vacation time

i am off for a week long vacation with no internet. when i get back i will have less than two weeks left in turkey. look for me stateside june 17th :)

sorry...

first off, sorry for lack of postings lately. a lot has happened in recent weeks.

main event: i moved. i am now living in a dormitory in the middle of the city. long story short, my host mom got angry with me because i "refused" to speak english with her and she repeatedly "directly" asked me to help her speak english. she ignored me for about two weeks. my theory that she was angry at me was confirmed when i told her i got followed home by two men and she said nothing. (no worries, nothing happened) anyways, that is when i got my director involved. my host mom claimed to have not understood me when i told her about being followed, yet she didnt see the connection between that misunderstanding and my misunderstanding her. she claimed that if i had really wanted to help her, then i would have understood her "clues." and her ignoring me was a) her revenge on me and b) her way of showing me that i am like a daughter to her because that is how she treats her own daughter... so i moved.

other events:

classes are finished. i finished my university class last week. i dropped my last turkish class today because i cannot concentrate anymore.

i went to istanbul one last time this past week to shop for souvenirs. my friend and i bought 25 scarves between the two of us. we walked around the grand bazaar for about two hours trying to bargain for a good price. we finally found a guy that agreed to 7 ytl a piece. thats about 5.50 or 6 dollars. so we picked the ones we wanted, then he gave us a price of 185ytl. for those math wizards, you know those two numbers do not match. "you said 175 ytl..." "no i said 7.5 ytl a piece and you said 'ok'" ........... jerk. that was still the best price we had gotten the whole day. i also saw the new indiana jones movie while in istanbul. wasnt too impressed though.

my favorite band here is called Soul Project. they play at local clubs four times a week. my friend is the saxophone player. they play a mix of american classics such as "mustang sally" and james brown and even some justin timberlake and santana. i went to see them last sunday and they played "geek in the pink" which is a song by Jason Mraz, who graduated from lee-davis. pretty crazy coincidence. shows how small the world is getting when someone from mechanicsville, va can make a pretty big impact in turkey.

what else...

i am going on vacation on saturday. there is a beach that i keep seeing on tourism posters here. it looks like it could be in the bahamas, but i havent figured out its name yet. if i can find it, ill go there. otherwise, i will just have to settle for one of the many other beaches on the Mediterranean or Aegean seas.. yeh, pretty hard decisions to make :)

i may or may not post here again over the next couple of weeks. the internet connection in this dorm is not very good. so my magicjack is unusable here. ill try to go to a cafe with wireless or something so i can make some calls, but if i dont call, dont worry too much. ill be home in less than three weeks.

ps. the day i get back is free chicken sandwich at chick-fil-a day :)

lots to say...

I have been pretty busy over the last couple of weeks. Also a little lazy. Sorry for the lack of posts.

While I was in Prague, my Achilles tendon started to swell again (I have had tendonitis for over a year now). When I got back to Ankara, I tried to do the stretches and exercises that my physical therapist gave me, but afterwards it just hurt a lot more. So, the next day, I went to the medical center on campus. I arrived around 9am and left around 12pm. I saw the doctor for maybe 10 minutes. She said "well its a chronic injury." Yes, thank you. Then, she prescribed some anti-inflammatory medicine and put me on the list for physical therapy. Today, I got an email saying I could come in for physical therapy. I went in and had ultrasound and electro therapy done (which feel amazing for tendonitis) and then ice. I have another appointment on Wednesday. I am not sure if the therapist I saw spoke english or not, if she did, it was minimal. So we spoke Turkish instead. I am pretty proud. All of this is free for me, too, which is really awesome.

This weekend my group took a trip to the north. We did a lot of bus riding, but also got to see some really amazing places. Our first stop was a town called Kastamonu. This town is where Atatürk banned the fez. We stopped there for a few hours in which time I got some lunch, found an old Selcuk hamam, got a nice lady to yell at a pack of school boys following my group, and ran up to the clock tower. The hamam was probably the coolest part of the town, mostly because it was not a real tourist spot. There was only a window to climb through because all other entrances were barred.

(The hamam. Through that door on the left there were 4 more rooms)

After lunch, we headed to the castle above Kastamonu. It was a pretty simple castle, Byzantine I believe, but still a neat site.

After the castle, we headed to a small village about 20 kilometers away. We got to see what is apparently the oldest wooden mosque in Turkey. It was built in the 1360's. The outside has been renovated and looks brand new, but the inside is still original. I saw my second turkey in Turkey in this village.

