Istanbul

   Istanbul is a little tricky to describe. Mostly because I had never been in a city like it ever before. I have been in very large cities before like Shanghai and Beijing, but none of them compared to Istanbul. There is just so much culture, and history packed into that city. Since there is so much to see and do in Istanbul, I had the wonderful chance to go twice in 2 weeks. First with my host family, then with the exchange students.

  

    For my first journey to Istanbul, my family decided to pile into a car and undertake the 7 hour drive in 1 day. Unfortunately it was at night, so I didn't get to see most of the country side. But due to all the light pollution, I was able to see where is Istanbul was long before I actually saw it. Since Istanbul is on the other side of the Marmara, I finally got to get out and stretch my legs. Of course I decided to sit out in the cold wind as the boat made its journey across the little stretch of sea. The excitement that was building up inside me was overwhelming. It took only a little longer to get to my uncle's apartment, which was where we would be staying. Once we got in the door, there was a grand welcome waiting for us. My sister who is in university in Istanbul was there, along with, grandma, my uncle, his wife, their 3 year-old daughter, and my other uncle who I met at Bayram. Since we were all tired, after some brief conversation, we all went to sleep. 

   The next day I awoke to a huge breakfast and lots of questions. Most of them were repeats were repeats from before, but the newest one was "What would you like to see in Istanbul?" Of course I wanted to see as much as I could, but I didn't really know what there was aside from the Hagia Sophia and the Grand Bazaar. Once we had finished planing we headed out for our day on the town. Now where we were staying is on the Asian side of Istanbul, and we were headed to the European part. To get the we had to take the commuter train to a ferry station, then hopped on the ferry and rode it across the Bosporus. That day the fog decided to lay a thin blanket over the city, so visibility wasn't very good, although I did see some really cool things on the ride between continents. The thought that I was traveling to a different continent was a pretty crazy thought. 

   The stop we got off at was crawling with fisherman, and cats, there were tons of cats. Weaving our way through the crowd we went to this bakery that had the best baklava I have ever had. It wasn't so sweet, but had just the right amount of honey so it was still crunchy. Walking out of the bakery I said "I could die right now, and be completely happy," and I still don't regret that. Since our next destination was at the top of a big hill, we decided to take the tram. This tram wasn't a street car, it was the 2nd oldest underground in the world, next to the one in London. We got off the tram at Taksim street, which was the night hub of Istanbul, and even during the day it was packed. Taksim is a street filled with small coffee shops, bars, stores, and lots of street art, so naturally I fell in love with it. We spent some time walking around the narrow back streets and stopped at this small diner for lunch where I tried Kokrech for the first time. Kokrech is sheep intestine, but it didn't taste too much like it. 

   We spent more time walking around Taksim street, and found our way to Taksim square. There we stopped for a snack that the Turks call "wet burgers" which taste remarkably similar to sloppy joes, but are much less sloppy. Can anyone guess who else ate here? Anthony Bourdain from No Reservations. I guess I'm just one step closer to getting my dream job. Night was beginning to fall, so we began to make our way back home. Now for those of you who haven't experienced rush hour in a city of 15 million, I don't suggest it. It's basically just the largest game of sardines in existence. To get home we had to push our way through a seething subway system, cram ourselves onto a cramped bus, and huddle onto the commuter train. Thankfully and nice warm dinner was awaiting us. It was a wonderful cap to an even more amazing day. 

   The next day we went to the Ancient European side. We took the same route to get there. This time on the ferry something cool happened. I was on the top deck looking out the Ancient part of Istanbul, when out of the corner of my eye, some dorsal fins pop out of the surf. At first I thought it was a small pod of whales. But when their faces surfaced, the sweet eyes of dolphins looked up at me. Needless to say I freaked out. I had seen dolphins before, even pet them. But I had never seen them in the wild, or even knew they lived in Istanbul! I scrambled for my camera and managed to get 1 picture before they disappeared. I ran down to family like an excited child on Christmas, right before I got to them, my sister turned to me and asked, "You saw the dolphins didn't you," in the most unimpressed tone ever. This popped a huge hole in my excitement. They went on to say how they were very common, and came around all the time. I was still very happy to have seen dolphins on my trip. A few minutes later we disembarked from the ferry.

  The Ancient side of Istanbul is where all of the cool places are. We started out with the Gran Bazaar. It was such an amazing place. All of the shop owners were calling to potential customers, neon signs lit up the ceiling, colorful merchandise were presented from every window. I would have loved to explore it more. My family only stayed on the main avenue and left rather quickly since we had much more to see. Our next stop was the Blue Mosque. From the outside it was stunning, and the inside was just as breathtaking. It is still used for prayer, so all of the tourists are crammed into one section in order to allow people to pray somewhat peacefully. I've come to admire mosques much more than churches now. In Islam, idolization isn't part of their beliefs, so instead of having the face of Mohamed or other prophets painted on every wall, there are gorgeous tiles and geometric designs. Coming out of the Blue Mosque, you can see the Hagia Sophia from across the square. We didn't go into it, since I was going to be doing that next weekend and they wanted to leave some surprises.
   
