Eufreakinphrates

A few weeks ago, my Wednesday morning class started chattering about a group outing for the upcoming Cumhuriyet Bayrami (Turkish Republic Day) weekend. By the sheer enthusiasm and expert organizing skills of one of my students, our "picnic" turned into a neat full day trip to (surprise!) the Euphrates... 

Ten Amerikalı hocalar (including a fellow Fulbrighter visiting from Konya and a new friend who works for a private university in town), about fifteen intermediate hazırlık students, and a few rando pals piled into two bigass vans for the 100 km venture east.
(Yep, that's me thinking I'm not gonna fit in the photo...)

Stopped off at a bird sanctuary where a good number of 150 living specimens of bald ibis live. (The little guide man’s environmental commitment was unbelievably poetic even in translation.)

Dipped ma toes in the cradle of civilization. (NBD, bro.)

Posed for plenty of [hopefully not compromising] crazy hoca photos.

Took a boat on the Euphrates to Rumkale (have a quick wiki) and around the submerged buildings of an ancient flooded city. 

Ate kebaps that my kiddos grilled up on the waterfront, (Turkish style BBQ, whatwhat?!) and climbed up the minaret of an out-of-use mosque.

Ahh, this crazy/beautiful/castled/absurdly amazing Turkey life.

Hope everyone had as happy of a Halloween weekend! Today I finished off my stash of candy corn and caramel apple pops (Heck YES, I brought 'em! I'm no fool.) and spent a solid quarter of my class time compiling a vocabulary list of scary things. :)