Hey folks,
I figured I should start at the beginning of my 'Highlights of Turkey' week with Danaijo, so I'll back up to the Saturday before last, when I had a day to spend in Istanbul before picking D up at the airport that evening. I'd stayed with my friend Cat, of my previous Kartalkaya adventure, so we headed out bright and early for some menemen (by far my favorite Turkish breakfast food, and what would be my favorite Turkish food ever, if not for the wondrousness of manti). Cat has a local menemenci across the street from her, so we had breakfast al fresco and I learned about the shop's rad intercom system: the shop supplied tea to all the shops in the neighborhood, but it wasn't efficient to just send a kid around constantly and ask if folks wanted tea, so there were several intercoms located around the neighborhood, in shops and on the street, and shopkeepers would just buzz over when they needed a glass or two. The speaker was above the cooking surface, so the menemen guy'd listen to Ahmet from around the corner saying he needed 3 glasses, send off the tea boy, and continue cooking. Brilliant. I cannot believe I've lived here so long and not noticed this ingenious system. At least I've noticed the cab call boxes...
Thusly fortified, Cat and I set off up towards Etiler to photograph some election flags. Local elections are at the end of March, and the parties are going all out: in addition to the household appliances mentioned in an earlier post, flags from the major parties are everywhere in the cities, blanketing major intersections, and vans with candidates' photos plastered to their sides drive around all day blaring patriotic party campaign music. A particularly catchy one in Antakya (sadly for Danaijo, it was stuck in my head the rest of our trip) just repeated "Simdi CHP zamani!" ("Now is CHP time!") ad nauseam. Anyway, we photographed our way to Besiktas, where we parted in a pouring rain after stocking up on bootleg dvds; while I was on the hunt for a travel book that included Syria, Cat ended up at a CHP rally with a bunch of politically-active women from GOP (in Ankara, that's the ritzy neighborhood, but in Istanbul, it's one of the more distressed neighborhoods).
I ended up not minding about missing 6 hours of party speeches and songs, because while walking around Tourist Central, Istanbul, I picked up something mythical and wonderful: a MuzeKart. For background, in August the government raised prices for all museums and sites it manages (so, pretty much everything but Dolmabahce Palace and the Basilica Cisterns), while removing the option of a student discount. This meant that Topkapi, had I had the urge to go see both the main part and the Harem part, would have been 35 lira just for me. I felt this to be outrageous, and thus hadn't seen Topkapi, but I did cough up 20 lira for the Hagia Sophia. There is one way to avoid having to pay (outrageous amount) for all those tourist sites: buy a MuzeKart. This 20-lira card, with your photo badly scanned to the back, allows you in to all state-run sites across Turkey for free, for a year. Awesome. The only catch is that it's only for Turkish citizens. No 20-lira pass for yabancis. I had heard, though, that within the past month the rules had relaxed enough to allow students at Turkish universities to also buy MuzeKarts, at a discounted price of 10 lira (because they're, you know, poor students). Armed with my ODTU ID, I braved the line at the Hagia Sophia to try my luck...and it worked! I didn't want to say anything while getting it in case they decided I didn't sound Turkish enough, but mere hours before picking up D I had scored a 10-lira card that would halve our total admission costs at every museum we visited (aside from the Cisterns, but I successfully argued for the Turkish student discount there).
So, fresh from my exciting MuzeKart buying, I headed off to the airport. Apparently at Ataturk International one is not allowed into the baggage claim area if one has not just disembarked from a plane, so I hung out with a bunch of liveried drivers with fancy name-signs, looking for American-looking people as they departed baggage claim. After a group with matching Yale sweatshirts trundled by, Danaijo walked out, and we had our emotional reunion before heading down to the Metro to head back to Sultanahmet. Once settled at our hotel, we then had to get back on the light rail line, take it to the end, hop on a bus, and slowly make our way through rush hour traffic to meet up with Cat for dinner in Arnavutkoy. This would've worked much better if the bus we were on had gone to Arnavutkoy. Instead, we took an unexpected turn in Ortakoy and ended up in some bus depot, with a confused driver asking where exactly we wanted to go. Oboy. I'd even asked when we got on if the bus went to Arnavutkoy.
No matter, we got on another bus, and headed back to Ortakoy, where we took a quick detour through the handicrafts bazaar there on the waterfront before grabbing a cab to Arnavutkoy. Once finally there, we grabbed Cat for dinner at Bodrum Manti (if you've read my other Istanbul entries, you may recognize the name; this is because Bodrum Manti is perhaps my favorite restaurant in Istanbul), where D had her first authentic Turkish meal, kitir ispanakli manti, or fried spinach manti.
Given that D had just gotten off a double-digit-hours-long plane ride, we didn't do much else til the next morning, when we headed out bright and early to the Aya Sofia, before heading to the Basilica Cisterns (they're just cool; I think I've been there 3 times now, and I never get tired of them). After the Cisterns, we headed over to the Blue Mosque before noticing that it was closed for prayer time, so we ambled over to Topkapi, stopping for fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice en route. Topkapi was, in a word, overwhelming. We passed through gate after gate, entering room after room, all absolutely gorgeously decked out in the heights of Ottoman fashion. Detail was everywhere. Tiles were handpainted. Pillows and sofas were richly embroidered with silver and gold thread. Mother-of-pearl inlay was on quite a bit of the woodwork. It was gorgeous. We went a little out of order through Topkapi, and ended up at the very back, where the private quarters open up to a view of both Europe and Asia across the Bosphorous. I simply cannot use enough adjectives to describe the opulence of the setting or the Palace itself. After the Sultan's family quarters, we went through the Treasury. If I said the rest of Topkapi was overwhelming, this was at least triply so. It felt like going through House on the Rock (in Wisconsin, also a cool site, but not quite so pedigreed as Topkapi). There were jewels and thrones and artifacts from the Royal Family. There were medals and awards. But most impressively, there were religious and historical artifacts ostensibly from pretty much all the major players in Muslim (and therefore Judeo-Christian) accounts. There was Moses' staff. Swords from Mohammed aas well as from all his major male associates. The Prophet's beard hair. Other relics from Old Testament prophets. The hand of St. John. The head of St. John. The artifacts went on and on, winding through rooms to the sound of the Quran being read aloud. We figured at first that it was a recording, til we turned a corner towards the end and ran into a little cleric perched on a stool, singing the text into a microphone in front of him as screens to the side scrolled the Turkish and English translation of the verse he was currently singing. Pretty cool.
