Chios!

Moving on to Chios, my last adventure of April 2012! So, after my mom and aunt left, Kara and I more or less just decided to go to Chios one weekend, which was great because a) we had magnificent weather, and b) I got my passport stamped for Greece! Whaddup! And it has a boat on the stamp. Even better!

So the night before we headed over to Çesme (still don't know how to get all of the Turkish alphabet on my keyboard) and stayed in the Papillon Hotel. Don't stay there. It was super sketch and the man at the front desk knocked on our door in the middle of the night for our passports. It was awful and I'm mad I spent money there. Bonus, however: I now know that there is a slim chance I could stay anywhere sketchier, so that's a small comfort.

We took the nine o'clock ferry over to Chios, which was glorious... I love boats. I missed water. I need more friends with boats. 

Fam Jam, April 2012

Man oh man, I haven't written anything on this blog in forever. To be honest, I completely forgot, and that's my bad. I've been trying to pack in as many last minute travel plans, last classes, last everything (!!!) in the last few weeks. I'll give you a run down of my month of April, I guess. Zoinks! It has been forever. So, I guess my next few blog posts will be fairly rushed, seeing as I'm finally at my two-week mark in Turkey! (More on that later.)

Anyways, my wonderful mother and my wonderful aunt came to visit in the beginning of April. I met them in Istanbul and showed them the sites for a few days. We hit all the major sites like Topkapı and the Ayasofya and the Blue Mosque. We actually saw dolphins from the terrace of Topkapı... nice spot, momzo!

Balıkesirian Adventures in March

First and foremost, let me start by admitting that I did not come up with the word "Balıkesirian." One of my students said it the other day at lunch and I thought it was great. Glad that's out of the way.

I haven't been too diligent with my blog maintenance lately, so I'll try and be better about it for the next NINETY-SEVEN DAYS! Ahhh! Is that crazy or is that crazy? Only ninety-seven days left in Turkey, given that I'm planning to go home on June 30th so I'm home in time for a) my wonderful mother's birthday, and b) so I can get home in time to celebrate the most American of American holidays! So pumped for fireworks.

So, what have I been up to in March? To be honest, I spent more or less all of this month in town, which was not a bad thing in the least, since I've been spending a lot of time hanging out with my students on the weekends. The results of these aforementioned meetups include becoming, once again, prolific at Guitar Hero, learning to drink (and like!) Turkish coffee, learning to read the future from my Turkish coffee, and soaking up all the good that my town has to offer. Also, Team Balıkesir hosted a very successful St. Patrick's Day Extravaganza, of which I took no pictures, and I attended a recent Balıkesirspor match with Russell and our friend Serhat. You'll be happy to know that Balkes won this game, which puts them in second place (I think), and gives them a good chance to put on their big boy pants and move up to First League.

They throw confetti in the air at the tenth minute, since
our city number is 10... Confetti is always something
I can get behind.

AND VUVUZELAS?! The fun never ends
in Balıkesir, boys and girls.

I've also managed to finally visit Balıkesir's historical sites... all three of them.

Clock tower... standard.

Zagnos Pasa Camii, nbd.

The tomb in the picture above is the tomb of Karesi Bey, the guy who basically founded the city. I'm aware that I should know more about the history of the city in which I city, thanks in advance.

Just sippin' on a little nar-elma suyu, the fanciest
 sauce in all of Anatolia.

Last weekend, I went to Afyon to visit the wonderful ETAs there and went to see The Hunger Games with Emily, Kara, and Jaime. I think it goes without saying that it was awesome, as was Afyon!

I'd say the highlight of my whole March was this past Monday though. Some of my students invited me to go on a picnic with them to a nearby park name Degrimen Bogazı. It was on this picnic, friends and family, that I had an earth-shattering revelation.

We, as Americans, need to step up our picnic game. 

I'm being serious. What's an American picnic, and I'm thinking in a fairly traditional vein here, some sandwiches, a couple bags of Doritos, and some beer? Granted, not everything in that equation should be altered, but let me let you into the world of the Turkish picnic, ladies and gentlemen.

