Year two of teaching seems to be quickly wrapping up. I have a little over a month left of school, most of that finals and graduation obligations. The last few months have flown by for several reasons. For one, the weather is finally turning into summer, which always means happier faces and better times, which means for a quicker hour and day. Second, I have been busy. I have gone on several weekend trips which makes for wonderful times, but frantic weeks catching up and then getting ahead for the next escape.
The first trip took place in April, one week after my mom left Istanbul following my Spring Break and Jordan Trip. Three friends and colleagues and I headed to Iznik for a 10k run (part of a bigger Ultra run). Iznik is a few hour ferry ride across the Sea of Marmara, then another couple hours on bus. Erin, Darcy, Shirin, and I headed out after school Friday on the service bus with 5-day boarders headed across the waters to their parents for the weekend. We spent Saturday checking out the amazing Iznik ceramic work. Iznik tiles are the claim to fame of the world renowned Blue Mosque and many other famous Turkish architectural pieces. Stores filled with tiles, plates, bowls, ceramic jewelry, and much more lined the streets and we happily stopped by each of the shops, often chatting with the artist him/herself who proudly showed off favorite pieces. We had to pull one shopkeeper/artist from her art space in the back who came in wiping the wet clay off her hands, eager to show off her work.
The next day, we woke early to run our 10K. As I said, the 10K was the smaller event of the weekend. The Ultra was the big event. It was hard to allow myself to get nervous for a 10k as I watched people hobble in and out of the hotel from their 130k run. Despite this, we had a great time and all were very happy with our finishes. I came in 7th among the women, which I was particularly happy with since I had not trained as much as I would have liked. Shirin, Darcy, then Erin finished in that order, all running the whole way which was the group goal. The run was very enjoyable, through the town, by the ancient walls, and along Lake Iznik. Locals lined the street, children danced and played instruments. It was a wonderful event. Of course, we couldn't forget this was Turkey. As we lined up to race, several runners had their pre-race morning smoke. I saw one take a break in the 10k to light up at least one more time.
The next big trip happened a few weekends later in May. I went with my colleagues Heather and Erin to Antep (also known as Gaziantep, or "Antep the War Hero" which was changed after the post-WWI resistance in Antep to the Allied occupiers) with the ultimate goal of seeing Mount Nemrut. We flew out Saturday morning to the southeastern city which is less than 100 km from Aleppo, Syria. We started the visit by a stop at the famous Mosaic Museum. In the 1980s, the Ataturk Dam was built on the Euphrates River. Bordering this river, though, were beautiful Roman houses of the ancient wealthy, who had stunning mosaic floors. Before flooding these houses with the dam project, these precious mosaics were lifted into this museum. Before moving to Turkey, I was not particularly fond of mosaics. I guess you can say I did not have an appreciation for these pieces of art. Walking through this museum, I have been changed. These mosaic artists were so masterful with the natural stone (no dyes were used) they were able to create 3D effects, shading and incorporate this all in their elaborate scenes and designs.
After wandering this museum, we headed to some nation-renowned food. We all had some delicious kebab and baklava before heading out to Mount Nemrut. The trip to Mount Nemrut was estimated to take about 4 hours from Gaziantep. We therefore left at one so we could make it there in plenty of time to see the sunset over the ancient heads. The voyage out there was beautiful and we stopped for many photo-ops. It rained on and off, with one heavy downpour at the beginning of our trip. Little did we realize how this was going to affect us. Our first sign that we could possibly be headed into trouble was when Heather's GPS told us to turn onto "unpaved road." No other name was provided. The next sign was when we actually left the known roads of her GPS. We asked several shepherds along the way and they all continued to point us down this mud road. The third sign that we were headed to trouble was the fact that no matter how much further we traveled, each herder told us just 10 more kilometers. So we continued down this muddy road along the side of the valley. Just as we came into the view of the town of our pension house, we came upon a van stuck in the mud. They waved at us as we approached and told us we could not go any further (I just want to remind you we are trying to communicate all this in Turkish, so when I say they told us not to go further, I really mean we believe they told us not to go further). As we tried to voice disagreement seeing that we have done okay in the mud, we are so close, and we really don't want to turn back, the other passengers wave us to come forward and look at the road around the corner. That's where we see it. There is no road. It has been washed away. We must head back. After offering help to our angels, we do, find a nice paved marked road that, although is not as direct, gets us there easily. By this time, it is 7:30, 2.5 hours after we expected to arrive. We get a glimpse of the sunrise just as we pull in to our pension house, thus missing our sunset over Mount Nemrut. We are fed at our pension house and go to bed early to get up for sunrise.
