Istanbul

I took the train to Istanbul from Ankara on Friday night. The train left at 2330 so we traveled all night. We arrived on the Asian side, so when we got off the train we immediately got on the ferry to cross the Bosphorous to Europe. It was beautiful! And being near the water again felt so good.

The train station on the Asian side

Caitie, Yasemin, and Chris on the ferry

Europe

Europe again

Between two continents!!

Since we traveled all night and were pretty tired, the real first day in Istanbul was pretty uneventful, so I'm going to skip over it and go to the fun stuff. On Sunday, we decided to hit up the Grand Bazaar first thing, so Caitie, Kasia, Andreas, and I went in search of it. Unfortunately, it was closed since it was Sunday. We decided to go shopping around the Spice Bazaar instead since it was close.

Kasia in the Spice Bazaar

Spices!!

After about an hour in the Spice Bazaar, we went to the pier to get fresh fish sandwiches. It was probably one of the most chaotic meals I've ever eaten. There are a few tents set up on the pier with a bunch of tiny tables under them. The place is packed, so you have to weave in and out of people sitting at these tiny tables to find an open table. Once you find a table, you walk up to the edge of the pier where there's a boat tied up. On the boat is a bunch of big grills, and there are men grilling up fish and then when you order a sandwich they rip the spine and ribs out and throw it on a bun for you with lettuce and onions. The fish was delicious because it was super fresh, but there were a lot of bones in it.

The boat that they grill the fish on

The tent that we ate under... notice the small tables :)

Yummy fish sandwich!!

Andreas and Kasia split after that, and Caitie and I went to do all the touristy things. First we toured the Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia is a famous mosque turned into a museum. It used to be a cathedral when the city was under Roman control. When the Ottomans conquered the city, they slapped a dome on top and made it a mosque. It was super interesting because all of the old Catholic mosaics were still in place, and discs with Arabic on them were hung over the alter. It truly was were East meets West.

The Hagia Sophia

Inside

Caitie and I on the top floor of the Hagia Sophia

The ramp up to the top floor

Inside

Mosaic of Jesus

Mosaic of Mary, Jesus, and the royal family

The alter

The next sight was the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque is a fully operational mosque, but it's huge and beautiful, so it's a big tourist attraction. However, since it's fully operational, we had to take off our shoes and cover our heads to go inside. That definitely added to the experience. There were people praying inside, and it was so fascinating to watch.

View from the outside

The inside. The lighting wasn't very good so I didn't get many pictures.

The last sight of the day was the Basilica Cistern. It's the largest ancient cistern in Istanbul. There's still some water in it, so there are raised walkways that are used for touring. The thing the Basilica is famous for is the two Medusa heads that two of the pillars sit on.

We started early on Monday and went to the Grand Bazaar just as it opened. The bazaar was HUGE!! We spent about two hours shopping around and only got through maybe a fifth of it! I did buy lots of goodies though. It was an excellent place to buy souvenirs because you can haggle for wicked good prices.

Our last attraction in Istanbul was the Topkapi Palace. This is the palace that the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire used to live in. It was absolutely gorgeous! Possibly one of the most beautiful places I've seen. There were huge courtyards and the intricate decorations in all of the buildings was amazing. Caitie and I saw the dressing rooms, where they some of the sultans' robes on display, and the sultans' private mosque. My favorite part, though, was the treasury where the sultans' jewelry, thrones, and all kinds of accessories from writing boxes to flasks. It seemed as though everything the sultans touched had to be covered in gold, rubies, and emeralds; and the intricacy in the decoration of these items was mind blowing. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures of these things, so you're just going to have to come visit me to see them :)

The exterior gate

The exterior courtyard

Caitie walking through the exterior courtyard

The interior gate

The interior courtyard

The mosque

Interior Courtyard again

After touring the palace, Caitie and I hopped a bus back to Ankara, concluding my first of what I'm sure will be many trips to Istanbul.

Classes

So now that I've got a full two weeks of classes under my belt, I thought I'd give you an update on what I'm taking and what my professors, or hocam (pronounced hojam) in Turkish, are like.

First of all, you need to understand the attitude towards exchange students. Professors love us. We can do no wrong. There's two reasons behind this feeling. The first is that teaching foreigners is seen as very prestigious. Secondly, exchange students are here to learn. The general feeling at private schools in Turkey is that you're paying for a diploma, not an education. I've been told by multiple people that professors do not fail people, because if they do, the professor risks being sued by the student's father. This is a very general feeling, but nevertheless, it contributes to preferential treatment of the exchange students.

Now about my classes.