First of all, let me mention that most of my students are approximately eighteen years old. Think freshmen in college. If I think back to what a picnic of my own organization would have resulted in when I was eighteen, it would have comprised of me and the other people in my hallway eating sandwiches from Yella's by the rat-infested stream next to Mimosa... and that's being generous. If I think back to when I was eighteen and hearing one of my fellow eighteen-year-old man-friends saying we were going to go grill something up for lunch, a) I would laugh, and b) I would doubt the fact that he would be able to turn the grill on, let alone grill anything. Not that I could grill anything at eighteen years old-- I could just barely manage EasyMac and scrambled eggs, if we're being transparent with one another. 

What I'm trying to tell you is that my students are champs. They grilled chicken, we had a salad, we had a sorts of seeds to munch on... we even had marshmallows! Are you impressed or are you impressed?

Let me mention that I am not as good at volleyball as
I need to be to live in this country.

Toasted to perfection! And strawberry-flavored too!

I'm just saying, friends and family still in America, get ready for some picnics come June. I'm just picnicking everywhere, and you're all invited. We're also going to engage in physical activity, which is something we probably need to do more of anyway, so you're welcome for that... especially now that I have a whole new arsenal of games to play thanks to my students. 

We're also going to hike stuff, so make sure you choose your footwear accordingly, because I did not.

Twelve-dollar slip-ons from Old Navy, also known as "not hiking shoes."

Regardless of my poor footwear choices, here are few nice views of my province! I live here! It's so green and mountainy! I think this is the farthest inland I have ever lived (read: this is definitely the farthest inland I have ever lived), and while it's going to get rough in a few weeks when I'll be a couple hours from the nearest body of water, this isn't a bad alternative.

Added bonus: I get to hang out with some of the best people Turkey has to offer. So life's far from being all bad in Balıkesir.

This was, however, one of the most dangerous things I've done in Turkey to date, since this watchtower thing was about a trillion years old and, as you can see, more than just a little rusted.

Not a bad bunch to spend a Monday afternoon with.

So my very first Turkish picnic was a major success and my students are already planning another one. Because this was the first time some of them have roasted marshmallows over a fire, I'm bringing chocolate and graham crackers to the next picnic. But unfortunately, there are no graham crackers in Turkey?

How will I manage to procure such goods, you might ask?

MY MAMA IS COMING TO TURKEY IN FOUR DAYS! Bonus: she's bringing me all sort of American goodies, like graham crackers, tampons (this isn't a joke), cinnamon gum, and real Amish pretzels. Also, she's bringing my aunt! So many great things!

So after I grade about a gillion mid-terms (read as: one hundred), I'll meet them in Istanbul for the first round of our Turkish adventures. I'm super excited to have them here and I can't wait to show them Turkey... they're even coming to Balıkesir, which is more or less like making someone traveling around the United States visit Glassboro, but whatever! Its's my own wonderful corner of Turkey, and I can't wait to show it off!

Midyear Review Songs - Veli and Yabanci Song

As promised, arkadaslar, here is my pal Ryan's great songs from our mid-year review, thanks to the lovely Max Pardo and whoever he recruited to record this video.

The first song, "Veli," is about their apartment super, as Ryan explains, and the second, "Yabancı," is his masterpiece out of all the Turkish had come to learn at the time of its creation.  Afiyet olsun!

Fun-Filled February!

Man, the fun just doesn't stop around here, huh?

I guess I should give you a quick update on what I've been doing post-Europe 2012, right? I mean, it's not like it's all cupcakes and bonbons or something. 

So the new term started, first of all. And please believe me when I say I was so excited to come back, because I really missed my students and Balıkesir and teaching. This term, I was fortunate enough to have my Speaking classes split into four, more manageable groups as opposed to the two giant groups I had last term. The best part of this is that it allows me to make them do weird things in class, and wouldn't you know, they're still putting up with me six weeks into term.

As soon as I got back to Balıkesir, however, I was back on the road to Istanbul for a best friend weekend with no other that Mr. Robert Lyon III!

In addition to going to the Blue Mosque and Ayasofya, as usual, we also went to the Spice Bazaar (also known as the Egyptian Bazaar), where Rob was solicited poison to feed to his mother-in-law.

Don't be fooled, all poison.

We also went to Topkapı Sarayı, which was commissioned by Sultan Mehmed II and served as the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for over four hundred years. In case you didn't know, Sultan Mehmed II is responsible for the whole "Istanbul, not Constantinople" business, in that he conquered the business out of it.