We awake at 4:30am, bundle up, and head out to Mount Nemrut. We park towards the top of the mountain and join the 50 or so other Turkish tourists in making the last part of the ascent. As soon as we reached the summit, we came to the famous heads of Mount Nemrut. In 64-38 BCE, King Antochius I Theos, ruler of the Commagene kingdom, had these three terraces built on the top of the mountain. In these terraces, he had large statues of himself with the Persian and Greek gods sitting in a row of thrones. Today, the bodies still sit there in the thrones, with there heads, long since fallen off after earthquakes and wear, lying below. Between the terraces, a giant mound of rocks had been built up by man. Rumor has it the King Antochius is buried there.
We all reached the top and took our pictures, trying to stay warm in the damp, cold, and windy conditions on the summit. The surrounding fog obscured the sunrise, but created a mystical experience.
After our picture taking and wandering, we headed back down for a cup of chai, a big breakfast, and a nap before heading back to Gaziantep. We do learn from our mistakes and stuck to the big roads leading back and arrived back in Gaziantep with no adventure to talk about. We had a few hours to enjoy in the city before heading back. We checked out the city museum, which talked about the city's role in the war for independence, the pistachios, baklava, and their artists. We then headed to the streets to go support these industries. We bought some local pistachios, baklava, dried apricots (grown in nearby Malatya), homemade leather shoes, and copper goods before sprinting back to the airport just in time to make our flight.
This past Friday, we had our school's Olympics in celebration to Ataturk's holiday, Youth and Sports Day. We started the day with a "marathon" which had to be no more than 4k, but was brutal since it took us up and down the campus hill. For you Chicagoans, I have no hill in that area to even compare it to. For Seattle friends, imagine running down then up a steeper version of Stone Way for 4 kilometers. I was the first to finish the marathon for the girls and earned myself a medal. More impressive are the male teachers who flew in before me. We have some amazing athletes on our staff. After the marathon, we had a flag football game, teachers versus students. The students beat us handedly...I want to add a but at the end of that last sentence, but can't think of anything positive to say about our performance. Jake, the flag football coach, has taught these Turks to play the game too well. In the closing ceremony, our headmaster who is an ex-pro football player, but unfortunately battling injuries that kept him on the sideline, spoke of our embarrassing loss and promised he would be there next year. If we lost again next year, he pointed to our female dance team in their red dresses who had performed at the ceremony, we would be wearing those and doing the dancing. Later, students told him that I (the only female on the team) would be the only one who could possibly look good doing that. Don't know how to take that. Especially since they have not yet seen my lack of dance skills yet.
After flag football, I headed into the gym to play a basketball game against the students. I can happily report that the teachers edged the students by 3 points. It was a great game. The boys and girls teams represented the student team, which I was very happy to see, all sharing time. Several of my girls players hit some big shots in the battle.
During these events, others were going on as well. Soccer matches, volleyball, tug of war, long donkey (a Turkish specialty). It was a great time had by all who went. Of course, at our school not all students are into the whole athletic and even outdoor scene. Whenever a bug flies into my classroom, utter pandemonium results. A good percentage of the students didn't come today and I heard that there were other students who just spent their time in the library. It seems crazy to me since I could not imagine a better day. In the afternoon, we had a ceremony where all the student-athletes are recognized. I called up my girls team and recognized the MVP and Most Improved Players. Then left and spent 1.5 days of not moving recovering from the hours of sport-playing my body can no longer do.
