the basics.

It's been nearly two months since I arrived in Ankara and i've finally gotten myself on track [i think]. Establishing a life in Turkey is not exactly simple; there's an incredible amount of bureaucracy and corruption. I didn't really believe my dad when he warned me about it before, but my thinking has been thoroughly converted. Even getting onto the ODTU (Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi; Middle East Technical University) campus where I'm based was chaotic. Here's a (not so) funny story about my cousin Ebru:

Ebru was transferring to ODTU from Cankaya University, but she didn't have an ODTU id. There are 4 gates on the ODTU campus and you can not get in without an id or a friend. So, she got a friend to get her on campus, talked with the rector, and had a letter written that would allow her to get through the gates until she received her id...because it takes a month+ to get an id and classes were starting. So, her letter is directed to Kapi 1 (Gate 1) and usually she comes in Kapi 4. One day she goes in as usual, and the guard stops her to look at her letter. "This letter says Kapi 1. This is Kapi 4. You can not come in here," he says. Wait, wait, what? Where is the sense in that? She's going to be on the same campus no matter where she comes in...

I have a letter to get onto campus too and I know that one day, when I'm running late, they will decide to stop me. My cousin Gizem was stuck standing at the front gate for 3 hours once.

But, other than campus issues, I haven't had too many problems with the system. I did get into a fight with the Turkish police, and that was cool. Lots of blood and teeth flying. Ok, so we all know I'm lying, but there were some serious verbal fisticuffs going on. Walking into the yabanci isler (foreigner issues) department of the police one expects some English. But, there are surprisingly few English speakers there, so that didn't help. I needed to get a residence permit and the police said I had to pay 375ytl/month for no reason other than "it's our law". The other kids I talked to only had to pay something like 75ytl total. So, when I tried to get an explanation, they weren't pleased and there was some battling.

At the moment I think I have a solution, but that may be complicated by field work. For some of the other Fulbrighters it took a number of months for them to get all the right paperwork and get it figured out. They would keep going to the Emniyet and then get sent back to get different letters. A pain in the rear patooshka.

As for other aspects of my life here [i.e. my research], it's been slow going. But, this week ended with some key meetings completed and I think I'm starting to get somewhere. I'm learning that it's hard to start a research project from scratch when you are in a different country and you only have a limited amount of time. I think it's not as tough if you've established a background back home [eg. you've come in the middle of your PhD work, so you have some stuff done already and a direction/route determined]. But, I am determined to do something with this project, and I think I will...right now we're trying to construct the project so that I can actually do something significant in the time I'm here rather than just kind of start something.

Additionally, this is a very different field for me; I don't have a strong background in archaeology or the geologies generally associated with archaeology [hydrology, sediments, geomorphology]. My original project idea was to study large scale geologic events to see how they influenced settlement development and migration...but the professor I'm working with, Geoff Summers, doesn't have a lot of faith in the idea that big events [like volcanic eruptions or earthquakes] really did much. They would wipe out populations, but people would just build in the same place. So, right now, it looks like my project is going to be a study of the geology in reference to the building materials used on the site. I actually like the idea a lot as it allows me to do a lot more with archaeology and consider the geology from a number of angles--aerial photography, GIS, field work, thin section analysis--which will give me a lot of good experience. Now it's just figuring out the logistics and getting access to the current material collections.

Otherwise, my life is pretty unspectacular. I've got a great apartment where everything works [other than the toilet that sounds like it is about to explode every time it's flushed and the silverware drawer that doesn't open] in a convenient and lively part of Ankara. Ankara is a great place to live if you've got a life and stuff to do to keep you busy, but within the city itself there's not a lot of stuff to see or do...other than errands, which i seem to do a lot. Additionally, it's hard to figure out how to get around as there are no maps that give bus routes or anything like that. It's, you know, an adventure...a sometimes overwhelmingly frustrating adventure, but generally not too too bad. Additionally, Ankara is a great base from which to see the rest of Central Anatolia, an oftentimes overlooked region by travelers in Turkey. I'm really looking forward to traveling within Turkey [and outside] and hopefully have some fodder with which to develop my [currently pretty nonexistent] photography skeelz.

Another goal is to learn to use different spices and more grains in my cooking, and I'm in a good part of the world to do that. And I've definitely stocked up on the necessary supplies. I'll take pictures of my ingenious grain container method and the rainbow of spices someday in the future. [I promise to try to not make this into some kind of food blog] The picture is of the spice market where I spent way too much time last month. The photo doesn't really do the place justice; it's the inside that counts...and man-oh-man does this place have a spicetastic-dried fruitsastic-grainymcgraintastic inside.


Nice thing about Turkey, is that spices that are generally super expensive at home are cheap cheap cheap. That being said, pine nuts are really expensive, which is weird because they are used relatively often in Turkish cooking. And, I mean, they've got the pine trees...heck, they make cam bal (pine honey [and, yes, honey is the correct term, despite what some plant oriented people will tell you])!

One downfall of having so many dried spices is that oftentimes you can't find fresh varieties...and vice versa. I mean, it's pretty darned near impossible to find fresh basil, and fresh ginger isn't a cinch either. But, you can find dried and powdered varieties out the wazoo. It's a holdover from when Turkey was a major player in the spice trade back in the day [not that it isn't now, necessarily].


Buuuuut, [this makes me way way way too excited], I HAVE A GROWING HERB AND FLOWER GARDEN IN MY HOUSE.You can't understand how thrilled I am to actually be able to make plants live. If you haven't heard my sad, pathetic Lemon Verbena story you won't understand.



Again, the pictures are a pathetic representation of how epic it actually is. Because let me tell you, this is an epic thing. Really, it is.

Ok, well, after that important point what else is there to really say? Actually, this is getting long, so I'll stop. [I promise I'll jabber less in future posts.] I've got some pictures from some recent day trips that I'll post soon...and if you feel inspired, perhaps you'll come visit and travel with me?