This post is likely my last in turkey. We leave for home on sunday. Today was our last in class. We bought purple flowers, purple necklace and earrings, and a purple card for our teacher. you see the pattern… We had our konusma sinavi (oral exam) and then sat and ate cake while reminiscing on our time here.

While I was sick for the first month and over-extended in the second, this experience has been one for the books as they say. My host mother Birgul somehow finds a way to outdo herself in the hospitality department. Yesterday before my last tango milonga, we were sitting in the living room with my 4 y/o host niece who was chasing balloons across the room. My host mother then left the room and came back with a large bag filled with airless balloons and dumped them on the couch between us. she then picked out a fistful (making sure there was one of each color) and gave them to me. Like always, I smiled and thanked her. They’ll be in my bags when I go back home.

Balloons, tango, and turkish. not a bad summer at all.

Gallipoli is described as Turkey’s Normandy. It’s an eerly quiet and beautiful spot,  located right on the Dardennelles. Touring the land, it’s clear why the battle turned out as it did. There are some quite reverent graveyards for ANZAC soldiers (Australian and New Zeland Company) along the shore where they landed. Some of the landing zones for troops had only about 20 or 30 feet of beachland before the hills. Statues of Turkish heroes (Ataturk and others) dot the hills. Roads cut through no man’s land where on either side you can still see the trenches of Turkish and Allied forces.

We also toured Cannakale, a city nearby Gallipoli. The night of my birthday, we went into the city and went to a rooftop cafe overlooking the Dardennelles. It was a great vantage point from Asia overlooking the Straight and Europe.

I visited my friend Kerem in Istanbul this past weekend. I was incredibly lucky to tour the city with such an adventurous host that I’d bet will be a lifelong friend. Plus Istanbul at this time of year is temperate (first time I’ve been cool in Turkey) and the streets are mostly empty as turks enjoy their summer vacations. We saw the major sights in no time at all. Just my sort of travel.

I have my mandatory OPI test tonight on Skype. Hopefully no technical glitches will conspire against me. I have lots more to say this time than I did before I can to turkey. That much is clear.

In other news, I just finished up a 5 day turkish pledge in which I spoke turkish 24/7. I wanted to challenge myself and force myself to speak only turkish outside of classes with my american friends (in addition to the daily turkish boot camp drilling I get at home from my host mother). It’s difficult since I am a beginner, but my turkish speaking and especially listening comprehension skyrocketed. I’m glad I pushed through the frustration though.

Tango dancing is somewhat difficult to learn because men and women have different roles. The man leads the woman with every step, so a female parnter can only follow the male partner’s moves. This aspect complicated the learning process since my partner could not correct me or teach me the right way to do it. To her it was just wrong. Worse, my tongue knotted up every time I tried to explain myself.

The first night, when I spent four hours learning to walk properly (for the second time in my life), my teacher tut-tutted after each mistake. But his explanation was lost on me: I stood there and watched as he took my partner and did the same move only better, jabbering something at me in turkish. My partner acted out each word or instruction I didn’t know, using her arms and legs. For some reason, I came back later that week.

Turkish and tango track closely. They both seem dauntingly easy and fluid, but require enormous blocks of practice and failure. My last class, it took me about two hours to learn a spin that more experienced dancers picked up in only a few minutes. But the reward, the upside, is huge–when I can execute a move flawlessly feels just as good as when I time a joke perfectly in turkish. For me, the two are mirrors of each other.

A couple of weeks ago, a woman joined our tango group. We were paired together since we were both beginners and could teach each other, presumably. But even while I had the upper-hand in tango, I had to stretch myself to express what she was doing wrong in turkish. I could now say, and not listen to, words of encouragement and instruction I picked up from my first few sessions.

I now reserve Wednesday and Friday nights for tango. I have come to know the small group of tango regulars and we tag each other in photos on Facebook. Once every two weeks we go to a milonga (a tango variant) party at a park in Izmir.

Tango is exhausting. The practices last for about four hours and end around midnight, or whenever people decide to go home.

I have a practice tonight as well, and a Turkish-American friend from CLS is coming along.

I got up early on Saturday for my next adventure to coastal towns north of Izmir. I packed light for the trip which was fortunate since we had to shed gear to fit it all on two bikes. The host mother of my friend Brandon lent him her motorcycle for the weekend. His language tutor Semih drove his moped. We shared a potluck breakfast of food while trying to fit two tents, two sleeping bags, clothes, and water in backpacks and bikes. Nick, a friend who took some stellar photos from the back of Brandon’s motorcycle, had a small backpack, so we packed our wallets and sunscreen plus other stuff into his bag. But the ‘trunk’ on Brandon’s bike wouldn’t shut, so we had to throw the rest of our stuff in a hiking backpack that I wore for the ride from Brandon’s house to Semih’s.

After consulting google maps to figure out our route, we donned our helmets and made our way to the bikes. I opted to wear the huge backpack for the short ride. I looked out of place driving around with a huge backpack on Semih’s moped across Izmir. When we arrived at Semih’s house in Bornova, where we used climbing cables to fasten the ‘trunk’ of Brandon’s bike shut.

Once we were set, we headed out on the bikes for Aliga. I had rode on the back of a motorcycle once before. I remembered the line about driving in Turkey, that in some places people die by accident on the road but in Turkey people live by accident. But Semih had already clocked 89 km on the bike so I wasn’t altogether concerned. But riding 60mph and being close enough to touch passing cars seems to make one stop caring about life. We made it to Aliga around lunchtime and I downed a panini sandwich and lots of water.

Our next stop was a waterfall we read about in a guidebook. How or why this landmark made a guidebook is beyond me, since finding it is nearly impossible. In Aliga, we asked directions to a small village, Karakuzu, near the waterfall. The road became narrower on the way to the village, and we sped past several small villages where old men sipping tea in the shade watched us.