The European Union and Turkey:
This is my favorite class. Unfortunately, It meets Friday afternoon from 3:40 - 5:30, but I still love it. The professor is very charismatic. The focus of the class will be on the relationship between the EU and Turkey and what Turkey's membership in the EU would mean for Turkey and Europe. That won't come until later in the semester, though. Right now we're just studying the EU and how it operates, since for most of us this is the first time we're studying the EU. To me, the EU is fascinating. The similarities between the U.S. in it's early days and the current EU are blowing my mind. I think the EU will be the next U.S. if it keeps expanding, but of course you can't tell a European that :)

Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA):
This is my second favorite class. My professor is very soft spoken, so he's hard to hear at the beginning of class while everyone is settling in, but once he gets started on the material, he raises the volume and gets very passionate. He's also very engaging, which is nice. He's constantly asking for or providing examples, and when the U.S. is used for an example he looks directly at me, since I'm the only non-Turkish student in the class. It's kind of funny because he gives me a look like he's giving the example for me. The reason I really like the class, though, is because I really get to see the Turkish perspective of the U.S. The U.S. tends to dominate FPA, and since I'm the only non-Turk, everything is from the Turkish perspective. It's so enlightening, but also kind of embarrassing because the Turks obviously know a lot about the U.S. and it's government, but I know very little about theirs. I'm making it a point to learn though.

International Political Economy (IPE):
This class is a cross between political science and economics. We're supposed to study the world economy and how the politics between countries effects the world economy. This is the class that I was most excited for, but I've been kind of let down so far. My professor is super intelligent, to the point of being almost too intelligent. We've only had three classes so far, but all of them have been unrelated to the subject. The professor always starts out on topic, but then one word, like theory, sets him off on a philosophical tangent. The first class we listened to him rant about how the education system became corrupt through specialization and the development of "majors". Last week was a very deep conversation about the validity of "facts". He told us that since facts are interpreted by theories, we can't analyze theories with facts. It's all very interesting and deep, but it's not the class I signed up for. However, like I said, we've only had three classes. Hopefully once we really delve into the material it'll get better.

Turkic/Muslim People of the Former USSR:
Hmmm.... how to describe this class? It's challenging. My professor for this class has a VERY thick accent, so I have to concentrate really hard to keep up. Not to mention he is very scatter brained, so we're constantly jumping from subject to subject throughout the class. The class is all about the different ethnicities that exist in the Middle East, a subject that I am totally unfamiliar with. It seems like it would be interesting right? The problem is, I feel like I spend all my effort in class trying to follow the professor rather than absorbing the material. Everyone says that after a while the accents get easier to understand, though.

Turkish as a Second Language:
This class kind of speaks for itself. So far we've learned numbers, colors, and household furniture. The numbers have been very helpful, but most of the applicable Turkish I've learned has been from walking around the city and talking to people in class.


So that's basically what my weeks consist of. This weekend I'm planning on going to Istanbul, so look for a post next week about that.

Adventures in Ankara

The first week of classes was very successful. All of my professors are friendly and speak English very well. A couple of them have thick accents that will take a little getting used to.

To celebrate a successful first week, and the Chinese New Year, all the exchange students met up at a local bar, Puhu, on Thursday (most students don't have class on Friday, and I only had one class late in the afternoon, so Thursday is considered our Friday). After a round of Turkish beer, one of the Turkish students brought us to his favorite club for Hiphop night. It was my first Turkish club and it was super fun, especially since we went in a big group.

After a few hours of dancing, my flatmates and I decided to leave. As we were picking up our coats from the coat check, a man came up to Caitie and I and said, "I don't know if you guys speak English, but I just wanted to say that you were the most real dancers out there. Everyone else was a poser." That was a pretty cheesy line and he seemed pretty drunk so we politely said thank you and tried to make an exit. Apparently we said just enough for him to hear our American accents, so he asked where we were from. We told him the USA, and he goes, "No way! I work in the embassy!"All of a sudden we were interested. Caitie and I have been trying all week to find out if there's going to be a Super Bowl party inside the embassy, since none of the bars around here will be showing it. However, it is extremely difficult to get inside the embassy and the guards that stand outside didn't know what the Super Bowl was when we asked. Hence, we were pumped to finally meet an inside man. We immediately asked him if there was going to be a Super Bowl party. His response was, "Yes! Well, let me rephrase that. We'll be showing it at my house. I'm a Marine and I live in the Marine house." Now I was super interested :)  He told us that they were going to have a happy hour party on Friday night, so we should come check out the house and then we were definitely welcome for the Super Bowl. We exchanged numbers and left.

Friday night, Caitie and I went to happy hour at the Marine house to check out the scene. It was a little weird and awkward at first. The bar in the Marine house is where all the embassy workers go Friday night after they get off work, so we didn't really fit in, but as the night went on the crowd got younger. Eventually, they closed the bar and Caitie and I got to just hang out in the house with the Marine and few of their friends. We only did that for a little while before moving on to the Marines' favorite club. Their private driver took us. NBD. The club started out really fun, but when the live band started it got lame really fast. The guys had already told us that this was their favorite bad, so rather than offend them, we decided to just say that we were hungry and that we were gonna leave to find food. Instead of just saying goodbye, the guy that invited us decided to call his driver and took us to his favorite late night restaurant. After some kebabs, we went home.

