Ethiopians sweep Eurasia Marathon honors - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

Ethiopians sweep Eurasia Marathon honors - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

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Ankara school closed for a week as seven students get swine flu

Ankara school closed for a week as seven students get swine flu

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Oktoberfest

Whoa -- it has been quite some time since I've actually written anything for my blog and there's a lot, as always, to catch up on. . .

The weekend after the Ankaragucu match, some fellow CSI's and I went to "Oktoberfest" at the German Embassy (which is BEAUTIFUL, America, why can't your Embassy be as pretty??) in Ankara. It was wildly entertaining. More than anything I was so anxious to eat German food and have a beer that was NOT Efes. Don't get me wrong -- I love Efes! especially this new kind I recently discovered last weekend: Efes Dark Brown. Mmmmm, so good. It takes like coffee! I can't remember what the label said exactly, something like dark Efes mixed with something coffee-ish obviously. You would think coffee and beer would be incompatible, but it's heaven! I love it!

Anyhow, it was gluttinous to say the least, but so much fun. I don't know if there is really that much more to say than that! Great German music, food, and beer -- what else could a girl want!! Haha. To compare it to the real Oktoberfest, however, doesn't do it much justice for obvious reasons. But all in all it was a great success -- a key phrase that has somehow spread through Lojman Yuz Alta like wildfire and I can't think of who originated it...

It definitely brought back fond memories of my brief but fabulous time in Munich and some new and equally hilarious memories!

No photos yes, but should be coming soon!

Ankaragücü v. Galatasaray

Big blogging day for me today! I've been nursing a slight cold since Wednesday and spent the majority of the weekend sleeping; I think I've put in about 34-40 hours of sleep in the last 72 hours! Apparently my body needed it! As I'm feeling much more chipper today I decided to do a little cyber-housework and get on track with my blog posts....the pomegranate juice has really been pulling me through my sickness which also happens to be one of the best things about Turkey - a litre for less than iki (2) lira, or a little more than 1 USD. Fantastic! and delicious! Down side, Ben & Jerry's, my other favorite medicine when I'm feeling ill, is 14 (on dort) lira for what looks like less than a pint....wa wa wa.


Last Sunday = time of my life!

Keeping in mind that I've never really been a huge sports fan, I think I'm on my way to becoming a zealous support of Ankaragucu! I had thought the Fiorentino fans were wild when I went to my first ever soccer match in Florence, but the Turks take the cake! I don't know if I really even have much to say about it besides - Wow!
The week prior, I told all of my students that I was planning on attending this match and they vehemently replied "No Hocam (teacher), it's so dangerous!" Dangerous? Apparently so. As it is, Ankaragucu has several extreme fan bases, one of which being the Gecekondu. Please, search youtube and check out the amazing videos entailing they're devout support for their team!

Back to the story, according to my students, it's dangerous and they advised me not to sit in that particular section. Altogether, there was somewhere around 15 of us going? I think? that seems about right anyhow and Jamie bought all of our tickets for us. Where do you suppose we were sitting? Amongst the Gecekondu. Personally, I'm not taking my students advisories too seriously and am more than looking forward to the game. Again, some of my fellow teachers who are on the second year and have been to serveral Ankaragucu games encourage caution.

We arrive at the stadium in Ulus, wait in an obscenely long line, during which our always entertaining friend Charlie becomes ill from the previous evening's dinner of Mussels from a street vendor in the wee hours of the morning -- never a smart choice! We meet the simit guy (left) which by the way happens to be one of my new favorite foods ever! So cheap, so simple, so good....and some fellow Ankaragucu supporters (below) eager for a photoshoot.



Sidenote: Little boy in the photo? Adorable! He offered me his scarf because I didn't have one. I refused, he persisted. I finally accepted the scarf, kissed him on both cheeks in gratitude, which resulted in half the line clapping at the young man's accomplishment.

Anyhow, we finally get into the stadium after a thorough frisking by security: no coins, no bottles, no lighters - in short, nothing that can be thrown - are allowed. And somehow, for safety's sake?, our group decides to sit at the end of our section away from the potential riots and turmoil, but also away from the best part of any sporting event: screaming and cheering! I was not having it. Joe, Natalie, and I opted to go mingle and make some new friends and were quickly welcomed into an ambitious section of the crowd ....it was the best decision I've ever made!

