The Rest of Turkey

I am just gonna post about the rest of Turkey through pictures because I am soooooooooooooooo behind. I am also realizing that I say so way too much. Probably my most used word. Ok, here goes nothing. (Like always I had to make the files really small so they would upload so don't mind the poor quality it drives me nuts but that's life)

Our beautiful sunset in Cannukle. Such a cute town we got ice cream and walked out on a pier and enjoyed this sunset with the cruise ships going by and it was really great. The people were way nice too even though they didn't speak much English. I bought a cup from an old man who of course didn't have a clue what I was saying but he was just so cute.

My feet have touched the Agean!

This is Scott about to throw BJ (our teachers son) into the sea . Too bad he didn't.... Just kidding Beej.

Us in the horse at Troy! THis is the horse that is actually at the site. Troy was pretty lame there weren't much by the way of ruins there and it was poorly excavated. But in Cannukle where we stayed the town had bought the horse used in the Brad Pitt movie Troy so I got some pictures by it and it is pretty awesome. 

Emily and I participating in the gladiator fights at the theater at Troy. She put up a good  fight but I prevailed. 

There was a hoop next the the movie Troy horse so we payed with some local kids. It was way fun and the girls were fawning over some of the boys :)

Pillars at what i think was Pergamum. It is where the seat of Satan in and one of the book of Revelations 7 churches of Asia Minor. Way cool ruins and a seriously scary steep theater!

The walkway to the theater at Pergamum.

This is me standing above the theater there. It was not the best day. I found out I am terribly allergic to Turkey... Like Whoa I was sick for a week after hay fever. But totally worth it.

My camera died the next morning so I will gather a few more pics to finish this of now I am moving on so I can get to blogging about all the other great stuff we have been doing!

Turkey: Day 2 After Hours Edition...

SO... near the wonderful Cartoon Hotel was a large metropolis area that our tour guide Bulent said is similar to Times Square New York.... Well, that was an exaggeration, but the area was pretty cool and had lots of shops and things to look at so we headed out to explore.

Mmmmmm! Baklava sampler!

Yay! Group picture.

Look Ma! I actually had starbucks in the airport and let me tell you it was heavenly!

Turkey: Day 2

Day two in Turkey was a full day of exploring Istanbul, which let me tell you was a real treat. I had no idea it was so beautiful there. My first and favorite view was of the Mosques from the Galata bridge. It was so beautiful to see all the domes and minarets.

We started the day out at the Topkapi Palace, it's a former home to the Sultan's that has been converted into a museum and cafes. It is home to the 4th largest diamond in the world. The security there is nuts, no insurance agency will even insure them because of all the priceless jewels there. The grounds are beautiful to walk around and see all the different artifacts. One thing I really liked was that they had a man there reading the Koran.

This is the diamond. I had to get the picture off the internet because they don't allow you to take photos.  It's 84 carats and absolutely huge!

So I left my memory card on the bus so no pictures of The Blue Mosque or Hippodrome square but they were really pretty. We didn't get to spend a lot of time in the blue mosque but the tiles were the prettiest shades of blue and the carpets in all the Mosques were really interesting. The Turkish designs are specific to regions and groups of people.

After visiting the Old City area we headed down to the grand Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar is the largest and oldest covered market in the world. It was built in 1461 and consists of over 58 streets. We only had an hour but that was enough time to figure out what was there. It had a lot of shops but they seemed to sell a lot of the same things as all the other shops. Some of the highlights included Turkish pottery on bright blues and greens and reds; they had these great turkish lanterns and lots of jewelry and knock-off bags.

A street and some of the locals in the market.

Glass Lanterns of all different colors.

A pottery shop.

All the lanterns lit up.

After a long day of walking around we were definitely ready for some relaxing and what better way to do it than a beautiful boat ride through the Bosporus.

We made it about 2 minutes in before someone started singing about their flippy floppies.

This is either the Hagia Sophia or the Blue Mosque I am leaning towards the Blue Mosque. 

A little Titanic action... absolutely necessary.

Roommate picture!!!

We ended the day with, of course, some sea food. Catch of the day and it sure was delicious!

Turkey: Day 1

So this is long overdue but I feel I have my excuses. After we got back from Turkey I was sick and then super tired all week. This week was midterms and I just finished my last midterm so I promise to get back to blogging more often.

