Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Ben Tűrkiye seviyorum! (I love Turkey!)

Last weekend our group went to Istanbul! I can see now why all my Turkish friends think Ankara is so boring! The city is full of fascinating history, beautiful architecture, and wonderful people. We arrived to Istanbul at 7:30 am after a long night on the train. It was cold but the sun was shinning and we took a ferry boat from the Asian side of Istanbul to the European side. It was absolutely gorgeous. That day we were able to go to the spice market which looks like it fell out of the Disney movie Aladdin. There were huge buckets of spices, huge slabs of Turkish delight, scarves of every color, and every kind of souvenir you could imagine. It was so cool!









The next day we went to the Sultan Ahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) and the Haghia Sophia. They were both so beautiful! The Blue Mosque still has worship services that are held there but the Haghia Sophia does not. The Haghia Sophia used to be a church during the time of Constantine but was turned into a Mosque when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453. In 1935 it was converted into a museum so that there would be no fighting over the space. This way all can enjoy the beauty of the mosque (around the scaffolding) for the low price of 20 YTL (New Turkish Lira) which comes out to be about $11.80. I was also able to meet up with my friend Susan from Hope College! She is studying in Greece this semester and just happend to be in Istanbul the same weekend! =) It was amazing to see her! We went to this little place down a back street that was filled with places to eat. There was live music and we had a blast! I was sad that it was cold and rainy but I still had an amazing time and I can not wait to go back this weekend when Aaron comes to visit me!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Memnun Oldum (Nice to meet you)

I have met so many wonderful people here in Turkey! From only being here for 15 days I can already tell that hospitality is a major part of the Turkish culture. I have some Turkish friends that offer to pay for me whenever we go out to eat. This shocked me at the beginning and I protested. However, they told me that they view me as a guest in their country and paying for me is part of being a good host. I knew that I was not going to win that argument and so I let them pay for my dinner. I really enjoy spending time with my Turkish friends and I wanted to repay them for the meals and showing me around the city of Ankara. Because they would not let me pay for them if we went out to eat I decided that I would make them dinner.

There is a small grocery store on campus called Şok that has some food and other personal amenities which is where I got my brilliant idea. I would make them spaghetti! That should be easy enough. I just needed noodles, pasta sauce, and stuff to make garlic bread. Wrong. The spaghetti noodles were easy enough to find. However, there was no pasta sauce only tomato paste. So I got some olive oil and oregano to spice the paste up a bit. It still tasted pretty bitter so I added sugar and some salt and pepper. It was not the same as Prego but it turned out fine. Also, when I decided to make garlic bread I thought I could use butter and garlic power. We finally found the butter but we couldn’t tell right away which container the butter and which was the cheese. We figured it out when we found the word for fat (yağlı) on the side of all the butter containers. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to buy it after that but I still did. Also, there was no garlic powder only real garlic. I guess I never realized how strong real garlic is but even though the toasted butter, garlic, and oregano bread tasted amazing my breath stunk for a few days after the party.

I made the food at my friend’s apartment. She has a small yellow lab type dog named rűzgar which means wind. That name suits him well because he is crazy like the wind. It was very funny because two of my other friends who had dinner with us are mildly afraid of dogs. One of my Turkish friends told me that he thinks dogs are not clean and only touched one once before in his life. I was shocked. I could not believe that a person could go their whole life and never pet a friendly dog. He tried to avoid rűzgar at all costs but it was very funny when rűzgar tried to get his attention and jumped up on him. The party was a huge success and I was so happy I got the chance to cook for them.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Hoshgeldiniz! (Welcome!)

I have been in Turkey for one week and I am absolutely in love with the country! The people are so friendly and the food is amazing! I am staying at METU (Middle East Technical University) which is about a 20 minute dolmus (minibus) ride from the city center. The other American students and I are taking a Turkish language course at one of private language schools downtown Ankara. Through the Active Languages School we have peer students who speak Turkish and are learning or who have learned English. They are so friendly and I really enjoy spending time with them. Our peer students push us to speak Turkish which helps a lot. Although I am sure I sound like a two year old when I speak Turkish but I know more Turkish after only a week than I ever thought I would. The city of Ankara is very busy and exciting (although our peer students say that compared to Istanbul Ankara is very boring) I love the fact that I can take public transportation everywhere and I feel safe traveling in the city.

On Friday we went to the largest mosque in Ankara and stayed for one of their services. The mosque was beautiful on the inside. It was fully carpeted and there was Arabic script written all over the walls. I could not believe how breathtaking it was! Everyone had to take off their shoes when they entered but as a woman in the mosque I had to cover my hair. I also had to go to the top floor of the mosque because the men and women were not allowed to worship together. I did not like the fact that the women were segregated from the men especially when we were forced to squish together to make room for more men on our floor because it was so packed. However, it was an interesting experience and I hope to see other mosques during my stay in Turkey.

I am having such a great time I could not have picked a better place to study abroad and I am so glad that I am here in Ankara, Turkey!