We even had some European tourists take poorly positioned and very awkward photos of us!

This is my "not impressed, Istanbul" face.

After taking one more Myspace picture for good measure...

... we explored the Ottoman imperial jewel collection, as well as the Imperial Harem, which was very cool. However, because educational signage is limited and they wanted to charge me fifteen lira for a map, I don't really know what I took pictures of.

The Courtyard of the Eunuchs, to which
Rob replies, "EUNUCHS?!"

Some important room or something.

After Topkapı, we went to the Basilica Cistern, or the "Yerebatan Sarayı" in Turkish. The Basilica Cistern is one of many found underground thanks to the Byzantines, and in my personal, very educated opinion, it was super cool. Maybe it's because it's a little different from other historical sites in Istanbul, or because I've just seen some of them so many times, but I might venture to say it's one, if not the, of the coolest places to go in Istanbul. Plus, while we were there, all of these archaeologists/fancy people were taking measures/doing cool sciency stuff, which made me very jealous.

The Basilica Cistern also has two columns whose bases are reused blocks of stone carved with the face of Medusa. Allegedly, they are turned on their side and upside down to negative the power of the Gorgon's gaze, which would turn dudes to stone, but historians and archaeologists think that the one laying on its side because it was the right size to support the column above. Thanks to history, the magic of everything can be removed.

Another first for me was visiting Süleymaniye Camii, which was commissioned by Süleyman the Magnificent (like, the OG of sultans) and designed by Mimar Sinan, his chief architect and the chief architects of the next two sultans.

Süleyman the Magnificent, you can imagine as per his name, was a pretty impressive guy. He conquered a considerable amount of Eastern Europe as well as the majority of the Middle East for the Ottoman Empire; he was also known as "The Lawgiver," because he more or less laid down a legal framing that would not only shape the Ottoman Empire, but would also be used centuries after his death. Fun fact: at the time that Süleyman and the Ottomans were doing battle with the Catholics, the Ottomans kind of became buddies with a lot of blossoming Protestant movements in Europe who were also sick of the Papacy. Anglicans, Anabaptists, Quakers, and even Jesuits found a safe place to come to in Istanbul where they could worship their religion of chose freely. Check that out!

And also, because I'm an adult now with a job that pays me real money, I decided to get one of the strange "Ottoman" lollipops people are always making/selling in the Sultanahmet area. It was very cool to watch, but it was a lot of work to eat. I'd say the return wasn't entirely worth the effort, but the ones the make in Bursa have peanuts in them, so you know I'm going to make that happen the next time I'm there.

Finally, we ended our best friend weekend with dinner at Sirena on the Galata Bridge. Because Rob made a friend as he was trying to get to our hotel at one in the morning, we scored some free goodies while Rob got a very cultural lesson in Turkish dancing.

Look at him, getting so cultured.

The next day, we headed off to get Rob to the airport after a very super best friend weekend. Thanks for coming, friend!


That same week, I was met with much success with one of my lesson plans I had for that week.

I have to say, I had been waiting for this day when it seemed like it could be a reality... I successfully taught my students how to play Apples to Apples!

They're just as excited as I am!

They all said they really liked, and I don't think they were just being nice, so that's awesome. Some classes like it more than others, some were willing to speak English the whole time, and some were more or less indifferent to the whole thing, but that's because they're indifferent to everything, not just Apples to Apples.

Just a sampling of some of my favorite people in Turkey!

And just as I got resettled into Balıkesir, we were back on the road for our mid-year review in Ankara! The fun really, truly never stops... neither do the endless, eight-hour bus rides.

Incidentally, we were leaving for Ankara on the same day that all of the soldiers were leaving their cities to go to training (I think), and there were bands playing at every otogar we stopped in.

Just a typical Thursday in Balıkesir, no big deal.

The main highlight of our mid-year review, aside from seeing people we hadn't seen in months, was the talent show some of our very talented fellow ETAs participated in. We had folk music, joke-telling, photography-showcasing, and original scores written in Turkish.

The one talent that I think we all identified with during the talent show, however, was my pal Ryan of the Antep crew and his songs about being a yabancı in Türkiye. I can't figure out how to insert it into this blog post, but have no fear, it is totally going up on this bizzlog. Not that you'll find it funny if you don't understand it, but hey, it's all part of the yabancı experience.