The Postcard Project

May 2, 2013

During the last two summers, I invited folks over to my parent's house for a garden party.  At that time, I* took a picture of each person close up such that their head took up most of the frame.  I* printed them out, stamped my Turkish address on them, put an international rate stamp in the corner and passed them out.  My goal was to make it as easy as possible for people to send me mail.  

* And by 'I' I mean me, Chris, Ann, Craig, my dad and/or Carol

Between the two parties, plus some extras that I had taken at other times, I think there were about 100 postcards distributed.  Of these I have received about half.  I am quite willing to admit that some of the other half were lost in the mail, some people have flat out told me that they can't send it, as it is the best picture someone has taken of them in a long time and others are probably lost to junk drawers or recycle bins.  

It has been very nice to get these postcards randomly as they are rediscovered or remembered.  It is always a thrill to get something physical in the mail, and to know that 10-14 days earlier someone was thinking about me.  I often check mail on my way to back to the office from lunch and a new postcard always gives me a little boost in the middle of the day.  

After I am finished enjoying them, I put them up on the wall around my desk.  This way, no matter what kind of day I am having, there are always friendly, smiling faces looking at me.  Also, anytime someone new comes into the office they ask about it and I get to explain all over again.  

My desk in the chemistry office.  You are supposed to be noticing all of the face postcards, but you might also see the four giant stacks of lab books waiting for me to grade.  You can check to see if your postcard arrived or not.  

As my time in Istanbul comes to a close, I would like to do something similar for the friends I have made here.  Perhaps I will have one last party to take everyone's picture, or maybe I'll just use their element party pictures.  It will be nice to get mail from here when I am home, but that is months from now.  

Speaking of leaving, if any of you out there in California still have your postcard, send it!  Time is running out.

Kuru Fasulye

Sunday April 21st

Cecile sent an email earlier in the week inviting campus residents to a cookout today, on the menu was kuru fasulye, literally dry beans.  I walked up the hill just before noon with uncooked rice and a pot for assembly at Alex and Lisa's house.  While Lisa got the fire started outside, I cooked the rice and some English toffee inside.  When they were ready, I went out and helped Cengis cut up the onions, tomatoes, red and skinny green peppers. Meanwhile the beans were cooking in a little bit of water in a giant copper pot on the fire.  

Cutting up the vegetables for the beans.

Alex fanning the flames under the beans while they cooked in a giant copper pot. 

 When the beans were soft, they were removed and the water was dumped out.  We heated some sunflower oil and butter until it was brown and foamy.  The foam was removed and the onions were added and cooked until transparent.  Then the peppers and tomato paste with water, followed by the tomatoes.  There was a lot of stirring and cooking, then black pepper and cumin were mixed in before the beans were added back.

Alex and Fernando stir in preparation to add the green, skinny (hot) peppers.

Lisa adds the beans back in

Charlie was added after the beans came to a good boil.  He adds flavor and is a solution to the campus cat problems.

Macbeth was quoted several times.
Especially relevant was the "nose of Turk" line.

The Witches' Spell

Act IV, Scene 1 from Macbeth (1606)

by William Shakespeare

All: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
WITCH 3: Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digg'd in the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse; 
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips;

It is spring and the trees are blooming children.  They are so ripe they fall from the branches.

Children add sugar and spice, but adding them also provides a solution to the campus children problem.

This recipe called for just two children, but the recipe is easily scaled up. 

The beans stewed for an hour or so and served over rice they were magnificent! 

The weather even turned out nice enough to eat outside.

Cengis masterminded this event but his children were too young for stewing, maybe next year.

Thanks Sue for making the fire place!

This sort of event is one of the best things about living here and on campus.  It was a glimpse at Turkish culture, a fun community event and a very tasty meal.

Birthday

March 1st was my yttrium birthday.  I was celebrated all day.  Three of the four classes I see on Fridays brought treats to class, my science colleagues brought treats to the 20 minute break and it was the school wide cake day at lunch time.  After school I went to yoga, had dinner with Keeley and then we went to play poker for the evening.  It was full of friends and well wishes and lots of sweet things.