We had so much fun!

An example of the Gecekondu's zeal: http://youtube.com/watch?v=o4X1JTcn13I

The video is from the end of the game, after Ankaragucu scored three goals within a matter of minutes (but no worries, I've never seen so many police at a sporting event in my life, it was quickly subdued)! Overall, it was fantastic and well-celebrated! We were beginnning to feel mighty bored when 4/5 of the way through the game, neither side had scored and then the underdog completely dominated. Again, considering I know little about sports, there's a link at the bottom of the page for Ankara Football, check it out, esp. the post from October 5th, which references this game from the 4th.

Thus, chaos had ensued, but danger? Thankfully not. Granted, things might have been different had Ankara lost, but yet again, even fanatical Turks were hospitable and all around pleasant.

After the game, the new friends we had made in the stands were insistence on introducing me to what felt like everyone and their brother. Among them, the leader of the gecekondu, or so I'm told. My Turkish is still worthless and he spoke zero English. Yet, somehow we were thrown into a conversation and surrounded by a circle of devout fans. Afterwards, he insisted on a picture with all of the yabanci (foreigner), which I'm still waiting to hunt down and steal from acebook! We headed back to the bar at which we initially started our day , new friends in toe, watching as the overjoyed fans tried to tip over cars in the middle of the street, still cheering incessantly only now with the added "uch, uch, uch!" (three). My new scarf is currently pinned to my wall and I cannot wait to go to another game ASAP!

ULUS!

Uh, my posts are a little late and I'm struggling to update them. ... So...the last weekend in September, a few friends and I headed into Ulus; it's the center section of Ankara, originally the heart of the city. I'm still working on sorting out the inner geography of Ankara - I've been to the neighborhoods of Emek, Kizilay, Tunus, and Bahceliever, which I've recently discovered are all part of the neighborhood of Cankaya, as wells as Umitkoy and I really do not know where that is yet in relationship to Bilkent. Anyhow, Ulus interesting because, from my perspective, it's a mix of the old and the new. Lots of malls, shopping centers, modern Turkish architecture in one part and then the old-school part. Pic above? Giant hill we climbed atop of which is a castle, not sure of any of the history/importance surrounding it yet, but my research continues.... It is a marked change between this beautiful fountain on the left, in front of which stand Charles and Kim and the rather dilapidated neighbors displayed on the pic to the right.

We mostly did a lot of walking and getting lost, entered a few little shops most of which were really neat jewelry stores. From my understanding, Turkey in general, but especially this part of Ankara, is celebrated for its silver, and of course turquoise (orgination of the name, mystery solved). I bought a really pretty and incredibly affordable silver ring with what I think is a hematite stone (?). I still cannot get over the hospitality of the Turks either. We spent about 1/2 hour at this one jewelry shop and before we had even purchased anything we were offered endless glasses of tea and as mini souvenirs, eleborately decorated mailing cards.

The best part of the adventure is when we started to make our way through the bazaars. I have never been to such fantastic produce markets in my life. I remember the first week we were here in Turkey, one of the teachers who's currently on their second year, took us to the Emek bazaar. I had thought that was amazing at the time, but doesn't hold a candle to the one we went to in Ulus. It's absolutely beautiful! All of the fresh produces, honey, fish, cheese, anything you could want! Ideally, I would love to do all of my grocery shopping there, but it's a little difficult when you have to rely on public transportation. And I don't think any of us CSI's really have any idea yet how to catch the bus back to Bilkent from Ulus. Minor glich, but will hopefully be well versed in time.

Photo from the streets of the bazaar. Not produce, but almost anything else you could think of was offered.

There are so many little niche's in Ankara to explore and at time it seems overwhelming. One of the most amusing things about Ankara is our students' perceptions of it...actually, Turks in general. Turkish people are always asking us if we like Ankara and I always replied with an enthusiastic "Yes!", but their opinions of the city are slightly different. They find it boring and consistently encourage us to go, mainly, to two other cities in Turkey: Istanbul and Izmir. We're going to Istanbul this next weekend for the marathon, which means you can probably expect a blogpost from me about it in approx. 3 weeks =) considering I clearly like to procrastinate on these guys. Izmir is intensely popular because it is a long the western coast, and ideally I'd like to make a trip there come spring once it's warmer again and I can enjoy the beach! Of course I have an outrageous list of all the places I would like to go, some of them at the recommendation of Turks and others out of personal interest: Adana, Antalya, Troy, Pamukkale, Bursa, and maybe a little venture out east...maybe. The first weekend we were here the University sponsored a trip for us to Safranbulo and Amasra...I still need to write a much prolonged blog about those as well.

