Keep Your Fingers Crossed

Tomorrow (Thursday) I will be heading out for my Spring Break in Beirut, Lebanon and Jordan. If you have the followed the news at all for the last two months at least, you will know that these countries are in the Middle East and this region is being especially unstable these days. Neither Lebanon and Jordan have not been immune to this instability, but as of this minute (it could change at any time) they are both peaceful and (relatively) stable.

Some people may think that I'm crazy to be visiting the Middle East at this time or at all, but when I thought about how close and accessible it was from Turkey, I figured that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that shouldn't be passed up.

I'll be traveling with 4 other friends, so hopefully there will be safety in numbers. Whatever happens, I promise I will blog about it when I get back from Istanbul, and I'm sure it will be interesting ;)

Libya and the Use of Force

As a gay uber-liberal, I must admit that there are times when I do not understand my own country. However, recent events in Libya and the American public’s reaction to them have downright perplexed me. Poll after poll seems to suggest that Americans are closely divided, possibly even slightly against, the current use of force against Moammar Gadhafi. I understand that many Americans don’t want to see us bogged down in a third ground war, but I do not understand why Americans overwhelming supported a massive, ill-advised and internationally condemned war in Iraq in the beginning while having reservations about a targeted and internationally backed mission to protect civilians from being massacred.

Maybe it’s because I’m a young idealist, maybe it’s because I have a more international worldview than most Americans. The war-weariness is understandable, especially in this time of “austerity” and budget cutting. But I will never agree with those people who think that we should only worry about American problems, because we live in a global world that does not respect borders.

I have often wished I could be a pacifist, but I have never been able to make that leap of faith. I supported the War in Afghanistan (and still do with some reservations) because there was no other way to respond to such a barbarous attack on our soil. I opposed the Invasion of Iraq because it was bound to create more terrorists than ever where in Iraq before the invasion and there was no way to guarantee that more lives would be saved by America invading rather than if we had just let Saddam Hussein be. I support the current action in Libya because under the current strategy of using air power to weaken a murderous regime and allow organic opposition forces to do the actual fighting, there is a very good chance that more lives will be saved by our actions as opposed to just sitting back and letting events unfold as they will.

One way that American public opinion may be swayed is if more stories like that of Iman al-Obeidi are broadcast and published. She is the woman who barged into a hotel to tell foreign journalists about how she had been brutally imprisoned and gang raped by Gadhafi’s henchmen. In front of reporters from around the world, Gadhafi loyalists then proceeded to attack her and drag her into a waiting car. They then claimed that she was drunk and mentally ill. I highly doubt this is true. Even if al-Obeidi is lying, I have no doubt that her story is true for dozens, probably hundreds of other Libyan women. It will never be possible to rid the world of all dictators, but when we are given a chance to remove one, with international support, and a good case that these actions will save lives, I say do it!

Iman al-Obeidi being attacked by Libyan government minders

Travels Through Turkey: Eskişehir

March 24-26

I’m doing my exchange in Turkey through CIEE, which stands for the Council on International Educational Exchange. CIEE organizes exchanges all over the world, and the advantage of using them over a traditional school-to-school exchange is that they keep in contact with you throughout your time abroad and they organize periodic trips and events for you to attend. This weekend was one of the trips.

We travelled to the city of Eskişehir, in Central Turkey. For all you history buffs out there, you may know the city better by its medieval name, Dorylaeum. If you read the travel books about Turkey, they’ll say Eskişehir is an old industrial city not worth visiting. If you ask the people at CIEE, they’ll tell you it is a vibrant college town that it going through a rapid urban transformation. The truth is somewhere in between. I keep comparing Eskişehir to the city where I go to college, Worcester, Massachusetts. Most people in Massachusetts would tell you that Worcester sucks, and if an untrained tourist were to ever take a weekend trip to the city, they’d probably turn around and race back to Boston as fast as the Mass State Troopers would allow. In truth, both Worcester and Eskişehir are former industrial cities with a large college student population with many hidden gems that can only be found and appreciated if you spend a significant (as in months or years) amount of time there. Unfortunately for us, we only had a weekend.

Eskişehir is definitely more aesthetically pleasing than Worcester. For the past decade, the mayor of the city has overseen a complete overhaul of the city, building new, colorful bridges and buildings, as well as a public tramway and many new museums, parks and sights. One of our tour guides said that Eskişehir is going to become the “Venice of Turkey.” Although I’ve never been to Venice, I think they’ve still got about 5-10 years to go before that happens.