All day Saturday I spent preparing for the second ever element party.  I baked and cleaned and baked some more in preparation for ~30 folks to show up in my very small apartment.  Somehow I managed to convince children, math teachers, librarians and even biologists to dress up as elements for two years in a row. Some folks took it more seriously than others, but everyone learned something and had a good time.

It is the friends that I have made here that will be the hardest thing about leaving.  

A long drive - the last of the vacation blogs

Wednesday February 3rd, 2013

Ahmad was a little late this morning and he told me when he picked me up that he woke up only 30 minutes before and had 47 missed calls on one phone and 23 on the other phone.  All from his girlfriend.  My guess is, he went out with Ali last night and that the missed calls weren't all from this morning, but he was feeling sheepish about it.  I asked if he had called her and he said he had.  She called him a few minutes after he picked me up to find out if he had started driving.  They didn't talk for very long, but when he got off the phone he said "I love that girl." with a big grin on his face.  It was very cute.

We stopped to get coffee for him and he seemed very concerned that I didn't want anything, but I had just eaten and the guy at the hotel even made me a pot of hot chocolate with milk that was very good.  It was raining, although not too hard, and there was enough wind to make it pretty cold when we got out at a view point over Wadi Moises (the town) and Petra (the rocks), but it was cool to see where the entrance to the archaeological site was and the crack in the rock which is the siq.

It is hard to believe that all of Petra is in/behind that rock.  How did they succeed as a trading post if they were so hard to find?

We had about an hour - 90 minutes drive to Wadi Rum, a nature preserve in the desert, where I was to have a 2 (or 3 depending on when you asked Ahmad) jeep tour into the desert.  I realized as I got out of one strange man's car and into another that no one knows exactly where I am and that I am putting a lot of trust into strangers whose language I don't speak and whose country I know no one.  That being said, it all turned out fine.  Omar (according to the sticker in the windshield) took me out into the desert.  It was as if we were traveling on Mars.  The sand was red and rocky and very barren, the little bits of plants and eventual rain did give it away, but I was expecting to see Marvin around every corner.

Omar called this the mushroom

Instead we saw Bedouin camps, several of them, none very big, maybe two tents, maybe a dozen sheep or goats.  We stopped at one for tea and to sit by a fire for a little bit.  It was unclear to me what we were doing there exactly, I didn't know if there was supposed to be a story, or if I was supposed to tip him.  He did rub two dry perfumes on the back of my hands, sandalwood and something else, I guess they were for sale, but that wasn't clear either.  I was slow to drink my tea since I didn't know what was going on, but as soon as I finished in Omar said lets go, so we did.  By then it was raining and he was cold and I think the tour got truncated somewhat.

We did stop at Lawrence's cave, which was interesting.  I had a flashlight in the car, but didn't feel like I could go back to get it once I realized it would have been helpful as the cave was bigger than I expected and immediately went to the right instead of back, so the light from the door wasn't very helpful.  The highlight of the trip was when we exited Lawrence's cave, Omar stopped me and said listen.  He then shouted 'hello' across the desert to a giant rock 100 meters away.  There was a significant pause and then three distinct 'hello's in response.  It was the best echo I have ever heard.  I made him do it again and then again so I could capture it on video, but I am not sure how well it will come out.  I knew this was a situation where I should tip Omar, but I never know how much to tip.  This is made more difficult by not knowing the cost of the service he is providing me with in the first place.  Was this a 20JD tour? or a 30JD tour?  I wanted to save JD to tip Ahmad with (again I don't know how much) so I gave him $3.  He was clearly expecting something, and I hope it was appropriate.

Proof that there is life on Mars? Or fuel for the conspiracy theorists that the Mars landing is a hoax?

