V

       

day five: the all-important kahvalı by the sea; arkadaşlar see-off; sun, med, beer, book--repeat; full moon; more excellent food; sherbet colored nook bench on the beach; tavla tourney; enough.

IV

I                           II                         III

günaydın! g’morrrnin’!

a mostly uphill day

cute ‘n matchy ‘n stuff

balık & mezze

rakı & fruit

day four: to Olimpos (again) and beyond!; 16 km to from Çıralı to Adrasan; mountain incline through the Toros (that really could have been in maine); mid-trail morale powwow and chocolate sesh; scattered high mountain valley ruins; pastoral as shit views; walking fellowship of the ring style; a shepherd’s hut luncheon; high tailing (verrry deliberately) downhill in a john muir-esqe canyon sunset; dark orange grove wandering (november=less daylight--if you want kahvalı time in the morning, and you always want türk kahvalı time); being followed by kitties/kedilar; dark dirt road turnoff ending in THE BEACH!; 50 TL for a beach front night and dinner (AND kahvalı!) at Sinemis Hotel in Adrasan; moonlight swim in the med; balık & mezze; rakı & fruit; glorious glorious collapse.

Hey Hocam, Haayy!

Check some funny recent tidbits from my life as a hocam:

Teaching in Turkey

I'm keeping a page (aptly titled “Teaching in Turkey” up thur at the top o’ the home page) "updated" with these lil gems. Go ahead and venture yonder every once in a while for a laugh (if you are also a teacher in Turkey) or at least an exasperated head-shake (if you are not).

Some Weekend Ironies

So I know I’m interrupting my admittedly slow-going Bayram post series, but I’ve got a few fun things to share from the weekend.

Friday: Good food. Good friends. Let’s just keep it simple, eh? 

Went to dinner with a good chunk of my Fbright crew at a Manti Evi (manta=excellent handmade tortellini pasta bits; evi=house of) in downtown GTep. Now, we all have our culturally degrading expressions for tightwads who like to itemize and split the check. In the US, some call it “Going Dutch” and the Turkish phrase essentially means “the German way.” Well, this restaurant wasn’t gonna put up with any kind of European stingy BS. This was our hesab (check).

Saturday: A little late-night Chocolate-->Coffee-->Conversion

After some city exploring with Kelsey, (AKA getting lost in the rain and finding good coffee places and eateries) I felt a little chocolate craving creeping up on my walk from the tramvay to my apartment. When I stopped into Halid’s, (yep, it’s been a while since I talked about my favorite little corner market) I knew I was taking a risk because my stops in to pick up a few things often turn into you-must-drink-tea-and-chat seshes. This 11:00 PM stop-in turned into a Nescafe sit-down right quick. Which turned into a “what do you think about Allah?” conversation. To be fair I’ve been friends with these folks for two months and it’s never come up. I’m a stickler on this kind of stuff, though. No matter how confused people get, I reject the Christian assumption and say my parents practiced no religion. It went relatively well. Still I couldn’t shake the feeling that Obama and Michael Jackson were not Muslim like my pals insisted.

Sunday: Visited a Church-->Prison-->Mosque

Not many buildings I’ve come across take that trajectory (the church-->mosque thing happens but the prison bit was a new one for me). Also, the name Kurtuluş Camii loosely translates to “Freedom Mosque.” Appropriate for a building originally constructed as a pre-republic Armenian church, used as a prison (likely for those same Armenians) during the war for the republic, then triumphantly made Turkish with a minaret, a raised women’s section, and a reoriented Mecca-facing inside.

(conspicuous.)

III

college buds and solid adventure companions take it to turkey

(l to r) luke, becca, russell, jake

a little lycian

ah, and this would be a turkish beach.

just lit my first eternal flame. def screamed when it caught.

sorry for the crappy quality, but that hillside is on fire, man. freakin' cool.

luke’s face says it all.

oh! the horrendously translated information sign (it asserted that the science could not be “criticized”) at the Chimera trailhead yielded a lil’ baby discovery. yep, this is “santa claus foundation” territory. wtf, right? hilarious at the time and only slightly less so when we learned that the nearbyish town of Demre is the historical birthplace of Saint Nicholas. english translation: (that cropped up ERRYwhere) santa claus. they dig him out here in old lycia. we even stood outside the cathedral (cause we weren’t gonna pay to go inside a place that was only, like, a couple hundred years old) dedicated to st. nick, the man who “became a patron saint for northern countries but who in fact came from a place where it rarely snows” (according to an information pamphlet. but nobody's bitter.). fun facts all around!  