Our first day in Turkey was rather short but still super exciting! We left the center around 11 and drove to Tel Aviv to get to the airport. It is such a hassle to get 80 students plus 12 faculty on the same exact airplane in a timely manner. It didn't help that they had scared the bejeezies out of us telling us they were going to interrogate each of us. It actually wasn't that bad, besides the super long wait times. Once in the gate we played games like farkle and scum. I promise we try really hard to be quiet but we are a pretty rowdy crowd. Luckily they split us up a little on the plane. I sat next to our program director and his wife, the Huntingtons and my roommate Jess. We had a really good conversation and the flight was a total breeze all the way to touch down in Istanbul.

Once in Turkey we headed for our hotel which was, let me tell you, a real hoot. It was called the Cartoon Hotel. The whole thing was decked out in these awful Disney statues and Roman busts. Not to mention the pictures which were prints of the classics with Martin the Martian stickers stuck to them. The pinnacle of it all was the giant smiling Daffy Duck picture that had a front row seat to our boudoir. But for what the hotel lacked in room quality it made up for completely with dinner.

Dinner was on the top floor of the hotel just outside the Turkish equivalent of Times Square. We were served a full 5 course meal with a 360 degree glass window view that was to die for. We could see everything; the thing that struck me most were the minarets and domes that pop up everywhere. The place is literally covered in Mosques, which isn't surprising considering 97% of the population is Muslim. Dinner was amazing but so long and by the end I couldn't believe I had been at dinner for 2 hours! It was the first of many nights that I conked out way too quickly.

Just a quick update...

I am way behind on blogging so here is a little catch up... I got back a week ago from Turkey and it was amazing! I have tons of stuff to post from that as well as some pretty comical stuff that will help you get through all the historical stuff. Also this past week we went to see a Bedouin women empowerment group that was really interesting.  So starting with the most recent and getting back to Turkey here are some photos from the trip starting with a little background.

So the trip to get to the bedouin town was really long. It was down in the Negev Desert so we drove about 2 and a half hours and it was definitely the desert because it was really hot! The group we went to see is called SIDREH. The issues that their group focus on have to do with the changes in the way the bedouins are living. Traditionally, as nomads it was the responsibility of women to weave the tents that the families live in as well herd the sheep and goats. As the people are now staying in the same place more and more he women have no way to contribute to the families needs and as most live under the poverty line it is necessary for the women to find work; which is hard because most are illiterate.  Well the rest you can learn from the pictures.

This is our tour guide. She was amazing. She spoke great English and had never left the country. She is 27 and unmarried and is working on her masters in Middle Eastern Studies. She has been working with the group for a while and was really knowledgeable about the issues facing her people. 

One of the ways they help the women is to take one of the sills they already have, weaving and help them to earn money through it. They have completely streamlined the process of making a rug and can finish one is about 7-10 days. This is a picture of one of the women there weaving a rug and we got to watch a whole demonstration on home they make the yarn and weave it. 

This was one of the rugs I liked. They sell the rugs at their showroom as well as stores across israel and on their website. The company is called Lakiya weaving if anyone is interested. A few of the women there will be traveling to New Mexico soon to attend a craftsman show. They were selected from a large group of vendors and for most all of them  it will be their first time out of the country and certainly on a plane. 

Next we visited another smaller village that is an unrecognized group of Bedouins. We were there to learn about the literacy program. The town is just shacks without running water or electricity, even in the small medical clinic. The people there have been unable to get recognized as an actual town so they live on constant fear of the government coming and knocking down their homes. The issue is much more complicated than that but all I can give is the nutshell.  O and those are camels...

The literacy program exists because up until just a few years ago there were no bedouin schools and parents fearing for thier daughters would not send them far away fro school. The result is that almost all the women over 30 are completely illiterate. With the help of the program they learn to read and write Hebrew and Arabic. This way they can have a chance at getting jobs at factories and other places as well as helping to teach their children. As you can tell they are very modest. In their culture usually they do not allow pictures to be taken of their women but they made an exception to us because they are so thankful for the small help our center as given them. 

Isn't this the most precious thing you have ever seen? This little barely a few days old kitten was in a big box of yarn and was still all blind. It was just meowing and it made my heart melt.