The wind had picked up and the sand was blowing

We headed back to home base after that with a brief stop at a couple of natural bridges.  I didn't bring the guidebook so I couldn't ask to see anything in particular and Omar was cold.  As we returned to the headquarters we could see that the rain was already causing trouble.  The desert was flooding and it was starting to reach the road.  All sorts of people came out to look at the water, both Omar and Ahmad were impressed by how much water there was and how quickly it had come.
Back in the car with Ahmad we head north.  The rain is heavy and causing some big puddles on the freeway.  At times we cannot see the road for how foggy it is.  I did think that Ahmad drove too fast sometimes given the conditions, but I never felt unsafe and he always slowed down in plenty of time when we approached other cars.  The going was slow and it was made even slower by an accident of someone who wasn't as lucky/careful as Ahmad.  It looked like a gas tanker and it was leaking when we finally got up to it to pass it. I sure hope that no one lit a cigarette nearby.  Sitting in the traffic leading up to the accident was interesting.  I think officially the road was two lanes wide, but the right hand shoulder was a full car width and was immediately used as another lane.  It took greater levels of impatience to start using the left hand shoulder since it meant one wheel had to be on sand, but eventually it too was in use.  At one point Ahmad got out and went up to look at what the trouble was and he asked other drivers who had come from behind us.  When we did get up to the accident, it was blocking the left shoulder and left lane, so cars were being allowed through on the right lane.  Police and fire trucks were there, but no ambulance, so either the driver was ok, or he had already been taken away.  We moved faster after that but still the rain made it slower going than normal.

The tanker that was causing the traffic.

Traffic in Amman was also crazy and when we were at the edge of the city Ahmad turns to me to say he isn't sure we are going to get to the citadel.  (My itinerary said Amman tour, I had asked what that meant and he told me the citadel, the amphitheater and down town.)  He thought, and my guidebook confirmed that it closes at 4pm.  I said it was ok if we didn't see the citadel, but that I would like a sandwich for lunch.  We had talked about this when we stopped for a bathroom and cigarette break just north of Petra (three plus hours ago) when I was again offered a buffet.  At that time it was going to be just two hours to Amman and I could wait until 2:30 for a sandwich.  Now it was four and I was hungry.  Again, I don't think I made myself clear because we were on side streets still trying to get to the citadel, which we did, at 4:05.  Fortunately(?) the guard there is Ahmad's uncles's son (which I think makes him Ahmad's cousin) and once he figured out how to unlock the gate, he let me in.  I felt weird about that, wondering around the closed citadel, but it turned out there were another of other people also wondering around in there (does Ahmad's uncle's son have many cousins?) who didn't seem to be in a hurry.  Anyway, I could see the amphitheater from there and took pictures of signs I can read later and made it back to the gate by 4:25.

I didn't really think about anything, I just took pictures, figuring I would work it out later

The Roman Theater 170 AD, seating capacity 6,000. 

The Byzantine church 560AD

Monumental Gateway/Entrance Hall 730 AD ot the Umayyad Palace.

Ahmad asked if I wanted to go down town, what I didn't want to do was sit in more traffic, so I said no, he said, hotel?  I said, sure.  I didn't want to have the sandwich conversation again, especially since we wouldn't get to the hotel until 4:45 and I had hopes that dinner would start at 6.

Upon check in I find out that dinner doesn't start until 7 and breakfast not until 6.  I ate the last of my cheese filled baklava treats from last night, another orange and I have been trying to keep busy to not be hungry.  Hopefully there will be something I can save from dinner to have in the morning since Ahmad will pick me up before breakfast is ready and I didn't feel like having the hotel get breakfast early an entire hour early just for me (even though the concierge did offer.)

I have been writing on and off line and am behind with pictures as well.  I want to publish the blogs in the order that they happened and I should have a couple more hours tonight, but probably wont get it all done.  (You can tell what I am writing in real time vs what I am recalling from a day or two ago because I refer to the future.)  Tomorrow I head back to Istanbul and the cat, who I hear is well but lonely.  I am looking forward to my own setting and my own schedule, even if it does mean going back to work on Monday.  I have seen some amazing things and had some experiences that I am glad to have had, but it has been stressful.  Of course I have at least two more trips already in the planning stages and I am very much looking forward to them, but I wonder if it might be time to slow down with the travel for a while.  I have thought about what car I will buy when I return home this summer.  Part of me wants a plug in hybrid, but part of me wants something with seats that fold down such that I can sleep comfortably in the back.  It might be time to see a bit more of the US again and camping is the way to do that.

