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.

Turkish carpet

After the adventure in the high school today, we traveled to a location famous for the Turkish carpets. Here, we could see the moth cocoons with the silk, the wool and cotton being dyed, and also seeing a group of ladies perform amazingly detailed work creating carpets by hand.

This was an event - the owners brought out drinks for us and then proudly showed us the different varieties and styles of carpets. My personal favorite was one made strictly of silk with 500 knots per square inch - and yes, it was $50,000. I then decided I would take the smallest silk one - but that was $3200 and was about 12 inches square, so I thought otherwise!

I did find a small carpet that I will actually use as a wall hanging.

In the tradition of Turkish hospitality, the owner then provided us a delicious lunch. Who knew shopping for one item could take nearly a day?

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck..well, then it's a DUCK!!

No, this is not about ducks.
Before I start, let me say that my internet access here in Kusadasi is very slow and unreliable, so I will post pictures when I am in a better location.

Today we visited a private high school. Now, Turkey has initiated this whole separation of church-and-state thing, just like the US, and it is to pertain to private schools also. Therefore, even though a class in religion may be taught, it is considered unlawful to have religion in any other way in the school.

So, today's school has found an interesting way around that, but will not confess to it. As we entered the campus today, we were struck by a small yet beautiful mosque in the middle of the campus, next to the cafeteria. Knowing that was a no-no, we asked what it was. Well, the sign above the front door says "Library" and the vice principal assured us this was the case. However, there were a few things that indicated otherwise:

1. rolls of rugs lying in the corner
2. shoes sitting OUTSIDE of the building
3. the downstairs had nothing - only a plain cement floor. No books, bookshelves, etc.
4. A loudspeaker system! Who has one of THOSE in a library?

Yes, the vice principal told us it was a library and that it had 10,000 volumes (wherever those were).....but that was no library. I guess when they know visitors are coming, they pick things up real quick! I will post pictures and let you be the judge.

The ONE thing the Turkish people wants the US to know

We had dinner with a Turkish family in their home this evening. I asked the translator the question: "What is the one thing you wish Americans knew about Turkey?"
The translator and the family all immediately said they wished that Americans knew about the Turkish hospitality.

Tonight was a perfect example of the hospitality. This family, whose English is limited, had ten of us for dinner. That's no small task when you are preparing numerous courses for dinner - salad, eggplant, soup, stuffed peppers, rice pilaf, chicken, beans, etc. etc. The dinner took three hours and they gave us gifts afterwards. The family was extraordinarily kind, as have all of the citizens of Turkey we have met.

Tea with a teacher and his family

Today our tour guide (the one with the crazy hair on the far right - his name is Majit, pronounced "Midget") invited all 20 of us to his brother's house for tea. What I learned from this experience:

1. Teapots are made with two levels..one holds the boiling water, the other holds the tea, so you can make it as strong as you want.

2. You go to someone's house, you better take your shoes off.

3. The teacher (Idip, the gentleman standing with the children) was very interested in learning about teaching in America. He asked specifically about teacher salaries, because he has to work another job to make ends meet. His monthly salary after taxes is about $1000. We told him that while our salary in NC is higher, we still have many teachers who take on extra jobs to make it through.

One interesting note - when we visited schools the other day, one of the teachers in the group asked about discipline problems. The principal replied that there were none. Well, the young man in this picture told us he was in a fight at school. His punishment was to write "I will never fight in school again" 300 times.

A lesson in etiquette

Above shows the stuff at the salad bar...notice there's not much that's familiar..

One piece of advice to those dining in a restaurant in Turkey - even if you are full, eat it. Even if you're on a diet, eat it. Just eat it.

Today the group went to lunch and we had a prearranged menu of salad, soup, and a plate of lamb meatballs. Well, it feels like we've just eaten all week, but I knew I had to at least TRY...and that's what I did. Well, the Turkish are very hospitable and want you to be happy...and didn't the manager come out and ask me why I didn't like the soup. Unfortunately I haven't mastered the Turkish phrase "I'm stuffed"...