Eastern Vendors

Ok, I feel like I have really short changed Turkey.  That was mostly because I have been really busy, and I have felt crappy most of the rest of the time.  But I think that I am finally back to normal.   And with the return of my positive attitude, I am really starting to love Turkey. 

As I mentioned earlier, we spent our first week in Turkey touring down the west coast of Turkey, visiting mostly New Testament sites.  It doesn’t hurt that most of the early churches were located in huge, beautifully preserved cities.  We were lead around by Kubilay Tunçer (QB), who is a tour guide in his spare time.  His real job (and yes, we have verified this online) is as a magician.  He has won the Merlin award, which apparently one of the highest honors for a magician worldwide.  He is also a screenwriter, and has written several episodes of the Arab world’s most popular show, Silver.  He told us that this touring was his vacation, and I can totally believe it.  He has friends all over Turkey that he was able to visit, plus some of the cool places we stayed, plus he is being paid for it!  I would be happy with that vacation.

Our bus driver, Yusuf, was equally awesome.  He is one of the best bus drivers I have ever seen, maneuvering through alleys with 6 in between bus and wall on each side.  He spoke very limited English, which at first was a major barrier to getting to know him.  The first time I really talked with him was when we were staying in the little town of Kula.  We entered the town with a bit of fuss, since our bus was too big to fit down an alley, which put Yusuf at odds with some of the locals.  Later that day, Heather, Cassie and I went to the local street market.  In Turkey, they have market days once a week.  There I found a sweater to replace the one I lost.  The only problem was that the merchant spoke absolutely no English, and did not know how to communicate price to me.  Just then, Yusuf shows up and is able to help me, not only communicate, but haggle down the price, and check to make sure I was not buying a faulty product.  On the walk back to the hotel, he gave us some of his warm, fresh bread, which he had bought.  There were a bunch of other girls in the courtyard of the hotel, and we sat and all ate bread together for about a half an hour. 

The last night on tour, we played water polo in the hotel pool.  QB and Yusuf were on the same team.  That was a mistake.  At the beginning, we asked what the rules were.  QB gave us an odd look, and then said “Don’t drown?” We had so much fun, splashing each other, dunking people, and, in Yusuf case, laying on the pavement in front of the goal. 

Istanbul has been so awesome so far.  There are good and bad about being in the old part of town.  Things here are more expensive here, and there are definitely touristy stores that are filled with pushy sales people.  But even when you get away from the major tourist sites, people will sometimes try to convince you to come to their restaurant or by their products.  Even in Taxim Square district, which is filled with locals, there were people inviting you into their clubs.  But I have actually started to like the Turkish merchants.

I am having a really hard time trying to explain this in words, but stay with me here. First, most vendors are not creeps.  A few are, but most are not. Then accept that they are not being rude.  They just want to get your attention.  But they are honestly really nice people, willing to answer questions about totally unrelated things, and very pleasant to chat with.  They want you to find what you are looking for, and are willing to bend over backwards to help you find it. The thing that turns off most westerners is the increased pressure to buy.  But if you just keep reminding yourself that you don’t have to buy anything from anyone, it can really be a lot of fun to shop in Turkey.  It really comes down to the fact that you can’t (and shouldn’t) be scared of them.

Both Hagias Sophia and the Blue Mosque were beautiful.  The Grand Bazaar was fun, but full of cheap stuff that I really don’t need.  The Egyptian Bazaar (the spice market) has definitely been a highlight.  It is a bit of a sensory overload, with so many colors and smells.  But the prices for candies and tea really cannot be beat.  The vendors there are also more chill than those at the Grand Bazaar.  We took a boat tour of the Bosporus, which was beautiful.  Today we got to sleep in, which was wonderful. 

That’s it for now.

Andrea

Istanbul

Yesterday was the last day of a weeklong road trip down the west coast of Turkey.  Highlights of the trip include seeing the ruins of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelations, walking around the ruins of huge Romans cities like Ephesus, Siphnia and Aphrodisia, seeing natural wonders such as the fairy castles and the calcium encrusted peaks at Hierapolis, and staying in cute restored towns like Kula.  Last night we stayed at a hotel built near a hot spring, and spent the afternoon swimming and hot tubing.  The trip has also been fraught with peril, with over half of us falling ill with a stomach bug, and a couple of cat scratches.  The food has been delicious, but the nature of the odd gelatinous desserts is beyond most of us.  But perhaps the most predominant part of all of our days is the endless hours of bus riding.  Seriously, you do not have a fair appreciation for how big Turkey is until you are stuck in a bus for days on end.  I am actually getting legitimately stir crazy!  I am not the only one.  I think there is a general frustration at the feeling of not doing anything for hours on end.  And for that reason I am really happy to get to Istanbul, where I can walk off all the weight I have gained from the delicious food that is served to us everyday.