There are a good number of smaller museums in Eskişehir, including a glassworks museum and a cartoon museum, which I both enjoyed. We also visited a “Museum of the Republic,” which was nothing more than a building with LOTS of pictures of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Ataturk. Our tour guide also insisted on showing us one of the only 2 cars ever built by a Turkish car company. The story behind these 2 cars is that the President of Turkey in the 1960’s had wanted to create a car that was entirely designed and built in Turkey. The first 2 models were built and the president planned on riding in one on Republic Day. Unfortunately, the fuel gage didn’t work and the engine failed, thus ending the only Turkish car company. It was a little strange for the tour guide to call this failed car a “great symbol for Turkey,” especially since Turkey has accomplished plenty of other things to be proud of.

Example of the art from the glassworks
museum

We also visited Anadolu University, which enrolls nearly a million students through its seven campuses, high schools, and online courses. It has a very nice campus and also the students seemed a bit friendlier and down to earth than the ones at Koç. As part of our tour, the Turkish folk dancing student group taught us some Turkish folk dancing. It was kinda awkward since their way of showing us how to dance was having us all get up and dance and just follow their lead, but it was still fun.

Eskişehir has an ok nightlife, though we didn’t run into many students when we went out surprisingly. We ended up at a place called “Tequila Bar” which served us beer and shots at a reasonable price and where we got to dance to techno music. When a bunch of us left to go back to our hotel, we knew we had to follow the tram lines back to the hotel and had a 50/50 chance of picking the right direction. Of course, we picked the wrong one, and our 15 minute walk turned into something more like an hour and a half journey where we first followed the tram way, then a random drunk Turkish guy who took us down every sidestreet in the city until we finally gave up and took taxis back to the hotel.

One of the cartoons in the museum we visited, basically predicting my future career path

On the last day, we visited the most random place I’ve seen in all of Turkey. Along with his urban renewal plan, the mayor of Eskişehir has also built this large children’s’ park right behind an abandoned cement factory, complete with a duck pond, slides, a pirate ship, and a huge story castle that literally pops up in the middle of nowhere. I guess it might seem strange to the average Turk why Walt Disney built story castles in the middle of California and Florida.

Most random sight in Turkey, ever!

All in all, I would NOT recommend visiting Eskişehir unless you are in a large, guided group. The city may one day be a hip college town, but at this point, it is still just getting there. What made the trip worth were the other CIEE students and Tola, our CIEE director Kathryn’s son.

May all of your journeys have as cute a kid as this on them.

Places Less Travelled By: Sofia, Bulgaria

March 17-21

Over the weekend I travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria with a few other friends. Why Sofia you might ask? Honestly, before I came here, Sofia (or Bulgaria in general) was definitely not on the top of my list of places to visit. However, it is relatively close by to Istanbul and it's something different. My friends and I took a nine hour bus ride from Istanbul to Sofia. Not the most fun way to travel, but it was faster than the train and cheaper than a plane. At the border, the Bulgarian guards were waving through all the people who had Turkish or Bulgarian passports. When they came to me, the look on their face seemed to say, "Why the hell would an American ever wanna come to Bulgaria?" Fortunately, they let me through.

Once we got to Sofia we went straight to our hostel, Hostel Mostel. I cannot recommend this place enough. If you're a 5 star hotel kinda person, then this place probably wouldn't be for you. If you have slightly lower standards, then you should seriously consider it. It's located right in the center of the city, close to all the action that you'll find in Sofia. A 6 six person ensuite can be bought for 20 lev per night; with 24 hour hot water, all you can eat breakfast, dinner, a beer, a coupon for a free shot at a nearby bar, and towels, all at no extra charge. The people who own and operate the hostel also are some of the nicest and most helpful people you will ever find.

After we had settled into Hostel Mostel, we decided to set out on our own and explore the city.
Sofia itself has about 1 million residents, which is much bigger than Boston but much smaller than Istanbul. However, unlike those 2 cities, the area worth seeing is all concentrated in the city center and is easily walkable. That's nice because it allows you to avoid the Bulgarian public transport system, which isn't very good, and Bulgarian taxi drivers. Taxi drivers can be thieves anywhere, but the one's we encountered in Bulgaria tried to charge us 6x what the actual price should have been. Most destinations shouldn't cost more than 5 lev per taxi, definitely never give them more than 10 lev. One of the things that struck us about Sofia was its lack of color or flare. Besides a few old religious or historical buildings, much of the city is drab grey concrete. In fact, some of the best features of the city are its graffiti. Another thing that strikes you as you walk through the city is how few young people there seem to be on the streets, it can seem like everyone out and about is at least 65 years old. Also, when one is walking down the streets and past shops, restaurants, and markets, there is never anyone outside beckoning you to come inside, unlike in Istanbul where every shop owner seems to be on the street trying to lure customers in.