Petra!

Tuesday February 5, 2013 - Petra

Breakfast was uninspiring.  There was an omelet making station, but no one was there.  I knew it was going to be a long day, so I wanted to eat some protein and had a hard boiled egg, some toast and some blue berry yogurt.  I did fill up my water bottle, but wasn't really satisfied.  It was overcast and even though the hotel’s restaurant looks west, I could see that the sun rise was making beautiful pink clouds out the side window.  I appreciated that the breakfast director seated me at the window even though I was alone for breakfast. 

I was eager to get started so I was waiting outside at 8 when Ahmad drove up.  As far as I could tell, driving me the 100m from the hotel to the entrance to Petra was his entire responsibility for the day.  He did connect me with my guide for Petra, Ali, a friend of his, whom Ahmed described as ‘beautiful’.  It turns out he was knowledgeable too and friendly.

These cubic buildings are thought to be tombs carved by the Nabataens, now they are called djinn blocks.*

Obelisk Tomb and Bab el-Siq Triclinium.  The top tomb shows Egyptian influence and the bottom is classic Nabatean.*

   We chatted as we walked down the path towards the siq, or canyon which is really the start of the ancient city.  Even though I walked this way last night, it was a completely new experience because this time I could see where I was walking.  The canyon was magnificent.  In some places it was only about 2 meters across but tens of meters high.  This siq itself is more than a kilometer long and the guidebooks says it isn't technically a gorge since it wasn't carved by water, but instead it is one giant rock that an earthquake opened up.  My favorite things along the siq were there water channels (on the left, open for animals, on the right a terracotta pipe for humans) and the relief of the camel and trader in addition to the narrow passage of the canyon itself.

The water channel for the animals on the left, the remains of
the terracotta pipe for human drinking water was on the right.*

The siq is very narrow in some places.

Camel Caravan reliefs 100-50BC about 1/3 larger than life, a man and his camel are arriving in Petra.*

Before the treasury really came into view, I could get glimpses of it between the canyon walls, but once it is fully there, it is really impressive.  There is a large open space (where the Petra by night was) with shops on one side and carriages, donkeys, camels on the other side.  I can hardly imagine what it would have been like to be a caravan with trade goods coming from far away, having walked/cameled for weeks and then to find this.  First, how to find it?  Second, when you did, what a shock!

Like everything old, the bottom x meters is buried and I had to look down to see the tombs which were at the bottom of the building.  (Of course Ali, my guide, was giving me all sorts of valuable information as we walked, most of which I can’t remember.)  The treasury probably wasn't a treasury at all, but the Bedouins who lived here before it was rediscovered by Europeans thought it was so they shot at it hoping to break into it and find the gold.  

The misnamed treasury, famous in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the first facade you see when exiting the siq.  *

 It was a cloudy day, with a bit of rain and sun thrown in for variety.  The lack of direct sun was good for keeping cool and for not washing out the photos, but the colors weren't quite as vibrant as I think they could be.  That said, no picture could do it justice.  Looking through my pictures, most of the time I found I could have bluish sky and dark rocks or white sky and reddish rocks.  Partly I don't know enough how to control my camera (it doesn't help that I broke the midrange lens on my last night in Israel and only have the long lens for my big camera so was using my much simpler little camera for most of these pictures) and partly the dynamic range was just too great.  I also can see that I took a lot of pictures of rocks.  I assume that there was something in each one that caught my eye or I thought was interesting, but looking back at them, most of them look like red rock.  I have chosen only a few and will let the captions do the talking

Many tombs packed close together on four levels of the streets of facades.*

This rock looks like a camel, I think I saw his cousin in Southern Utah.

The Cardo going through Petra city dating from the Roman period 2nd century AD, with the temple of winged lions (or al-Uzza) in the background*

 After Ali left me and the end of the cardo, he pointed up the hill and suggested I hike to the monastery.  As the donkey drivers kept reminding me, it was 852 steps to the top.  I think it was my stubbornness more than anything else that got me there.  I probably should have paid for a donkey to come back down as my knees paid for it for days afterwards, but the view was worth it.