   We did find our way to the Basilica, which was only a short walk away. That's what's fun about the ancient side of Istanbul; everything is so close to everything. Walking down into the Basilica, a damp, warm breeze wafts towards you. Inside are rows and rows of dimly lit columns. It wasn't much, but there was a welcoming mystery to the man made cavern. Something about the warm musty air, and fish swimming lazily in the water contributed to an overall great atmosphere. When we emerged from the underground cave we walked along an ancient wall until we reached the harbor. There Alkin and I took a cab to the metro line, and headed to his uncle's house. His uncle lives up in the northern European side of Istanbul, almost to the Black Sea. There we had some Kokorech, which is sheep intestine, and then spent a quiet evening at his place. The next morning we walked along the Strait and had breakfast at this quaint little bakery. Afterwards we drove back to the other uncle's house in Asia, which meant we had to cross over the Bosporus bridge. It was like crossing any other bridge, but this one spanned 2 continents.

   The rest of my days in Istanbul were spent at the house. We had a nice dinner, and another nice breakfast. Then we packed up and left. The car ride back was about as interesting as the ride there. The only difference was it was light out so I could see the surrounding area better. We got home to a very excited Shurup. After giving her some love, I went to unpack and unwind. I was very satisfied with my first trip to Istanbul, and couldn't wait for the next one in a week.

 On the right you have Asia, on the left is Europe.

 Best Baklava ever!

 Galata Tower

 The Non-Sloppy Joe burgers

 Grand Bazaar

 Blue Mosque

 Inside the Blue Mosque

 Basilica

 Dolphins!

Fishing boat near the Black Sea


Goruscuruz
-Torvald

Turkey day in Turkey

  This past weekend, all of us exchange students got together for our version of Thanksgiving. Yes, we had turkey in Turkey; no, we didn't burn it to a crisp; yes, it was very good. It was actually a very fulfilling version of the real deal, just a touch more international. I'm sure it made all of us feel a little less home sick, and a little more together as we sat down to a dinner we prepared all by ourselves.

 Our day actually started with a language lesson, not the usual arousal around 9 to start cooking while dad watches football and occasionally checks up on the turkey. After the language lesson we all piled into a van and drove to our friend's house, which her parents had so graciously sacrificed to a hoard of unskilled teenagers. The house was a drive away, so we arrived there about the time Thanksgiving dinner would be about wrapping up. After a short tour through a gorgeous house, which was an actual house and not an apartment or half a house, we got down do business in the kitchen. I was cooking mashed potatoes, which was going to be one of the last dishes, so I was sent on a market run to get some materials that were missing. On our return, the house swelled with the aroma of browning meat, freshly cut onions, and soft dough.

  The kitchen was already packed enough. I decided not to be a road block, so I found a nice chair and started plucking the guitar I had brought from home. Even though I had only picked it up a few days prior, it was nice to hear some compliments on my playing. Whenever I was called upon to lift a pot down form the top shelf, or stir some dish while other parts were being prepared, I gladly obliged. Soon enough the first wave of cooking died down, and we all found our way to couches or large plush pillows to rest. To our surprise, the parents told us that they were going out for the evening until around 10. I found this pretty trusting of them. If it were me, I would never allow 10 exchange students to roam around my house without any kind of supervision. We all thought that they would join us for dinner since we were cooking more than enough food for the 10 of us, so it was a little sad when they said they wouldn't be joining us. Of course once they left, those sentiments left with them. We cranked up the tunes, and let loose. Don't worry the house wasn't destroyed. We just danced around and got a little messier with the food.

  Once the turkey had been taken out of the oven, we started plating things and setting the table. Before the dishes got torn apart, the table actually looked like a traditional Thanksgiving table, with the addition of tacos and a variety of Brazilian dishes, and minus some of the traditional foods such as: Cranberry relish, green bean casserole, and peas and shallots. I was given the honor of carving the turkey, probably because I was the only one who had an idea of how to. I didn't do such a bad job if I do say so myself. Once everything was ready, we all sat down, I gave a brief toast, and we all dug in.
 
  The best word to describe that food would be "nostalgic". Every bite was like I was tasting the greatest dish in the world again and again. Heloissa, the girl from Brazil, complained that she was full on a number of occasions, us Americans just told her, "You're doing it right, so shut up and keep eating." Compliments were thrown around the table to everyone who made the dish the other person was enjoying. I got a few for my mashed potatoes, but by far the one that I think deserved the most praise was the stuffing made by Shannon. After we had eaten to the point of exploding, we took a few minutes to rest. I volunteered for dishes since I felt that I hadn't done enough in the cooking process, but everyone helped clean up the kitchen since it looked like it was ground 0 for a food tornado. With so many hands, clean up went quickly, and for our reward we had apple pie and ice cream. Somehow we found Ben & Jerry's, but that went too quickly to enjoy. The apple pie was great, not the best since brown sugar, and cinnamon aren't ingredients in the Turkish cook book, but it was great either way.

  The rest of the evening was pretty mellow since all of us were in a food coma. We just sat on the couch and talked, while I quietly played some songs on the guitar. At 10 the bus came to take the kids from Izmir back home. Us guys from Manisa said our goodbyes and hung around a little longer for our ride home. I got home pretty late, 1 to be specific, mom wasn't too happy, but she could see that I wasn't drunk, or hurt, so she was fine by the next morning.