day three: blessed sleep-in; a sultan’s türk kahvalı in a flippin’ pagoda; beach “walk” to Olimpos; ruins scrambling and photographing; “walk” back to Uğur; bike to Chimera trailhead; summit o' fire; twelve-year-old boy pyro time lighting eternal flames; sücük and hindi weenies over a natural propane flame; fan-freaking-tastic chimera meal; sharing the fun with baby French cuties Jean Luke, Julia, Dominique, and Matise; another dark walk downhill (bad. habit.); day periodically punctuated by ankle icing and knee dressing, of course.

II

 da crew: (l to r) utah, kentucky, maine, idaho, and tahoe (it's a state when it's in nevada). aka scrapiest fbrighters (and friends!) in turkey (and jordan!).

 rocks are clean enough; trail food is too delicious.

boys

‘n girls

(r) a scar for the story. update: thanks to today’s encounter with chipped glass table top this knee now has a fresh slice and i have one less pair of tights. maalesef.

day two: otogar party aka running into anika fulbrighter; buying of many bus tickets for many ventures (i'll be damned to get my money’s worth outa this bayram); excellent bus station portokal suyu; unexpected 2 hr Tekirova transport (on a dolmuş that needed to srsly mush); surprise extra 5 km to the first leg (not to mention the 3 km town to trailhead stroll); totally unanticipated noon trail embarkation; stupendous coastline views; beachside lunch of apricots, nutella, bread, cheese, nuts, and tomatoes; uphill “goatpath” moon-rising finale to a 22 km day; 1 km too much for c jones’ weakass ankle; one downhill-offtrail tumble, four ibuprofen, a headlamp, and some slow steps into sleepy Çıralı; discovering Uğur Pansiyon (second cheapest place in town, chosen partially for a favorite student’s namesake and partially for view of hammocks and a ping pong table); jake learns tavla and a beautiful friendship forms between a beloved Turkish board game and a retired competitive athlete; homemade dinner and blessed bed. *note the many references to things not planned for

I

day one: being gifted an evil eye (it’s a good thing); seeing much missed faces and meeting a new pal at the (20 tl/night!) Oasis Pansiyon in Antalya; bestowing antep baklava; a little Konyaaltı Plaji beach time; cocktails (by the second best drink maker in Turkey!...apparently) with another cassi and a veronica; route and provisions planning (post-white russians and moulin rouges--a çok good move); dondurma (the silly sticky Turkish ice cream) “showman”; an early tuck-in.

Kurban Bayramı 2011 WooWoo!

Hi, guys! As I may have already alluded I recently returned from an uh-mazing holiday. 

We’re talkin’ totally wonderful, orangeful, smell-goodful, very-cool-peopleful, absurd-and-silly-funful, good-conversationful, tasty-trail-foodful, ruins-scamperingful, moonlight-walkingful, zero-contingency-plansful, Mediterranean-swimful, beachside-tavlaful and maşallah!--mountainful times.

I’m currently going through my mess ‘o photos and Ima try to do an abbreviated day-by-day play-by-play in the upcoming posts. Get excited!

Bayram Livin'

 

I'm alive. I'm with friends. I'm pretty freakin' stoked on life.

I also don't know the name of my own damn holiday. It's Kurban Bayram. You see I have this adorable student named Koray, and I thought it was (kind of? sort of?) neat that I knew guessed incorrectly the meaning of his name. "Oh, Sacrifice, what a cutie." Yep. Happy Kurban Bayramı, y'all! I'm sittin' in a sherbet colored nook bench by the sea surrounded by the Toros mountains. More later, promise.

Iyi Bayramlar!

Koray Bayram (the sacrifice holiday) is the second most important Islamic holiday of the year. It begins on Sunday, but my first “big break” from hocaing begins NOW. Literally headed out the door for nine days around Antalya, Turkey on the Mediterranean. Gonna see me some buds (including Westminster’s and North Idaho’s own Jake Wayman!) and do me some hiking on the Lycian Way. Iyi Bayamlar, everyone! <3