im back

I made it back to Turkey in one piece. Everything was on time, except for my bus, which was about half an hour late in getting to Ankara due to inclement weather. But, we were lucky. Apparently a bunch of people were stranded due to the snow. One bus got stuck and the people on it walked for a kilometer to the nearest town and spent the night there. For about two out of the 6 hours I was on the bus, there was a blanket of snow on the ground at least 2 inches deep. The roads were relatively clear though, I think.

I am currently working on a presentation I have to give in Turkish class tomorrow. Its all about Richmond. I decided that its a lot easier to not explain what a commonwealth is in Turkish, so for tomorrow, Virginia is a state.

The new group of kids is coming soon. A few have already arrived I believe.

Now that I have a working computer, I will try to post more often. For now, I am just hanging out until the semester starts in a couple of weeks. Peace

Just for you Mrs.Banks

you can see all my pictures here:

http://flickr.com/jehosephat103

not much going on here

i am starting my journey back to america in 4 days. trying to get a lot of stuff done before i leave. finishing up my third turkish class, got an exam on friday morning, trying to get some scholarship essays done, and trying to find some small gifts i can bring home for people.

i bought my bus ticket to istanbul today. my bus leaves ankara at 2am, which means i have to catch the last metro to the bus station at midnight and then hang out for a couple hours. i will get to istanbul around 8 or 830 am, take the shuttle to the airport, then hang out till 1pm when my flight leaves. i transfer in munich i think? then i will get to DC at 8pm saturday night, barring any delays. so i will finally get home by 11pm that night, which is 6am here, which means i will have been traveling for 30 hours.......................but i will be home, so its worth it.

dont expect any posts while I am home. I have way too much to do and too many people that want to see me and not enough time! but i will be back in turkey on the 28th, back in ankara by the 29th.

görüşürüz!

daha kar var!

heres some pictures from my new years in Istanbul and the three snow days we have had in the past week.

This is my friend Margot in our hostel. It was decorated with victorian furniture. She said it made her feel like we were two old ladies enjoying an afternoon tea and talking about our days.

Found this guy outside of Aya Sofia

This was just one of the many New Years stores we found.

We decided to buy some masks for the night. Most of them broke immediately, but they were fun for a minute.

Took a walk through a neighborhood near the historical sites. There were lots of really old buildings...

...and two tvs.....??

We found an aqueduct at the end of our walk.

And then Margot's boot needed fixing.

Then we went in search of dinner and found this guy.

Then it was time for parties and fireworks in Taksim Square.

Then I came back to Ankara and it snowed finally.

Butters wanted to take a picture of the birdy feet...

and me, tabiki

Then it snowed again.

This is the judicial building across from my language school.

Then it snowed again last night. A lot.

yeh

So at 9pm when it was still snowing, I decided to go sledding.

On the sidewalk

On a piece of plastic

Backwards.

Hey, gotta deal with what you have.

kar var! (there is snow!)

So I came back from Istanbul and the next day there was snow :) its been snowing off and on for the past two days. I will post pictures later.

New Years was fun. They canceled the major celebration in Taksim Square (where I stayed) but they still had fireworks at midnight.

I have two weeks left until I start my journey home for a week. I wont be bringing too many presents this time because I am not bringing my big suitcase. I have to ride the bus to Istanbul and it would be a really big hassle to lug my suitcase around Ankara and then around Istanbul. So I will bring what I can manage. Sorry :-/

My friend Margot is heading back to America tomorrow. I'm gonna miss her a lot but I know she is ready to go home. I also know that I will see her again. After Margot, my friend Andrew is the last of the fall semester kids to go home. After him, it will only be the kids staying for a year until the first week of feb. Most of them are traveling during this time though. Two are currently backpacking in the Balkans, one is going home for a month, one is already at home, and I think one is going home for a couple weeks. Theres apparently 17 new kids coming in for the spring semester. And we are apparently going to Hatay for one of our trips which is really exciting. If you dont know about Hatay, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatay_Province . Aside from its historical significance, it is also the birthplace of künefe, one of the most delicious desserts around.

Now that there is no school, I am being pretty lazy. Trying to apply for some scholarships and figure out what I am going to do for next year. Otherwise I just sleep a lot and hang out with friends. So far, this trip has really been a big vacation. Its kind of nice to get out of the nonstop life I have at home, but having nothing to do leaves me feeling very unmotivated. Next semeseter will be a lot busier because I will be taking more classes at ODTÜ. It will be better.

Its time to find some lunch now. probably delicious doner for 2 ytl :) görüşürüz

earthquakes again

Just had another earthquake here. I had the awesome luck of being on the toilet when it happened. Yeh....so not cool. I am that much closer to knowing how it feels to die in an earthquake while on the toilet though! yah! This one was apparently a 5.5 and epicenter was in the same place as last weeks. Too early to tell if there was any damage.

