A Dream Come True!!

We have spent the last three days lazily wandering around Santorini, and it is amazing. We arrived at the port late on Wednesday night, and were met by the hotel owner. I have to say, even from the start, I was thrilled! Our hotel room had HOT running water (the lack of which in Antalya has begun to wear on me), and a balcony with a small sea view! We slept in very late and went downstairs to the bar/lobby for coffee, which made Katelyn very happy. The tea here is the same as in Turkey. Then we began a walking tour of Santorini, which is actually very small. We found one of the approximately three open places to eat, and I enjoyed fabulous pancakes with bananas! I am definitely on vacation.

Everyone (well, mostly the guide book and the guy at the hotel) told us that sunset was famous in the small village about 15 minutes north of Fira, where we are staying. We took the bus there, and were met with another ghost town. Literally, a very stange place. We saw more dogs than people. And actually, the dogs were really fun. At one point there were 6 stray dogs leading us through the small, twisting alleyways that made up the streets of Oia. Two in particular stayed with us for a while, and acted just like they were our guard dogs. When we stopped to watch the sunset, they immediately sat down too. The sunset was beautiful, though very cold. All of Santorini is incredibly windy, I think due to the fact that there is nothing to block the wind that blows off the water in all directions. At one point a tourist family of three walked by us (we were happy to see people!) and the dogs got up and barked protectively. I think the family thought they were our dogs!

My favorite place to eat here is techinically in another town (Katerados) but its only a five minute taxi ride from the hotel. They have the absolute best Tzatziki I have ever had, hands down. Incredibly thick and garlicky, served with thick crusty rolls. As good as the tzatziki that we get at Porteau Cove is, this is ten times better. (We have been back there twice now, and may have to find dinner there again tonight, because its pretty much the only good dinner place thats open.)

We haven't really done much, other than wander around the city, and visit a couple museums. And we took a cable car ride down to the old port of Fira, which is not accessible by car. It's strange traveling in the off-season, because so much is closed. We had to very persistently wander past three exit-only signs to find the ticket seller who told us we had just missed the 3:00 run of the cable car. (We were a little miffed, seeing as it was only 3:02 and there was nobody else in sight...) On our of our adventures to a black sand beach at the other end of the island we made friends with a Brazilian guy named Chiago who coincidentally is staying at our same hotel here, is traveling to Athens on Sunday on the same ferry, and is staying at the same hostel in Athens too. We've spent the last day and a half with him, and its fun to have a third person in our group.

Anyway, all this is to say that I am absolutely loving Santorini. We found a little bookstore that was miraculously open and sold books in English! There I saw a couple books and several cards by the photographer that started my whole dream to come to the Greek Islands. Years ago I bought a boxed set of cards in Canada by the photographer George Meis (look him up!). If you've ever been in any of my rooms since high school, you may remember the framed set that are always on my wall. It is absolutely surreal to think that after dreaming about coming here for so long, I am actually here, and it is just as beautiful and wonderful as I imagined. It is a huge gift, and I am enjoying every moment of it.

P.S. I'm not using my computer, so I have no photos to post yet, but believe me, I have taken plenty!! When I get home and can upload them to my computer, I will post straight pictures, because they are absolutely worth seeing!

Hiccups and Serendipities

As many of you know, Katelyn arrived in Antalya last Wednesday, and we have had a blast together. It is so great to be able to show someone the city that I have grown to love - to be able to say "Look, this is the place that I love to stop at for breakfast on Sunday mornings, these are the schools that I work at, these are the people I spend my days with." Plus, I'm just really glad to get to spend almost 3 uninterrupted weeks with Katelyn!

We left Antalya on Monday morning, flying to Izmir, where Katelyn's mom lived for a few years when she was really little. Katelyn wanted to try to find the area where Sandy lived, but we had very little evidence to go on. After depositing our backpacks at the bus station, we hired a taxi for what we thought would be a short (and therefore cheap) ride. Turns out the hospital that we were heading for (according to Sandy's tips) no longer exists. Our taxi driver was thankfully very much enjoying our "buyuk macera" (big adventure) and eagerly took us all over town (twice, actually) asking passersby on the streets where the American Hospital might have been 50 years ago. With my broken Turkish we ended up at the airforce base in town, talked with some soldiers there who called an older officer who vaguely remembered where the base or the hospital might have been at that time. Suffice it to say, we ended up criss-crossing town, and ended up back at the beginning. But, it was a grand adventure, and we laughed the whole time!

