Lantern In A Bottle

Re-orienting

2008-04-14T14:23:00.003-06:00

I decided to put this blog back online because it seems to be visited pretty often...

As can be see from the previous posts, this blog was fairly random. At first, it was supposed to be about living in Turkey but I did not feel completely comfortable blogging about my life in Turkey so that sort of fell by the wayside...then I found myself with A LOT of time on my hands in Turkey and not much money so I spent a good deal of time looking on E-Bay and writing random articles for Associated Content...

...Now I am back in a PhD program in Edmonton, Alberta. It's not quite the same as being an American in Ankara but I thought I might post once in awhile. There is no purpose or specificity to this blog right now; I'll just have to see how this evolves...

Home, Where My Thought's Escaping

2007-06-08T03:09:00.000-06:00

With only 8 days to go before we leave, I am realizing how many things I missed that I had no idea I would ever miss. These are things which make me happy or which I enjoy. Nothing like absence to make the heart grow fonder! Here is a list of things I am looking forward to enjoying again:

1) Sharp cheddar cheese
2) Free speech
3) Root beer
4) Sour cream
5) Thrift stores
6) Garage sales
7) Peanut butter
8) Bacon
9) Greasy breakfasts
10) All Mexican food
11) Chinese takeout
12) Indian takeout
13) Seeing kids in car seats
14) Pedestrian right-of-way
15) HGTV
16) Convenient recycling
17) Seeing signs that warn of fines for littering
18) A variety of wines and beers
19) Listening to the radio in English
20) Living in a house with things that are mine and not university-issued (down to the silverware!)
21) And most of all, seeing my friends and family or at least being in a closer time zone!

There are some things I will miss here that I am currently enjoying in Turkey:

1) The smell of honey suckle
2) Feeling saturated in history
3) Cheap fresh bread
4) Cheap good olives
5) The pastries made with pistachio

The Best Intentions

2007-06-05T04:14:00.000-06:00

Well, I had intended to post pictures of Istanbul… which I hope to still do but I will have to do it soon before we begin our around-the-world-move and things become chaotic.

I liked Istanbul, I think because people told me I would, but I LOVED the small town we visited as my birthday present: Selcuk. I wish now that we had had more time and money to explore the south coast of Turkey because I think we would have been pleasantly surprised. After visiting Selcuk, I can see why people would retire to Turkey (Ankara does not inspire retirement). The picture above is a close-up of some of the carving that was at St. John’s Basilica.
A handsome tortoise at St. Johns.

The jaw-dropping Library of Celsus.

A lion mosaic in the Terrace Houses. It was in a room with murals of different game birds on the wall. It looked like it could have been a stunning playroom.

Olive oil and olives for sale at Sirince. We had the best gozleme in this town at a garden eatery that served only gozleme (Turkish pancakes with filling) and ayran and tea. The view from this little place down a dirt track was stunning. The place was called Azrum Piknik Gozleme. Well worth the little walk off the beaten track.

And lastly, some of the storks on the aqueduct.

A marvelous trip, indeed. Turkey has been a challenge for me – which inspired me to start another blog on the subject of happiness – but visiting some place as warm, laid back and comfortable as Selcuk was truly a bright spot. Why oh why did they build this university in Ankara?! Although, I like Ankara better than Istanbul! Gasp! Its cleaner and more classy – not the same skyline to be sure, but for a small city girl like me (burbs of Denver) Ankara is easier to endure.

I hadn’t thought before that people should try to come to Turkey but really, I think a trip to see the south coast would be a good trip to plan for if people need holiday ideas!

Checking In

2007-04-16T03:39:00.000-06:00

I have not posted here lately but I am planning to do at least one post this week on more vintage handbags and one post on our recent trip to Istanbul.

In the meantime, I had an article about things to see and do in Victoria published on Associated Content - I am experimenting with freelance writing - not to make a living but just because I like to write.

On the yoga front - I have done none for almost three weeks now. Bad, bad, bad. I kept thinking that doing 15 - 20 minutes three or four times a week wasn't doing much but now I feel how wrong that attitude was - the results were not really tangible but very subtle as this past week I feel stiffness everywhere in my body. I am hoping to do a short session tonite - even 15 minutes would make a difference!

Margaret Smith for Spring

2007-03-22T04:49:00.000-06:00

Well, last week I practiced yoga twice in addition to my session with Annie and this week I have practiced zero times. I have my session with Annie tomorrow but I have been feeling awful all week stomach-wise and it makes it hard to even think about yoga. But hopefully, tomorrow will help me get back on track....

On to my new favorite subject: vintage handbags!!!
This new passion started out while I was looking for a gift to get my friend for her birthday since shipping things from Turkey is not always successful (remember this? It never made it to its owner :(, very sad).

Margaret Smith of Gardiner, Maine started making beach bags and totes as a hobby in the 1940s, which eventually led to the establishment of the Margaret Smith Company producing bags and totes of high quality in novelty prints featuring floral patterns, birds, ferns and more. Imagine if she had a blog! Considered the "vintage Kate Spade," her bags can be found on vintage websites for around $50 dollars or more. But wait! Do not despair, her bags are often on eBay for much, much less and the bidding tends to be almost non-existent and never fierce compared with other designers like Enid Collins or my most favorite, Bobbie Jerome. All of the bags below were on eBay in the past month and all sold for less than $20! All of the photos are from the sellers’ descriptions (I wasn’t sure I could post them in here, but it is such a visual topic! I hope someone will let me know if I should take the photos down).

Of course, some do go for more… These three sold this past week for between $36 and $63 dollars (this highest one still had the price tags on it). I really like the bird one on the right.

I think it could be because people are in spring handbag mode, like me, but I think some truly wonderful bags can be had for less than $20. Like this one! I bought this Margaret Smith bag about 3 weeks ago on eBay. I so wanted to buy something from Anthropolgie but as that is out of the question I thought this was a fine substitute.

Both of these babies are up currently on eBay for the next 6 days and right now have starting bids of $6 each.

Finally, The Margaret Smith Company still operates today although under a different owner, and still offers vintage style bags. The cool part is that you can pick a bag design and the fabric separately to make your own semi-custom bag!

Happy Spring!

A Regular Practice

2007-03-12T06:02:00.000-06:00

I am struggling with making yoga a daily part of my life. But I have improved. When I moved to Turkey I was forced to do yoga on my own since I could not initially find any classes to go to here (there are some studios but I have not explored them)... This led to many weeks of me attempting or at least thinking of doing yoga everyday. And I did practice on my own - about once a week but I felt very out of touch and stiff - my move from Victoria to Ankara occurred over about 6 weeks so there was a long break. And I had never really seriously tried to start my own home practice.

I was proud of myself though for trying to do yoga on my own but it was hard to focus or even to know what to do.... then in November I started practicing weekly with Annie. This really inspired me to want to practice everyday and in the beginning of January I did manage to keep up a nearly daily practice for two weeks. But then I caught a bad cold and there seemed to be loads of stress all around. I continued to keep up with the weekly practice with Annie though. Over the last three weeks I have had an intention to do yoga at least three times on my own per week. With my weekly practice, that brings me to four sessions a week. And that seems more doable to me than aiming for a daily practice right off the bat.

Mind you, practicing on my own is messy, to say the least. I often just launch into my practice and do not center myself at first nor do I always end with corpse pose and some meditation. But for me, right now, that is ok. One of the things that Annie and I talk about often is how personal yoga is. So while I used to feel guilty for not doing yoga the "right" way, I am now starting to think of yoga as something that I must do "my" way to benefit from it and to learn at a pace that is best for me. It is silly to think that you can teach a person to play a violin concerto just after you have shown them musical notes and some fingerings. Similarly, while I have been attending yoga classes intermittenly and sometimes quite regularly for the past six years, I feel that I am still learning about awareness and breath especially in the context of my own home practice. Not that I am unwilling to push myself but in the past, I think I have been too ambitious in my practice goals and that ultimately leads to me not practicing. So like one would practice scales and etudes, I practice poses that I know fairly well and challenge myself to do more sun salutations (if I do 3, I feel really good but last week Annie and I did 5 in a row so this week I will try to do 5 in a row during one of my practices) or practice poses on my head - a fear of which I will talk about in another post.