Istanbul! It is a beautiful city, and we are in the heart of it!  A few minutes walk from Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque (which we visited today, we are in the middle of the old town and close to a tram station.  How much better could it be?  The only problem is that Cassie and my room is tiny.  So small, that you can barely walk when both suitcases are on the ground.  Not the best living situation for two weeks, but hey, we are in Istanbul.  It does make hanging up laundry a bit difficult.

Classes start up tomorrow for better or worse. 

I really am too tired to write much more.  I will write more later

Andrea

Not in Kansas Anymore

I do stand by the fact that Turkey is remarkably western for being considered part of the Middle East.  Having said that, we are not in the west anymore.

I mean, there are the little things that are annoying, like getting a bad stomach bug, and not being able to drink the tap water, and getting dehydrated.  Fun fun.  But the bigger adjustment is the difference in how women are treated. 

Gather round everybody.  Its story time.

We are currently in a resort town, meaning that it is full of tourist traps and really pushy merchants.  Our global group decided to go out clubbing.  Having been dehydrated all day, I decided that alcohol would be a really bad idea.  Throughout the night, we left in groups from the club.  At 11:30, David, Jessica, Cassie and I left together.  Only it wasn’t just us who left.  Another Turkish man, who claimed to be from New York (yeah right) followed us and began chatting with David.  David, who is too nice for his own good, couldn’t ditch him.  Cassie and I were scared that he was going to pickpocket David.  David was scared that he was hitting on him.  Things took a sudden turn when he started overtly flirting with me!  I mean, he was trying to hold my hand, and when I got behind the group he said something to the effect that I can’t leave, because he needed me.  We managed to ditch him, and after conversing straightened out any confusion about the guy’s intent.  But unfortunately, he found us again. But this time, we were ready.  David, having realized that as a guy he had more sway than I ever did, talked to the guy while we girls walked away.  David was able to ditch him with some of his “brothers” (I really have no idea).

Lessons from this experience.  Do not talk with Turkish men who approach you out of nowhere.  Seriously, don’t.  Ever. 

This evening Cassis, Julia and I went out shopping.  By changing out body posture to walking with a little more assertion, and by coming to the realization that we do not have to talk to the store owners who try to engage us in conversation, things were a lot better.  There was a lot less harassment.  There was even a wonderful moment when we were walking past a bar, and a bar tender was trying to get us to go in.  As we past, a group of Turkish men also passed.  One of the men walked up to the bar tender and said “can’t you see they aren’t interested?”  Faith in humanity restored.  Later, we also managed, part way through the night to get into a less touristy area, and there no one seemed to give us any notice.  This is why I love non touristy areas.  I don’t care if people don’t speak English.  It is easier to deal with that than pushy merchants.

But all in all my experiences here have given me a lot more confidence in my ability to handle situations like this.  Instead of being scared, now I can laugh at the Turkish men making idiots of themselves trying to get costumers.  

Thankful for Meatballs

I wrote the majority of this post last night.  But internet is slow, and I couldn't post it til now.  Since then we went to a temple of Zeus, an old fashioned olive oil factory, and swimming on the beach.  I was stung by a sea urchin on my hand, but am perfectly fine now.  After getting back, we found out Pastor Koenig had died.  To keep calm I went on a long walk with the boys. We had been talking with QB (see below) earlier about being thankful for being where we are in life, for little things like meatballs for lunch.  I really don't know how I feel about that right now.  I have never liked counting my blessings.  It usually ends with me yelling at God about the world being  unfair, that I could have so much when others do not.  But anyways, this is my post from yesterday:

Turkey!  I have been making a really big effort to come in with as few preconceived notions as possible.  But even so, Turkey has already surprised me.  Most of the girls, in an effort to be on the safe side, wore skirts today.  Last night Annika and I even had a discussion about whether her pants were too tight.  We didn’t want to stand out.

Oh but we stood out!  We were the only ones in skirts!  Ok, that is a lie.  There was one other group in skirts.  They were also from America.  Everyone else was in tight fitting pants.  Pants, to be sure.  But they left little to the imagination.

The city of Istanbul is beautiful (or at least the little that we have seen.  We drove right though on our way to Troy).  Where Athens was jumbled mix of crappy apartments and nicer apartments, Istanbul is filled with cute, well-built white buildings with clay roofs.  While there are rich areas and poor areas, I feel like their poor is less poor than Athens.  Honestly, the city looks more western than Athens ever did.  The countryside reminds me of the Midwest.  There is a lot of room for big crop fields over gradual hills.  Apparently sunflowers are a big part of the crops we have seen.

Around the airport were signs about Istanbul being a candidate city for the Olympics.  Apparently they have been trying for a while.  Just like they have been trying to get in the EU for a while.  I honestly believe that they could be a great host.  I wonder why they haven’t been chosen yet.