Once we arrived in this village, we refilled on water and asked how to find this waterfall after the usual introductions. They said it was down a dirt road and that we could go on our bikes and then walk the last kilometer. Two men then offered to show us the way. So we followed a truck carrying kerosine gas canisters for a few kilometers on bumpy dirt roads until we reached a non-descript road. They told us to go down the path and park our bikes at the second spring we passed.

But tragedy struck at the second spring. While carefully easing down a rocky dirty road at 2 mph, our moped’s front wheel caught a rock and we fell, achingly slowly, to the right. I reacted by pushing up and jumping to the left. Semih went sideways with the bike. Neither of us were hurt but the side of the bike has fresh scratches on it. No worse for the wear, though.

The rest of the journey to the waterfall was a death march in the heat. After we arrived in a clearing, Brandon spotted a path across a small stream. So we followed the path through the woods. But it soon turned into an uphill scrappy, four-limb climb wearing whatever. Once we reached the waterfall, we swam around and cooled down. Before leaving, I went in the water to wash my shirt. While standing up under the waterfall, my shoe got caught on a rock and fell off. I tried to feel around for it for a while but to no luck. Brandon and Semih came in the water to try to find it. They gave up. So Nick came into the water to look for it. Just as I was about to give up and hike down the moutain in flip flops, Nick emerged from underwater holding my shoe. Awesome.

Afterward, we went to Candarli, arriving around sunset. We parked the bikes and walked around town. It’s a small coastal town with a castle in the center of it. We asked around to see if there was a camp site nearby. Unsatisfied with the puzzled answers, we took over and drove to the outskirts, where we found an open plot of land on a hill overlooking the city and the bay. We claimed the land and went back to town to eat at a fish restaurant. After sitting on the boardwalk for a bit, we went back to our campsite and made a fire and pitched our tents.

The next morning, after a light breakfast of breads and tea, we drove along a coastal road from Candarli. We would climb up a hill on our bikes and cruise down to small villages in a cnove, then go up the next mountain. The view from the road to the Aegean clearly inspired desktop backgrounds and postcards. But through the panoramic visor of the helmet it was almost within reach.

We spent the afternoon in Pergamom. Nick and I walked throught the ruins of the city (including the largest ancient amphitheater in the world). Meanwhile Brandon and Semih headed off to a small village to find a man Brandon met while first traveling in Turkey five years ago. He found the man and they ate watermelon together.

Basically it was an awesome weekend and I made it back to Izmir alive. I’ll post some photos that Nick took sooner or later.

This past weekend, our CLS group traveled to Pamukkale and Aphrodesias, both places with unearthed Roman ruins. We left on Saturday morning with our peer language tutors. Our tutors (or peer buddies) are young professionals or college students. Mine is Anil, a student at a local university studying Turkish literature and language education. He is on the path to become a teacher after graduation.

We all got on a bus to Anatolia. The trip took about four hours but we stopped at a touristy but scenic restaurant in a valley for lunch. When we arrived in Aphrodesias, our tour guide gave us a bilingual tour of the ruins.

 Here’s a shot of me and our Residential Director Osman

The amphitheater

After our visit, we went by bus again to Pamukkale, a town with thermal springs. We stayed at a very nice hotel with thermal springs with scalding temperature. The following morning we toured around Pamukkale, a town with Roman origins and the site of a huge mountain made of calcium.

Another Aphrodesias shot. The gate to the temple of Aphrodesias.

Calcium deposits.

Having our peer ‘buddies’ around was a boon to my Turkish. I can express most things now but in a simple way. But the four hours of class and my host family means that my Turkish improves constantly.

My host uncle is a tango teacher, and invited me to come to one of his classes my first week in Turkey. he has a high ceiling atölye near the center of Izmir where I go wednesday and friday nights for tango classes. Even though my tango dancing is worse than my Turkish, learning one is similar to learning the other and it’s a great way to practice turkish and try something new.

somehow, i placed into an advanced beginner turkish class. i owe this achievement to my host mother who from the moment i arrıved drilled me with vocab. so the first few days were turkish bootcamp. i fınd turkısh structured and regular but still tricky to learn. but i am satisfied with the amount i have already learned. homework usually takes me longer to complete than my classmates, but now i have mostly caught up to their level by now.

many of the others in the program are older–about fıve are workiıng on theır Phds. one upside of the program is being surrounded by people from several schools and backgrounds.

just thıs past weekend i went to çeşme (chesh-may), the windsurfıng capıtal of the aegean. took some great vıdeos wıth a flipcam provided by the program. hopefully i will get those up asap.

more to follow soon

I’ve also been filling out forms and taking tests. I took a Turkish placement test about a month ago. It consisted of me repeating ‘I don’t understand’ to an understanding Turkish teacher on the other end of the phone. I had to fill out just recently a list of 5 language learning goals. I presume they will be put together and made into some general list of goals during orientation in DC. I put understanding and communicating with my host family and language partner at the top of my list.

I leave Boston on June 14th, arrive in DC early afternoon. I’ll have a few hours to walk around the city before our welcome ceremony begins. We’re in DC for two days and then we leave for Turkey via Munich, Germany.

I received my stipend for expenses while I’m abroad. It came out to $890, so a reasonable amount for 8 weeks. My visa photos have been sent in along with the application. I also used photoshop to crop an ID photo I will need for the tömer Institute.

I’ve been trying my Turkish on Turks here at Northwestern with general success so we will see how that bodes for the future. Now I’m trying to modify my keyboard so I can get many of the Turkish characters at my fingertips.

ğ  İ ı