Egypt and Beyond

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open."

Jawaharal Nehru

This past week I’ve spent traveling Egypt. Spending 3 days in Cairo and 4 on the beaches of Dahab culminated in sunburn, a PADI open water diving certification, and the privilege of seeing the last standing wonder of the ancient world. As most travelers often discover there is much more to a country than usually what is expected.

Seeing the Pyramids of Giza was truly awe inspiring. As we rode across a small valley of sand (just as one would imagione in a desert being) it was difficult to keep your jaw from hanging in wonder. Dan, Carla, Steve and I rode camels to and around the pyramids stopping only to get hustled by some locals and take a few pictures. Additionally, we bore witness to an Egyptian force feeding his donkey Pepsi!

*one of the hustlers around the Pyramids. He rides up on his donkey grabs some soft drinks, pops the tops and hands them to you. You are left wondering and then forced to pay...

*Our Crew

The following day after recovering from a rugged camel ride w/ sore backs, hair missing from our legs due to the rubbing and jostling of our saddles and Dan bum crack being rubbed raw to the extent of bleeding we hobbled over to the Egyptian Museum. Marveling at King Tut’s golden caskets (3 in total) and head piece, along with some other mummies, ruins, and artifacts.

The following morning we decided to bag our plans to travel to Luxor and opted to spend some time one the beaches of the Red Sea. We traveled over with some Ausies (Steve and Carla) from “Brisie.” Dahab, our destination, is a very small resort town with its beach front board walk, hippie feel, and eager restaurant works shouting, stopping, and trying to course you into their restaurant.

*This pictures a bit blow out but on the horizon is Saudi Arabia

*The view from the other side, it was seriously what I inagine Mars like.

Dan, Carla, and I took an open water diving course while Steve, the expert of our crew, did some more advanced dives. Scuba diving is a dream come true for anyone who loves the water. The world that it opens up is full of the most magnificent colors and creatures. Although I had a little trouble equalizing my ears at our dive depth (19 meters/62 feet) once I got comfortable I was in an underwater paradise. It’s what I imagine zero gravity feels like. Simply floating…….. it was so disorienting on my first I actually didn’t really like it, but by the end found my self wishing I could stay all day. Now that I am certified, I can do open water dives at my hearts desire, and I plan to. Just another expensive hobby I’ve picked up!

In response to my first idea about there being more to a country than expected I’d never dreamed of the people, places and opportunities I would have offered to me while in my 8 days of travel. On our final day Dan and I (leaving Steve and Carla in Dahab), back in Cairo, went to Coptic Cairo and around. Here we found an open air market in session. We had such a great time taking pictures of the kids there and experiencing the culture. The poverty there was so real, the people genuine, and experience priceless. We’re so blessed in the U.S. but I think it’s important to put yourself in those circumstances and places where you can have this epiphany.

Preparation

I've spent almost the entire day studying psychology for my finals this upcoming week! I've got a ridiculous amount of material to cover as I have learned very little in my psych classes. I attribute this to the teaching style adopted by my prof. Each student does a power point on each chapter of the book. That is our lecture. In a heavy Turkish accent, peer guided, word for word from the book. I haven't learned anything!

Luckily, my studies were quite interesting. I covered the humanistic approach to psychology and it's forefathers Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. I was pretty engaged in the information otherwise I would have gone nuts spending another day catching up.

Chris and I also planed a Christmas dinner. As I mentioned earlier the Christmas spirit doesn't frequent Turkey and we've all been missing its presence.

Then till Now

Tonight, I will finally be attending a football match. Fenerbahçe will be playing Trabzon a team from the black sea region of Turkey. Football here in Istanbul really is a part of life. I'm told that going to a match in Istanbul is a must and I have managed to purchase tickets to the final one. -- The conclusion of the game was Fener 3, Trabzon 2. Fanatics yelling and screaming. Chanting and calling from one end of the stadium to the other made for an electric atmosphere.