On Sunday, I was finally able to move my limbs without excruciating pain, so I dragged myself to a farm with a group of colleagues and students. The farm is owned by a school alum Murat, who planned a day of eating, harvesting, and relaxing at his homestead. The surrounding scenery was beautiful. Cows and sheep wandered through the backyard that we relaxed and feasted in, behind it was a grove of hazelnut and cherry trees. A little further, we came to fields of sloping crops. We hiked to Murat's field and filled our baskets with peas and garlic which we later brought back with us. It was a wonderful way to escape the craziness of the city, hang out with friends, and dig into nature.
It's been a crazy few months and then last month I know will be no less crazy. As I get more used to teaching, I am more willing to take the short weekend trips. This country seems to have an endless amount of places and landmarks to see. Items on my list to see seem to be getting added faster than I can cross them off. Although I love this bustling city, it is also nice to get away from it.
There are definitely still parts of Turkey, and more specifically Istanbul, that I struggle with. I am happy to extend my time here so I can continue to see more amazing places, but can't imagine calling Istanbul my permanent home. Some of my reasons are petty and cultural, the way people dress, the way people can spoil their children, the way people drive, the way people can't wait in line. This list can go on. Then there are some more serious problems. The way I can be treated because I am a young foreign female. There are problems all over the world, but Turkey is wrong if they don't address the fact that women here are still mistreated. When I am alone, I don't feel ever in danger, but I have been harassed by men saying very inappropriate things and touching me. I am not alone in these experiences. Although it is a minority of men who behave in such a way, I think that overall there is not enough of a general pressure here to stop this indecent, violating, and sexist behavior. I think this problem is exponentially bigger in some more conservative countries in the area where women have even less a say. We hear these horrendous stories in the news every once in a while. I am only getting a small taste of this indecent treatment of women. Despite this, it doesn't make it all right. Turkey should be a world leader for women's rights. They had the lead in the early 1900s. In the 1920s, Ataturk changed this country. Women were given equal rights to vote and education. At the time, they were way ahead of the times. Why, then, has/is Turkey taking these steps back? Slowly, the tide is changing here and I don't see these problems getting solved. In fact, I think they might just get worse unless the great people of this country start waking up and making a stand.
The first trip took place in April, one week after my mom left Istanbul following my Spring Break and Jordan Trip. Three friends and colleagues and I headed to Iznik for a 10k run (part of a bigger Ultra run). Iznik is a few hour ferry ride across the Sea of Marmara, then another couple hours on bus. Erin, Darcy, Shirin, and I headed out after school Friday on the service bus with 5-day boarders headed across the waters to their parents for the weekend. We spent Saturday checking out the amazing Iznik ceramic work. Iznik tiles are the claim to fame of the world renowned Blue Mosque and many other famous Turkish architectural pieces. Stores filled with tiles, plates, bowls, ceramic jewelry, and much more lined the streets and we happily stopped by each of the shops, often chatting with the artist him/herself who proudly showed off favorite pieces. We had to pull one shopkeeper/artist from her art space in the back who came in wiping the wet clay off her hands, eager to show off her work.
The next day, we woke early to run our 10K. As I said, the 10K was the smaller event of the weekend. The Ultra was the big event. It was hard to allow myself to get nervous for a 10k as I watched people hobble in and out of the hotel from their 130k run. Despite this, we had a great time and all were very happy with our finishes. I came in 7th among the women, which I was particularly happy with since I had not trained as much as I would have liked. Shirin, Darcy, then Erin finished in that order, all running the whole way which was the group goal. The run was very enjoyable, through the town, by the ancient walls, and along Lake Iznik. Locals lined the street, children danced and played instruments. It was a wonderful event. Of course, we couldn't forget this was Turkey. As we lined up to race, several runners had their pre-race morning smoke. I saw one take a break in the 10k to light up at least one more time.