In other news, they caught a guy in Istanbul this week trying to bomb the metro station. News said he was from PKK. Apparently they didnt catch someone though because an explosion went off elsewhere. Only two people were injured luckily. There have also been a bunch of car torchings in Istanbul recently. Hey! Guess where I am going this Saturday? Istanbul!

And apparently Ankara is like Richmond in that everywhere around it gets snow. A couple people have frozen to death from the cold in Central Anatolia. But no sign of snow here even though its def. cold enough.

Halfway across the world in Indonesia, lots of rain has caused flooding and landslides. My sisters place got flooded, but not as bad as some of her friends houses. Everyone she knows is okay though. All the water is polluted now. Lots of roads are closed due to landslides.

Gonna go try and sleep now. Check out the news for updates on the earthquake, car torchings, and turkish air raids in iraq!

hodge podge of old photos and some new

Sometimes when you are in a foreign place, you do things you would not normally do at home, like eat McDonalds. I have weened myself off of McDonalds over the past couple of years in America, but for some reason, here in Turkey, McDonalds is delicious. I guess its a comfort thing. I also am not too big a fan of Pepperidge Farm cookies, but when I found these, it wasnt even a question as to whether I was buying them or not. So I spent YTL 18 on two packs of cookies....

Also sometimes when you are in a foreign place, things happen to you that would not normally happen to you at home. This happens on a daily basis for me, or pretty much whenever I go outside. Thanks to my blonde hair and blue eyes, I am easily recognized as foreign, and so get a lot of stares. Sometimes it works to my advantage, however, because I get free stuff. Such as fruity smoothie like drinks...

I cant take full credit for those drinks, however, because the first free stuff went to my friend Margot. She was waiting for me and another girl to meet her at this restaurant and apparently she looked sad. The waiter brought her free profiterols, and then when we got there, he gave her a free hot chocolate. Then the waiter brought us free drinks, and then Margot got another drink as well. It looked like toxic waste....

And then sometimes when you are in a foreign place, you try to bring a little bit of home in and it just does not work. My mom sent me the ingredients for green bean casserole, macncheese and stuffing, so I decided to make thanksgiving for my host family. So Margot came over and we set to work on cooking. I was pretty proud of myself for making the casserole, even though it was not as good as at home. And since turkey is not a usual meat choice over here, we opted for KFC chicken and biscuits.

I was actually happy with the way the food turned out, but then my host family kind of dropped the ball. My sister came home and said she forgot and that she had already eaten. She did try stuff though which was nice of her. My host mom came home later and enjoyed the food but spoke in Turkish the whole meal. My host brother doesnt speak often so I am not sure as to what he thought of the whole experience. So Margot and I sat in silence at the end of the table while my host mom talked to Bahadır, and we thought of thanksgiving at home. I realized I was hoping for something that could never be and got a little sad.

The next week, my group took a day trip to Konya. It turned out to be the most poorly planned trip. We left at 930am and got back at 330am, when only two cabs are on the ODTÜ campus (there were about 20+ kids who needed cabs). Konya itself was cool I guess. Things like that get ruined when you are frustrated with programs... And when you are ill.


We went to Konya mainly for the whirling dervish ceremony. There were two ceremonies that day, one around 130pm and the other around 8pm. We went to the later one........So that we could check out the museums and stuff in Konya.

I did get to see the box that apparently holds Muhammad or Rumi or some important Muslim figure's beard. Guess that is pretty cool.

The ceremony was actually neat, but I was really tired at that point so I probabaly could have gotten a lot more out of it had I not been so exhausted. I also think that if we had gotten better seats that were not right next to these blinding lights (they were on for the first hour of the show).

But it really was a neat show and you should look into the dervishes. Everything is a symbol, including their hats.

Oh and in case you were wondering, they have pet stores in Turkey, too. This bird here is only 5000 dollars. And he has a special talent: he can bark like a dog. I have video.


The cool part about pet stores in Turkey, however, is they have more exotic animals. Like this bird. I didnt ask how much he was.
And in case you were wondering, they have elevators in Turkey as well. Normally, they are small and crappy and you have to open the door when the elevator gets to your floor or forever ride. But, this elevator is a special one. You can fit 66 people in it! I am going to test that one day. I promise.


Oh and one last "in case you were wondering," they do not celebrate Christmas here, but there are Christmas trees and santa clauses everywhere. Dont be fooled. Its for New Years.

Santa is called Noel Baba here. Baba is Turkish for father. I dont know how he is associated with New Years, but this is Turkey.