Since my last post in November I've done little traveling. School has surprisingly been taking up quite a bit of time. However, I've enjoyed further exploring the city: visiting Rumeli Castle and the Ortaköy Mosque, while dabbling in the club/pub scene.



Life here in Istanbul has been quite different. We've been on a holiday vacation (Kurban Bayrami) for the past week. Kurban Bayrami is a time to visit family and give to the poor buy purchasing a sheep or cow to have slaughtered and give 1/3 of it those in need. There have been make shift slaughter houses set up all over the city and it's been quite humorous to see all the cows and sheep walked down the street. Apparently they've had some trouble with cows escaping and running loose in the city! Visiting one of these slaughter houses next to the mall I was reminded of home with the pungent scent of cow shit! As for Christmas, it will be spent in a class room! I am possibly attending a midnight mass at an historic church here and will likely go out to dinner with a group. That's about the extent of the Christmas spirit. We've all been reminiscing about Christmas days spent eating, visiting family, and the general atmosphere.

I've begun the painstaking task of pick put gifts and souvenirs. With limitless possibilities, a tight budget and indecision, I've almost completed my shopping list. My fist intentions where to visit the Grand Bazaar for all my shopping quarries, however, I was let down with it's modern feel and aggressive selling. I found solace in visiting local markets which are quit amazing. They where more of the bazaar experience I was looking for, full of cheap knock offs, spices, veggies, fish, and fruit. It's the locals market and you get definitely don't get that feel in the Grand Bazaar.

I've been there...

Midterms are almost finished and in a sense school will be winding down for a while. I’ve continued my integration into the many facets of Istanbul and Turkey as they are seemingly very different.

I’ve posted a link to Wikipedia on Goreme, Turkey. We visited this region in Cappadocia which is in central Turkey a couple of weeks ago. I shot all my photos in RAW format under the assumption that they would be of better quality and of course easier to manipulate in Photoshop. This advice comes from my friend Dan who unknowing assumed I had a program to open these files on my computer, which I don’t. Needless to say I’ve got 80 pictures on my camera that I can not store on my computer, and until I find a solution you’ll just have to google the location.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churches_of_G%C3%B6reme%2C_Turkey

Babylon is apparently a famous night club in Istanbul; a hot spot for locals and celebrities alike, or so I am told by a fellow student. It was always his dream to go to this club, thus I invited him to accompany our group to the Balkan Beat Box concert playing that night. Quoting Dan's response to the live show, “Damn those beats were fresh…”. And truly fresh they were, I’ve never heard anything quit like it before. They didn’t actually beat box but hand two saxophonist, a percussionist, and a singer/keyboard/laptop….man. Although the concert didn’t start till midnight I danced wildly until they left the stage.
Not only were these guys talented, playing through a power outage in the middle of a song with just the saxes and the drum set. Which eventually crescendoed as the power came on flawlessly resuming their song. They were super chill as a few of the ladies we were with were so inclined to hop up on stage and dance with and around the musicians with they encouraged the act and asked security to let them be.

Efes Pilsin is really the sole beer distributor in Turkey. It has quite a monopoly on the market however because of the Muslim tradition liquor licenses and alcohol in general is extremely expensive and not so readily available. Although you can find Efes for relatively cheep, hard alcohol such as Jack Daniels sells for 58 YTL approximately 48 dollars.

I watched the film Zeitgeist the other night on a recommendation from Jeff Schutter, thinking that it would be obscure and a philosophical quagmire. However I was very please or should I say unsettled by its contents. It’s not a horror, but a conspiracy type film which analyzes Religion, the 9/11 attacks, and the Federal Reserve. The take home message here is to get involved and educate ones self. I though it was very well done…

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

**really it’s worth watching

Updates

I’ve finally succeeded in obtaining my residence permit. After several weeks of stress and failed attempts to procure this little blue booklet, I know have it in my possession and have grand plans of framing it or something to that extent.

