Back home!

I have been home for all of 24 hours, and I have given some thought to what I missed when I was in Turkey, and what I miss now that I am home:

What I missed when I was in Turkey:

• Cold milk to have with cereal. The milk they serve is tepid.
• Having a washcloth! They do not provide those in hotel rooms.
• Air conditioning!
• Having the freedom to wear what I wanted.
• Having set prices for items. It was tiring to bargain.
• My pets....not just mine, but knowing that cats and dogs are cared for as pets in the US, and not just running around around with nobody to care for them.
• Beds that were higher than my knee. I don't know why all of the hotels had low, low beds.

What I miss now that I am home:

• good canned ice tea. Here we have Nestea, but in Istanbul, they have marvelous canned Lipton tea, in all sorts of flavors.
• the amazing pastries and desserts.
• All of the recipes that had eggplant in them. Yummy!!
• being able to walk down any street and see people just "hanging out" together, playing games, just talking.....everywhere. There is never an empty street.
• The kindness of the Turkish people - it's amazing how welcoming and generous they are to Americans.
• All of the recipes that had eggplant in them. Yummy!!
• The amazing views. During my trip, I took 1200 pictures. Areas of Turkey are so beautiful that I just kept taking pictures to try to capture that beauty. The great thing is that we are lucky to have amazing places in the US also - the Grand Canyon, the Carolina coast..

What a great opportunity I have had. I am thankful for the support I was given by UCPS and the World Affairs Council. Not only do I get to share my trip via the blog, but I was also provided the means to purchase items from Turkey to share with students in a "culture kit". This kit includes clothing, music, arts and crafts, historical information - all sorts of things that children can look at and study and gain more of an insight into Turkish culture. I look forward to sharing all of this with our students!

Religious sites

Turkey has a secular government, meaning the government does not support one particular religion. However, different religious beliefs are evident throughout the country.

Here is part of the "Blue Mosque" in Istanbul where Muslims come to worship.


Christians visit this site, known as the "Home of the Virgin Mary".

Christians and Muslims alike visit Topkapi Palace, as it contains relics important to both religions.

Turkish handicraft- ceramics and tile

In addition to rugs, Turkey is well known for the ceramics and the textiles they produce. Here's several samples of ceramic and tile we saw in a local shop.

Meeting with a school leader

In Union County, we have roughly 50 schools. Each has a principal, and the principals report to the superintendent. He is the "one in charge", making sure all 30,000 students are given the best education possible.

In Istanbul, the arrangement is different. Each public school has a principal, then there are associate directors, and other positions going up until the "manager". The Manager of the school system is responsible for the education of 3.2 million children. He said that his main responsibility was to pass down mandates from the Ministry of Education and facilitate completion of these.

Obviously, this man had a busy schedule but was eager to meet the educators from America. He answered all of our questions and was very gracious. At the end, when we exchanged gifts, he gave our group leader a gold plate embedded with crystals. He then turned around and said he wanted to give something else - and that "something else" was his old football (soccer) jersey. He had been a pro football player years ago, and his team had won the championship one year. This jersey he gave our leader was the one he had been wearing in the championship game. Just another example of the kindness and generosity of the Turkish people we met...

The Hagia Sofia

It was a church, then it was a mosque, then a museum. What makes this interesting is that when the Hagia Sofia became a mosque, all of the Christian mosaics were covered and the crosses removed. Now that it is being restored, you can see a great mix of the presence of the different religions.

The end of the trip

Right now, I am sitting in an airport in London - I've hit the last few minutes of my online allotment. However, this is not the end of the blog - I have many more pictures and learning points to post!!

Proper attire in Turkey

Before I went on this trip, I was instructed to only bring clothes with long sleeves, long skirts or pants, and a scarf. For most of our trip, we have travelled to areas that are influenced by Westerners (meaning that they dress like we do in America). However, we did hit some areas that were more conservative, especially for the women.

Here is one family we had dinner with. Notice all of the men are wearing long pants.....shorts are never seen. Also notice what the mother is wearing - a head scarf and a very long jacket. We saw a lot of this.

Here are several ladies walking into a mosque. Notice the head scarves and the long jackets.

In this picture, a woman in wearing a burqa - a covering that covers the body from head to toe, only allowing for the face to be shown. Some only allow for eyes to be visible.Here I am in one of the mosques. Notice the long skirt, the long sleeves, no shoes, and the headscarf. I am smiling. I was not smiling after 15 minutes because I was so hot, and I couldn't wait to just get the scarf off of my head. How do these women do it?

Where did they have performances in ancient times? We have stadiums and concert halls, what did they have?

Answer: Enormous ampitheatres, such as this one in the Hieropolis. This one even features family boxes and dressing rooms.

No learning points, just pretty pictures of the cruise on the Bosporus

Pamukkale and the Hieropolis

We made it to Pamukkale - remember my first blog entry? The pools are beautiful, and right behind them are the ancient ruins of the Hieropolis.

"You catch flies with honey"..

That's a popular saying, and it came to life today when shopping at the Spice Market. The merchants are a bit pushy and pesky, but there was one store in which the owner was very gracious and answered our questions. Because of that, we decided to make many of our purchases there. He gave us each traditional Turkish tea, and all of the Turkish delight we could eat (made with honey instead of sugar..yum!)

As we sat and enjoyed, a famous woman came by with bodyguards. The shop owner asked who the lady was so that he could assist. The response he was given by the bodyguard was that "she is more important than you". The shopkeeper turned away and did not bother to assist the lady who was perusing the goods. Instead, he helped us out. The lady and her bodyguards left, having nobody to help them.