Example of the graffiti in Sofia

 On the second day, our hostel organized a trip to Rila Monastery for an additional charge of just 40 lev. Rila Monastery is located in the mountains about 2 hours from Sofia and is the second largest Orthodox Christian monastery in the world. Our driver first took us past the actual monastery and up to the cave where St. Ivan of Rila, the monastery's founder lived as a hermit for many years. There is a small church and the cave, which has no almost no lighting whatsoever. Our guides took us through and up to a tiny opening maybe 2 feet in diameter where we had to squeeze out, and in succeeding, had all of our sins forgiven.

The actual monastery itself is beautiful. I have to confess to being slightly jealous of how ornate Orthodox Christians make their churches, with the frescoes, mosaics, and icons everywhere. The outside porch of the monastery church is covered in frescoes depicting different scenes from the Bible. Inside you will find the typical Orthodox church setup, but for many Americans, this may be a unique experience, and I would highly, highly recommend going to Rila is you ever find yourself in Bulgaria.


Rila Monastery



Frescoe of Mary & Jesus at Rila

Nightlife in Sofia is certainly nowhere near as dynamic as Istanbul. Even though most of the bars and clubs are near the city center, there is no one area where they are all concentrated. Over our two nights, we went out to the neighborhood bar for our free shots and then went out looking for a good time. Once, we went looking for a hip hop/R&B club but when we finally found it, we discovered that it had been renamed "Club No Mercy" and now played Bulgarian folk music. We did not go in. We ended up at a rock bar where most of the people seemed a little too into Metallica & Iron Maiden karaoke for our taste.

On our last day in Bulgaria, we took a free foot tour of Sofia set up by our hostel. I do wish we hadn't waited until our last day to do the tour, because this was when we saw all the really historical and important buildings of Sofia, including ruins from the 4th Century, the President's Building, and St. Alexander Nevskii Cathedral, the largest cathedral in Bulgaria. We also saw an antiques flea market where people sell their memorabilia from World War II and the Communist Era, which I would also definitely recommend seeing.

Alexander Nevskii Cathedral

All in all, I did like Sofia, but I couldn't have been happier when we got back into Turkey. I'd suggest that if you're ever planning a trip to Bulgaria, it should be part of a larger Balkans/Eastern European tour and not solely a trip to Bulgaria.

Til the next time, thanks for reading and let me know about any "random" or unusual places you've travelled to.

Dedicated to a Special Friend

Saturday morning, when I woke up and checked my facebook (what else is a college student supposed to do?), I found a message from one of my friends back at Clark, telling me that one of our good mutual friends had passed away on. I want to take a little time to remember her.

I first met Marika Warden freshman year of college. I had seen her around first semester, but we never really met until second semester, through mutual friends. However, we became very close, very fast. Marika was always so full of life and happy, despite the fact that much of her senior year of high school had been spent battling leukemia. In fact, she often found a sense of humor with her disease. She once complained to me about how unfair it was that she was diagnosed two weeks after her 18^th birthday, making her ineligible for the Make a Wish Foundation.

We partied hard together, too hard sometimes, went on a real clusterfuck of a spring break together, and hung out all the time. We were always giving the other advice on guys. Whenever I was giving a tour to perspective students and needed a room to show off, she would always be the first to volunteer. Our final time together was sadly hurried, she had needed to go home a little earlier than expected to be with her family. However, we both assumed that we would be seeing a lot of each other once sophomore year started. Over the summer, however, she decided to transfer to Ithaca College to be closer her family and because she liked the hospitals up there. But we both promised the other that we would visit each other during the school year.

We never saw each other in person again. Over that same summer, she relapsed and had to take the entire school year off to fight leukemia all over again. We stayed in touch, sometimes sporadically, sometimes frequently, depending on how healthy she was and how busy I was. The cancer went into remission again and we all hoped that she would finally be able to get her life back on track.

Sadly, the cancer returned for a third and final time the summer of 2010. She tried to visit campus, but always was getting sick. I wanted to visit her over winter break, but work and Snowpocalypse kept getting in the way. But whenever we spoke, she was always optimistic and upbeat, she was looking forward to starting a nursing program in Australia, a country which she loved, both for its natural beauty and for its men.