The next big trip happened a few weekends later in May. I went with my colleagues Heather and Erin to Antep (also known as Gaziantep, or "Antep the War Hero" which was changed after the post-WWI resistance in Antep to the Allied occupiers) with the ultimate goal of seeing Mount Nemrut. We flew out Saturday morning to the southeastern city which is less than 100 km from Aleppo, Syria. We started the visit by a stop at the famous Mosaic Museum. In the 1980s, the Ataturk Dam was built on the Euphrates River. Bordering this river, though, were beautiful Roman houses of the ancient wealthy, who had stunning mosaic floors. Before flooding these houses with the dam project, these precious mosaics were lifted into this museum. Before moving to Turkey, I was not particularly fond of mosaics. I guess you can say I did not have an appreciation for these pieces of art. Walking through this museum, I have been changed. These mosaic artists were so masterful with the natural stone (no dyes were used) they were able to create 3D effects, shading and incorporate this all in their elaborate scenes and designs.
After wandering this museum, we headed to some nation-renowned food. We all had some delicious kebab and baklava before heading out to Mount Nemrut. The trip to Mount Nemrut was estimated to take about 4 hours from Gaziantep. We therefore left at one so we could make it there in plenty of time to see the sunset over the ancient heads. The voyage out there was beautiful and we stopped for many photo-ops. It rained on and off, with one heavy downpour at the beginning of our trip. Little did we realize how this was going to affect us. Our first sign that we could possibly be headed into trouble was when Heather's GPS told us to turn onto "unpaved road." No other name was provided. The next sign was when we actually left the known roads of her GPS. We asked several shepherds along the way and they all continued to point us down this mud road. The third sign that we were headed to trouble was the fact that no matter how much further we traveled, each herder told us just 10 more kilometers. So we continued down this muddy road along the side of the valley. Just as we came into the view of the town of our pension house, we came upon a van stuck in the mud. They waved at us as we approached and told us we could not go any further (I just want to remind you we are trying to communicate all this in Turkish, so when I say they told us not to go further, I really mean we believe they told us not to go further). As we tried to voice disagreement seeing that we have done okay in the mud, we are so close, and we really don't want to turn back, the other passengers wave us to come forward and look at the road around the corner. That's where we see it. There is no road. It has been washed away. We must head back. After offering help to our angels, we do, find a nice paved marked road that, although is not as direct, gets us there easily. By this time, it is 7:30, 2.5 hours after we expected to arrive. We get a glimpse of the sunrise just as we pull in to our pension house, thus missing our sunset over Mount Nemrut. We are fed at our pension house and go to bed early to get up for sunrise.
We awake at 4:30am, bundle up, and head out to Mount Nemrut. We park towards the top of the mountain and join the 50 or so other Turkish tourists in making the last part of the ascent. As soon as we reached the summit, we came to the famous heads of Mount Nemrut. In 64-38 BCE, King Antochius I Theos, ruler of the Commagene kingdom, had these three terraces built on the top of the mountain. In these terraces, he had large statues of himself with the Persian and Greek gods sitting in a row of thrones. Today, the bodies still sit there in the thrones, with there heads, long since fallen off after earthquakes and wear, lying below. Between the terraces, a giant mound of rocks had been built up by man. Rumor has it the King Antochius is buried there.
We all reached the top and took our pictures, trying to stay warm in the damp, cold, and windy conditions on the summit. The surrounding fog obscured the sunrise, but created a mystical experience.
After our picture taking and wandering, we headed back down for a cup of chai, a big breakfast, and a nap before heading back to Gaziantep. We do learn from our mistakes and stuck to the big roads leading back and arrived back in Gaziantep with no adventure to talk about. We had a few hours to enjoy in the city before heading back. We checked out the city museum, which talked about the city's role in the war for independence, the pistachios, baklava, and their artists. We then headed to the streets to go support these industries. We bought some local pistachios, baklava, dried apricots (grown in nearby Malatya), homemade leather shoes, and copper goods before sprinting back to the airport just in time to make our flight.