By that time we had seen so much, my eyes were aching, so we wandered over to the Galata Bridge, where we snagged a few beanbag chairs and had lunch while watching the fishermen above us and the boats below us. Quite nice. After lunch, we went through the Spice Bazaar and its side streets, and spent an enjoyable time haggling over some copper pots and coffee sets. With those purchases in hand, we headed back towards the Blue Mosque to try and find a carpet shop. Normally I avoid carpet shops like the plague, but D had mentioned maybe buying a carpet if she could find a good deal, so we stuck our heads into a shop, to see what we could find. The guys in the shop were naturally quite friendly, and eager to show us 'just the perfect' carpets. They piled up carpet after carpet on the floor, asking us to mention when we saw ones we liked, so they could set those aside to cull the pile slowly but surely. Unfortunately, they didn't show any kilims until I specifically asked, and even then just brought out one half-hali half-kilim, and a few brand-new, machine-made kilims that were as soulless as any beige wall-to-wall. D quite liked the half-and-half carpet, so I asked how much they wanted for it so we could start working our way down. Their original asking price was literally over 4 times what the carpet should have been. Were we wiser, we'd have walked out immediately. Since we weren't that wise in the ways of carpet shops yet, I expressed shock at the outrageous price, and reminded the salesguy that we were students (...close enough) on limited budgets. We managed to knock a few hundred off the price before we decided it was time to check out the selection at a few of the neighboring shops. While we were packing up, we kept chatting, and the salesguy lowered the price significantly. He really didn't want us to check out other shops. We headed out anyway, with the promise that we'd return, as I was hoping that the selection in other shops would be at least closer to what I'd seen in Diyarbakir. Unfortunately, Sunday afternoon is not a popular carpet-buying time, and the other shops either didn't have a great selection, had no staff, or argued with D when she told them she wanted to see pieces with kilim elements. So back we went to the first shop, where after much more discussion and side ponderings on the merits of a few smaller rugs, we felt like we could make a deal, and for a decent price: 500-600 for a medium-sized half-hali half-kilim for D, plus a newer smaller kilim for me. We were within one hundred lira of our tipping point with the salesguy, and finally got him down to our price. Fantastic, no? Wrong! At that point, the owner of the shop (who had been observing, with the occasional comment) stepped in to say that the price for D's rug was 1800, and that there was absolutely no way he would consider going under 1800. What??? We were not amused. (It definitely was not an 1800 lira carpet) We marched out, and decided that carpets were not going to be an Istanbul purchase on our trip. With that enlightening shopping experience under our belts, we picked up our luggage and headed to the Otogar, where we grabbed a bus out to Canakkale that evening. And that will have to be another blog entry, where D and I take perhaps the most circuitous route ever between Istanbul and Ankara.
A quick note on post-travel goings-on: I finally, after a year and a half here, have made it to a football match. I've actually made it to 2, one for Ankaragucu and one for Genclerbirligi (both local Ankarali teams). Both times 'my' team didn't win, or even score, but it was pretty darn fun; today's match featured a hockey-style body check. I've also been meeting up with a few of the other Ankara Fulbrighters, including a new Fulbrighter just in from Greece, and got to an ARIT lecture on historical embroidery which was actually quite charming. It's been busy.
But more of that inshallah in the next post,
-R
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
A city a day is the Bonkano/Danaijo way...
I'm sitting in Gaziantep, updating briefly before heading off to dinner, afterdinner things, and an overnight bus to Ankara. This week has been a whirlwind of cities and adventures: my friend Danaijo flew into town Saturday night, and we've spent the week since travelling from İstanbul to Çanakkale, to Troy, down to İzmir, flying to Adana for Antakya, over the border to Aleppo in Syria, and back across and up to Gaziantep. It's not a route Lonely Planet would ever recommend, but we,ve seen a great and varied swath of the country, and it's been quite fun. I'll leave the detailed explication til I'm back in Ankara, but a few short bites for now:
-Syria is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. And incredibly cheap. I was a little sad that we could only see Aleppo, but it means I'll just have to return to see Damascus, Homs, Palmyra, and everything else. Also it is delicious, we had falafel every meal, and lıtres of squeezed-in-front-of-us fruit juice.
-Fulbrighters are awesome and hospitality-ful, we stayed at a friend in İzmir's place and also at a friend here in Gaziantep. Both of them have bent over backwards to get us directions, dinner, and anything else we could possibly need while staying with them. It's also great to catch up, as I hadn't seen Dierdre since Thanksgiving, and Alex since Şeker Bayramı. They're both teaching English, and having such different experiences to mine as a researcher in Ankara.
-We still have bought no carpets. Maalesef. I was fairly certain either Danaijo or I would end up with at least one in İstanbul or, failing that, Aleppo or Gaziantep, but it seems fated not to be. We have seen a loooooot of carpets now though, and I'm fairly certain we're both minor experts in regional carpet variations and quality differences by now. We also have a newfound disdain of İstanbul carpet shops; we spent an hour chatting and haggling down to a more-than-fair price until the carpet seller we were talking to suddenly raised the price by almost 1000 lira and refused to reconsider. Inanılmaz. Maybe I'll just have to head back to Diyarbakır for my Turkish carpet...
All right, that's all from Gaziantep. kib,
-R
-Syria is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. And incredibly cheap. I was a little sad that we could only see Aleppo, but it means I'll just have to return to see Damascus, Homs, Palmyra, and everything else. Also it is delicious, we had falafel every meal, and lıtres of squeezed-in-front-of-us fruit juice.
-Fulbrighters are awesome and hospitality-ful, we stayed at a friend in İzmir's place and also at a friend here in Gaziantep. Both of them have bent over backwards to get us directions, dinner, and anything else we could possibly need while staying with them. It's also great to catch up, as I hadn't seen Dierdre since Thanksgiving, and Alex since Şeker Bayramı. They're both teaching English, and having such different experiences to mine as a researcher in Ankara.
