think clearly about it yet, although I know it's going to sneak up on me in about 3 seconds.

I just don't want to be thinking about such a major decision right now. I'd really like to enjoy my time here as much as I can, without stressing out over my next step. Could someone just offer me a great job in a fantastic location so I can be done with this?

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.