There are some sites that offer tips for starting a regular practice like this but I have found this to be much more complex than meets the eye. Its all well and good to set up a time to practice but that always seems to fall by the wayside for me as I have a fairly flexible work schedule that leads to a fairly unstructured work day. And, most evenings I am tired and most mornings I am rushed. So what to do? Mainly, I just do it. And right now, there is no set time for me, if it feels right and I can, then I do yoga. Even if that means there is activity around me. Because in a one bedroom apartment with another person, finding my own time and space to practice is quite difficult. So, I just do it. Like I said, it isn't always pretty and most times my practice is about 25 mins long but I feel good about that right now and see the messiness and chaos of my practice as a part of the evolution of my own practice.

Shifting gears

2007-03-10T02:05:00.000-07:00

We do our best in the housing the university has provided for us living with the white walls and beige furniture but since we are leaving in just over 3 months (!!!) I am allowing myself to get re-inspired for when we move back to Canada and things can be bought on Ebay and at thrift stores (I think I may have seen one thrift store here but I did not go in so I can't be sure).

I love the vintage-looking bedding on Anthropologie and have been spending a lot of time on Ebay lately so when I searched vintage quilts I was pleasantly surprised by some of the beautiful toppers available and not at anthropologie-astronomical prices:
I don't know how much this one went for but I really like the bright yellow...

This one really went up in price and eventaully sold for US 112. A bit high, but it is lovely so I put it up.
And this one went for US 18.50. One of the things I would like to do when we get back to Canada is to keep an eye on these and when the right one comes along at a price I can afford (the goal would be < US30), buy it and finish it. I have only made quilts twice in my life and that was when I lived at home and my Mom had a sewing machine and could help me both to focus and to finish it. Finishing projects is very hard for me - unless there is gratification fairly quickly - that is why I like to paint walls - so I thought buying a vintage quilt top would be a good compromise for me.

I have been looking at myriad vintage handbags too. I would like to post about all that I have learned about them (I have been a little bit obsessed) with some cool examples but that will have to wait.

I have also updated my links. I love reading about all of the ideas and things people are creating even though I myself am not creating very much over here. It keeps me excited and thinking about things I would like to do when I arrive back in a world that makes sense to me like this.

I have also added yoga blogs. Those seem more difficult to come by then crafty design type blogs. Or even personal finance blogs ( I have been reading a lot of those since a New York Times article came out a few weeks ago - I thought to link them but then felt it didn't really fit here). I don't know why this is. You can't quite share yoga the same way that you can design ideas but then again all communities help bolster productivity and activity so I would like to find more yoga blogs.

Anyway, I thought that blogging about yoga might help me in my practice and in really making it a part of my lifestyle. So, my intention is to blog more, particularly about yoga, and things which inspire me.

I had originally wanted to blog about living in Turkey but it just feels like a minefield for some reason (banning YouTube, sending people to prison for using addresses of respect to the wrong people, etc. etc.) and because generally things are very challenging here in a way that is hard to work through on a blog. So I will shift gears in preparation for moving to Canada and if we go on any trips, I'll post pictures as part of what inspires me.

Patterns

2007-02-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the Chinese new year I made paper lanterns and painted fu characters which we hung upside down around the house to encourage the arrival of luck into our apartment. We could use some extra luck this year to see us through so many big transitions - but then everybody needs extra luck all of the time don't they? My Dad always says that luck is when opportunity meets preparedness. I like that. It reminds me to keep an open mind and always be open to opportunities that way I'll feel lucky!

This is the silk sumac we finally bought a while back after visiting numerous carpet shops over the past few months. As I said in the previous post buying a carpet is emotional and not for the feignt of heart. You wouldn't think it is such a big deal but it actually seems to involve a lot of ceremony. The carpet is from Iran and I think the motif of animals is related to fertility and/or abundance. I am not sure what the other motifs mean but I like the symmetry of it (which is off slightly if you look closely with little color variations and things) and the colors are growing on me. At first I felt it was too red - I really love lots and lots of color - but this is growing on me and eventually when we are finally "home" it will be nice to put it with other things we love and artwork and our own furniture.

Posts I wrote in my head but forgot to share

2007-02-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

Finally buying a carpet. Buying a carpet is inexplicably a very emotional experience - both for the buyer and the seller. The buyer sips apple tea second-guessing and wondering if they are bargaining hard enough, if they are getting a fair price and if that carpet really is silk…. The seller keeps the lights turned off to save on the electric bill and clearly wants this first sale of the day (it is two in the afternoon) but not at the expense of his pride or the value of the carpet (yes, it really is silk). Maybe all shopping should be so heart wrenching. People would buy less and appreciate the goods more in the end when they finally do take it home.

Plagiarism. Plagiarism is rampant here. I want to comment on it and share my experiences in full but something stops me from doing so. All I can say is that I am amazed at the skill and energy that seem to go into the plagiarizing. Why not just write it oneself then?

Choosing a graduate program. I settled on a program. It was wonderful to feel that several programs were interested in my research ideas – a real boost for the intellectual ego. I have committed to one program and I am chomping at the bit to start. I must admit though that I am terrified. The fear of not actually being smart enough, tenacious enough and dedicated enough to preserver sneaks in. I am going to wonderful program though that really feels like it will fit. And I am going with love by my side. In the summer, I will have to change the tagline of my blog to: “An American in Edmonton.” Less alliterative but at least it promises peanut butter and pork.

Going into more than 20 drugstores to find two boxes of The Pill that works for me. Why? Is it because each box costs less than 3 YTL each? Is that why prescription medications are insanely expensive in America? Is it to do with stocking fees? Because not once have I not been able to have my order filled at one pharmacy in the U.S. But is it worth the markup? Where is the balance? Why not sell medicines cheaply but not expect people to go into more than 20 drugstores just for a two month supply!? (This is an example of how two countries might open a dialogue with one another to improve the situation for both parties.)

Submitting an idea for a show to Oprah. The idea basically has to do with importing ideas from other places in the world to solve problems at home. But also to engage an awareness that some things really are done very, very, very well in the U.S./Canada. One excellent example: public libraries and libraries in schools. But we could learn some things from folks elsewhere and could ask ourselves questions like: Why can a developing nation offer drugs and fresh produce to its people at truly affordable prices but the U.S. cannot? And also, to consider things like drying racks that don’t bow under the weight of wet clothes and communal taxis that go places people actually want to go (compared with bus stops that seem so out of place at times) for very little money. It seems like all over the world there are good ideas to import – why stop with sexy, simple, Swedish design?

Reading Tom Wolfe. My dad recommended I read his new book: I am Charlotte Simmons. But of course, the library does not have it. So I settled on four other titles that were in the library. The language is so descriptive yet direct. How does he do that?

Walking on Water

2007-01-05T00:56:00.000-07:00

Nearly a month ago we travelled down to Cappadocia and had a fantastic time. It was very nice to leave what one woman has described to me as “The Compound” as we live on campus; we work on campus and drink at the campus pub. Plus the grocery store is just across from the main gates of campus (which gated with security guards, hence the idea of a compound, I suppose). Anyway, it was fabulous to get away.

On the drive down we went past a huge salt lake. It was beautiful and seemed perfect for a rest break – mind you, the rest stops were few and far between and we were the only people at the rest stop we pulled into… In addition to the three men who came over and watched us the entire time as we went down to the WC and bought a bag of chips. Kind of eerie. But they waved and smiled as we drove off.
The lake though, was amazing. It looked deep but you could literllay walk on it as the water was only about 1 inch deep and stretched to the horizon. I think we could have walked across if we were so inclined. The setting sun and reflections in the water were spectacular. It seemed like the perfect place to shoot a car advert.