We are always reminded when a death of someone we love occurs that life is short and precious, and then we quickly forget that lesson. That is why death needs to keep reminding us, again and again. If you have a friend or family member who you have been putting off seeing for whatever reason, whether they are sick or healthy, call them up and plan something together soon, because there is no guarantee that either of you will be around tomorrow.

Staying Classy, Not Trashy March 3-5

Some of you may notice the change in title for this blog. This change stems from an inside joke amongst my friends and I about always striving to be “classy, not trashy.” This weekend has proven to me that I can live by that motto.

Admittedly, I did have some help from the common cold. I had been feeling (and sounding) like shit for a week since getting back from Cappadocia. On Thursday and Friday, I finally started to feel considerably better, but weekends have a way of bitch-slapping your health. So I decided to abstain from drinking, something easier said than done of course. However, I managed to achieve this goal, while also not sacrificing my social life. Here is a chronicle of how I achieved that.

Thursday night, a friend of mine invited several of us out to Trivia Night at an Istanbul bar. Being a HUGE fan of Trivia Nights back in Worcester, I jumped at the chance to use my vast array of useless knowledge. Of course, since it would be at a bar, this meant that temptation would be all around me. Fortunately, I was able to resist while also having a blast. The two themes of the questions were “Power to the People” in honor of the protests happening across the Arab World, and “The Oscars” in honor of the Oscars. Since these are two areas where I know a ridiculous amount about, I couldn’t have been happier, and neither could my trivia team. Although we didn’t end up winning, they were all very grateful to me for knowing that Pandit Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India, Corazon Aquino was the leader of the People Power movement in the Philippines, and that Gregory Peck was the actor who portrayed Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Friday, after the museum trip, a few friends and I decided to go to the Ortakoy district of Istanbul to hang out for awhile. Ortakoy is a district famous for its food, especially the Turkish street food and fast food that you can find there. We ate a few of the street mussels that Turks love (and which are delicious), as well as baked potatoes topped with just about everything, naan bread with cheese inside, and of course, waffles (Turks seriously are obsessed with them). We then went to Taksim to hang out and where just about everyone besides me had at least four tequila shots and too many beers to count. The highlight of our night was undoubtedly when about nine of us sang karaoke to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline in a Turkish bar, much to the amusement of all the Turks watching us. Anyone from Boston or who has been to Fenway Park will understand why this song made me feel just a tee bit nostalgic for home.

Saturday afternoon, I took a few friends to the Asian side to show them around, and then we went back to the European side for some nargile (hooka) and dinner. We went to this restaurant in Beşiktaş right on the water, where we all ordered kebabs or kebab wraps and got all the free bread we could eat. Later that night, we watched the movie Big Fish (very good movie). All in all, I am proud of myself.

Good times never felt so good, so good, so good!

Art Museum March 4

Decorated Koran

Portrait of an elephant made up of other animals

Example of the calligraphy on exhibit

The exchange program that I went through for my time in Turkey, CIEE, organized a trip to the Sabanci Museum in Istanbul to see an exhibition on the treasures of the Aga Khan. The Aga Khan is an important position and family amongst Shia Muslims, and over the centuries have accrued enormous wealth and art. The Sabanci Museum is currently showing some of the art of the Aga Khan family, it is supposed to eventually be moved permanently to Toronto in 2013, so hopefully anyone stateside interested in seeing the exhibition need not travel quite so far to see these treasures.

People in the “West” often think of Islamic art as little more than calligraphy and geometric shapes, if they think of Islamic art at all. One of the things that I got from the exhibition is that Islamic art is clearly as diverse and talented as the art we are used to seeing in the Louvre or Met. The exhibit includes pottery, illustrated Korans from across the Islamic world, as well as portraits. Our tour guide pointed out one 16^th Century portrait of a teenage boy with a flower in his hat reading a book. She mentioned that when an Italian art historian had visited the exhibit, he said that all the European portraits of the time would have shown the boy in armor, carrying a sword. Just a good example to use for anyone who thinks the Muslim world is barbaric and devoid of culture.

Along with the Aga Khan exhibit, the Sabanci Museum also has a permanent collection of art and calligraphy collected by the Sabanci family. Anyone who even remotely enjoys walking through palaces and mansions or the art of writing should definitely visit.  

Cappadocia Feb. 24-27

Over the last weekend in February, I journeyed with many other exchange students to Cappadocia. Our trip was organized by the International Students Society here on campus, and I have to commend them for organizing an excellent trip at the ridiculously cheap price of 250 lira (about $156) per person.