Izmir was fun, but we really only had a short afternoon there because we took an evening bus to Marmaris, where we were supposed to catch the Tuesday morning ferry to Rhodes, the first Greek Island on our itinerary. As we were in the taxi driving to the port on Tuesday morning, Katelyn and I both commented on how pretty Marmaris was, and how we wished we had more time to see it. When we got to the port we found out very quickly that the ferry was cancelled for the day, rescheduled for Wednesday morning. The first hiccup in my carefully laid plans turned out to be a serendipity as well! We went back to our pansiyon, dropped off heavy backpacks, and proceeded to spend an incredibly lovely day nothing pretty much nothing in Marmaris! As it is the off-season for traveling, and Marmaris is very much a tourist town, it was fairly quiet. We spend hours sitting on the sea wall in the harbour, soaking up the sun (though it wasn't exactly warm), visiting the small castle, enjoying lunch, and getting lost in the alleys and stairwells of the town. It was an absolutely wonderful day!

This morning we started out again to Rhodes, and were successful in our mission! And actually, we were very glad that we had less time in Rhodes than planned, about 5 hours total to see what we could. And what we did see was weird. Rhodes Old Town is a delightful walled city, but it is completely run by tourism, and so everything was shut down and closed. It felt like a ghost town. But strangely, there were cars rushing up and down all the streets, tons of them, clearly going somewhere. We felt like there was a party somewhere that we weren't invited to - so odd. Actually, it made me think of a Diagnosis Murder episode where the whole town was involved in a smuggling ring, and outsiders were not appreciated.

I am currently sitting on the ferry (which looks and feels more like a cruise ship) on the way to Santorini. I am seriously looking forward to our time there - 4 uninterrupted days on sightseeing, and probably a lot of relaxing. As much fun as it is to walk around and discover new places, I am looking forward to the chance of taking a bit of rest time on this vacation too. No photos yet as I am not on my computer, but I'll put some up as soon as I can!

Hamburgers and Gala Dinners

Let me first say that in Turkey, if it looks like a hamburger, smells like a hamburger, and is dressed like a hamburger... it is NOT necessarily a hamburger.

Hamburgers are a frequent occurrence on restaurant menus here, but I learned my lesson the first time I ordered what I thought was a genuine hamburger as we Americans know it to be. While the toppings (lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, cheese) are all much better here in Turkey, I've come to realize that the meat is really the essential part, and if it's not right, then it's not a hamburger. The restaurants here use kofte meat for the patty, which is a seasoned ground meat (I think it's beef...) that is used for just about everything else here too. It tastes fine, but it doesn't pack the same punch as regular ol' ground beef. Up until last weekend, I had not visited any of the American fast food places in Antalya, like Burger King or McDonald's. But I was craving a REAL hamburger, so we went to Burger King. I have never appreciated a Whopper more!

Now on to a more cultural topic. This past weekend Verna and Tansule, along with Yapa, the publishing company that Tansule works with, put on an educational conference for teachers about assessing and teaching gifted preschoolers. A very specific topic, but one that Turkish preschool teachers are very interested in. Verna brought a teacher, Emily, over from Washington to speak. I attended one day of the conference, and it was very interesting. Emily talked about Bloom's and Gardner, culminating with the teachers filling out an activity matrix that meshed the two theories. The best part of the weekend though, was getting to show Emily around Antalya. Unfortunately, Verna unexpectedly took sick, and was out of the picture for the weekend. So, Emily and I got to go to the market, and Duden Falls (the big beautiful waterfall a ways out of town). On Sunday we went out to a surrounding village for a traditional (and very large!) Turkish breakfast in our own private hut, and later to the Antalya Museum. We also visited the hamam, where Emily treated me to the full deal, including oil massage! So amazing! I will definitely miss the hamams when I get home.

