Bir Ay Turkiye'den ayriliyorum'e var.

(One Month left until I leave Turkey)
So this post is going to be in almost exact opposite order of chronolgy b/c uploading pictures is annoying.

Anyways, the above picture is when we were getting a boat tour of the Euphrates river and all of a sudden someone turned to me and said "Dont look now but theres a kid driving the boat"... and sure enough there was... he was a good driver though.. haha... more on the tour later

These are all pictures from southeast anatolia... I place mostly inhabited by the Kurdish people of Turkey... a largely oppressed and discriminated group in Turkey as well as in neighboring countries like Northern Iraq (often called Kurdistan), Iran and Syria. Also, we were right on the border of Syria and Iraq and thus, there were many arab tribes and communities.
We went to the cities of Harran and Sanli Urfa (mostly Arab population) as well as Mardin (Arab, Kurdish, Turkish and Syrian), Halfeti and Adiyaman (mostly Kurdish). They were all amazing and some of the most beautiful places ive seen in Turkey
Above is an Assyrian Christian church we visited... they spoke arabic, aramaic and turkish..
This is us in the main area of sanliurfa where our hotel was located just getting tea and coffee as a break from shopping. I bought 4 scarves in sanliurfa.. they get all their products from syria and damascus especially b/c they are so close and thus have REALLY cheap prices
The view ffrom the amazing retaurant that where we ate... the green areas are SYRIA... cool

This is a view of Mardin... the whole city is built on one side of the hill in order to overlook Syria. At night it looks like a giant layered shimmering necklace from all the lihts of the city sprawled over the hill
The awesome mezze we got at the restaurant. The vegetarians always get the best food! haha
Another view of Mardin. While we were there we met with a youth group in the area and they gave us a tour of the city... all in turkish of course b/c they did not know english... good practice and the kids were really interesting
The view from a balcony that we sat at for lunch. The spike in the background im sure you have seen in a lot of my pictures... it is a minaret from the mosque
Here is a picture from our cruise of the Euphrates River! pretty awesome. I leanred about meopotamia in my history textbooks but I never thought I would actually visit the site of the fertile crescent!
Eveywhere we went they wanted to dress the Americans up... we bought these scarves in Harran... they are made of Camel Wool... pretty sweet
Me and my camel wool scarf in a beehive-shaped house characterisitc of Harran... pictures below
Again... we got dressed up.... this is the American women and our cool bus driver for the whole trip behind us... he was awesome
Here is the beehave-shaped housing I was taling about. These buildings are a traditional part of Harran and a big tourist attractiion.. Many families still live in them but sadly they are starting to be torn down.
At ouor hotel in snali urfa for breakfast.... Turkish breakfast is the same everywhere.. consisteing of a cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, bread, butter, yogurt, white cheese, jelly and honey.
At night we had a traditional dinner evening with floor tables and seating followed by music and dancing. This was one of the performers
We have mastered the art of Turkish dance.... not really... but were pretty good
My friends and I putting our feet in the EUPRATES!
Our beautiful hotel in sanliurfa
Peek-a-boo behind columns at a burial site. One of the ancient kings of a tribe in the area built a mountain of stones acorss from his own as a memorial burial site for his mother... looking across the land u can see the king's place of rest... engineered to face each other

An ancient roman bridge in Adiyaman
Some boys showing their soldier training at the eski kale (old castle) in adiyaman
Kurdish coffee... made from pistachio trees... delicious
Our first stop in adiyaman... we climbed the peak of Mount Nemrut! It was in the 70s on the ground but freezing and snow covered at the top of the mountain... it was beautiful... and as u can see plenty of artifacts and history at the top...

Thats all for now

For all those of you who doubted that one day Id be on top of the world

This is the Kale (Castle) in Ankara

Yeah, im a pretty big deal

Post on the southeast of Turkey soon... for the past 5 days I was right on the border of Syria and Iraq... and it was amazing

Ve, bu unuttum

(And, I forgot this)

I told you all about how I got into a community service program here. They made a cool panel of us for their website... buyurun:

Turkiye'i seviyorum

(I love Turkey). These first pictures are from Beypazari, a town about 2 hours from Middle East Technical University (my school) in Ankara. It was full of traditional housing, dress, foods, and picnic spots. So we bought clothes, enjoyed the view, had a picnic and interacted with some of the awesome people who worked/lived there. Everyone we meet here loves us just because we are American but know some Turkish. First they stare in disbelief and then they offer us free food and ask to have us over for tea. Sooo we take advantage.