(the original doors)

We then went to our hotel for the night, which was outside of a town called Pınarbaşa. The hotel is in an area considered a "hot spot" by the world wildlife foundation. Its very mountainous and green and amazing (I get really excited when I see grass these days due to the serious lack of it in Ankara). Our hotel was basically like a log cabin in the woods. We had trout for dinner. I went into town with two other girls that night to get some water and snacks. It was a classic Turkish town. The cafes filled with men drinking tea and talking; no women in sight, except for us of course.

The next morning we headed to another little village. We took a short hike down a very muddy pathway to a little waterfall. The water was too cold for swimming, but a few people decided to get wet anyways (ie. they fell in). After washing our shoes and changing clothes, etc..., we headed to back towards Kastamonu.

As we were leaving, we found our way blocked by a giant tree that had fallen down the cliff. After moving a pile of rocks and dirt, we were back on the road again.

We stopped at a place called Boyabat for lunch. On the way there, our bus driver got pulled over twice (it is pretty routine to have random police and jandarma checkpoints along the road). He only got a ticket the second time, for speeding. Buses in Turkey have radar systems which record their speeds so if they get pulled over, all the police have to ask for is a print out of that record and bam, speeding ticket. Apparently the driver only had to pay 10 or 15 YTL though. After we had our lunch, we were back on the road again towards Sinop, on the Black Sea coast. We arrived around 6pm and went straight to the hotel. The hotel was on a cliff above the sea and was kind of 1970's haunted hotel. The building was in the shape of an octagon or some other shape with lots of sides. The rooms smelled of mildew and were a bit damp.

We were given the option of staying at the hotel or going into town for a few hours. Most of us went into town. I walked around a bit and got some ice cream, then went back to the hotel. The next day, we went back into Sinop for a few hours. I walked around a little, found the castle and an apparently famous jail that is now a museum, and then sat on the beach for a little while. We got some food and then drove for 15 minutes to another area on the coast and had a picnic.

(my lunch)

We finally started on our way back to Ankara around 3pm. We stopped in Kastamonu again for dinner, then got back to Ankara around 1130 that night. Like I said, it was a lot of bus riding, but it was definitely worth it to see all the places.

I have a Turkish exam on Thursday and a midterm for International Organizations next Monday. Then, another group trip to the Southeast.

prague

so prague is amazing. last night, after i got to my hostel and settled in a bit, i went to the old town to check it out and take some pictures. i stumbled upon a food stand that was selling hot dogs and sausages. i got a hot dog. then i stumbled upon another food stand that had a big grill with slabs of ham spinning over a fire. i got a slab of ham.

today i went back to the old town for a bit. then i went to the jewish quater. there are about 6 places that are part of the jewish museum. one was the jewish cemetary which was huge. and burials there stopped in the 1700s, so i cant imagine what would have happened had they continued burying people there.

after that i climbed one of the towers on the charles bridge. i got a really good view of the city and of the bridge. i spotted a big important looking building across the way and so i decided to try to find it. i walked and walked and walked. found a little sqaure with a statue and a big church that people seemed to be gravitating towards. for whatever reason, i moved on without looking in the church. i kept walking a ways up a big hill. i finally got to the top for another good view of the city. then i found that big important looking building. its the castle of prague. i had planned to do that tomorrow. so i checked prices and then walked back down the hill. i was too tired to do the castle today.

on my way back i decided to stop by the church. i am very happy i made that decision. i have no idea what the church is called, but the interior was ridiculous. you will have to wait for pictures to see what i mean. its like a mini version of the vatican or something.

after the church, i hopped on the tram and came back to the hostel. europe is exhausting.

no worries. its safe here.

im in prague

i made it to prague safely. went to the old town tonight just to catch a glimpse. its pretty amazing. i will probably be meeting up with my friend tomorrow night after some sight seeing.

in other news. i didnt get the critical language scholarship so i will be home for the summer. ill be home june 17th.

if you need to reach me this weekend, my turkish phone is still working. the number is +905543902904.

here are a few pictures from istanbul and olympos:

I have now been in the Hagia Sofya three times.

Its still pretty cool.

This is Chris posing next to a group of Asians at Topkapı Palace. Notice the two ladies on the right who know what hes up to.

This is the beach at Olympos. You can barely see the castle in the trees on the mountain.

This is the view of the beach from that castle.

hi

im back from a few trips. istanbul with chris was awesome. we had many opportunities to pose with the mechanicsville local, but unfortunately chris left his in austria. we represented mechanicsville well anyways. kapadokya was the same. program sucked, but i got to do some biking and exploring. olympos was awesome. i swam in the mediterranean a few times, slept a lot, ate a lot, and explored an ancient city. now i am trying to catch up on work and planning my prague trip. ill post pictures later. görüşürüz