-We still have bought no carpets. Maalesef. I was fairly certain either Danaijo or I would end up with at least one in İstanbul or, failing that, Aleppo or Gaziantep, but it seems fated not to be. We have seen a loooooot of carpets now though, and I'm fairly certain we're both minor experts in regional carpet variations and quality differences by now. We also have a newfound disdain of İstanbul carpet shops; we spent an hour chatting and haggling down to a more-than-fair price until the carpet seller we were talking to suddenly raised the price by almost 1000 lira and refused to reconsider. Inanılmaz. Maybe I'll just have to head back to Diyarbakır for my Turkish carpet...
All right, that's all from Gaziantep. kib,
-R
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Small Things
In contrast to the last few epic posts, here's a short one, of still-shorter collected thoughts:
-Elections are coming! At the end of the month, Turkey has its local elections. Campaigning has been fierce; I personally was somewhat put out to find that I do not reside in one of the cities where the municipal government is handing out free washing machines in a blatant vote-garnering bid. This was especially distressing as my washing machine broke today, with about 2/3 of my seasonally-appropriate wardrobe still locked inside. Harika.
-Accomplishment of my February: I got YouTube to work. I am a technological master. Ok, maybe I followed a set of clear directions, but it involved monkeying around with my system and fiddling with settings.
-Some things you don't think about when looking at differences between life in Turkey and life in the US. Milk is one of them: I've been on a bit of a milk kick lately, and have run up against several issues: 1. most milk sold here is shelf stable. To me, this just tastes off. 2. There is pasteurized, refrigerated, goes-bad-in-4-days-or-less milk available in the grocery stores, but nothing larger than 500 mL. Also, there is typically one row of milk cartons, hidden next to 10 rows of Ayran cartons, which are next to the other containers of Ayran. Turks love their Ayran. 3. While some of the 'shelf-stable' milk is 'Light', all of the refrigerated milk is whole. Not even 2%, whole/ This takes some getting used to. It does make for great chocolate milk though.
-In this article, a Parliament commission notes that 15% of Turkish students bring guns or knives to school. Not such a good thing. I don't know much firsthand about the primary and secondary education system here, but from what I've heard and read, it's extremely difficult for children coming through the public school system. Turks with any money send their kids private, and if that's not possible, they supplement the public school educations with private exam prep schools.
-As you may have noticed, I'm trying out a little bit of a new look for the blog; I like it so far, but we'll see how it goes.
-Elections are coming! At the end of the month, Turkey has its local elections. Campaigning has been fierce; I personally was somewhat put out to find that I do not reside in one of the cities where the municipal government is handing out free washing machines in a blatant vote-garnering bid. This was especially distressing as my washing machine broke today, with about 2/3 of my seasonally-appropriate wardrobe still locked inside. Harika.
-Accomplishment of my February: I got YouTube to work. I am a technological master. Ok, maybe I followed a set of clear directions, but it involved monkeying around with my system and fiddling with settings.
-Some things you don't think about when looking at differences between life in Turkey and life in the US. Milk is one of them: I've been on a bit of a milk kick lately, and have run up against several issues: 1. most milk sold here is shelf stable. To me, this just tastes off. 2. There is pasteurized, refrigerated, goes-bad-in-4-days-or-less milk available in the grocery stores, but nothing larger than 500 mL. Also, there is typically one row of milk cartons, hidden next to 10 rows of Ayran cartons, which are next to the other containers of Ayran. Turks love their Ayran. 3. While some of the 'shelf-stable' milk is 'Light', all of the refrigerated milk is whole. Not even 2%, whole/ This takes some getting used to. It does make for great chocolate milk though.
-In this article, a Parliament commission notes that 15% of Turkish students bring guns or knives to school. Not such a good thing. I don't know much firsthand about the primary and secondary education system here, but from what I've heard and read, it's extremely difficult for children coming through the public school system. Turks with any money send their kids private, and if that's not possible, they supplement the public school educations with private exam prep schools.
-As you may have noticed, I'm trying out a little bit of a new look for the blog; I like it so far, but we'll see how it goes.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Baby, I'm a Star!
Well, maybe not a star, but as close as I'm ever going to get: yesterday, I went to Istanbul to film an episode of a Turkish cooking show with a friend of mine! It was a riot.
The Show: The show is titled "Turk Lezzeti", which translates to something like "Turkish Flavor" or "Turkish Taste". It's a new show, so it'll start airing in April, and my episode should air in May. It's on TRT International, which is available in Europe and the US, as well as Turkey, so if you folks back home have incredible cable, you might be able to see me. The concept of the show is that every episode, they take 2 yabancis (foreigners) and teach them to make a Turkish dish, while chatting in Turkish about why, exactly, they are yabancis in Turkey.
How I got on a Turkish TV show: Internet-savvy yabanci that I am, I frequent several forums for expats living in Turkey. Usually it's really kind of boring/depressing, because everyone lives in Istanbul, so all the information and events are in Istanbul, so I end up skimming a lot. One of them had a post last week mentioning that a studio was looking for yabancis with free time during the week to film a show. Since I set my own schedule, and thus have all the time in the world during the week, I emailed the contact info given. They called back that night, asked if I had a friend that wanted to go on with me, and set up a date and time. I figured I could easily find another Fulbrighter for this chance of a lifetime (or at least, chance of a grant-time). I originally was going to go on the show with a friend from Ankara, but there was a scheduling conflict, so I ended up meeting up with my friend Emily in Istanbul to do the show (for those that read semiregularly, Emily was one of my partners-in-crime for my Bursa trip).