We stayed in a town called Goreme – a sort of hippie/backpacker enclave with more carpet shops than restaurants and its very own DHL office for shipping all of those carpets. We spent a few hours in one carpet shop – the Rose carpet shop, which was owned by the proprieter of the hotel we stayed in, The Canyon View Hotel. We really enjoyed our stay there and would recommend it highly. Hassan the propretier was very nice and made great scrambled eggs to go with our full Turkish breakfast (cheese, bread, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, jams, honey, oilive past and tea/coffee). He also showed us a gorgeous cave church behind the town (near The Flintstones hotel and past a stonewalled garden/orchard) as well as trying to sell us carpets in his shop. We nearly bought the pale yellow kilim standing against the wall to the left in the photo but it was more than we could afford right now and we are trying to save up for one to buy in Ankara before we go… Oh, and we would highly recommend the Goreme Restuarnt in town! Fantastic atmosphere, food and prices. Again, one of those places we ate in two nights in a row!
The next few pictures were taken across the road from the open air museum in Goreme. The museum entry fee is 10 lira per person. As we were on a limited budget we opted to go across the road and explore the many cave houses and churches there. Best idea ever. We had a blast exploring on our own, climbing into caves, looking at the gorgeous desings on church ceilings afforded to us by the flash on our cameras and climbing through a valley -inlcuding climbing up an 8 foot wall by bridging it! This was super exciting for me as I am not inclined to such big adventures for fear of falling but we were with experienced climbers, Annie is even an instuctor and so even me, super nerdy whiner who would have always said “no that is too dangerous,” managed to climb all through this valley and had a blast! Much better deal then the museum. I would just recommend good shoes, water and a flashlight for exploring!
I think these colors and motifs are gorgeous. Inspiration galore in Turkey! Not that I would paint saints on the ceiling of my house but some of these color combinations and patterns could make for some amazing visual interest in a room..

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

Most people I have talked to do not make new year’s resolutions but I tend to do this. I make resolutions all year long but also at the start of the New Year. One of my resolutions this year is to be more open and honest in this blog in the sense that I tend to write about only positive things here…I try not to dwell on the trying experiences or my own reactions to learning to adapt to a new country because I worry about things like the security of my job if I start to talk about some of my frustrations. So, while I am going to continue to be vague about where I work, I am also going to try and open up more about how I see things here in Ankara.

Our new year is off to a good start. We had dinner with some friends yesterday and went to the local bistro to ring in the new year while practicing darts. Hopefully my darts performance last night will not be indicative of my playing for the rest of the year though because it was the pits!

The night before we went out with colleagues of Peter’s and some friends and ended up partying and dancing until 4am! I am not even sure I was ever out that late in college! At one point in the evening, I was dancing to Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” remixed and had one of those “Wow this is my life” moments as I remembered singing this song on the playground in elementary school and dancing to it in college and never once thinking I might one day listen to a remixed version of it in a bar in Ankara.

Christmas was nice – we had an xmas lunch that featured smoked Canadian duck, celery root soup (served in celery root tureens!), mashed turnips, turkey, mulled wine and not one but two desserts! Yummy! Then we attended a potluck dinner where the turkey was fabulous, the stuffing marvelous and the wassail the best I have ever had (ok, that was the first time I had had wassail but it was great!).

It feels nice to be on winter break (I am a writing instructor at a university) and all of the good food and cards and treats being sent from North America have made life wonderful. Shipments of peanut butter, salami and chocolate have made the new year bright!

May you all have a healthy and happy New Year!

Talk is Cheap

2006-11-23T03:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes things overdue become timely again and such is the case with this post.
Two Fridays ago, a local jazz band, Talk is Cheap, composed of three faculty members from the university gave a free concert in the library’s art gallery. It was a smashing combination and was the perfect break for a Friday afternoon. The concert was such a success that they are playing again tomorrow in the library (at 2 pm, I think, in case anyone local is reading this).
That is why I say the post is timely again.

The gallery is featuring the work of Abdurrahman Kaplan. I particularly like this picture because old men playing guitar-like instruments seems to be a universal art theme (see Picasso’s take, and Vermeer's take). I almost titled this post “Turkish Picasso” and thought about a whole diatribe on the collective unconscious of things but decided against it since all I know about the collective unconscious is the names Jung and Campbell and the universal myth of creation (I had an excellent course as an undergraduate in ancient astronomy and if I hadn’t already made up my mind to pursue psychology I think I would have rather liked archeoastronomy as a major).

Back to what is at hand: art and music. Having an intimate concert in an art gallery is a lovely thing. This was the first time I had attended any such gathering but if I ever own an art gallery, I would definitely work the art/music angle. It is amazing how spiritually lifting such an experience can be as a feast for the eyes and ears (especially given that often my ears are subjected to the monotony of a clacking keyboard and my eyes to a blinking cursor). What’s more, it is a great marketing ploy (not that this concert was about selling art). But I remember one spring break when S. and I went to San Francisco and in The Haight, there was a t-shirt/poster/bong shop playing Rubber Soul and I spent much more money in that shop that I would have spent had they been playing any other music.

Talk is Cheap is a great little ensemble and they played all sorts of jazz standards like “The Girl from Ipanema” and “Fly Me to the Moon” and more contemporary pieces of Nora Jones’.
Finally, Talk is Cheap plays every Sunday night at a local bar in Ankara which I do not know the name of but I am hoping that Erin (vocalist and pianist of Talk is Cheap) will post that information in the comments section… just in case anyone out there lives in Ankara or is planning to visit.

"Interception! Fumble Recovery!"

2006-11-18T02:29:00.000-07:00

Well it’s that time of year again. The time of year when, were I back in the states, I would have honed and perfected the ability to dip a tortilla chip into some yummy, scrumptious Velveeta and salsa dip just before the ball was snapped so that I could yell out "Interception! Fumble recovery!" while the Buckeyes are on defense against Michigan. Yes, it is that time of year.
This year, apparently, The Game has reached epic proportions since so much is at stake for both teams. Read the Slate article here.
I am an Ohio State fan by birth. I have never attended Ohio State or even lived in Columbus, save for six months when I was about four. But, in the same way that people are born into Catholicism or royalty, I was born into cheering for Ohio State. I wish I had a few pictures to post of me as a baby in my Ohio State sweat suit, me at the Rose Bowl with my family in 1997 and me one year in college where a friend and I watched the Ohio State/Michigan game in which my friend is waving a paper flag that says "Michigan sucks goat balls" and has a block O on her fur trapper hat (she was from Kalamazoo, MI). It is a classic picture but alas, none of these are digital and not even here with me in Turkey to scan. The point is I am a big OSU fan (or as big as a nerdy temporary, ex-pat can be). And I hope Ohio State wins. Amen.

Visit this blog and scroll down to the post "Ohio State Football" to see some great footage from the Northwestern game last year of the band.

It’s true that Ohio State football has the vestiges of a religion with the traditions, ceremony, saints and prayers. I love it. I will probably be unable to see the game today in real time. Although, we met a Michigan fan at darts who is taping the game so maybe I will get to see it in a few days... But, in the same way that you don't have to attend church to believe, you don't have to see the game to believe. And I believe. Go BUCKS!

UPDATE: Ohio State beat Michigan 42-39...HI-OH!

Bahçelievler

2006-11-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

Graduate school applications, playing darts, knitting, bathroom repairs and general day-to-day activities gobbled the last month up. The last week in particular has been a flurry of activity with dinners at friends’ (one dinner was t-bone steak brought over from Canada!), finishing a knitting project, going out a bit too much and enjoying the first snow of the season.

There is too much for one post so there will be a few installments as I try to catch up with blogging.

Last Friday night a few of us took the service bus to a neighborhood in Ankara, Bahçelievler (translates to houses [evler] with [li] gardens [bahçe]), to celebrate the successful defense of a Ph.D. It is a lovely area that I had never visited even though I pass it all of the time on the bus. The streets are lined with shops, tea salons, a few bakeries and pastry shops, restaurants and lovely apartments. Plus of course some markets like these pictured. And at this time of year men roasting chestnuts. The first time I had ever had roasted chestnuts was last year in Antalya – both Peter and I really enjoy them so we have been roasting them at home over the BBQ. I digress. Anyway, the pictures of the shops below were taken at about 8 p.m. on a Friday night. The area is lovely, colorful and lively.

But of course, since we were out to celebrate, we wanted to find a pub. And find one we did. The pub pictured here is unlike anything I have ever been in before.

