Just Click Your Heels Three Times

I may as well make this public, since it's about as certain as anything can be: I'll be back in Seattle next year. There were a number of factors that went into the decision, but the two biggest were family issues and a desire to make my life a little easier for a change. Someday, if you're really interested, you can buy me a drink & I'll detail the other considerations, but I'd rather not descend into negativity at this point.

So let's focus on the positive - I'm coming home! I don't have an exact date yet, but it'll be sometime between mid-July and mid-August. I plan to reclaim a teaching position at Green River Community College, and will be living in Auburn, which is close enough to spend time in Seattle but far enough away to have affordable rent - as well as being within walking distance of work.

The remainder of my time in Turkey is still somewhat uncertain, as I'll be done with my duties at the university by June 17, but my contract isn't up until July 12. My hope is to spend my last month based in Ankara, helping with a few teaching workshops and traveling around Turkey a bit. As far as I can tell, I have to leave Turkey by July 15 - that's the expiration date on my residence permit - so I'll probably make another visit to Poland, maybe wander around Europe, and be back in the US by August 12. And then I'll begin my west coast tour.

I do want to apologize to those of you who were thinking of visiting me in Turkey next year, but you can still make the trip - I just won't be here to greet you. There are a lot of reasons to spend a vacation in Turkey, but very few of them lie east of Ankara.

That's all the news I feel like sharing at this point. I'm simply trying to survive my last few weeks in Malatya, with the knowledge that the end is in sight. I hope your days are more enjoyable than mine, and I look forward to seeing you all fairly soon.

Fire Walk With Me

Spring has finally arrived, which is making my time in Malatya much more bearable. It's amazing how a weather shift can suddenly make me so much more content with the time I still have to spend here.

Last week, there was a celebration on campus to welcome the first day of spring. They started with a group of folk dancers, then a musical performance, and ended with people jumping over a bonfire. Yup, they lit a fire in the middle of campus, and students & teachers jumped over it. I chose not to join in, but it was very entertaining to watch.

This week is midterm week, which means I only have 2 actual days of work - apart from grading my exams, of course. I'm thinking about leaving town for a few days, but I can't decide where to go, and whether I want to do a solo trip. I may just end up hibernating & trying to figure out my plans for next year.

In the meantime, I hope everyone is getting some nice spring weather. Go soak up some vitamin D!

Fruit Flies Like a Banana*

It's been a busy month & a half or so, though I don't feel like I've really accomplished much. The high point for me was getting out of Malatya for 3 weeks & discovering that I actually DO like Turkey - just not the part of it where I live.

I spent the first part of January preparing my final exams, and my make-up final exams. It turns out that students who fail the final get to take another one. My department head told me it was no big deal, and I could just use the same exam twice. Sadly, I couldn't let myself do that, mainly because I write exams based on what I've taught in my classes - any student who shows up regularly and reads the material will pass my exam. Anyone who fails obviously didn't do one or both of those things, so I made the make-up exams twice as hard as the original finals. Only 3 people showed up for the make-ups, and only one of those passed - interestingly, it was a student who's taking both my 2nd and 3rd year classes. He failed both 2nd year exams, but passed the 3rd year make-up. I'm not quite sure what to make of that.

After I finished grading the first round of finals, I headed for Istanbul to meet a friend, Ellen, who's a Fellow in Armenia this year. We spent a week in Istanbul, seeing the sights & doing some shopping - I found black beans, oatmeal, AND quinoa in a natural foods store there, all of which was more exciting to me than seeing the Blue Mosque. Does that make me a bad tourist?

Interestingly, we met a number of people from Malatya in Istanbul, most notably in a carpet shop. While we were considering what to see first, a Turkish man started talking to us & offered his son's help in navigating around the city a bit. The son mentioned that his family's carpet shop was close by, so we took a look & discovered that virtually everyone working there is from Malatya - one of them offered to take me fishing the next time he visits his family. I did end up buying a kilim (like a carpet but it's woven instead of knotted), which I had planned to do at some point anyway. Why not support the folks from my temporary home town?

Then we headed to Denizli to visit another Fellow, Rachael, so I could feel a little worse about my own site. Rachael lives within 10 minutes (by foot) of her university, and has a nice grocery store & sort-of mall just down the street. It's a really good thing I like her so much, or I would probably hate her. She took us to Pamukkale, which is where they have the calcium deposits on the hillside that look like snow. I neglected to take any pictures, because it was ridiculously cold the day we went there, but here's one I found online.

No, that truly isn't snow and/or ice. And yes, they really do let people walk on them, although you have to take your shoes off. I didn't do it myself - see ridiculously cold above - but Ellen did & Rachael has done it before. Maybe I'll go back in the spring & give it a try.

After a great week of increasing jealousy, the 3 of us headed off to Antalya for our mid-year conference. It was fun to see all the Turkey ELFs again, as well as meet the Fellows from other countries in the region - Syria, Ukraine, Russia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, and possibly others that I'm forgetting. The best part was getting to catch up with my friend Lisa, a Fellow in Bosnia, who I've known since high school. The conference itself was fairly typical, but the hotel was pretty great - a 5-star, all-inclusive resort, right on the Mediterranean. Here's the view from my room:

I know, right? It really didn't suck. My part of the conference was only 3 days, but I decided to stay the whole week, since I didn't feel like rushing back to Malatya.

When I did finally get back, I came down with the Fellow Flu that everyone at the conference had been passing around, so I ended up missing the entire first week of spring semester. It wasn't actually a big deal, since Turkish tradition dictates that the majority of students skip the first week of the term. Additionally, there's a Turkish expression stating that when you have the flu, if you go to the doctor, you'll get better in a week, and if you just stay home and rest, you'll get better in 7 days. I'm just trying to be culturally appropriate!

So now, we're a few weeks into spring term, and I've just about gotten back into the swing of things. I have a couple of trips coming up in the next few months, and I'm working on a side project that I'll talk more about when I have the details ironed out. For now, it's back to life as usual, with the knowledge that I'm living in an amazing country - I just have the misfortune of living in a less amazing section of it.

Sorry this post is so light on pictures, but they take forever to load on here. I'll be putting a lot of them up on Facebook, so check there if you want visuals to go with this post.

I hope everyone is doing well. Please keep in touch!

*Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference in the title (WITHOUT looking it up!).

Ordinary Miracles

As I reached the base of the hill this evening, on my way home from a long day of grading, I saw a group of women standing on the sidewalk. As I started to go around them, a bus pulled up, and one of the women said something to me.

Woman: "Turkish Turkish Turkish Turkish?" (while gesturing up the hill)

Me: (pointing up the hill with a hopeful/questioning look on my face)

Woman: "Turkish Turkish Turkish Turkish." (while gesturing for me to get on the bus)

Me: (using one of my 20 Turkish words) "Thank you!" (while getting on the bus)

The bus drove all the way to the top of the hill, which just happens to be where my apartment building is. I have no idea who those women were, where the bus came from, who owns it, or why I've never seen it before. But I really hope to see it again!

Someday I'll remember to take a camera to work with me, and try to get some shots of my walk home, so you can understand what a big deal this was for me.

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!