  This Thanksgiving has been one of my favorite. Even though I was very far away from home and my family, I was with my friends, who have become a new family for me. We all support ourselves and enjoy each other's company, it will be hard to leave these guys. My next adventure with them will be to Istanbul, finally! I can't wait.

 Everyone cooking

 This one's for you dad, your boy is growing up.

 The family sitting down to dinner

 My plate of deliciousness

A true American classic

Guroscuruz
-Torvald

Iyi Bayramlar

Iyi Bayramlar everyone,

 For those of you who don't know what Bayram is, it is basically the Turkish version of Thanksgiving, but instead of turkey, they eat sheep (probably because if they ate turkey it would be considered cannibalism...) Bayram happened this past Thursday, it is a religious holiday, and the idea behind it is that you share your lamb with those less fortunate. On top of that it is a time for family, and reestablishing bonds. The other nice thing about Bayram is that you don't have school for 5 days. Back in the day, people used to slaughter the lambs in the streets, and the gutters would flow red with blood. Now people will buy a lamb, take it to a butcher, get it cut up, and then do the rest of the slicing back home with the family. My Bayram started with a nice breakfast with a lot of the family. Grandma and Grandpa drove from across the city, Cansu, my sister, came in from Istanbul, along with my uncle who is fluent in English. After breakfast we all got to work cutting up the lamb. My family kept asking me if I was alright, since there was a lot of blood, but I just told them that I had cut meat before, and the sight of blood wasn't anything new to me. Now if I saw the lamb getting sacrificed, that might be a different story. Once we had finished cutting up the lamb, mom threw all the bits into the pot, and the ladies got to work cooking while the men sat and had some drinks and read the paper. I found myself having a nice conversation with my uncle.

Finally it was time for dinner, and after smelling delicious aromas for the past hour, I was ready to eat. They have their dinner around the same time we have our Thanksgiving dinner since there is a ton of food and you don't want to be bloated when you go to bed. We had a typical Turkish potato salad, which is a lot like the one they serve at Barbur foods. As well as a type of lamb stew where the bits of lamb are cooked in a gravy of their own flavors. All of it was delicious, and the company was wonderful too. Everyone hung around the house for a while trying to recover from the massive food coma. After they shook off the sluggishness, the extended family hopped in their cars and drove back home.

The next day was pretty low-key. Nothing happened for the majority of the day. Around dinner time the family pulled up again and we indulged in some of the best lamb I have ever had. Again we all sat around trying to recover from our lack of consciousness. Again the extended family got in their cars and drove away. The next day my family decided to go to Cesme. This would have been a wonderful idea hadn't Cesme been a little too cold, and very windy. We did spend some time watching the wind and kite surfers that Cesme is very well known for, but none of us went swimming, and most of our time was spent indoors. The next morning we piled into the car and drove back home for a final dinner with the whole family together. After dinner Cansu left with the other family members to go back to Istanbul for university. But I was told that I would be going to visit her in December, which I am very excited to do.

Monday was Republic Day, or their 4th of July. My Brazillian friend said that there was a parade down town celebrating Republic day, so we decided to go. It seemed like all of Manisa was either in this parade, or watching it. We spotted our Canadian friend walking in the parade with her mom, so we jumped into the stream of red to join her. At first this was fun, then it got a bit awkward because we were 3 obviously foreign people in a sea of Turks who were screaming how much they loved their country in Turkish, and we didn't understand a word. But we went along with it, and when the parade ended, Gabriel and I took Shannon around to some of our favorite spots in Manisa, since she had missed out on the previous 2 "Explore Manisa days." It was very nice to spend some time with people who understood English, and we all had a great time.

Unfortunately school was the next day, which might I add has gotten a little less boring, but I still can't understand half the lesson. On the brighter side we will be starting language lessons this Saturday. The lessons are 3 hours long and they will last until the end of January. I am very excited to finally be doing the lessons, because now I can really start learning the language, which was why I came here.

 The family cutting up the sheep

 The whole family

 Flowers in Alcati

 Alcati bazaar

Alcati is very well known for wind/kite surfing

Goruscuruz
-Torvald

Kappadokya

My apologies for not updating this sooner, I have been very busy.

This past weekend, the other exchange students and I took a road trip to Kappadokya region in the central part of Turkey. We all met up in Izmir at 11 PM, hoped on a bus, and started the 11 hour drive it would take to get there. Now trying to cram 11 exchange students onto a small tour bus, and expect them to sleep was an interesting idea. Somehow everyone managed to do it, but not until about 2. I unfortunately have had a chronic disability for being able to sleep in small crowded places, and tried a multitude of uncomfortable spots before finally falling asleep around 5:30. Once all of us woke up, we were in the Kappadokya region. Looking out the window you could see many small stone towers with little windows carved into them, as if they had become a type of natural apartment complex. After some more driving we were at our first destination of the tour. It was this small canyon, that used to be a Christian settlement. Walking down into the canyon, you saw more of these windows carved into the stone, but upon further examination, and from what the guide told us, they were actually houses. This gave a whole new meaning to the phrase "Hole in the wall." The reason that people had carved into the wall was because one, it offered shelter, and two, they were escaping persecution, and didn't want to draw attention to themselves. The canyon was a very charming place. As I had said early, Turkey is a pretty dry area, lots of brown and shrubs like Eastern Oregon. This canyon had a wonderful little stream running through the center of it which brought the whole area to life. The weather wasn't too hot, and there was a cool breeze rolling through the trees. If we weren't so pressed on time, I would have loved to have stayed longer. As we hiked along the river bank, our tour guide was spouting facts about the this canyon, and the surrounding area. Most of us weren't paying attention, we were too caught up in the beauty of the canyon. Unfortunately we had to leave the canyon and board the bus again. Thankfully our next stop wasn't too far away.