The Big Day: I boarded a bus to Istanbul bright and early Tuesday morning after a little-too-late night. I took Nilufer this time, which I'd never taken before; they were good, probably about Metro-level in quality. My one complaint was that even though it was the "Express" bus to Istanbul, we still stopped at a rest station for 30 minutes. Some things don't change... I got in to Istanbul by 2:30, and got downtown to Besiktas by 3:30. I'd wanted to stock up on some DVDs for awhile, so I headed to the Buyuk Carsiya to check out the DVD markets. One of my regular go-to places had remodeled since the last time I stopped by, and now has new releases prominently featured, a much shorter waiting time, and bulk-purchase discounts. Excellent. I picked up Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, a season of The Wire, the Shawshank Redemption, and Run Lola Run, all for 30 lira (that's currently under $20, so that's pretty awesome, although apparently not as awesome as Ecuadorian DVD prices). While I was perusing DVDs, I noticed one's Turkish title, because it was so odd: literally, it translated to "Flaming chicken." Intrigued, I looked closer, and saw that it was "The Hot Chick." I think maybe that one should not have been literally translated...
I finished up my shopping and headed to the ferry docks to meet up with Emily, who was coming straight from her calligraphy lesson in Asia. We grabbed a cab, showed the cab driver the address to the studio, and off we went. Side story, the cab driver looked at the address, said "I don't know where that is, but we'll get there," and ended up one building over. Pretty good navigating. We had a bit of fun trying to get in to the studio, as the building had about 7 different entrances, not very helpfully labelled, but we finally got to the right place by about 4:45.
We were ushered in, past the set, and back to the dressing room, where the host was getting her makeup finished up. We said hi to a bunch of people before getting our hair done. The stylist put my hair in a style that I've never done myself, and don't know that I would do, but it looked ok. He finished it off with more hairspray than I thought the can could hold. Next Emily got her hair styled and sprayed, and then we got the makeup treatment. Turkish makeup is of a slightly different style compared to American makeup trends (which clearly I stay up to date on, ya?), and Turkish television makeup is just amazingly over the top. They do not hide from colors that I thought were awesome in middle school. Also, they're big fans of the sparkles. I was up first, and after a few layers of various foundation-type ephemera, the makeup lady got to work on my eyes. She started with some neutral tones that I actually rather enjoyed, before moving to a blue that I think is best described by the name "peacock," or perhaps "Mimi on the Drew Carey Show". That was my main eyeshadow color. It was finished off with some glittery product and ridiculous amounts of mascara, before she moved on to stark blush (the contrast was...almost tuberculosis-patient severe) and glittery lip gloss. I wasn't dressed for clubbing, but my face would have been perfect for hitting up even Reina (the best/most expensive club in Istanbul, where the real partiers go). It was absurd, but awesome. Emily was up next, and got a similar treatment, although as she's blonde, her main eyeshadow color was pink, instead of blue.
Artistry
Thus suitably television-ready, we headed out to the set, where we hung out and chatted with the crew as they prepped the ingredients and dishes for the filming to begin. We also chatted with the host, who asked us some questions to ascertain our Turkish levels and told us about the episode we'd be filming. We were making 2 dishes: muhallebi and güllaç. These are both milk-based puddings, so we got a dessert episode. We got miked up, did our sound checks, and got told by the cameramen where to stand for the best viewing angles.
Side note: any Scrubs fans out there might recognize muhallebi, from the episode where J.D. yells at Omar the Turk for stealing his pudding, "O benim muhallebim, Omar!" I used that line a few times on-set, dork that I am.
Finally, it was time to start the show! We counted down, listened to the theme song, and started in. The host introduced each of us and interviewed us briefly on our backgrounds before launching into a description of the dishes we were making. We got started on the güllaç, heating milk and sugar wıth some rosewater while I crushed some walnuts and mixed them with cinnamon. We chatted a bit about what Emily and I were doing in Turkey, and where we were from, and then the host decided I wasn't well-versed in walnut-crushing and took over while we waited for the milk to boil. We talked about when güllaç is traditionally consumed, which is during Ramazan, and I had to pretend to not know when Ramazan was so she (the host) could explain to me that it moved by 10 days each year. Once the walnuts were well and truly crushed, and the milk had boiled, Emily and I got started assembling the güllaç: We started with a layer of güllaç dough, which is like yufka or phyllo but specifically for this dish, and then added a ladleful of milk and a sprinkling of walnuts. We then added another layer of güllaç dough, and continued for maybe two dozen sets of dough, milk, and walnuts. At the end we poured all the leftover milk over the top, and let it sit while we watched the host work on the muhallebi.
Emily and our finished Güllaç
We made Sakizli Muhallebi, which is made with sakiz. In English, sakiz is 'mastic,' but neither Emily nor I had heard of such a thing before. The host had us each try a piece and... it's a similar taste and concept to gum arabic, although a little less jawbreaker-like in consistency. It's not a flavor I'd've thought to add to pudding, and certainly not one that I'd choose to highlight. But, I think it was added to serve as a jelling or binding agent, as we really couldn't taste it in the final product at all. We added the sakiz to milk over heat, along with (again) sugar and rose water, and a few other ingredients that I've forgotten. Once it started a decent rolling boil, the host stirred for a few minutes and then poured it into three smaller dishes while the crew stopped filming to help set up the set for the last part of the show, the tasting.
The guy in charge, pondering muhallebi placement
While the crew argued over what size of plates to use, Emily and I got to decorate the güllaç, using pomegranate seeds and the leftover walnuts. We embellished the pudding with a large pomegranate heart, with walnuts sprinkled around the edges. The crew really enjoyed it, and got quite a few closeups of the heart güllaç. When the set was ready again, we joined the host on-camera to try our creations and wish our audience a heartfelt "Affiyet Olsun!" (Bon Appetit). The cameras cut, everyone applauded, and the crew all came up to grab some güllaç.
We all stood around and chatted for awhile, and we asked the host where she'd learned to cook. It turned out that she'd studied in Paris, at Le Cordon Bleu, which was pretty impressive. She also told us that she has a cookbook, and is sending us copies of it, which I'm very excited about. I chatted with one of the camera guys for a bit, who was really excited that I was from Ankara, as he said much of the crew was also from Ankara. We talked about neighborhoods, and apparently they're all from Aşağı Ayrancı, which is literally down the street from me.