The name of the pub translated is "Peanut." Inside the floors were covered with piles and piles of peanut shells (we are talking 2 feet deep) and tables in the shape of peanuts. I know, you might say, Big Bad John’s in Victoria has peanut shells all over the floor, too. Yes, I know, and Big Bad John’s is a watering hole beyond compare in its own right with women’s underclothes hanging from the ceiling and colorful local characters. But the Peanut was something else. At the Peanut, you can drink beer or vodka. Nothing else. No mixers for the vodka, no water, no juice, no wine, nothing. You may have beer or vodka. And there is only one kind of beer and one kind of vodka. Efes or Absolut. Pick you poison. Never in my life had I heard of such a thing. We opted not to stay there as some of us wanted to drink wine that evening but I had to take a picture in case anyone reading this is in Ankara and wants to sit in piles of peanuts flipping coins for drinks. Heads for Efes and tails for Absolut.

In the Mail

2006-10-17T01:25:00.000-06:00

A finished scarf for the new Mrs. L!

Finally, this is winging its way to the bride - a little late but better late than never. Hopefully it doesn't get held up in the post but so far the Turkish post has been quick and reliable (knock on wood!). The scarf is based on a pattern available at the Beehive in Victoria. It uses the HandMaiden Goldilocks yarn and two ribbon yarns. The best thing about this project besides making it for Mrs. L, was that for the first time I blocked my knitting and the results were like magic!

Amasra

2006-10-06T07:13:00.000-06:00

A sweet fishing village by the sea. Relaxed. Not crowded. Three mosques. Eight or nine bars. Twenty tea rooms. A number of excellent fish houses. Countless boats. One museum. One public library. “Stray” cats and dogs. And us equals a magical mini-break.

For the longest time, even while living here, I thought “Turkish Delight” was mixed nuts – like Bombay mix. I was wrong. It’s candy. Not saltwater taffy, but similar – with a clearer base and less artificial colorings and not as sweet. Actually, it’s not like saltwater taffy at all. Try some. I never thought they looked like anything yummy – no visible chocolate coating or candied berries or succulent pistachios or walnuts, but Turkish Delight is a nice addition to the list if you’re making a trip to a local Mediterranean store anyway and they stock that sort of thing.

Men here fish and women sew beautiful embroidered shawls (it was raining and too dark in the shops for me to photograph their handiwork). I am sure there are other jobs here: like baking bread, serving in a tea shop, working in a hotel or running the local Playstation Salonu (there were TWO in Amasra where apparently, all of the adolescent boys spend their time).

Or, of course, there is the library to be staffed.

The stunning location of Amasra makes it seem like owning property anywhere in the town would afford one a sea-view. The people are friendly and warm without being pushy in that southern-costal-tourist-town way (i.e., as in Antalya where they want to sell you everything and are pesky) and everything is half the price that is in Ankara!

This picture of boats in a row was snapped while having tea and tost. Everyday should be like this.

The famous Amasra salad was a highlight for me. Who knew a salad could be like a geological survey? One website says that depending on the season, the salad could have 28 different ingredients! I believe it. I think ours had close to 20! And I am certain that everything in the salad can be bought from Salad Lane near our hotel. There isn’t actually a Salad Lane but there really were stands and stands of families selling only salad ingredients. Mmmm. Amasra salad.

And a parting view of the main harbor stiched together by Peter using the panoramic feature on the camera. Gorgeous. But it is remote. Hard to get to. A real "Turkey through the back door" type of town.

Oh! Reminders of Home!

2006-10-04T03:48:00.000-06:00

Oh! Pork sausage! Oh! Andre 3000! Oh! Baked beans! Oh! Old Navy T-Shirts and American accents!

Yes, last night was a good night. We joined a darts league at the pub at the British Embassy. Oh!

It was wonderful and I am glad we are going to be visiting there on a weekly basis. In addition to the pub fare and TV broadcasting music videos like aforementioned Andre 3000, the people we met on our team and the other teams were delightful. Neither of us is great at darts but I had always fancied it as my preferred bar-game and used to practice some in my parents basement so I wasn’t too bad. We played against a Turkish team and they were wonderful company and competitors. Our team did fairly well although we did lose the beer leg so we owe the other team next week. Oh! Twix candy bars!

We needed this bit of a pick-me-up because we have no toilet or floor in our bathroom as it has all been ripped up to fix a leak downstairs…and we are having to trapse between two apartments (at least in the same building) to pee and sleep and wash and eat and all that. I guess it could be worse. At least we don’t have to go outside.

We also spent the weekend in a lovely fishing village, Amasra, on the Black Sea and I will post some pictures ASAP.

Food for Thought

2006-09-29T01:02:00.000-06:00

This gorgeous red pepper set me back, essentially, 16 cents. Now I want to know: Why? Why is it not possible to get a similar product for the same price in North America? I know I talk about the cost of food here nearly every post but things like red peppers for less than 20 cents each never cease to amaze me.

NOTE – the cost of all food is not so reasonable. For instance, there is a “new product” at Real, the grocery store…Haagen Dazs ice cream! But a pint of HD will set you back 15 YTL which basically translates into $15 a pint! And, I should say that the variety and selection of foods here is limited compared with N. America or the UK. And the quality of some things, e.g. olive oil (surprisingly), cereals, local ice cream etc., is not high, but it is adequate and affordable.

I find it paradoxical that a country that struggles with things like customer service, quality control, time management etc., is able to produce much better staple foods – fruit, veggies and grains, at a price which (I think and hope) most people can afford – than any of the seemingly economically advanced countries like the States, Canada and the UK.

I just keep coming back to: Why? Why are good, ripe, fruit and veggies that might not look perfect but taste delicious only available at farmer's markets and Whole Foods and similar stores or web services (e.g. SPUD, which I miss dearly) at boutique prices in N. America? (And I am guilty as charged because I will shop at said stores for produce.) It just doesn’t make sense to me. Why can’t we N. Americans manage to lower the price of staple foods AND raise the quality so that everyone is able to eat well?
And by “eat well” I do not mean having access to small batch produced ice creams and 100 varieties of sugary cereals and the same variety in potato chips. Those things are luxuries but now they seem to have become staples as the price on such products seems to drop while things like a nice, freshly made loaf of bread costs $4 and tomato-y tasting tomatoes (if they actually still exist outside of people’s own gardens), cost $11 for 6 (enough to make a good spaghetti sauce or soup). (Compared with Turkey where a fresh loaf of bread is 30 cents and enough fresh tomatoes for a sauce costs about a dollar.) No wonder they keep saying there is an obesity epidemic in the States! And it’s not just because there are soda machines in schools. It is cheaper to make KRAFT mac and cheese, serve some sort of fresh veggie (if it is on sale), otherwise, open a tin of peas, and then offer ice cream for dessert. Because to make a nice fresh tomato sauce or even a fresh salad and serve fresh fruit for dessert COSTS MORE! Substantially more! (By the way, I love KRAFT mac and cheese too, I am just trying to make a point. I love ice cream for dessert too, but fresh fruit is lovely too.)

Having had this rant, it is true that I am looking forward to coming back to N. America. I am very much looking forward to coming home. But, I just don’t understand how countries that are at the cutting edge of everything else can be going so wrong when it comes to basic necessities, like food.

Pretty, pretty necklace!

2006-09-28T10:04:00.000-06:00

Presents from America! My friend, S., made this beautiful necklace for me and it arrived today. She made it with sterling silver and green quartz with tourmaline. Isn't it lovely? It's so special to me too because moss agate is my totem stone according to Native American astrology. Yay!!!

Thanks S.!!!!

A Good Thing

2006-09-25T00:48:00.000-06:00

If, like me, you were digging in your garden to plant your Van Gogh tulip bulbs and snowdrops for next spring and stumbled upon the bases of Doric and Corinthian columns, try transforming them into a meditation bench. It's a good thing.

Eski Kandil

2006-09-24T09:07:00.000-06:00

After shopping for gifts today in Ulus, I stopped for lunch in an “antik ve café” shop: Eski Kandil. Just around the corner from a crossroads filled with baskets, hookahs, evil eyes, kilims and more, I went up the steep wooden steps, passing lovely prints for sale, and stumbled into a tiny room with four (maybe five) tables each covered with different table cloths and a tiny veranda outside with one table and room for six people.