Cappadocia is a region in central Turkey about ten hours from Istanbul. Until recently, it was largely unknown to the outside world, but that has begun to change in the last decade and I would highly recommend it to anybody trying to visit parts of Turkey outside of Istanbul.

The trip there was definitely the worst part. We left in a bus at 9:30 pm on Thursday, to maximize our visiting time. The bus driver apparently was unfamiliar with the route and added an extra 2 hours to our ten hour ordeal. Also, he seemed to think that he was driving a moving sauna, because he kept the heat up on full blast throughout the entire trip and he refused to turn off the heat or keep the AC on for more than 2 minutes, despite the fact we complained about the heat only about ten times to him in both Turkish and English.

Once the oven of a bus had finally reached our hotel, the fun began. We were repeatedly told that we would be staying in a “5 star hotel,” but we weren’t entirely sure what that equaled in Turkey. Our doubts increased as we drove through the town where the hotel was located, it was literally a ghost town with almost no signs of life whatsoever. Then, rising above the trash and abandoned building came the Dadak Termal (yes that’s how it’s spelled) Hotel. It was around 11 am when we arrived, so we all went to the all you can eat buffet for breakfast. The food, both breakfast and dinner, was very good, although certainly very Turkish, if you know what I mean. The rooms were very nice and spacious, with bathrooms equipped with towels, shampoo, conditioner, hair dryers, and bathrobes (I will admit to my gayness right here, I brought my own shampoo, conditioner, and hair dryer because you never know what accommodations a hotel bathroom will have). The hotel also had spas, Turkish baths, a pool, and saunas. The only downside to the hotel was that it was located about an hour from any of the sights that we were going to see.

Anyways, onto the sights. Cappadocia is famous for its natural rock formations known as “fairy chimneys.” These are rocks made out of ancient volcanic activity that has been shaped over many, many years, into oddly shaped rock formations that resemble something Salvador Dali would build. Many of these rocks were used as homes by early Christians in the 2^nd and 3^rd Centuries; either as hermitages or as refuges from persecuting Romans. The rock itself is very soft, making it an ideal place to carve out a home, if you don’t mind some Spartan settings.

 Some of the best examples of these rock settlements are at the Göreme Open Air Museum, where there are dozens of homes, community buildings and churches with incredibly preserved frescoes dating back to the 10^th Century. Since photos aren’t allowed inside the churches, I highly encourage anyone curious to simply google “churches at Goreme Turkey” and get an idea of just how beautiful some of these things are.

We also visited one of the Underground Cities in Cappadocia. Since the rock in the area is so soft, and the region was one of the most fought over in the ancient world, residents dug elaborate underground hideouts where they could stay for up to a week when danger was near. These hideouts were not simply holes in the ground or man-made caves, but elaborate tunnel systems complete with rooms such as stables, wineries, kitchens, and chapels. So far, about forty of these Underground Cities have been discovered. I must warn anybody of above average height, however, that these cities were definitely not constructed with people like us in mind!

 Other sites we saw were a winery (Turkish wine is still in its infancy, let’s just leave it at that), an incredible pottery exhibition, and more rock formations than you could count. If you are a history buff, art lover, hiker, or someone who just enjoys the beauty of nature, please consider visiting Cappadocia!

Room inside the Underground City

A Fairy Chimney

Example of the houses Christian carvered into the rocks

Goreme Open Air Museum

A Quick Explanation for the Delayed Posting

I know I can be an infrequent updater at times, however for once I actually can blame someone else for the delays in my postings. In early March, a Turkish court agreed with a lawsuit filed by a Turkish tv firm that some postings on blogger.com/blogspot.com violated copyright laws when some bloggers were discovered to have broadcast Turkish football matches on their blogs. So naturally, the obvious solution according to the Turkish court was to block both sites! For anyone familiar with the Turkish court system, this shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise, up until October, 2010, Turkey had been blocking Youtube because it discovered videos mocking/attacking the founder of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Mustafa Ataturk (this is part of a larger issue that I will address in another post at a much later date).

Fortunately for me, Koç uses an international server, so after a few days, I am now able to once again log on and add posts. However, I still find it ridiculous, as do many Turks, that an entire website can be blocked simply because of the folly of a tiny minority of members. For those interested in reading more about these recent developments, I have posted two links below:

http://bbc.in/hGnpyW

http://bit.ly/fzgnKw