part of the family

The rest of my visit in Turkey was spent with various parts of the Oztabak-Avci family. I took the train from Istanbul to Ankara early one morning, getting to take in the Northern Turkish countryside in all it's glory. Green hills, orchards, farms- beautiful. Elif, a family friend who formerly lived with us in Shorewood, picked me up at the train station. Elif's husband, Ozgur, moved back in with my family for the past year as he finished his PhD at UWM while Elif and their daughter, Elfin, returned to Turkey. So for a short period his family hosted me in Ankara and then Fethiye while my family hosted him in Milwaukee. Darling.
 So, Ankara. I was with Elif, Elfin and Elif's mother, Meral. Here's a photo of them, plus Elif's grandmother, Bedia who joined us on the last night. That makes four generations of women on one couch. I was dying because it was so wonderful.

Meral (mom), Elif (daughter), Elfin (granddaughter), Bedia (grandmother)

Ankara is the new capital of Turkey since the 1920s when it became a republic and moved the capital from Istanbul. Elif and Elfin speak English in addition to Turkish, but Meral and Bedia know very little English and of course, I know no Turkish at all. I spent some time with just Meral and Bedia, and the funniest thing was that the communication barrier between us did not stop them from talking. In Turkish. They just chatted on and sure enough, although I didn't know any of the words, I often understood to a pretty high degree what they were saying. Elfin was born in Milwaukee 5 years ago when both Elif and Ozgur were at UWM doing their PhD's. She and I went to the same preschool (UWM daycare, holler). So while at first she was very shy about it, her English came back quickly and we had a grand time. 

Meral prepared us delicious meals (think olives, tomatos, yogurt, garlic, phyllo dough, grape leaves) in addition to some top notch restaurant experiences (kebap, meatballs, baklava, mmmmm) around the city.  Some photos to illustrate the other things I did:

Elfin being super cute. Although I ruin it a bit.  

Atatürk's mausoleum, which contains Atatürk's tomb and a museum of his leadership and of the Turkish War of Independence. Having led the war and then becoming the first president, Atatürk is the father of the Turkish Republic and is generally well-love in Turkey.  

My shoulder at the mausoleum. 

Meral brought me around the mausoleum and other parts of Ankara that morning. 

Elif at the Middle Eastern Technical University soccer field. Elif is a professor of English literature in the department of  English Instruction there. Devrim ('revolutiom) in the background was painted by students in forty years ago and the university could not manage to remove it. Apparently there were some very bright chemistry students involved in the maneuver.     

Me and Elif on campus. METU is a huge university with a huge campus that functions like it's own little city: banks and grocery stores and a pharmacy. It would be terribly fun to be a student there. 

A campus building where we saw a classical guitar concert.

A painting from an art show at the University. 

Yesterday after our Memorial Day cookout, I showed Ozgur (Elif and Elfin's husband and dad, respectively) all of my photos from my time in Turkey. A few weeks ago he completed his PhD, so will be returning to Ankara on Thursday. He is greatly anticipating the reunion with his family and country. "That will be, yes, a really great day," he said, beaming, after describing seeing Elif and Elfin after his long journey. Couldn't be happier for them.

La Turquie

Secretly I'm back in Wisconsin already, but I have plenty more to share so I'm going to continue blogging about the semester for a while. 

The second part of my Spring break was spent around the country of Turkey. For a few years, Turkey has been the country I most wanted to visit, probably due in large part to the three Turkish students my family has hosted recently. During both my first and second years of college, I applied for summer study abroad programs in the region: one in Nicosia, Cyprus and the other in Izmir, Turkey but didn't end up going on either because of a cancellation and deciding to go to Egypt instead. But, last month, I finally made it there! Albeit very ephemerally. But still, Turkey!

First I went to Istanbul for two nights by myself. I stayed in a hostel on the Asian side of the city and met a few really nice girls also there by themselves. However, I spent more of the time turing alone because my pace was slightly insane due to my time constraint. It was my first time really in a city where I knew no one and none of the language. For a while it was fun, but then just okay. I'd rather be with people. Luckily, even in a city of 13 million, Turkish people are really nice. I accidentally went into Paris mode a few times and started pushing my way through crowds on the Metro and ferries, which was absolutely unnecessary. Turkish people don't push. They also would drop what they were doing to help me find where I was going. Which may have been partly attributable to my blonde hair. But nice nonetheless.

There were a few things about the city that reminded me of Cairo, where I spent the summer in 2009. Mostly the mosques, the tea, the headscarves and the bazaars. But really, Istanbul is unlike any other city I've seen. At the delta of two rivers on the bank of the Sea of Marmara, there are three distinct landmasses connected by bridge and ferries: the west is the old city, the north is the new city and the east is the asian side. I never quite arrived at figuring out the ferry system and thus had plenty of extra long rides around the city. But it was sort of like a cheap tour cruise. Here are some photos.

Turkish Tulips- a national symbol of the Republic. They are everywhere and in every color. In fact, Holland got their first tulips from the Ottomans way back.

Outside of the Blue Mosque

Inside the Blue Mosque. 

Houses.

Inside the Dolmabahçe Palace. 

Dolmabahçe Palace gate. 

A cool floor in the Dolmabahçe Palace. We weren't supposed to take pictures inside, so most of my sneaky pictures are blurry. But look up photos of the chandeliers. They are absolutely enormous, the largest in Europe.

Metro entrance. 

Fishing off the bridge between the old city and the new city. Lots of yummy fish sandwiches under this bridge. 

Street view of the Galata Tower.

Haydarpasa station: the entrance to Asia. 

The underground cistern. I got in after-hours and for free because there was a modern dance and music concert the evening I was there. Vive la danse.