After a bit, we headed back towards the dressing rooms, where we filled out paperwork, asked about airdates, and got 80 lira apiece to cover our travel expenses. The guy walking us through the paperwork told us that the show will start airing in April, and will be on 3 times a day, 10:30, 3ish, and just after midnight. I'm not sure if it's on every day, but I'll find out once it starts airing. Our episode will appear sometime in May. We also may or may not be mailed a copy of our episode on DVD; I wasn't quite sure on that part, but I really really hope it's the case, because my brief Turkish cooking show stardom is something I want to preserve for posterity. If I do get a copy, rest assured I'll post it here.
We got a ride to Arnavutkoy from one of the crew, and arrived there just in time to meet up with my friend Cat (also Emily's roommate) and her visiting relatives for dinner. The restaurant was on the 4th floor of a building, overlooking the Bosphorous, and as we climbed in view, Cat's reaction to our heavily-made-up faces was priceless. It was a little something like: Cat: "Oh hey guys, you made it....Oh My Gosh! Relatives, my friends do not normally look like this". Laughter, of course, ensued. After a great dinner of fish and mezes, I said my goodbyes and headed to Taksim to catch a bus back to Ankara. I got in at 5am, and promptly headed to bed, exhausted but exhilarated.
The experience was so fun; both the host and the crew were great, and clearly were used to yabancis with much less Turkish. We wowed them with our grammar and vocab, which felt quite nice. This is something that I never would have thought I'd be doing, yet there I was, bantering with the host and crushing walnuts on a Turkish cooking show. I find it bemusing. It was such an incredible experience, and it's such a great story.
In my still-crazy-but-not-as-glamorous everyday life, I went to pub trivia last week, where my team won again, beating a team of my friends by a scant half-point. So we're writing questions for next month. Over the weekend I went to a Beer Festival at the British Embassy's pub, which was quite nice and a chance to have some non-Turkish brews. This weekend I'm heading out to Safranbolu I think, with friends of mine from Istanbul; Safranbolu's embarrassingly close to Ankara, and I've never been. So that'll be good. In my spare time, I'll be hitting up my guidebooks again, doing some planning for March, when my good friend Danaijo is visiting. So life will be full, but not really so busy.
On that note, I'm off,
kib,
-R
The Show: The show is titled "Turk Lezzeti", which translates to something like "Turkish Flavor" or "Turkish Taste". It's a new show, so it'll start airing in April, and my episode should air in May. It's on TRT International, which is available in Europe and the US, as well as Turkey, so if you folks back home have incredible cable, you might be able to see me. The concept of the show is that every episode, they take 2 yabancis (foreigners) and teach them to make a Turkish dish, while chatting in Turkish about why, exactly, they are yabancis in Turkey.
How I got on a Turkish TV show: Internet-savvy yabanci that I am, I frequent several forums for expats living in Turkey. Usually it's really kind of boring/depressing, because everyone lives in Istanbul, so all the information and events are in Istanbul, so I end up skimming a lot. One of them had a post last week mentioning that a studio was looking for yabancis with free time during the week to film a show. Since I set my own schedule, and thus have all the time in the world during the week, I emailed the contact info given. They called back that night, asked if I had a friend that wanted to go on with me, and set up a date and time. I figured I could easily find another Fulbrighter for this chance of a lifetime (or at least, chance of a grant-time). I originally was going to go on the show with a friend from Ankara, but there was a scheduling conflict, so I ended up meeting up with my friend Emily in Istanbul to do the show (for those that read semiregularly, Emily was one of my partners-in-crime for my Bursa trip).
The Big Day: I boarded a bus to Istanbul bright and early Tuesday morning after a little-too-late night. I took Nilufer this time, which I'd never taken before; they were good, probably about Metro-level in quality. My one complaint was that even though it was the "Express" bus to Istanbul, we still stopped at a rest station for 30 minutes. Some things don't change... I got in to Istanbul by 2:30, and got downtown to Besiktas by 3:30. I'd wanted to stock up on some DVDs for awhile, so I headed to the Buyuk Carsiya to check out the DVD markets. One of my regular go-to places had remodeled since the last time I stopped by, and now has new releases prominently featured, a much shorter waiting time, and bulk-purchase discounts. Excellent. I picked up Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, a season of The Wire, the Shawshank Redemption, and Run Lola Run, all for 30 lira (that's currently under $20, so that's pretty awesome, although apparently not as awesome as Ecuadorian DVD prices). While I was perusing DVDs, I noticed one's Turkish title, because it was so odd: literally, it translated to "Flaming chicken." Intrigued, I looked closer, and saw that it was "The Hot Chick." I think maybe that one should not have been literally translated...
I finished up my shopping and headed to the ferry docks to meet up with Emily, who was coming straight from her calligraphy lesson in Asia. We grabbed a cab, showed the cab driver the address to the studio, and off we went. Side story, the cab driver looked at the address, said "I don't know where that is, but we'll get there," and ended up one building over. Pretty good navigating. We had a bit of fun trying to get in to the studio, as the building had about 7 different entrances, not very helpfully labelled, but we finally got to the right place by about 4:45.
We were ushered in, past the set, and back to the dressing room, where the host was getting her makeup finished up. We said hi to a bunch of people before getting our hair done. The stylist put my hair in a style that I've never done myself, and don't know that I would do, but it looked ok. He finished it off with more hairspray than I thought the can could hold. Next Emily got her hair styled and sprayed, and then we got the makeup treatment. Turkish makeup is of a slightly different style compared to American makeup trends (which clearly I stay up to date on, ya?), and Turkish television makeup is just amazingly over the top. They do not hide from colors that I thought were awesome in middle school. Also, they're big fans of the sparkles. I was up first, and after a few layers of various foundation-type ephemera, the makeup lady got to work on my eyes. She started with some neutral tones that I actually rather enjoyed, before moving to a blue that I think is best described by the name "peacock," or perhaps "Mimi on the Drew Carey Show". That was my main eyeshadow color. It was finished off with some glittery product and ridiculous amounts of mascara, before she moved on to stark blush (the contrast was...almost tuberculosis-patient severe) and glittery lip gloss. I wasn't dressed for clubbing, but my face would have been perfect for hitting up even Reina (the best/most expensive club in Istanbul, where the real partiers go). It was absurd, but awesome. Emily was up next, and got a similar treatment, although as she's blonde, her main eyeshadow color was pink, instead of blue.