The Monestary - misnamed because of the many crosses carved inside, but really a temple dedicated
to the deified king, Obodas 1 who died in 86BC, simple, yet elegant, it is classical Nabataean.*

From the monastery  I hiked a little bit farther up to a view of the valley below, not unlike the view from Mt. Nebo.  It was hazy at that point so those pictures are not as interesting and this one showing a Bedouin tent perched at the top of the world.  

On my way down I stopped for break and a fresh squeezed orange/pomegranate
juice and to sit and gaze at the monastery for a while longer.

A very talkative Orange cat without much interest in the view.  I don't think it was either of the ones I met last night.  I must have been giving out orange cat vibes because that was all I saw.

The Royal tombs from the upper market in the town of Petra. The design style is Assyrian, based on the similarity of the designs to Mesopotamian architecture of the 6th-7th centuries BC.  The designs overlap and merge gradually from one culture to another including Assyrian and Roman.  Ali thought this was a way of being inclusive and making all traders feel at home.*

The Urn Tomb 40-75 AD so named by the ornament on the top.  The courtyard would have been flanked by colonnaded porticos, directly facing Petra's main temple.  Because of the prime location, it was probably the tomb of a Nabataen king, but it was converted into a Christian church by Bishop Jason in 447AD.*

Funerary niches inside the Urn tomb*

The timeline of Petra, with major events highlighted.*

There were many Bedouin folks (mostly ladies) selling souvenirs along the paths.  Some things carved out of stone, lots of cheap magnets, postcards, some daggers, coins supposedly found in the ruins, but mostly beaded necklaces/bracelets, and offering to give you tea.  I interacted with many of them to say good morning or hello and did eventually buy a refrigerator magnet from one and a set of postcards from a young girl.  I had heard stories about sharing tea with Bedouins, but ti seemed awkward to me, so I declined.  The young girl came up to me while I was wondering around the Great Temple.  She has about 6 words of English, but wasn't shy about trying them out.  She wanted me to buy a packet of postcards for 1JD.  I told her I only had a 1/2 JD coin because I didn't really want any more postcards.  I was surprised when she said ok, but then she seemed disappointed when I gave her the coin.  I offered to trade back, but she said no.  I was trying to move away without being rude, but I don't think I succeeded.

The part labeled Q was paved with hexagons, which I would really have liked to get a picture of, but I was being followed by a girl trying to get me to buy postcards and I didn't feel like I could stop to take the picture.*

 * Most of the historical factoids are from the guidebook I consulted when I was labeling pictures. Some information is from the signs that accompanied the monuments.

It was after 3pm at this point and I was tired.  I had stopped for lunch at the Best Western restaurant at the bottom of the trail to the monastery and that helped to revive me, but I was still out of energy.  I walked back through the city to the treasury and then back up the siq.  Several donkey drivers offered me rides, sometimes on 'air conditioned' 'Porsche' donkeys and sometimes for as little as 5JD all the way to the entrance.  I always said no, but then I would take a few more steps and decide that when the next one offered, I would accept.  Except when they did, I didn't.  I guess my fear at the interaction was greater than the tiredness I felt at walking.

Ali had told me that there was a horse ride included in my ticket.  I forgot to ask him about that before we parted in the morning, but I happened to run into him later on and asked.  He said it was just from the end of the siq to the entrance, the last 150m (but I think it was 900m).  I said that was hardly worth it, he said, that's why it is free.  Anyway, when I got to the end of the siq and there were some horse guys there offering me their services, I said ok.  There were two of them, a tall guy talked to me first and then a shorter guy who came up a few seconds later.  I was going to go with the shorter guy, but the tall guy said he spoke to me first.  The short guy said he would only charge me 2-3JD, I said, but you said it was included, so I am not going to pay for it.  At that point he let me go and I went with the tall guy.  We get a little way into the journey and he says, the ride is included in the ticket, except for the normal tip.  Yeah, I had figured that out.  It was so nice to be riding that I didn't comment.  When we got to the entrance and I got off, I got out my wallet and offered him 2JD.  He said that is nothing.  I said, the ride was free, the tip was up to me.  He said the normal tip was 5JD.  I said I was offering 2.  He said I was too big for the horse and came all this way, I should give him 5JD.  I said if he didn't want 2, he didn't have to take it and walked off.  He got on the horse and came after me saying he would take the 2.  I said he shouldn't have refused it and then insulted me and kept walking.  He said he didn't insult me and that I should give him the 2.  I did and I am sure he was pissed.  I was pissed too.  I hate being scammed.  I am not sure if the donkey riders were allowed to go all the way to the entrance (I didn't see any go beyond the treasury) but their comments about 'air conditioning' were obviously jokes and the price you negotiate with them is the price you pay.  For this guy (and I guess it is a well established practice that even Ali was in on) to offer a free or included service and then expect me to pay as much for it as if it wasn't free, just got to me.