If it wasn’t for the mosques and the flags, I could easily believe that I was in Greece or some other Mediterranean country right now.  And maybe that will change the longer we stay in Turkey.  But right now, the idea of Turkey being part of the scary entity that is “the Middle East” seems ridiculous.

We are going to spend the entire week touring down the west coast.  Our guide, QB (that is what he told us to call him) is a very nice upbeat 30 something with almost perfect English.  It makes me feel kind of bad about not speaking more languages.  Anyways, QB gave us each a bracelet with a charm to ward off evil.  I saw this same charm (a blue and white eye) back in Greece (the connections just keep on coming).  His only real flaw that I have seen is that he is ridiculously biased against the Greeks.  And not in the fun, joking way.  Admittedly, that is really weird to see.  He has mentioned several times that we will talk about politics over tea.  I really hope that we have entered a land of teatime.  I have always loved the idea of teatime.

Today has mostly been driving.  And a ferry ride from Europe to Asia.  Which just seems down right ridiculous at the moment.  We are staying in a mountainside B and B right near the ruins of Troy.  Which is pretty cool.

I just realized that I left my sweatshirt on the plane.  I am really upset about that.

Bed time!  I am about to collapse of exhaustion.

Andrea

The Institution of Stray Dogs

I learned today that the stray dogs of Athens are considered to be an institution.  They are all so nice and sweet that no one in Athens wants to get rid of them.  We have seen this in our own group.  Dogs will come along with us on tours, asking for belly rubs occasionally or snuggling up to people.  Being an institution has many advantages.  Institution strays have government collars and must be fed by individuals or the state (idk which).  They all have their vaccines, and are mellow enough to be safe.  Apparently there was a big debate about what should be done about the dogs for the Athens Olympics. What was decided was that all of the dogs were picked up, taken care of in basically a doggie daycare in the country, and then were returned to their relative neighborhoods after the olympics were over.

Along with being adorable, this fact also demonstrates the diversity of thought on seemingly simple issues.  To be quite honest, I think that all of us thought that the stray dogs were some kind of problem that the government was falling to address.  And while it is true that the Greek government has failed to address many problems, the dogs are not one of them.  They are not seen as a problem, but rather as a boon to Greek society.  How is that for your mind blowing fact of the day?

Yesterday I went for a morning run on the track of the Panathenatic Stadium.  Originally a Greek stadium, it was renovated first by the Romans, then for the first modern olympics in 1896, and used again in the 2004 olympics.  Honestly it was one of the coolest experiences.  Just think who has been there.

We had our last Greek class today, in which prof Gandolfo took us around the city in a kind of hands on lecture about modern Greece.  It was really interesting to see the different business centers and government buildings.  We even got to see the fresh fish and meat market, something that would have been nice to know about at the beginning of our time here in Athens.  But oh well.  Now we know to ask about these things when we get to a country.

The woman at the local bakery gave Shana and Marty a box of cookies since it was our last day.  I have learned that it is advantageous to befriend the locals.  But actually, there is reason behind it.  Since Greece has been run by foreign, and mostly ineffective governments for almost the entirety of its existence, people have learned that they must rely on family and neighborly ties almost exclusively.  Loyal customers are neighbors.  This also explains why Athens, up until the 1970s, had no homeless people on the streets.  People who fell on bad times would always be taken in by family or friends.  No one was ever on their own.

This is a lovely sentiment.  And I wish there was more of this in the United States.  But this sentiment also leads politicians to give away public jobs to friends and supporters. It also grew out of mass corruption and distrust.  Which means that people are not willing to trust the anonymous government enough to pay taxes.

I guess there is good and bad to every mindset.

Most of the people in our group seem to be in and out of slumps lately.  I hope we cheer up soon.

Tomorrow we head to Turkey.  I am really going to attempt to learn some basic Turkish phrases early, and befriend locals when I can.

Until then,

Andrea

I think a fair dose of humility is in order

Our music textbook briefly mentioned the fact that the longer you are in a country, the less you know about it.  While on some level I acknowledged that that was probably true when I read it, I feel like it is really starting to hit home.

Today was the first day we talked about Greece.  Not ancient Greece, just Greece.  This period of time is often referred to as modern Greece, but that somehow doesn't feel right to say.  You don't say modern Egypt or modern Britain (usually).  It is as if, in academia, the default Greece is the ancient one.  Which is fine for people like Grace, but when talking about Greece for the last 200 years, it is a very different story.

When Greece gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821, it was not a western country. Having been shielded from western thought, they missed out on the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the like.  The people there dressed like Turks, acted like Turks, and had a religion that was completely different from the rest of Europe.