Here is a picture of us and the shop owner, who was so gracious and helpful to us.

Shopping at the spice market! Get your groceries here!

To market, to market....

Here are some pictures of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It has over 4,000 stores and caters primarily to tourists.

more pictures!

I have good online access so I am putting up more pictures. Enjoy!

Is all of Turkey a desert, with no flowers?

Take a look at the pictures below to get your answer:

Shopping in Turkey -different than at home!

At home, I can go to Target and pick out what I want. I know exactly how much it will cost because I can look at the price tag.

In Turkey, there are no price tags. You have to find the item you want, and then ask the shopkeeper or an employee who works there. He or she will give you a high price, but it's expected that you will argue with him and bargain for a better price.

It's uncomfortable, but it works. You can easily be told that something costs 25 lira (about 20 dollars) - then bargain your way down to 10 lira (7 dollars). However, the next customer can come and argue their way down to 5 lira (3 dollars). It's all dependent on how much a customer can argue and how low the shopkeeper is willing to go on the price.

a celebration

As we sat down to dinner in a restaurant tonight, I noticed the room next to us was filled with women, and all of the women had veils and long dresses. There were no men. After asking around, I found out there was a wedding celebration. After the wedding, the women stayed downstairs with the bride while the groom went upstairs with the men. The bride was totally covered in white, and the only skin I could see was her face. It was very different from the wedding ceremonies we have at home.

similarities between Turkey and the US

Sometimes when comparing countries; it helps not to find the differences, but to find the things that are the same.

1. Lots of watermelon, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
2. Kids love their Ipods and are very familiar with western artists.
3. McDonald's, KFC, and ESPECIALLY Burger King are popular.
4. Starbucks is here too!
5. All religions are accepted - it doesn't matter if you are muslim, christian, or whatever...they believe in "freedom of religion".
6. All students (and teachers) strongly dislike testing!
7. Teenagers love being on the internet!


Things that are different:
1. Nobody cares about traffic lanes in the cities.
2. Those cucumbers and tomatoes mentioned earlier....those are for breakfast.
3. Dinner starts at 8 pm.
4. Most people speak at least two languages.
5. Pringles come in weird flavors, like "Paprika" and "Hot Chili"
6. You can't drink the water here, ever.
7. It is a priority here to save electricity. In the hotels, the lights don't come on in the hallways until the sensors show someone is there. Also, you cannot run the power in your room without having your hotel room key in the power slot.

I will post more pictures tomorrow. Tonight we are staying late at a host's house, then we leave early tomorrow morning for our flight to Istanbul.

Science projects

In the United States, we concentrate on critical thinking - explaining answers and showing understanding. In Turkey, they do this also, but in two of the schools I have visited, they are also pushing for creativity to a higher level.

Example - two of the high schools I have visited promote science projects. These schools compete internationally and have placed consistently in the top 5. In the school I visited today, ALL students are expected to complete a project. These are no ordinary science projects - the ones I saw today included the development of a pillow that stops snoring, a wheelchair that goes upstairs (that placed second internationally), and the project that took the world prize involved taking used tires and putting them into walls of homes to prevent destruction from earthquakes. Not only do the students have to come up with the idea, but they spend years developing it and making it happen!

Here is the young student who developed the wheelchair that goes upstairs (we saw him demonstrate this), posing next to his award.

Here is the math teacher showing us some of the posters of the projects that students completed. The one on the far left dealt with Alzheimers.

Testing is important in Turkey, too.

In all of my school visits, we have heard about the test, the test, the test. Instead of being like the EOGs in North Carolina, it is ONE exam given at the end of high school. It has 180 questions and covers mainly math and the sciences.

It is so serious that high school students will go to school in the summer for exam preparation. In addition, students we spoke with today stopped all extracurricular activities in their 11th and 12th grade years so that they could concentrate on the exam.

1.5 million students take this exam every year. Only the top 200,000 get to go to University. From what we have seen so far, most of the students who go to University are those students who went to private school. I wonder what happens with the public school students - guess we will find out when we meet with the Ministry of Education on Friday.

Ancient Turkey - Ephesus

Today we travelled to an ancient city called Ephesus. There is much to learn at this site, but I want to students to see things that we use now - and how they were used in ancient times.

Here is the place where they had music concerts:

Here are the public (yes, you read that right) bathrooms:

Here's the library!!! Isn't it fabulous?

The Flat Stanleys really enjoyed this trip today!

Cats and dogs

Apparently, pets are not too important in Turkey. Otherwise there would not be so many animals running free - especially the cats. You can find them anywhere.

Here's one outside of the Turkish rug shop...notice he's resting on a rug!

As I was eating lunch one day, 4 cats came under the table and started standing on their back legs, just like dogs. The animals are just everywhere, so apparently they are seen as outdoor creatures rather than pets.

A famous export of Turkey - Turkish rugs

Today we went to visit a place where Turkish rugs are made by hand. These rugs have been made for hundreds of years, and instead of being made by machine, women make them by hand. They range anywhere from 150 knots per square inch to 500 knots per square inch, with each knot being made by hand. Therefore, it can take months, and in some cases, YEARS to make a rug.

We saw wool and cotton being dyed for the carpets.

We also saw silk being collected, straight off of the cocoons, for the carpets.

Here are pictures of some of my favorites:

Now, I wish this last picture was more in focus..it was made of silk and cost $50,000.