It was lovely. Being the only one there, I had my pick of tables – I chose the table outside.

I ate an Ayvalik tostu made of salami, cheese, pickle, tomato and mayo. I would call it Turkish grilled-cheese. That was washed down with a cup of tea for only 4YTL. Perfection.

A man sat on a stool across the street sewing something made from gray material and three men enjoyed the view from a roof. The call to prayer broadcast from a loud speaker sounded garbled and to me, grating and fascinating all at once. I wouldn’t want to hear it everyday because it reminded me of the drive-through speaker at Wendy’s, but given that it was sung, it sounded beautiful all the same. And how could I not be fascinated, when feeling slightly scared, but mostly at peace listening to a strange language sung over loud speakers in the part of a capital city that rambles with ruins, relics and religion?

Bowling For Turkey

2006-09-22T06:58:00.000-06:00

It’s a cold and rainy day here. Even the surfeit of hot tea doesn’t take the edge off. ‘It’ being a Friday, the students are in high spirits and the faculty seems worn out and ready for the weekend. Me? I had to take an hour-long nap yesterday as we get back into the grind (and I NEVER take naps).

We had planned to go bowling at the mall tonight (it’s not like good ole’ Brunswick Bowling with the sticky concession stand and league trophies and announcements on display) – it is swanky – or as swanky as a bowling alley can be – with darts, pool tables and the rules and ‘how to’ of bowling complete with diagrams posted at every lane. It certainly doesn’t have the soul of some of the bowling alleys I’ve been in. Like the one outside of New Haven going west on 34 (I think…I can see the intersection and the Stop and Shop on my left hand side in my head…). That bowling alley oozed Big Lebowski-ness with more fervor and sincerity than the Big Lebowski. Or the place where I joined a parent-child league with my Dad, oh orange vinyl and Las Vegas psychedelic carpets! I like to bowl.Watching people, particularly men, here, bowl is a hoot. They might read the posted instructions and then ignore them completely, step OVER the line and literally launch the ball, overhand (or sideways I guess given the weight) down the lane and it often goes in the gutter 2/3 of the way down. But it’s usually a family-affair here and everyone seems to enjoy it. Suffice it to say, we aren’t going bowling tonight.

On rainy days like today, it seems better to stay in and watch movies. Maybe knit a bit. Peter is going to make a Shepard’s pie (cottage pie, actually, as I am not a huge lamb fan but I am trying really, really hard to learn to appreciate it since there is so damn much of it here) and I have plans to make Cowboy Cookies from the Moosewood website although I wasn’t able to find chocolate chips in the on-campus grocery. Hopefully, I will have better luck at Real. Otherwise, I’m going to try chopping up Toblerone and using that instead.

Ok, moment of surreal “ I know I am Turkey when…” There is scary scaffolding outside of the window upon which two 2 x 4 planks are propped which is holding up (god knows how) a bucket of plaster and a man singing away in the rain. Where the f*&k is OSHA in this country?

No Pictures

2006-09-12T05:50:00.000-06:00

It has been too long but every time I sit down to write an entry, I try to put pictures in and get bogged down. I think I have run out of storage space for pictures and am now trying to negotiate Flickr. I wonder why they spelled it that way? As I am currently doing a lot of editing and focusing on writing skills, these sorts of questions nag at me. Maybe that was just the domain name available. Of course, I overthink and become paranoid thinking that I am missing some clever innuendo on their part(i.e. Flickr’s). Partly because Peter has brought home cryptic crosswords and keeps throwing out clues to me which require lateral thinking and being super subtle and clever that just frustrate me. For example, one Peter made up to illustrate cryptic crosswords:

Clue: No Turkish gentlemen do as they are told (5)

Answer: Obeys

or one he made for his social psych course:

Clue: Is cola shaken up? It is for your course! (6)

Answer: "is cola" is an anagram (shaken up) of SOCIAL

Have a look here on tips for doing CCs or just because you like wordplay.

Anyway, I am not good at these and while I like the “oh yeah, that makes sense” once someone gives me the answer, I am not compelled to ruminate on it waiting for my Aha! moment. Anyway, all this editing and cryptic crossword business has made me paranoid about words and meanings. And wish I were more attentive to my words. I think it is helping my academic writing though. The verdict is still out on that. So is the writing, actually.

In other news, things here, are…well, the semester is just starting. It’s hectic. The stress makes me miss the following things: beeswax candles, sweet potatoes, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, Home and Garden TV, my personal bubble and organization. But, on the other hand, I am enjoying the fact that there is ALWAYS, ALWAYS fresh, hot tea on offer, my first tortoise sighting, making beaded earrings and going to a bar (The Papillion in Kızılay) where they play good, old school country with no embarrassment, pretense or line dancing. I think country music is the best drinking music, hands down. But only if you are with friends or a lover – alone it’s rather masochistic. Oh, and I like the fact that there is a wide range of coconut (hindistancevizi = Indian walnut) flavored products like pudding, ice cream, cake etc. since I love coconut.

Also, Ohio Sate beat Texas. I am not religious. But on my residence permit application they asked for religion – I almost put “Ohio State Buckeye” – but was worried I’d be called in for questioning and my Turkish just isn’t quite up to snuff for talking my way out of something like that. I do miss college football. I missed it in Canada too. The energy, the loyalty, the traditions and the possibilities that come with a new school year both for sports, but also academically and personally (not to mention new school supplies, new clothes, new chance to make impressions etc.). I miss my Dad shouting “interception fumble recovery” at the TV and my Mom being very laid back until a score and then sort of letting out a “whoo!” when there is a touchdown. And the snacks – yummy salsa and melted Velveeta with chips! There is an American style football team here, maybe I should check it out….

We’ve been eating really healthy, vegetarian food lately but in the middle of the night last night we decided to make burritos (for tonight’s dinner - not right then – that would have been like those days in college when you phone Fatty J’s for cheese sticks). Mmmm, Fatty J’s pizza. Mmmm. Since we can’t get the right kind of cheese here or sour cream, we’re going all out with the guacamole! Yay! I will never take burritos, or enchiladas or tamales for granted again!

Oh, and something I am hoping to post more on with pictures – there is an exhibit here about James Watson – a bit about his life and DNA and things – I didn’t get a chance to look at it too much, but the exhibit is from the States and Germany but the Turks have added an artistic component to it. So, there are gorgeous ottoman motifs that have historical significance that have been reworked to reflect the double helix, for example, and they are embroidered or made with mosaics and they are really, really lovely. And thought provoking. I hope to put a few pictures up… That is the best thing about being in a university setting – all the goings on that are free and insightful – they just seem to be difficult to find, or notice, or go and see since they are literally, right under your nose. Why does this happen? All the good stuff just lurks around while we look to other neighborhoods, cities or countries (or earth-like worlds) for the good stuff. And all along, the good stuff is just down the corridor.

I have been very busy and hence not posting. But I have been productive, although procrastinating too, but I am feeling like there may be some closure to some of my projects...soon.

Off Holiday

2006-08-27T06:50:00.000-06:00

One two hour train ride, one three hour plane ride and one nine hour bus ride later we are home. It is boiling hot here (or feels that way after the coolness of the UK), and already I miss the comfort of being able to eat cheese to feel better. There were so many good cheeses on offer – Cheddar, Stilton, Brie, Leicester…sigh. But it’s nice to be back here with all the cheap, fresh, yummy produce. And I did enjoy my toast (basically like a grilled cheese sandwich but better) on the bus ride home. I also discovered Turkish Delight. We had a sample in the bus station in Afyon – it was excellent! Not too chewy, and covered with a fine powder sugar and sweet but not too sweet - like a fig is sweet – naturally and not overpowering. I regret not buying some now! I had already bought four jars of peanut butter though, in England, to bring home and space was limited so no Turkish Delight for me.