Anyway, I walked back to the hotel, stopping to buy a t shirt that I had scoped out the night before, and chat with the t shirt seller, who was a nice guy and was willing to take the 10JD instead of the 15 he asked for.  He asked were I was from (as did pretty much everyone I met anywhere) and I told him California.  He said everyone was from California, well, California or Chicago.  No one ever said they were from Illinois, which he asked about once and the person said that Chicago is more famous than Illinois, which I guess is probably true.  Sometimes I debate about saying I am from California or America, or the US.  I know America isn't a country and the US seems to vague, so I usually go with California, which everyone has heard of, so it mostly works.  I did tell one necklace selling woman I was from Turkey.  She said, you don't look like Turkey.  I said, I live there.  She said, your language sounds like England or America.  Yeah, your'e right, no pulling one over on you.

This was our syllabus/menu for the evening. 

I had a little time in the hotel and took a shower and wrote some before heading out to the cooking class I had signed up for the night before.  I got there at the agreed upon 6:15 to find that there was one more student, which was great.  Aiko is from Seattle and has just finished medical school and getting ready to start her first real doctor job in rural Washington state.  She had a much better memory for the names of the dishes we were making, but her chopping technique was more often remarked upon by the chef, Bilal.

Ali was our host and he was very accommodating  getting us beverages and making sure that we had everything we needed.  He introduced the dishes and the chef, whose name I immediately learned because the chef at RC is also named Bilal.  We did a lot of chopping of vegetables.  It was very organized, with each dish's ingredients separated out and washed.  The chicken had been boiled ahead of time but we used the stock for the lentil soup (which had been soaking as well) but everything else we did in real time.  Often I was in charge of putting in the olive oil and I was astonished by how much we were told to use.  I put in what I thought was enough only to be told to double or even quadruple it.  Aiko was in charge of the salt, but she was also told over and over again to put more in.  It kind of became a joke.

So far this contains onions, olive oil and the red stuff is sumac.  I hadn't met sumac before (knowingly) it is startlingly red but tastes like lemon.  We put in 8 spoons!

Ali and Bilal when our feast was ready to go.

Everything was delicious, but my favorites were the tomato hot meze, galayat bandura and the main course musakhan (pictured below).  We had a relaxing meal with Ali and ended up with a cheese filled pastry.

Aiko and the main course - chicken and onion pie:
Musakhan.

Cheese filled phylo dough - yummy

It was well worth it for 35JD.  We got to learn, eat, and then take the recipes home as well.  With the full day at Petra and then three hours of cooking, I was very tired and happily headed back up the hill to my hotel.

Bilal, who had left the kitchen/classroom several minutes before we did, came up in his car and offered me a ride home.  I told him it wasn't far and that I was happy to walk.  He then offered to show me the town, just 10 minutes, that he wasn't ready to go home yet.  I didn't know how to take this.  He was a nice guy, I had just spent the evening with him, but somehow getting into a car with him, after dark, in a town/country I didn't know, didn't seem right.  It probably would have been fine, I probably hurt his feelings, but I would probably make the same choice again.  It is interesting to think about what risks are ok and which are not.  I have gotten into cars/vans/jeeps with strange men often alone for the last ten days, why was this one not ok?

It was a good, long, tiring day filled with sights and smells and good food, definitely the highlight of the trip.