I'm sure everyone has had an ant farm at some point or another. The type where you can see how the ants dig their tunnels underground, and all the tunnels seem to connect in some way. That was basically what our next stop was. Kappadokya is famous for its underground cities that were hand carved by early Christians. To me it seemed like giant, mutant ants carved these tunnels instead of people, but they were impressive either way. The "city" that we went to see was said to have 8 levels to it, and could hold up to 20,000 people. This blew me away, I found it unbelievable that 20,000 people could live underground in a communal area and not kill each other, let alone fit down there. We were having trouble moving our small group of 12 through the cramped tunnels, so 20,000 seemed a little more than excessive. Throughout our excursion underground I was thinking, "Now would be a terrible time for an earthquake," which it would have been since we would have all been trapped underground indefinably  and probably would've had to resort to cannibalism and drinking our own urine, but even though that would probably make Bear Grylls proud, I'm glad we made it out alive.

Finally we made it to our hotel in Gorome. Now you remember those towers I told you about with windows? Turns out that people still live in them, and some of them actually have electricity. Gorome has to be one of my favorite places I have ever been to. It is this small town that is so flawlessly, and beautifully incorporated into the rocks. Our hotel was right next to a few of those spires, and at night they were lit up so beautifully. Also our hotel was just awesome. It was actually like we were staying in a castle, all of the rooms were stone, and the curtains and sheets looked all medieval. I'm kinda sad that we weren't given time to go out and explore Gorome. We had to go to bed pretty early since we were getting up early to go sightseeing.

We all woke up bright and early the next day. The dining area was on the top of the hotel, with a gorgeous view of Gorome, and in the distance you could see some hot air balloons. It was a very picturesque view. After breakfast we all loaded up again and shoved off. Our first stop was a National park that had the largest collection of those cave homes in Kappadokya. Again this was a Christian settlement, and as such there were some beautiful churches that were carved into the rock. The ceilings were masterfully painted in beautiful colors depicting different Saints and Prophets, mostly Jesus though. On our way out we ran into some Americans, and some of them were from the NW. Their accents were like music to my ears. We have other Americans in our group, but nothing compares to a good'ol Cascadian voice. After our walk through the park we got on the bus again and drove to another site. This one was filled with rock chimneys, but because all of us were teenagers, they didn't really look like chimneys if you know what I mean. We spent some time wandering around there and ran into a Rotarian from Nebraska who was a HUGE Huskers fan, he compared his team to everyone one of the Americans teams, but he didn't ask if I was a Duck or Beaver, which hurt cause I knew I could have rubbed it in his face either way. Again we loaded up onto the bus and drove to another location. This one was by far my favorite, it was called the Valley of Pigeons, for good reason. There were pigeons everywhere. There were also these gorgeous trees there, but none of them had leaves, and they were all dead. They were covered in evil-eyes, and the story goes, that if you put an evil-eye on the tree you get a wish. From the valley you got a beautiful view of the area, and this ancient castle that is carved into the a huge rock. That was our next stop. This castle wasn't really a castle in your stereotypical "castle" sense. It had been carved into a giant rock, and was very fun to explore. From the top you could see the whole area, which was gorgeous. There were no railings, which when one of your friends who you're taking a picture with decides to "push" you, you suddenly see your life flash in front of your eyes and blindly grab for anything you can. This was our final stop for the day, but on the way back we stopped at a pottery shop, where all of the pottery inside had been hand thrown, and painted, and was absolutely breathtaking. We actually got to see the potter make something, and then Max, the boy from Mexico, gave his best attempt to replicate it. Finally we made it back to the hotel and got ready for dinner.

Dinner, was actually dinner and a show. It was in this underground diner, (go figure) that probably could have seated 200. The acts were all traditional Turkish dances, in traditional dress, so it was very fun to watch. At what I think was intermission, they had everyone come onto the dance floor for a dance party. It was funny since the majority of the people there were seniors, and here are 11 teenagers acting like fools. Finally "Gangnam Style" came on, and that's where I took my leave. Once intermission ended, the good dances came on. One act was a bunch of guys doing some seriously fancy footwork, and by far the funniest was this act where 2 guys had faces painted on their stomachs, and had sheets covering their faces, they were wearing a "skirt" that had fake hands and a small jacket on them. They looked very comical, and they played it off very well. Finally the belly dancer came in, and she was by far the best belly dancer I have ever seen. I got into a debate with my Brazilian friend who thought that stripping was sexier than belly dancing. This argument went on for a while, and finally ended with him finally admitting that belly dancing was sexier. The show decided to end on it's best note, which I thought was wonderful. This day was definitely among some of my favorite days. Again we all went to bed early since some of us had to get up at 5:30 for the hot air balloon ride.