This past Friday, we had our school's Olympics in celebration to Ataturk's holiday, Youth and Sports Day. We started the day with a "marathon" which had to be no more than 4k, but was brutal since it took us up and down the campus hill. For you Chicagoans, I have no hill in that area to even compare it to. For Seattle friends, imagine running down then up a steeper version of Stone Way for 4 kilometers. I was the first to finish the marathon for the girls and earned myself a medal. More impressive are the male teachers who flew in before me. We have some amazing athletes on our staff. After the marathon, we had a flag football game, teachers versus students. The students beat us handedly...I want to add a but at the end of that last sentence, but can't think of anything positive to say about our performance. Jake, the flag football coach, has taught these Turks to play the game too well. In the closing ceremony, our headmaster who is an ex-pro football player, but unfortunately battling injuries that kept him on the sideline, spoke of our embarrassing loss and promised he would be there next year. If we lost again next year, he pointed to our female dance team in their red dresses who had performed at the ceremony, we would be wearing those and doing the dancing. Later, students told him that I (the only female on the team) would be the only one who could possibly look good doing that. Don't know how to take that. Especially since they have not yet seen my lack of dance skills yet.
After flag football, I headed into the gym to play a basketball game against the students. I can happily report that the teachers edged the students by 3 points. It was a great game. The boys and girls teams represented the student team, which I was very happy to see, all sharing time. Several of my girls players hit some big shots in the battle.
During these events, others were going on as well. Soccer matches, volleyball, tug of war, long donkey (a Turkish specialty). It was a great time had by all who went. Of course, at our school not all students are into the whole athletic and even outdoor scene. Whenever a bug flies into my classroom, utter pandemonium results. A good percentage of the students didn't come today and I heard that there were other students who just spent their time in the library. It seems crazy to me since I could not imagine a better day. In the afternoon, we had a ceremony where all the student-athletes are recognized. I called up my girls team and recognized the MVP and Most Improved Players. Then left and spent 1.5 days of not moving recovering from the hours of sport-playing my body can no longer do.
On Sunday, I was finally able to move my limbs without excruciating pain, so I dragged myself to a farm with a group of colleagues and students. The farm is owned by a school alum Murat, who planned a day of eating, harvesting, and relaxing at his homestead. The surrounding scenery was beautiful. Cows and sheep wandered through the backyard that we relaxed and feasted in, behind it was a grove of hazelnut and cherry trees. A little further, we came to fields of sloping crops. We hiked to Murat's field and filled our baskets with peas and garlic which we later brought back with us. It was a wonderful way to escape the craziness of the city, hang out with friends, and dig into nature.
It's been a crazy few months and then last month I know will be no less crazy. As I get more used to teaching, I am more willing to take the short weekend trips. This country seems to have an endless amount of places and landmarks to see. Items on my list to see seem to be getting added faster than I can cross them off. Although I love this bustling city, it is also nice to get away from it.
There are definitely still parts of Turkey, and more specifically Istanbul, that I struggle with. I am happy to extend my time here so I can continue to see more amazing places, but can't imagine calling Istanbul my permanent home. Some of my reasons are petty and cultural, the way people dress, the way people can spoil their children, the way people drive, the way people can't wait in line. This list can go on. Then there are some more serious problems. The way I can be treated because I am a young foreign female. There are problems all over the world, but Turkey is wrong if they don't address the fact that women here are still mistreated. When I am alone, I don't feel ever in danger, but I have been harassed by men saying very inappropriate things and touching me. I am not alone in these experiences. Although it is a minority of men who behave in such a way, I think that overall there is not enough of a general pressure here to stop this indecent, violating, and sexist behavior. I think this problem is exponentially bigger in some more conservative countries in the area where women have even less a say. We hear these horrendous stories in the news every once in a while. I am only getting a small taste of this indecent treatment of women. Despite this, it doesn't make it all right. Turkey should be a world leader for women's rights. They had the lead in the early 1900s. In the 1920s, Ataturk changed this country. Women were given equal rights to vote and education. At the time, they were way ahead of the times. Why, then, has/is Turkey taking these steps back? Slowly, the tide is changing here and I don't see these problems getting solved. In fact, I think they might just get worse unless the great people of this country start waking up and making a stand.