The best part of travelling? The random things you encounter in everday life:

Laundry and peppers left to dry out in the sun!

Kapadokya

Hands down, the BEST weekend ever! Mid-September was bayram, the end of Ramazan and in addition to the weekend, another two days off from work. Seven other girls and myself ventured to Kapadokya, about a 5 hour bus ride the the SW of Ankara.

We left Saturday morning, the 19th, and arrived in the afternoon. The rock formations and landscape are absolutely beautiful!; it reminded me so much of the badlands in W USA, but obviously with it's own unique flare. On our tours we received tons of info about the history and formation of the land, but naturally I was distracted during most of it. Please search it on-line if you're interested. I don't have any pictures posted yet to neither Flickr nor Facebook, but you can blame that on my friend Val....I don't have the patience to carry a camera around and incessantly take photos, but she's and angel and photographed nearly every second of our 4-day adventure. I'm working on stealing them from her ASAP.

Saturday evening we, the whole group of us, went horseback riding during the sunset. Somehow it sounds more impressive than it was. Lots of fun, but the sunset wasn't at all phenomenol and the scenery took the cake! Turkey's landscape was one of the biggest surprises for me. I couldn't tell you exactly what I was expecting, if I expected anything at all, but despite the fact that it is the desert, it's never boring. We went riding through the hills and the panoramic (a word I now find deplorable after it's extreme overuse in Kap.) view is mesmerizing. Moutains in the background with the quintiscential white halo toward the peak, the swirling colors in the hills - really just gorgeous! Sidenote: our guide was also incredibly adorable and his English not bad.

That night, two of the girls - Maggie and Val - and I went to a whirling dervishes performance. It was entertaining, although definitely geared toward tourists. As Maggie loved to say, it was absolutely gluttonous and we enjoyed every second of it. The best part of, however, was the company and acquiantances we made along the way. Throughout the weekend we met a bunch of people staying at our hostel - Kiwis, a Canadian-Iranian, a Canadian couple studing in Istanbul, a fellow English teacher living in Thailand, and Austrailian ex-pat living in London - and, as I like to say, they were a hoot! It was really fun hanging out with them over the weekend. The next morning, the girls and I signed up for a day-long tour that would show us some of the most popular sites in Kap, i.e. underground city, a monastery, etc. etc. also with a little hiking along the way, and laughing at other peoples stupid jokes or watching them nearly break their necks climbing down a mountain was the best part of it all!

Monday, a large group of us attempted to do our own guideless hiking tour and again, it was another chilly, but fantastic day. Our first stop was to be an old castle and we managed to find ourselves at a dead end within an hour. Somehow, the little sheep we are, were found by a random Turkish man who led us through the hills and up to the castle with varied jumping photos along the way* (this will be coming soon...get ready to be jealous!) and of course, not without expecting some kind of monetary compensation that turned an amazingly nice gesture into a rather souring exploitation. Yet, the day continued with good drinks, good food, and a relaxing evening!

Best part of the entire trip? Us attempting to conserve time, be adventurous, and trek off the beaten path. Borderline disastrous, but highly amusing in retrospect. Somehow, with all of our intellect combined, we decided to fling ourselves down a massive, slippery hillside, expecting it to be one or two easy hops to the flatland....sorely mistaken we were! I had purple pants on - yes purple pants - and they were white with dust and debris after we skidded down several different slopes, all of which misled us to think they brought us nearer and nearer or goal while in reality they merely led us to one unforeseen plateau to another with the added complexity of attempting to navigate prickly bushes and myterious holes in hopes of reaching the next illusive plateau. Not to mention all the smart choices I made in regard to my over-sized, ridiculously inappropriate bag I had with me...minor mistakes = good times.

The next we - or I mostly? - did our tourist thing, i.e. postcards, cheesy souvenirs, and bused back to Ankara in the afternoon. We were exhausted, but sad to leave and makes me highly optimistic for our next holiday and adventure in Turkey! Where shall we find ourselves next??