Now for those of you who have never been up in a hot air balloon, it is very interesting. It's basically like you're levitating, but you have a flame at the back of your neck. Your not going fast enough to feel like you're flying, and you can't really move cause the basket is very small, but you get a wonderful view of the surroundings. To get to this hot air balloon ride, the people going had to wake up at 5:30, when the sun hasn't even gotten up yet. All the other girls were super excited to be going, I was still trying to get over getting up so early. It took a while to get to the balloon, and when we got there they had to inflate the balloon. That was actually pretty interesting. They started with fans, and once the balloon was open enough so they wouldn't light it on fire when they turned the torch on, they ignited on of the biggest flames I've seen. That filled it up very quickly. Then we all hopped in and took off. The ride lasted about an hour, and provided some breathtaking views of the area. There were hundreds of balloons in the air with us, and since the sun was rising, it cast some lovely siloheuttes. Once the balloon ride was over, we were bused back to the hotel, where we quickly packed, and got on another bus.

I don't feel like I need to bore you with the activities exchange students do to entertain themselves on a 10 hour drive back. Especially since you have already invested a lot of time reading this entry. What was interesting was that we drove through a lightning storm where the bolts stretched all the way across the sky and lit up the whole bus. That was about the most exciting thing that happened. I hope this entry left you wanting to go on adventures of your own, because I sure want to have more of my own.

Goroscuruz
-Torvald

 The canyon we explored

 The tunnels

 Gorome at sunset

 Gorome at sunrise

 Cliff apartments

 "Chimneys"

 That tree evil-eye tree

 We didn't plan this, we spontaneously wore colored pants.

 The "castle"

 View from the top of the castle

 Our hot air balloon

 View from the balloon

BALLOONS!

T-Minus 1 Month

Well, I have officially been here for 1 month as of today. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but saying that I still have 10 more months seems a lot longer, but I know that it's going to go by so quickly. Some of my highlights so far have been going to Cesme, which was some of the best swimming I have ever done. Ephesus, which was the most beautiful ancient structure I have ever seen, and yesterday when I got lost on a mountain with my Brazilian friend while we were exploring an ancient castle. I am really looking forward to Thursday which is when we start our road trip to Cappadocia.

While I've been here I have learned a lot about Turkish culture and the language. There are some differences and some similarities. Here is a list of some of the differences.

• Going barefoot here isn't a thing. I always get told to put on shoes whenever I go outside the house.
• They don't ware seat belts.
• Turk's are incredibly patriotic about their country. They are even more patriotic about America than most American's are.
• Instead of greeting each other with a hug, it's a kiss on each cheek.
• Everyone is very hospitable, people you just meet will offer to buy you a cup of tea or offer you some sort of food.
• When it comes to school, you stay in the same classroom for the whole day instead of moving around.
• A bottle of water here is about 30 cents. 
• I've figured out that the Turkish grammar structure is the same as Yoda's
• There are a lot of stray dogs and cats on the streets here. 

I often get asked the question "Do you miss home?" I miss things from home, but not home entirely. I miss my kitty Joey, since none of the cats here are big enough, or fluffy enough to take his place. I miss the rain, but I guess everyone back home has missed it too from what I've heard. Mostly I miss not being able to share Oregon State's 5-0 season with my dad, since this season means a lot to all Beaver fans, and it's a shame not having anyone to share it with. Anyways, I can't wait to see what the rest of my exchange is like, but if it is anything like the past month, then it is going to be amazing. 

Guruscuruz

-Torvald

Ephesus

Last weekend was out first trip as a rotary group. Our destination was Ephesus, which is the largest collection of Greek/Roman ruins in Turkey. The trip started early on Saturday  and of course there were issues getting there. The night before, Gabriel, the boy from Brazil, and I, talked with my host parents and thought we came to an understanding that they would drive us both into Izmir. The next morning when both of us were ready to go, they say that they thought Gabriel's dad was taking us. We explained to them that they said they were, and then they told us that the car is in the shop since the battery had died. This led to my host mother calling up Gabriel's dad and explaining the situation, and us having to walk back to Gabriel's house. When we got there I made sure to express how sorry, and grateful I was to the father for driving us to Izmir on such short notice. Thankfully when we got to Izmir, we weren't the last ones there. After all the other students arrived, we took a few pictures, loaded onto the bus and started to drive.

Ephesus was going to be on Sunday, so we drove to this coastal town for another short orientation. It was very difficult to pay attention since it was a beautiful day outside, and the ocean was just outside the window looking so beautiful and inviting. The orientation didn't finish soon enough, and afterwards we had lunch. Then, finally, we got to go swimming. The water was so refreshing, not too cold, not to hot, and just as clear as the water in Cesme. The only difference was that this beach had waves, which became a little bit of an issue when I was trying to sleep that night because I still felt like I was being rocked by the ocean. After swimming we had to go back for the 2nd part of the orientation, and then afterwards we went out to dinner. We walked around the streets of the downtown for a while, which was nice. There was this one line of trees that were lit up by these gorgeous lamps. Dinner was nice, and we spent some time wandering through the shops. After we got back to the hotel, all of the exchange students got into a room together just talked. The topics were very different, but they mostly revolved around how everyone was doing, and what things were like in each other's countries.