We stayed with Peter’s family who live in a town near Bath. Highlights of the trip included: eating cheese, eating Indian Takeaway, picking blackberries and making jam, making chutney, drinking Mr. Perette’s dark beer with strawberries in it at the The Old Green Tree pub in Bath, sausages from The Bath Sausage Shop, walking over the fields and watching BBC and ITV programs like Come Dine With Me and Dragon’s Den. Also, being able to read the newspapers and magazines was a bonus. As was the availability and cheapness of wines, spirits and beers (we can get all of those things here but the selection is small and not it can be pricey).

I am having a hard time posting pictures today so I will post some from the trip later.

I begin my new job tomorrow at the university doing proofreading for anyone in the university who requires it, as well as organizing writing seminars. There may be other duties – I am not sure yet, but I look forward to having more of a routine and a new challenge on the job front….

Oh, no progress in knitting BUT, I did finish a draft of a paper I have been working on. That makes me feel better. Almost as good as a nice slice of cheddar on a cracker! With a nice handpulled beer (half pints for me please!).

On Holiday

2006-08-03T01:05:00.000-06:00

We will be on holiday for a few weeks! No posts for a bit. I hope to have made progress on a number of things by the time we return. News and tales to follow...

Knitting Rectangles

2006-07-27T05:11:00.000-06:00

I still *only* knit rectangles. I say still because I caught the knitting bug from my good friend Robin over at Crafty Bird almost two years ago. And this project is straight from the Rowan Vintage Style book. I love this scarf. That is to say, I love what the scarf intimates to me in the picture from the book. An early fall day. The first scents of apples and pumpkin pie are noticeable in the air on the way home after a leisurely ramble. Home to some lovely little abode that is one of a few around a courtyard of beautifully converted stables. And the promise of a pint in the garden at the pub. Sigh. This is why I must make this scarf. But, I have been working on this scarf for a year and a half! I am not a fast knitter. And I haven’t progressed past rectangles…yet. (I did make a triangle shawl though.)

So here is Monette almost half way finished.

And here is a close up detail of the lace trim. I actually found knitting this part very rewarding after knitting and un-knitting it four times. It was the first hint of the magic of knitting (above and beyond: "Look what comes out of one piece of string!" after my first rectangle)that I felt as the yo/k2tg translated into something beautiful. I must remind myself of that when I start on the other side of the lace (since it’s been a year and half since I did that bit, I am sure I will knit and un-knit several times).

In other Rectangle Knitting News, while finishing my thesis I also started to knit a gift for the Paul-to-my-John-friend’s sister as a wedding gift. Note to self: do not attempt to knit and write a thesis at the same time. The stress of the thesis was directly translated into the piece of knitting. In the end, one side was much shorter than the other side (i.e. I cast off far fewer stitches than I cast on) and several repair sessions later it was better but definitely not wedding gift material. I was “following” a pattern from the LYS in Victoria when I decided I wanted more of a fishnet look.

Here is the result.

I like the scarf and have named it Mermaid. But, because it is wonky and sort of short and awkward, I am knitting a new scarf for the new Mrs. L.

I will keep Mermaid for myself as a souvenire of my thesis. Peter suggested we look for an antique silver napkin ring at a thrift store to use as a toggle for it…if that works out, I’ll post mermaid with some bling.

I am using the same yarn for the new scarf for Mrs. L minus the most fishnet-like one (which by the way is beautiful and from - Handmaiden yarns - as is the curly teal one used in both scarves).

And here is my progress so far. This time I am actually following the pattern much more closely and things are looking better. I also defended my thesis a few months ago so there is no transferable stress from that!

Those are my rectangles. I have another rectangle scarf project in the basket, as well, and I have one of the Devon hat kits from Handmaiden. Not a rectangle, exactly…. I did try to knit it last November without much success. It’s black yarn. I'll blame that unfinished project on dim winter light coupled with black yarn.

I am optimistic about these latest rectangles, though.

Apricots and Thomas

2006-07-25T02:24:00.000-06:00

There are many, many fruit trees here. And lately we've seen people under them with plastic bags picking up loads of fruit - mainly apricots are on offer from the trees right now. So last week we stopped under a apricot tree which had not yet been stripped bare and shook some branches and plucked a bit to get nearly 2 kilos of apricots! What fun! They are gorgeous! The bread is there for scale. The bread was yummy too and a loaf of nice fresh bread is only .45 YTL. I know that I put the prices of things up often but I think it is good to get an idea of the price of things here for perspective. I think bread everywhere should be less than 50 cents a loaf! On the other hand, an imported magazine here like British Vogue is 15YTL and the American Vogue is 22YTL. At least the Economist puts their own prices on the magazine relative to the markets and currencies where it’s sold so it is only about 5YTL.

I digress. Here are the apricots.

It was a boatload of fruit so we did two things. I used the seasonal crumble recipe from the rebar modern food cookbook to inspire me and made an apricot crumble. A few weeks ago I made one with peaches and a hazlenut/oatmeal topping but this crumble was just an oatmeal topping with the apricot filling. Because we don't have measuring cups/spoons, nor can I figure out what cornstarch is here (or if there is such a thing) I use the recipe more as a guide. Typically, I follow recipes to a T but it has been good for me to read them as guidelines and then do whatever makes the most sense given our kitchen (don't forget we have a gas oven with 3 settings so none of this preheating to 350 degrees business!) and resources. The crumble was excellent - not too sweet. Also, we cooked the rest of the apricots and reduced them to put in the freezer to make good things later like apricot glazed chicken.

In addition to visits from the apricot fairy, we also get visits from Thomas The Cat from time to time. We call him Thomas because he sort of has the colors and markings of Tom from Tom and Jerry (although I know Tom is really gray). Thomas is our Lojaman's cat. Every Lojman (apartment block) seems to have one and Thomas is ours. He likes to come in for some milk and then explore the apartment a bit before heading out again.

Turkish lesson:
(I really could use a Turkish keyboard for this because I am missing the "s" and "c" with the squiggle below and the "o" and "u" with the two dots and the "g" with the smile above it)
black = kara
white = bayez
cat = kide
ve = and

Thomas = kara ve bayez kide :)

Muze

2006-07-24T09:06:00.000-06:00

Two weekends ago we visited the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations here in Ankara. I was very impressed! Especially because when we visited a similar sort of museum in Antalya I found it to be poorly run. But the one here in Ankara is wonderful! The museum is located in the old part of Ankara, Ulus, and I thought it was interesting to see that in this area where older architecture reigns, even when things are remodeled, that one house appeared to have aluminum siding on it! I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition of old and new.

There were many beautiful artifacts on display but of course, pictures could only be taken outside, hence the urns in the trees and the lion/pig creature.

I was especially impressed by how the museum was ordered chronologically such the display cases went from the Paleolithic period through the Bronze Age and on in a counter clockwise fashion which made the exhibit easy to follow. I was especially taken with all of the Mother Goddess icons and the stone tablets documenting, lists, marriages, divorces, servitude and other contracts along with their stone envelopes. I would recommend this museum - it is not very large but then, I have a hard time seeing everything in large museums anyway. Plus, it is housed in a 10-domed market building that has been restored which is also lovely to look at.

And of course, we ate. Down a few steps off the "parking lot" at the bottom of castle there was this funky, fun looking place with gourds hanging off the rush mat hiding the ugly plastic awning, string beans climbing up strings with a few ice-plants mixed in, 7 tables in total covered in bright oilcloths with comfy looking chairs with bright flower print cushions and a woman beckoning us in. Across the way was a swanky place with a nice terrace, big canvas umbrellas, chic Europeans and very professional looking waitstaff. We opted for piknik place rather than the swanky terrace being in-the-know local types (we stick out like a sore thumb though – we are constantly being offered a taxi). The atmosphere was perfect and the prices were unbeatable - we both had lunch for less than 13 YTL! And it was a marvelous lunch! Peter had an Iskender kebab with all the fixin’s (kebab, rice, tomatoes and cucumbers, flat bread, peppers and a yogurt sauce) and I had a pide (like a pizza but on a flat, oblong, bubbly bread) with cheese and egg (called karsli, I think - there are many kinds of pide). It was delicious. Meals always end here with tea. As we had been eating we noticed a young boy going up and down the hill with a tray of tea glasses and mused on how the tea always seemed to be hot, fresh and plentiful and how no one ever seemed to actually pay for it (not that we have tried to get tea off of a tea vendor on the street, yet). We wondered if maybe tea was just a public service here? Or if there was some sort of Tea Mafioso run by a large woman called Momma Cay? (tea here is pronounced chai just like chai tea at your local coffee house) We thought maybe everyone settled his or her tea bills with Momma Cay down some back alley. Giggling at this when the welcoming hostess who had also been our server offered us tea, we said yes and where should the tea come from but off the tea boy as he passed by! Unless you are licensed as a teahouse, maybe you have to buy from Momma Cay!