The next weekend me went to kappadokkia, An area that encompasess a handul of cities and towns in Turkey in which people carved their homes out of mountains and stone. Granted a lot of these places are no longer inhabited but there are definetly a lot that still are. It was unreal. This is the hotel we stayed inKappadokkia is famous for their hot air balloon tours. We did not get a chance to take one but their made the morning sky interesting and beautiful. This is across the street from our hotelj

My room inside the cave hotel:
Enjoying the scene. The distinct peaks are called fairy chimneys. All the rock in the region is igneous rock from when the area was filled with active volcanoes and the largest one errupted and spread over this area.

The next day we had a tour of one of the underground cities in which early Christians hid from ruling Arab powers coming through the region, before Christianity became an accepted religion. And yes, it was this small of a space. I almost hyperventilated a few times, but dont worry. Im alive

Our awesome tour guide Ali, I dont really remeber what it is that hes pointing to but it might be a potty, haha
Me standing in a doorway on our tour.My friends and I celebrating seeing light and making it out of the tunnels alive
One of the residences carved out of a fairy chimney

Ali led us on an amazing hike between villiagesThe trees, sky, rocks and ground look crazy that I could barely belive it was real.

One of the villiages we stopped in. A lot of the villiages in Kappadokkia are Armenian or Greek villiages but their people have lived here since the Ottoman Empire.
The lady on the right runs the bread oven and gave us free pide (pizza like stuff without sauce) and bread. A great thing after a full day of hiking) and it wasnt over yet
The next village that we stopped in we went to a great traditional reatuarant with a great view of the villiage
Above: Morgan and I showing off our new purchases back in Goreme (the area in which our hotel was located) after a LONG day.


Well, thats all for now. I have plans to go to Greece and Cyprus, so hopefully I can do that before we leave. Next weekend we are going to the Southeast of Turkey; the more tradtional, rural area of the country. One place we are going is Urfa, near the border of Syria. The southeast is inhabited mostly by Kurdish people (a big issue in Turkey) that maybe im not yet prepared to talk about on a blog. However, the Turkish identity is f large importance in Turkey and they believe that they are all first Turkish and then you are allowed to have your "secondary identity" Many Kurdish, Arab, Alevi, Armenian and Greek people living in Turkey take issue with this philosophy. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, who's picture, statue or quotes can be seen in any classroom, building or area of Turkey established Turkey as a Secular, unified and nationalistic state. The Turks praise him for his ability to reform the Turkish language, and separate Turkey from the world powers that were trying to colonize and rip apart the region after the dispersment of the Ottoman Empire. For these reasons I agree that someone of his power was essential to the people of Turkey.
Lastly, it is a jailable offense in Turkey to insult M.F. Ataturk or "Turkishness", though I have heard it done before.

The politics of this region are insanely complex. It is a region between the Middle East a Europe, a region where the majority of the population is Muslim but the idea of Secularism has great importance. A region where nationalism and the Turkish identity can sometimes clash but sometimes coexist with those that identify themselves in another way. An area where the concept of "minority" is defined by religion instead of ethnic background.

Turkey's strong ties to its Ottoman past as well as its constant struggle between the tradtional and modern interests and definelty confuses and interests me;

Ama Turkiye'i seviyorum

So I went back to Istanbul this past weekend for a Program called Young Guru Academy that my friends and I applied and were accepted to. Basically its an international community service society that also has branches all over Turkey. While we were there we volunteered at an elementary school to help the children understand prejudice and differences by participating in various activities

BUT, we went a few day early and stayed in Sultan Ahmet, the touristy area but it was cool... b/c were still tourist.

I took two videos of the call-to-prayer, maybe a little boring but pretty cool



Then we went to Miniaturk... its a park that has all the touristfamous attractions in Turkey but in miniature form..... its adorable and really cool



We also went to the Islamic and Turkish art Museum... we have student museum cards so we get inot all of them for free.. sweet deal


Wait... what? No ones behind the door?

So then the next day was our community service day where we met and had conversation/activites with visually impaired students from in Istanbul
have to go to turkish class... more later


More now,

So we watched this really cool guy play the turkish flute that they use in whirling dervish performances. Its REALLY hard to pla but they made me try it and suprise suprise... i couldnt even produce a sound out of it.. haha but heres my try



This is a picture of the the classroom we volunteered in. These kids were adorable and really smart. They said they picked the "bright" students for us to volunteer with which made me kinda sad b/c I would have liked to see all the students... I think this would have been more enriching for the volunteers as well as all of the students. But it was still a great time



Bye Istanbul! ... the ride back t Ankara
Well there was fun night life too but maybe ill keep that off this blog for now (HI MOM!) haha...

A lot of people have a saying "The best part of Ankara is the road back to Istanbul" I may or may not have improvised that but its something like that

However, Ive come to love Ankara in its own right and I am excited to see other parts of this awesome country... Im going to Adana in southern turkey next weekend... my friend rachels roomate is taking us to her home there... should prove to be interesting