The next day was Ephesus. This time we didn't have to get up so early, which no one complained about. Once everyone was up and ready we took some more group pictures before leaving. Our first stop was the Virgin Mary's House. As the story goes, this was Mary's home after Jesus was crucified, and is a recognized biblical sight by the Vatican. It was very modest, just a simple stone house on  a hill, but the scenery was very pretty. On one of the walls there was this huge collection of paper and cloth that were tied onto strings. What we were told was that people write their wishes onto slips of paper or fabric, then tie them onto the wall. After every week the wall is burned, and the wishes are supposed to come true. I thought it was a nice idea, but I didn't take part. After Mary's house, we grabbed some lunch. Amazingly enough, we ran into some Americans there, and 2 of them were from Portland. We had a small conversation, mostly about what each of us had been doing. The man from Portland actually lives in SW, which I found very funny. After lunch we loaded up onto the bus again and headed to our final destination for the trip, Ephesus.

From the outside, Ephesus doesn't look like much. Just a bunch of collapsed columns and stone floors. But once you get past the gates you get to witness the true beauty. Again I was left in wonder how something so old could still be standing, especially when it is in such good condition. I have seen the Mayan temples, and the Great Wall, and it blows my mind that they are still here when structures now that aren't even 50 years old are starting to fall apart. Walking through these ruins really wanted to make me have a time machine so I could go back in time and see this city in it's prime. Ephesus was a city of 20,000 people, and was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Back in those days it was a port city, but the ocean is very far away now. Everything about Ephesus amazed me, and it got better and better as we continued on. There were these archways that had these gorgeous carvings on them, and it made you wonder how long it took to make them. There was a main road that had columns and statues lining each side. On the right there were fountains and other structures, on the left there were what used to be houses. The small road that connected them all still had beautiful mosaics. Then we came to the library. It was the most spectacular library I have ever seen, not the biggest, but hands down the most amazing. We were only given 10 minutes to look around it, I could have easily spent 45 minutes just looking at it. We continued walking down the street, and were directed to look at a street sign that basically said "Prostitutes this way," which we all found funny. Then we came to the theater. Now a Roman theater is much different than any other one's you've probably seen. It's an amphitheater  but it is gigantic. This one could seat up to 25,000 people, and people like Elton John, and Ray Charles have played in it. Back in the day it used to host many dramas, and gladiator fights. It was amazing how big it was, and how well it was laid out. Max, the guy from Mexico, went down into the center and gave us a small performance. The theater was our last stop in Ephesus, which was unfortunate because I was told there was still much more to see. Our trip to Ephesus was a wonderful adventure, and I'm sure that Turkey has many more monuments like this that are definitely worth seeing. I can't wait!

Goroscuruz.
-Torvald

 Ephesus

 The theater

 Have you ever seen a library like that?

 left-right: America, Brazil, Cascadia (me), South Africa, Turkey, Indonesia

Those lamps at Kusadasi

Field Trip

On Thursday a few of my classmates and myself went on a field trip. Now I had been aware of this trip for a few days now, I didn't know where they were going, and I didn't think I would be going. But of course, as Thursday rolled around, I had just sat down at my desk when the girls in my class poke their heads in the door and say "Come on Torvald, let's go!"

"Where are we going?" I said, knowing that they were wanting me to come on the field trip, but still not sure where we were going to be going.

"On a field trip," was what one of the girls said. I didn't get any more detail than that. I just shrugged, packed the stuff I had already brought out, and followed them out the door. I guess it's an exchange student mind set to just go with whatever is presented to you. All of the kids going on the trip were gathered outside the school. After we got an orientation in Turkish about what we would be doing, we loaded ourselves onto the bus. This was actually quite a squeeze since there weren't enough seats for all the butts that were on the bus.

We start driving out to the country side, and finally I am told what we are doing. We are going to a small farming village in order to ask questions to the people living there about what it's like to live in the country. It takes about an hour to drive to the location, and once we get there we sit down for some tea. We sit down at a small, open air cafe in what appears to be the main part of the village. I didn't get a good look at how big the village was, but from the looks of it, it is very small. All of the people sitting at the cafe are looking at our group, but I find multiple sets of eyes looking at me in particular. After tea we break into groups then we all go out to interview the residence. Most of the houses are concrete or brick with patios out front. All of the people I see are older, it is hard to find a face that isn't riddled with wrinkles and age spots. As the boy in our group asks the questions, the other girl and I sit quietly.