Artistry
Thus suitably television-ready, we headed out to the set, where we hung out and chatted with the crew as they prepped the ingredients and dishes for the filming to begin. We also chatted with the host, who asked us some questions to ascertain our Turkish levels and told us about the episode we'd be filming. We were making 2 dishes: muhallebi and güllaç. These are both milk-based puddings, so we got a dessert episode. We got miked up, did our sound checks, and got told by the cameramen where to stand for the best viewing angles.
Side note: any Scrubs fans out there might recognize muhallebi, from the episode where J.D. yells at Omar the Turk for stealing his pudding, "O benim muhallebim, Omar!" I used that line a few times on-set, dork that I am.
Finally, it was time to start the show! We counted down, listened to the theme song, and started in. The host introduced each of us and interviewed us briefly on our backgrounds before launching into a description of the dishes we were making. We got started on the güllaç, heating milk and sugar wıth some rosewater while I crushed some walnuts and mixed them with cinnamon. We chatted a bit about what Emily and I were doing in Turkey, and where we were from, and then the host decided I wasn't well-versed in walnut-crushing and took over while we waited for the milk to boil. We talked about when güllaç is traditionally consumed, which is during Ramazan, and I had to pretend to not know when Ramazan was so she (the host) could explain to me that it moved by 10 days each year. Once the walnuts were well and truly crushed, and the milk had boiled, Emily and I got started assembling the güllaç: We started with a layer of güllaç dough, which is like yufka or phyllo but specifically for this dish, and then added a ladleful of milk and a sprinkling of walnuts. We then added another layer of güllaç dough, and continued for maybe two dozen sets of dough, milk, and walnuts. At the end we poured all the leftover milk over the top, and let it sit while we watched the host work on the muhallebi.
Emily and our finished Güllaç
We made Sakizli Muhallebi, which is made with sakiz. In English, sakiz is 'mastic,' but neither Emily nor I had heard of such a thing before. The host had us each try a piece and... it's a similar taste and concept to gum arabic, although a little less jawbreaker-like in consistency. It's not a flavor I'd've thought to add to pudding, and certainly not one that I'd choose to highlight. But, I think it was added to serve as a jelling or binding agent, as we really couldn't taste it in the final product at all. We added the sakiz to milk over heat, along with (again) sugar and rose water, and a few other ingredients that I've forgotten. Once it started a decent rolling boil, the host stirred for a few minutes and then poured it into three smaller dishes while the crew stopped filming to help set up the set for the last part of the show, the tasting.
The guy in charge, pondering muhallebi placement
While the crew argued over what size of plates to use, Emily and I got to decorate the güllaç, using pomegranate seeds and the leftover walnuts. We embellished the pudding with a large pomegranate heart, with walnuts sprinkled around the edges. The crew really enjoyed it, and got quite a few closeups of the heart güllaç. When the set was ready again, we joined the host on-camera to try our creations and wish our audience a heartfelt "Affiyet Olsun!" (Bon Appetit). The cameras cut, everyone applauded, and the crew all came up to grab some güllaç.
We all stood around and chatted for awhile, and we asked the host where she'd learned to cook. It turned out that she'd studied in Paris, at Le Cordon Bleu, which was pretty impressive. She also told us that she has a cookbook, and is sending us copies of it, which I'm very excited about. I chatted with one of the camera guys for a bit, who was really excited that I was from Ankara, as he said much of the crew was also from Ankara. We talked about neighborhoods, and apparently they're all from Aşağı Ayrancı, which is literally down the street from me.
After a bit, we headed back towards the dressing rooms, where we filled out paperwork, asked about airdates, and got 80 lira apiece to cover our travel expenses. The guy walking us through the paperwork told us that the show will start airing in April, and will be on 3 times a day, 10:30, 3ish, and just after midnight. I'm not sure if it's on every day, but I'll find out once it starts airing. Our episode will appear sometime in May. We also may or may not be mailed a copy of our episode on DVD; I wasn't quite sure on that part, but I really really hope it's the case, because my brief Turkish cooking show stardom is something I want to preserve for posterity. If I do get a copy, rest assured I'll post it here.
We got a ride to Arnavutkoy from one of the crew, and arrived there just in time to meet up with my friend Cat (also Emily's roommate) and her visiting relatives for dinner. The restaurant was on the 4th floor of a building, overlooking the Bosphorous, and as we climbed in view, Cat's reaction to our heavily-made-up faces was priceless. It was a little something like: Cat: "Oh hey guys, you made it....Oh My Gosh! Relatives, my friends do not normally look like this". Laughter, of course, ensued. After a great dinner of fish and mezes, I said my goodbyes and headed to Taksim to catch a bus back to Ankara. I got in at 5am, and promptly headed to bed, exhausted but exhilarated.
The experience was so fun; both the host and the crew were great, and clearly were used to yabancis with much less Turkish. We wowed them with our grammar and vocab, which felt quite nice. This is something that I never would have thought I'd be doing, yet there I was, bantering with the host and crushing walnuts on a Turkish cooking show. I find it bemusing. It was such an incredible experience, and it's such a great story.
In my still-crazy-but-not-as-glamorous everyday life, I went to pub trivia last week, where my team won again, beating a team of my friends by a scant half-point. So we're writing questions for next month. Over the weekend I went to a Beer Festival at the British Embassy's pub, which was quite nice and a chance to have some non-Turkish brews. This weekend I'm heading out to Safranbolu I think, with friends of mine from Istanbul; Safranbolu's embarrassingly close to Ankara, and I've never been. So that'll be good. In my spare time, I'll be hitting up my guidebooks again, doing some planning for March, when my good friend Danaijo is visiting. So life will be full, but not really so busy.
On that note, I'm off,
kib,
-R
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The Kindness of Bolulilar
I went skiing yesterday, with a friend from Istanbul. It was one of the most wonderful, absurd, and essentially Turkish days I've had yet. Cat and I had decided to meet up Thursday night in Bolu, a town of about 120,000 located directly between Istanbul and Ankara, to hang out and do a little skiing at Kartalkaya, the nearby ski centre. As Bolu is just 2 hours from Ankara but apparently 5 hours from Istanbul, I got to town first and got busy checking hotel prices and bargaining. I was quite pleased with myself, as I managed to get this gorgeous hotel down from 160 lira/night to 100 even, but in the end we went with the 75-lira place across the street (Bolu and Kartalkaya have reputations for being very expensive, and this is a case in point: I've never paid over 20 lira/person for a hotel in Turkey, except at Palandoken, which was an all-inclusive package ski deal). Having secured that, I grabbed a sandwich and a coffee before meeting up with Cat. We had a great time catching up and gossiping, of course, and turned in early so we could get up early Friday and hit the slopes.
Friday morning we got up unconscionably early, because Bolu is still 40 km from Kartalkaya, so we had a bit of a journey ahead of us. We asked at our hotel about transport options up to the ski centre, and were told that there were no busses or dolmuses, and that our only option was a taxi. We were a bit shocked, as we'd heard there was a bus up, and were determined to not take a ridiculously-expensive taxi. So we headed for one of the town's squares, and stopped at a shop to ask if they knew of a way to get up to Kartalkaya. They suggested the Belediye, which is the town hall/mayor's office. While we were a little confused as to how the mayor's office might be able to help us go skiing, we set off for the Belediye, and ended up on the second floor, asking I think the mayor's secretary about ways to get to Kartalkaya. They had us wait, and offered us tea while they got on the phone. When the woman came back to us, she told us that a taxi was our only option, but that we were now Guests of the Mayor's Office, so we could get a special discount on the taxi: 70 lira instead of 100 lira. We were a little nonplussed, as 70 lira one-way was still more than we were hoping to spend, but we were a little stuck, so we agreed and she went off to call us a cab. A few minutes later, she came back, to report that she had cancelled the cab, as a man in the office had offered to drive us up. The guy turned out to be the Chief of Police. We headed out of the Belediye, running into the mayor on his way in, and stopped to chat for a bit with him. He, like most people we'd met so far that day, seemed a little bemused by us. We headed out with the Chief of Police, Erol, stopping by a police building briefly to pick up a friend of his, a woman named Eylem. Erol had called her to come along because she spoke English, as he didn't know that we spoke Turkish. We had a really fun ride up the mountain, chatting the whole time about Bolu, what they did, travel, and why we were determined to get up the mountain. Part way up, the car got stuck, and we had to rent snow chains from these guys on the side of the road. Erol wouldn't let us pay for them, even though he was driving up only because we wanted to go to Kartalkaya. We eventually made it to one of the mountaintop resorts, Dorukaya, and Erol and Eylem came in with us for a tea before heading back down the mountain. Again, they wouldn't let us pay for the tea, or anything for gas for the trip. We repaid them as best we could, by giving them some of my freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies, which they had never seen before and really appreciated (this is how I spread my Fulbright goodwill--one cookie at a time, apparently). Before they left, Erol took the cafe manager at Dorukaya aside and told him that as we were Guests of the Mayor's Office, he should help us find a cheap way down the mountain once we were finished skiing.
We said goodbye to Erol and Eylem, and headed to get our skis and passes. We were able to successfully bargain down the ski rental price by 15 lira, and the lift passes by 10, although the passes were still exorbitant. We headed out, and started skiing finally. It was decent skiing; the best part about the slopes is that they were almost empty; I don't think there were more than 15, 20 people there skiing that day. Of course, this was partially because the winds were so high that all but 2 lifts were closed, but it was still quite nice and empty on the slopes. Cat grew up in Colorado and could ski before she could walk, so we were at very different skill levels, but I improved a bit and even skied off course a bit with her (not necessarily successfully, but it was pretty darn fun). I stayed pretty much on red pistes, as those were what was open. The snow was fierce; it whipped around in the wind, and the falling snow was roughly the consistency of unflavored Dippin Dots, so on the lifts we had huge pellets slapping into our faces. It was a bit like being sandblasted with sea salt.
After we'd spent a full afternoon skiing, we headed back in to Dorukaya to figure out how to get back to Bolu, so we could grab dinner and a bus back to Ankara and Istanbul. We talked to our guy Ahmet, who Erol had spoken with earlier, and he checked around before telling us that there wasn't anybody heading down the mountain that evening who could take us with, and offering to call us a taxi. We figured our luck couldn't be awesome twice in one day, and asked him to get us a discount on the taxi if he could. While we waited, we chilled with some sahlep and cookies (incidentally, they were the perfect post-ski snack). Ahmet came back, and told us that "there would be no taxi". We were a bit perplexed, but then he told us that there was a bus we could hitch a ride on. One of the guys on the bus came to escort us, and we started talking. It turned out that we were on the local university's ski club bus, heading back to Bolu after a week on the slopes. And the guy we were chatting to was a basketball player who had spent a good part of last year playing ball and studying in Lithuania. The entire bus was pretty interested in us, and we spent the trip down the mountain chatting and singing loud Turkish songs at the top of our lungs. Our basketball player friend offered to help us buy our bus tickets and take us to dinner, so when we got out at the town center, we did just that. We ended up at his family's restaurant, a manti restaurant (manti might just be my favorite Turkish dish...) just off the main street of Bolu. We met his father, his cousin, and his 5-year-old cousin, who was adorable and had just spent a month in America. The 5-year-old was incredibly excited to practice his English skills with us. As we sat down and started chatting, we heard our names being called: we looked up to see Eylem, from earlier that morning, having dinner at the same restaurant, with her father. We ended up all eating together, and she admonished us to be safe with our adventuring. It was a really great meal, delicious, and a little bizarre to be eating with our friend from the morning and our friend from the evening ride, along with their respective families. After taking a quick photo and attempting to pay for dinner (the owner wouldn't let us), we dashed off to the bus station, and on our respective busses, back to our cities and flats and everyday lives.
I was just blown away by how the Bolulilar we met just went out of their way to help us out and get us where we needed to go. And they all refused payment; we saved over 150 lira at least, figuring in 2 taxis at a ridiculously discounted rate plus dinner plus tea. And we had great conversations, in both Turkish and English, got to share some Americana through the guise of chocolate chip cookies, and were Guests of the Mayor's Office. Simply Incredible. Cat was one of my travel buddies both in Cappadocia and in the Southeast; I'd say we're pretty legendary travel companions.
And Bolu is just a fantastic city full of wonderfully nice people.
-R
Friday morning we got up unconscionably early, because Bolu is still 40 km from Kartalkaya, so we had a bit of a journey ahead of us. We asked at our hotel about transport options up to the ski centre, and were told that there were no busses or dolmuses, and that our only option was a taxi. We were a bit shocked, as we'd heard there was a bus up, and were determined to not take a ridiculously-expensive taxi. So we headed for one of the town's squares, and stopped at a shop to ask if they knew of a way to get up to Kartalkaya. They suggested the Belediye, which is the town hall/mayor's office. While we were a little confused as to how the mayor's office might be able to help us go skiing, we set off for the Belediye, and ended up on the second floor, asking I think the mayor's secretary about ways to get to Kartalkaya. They had us wait, and offered us tea while they got on the phone. When the woman came back to us, she told us that a taxi was our only option, but that we were now Guests of the Mayor's Office, so we could get a special discount on the taxi: 70 lira instead of 100 lira. We were a little nonplussed, as 70 lira one-way was still more than we were hoping to spend, but we were a little stuck, so we agreed and she went off to call us a cab. A few minutes later, she came back, to report that she had cancelled the cab, as a man in the office had offered to drive us up. The guy turned out to be the Chief of Police. We headed out of the Belediye, running into the mayor on his way in, and stopped to chat for a bit with him. He, like most people we'd met so far that day, seemed a little bemused by us. We headed out with the Chief of Police, Erol, stopping by a police building briefly to pick up a friend of his, a woman named Eylem. Erol had called her to come along because she spoke English, as he didn't know that we spoke Turkish. We had a really fun ride up the mountain, chatting the whole time about Bolu, what they did, travel, and why we were determined to get up the mountain. Part way up, the car got stuck, and we had to rent snow chains from these guys on the side of the road. Erol wouldn't let us pay for them, even though he was driving up only because we wanted to go to Kartalkaya. We eventually made it to one of the mountaintop resorts, Dorukaya, and Erol and Eylem came in with us for a tea before heading back down the mountain. Again, they wouldn't let us pay for the tea, or anything for gas for the trip. We repaid them as best we could, by giving them some of my freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies, which they had never seen before and really appreciated (this is how I spread my Fulbright goodwill--one cookie at a time, apparently). Before they left, Erol took the cafe manager at Dorukaya aside and told him that as we were Guests of the Mayor's Office, he should help us find a cheap way down the mountain once we were finished skiing.
We said goodbye to Erol and Eylem, and headed to get our skis and passes. We were able to successfully bargain down the ski rental price by 15 lira, and the lift passes by 10, although the passes were still exorbitant. We headed out, and started skiing finally. It was decent skiing; the best part about the slopes is that they were almost empty; I don't think there were more than 15, 20 people there skiing that day. Of course, this was partially because the winds were so high that all but 2 lifts were closed, but it was still quite nice and empty on the slopes. Cat grew up in Colorado and could ski before she could walk, so we were at very different skill levels, but I improved a bit and even skied off course a bit with her (not necessarily successfully, but it was pretty darn fun). I stayed pretty much on red pistes, as those were what was open. The snow was fierce; it whipped around in the wind, and the falling snow was roughly the consistency of unflavored Dippin Dots, so on the lifts we had huge pellets slapping into our faces. It was a bit like being sandblasted with sea salt.
After we'd spent a full afternoon skiing, we headed back in to Dorukaya to figure out how to get back to Bolu, so we could grab dinner and a bus back to Ankara and Istanbul. We talked to our guy Ahmet, who Erol had spoken with earlier, and he checked around before telling us that there wasn't anybody heading down the mountain that evening who could take us with, and offering to call us a taxi. We figured our luck couldn't be awesome twice in one day, and asked him to get us a discount on the taxi if he could. While we waited, we chilled with some sahlep and cookies (incidentally, they were the perfect post-ski snack). Ahmet came back, and told us that "there would be no taxi". We were a bit perplexed, but then he told us that there was a bus we could hitch a ride on. One of the guys on the bus came to escort us, and we started talking. It turned out that we were on the local university's ski club bus, heading back to Bolu after a week on the slopes. And the guy we were chatting to was a basketball player who had spent a good part of last year playing ball and studying in Lithuania. The entire bus was pretty interested in us, and we spent the trip down the mountain chatting and singing loud Turkish songs at the top of our lungs. Our basketball player friend offered to help us buy our bus tickets and take us to dinner, so when we got out at the town center, we did just that. We ended up at his family's restaurant, a manti restaurant (manti might just be my favorite Turkish dish...) just off the main street of Bolu. We met his father, his cousin, and his 5-year-old cousin, who was adorable and had just spent a month in America. The 5-year-old was incredibly excited to practice his English skills with us. As we sat down and started chatting, we heard our names being called: we looked up to see Eylem, from earlier that morning, having dinner at the same restaurant, with her father. We ended up all eating together, and she admonished us to be safe with our adventuring. It was a really great meal, delicious, and a little bizarre to be eating with our friend from the morning and our friend from the evening ride, along with their respective families. After taking a quick photo and attempting to pay for dinner (the owner wouldn't let us), we dashed off to the bus station, and on our respective busses, back to our cities and flats and everyday lives.
I was just blown away by how the Bolulilar we met just went out of their way to help us out and get us where we needed to go. And they all refused payment; we saved over 150 lira at least, figuring in 2 taxis at a ridiculously discounted rate plus dinner plus tea. And we had great conversations, in both Turkish and English, got to share some Americana through the guise of chocolate chip cookies, and were Guests of the Mayor's Office. Simply Incredible. Cat was one of my travel buddies both in Cappadocia and in the Southeast; I'd say we're pretty legendary travel companions.
And Bolu is just a fantastic city full of wonderfully nice people.
-R
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Erzurum
This is me in one of the Georgian churches we visited while not skiing, last weekend in Erzurum. This is also my new haircut, it was about time and then some.
-R
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)