The conference weekend finished with a gala dinner for the participants, and since Verna was out of commission, I went along as Emily's date. Having never been to a formal Turkish soiree, this was an interesting experience. The food was fine - sort of bland, and surprisingly not overtly Turkish. We weren't actually served the main course until 11:00, so that was interesting in itself. The entertainment was the real cultural point of the evening however. A poet named Ahmet (didn't catch the last name) performed his poem-songs all evening. He was very emotional, and according to Tansule, has written (and knows by heart) over 800 poems. Everyone in the room seemed to know all the lyrics, and sang right along with him. It was amazing to see how the music moved each person - huge smiles and lots of slow, subtle belly dancing. One of the women at my table was so graceful, even just in the way she moved her hands to the music. As if the poet wasn't enough, one of the teachers (a music teacher) took over for a while, and sang children's songs that he had written. Now, maybe it's just because it was a group of preschool teachers, but I've never been to a formal gathering where the guests literally acted like cows and pigs! It's also possible that the copious amounts of Raki (licorice flavored liqueur) consumed helped loosen everyone up. Either way, it was a fun glimpse into Turkish culture.

Ooops

Well, I did it. It was bound to happen. That one really big cultural faux paus that people will be laughing about for years to come. I might as well join them. Haha!

This Sunday I got to spend the day with a young teacher friend of mine at her family's house. We were sitting around the breakfast table with my friend Funda, her sister and brother in law, her mother, her fiance, and her cousin, talking and joking around. At some point, Funda showed me a hand signal that looks like the ASL sign for the letter T. She explained that in Turkey, it means the same thing as our middle finger. I suddenly felt a little sick when I realized that I have been singing a song in one of my classes all month that uses that sign! The preschool song "Slippery Fish" uses the T sign to represent a tuna fish, which I have been singing in Gulsemin's class, and asking the students to copy all the motions! No wonder the song gets such a strong reaction from the students! Haha, oh man. I wish someone had told me earlier, like maybe the first time I tried to teach Slippery Fish. When I told this to Funda, and she translated for her family, they all burst out laughing, and didn't stop for some time. Later that day they told the story to some of the neighbors that stopped by, and they laughed as well. I have a feeling this will be a story they tell for a long time.

On that note, I did spend the day with Funda and her family, learning how to cook some traditional Turkish dishes. It was wonderful!! I met up with her in the morning, so we had a long leisurely breakfast with her whole family. A Turkish breakfast consists of olives, several kinds of cheese, lots of bread, honey, jam, tomatoes, cucumbers, Nutella, hard boiled eggs, nuts, grilled peppers, and countless glasses of tea. Funda's mother also made a really yummy hot dish out of peppers and tomatoes stewed together with melted cheese. Amazing, especially on the fresh, soft white bread that accompanies every meal!

Then we took a break from eating to play "Okey" for a several hours. This is a game based on strategy, luck, and numbers. Alli and I learned how to play one version when we visited Istanbul, but this was another, entirely different version. I had a ton of fun. Only four people can play at a time, so the family members just rotated through whenever someone got bored or had to go. It was really nice to be with a family for the day.

Then the dinner preparations began. We made pilav, tarhana soup, and karni yanik. The pilav is the way most rice is served here - cooked with oil and little brown things that I think are orzo. So good! I am really excited that I now know how to make this. Tarhana soup is a brown soup with chickpeas in it. Funda's grandmother makes the main ingredient, tarhana, which is a powdery brown substance. The karni yanik was a lot of fun to make, and I think can be used as a base for a few other dishes as well. Basically, it is stuffed eggplants. We used little tiny eggplants, stuffed with seasoned ground beef, topped with tomato, green pepper, and garlic. Again, amazing! I am excited to make pilav and karni yanik when I come home so you all can taste it too! Apparently another name for the karni yanik translates to "Unconscious Imam", which I thought was pretty funny. For dessert we roasted chestnuts (which are actually pretty good!) and drank a million more cups of tea. Oh - I also learned how to make Turkish tea, of which up till this point, I was ignorant.

All in all, it was a wonderful day to spend relaxing with in a family setting. I loved that, because it reminded me a little of my Whitney grandparents' house - always open and welcoming to friends. It was a constant influx of neighbors and family members at Funda's house - her fiance was there, and his family came in and out all day, as did their neighbors, cousins, and friends. In Turkey, Sundays are a family day and many Turks spend it picnicking, no matter the temperature outside.