After we finish interviewing one group we wander down another gravel road to find some more people to talk to. The town is very small. There are chickens and dogs wandering all over the place, and I find it interesting that the chickens are still alive. We get to talking with this one man, and after some conversation we start walking with him. I have no idea what's going on, and soon I find myself walking up to a car. The boy gets in the car, and the girl and I look at each other in a sort of "What's going on" fashion. The girl gets in the car, and against all of my instincts and better judgement I get in the car as well. As we start driving, I ask the girl if she knows the driver, she shakes her head. Then I ask her if she knows where we're going, she shakes her head again. We start driving out into the country side with no legitimate destination in sight, and silently I think to myself "So this is how I die." After about 10 minutes of driving, and me constantly on edge, we pull up to this mosque literally in the middle of nowhere. I suspect that we are here for more interviews since there is a group of old ladies in the courtyard. The mosque is surrounded by a  grave yard, and I joke with the girl that they already have our graves dug out and ready for us. We stay here, talking with random people for about a half hour, and then, thankfully, we head back to the village. Once we got back there wasn't much time left so we just went back to the cafe and waited for everyone, then we got on the bus and headed back. It was a very interesting day for me, not only did I get to see what it was like in rural Turkey, but for the first time I got in a car with a stranger and lived to tell the tale (Don't worry mom, I won't do it again).  Off to more adventures.

Elveda
-Torvald

School

First off, I would like to apologize for how lacking I have been with the updates. Internet is down at my home for the past week, so I am left to use the schools network. On that note, school is alright, not fantastic, not horrible, just alright. It is in fact high school after all. I've come to realize that it doesn't matter what country you are in, high schoolers are the same all around. We all have some place we rather be than school, there is a good chance that at least one of us will fall asleep in class (in this case that person is usually me), and it is very cliquey.

The school that I am attending is called Doga Kolleji, it is a K-12 school that is located fairly far away from Manisa in the farm country, in the middle of what I think is an olive grove. Some differences between Turkish school and American school are: The students are the ones who stay in the room, not the teachers, instead of blackboards they have these nifty digital boards that can hook up to the internet and play videos on them, the food is much better, we have to wear uniforms, religion is taught in class, and the classes are a lot smaller. The food is probably my favorite part. In America, if you were served lamb in school, you would think that the budget cuts were over for good, but here it's normal, and it is delicious. Also there is this student store of sorts where they sell drinks and food, I have yet to find something from there that isn't covered in chocolate. It is really interesting being in a K-12 school. Often I see the little kids and think, "Was I really that small?" We don't see the younger kids very much since our breaks are worked out differently, but when we do I always get weird looks from them.

That's  another thing, being a foreigner you are treated much differently. I find it really funny since I've hosted students, and I know what it's like to be so interested in them because they're from a different country, and now I am in there shoes. At times it can be a little overwhelming when you have 10 people asking you questions in Turkish, and only have one person translating, at other times it can be quite boring when all of your classes are taught in a language you don't understand. To pass the time in classes I have taken up perfecting my artistic skills. I have a small journal that I use for drawing, and since discovering that I'm not that bad of an artist, all of my classmates want me to draw them. This wouldn't be that difficult since there are only 5 of them, but I have never been good at drawing other people. My teachers find my drawings entertaining, but sometimes I feel that they are distracting.

All of my teachers are very nice, they usually talk to me in fractured English, but more and more they are asking me simple questions in Turkish, like how I am. Luckily I have no formal homework, which has been wonderful, but my ongoing task is to learn Turkish. One of my teachers has been assigning me segments of my Turkish book that I have been studying from to memorize. Along with my teachers helping me learn, I also have my family and friends. It has been good for me that my family doesn't speak much English, because this forces me to learn Turkish much quicker.

After school is over, Alkin and I take the bus home. Now the buses here are not like the massive yellow ones we have back home. They are small runner vans, and instead of a school having 4-5, they have a whole fleet of them. Once we get home we change out of our uniforms into something more comfortable, and then go out again. Everyday so far we have gone to play basketball. It's funny, because in the states I'm average, but here, or at least with the people I play with I'm considered very good. I think my reputation as an American who is good at basketball has gotten out of hand a bit since I have received multiple requests to join my schools team. I think that it would be a lot of fun to play with them, but I'm sure they are much better and more competitive than the people I play with on the streets.

In any case things are going well. I am making a lot of new friends, I can feel myself learning the language word by word, and I have a great relationship with my host family. I'm really looking forward to all of the trips my group of exchange students will go on, and everything else I will be doing this year.

Hosca Kalin
-Torvald

Vamos Ala Playa

After my tour in Izmir, my host family picked me up, and we drove to their beach house in Cesme. Cesme is a small coastal town that rests right on the Mediterranean, and is a very desirable location to have a summer retreat for most Turks. We got there rather late, so I wasn't able to see much driving in. After we pulled up to the house, we unpacked and drove back to the city to have dinner. The town square of Cesme is dominated by a massive, 500 year old castle that used to be the home of a sultan. Strings with hundreds of Turkish flags are hung overhead all around the area. Before sitting down to dinner, we take a short walk through the shops. I notice that all of the shops look ancient, but have a very modern interior. It was an interesting combination of classic and contemporary. Dinner was nice, as I've come to expect now from Turkish food, after finishing we returned back to the house.

