News and Notes

Well it's been a bit of a whirlwind, as per usual. I got home from my last trip a few weeks ago, had just enough time to relax, unpack, and catch up on errands, and then left again. This time, just for a long weekend, to the east of Turkey. I flew to Erzurum with a few (...or 16) friends to go skiing at Turkey's best ski center, Palandoken. We had a great all-inclusive deal Friday through Monday, as most of the folks going were diplomats, with 9-5 M-F-type jobs, so couldn't just leave whenever as I generally can. It didn't turn out quite as we'd expected: Palandoken normally has a good 2-3 metres of snow cover, but due to the worst snowfall in remembered history, they had a whole 10 cm. Not exactly decent ski weather. A few of us did head out Friday to see if it was at all skiable: I went down the only open run once, and decided I didn't need to ski over rocks and ice, and that was the end of that. We did day-trip to another nearby ski center, at Sarikamis, on Saturday, which was excellent. They did have snow, luckily, and I worked my way up from a blue hill to a black, so that was good. We were a motley collection of skill levels, but everyone ended up with at least one partner to hit the pistes with. Sunday we took pretty easy, after a thoroughly enjoyable Saturday night at our hotel, venturing out to Erzurum for lunch to try the regional specialty (cag kebap, it's grilled horizontally, oooOOOooo...) and stroll for a bit. I headed back early with two of the others, and we took a walk up a pist, avoiding the occasional skier and rock. We got to the top right as they were closing the gondola down, and luckily got the very last gondola down the mountain. At the bottom, we met up with the rest of the group for tea and cards before shifting over to dinner, and more cards.
Monday was also a bit of a late start, as we checked out and packed up before heading out to see some relatively-nearby Georgian churches. They were a bit out of the way, in tiny villages way off the main road, so it took awhile to get there. They were beautiful though; fallen into disrepair, and in one case roofless, but majestic and imposing nonetheless. They were also really fun to clamber over. That took most of the day, and we returned to our hotel to pick up our luggage just in time to head to the airport for our 7pm flight back to Ankara. It wasn't quite the skiing holiday I'd anticipated, but it was a lot of fun, and I got to know some really great folks, so it was worth it. Also, from that trip plans were made for more skiing, closer to Ankara this time, so I really can't complain.
This week, I'm doing a bit more catch-up, and hopefully going to a lecture on the Yoruks (a minority group in Southern Turkey) and kilims (Turkish carpets). I'm also starting to take a look at what exactly I'm doing after my Fulbright finishes, which is frankly terrifying, but I suppose it's good to look earlier rather than later, and to have a few options, inshallah. I'll also be preparing to give a presentation on my research to 3 different audiences, in Izmir, Bursa, and Erzurum, organized by the Embassy. The talks won't happen til April, but it'll be good for me to figure out what I should and shouldn't mention.
Ankara is surprisingly warm for February: it was 6 Celsius today, and it rained last week. I remember the last winter I was here, they had record snow and had to call in the military to clear roads around ODTU's campus. I think I prefer this winter.
On that note,
kib,
-R