In the Mediterranean Style

2006-07-11T02:09:00.000-06:00

Our 4 lira houseplant from Pratiker has a new leaf! I was a little worried about why she might have been so inexpensive but in a new pot and sitting in the window sill she seems well...

I suspect that it might be she is celebrating the arrival of the bottled ginger beer! Peter has bottled the ginger beer and after it started fizzing (as shown in this picture), we squeezed out the excess air and screwed the lids on very tight. Now, all the ginger beer is wrapped in plastic bags and is in the rubbish bin in case it explodes...
Speaking of beer and food, since that is mainly what life consists of (except for working which right now is being done but at odd hours of the day as I remotely log on to computers half way around the world), I am trying to embrace eating In the Mediterranean Style. This is highly necessary because Peter's cooking is excellent and I could easily overeat every single day if we had homemade tomato soup, cottage pie, curries and homemade hamburgers everyday. And, it’s also a pleasure because everything is readily available for eating in this style, unsurprisingly, since we are just a few hours from the Mediterranean. I like to look at the MediterraneanAsian for inspiration. In many ways, eating the meals planned won't work for us but the pictures and info are very useful. After looking for inspiration and going to Real (grocery store) last night this was dinner: Mmm. The grain salad was from the deli section at the local grocery store and is bulgur, cilantro, tomatoes and spices to give it warmth but not too hot. And the white yogurt dip was also from the deli and is a spinach and dill yogurt dip. Yum! We just cut up some veggies and put some olives with it and poured two glasses of Skol beer and dinner was served!
Then...I made dessert :)

fridge... kiwi isn't really in season here nor are bananas and these are expensive compared to other things (e.g. 3 lemons cost .33 YTL, 4 sweet plums cost .46 YTL and 3 tomatoes tallies in at under .50 YTL while 2 bananas is 1.5o YTL) but they are familiar to me and I like to have bananas on my cereal in the morning. I am trying to make use of all of the seasonal things here like the melon pictured above and below - which is apparently a honeydew melon but interestingly, it doesn't look like honeydew I am used to... it is very good and juicy but not as sweet as what I would call honeydew and is more pale:

Plus, the rind doesn't look like Honeydew but it is very good all the same! The dessert then, was kiwi, banana and honeydew drizzled with honey (which is from one of Peter's students whose father is a police officer but he also keeps bees - we have five different types of honey in the pantry) and topped with crushed almonds and hazelnuts (findik). If the mint hadn't wilted, I would have put a sprig of fresh mint in the picture too! A lovely summery dessert In the Mediterranean Style :)

In other food/beverage news, Real has gotten in a shipment of filter coffee so I was able to buy something besides Starbucks! Real has all sorts of things including food, clothes, DVDs and air conditioners (like a Super Target) and most of the time, everything is in stock but things which are imported, like filter coffee (filtre khave) and frozen shrimp etc. are not always on the shelves. Anyway, the filter coffee we have now is Jacobs brand, which is very dark so I only need half of much of it compared with the measurement needed for Starbucks' brand. I am just a fussy American and can't handle those strong European coffees (let alone Turkish coffee! I have had it every now and then, but it's much too dark and ferocious to drink first thing in the morning!).

Last but not least, we are taking Turkish lessons for nearly three hours every weekday. Learning another language makes me sympathize with little kids who have a large repertoire of nouns and end up pointing a lot and saying words with pleading looks on their faces... or maybe that is just me as I try to learn a new language after my brain has lost all its language plasticity!

Gule Gule! (bye bye!)

Minutiae

2006-07-06T02:05:00.000-06:00

I had typed out a whole blog entry a few days ago and silly me, I was not saving as I went along and was not cognizant of the fact that the electricity had already gone out twice during the day. It does that here on campus though not, apparently as often when students are here. And we speculated that the air conditioner was to blame for sucking up all of the electricity. It has only gone out once at home. But it never stays out very long - only two or three minutes. So I lost the entry.

A side note, when I visited at Christmas time and we went to Antalya, the lights in the old harbor went out every night for up to an hour - no one really seemed to notice! They just lit some candles in the restaurant we started going to every night and went on their way drinking tea and talking!

So, I was trying to capture some of the day-to-day things here in this post. As seen below, ads from the glossy flyer for the grocery store paint a pretty typical picture. Although I am not sure I have ever seen a party pack in North America, all the products in here are familiar-ish: Efes beer (the local beer that can be good or can taste like fish), Pepsi, chips, nuts etc. Not a bad price for all of that.
These packs are usually on sale so it’s not just because of the World Cup.

Next, is a picture of the cheese on offer. White cheese. Lots and lots of white cheese can be had which is not unlike mozzarella but not exactly mozzarella, either. There are other cheeses, one kind of cheddar, Gouda, Camembert etc., but these are fairly expensive. Also dairy-wise, there is: yogurt, yogurt, yogurt watered down into a drink, cream cheese, more yogurt and mostly UHT milk. I found pasteurized milk but it went bad in only two days. I think because milk here is only whole milk, so no water to give it a longer shelf life. So I am adjusting to the UHT stuff. Also, there is no sour cream. At all. I love sour cream.
At the faculty club on campus, there is a section on the menu of Tex-Mex items. It’s true. And they say these items are served with sour cream. So Peter asked the barman, Murat, about the sour cream and he brought us a sample. Turns out, it is basically whipped cream but not sweetened. Oh well, you don’t really need sour cream anyway. I learned to love sour cream and chips from R. and A. upstairs in Vic but since there isn’t such a thing here I am settling for a dip made from mayo and bbq sauce served with bugles I had at the faculty club.

And the produce. It is fantastic here! Whatever is in season is cheap, delicious and abundant. A whole watermelon is 2 YTL (however, there is no such thing as seedless here) and cherries are still in season! But the strawberries are gone. And they don’t sell overpriced ones by the pint that are fat and tasteless until the winter holiday when it’s a treat. Which is very different from N. America where you can get anything, nearly anytime but not be assured it’s that good. While lots of things like peppers and tomatoes taste like they come from your garden and are cheap as chips, things like avocados and bananas cost more than I am used to paying. But, the quality is still very high for these things.

Other, tidbits here... below is a picture of Yumy toilet paper, which we thought was quite cute. There is not peanut butter of the regular variety to be had. I think I mentioned that already. While there is a whole 1/3 aisle devoted to Nutella-like spreads, there is only a really sweet type of peanut butter. And I have it on authority that most people when going to the US or UK, bring back things like peanut butter, Stilton cheese and shoes (for ladies like myself with large feet). So we are thinking of trying to make peanut butter at home… We are in fact, making Ginger beer right now. I say we, Peter is making a Ginger Beer Plant right now so we can make Ginger Beer. Finally, laundry. We have a washing machine in the bathroom. It basically takes up the whole bathroom. Quite different then what I am used to, but at least we have one in the apartment. And we dry everything on a clothes dryer – see below. I think dryers uncommon here and only the rich have them. And I haven’t seen anything in any of the shops like the stacked washer and dryers suitable for apartments. I think there is also a fear of ruining things in dryers and having to pay to run them, it’s true that our clothes will last longer being air-dried. There is a HUGE market for irons, consequently. It seems the sales people encourage ironing everything including t-shits and underwear. But it makes sense, I guess, if you can’t put things in a dryer.