The next morning I woke up to a breathtaking view. The beach house directly overlooks the deep blue ocean and in the distance you can see some islands. Once we had had breakfast, Alkin, my host mother, and I walked down to the beach. Immediately I jumped into the water, it wasn't as warm as I had been expecting, but it sure was warmer than the pacific. For as warm as it was outside, the ocean was the perfect temperature to just float on your back and relax in. Another thing that I found amazing was how clear the water was, because the Pacific, and most of the lakes I swim in back home are rather murky. Alkin and I swam over to a rock jutting out from the shore. When my feet could touch bottom I started walking, but Alkin yelled at me to keep swimming so I asked him why. He dove underwater, looked around for a bit and then pulled up a sea urchin, I didn't need to be told twice after that. Eventually we wore ourselves out and swam back to shore to unwind. I found that almost all of the rocks on the beach were flat, so of course I had to scoop some up and skip them. Alkin joined in, so eventually it turned into a competition of who could skip them the furthest. The rest of the day was spent taking short swims in the ocean, skipping rocks, or throwing a make-shift frisbee to each other.

As night began to fall we pulled ourselves out of the ocean and went back to the house to clean up and pack. My family took me to another historical district in Cesme. I guess the word "historical" isn't really a word I need to use here, since basically everything in Turkey is historical. Anyways, it was a district filled with narrow streets so that the only vehicle that could get through were mopeds, and even they had difficulty getting through. I thought it was a beautiful area. Small two-story shops with windows on the second floor that jutted out into the street, vines that had  been growing for years were now flowering, which made walls turn from a dull brown to a vibrant pink or red. The air was warm, with a slight breeze and it wasn't too crowded. It was a wonderful evening. For dinner we had some sandwiches that were authentic to Cesme. They reminded me of some basic street food you can find in the states. After a wonderful 2 days in Cesme, we got back in the car and headed back to Manisa. I am really looking forward to getting a chance to return to Cesme someday.

Goruscuruz
-Torvald

First Impressions of Turkey

Turkey is an incredibly warm country, and I’m not just talking about the weather. The people here are incredibly welcoming, and love being in contact with one another. When I first met my host family at the airport, every one of them pulled me in close for a kiss on each check, and I had just met them! My family is very nice. The mother and father are both lawyers, the daughter is off at college in Istanbul, and the son is just a year younger than me. It’s interesting since the daughter knew the most English, and at times still had difficulty understanding me. For the few hours she was with us, she served as the translator, and now without her, my family and I are left to communicate with what little English they know, the meager amount of Turkish I know, and a wide variety of hand signs. 

Turkish people love their tea, but it is served at a scalding temperature. On average, I’ve come to figure that Turks drink black tea about 6 times a day.  As for food, I have yet to encounter a Turkish dish that I don’t like, even eggplant, which I have never been a fan of, has somehow been prepared in a way that makes it quite enjoyable. The first meal I ate, which was prepared by my host mother was absolutely wonderful. I am very much looking forward to her teaching me how to cook. Of course there have been foods that I don’t like as much as others, but there has been nothing I found absolutely repulsive. Even though my host family has a dog to help me with my pet withdrawal, it wouldn’t be that much of a problem if they didn’t since there are dogs and cats walking the streets of each city in packs, and all of them are looking for some love. The landscape around here reminds me much of the eastern side of Oregon;  Dry climate, small shrubs, brown grass, and the occasional tall, evergreen looking, tree.

My first couple days here have been spent outside of Manisa, which is the city I will be living in during my stay in Turkey. My first full day in Turkey was spent with the other exchange students in Izmir. I've come to notice that exchange students are all cut from the same block, which makes it very easy to get along with one another. We all are adventurous, and are very friendly and open to each other's similarities and differences. We first had orientation, where we were told the rules for again, and a little bit about Turkey. After getting to know each other we went to lunch. Almost all of Turkey's diners are open air, which makes for a wonderful atmosphere, especially when the food and company are just as wonderful. After eating, our tour guide, a very grandmotherly woman, took us to this ancient site and gave us a history lesson. We were sitting in this ancient market place that was thousands of years old, and again I was left to wonder at how pathetic America is when it comes to history. As we were listening to our guide talk about Izmir, or Smyrna as it used to be called, the city began to echo with calls to prayer from every Mosque in the area. It was quite a cultural experience, being in an ancient market while "Allah akbar" was being sung from every minaret in the city. 

Once we were done touring the agora, we hoped on the bus and went to Izmir's bazaar. The best way I can describe the bazaar in Izmir is like Seattle's Pike Market. Hundreds of people in a small closed in aisle way, pushing their way into shops and booths while shop owners yell at you to come buy their goods. Us students were given some time to go explore the market by ourselves while our guides sat down and had a cup of tea. After pushing through the crowds at the bazaar, we went to get a scenic view of Izmir from a hillside to conclude our tour. I really enjoy the things that Turkey has in common with Oregon, and I celebrate what is different. I can say with confidence that I am glad that I was sent to Turkey, and I am sure that it has much more wonder in store for me.

 Small cafe that we had lunch at

Ancient Greek agora

 Izmir Bazaar

 Some beautiful lamps I found at the bazaar

 Izmir clock tower

Bay of Izmir

Goruscuruz,
-Torvald