Greece owed its independence to the western world, which had helped it out of a sense of nostalgia for the ancient world.  But fearing the sense of revolution, the major powers (Britain, France and Russia) kept control of Greece, imposing and deposing rulers, blockading certain ports, and overall keeping rein on Greek politics.  So much for the independent state.  But at the same time, Greece was having a lot of trouble on its own, starting ill advised boarder wars with Turkey.

Up until 2001, it was unclear to the world whether Greece was European or Asian.  Only after it became part of the EU did it become European.  And for a while it was looking like Greece should not join.  It was not European enough.  It has just escaped a dictatorship, its economy was weak, and overall it was not very western.  ok, that's not entirely true.  It's educated elite were western, but the rest of the country was not.  It was an eclectic mix of East and West.

How it has changed.  From fezzes and skirts to western fashion, Greece has done everything in its power to shed its Eastern past and try to look more European.  It is like a teenager, trying to join the popular crowd, changing her clothes, mannerisms, and interests.  The most clear view of how things have changed is to listen to Greek music.  Much of this music is Eastern inspired, but modern pop is so westernized it is hard to trace.

Has Greece lost something by becoming fully European?  I am sure that they were not fond of the Ottoman Empire, but its inspiration created a very interesting crossroad culture that is now almost completely gone.   And what about Turkey?  Turkey is now in a similar situation, a crossroad between east and west that is trying to get into the EU.  But it is less western than Greece.  How far would they go to get into the EU.  How far should they? And is it even fair that a country should feel pressured to become more like Europe?

Questions questions.  But one thing is for sure.  Greece is not what I thought it would be at all.

Wakey Wakey!

Weekend in the lovely seaside town of Nafplio.  And how lovely it was!  Perfect after having finished an essay Thursday night.  But almost every bus ride has become naptime, which was often interrupted by our guide saying “wakey wakey” in his Greek accent into the microphone.  We are all chronically sleep deprived, which is making me seriously wonder how long we can keep up our break neck pace.  One thing is for certain though.  I am spending tonight in and resting up for tomorrow, in which we will have 5 hours of class.  Won’t this be fun!

Friday morning, up and out with the sunrise (about 7:30 here).  We grabbed breakfast at the little bakery near the college, and the cashier gave us some free cookies for our trip (a few nutella filled and a few chocolate almond ones).  After driving south for an hour we stopped at Corinth.  Corinth came to prominence as a trading point where full sized ships would portage over the isthmus so that they did not have to sail around the isthmus.  There is a canal there now, which is apparently a good bungee jumping spot.  After that, we stopped at Epidaurus, a giant open-air theatre, which despite sitting several thousand, has such good acoustics that you can be heard easily in the back row without any projection. The global girls sang For Good, David and Elena sang Amazing Grace, and I sang part of a song from Hercules while no one was paying attention.  It was truly amazing, and so much fun.

We spent the evening walking through Nafplio.  When ordering dinner, I accidentally ordered breaded minnow.  They were remarkably tasty, yet slightly unnerving with the eyes. Then gelato and turned in early to work on my speech for the next day.

Next day we toured Mycenae, an old fortress (and town) from the Bronze age, with its major claim to fame being walls made of 100 ton pieces of stone.  How they made it, who knows.  They had the wheel, but not much else in terms of technology.  They did have a lot of manpower though.

By 1pm it was getting HOT, and we had a date with the sea.  We all went swimming in the Mediterranean, and it was beautiful.  The water was really warm.  Later in the day, I stole Marty’s goggles, and a few of us swam out farther to look at fish.  It was really amazing, especially since the water was so clear.  It did take a while to get the taste of salt out of my mouth though.

That even Cassie, David and I went walking and ended up spending half an hour star gazing off the pier.  After that, we found a little restaurant.  Feeling brave, we all ordered the fish of the day.  We were told that it might take a little longer, because the fish had to be cleaned.  Talk about fresh!  We each got a whole fish, and it is possibly one of the best meals that I have eaten here so far.  After more gelato, we headed to bed (it was 11:30 already and we were tired).

This morning we visited a Bronze Age museum with the only set of Bronze Age armor ever found.  Then we climbed up to the top of a fort built in 1700s AD (So new compared to everything else).  It was remarkably cool, with enough little crevices to explore that David and I managed to spend an extra hour exploring before climbing down the steps (other people had gone to the beach for last minute swimming).  We met up with a few of them for a late lunch, then headed back to Athens. 

It was really frustrating today at the museum, because we were all falling asleep (except for Marty, who has more spunk than the energizer bunny).  We are all tired, plus it feels like a lot of what we are seeing is not really rooted in any background knowledge.  It is hard to appreciate everything when you have not had time to learn about what you are supposed to be appreciating.  I guess, though, that being said I do feel like I have a better idea about Ancient Greek history now.  But at times it feels like we are trying to cram in too many things at once.  But at the same time, there is so much to see here. How would we change the course?  I am not sure I have an answer.