There are all sorts of other little things that are different here: going to a bar and going to the washroom only to discover there is not a conventional toilet like I am used to (but you make due, trust me); statues and pictures of Ataturk everywhere; people sweeping whole parking lots with a household broom (it creates jobs) and so on. But many things are the same: Lay’s potato chips; Starbucks (if anyone knows of someplace else in Ankara to buy filter coffee, please let me know!); stores like Levi’s and Diesel in the mall; Mercedes and Hyundai and so on. The material things are fairly similar here, overall. But the pace is much more relaxed and people don’t seem to worry as much or being in any great hurry. It drives me nuts. And I consider myself pretty laid back and uncomfortable on the East Coast because I think the pace is too fast! But all in all, things are pretty similar and when they aren’t, you try to adapt and figure out if some company will ship peanut butter to Turkey!

Rearview mirror

2006-06-30T05:41:00.000-06:00

The week here has been filled with taking care of everyday things which I will write about in another post with pictures but I haven't taken the pictures of all of those little things yet.
And I wanted to show a little bit of my journey from Victoria to Ankara as it has been a journey with many stops.

Before driving from Victoria to Denver, my Dad and I went kayaking in Brentwood Bay - I love the purple starfish there. In my mind leisure time in Victoria will always be synonymous with purple starfish (and homemade wine!).

The place to rent a kayak from there is Brentwood Bay Lodge. Then paddle out to see the starfish!

Along the drive to Colorado, my Dad and I happened to stay in a town called Cascade Locks along the Hood River. It was a great little town and had a bar on the main drag called the Salmon Row Pub - they had the most excellent smoked salmon appetizer there. I would like to spend more time in that area sometime - it looked like a beautiful place to explore.

Then it was back to sunny Colorado for a spell. Below is a picture of the Yucca in bloom

I had one marvelous adventure in Boulder while I was there...Peter gave me a gift of a glider flight for my birthday! That is me below in the glider just after I have landed. The glider was towed up to about 5,000 feet and then the pilot flew over the Flatirons in search of thermals - we climbed to about 10,000 feet! I was allowed to take control of the glider three times. The first time was the scariest as I made the nose dip...I did a bit better after that just going straight and not changing the level of the plane at all. It was very beautiful and quiet in the glider and I had never seen Boulder or Colorado from that perspective! It was lovely!

After some time in Colorado we visited some family in Ohio and Michigan. Here are some fish in my Aunt's pond.

We also dropped off Chama-cat there. This was very sad but I thought it was best for her to stay stateside. Here she is on the balcony over the grape arbor at here new digs.

So there is a look in the rearview mirror of this sojourn in Ankara!

Ulus

2006-06-26T01:41:00.000-06:00

Saturday was spent in the old part of Ankara called Ulus where many markets are. Below is a picture from the food market with fresh fruits and veggies, cheese stands, meat stands, grain shops and bakeries. We picked up a kilo of strawberries, a kilo of small bell pepper, a kilo of cherries, two bouquets of dill and a kilo of long grain rice for about 10YTL. I made strawberry lemonade yesterday but the fate of the other goods it still undetermined... we'll be eating bell peppers for days! The food market was our last stop. Before doing our shopping we had a lovely meal up the road form this bead store. The area is just below the castle and next to a museum (I do not know which one exactly). Across from the museum and just next door to the textile shop shown a few pictures down, is a lamp store. And at the back of the lamp store is an open kitchen. Stairs at the back of the lamp store lead up to a fantastic little place to have a meal and beer. It's just like a scene out of the Anthropologie catalogue as it has a great balcony overlooking the city, with flowers and chic antiques and a very unpretentious but hip-vintage feel about it. As we walked up the stairs this time we were greeted by the scent of drying mint. And sure enough at the top of the stairs were two tables covered with the stuff. For lunch I had a cheese omelet which came with a side salad of mint and tomatoes and baby bell peppers. Peter had a plate of tomatoes (they taste like the true garden variety here somehow! not at all hydroponic tasting!). And of course, cherry juice (visne sul, I think is how its spelled). Peter has been there several times and this was my second. The location, atmosphere and food are perfect but the servers are sort of bitter and not very friendly. Oh well.
I stopped in this bead store and now want to design some jewelry as they had all the findings for some very fun pieces. Below are minaret tops from one of the copper shops in the area. For some reason, I thought minaret tops would be special order pieces but apparently they are not (I am not sure these are actually minaret tops or are modeled to look like such because the shops do have much larger versions of these which might be the real tops and these are something else?) A picture of a man stamping copper is further down.
Here is the textile store. The motifs on these are from the Hittite culture (I think - the tree-like symbol seen on the pink cloth is on a lot of packaging here on things here like certain brands of crackers and there is a deer sculpture in Ankara using these motifs). For more on the Hittites see these pages:

http://www.crystalinks.com/hittites.html

http://www.asor.org/HITTITE/HittiteHP.html

Ulus is filled with many, many people. These pictures do not depict the claustrophobic nature of so many people accurately. But, I had a much easier time this time round in Ulus with all of the people than I did when I visited in December. I think it has a lot to do with the mentality that this is a place called "home" by so many people, including me now, and I have to find a way to be comfortable in spaces that are really challenging to me since they now hold more than just the intrigue and spectacle of a tourist destination but are instead filled with the possibilities of a place to think of as a home.

I know I am in Turkey when...

2006-06-22T21:47:00.000-06:00

At the grocery store, there is cherry-apple juice, the produce is fantastic and fresh, there are twenty kinds of nutella-like spreads but only two kinds of peanut butter spread (and Nutella is 1.65 YTL not 4.50 USD! which makes sense since Turkey is famous for its hazlenuts) and there is no ground coffee of the latin american variety to be had.

Cherries were plentiful and cheap so we bought butchuk or yarim (?) kilo. Which is supposed to be half of a kilo but ended up being more like 2/3 kilo.

We start hour long Turkish lessons 4 days a week next week. This will be useful as I only know about 10 words right now (including the word for beer which is biere) and cannot understand anything spoken to me except the simplest greetings.

As can be seen above, we have a lovely balcony that Peter has been lovingly tending and it is our favorite part of the apartment.

Below is a view of the Odeon theater on campus and some of the faculty housing on campus.

As I said, there isn't any latin american coffee readily available in either Real (the local big supermarket) or the Mertaksen (the local grocery on campus that stocks foreign favorites like lays potato chips, Heinze kethchup, mayonnaise, soy sauce, sesame oil and cheerios) so I had to do something very very bad... I had to go into the Starbucks! I know! The hypocrisy of it all! But I did try to adapt to the situation here by just filtering the Turkish coffee through a very fine sieve but it just wasn't quite right. And while I am willing to forego bacon and ham and the like (it is available here but VERY expensive), I need coffee. Coffee, that tastes like coffee to me.

So we went to the Starbucks. And yes, it looks JUST like any other Starbucks. The decor, the drinks, are all the same. Even the barista spoke perfect English. So I bought a french press and some beans and had them ground on site. And I felt better just carrying the familiar smell around with me for the rest of our time at the shops. There was an omen though. A reminder of my hypocrsiy and what it means - in Real (supermarket), a guy was wearing a tshirt that said "Starsucks: We'll break your legs if you don't drink our coffee." I am going to find out if there is somewhere in Ankara where I can get Latin American beans that are NOT from Starbucks. I just needed a supply ASAP. Oh addictions.

Below is the reservoir on campus which is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. It's really lovely although there is quite a bit of litter around its shores on one side. But even that cannot detract from all of the wildflowers and the frogs singing their swan songs.

The long and short of it is, we are here and settling in and the adventures have begun! Check back to hear more about how I succumb to all western temptations but only after eating Peter's take on a mint salad he had in Amasra and drinking the local red wine! (The mint salad is really good - just make a salad as usual but use mint as the greens instead of lettuce). Goodnyden! (Phonetically for a North American, that is goodmorning in Turkish :)

Drop in The Bucket

2006-05-08T16:48:00.000-06:00

These stepping stones live in a gorgeous garden that is awash in color right now. While I hope life is always fluid and dynamic, right now as I prepare to move from one hemisphere to another, things are particularly in flux. I thought that the image of the stepping stones was reminiscent of transitions.
I am looking forward to blogging about my experiences in Turkey (once I get there) and also having a space to post about knitting and books. Things will be busy in the next few weeks but I wanted the blog to be ready when I get to Turkey next month!
See you soon!

Below are images from the gorgeous garden: