Today is International Women's Day, a bigger deal in Turkey than in the US. In fact, it's such a big deal that the grocery store on campus had a buy one, get one free sale for chocolate bars. Yes please!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Best Promotion Ever
Today is International Women's Day, a bigger deal in Turkey than in the US. In fact, it's such a big deal that the grocery store on campus had a buy one, get one free sale for chocolate bars. Yes please!
Monday, March 7, 2011
Lucky me...
Every culture has a good luck charm, whether it be a four-leafed clover, horseshoe, or wishbone, there's always some kind of tangible way to ward off evil. In Turkey, it's the color blue, specifically blue eyes. People buy beads and wall hangings with a pretty abstract-looking blue eye on them which is supposed to protect one from the influence of the evil eye. (People with natural blue eyes, like yours truly, are thought to be naturally protected. Awesome.) These days the blue beads seem to be more of a tourist attraction than anything, but you can still find them on busses, houses, even the occasional necklace. And I got one on a safety pin in Cappadocia for free, so of course I pinned it to my purse. After all, it can't hurt!
Here are some samples of the charms I saw in Cappadocia-- there were a couple of trees covered in them!
Here are some samples of the charms I saw in Cappadocia-- there were a couple of trees covered in them!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Hooray, I have a blog again!
Blogspot is now un-blocked after about four days, probably because someone realized blocking an entire website because of a couple people is absurd. The only difference I can see now is pictures are kind of hard to format, so bear with me if this post looks a little funny. So let me catch you up on my activities of the past week:
Homework, homework, homework. Now that we've gotten into the swing of school again professors are pretty serious about readings and all that. It's been pretty interesting so far, but doesn't give me much to tell you all about...
Watched Inception on Thursday with a group of friends which was good fun.
On Friday I took a homework break to go to a coffee shop in Sariyer with a friend. I got tea, of course, and this delicious pastry! Yum.
Yesterday was packed full of exciting cultural activities. I went to Dolmabahçe Palace with a group of exchange students, which was constructed in the mid-nineteenth century as the Ottoman Empire was trying to Westernize to remain relevant. As a result, it's got all kinds of European elements-- crystal chandeliers, porcelain doorknobs, Victorian furniture-- but also a harem. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was gorgeous. The tour finished with the ceremonial hall which is still used today for receiving foreign dignitaries (like President Obama a couple of years ago!). It's an enormous hall with decorated pillars, ceilings, and a FOUR TON chandelier! Crazy.
In the afternoon the six of us went to the Prince's Islands, about a 90 minute ferry ride from Dolmabaçe. We stayed on the big island, had a late lunch and walked around for quite some time. Cars aren't allowed on the island, just emergency and maybe delivery vehicles, so everyone uses bicycles and horse-drawn carriages to get around. It was a fun little town, if a little touristy. On the way back, we almost missed our bus and had to take a taxi back to campus, but right as we were discussing the fare with the cab driver our bus pulled up. Perfect timing.
I finished out the long and exciting day with ELEVEN HOURS of sleep. Perfect!
Okay, here are some pictures:
View of Ships from the island
Secret Garden? All the houses on the island had fences, and many had little paths like this.
Beware of the dog!
The palace from the outside.
Homework, homework, homework. Now that we've gotten into the swing of school again professors are pretty serious about readings and all that. It's been pretty interesting so far, but doesn't give me much to tell you all about...
Watched Inception on Thursday with a group of friends which was good fun.
On Friday I took a homework break to go to a coffee shop in Sariyer with a friend. I got tea, of course, and this delicious pastry! Yum.
Yesterday was packed full of exciting cultural activities. I went to Dolmabahçe Palace with a group of exchange students, which was constructed in the mid-nineteenth century as the Ottoman Empire was trying to Westernize to remain relevant. As a result, it's got all kinds of European elements-- crystal chandeliers, porcelain doorknobs, Victorian furniture-- but also a harem. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was gorgeous. The tour finished with the ceremonial hall which is still used today for receiving foreign dignitaries (like President Obama a couple of years ago!). It's an enormous hall with decorated pillars, ceilings, and a FOUR TON chandelier! Crazy.
In the afternoon the six of us went to the Prince's Islands, about a 90 minute ferry ride from Dolmabaçe. We stayed on the big island, had a late lunch and walked around for quite some time. Cars aren't allowed on the island, just emergency and maybe delivery vehicles, so everyone uses bicycles and horse-drawn carriages to get around. It was a fun little town, if a little touristy. On the way back, we almost missed our bus and had to take a taxi back to campus, but right as we were discussing the fare with the cab driver our bus pulled up. Perfect timing.
I finished out the long and exciting day with ELEVEN HOURS of sleep. Perfect!
Okay, here are some pictures:
View of Ships from the island
Secret Garden? All the houses on the island had fences, and many had little paths like this.
Beware of the dog!
The palace from the outside.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Oh the Irony
I had planned to write today's post about the comparative freedom in Turkey, especially in light of the revolts in the surrounding countries. I was going to write about the free debates we had in class after the recent death of Erkaban, the first Islamist Prime Minister. I was going to reassure everyone that Turkey is a well-consolidated democracy that has But as I tried to log on to write this entry, I found this message in red across the top of the page: Bu siteye erisim mahkeme karariyla engellenmistir. As you may know, I don't speak Turkish, but Google Translate helped me though. As it turns out, Turkey banned Blogspot as part of a court case by some TV company because people were streaming soccer matches onto their blogs. Clearly, the reasonable response was to shut down blogspot for the entire country...
But as I think about it, it's not out of Turkey's character. YouTube is also banned throughout the country (although not on campus, fortunately!) because of some anti-Ataturk videos posted by some Greeks. Again, a disproportionately severe response to a fairly minor grievance. Although Ataturk is still greatly revered here, I feel blocking an entire website is rather extreme.
All this is not to say that Turkey is at risk for any kind of revolution-- it's still a democratic country (elections are in June), and its citizens enjoy freedoms similar to those of Americans, at least for the most part. But the lengths that the Turkish government is willing to go is another story.
Obviously while this ban is in place, I will have a difficult time keeping up with the blog. I'll post updates as best I can through proxies, but email/Facebook me if you want more regular information.
Oh, the Irony...
I had planned to write today's post about the comparative freedom in Turkey, especially in light of the revolts in the surrounding countries. I was going to write about the free debates we had in class after the recent death of Erkaban, the first Islamist Prime Minister. I was going to reassure everyone that Turkey is a well-consolidated democracy that has But as I tried to log on to write this entry, I found this message in red across the top of the page: Bu siteye erisim mahkeme karariyla engellenmistir. As you may know, I don't speak Turkish, but Google Translate helped me though. As it turns out, Turkey banned Blogspot as part of a court case by some TV company because people were streaming soccer matches onto their blogs. Clearly, the reasonable response was to shut down blogspot for the entire country...
But as I think about it, it's not out of Turkey's character. YouTube is also banned throughout the country (although not on campus, fortunately!) because of some anti-Ataturk videos posted by some Greeks. Again, a disproportionately severe response to a fairly minor grievance. Although Ataturk is still greatly revered here, I feel blocking an entire website is rather extreme.
All this is not to say that Turkey is at risk for any kind of revolution-- it's still a democratic country (elections are in June), and its citizens enjoy freedoms similar to those of Americans, at least for the most part. But the lengths that the Turkish government is willing to go is another story.
Obviously while this ban is in place, I will have a difficult time keeping up with the blog. I'll post updates as best I can through proxies, but email/Facebook me if you want more regular information.
But as I think about it, it's not out of Turkey's character. YouTube is also banned throughout the country (although not on campus, fortunately!) because of some anti-Ataturk videos posted by some Greeks. Again, a disproportionately severe response to a fairly minor grievance. Although Ataturk is still greatly revered here, I feel blocking an entire website is rather extreme.
All this is not to say that Turkey is at risk for any kind of revolution-- it's still a democratic country (elections are in June), and its citizens enjoy freedoms similar to those of Americans, at least for the most part. But the lengths that the Turkish government is willing to go is another story.
Obviously while this ban is in place, I will have a difficult time keeping up with the blog. I'll post updates as best I can through proxies, but email/Facebook me if you want more regular information.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Okay, so this is apparently a thing in Cappadocia-- they put pots on the trees to make homes for the pigeons that are everywhere. Or maybe this is just for tourists. Either way, pretty cool!
Awesome fairy chimneys, gross weather. I'm actually surprised I didn't get someone's umbrella in this shot...
Fairy chimneys and a cave! Note the hand-carved hand- and footholds... not something I'd want to do every day!
Beautiful Cappadocia...
How cool is this?!
I'm back...
I've been having difficulties posting this entry, so I'll try omitting the pictures for now and see how it goes.
As you may know, I went to Cappadocia this weekend with a big group of exchange students. Cappadocia is about 12 hours from school--we left at 9 Thursday night and arrived at 9 am on Friday. The bus ride was about as enjoyable as you can imagine... so Friday was spent resting up and enjoying the spa at the hotel. Some students went horseback riding, but I decided that would not be a balance-friendly activity. Good thing, too-- two kids fell off after their horses took off running. So I spent Friday night in a clinic with a friend who sprained her ankle; it was certainly an interesting way to see another side of Turkey!
Saturday probably had the worst weather I've seen here. It snowed in the morning and drizzled almost the entire day. Regardless, we continued sightseeing as planned. We began with a trip to see the fairy chimneys, surreal-looking pillars formed by the erosion of lava from a nearby volcano that was active millions of years ago. But the coolest thing about the area is not the science fiction-y landscape but the caves carved into the pillars as well as larger cliffs. The rock is fairly soft, so early Christian hermits and monks created retreats in the forbidding landscape. They even created chapels with frescoes all over the ceilings and walls dating back more than 1000 years-- indescribable. Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures as the flash damages the paint and it was too dark to take photos without flash. Sorry!
On Sunday we stopped at several points specifically for the view-- it was much nicer, almost sunny, so I got some great pictures of the fairy chimneys, caves, and dramatic vistas in general. But the highlight of the day was the underground city, began 4000 years ago by the Hittites and expanded 2000 years ago by early Christians. It was only used for short periods of time as a refuge from hostile invaders, but was complete with storage rooms, a kitchen, and two wineries. I certainly don't envy the inhabitants, since the access points to the wineries were tunnels just 4 feet high. I can't imagine climbing up and down them every day, let alone doing it with full barrels of wine and grapes!
The weather continues misty and grey. Maybe I'll see the sun sometime before I leave!
As you may know, I went to Cappadocia this weekend with a big group of exchange students. Cappadocia is about 12 hours from school--we left at 9 Thursday night and arrived at 9 am on Friday. The bus ride was about as enjoyable as you can imagine... so Friday was spent resting up and enjoying the spa at the hotel. Some students went horseback riding, but I decided that would not be a balance-friendly activity. Good thing, too-- two kids fell off after their horses took off running. So I spent Friday night in a clinic with a friend who sprained her ankle; it was certainly an interesting way to see another side of Turkey!
Saturday probably had the worst weather I've seen here. It snowed in the morning and drizzled almost the entire day. Regardless, we continued sightseeing as planned. We began with a trip to see the fairy chimneys, surreal-looking pillars formed by the erosion of lava from a nearby volcano that was active millions of years ago. But the coolest thing about the area is not the science fiction-y landscape but the caves carved into the pillars as well as larger cliffs. The rock is fairly soft, so early Christian hermits and monks created retreats in the forbidding landscape. They even created chapels with frescoes all over the ceilings and walls dating back more than 1000 years-- indescribable. Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures as the flash damages the paint and it was too dark to take photos without flash. Sorry!
On Sunday we stopped at several points specifically for the view-- it was much nicer, almost sunny, so I got some great pictures of the fairy chimneys, caves, and dramatic vistas in general. But the highlight of the day was the underground city, began 4000 years ago by the Hittites and expanded 2000 years ago by early Christians. It was only used for short periods of time as a refuge from hostile invaders, but was complete with storage rooms, a kitchen, and two wineries. I certainly don't envy the inhabitants, since the access points to the wineries were tunnels just 4 feet high. I can't imagine climbing up and down them every day, let alone doing it with full barrels of wine and grapes!
The weather continues misty and grey. Maybe I'll see the sun sometime before I leave!
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