Some friends and I traveled to Goreme in central Turkey to the region of Cappadocia. This place has the most obscure landscape I have ever seen. Homes are built into the soft rock have housed people for centuries. We visited an ancient seminary where some of the most beautiful biblical frescos have been perfectly preserved for 10 centuries. Due to the fact that the churches, where the frescos where painted, are vacant of window and as there is only one ground level entrance the elements where kept at bay.

Turkey has troop standing by at the Iraqi border waiting for a command to invade and put an end to PKK attacks. There have been several rallies and public demonstrations in the streets of Istanbul. A few small scale riots have broken out but nothing serious.

I am amazed at the integrity of the Turks. More often than not busses and trams are so crammed with people it’s difficult to even move as people consume every vacant place on the bus including 12 people in font of the little yellow line at the front of the bus which you aren’t supposed to cross. I know this because I was one of these people a few days ago and obtained a small piece of floor while I braced myself over the back of the driver. Anyway back to integrity, no matter how easy it would be to skip out of paying a the bus fair when the thing is totally loaded with people always are passing money, tokens, and passes from all over the bus to the front to pay for their ride. I’ve never experience this before, but it’s great.

Katie is coming on the 23 of this month and I couldn’t be more excited. There is so much I want to show her. Istanbul really is a romantic city and for the three days that she will be here I want her to get a full does of it. I’ve got a lot planned between touring and experiencing some of the local culture.

I’ve really cut back my eating habits, trying only to buy one meal a day (dinner) in order to budget some money. Typically for breakfast I am eating bread I’ve stolen from the baskets at dinner, with some jam and oatmeal I purchase at a local store. I don’t usually eat lunch save for a snack of some fruit or something else lying around. I consume so much white bread (as does everyone here) it’s almost disturbing. For a while my system couldn’t handle the carbo. load and simply shot off making for days with out a bowel movement…..lol. Back to regularity though and am doing what I can to keep weight on.

There are a couple on going t.v. series going on around Istanbul and one of them often films on campus. Today as we where sitting eating in the restaurant/hang-out on campus, the filming entourage rolled in and started setting up shop with their lights and cameras etc. Some of the “actors” where quite hilarious, w/ their gaudy dress and egos hardly fitting in the room, it made for a good time people watching.

I am allergic to dairy. In the sense that it has been the root cause of my poor complexion. I've done a little research on it and have found that their is a hormone in milk which my body is reacting to, like many dairy allergies. I've stopped eating dariy, which sucks, and my complexion has cleared up considerably. Soy products here I come...

Icing on the Cake

Things are heating up here in Turkey as clashes are progressing between the PKK, Kurdish Workers Party, and the Turkish government. Reports of thirteen dead Turkish military soldiers have been made public, but rumors of over a hundred dead are spreading. Turkey is looking to pursue the PKK into Iraq at all costs. In the midst of this turmoil the U.S. has also recognized the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces “genocide” (CNN news, webpage) in World War 1. A report by CNN news is quoted:

“President Bush and key administration figures lobbied hard against the measure, saying it would create unnecessary headaches for U.S. relations with Turkey.

The full House could soon vote on the genocide resolution. A top Turkish official warned Thursday that consequences "won't be pleasant" if it approves the measure.

The resolution arrives at a particularly sensitive point in U.S.-Turkish relations. The United States has urged Turkey not to send its troops over the border into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish separatist rebels, who launched some cross-border attacks against Turkish targets. Watch a report on the gathering storm along the border »

The Turkish military is poised to strike across the border to fight the group -- the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK -- a move opposed by the Bush administration. The Turkish parliament could give approval for the incursion into Iraq as early as next week.”

Potentially severing ties with a NATO ally, the U.S. will likely no longer be able to funnel a significant amount of its forces through turkey into Iraq. As turkey has been a strategic location for U.S. forces.
The U.S. fears that turmoil in Northern Iraq could disrupt the stability established by the U.S. forces. However, the Turkish Prime Minister seems determined to pursue the aggressors. Things will likely become very interesting in the weeks to come. Keep me in your prayers.

Pamukkale and Library in Ephuses

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