This morning we got up early and went to a hamam, a Turkish bath house. Again, it was a little weird at first. We walked into the house, they showed us a dressing room, gave us towels and told us to strip. Keep in mind while reading this that no one spoke English; it was all communicated through hand gestures. Then we were led into a big, open, marble room with faucets all along the walls. Caitie and I were showed to a faucet. We didn't really know what what was going on, so we took cues from everyone else and sat there enjoying the steam. Eventually two woman came over and motioned for us to lay down. They proceeded to use a rough silk mit to scrub us, then covered us in coffee grounds, and finished with some soap and a massage. It felt wonderful, and we walked out of the house feeling cleaner than I every have before.

Tonight we're going to see Tron at the IMax theater, since it just came out here. It's been a successful first weekend in Ankara.

Cappadocia Day 1

Saturday (1/29) left Ankara at 4:00 am to make the long bus ride to Cappadocia. Cappadocia is a region of Turkey. It is most famous for it's impressive rock formations created by the surrounding volcanos. It is also that region that was settled by early Christians to escape Roman persecution. For this reason, ancient churches tend to be the major sight to see. What should have been a four hour bus ride turned into a six hour drive because of the snow. Nevertheless, we made it.

Our first stop was an ancient monastery. The monastery was literally built into one of the rock formations. It consisted of tunnels and big open spaces carved into the rock. This made it a great place to explore. After sitting for six hours on the bus, the entire group had a blast climbing through the tunnels up the mountain, despite the fact that it was raining.

The next stop was the Ihlara Valley, which a huge gorge. Because of the weather, we weren't able to walk the entire length of the gorge, but we were able to see some of the churches that were carved into the stone walls surrounding the gorge. Each church was carved in the shape of a cross and the walls were covered in frescos depicting the stories of the Bible. They were very dark inside, so I wasn't able to take many good pictures.

Our last sight-seeing stop of the day was one of the underground cities. Underground cities were first discovered in Cappadocia in 1961. It is estimated that there are about 200 of them in the region, but only 37 have been unearthed so far. Underground cities were used as a form of defense in ancient times; people didn't live in them all the time. Because Cappadocia is located in central Anatolia, it was subject to lots of envasions and wars during the times of the Mongols and Hittites. When a town or city was being invaded, it's inhabitants would descend into these underground cities for protection. The series of tunnels and rooms was very intricate. The rooms were large and open, but the tunnels connecting them were very small. Even I had to crouch to pass through most of them.

Geoff (UC Davis) getting ready to enter one of the tunnls

Shelby (Michigan) in a window to one of the rooms

Adam (Sweden) and I in one of the larger tunnels

Shelby on a bridge connecting a tunnels that passed over the kitchen

After touring the underground city, we went to our hostel. It was a cave hotel!! The rooms were furnish rooms built into the rock. There were no hallways, just stairs climbing up the side of the rock formation.

That night was Turkish Night. We went to a restaurant where we sat at big, long, stone tables, ate traditional Turkish food (I had my first lamb dish!) and watch performers perform traditional Turkish dances. At the end of the night, after the performers were done, the dance floor turned into a club. Basically, we spent the whole night from 8 to midnight eating, drinking, and dancing. It was the best night so far.

Whirling Dervishes

Traditional Folk Dance

 Turkish Wedding Ceremony

Belly Dancer

Cappadocia Day 2

Saturday morning we woke up early and went to an open-air museum. This was another city built into the rock formations. The rain from the day before had turned into snow overnight, so there was a fresh blanket.  This meant that as we walked between the sights snowball fights were constantly breaking out. The entire group had a blast walking around the city, exploring the rooms and churches in the rocks, and white-washing each other in-between.

Edip bracing himself for the first snowball

Caitie outside one of the churches

The view from the window of one of the houses

The group inside one of the houses

Our last major sight seeing stop was Uchisar Castle. We climbed to the top of one of the rock formations and took pictures of the city below.

Kasia and I admiring the view

Pelle (Holland), Adam, and I at the very top of the Castle

We finished off the trip with a wine tasting at a local winery and a tour of a local pottery shop. The wine tasting was pretty lame. Since it was a big group of us and we were students, they only let us try the two cheapest wines and pretty much ignored us. We were in the shop for a grand total of twenty minutes. The pottery shop was very cool, however. It specialized in traditional Turkish pottery, meaning plates, bowls, vases, Turkish tear-drop vases, and Turkish and Hittite decanters. We got to watch the master make a tear-drop vase. 

This is a Hittite decanter. They placed their arm through the hole and poured the wine over their shoulder.

We made it back to Ankara at midnight Sunday night, after getting stuck in the snow once. That was later than I wanted to stay up on my first school night, but the trip to Cappadocia was definitely worth it.