Particles to Crumbs

Malatya Day 7

2008-12-28T11:48:00.000-08:00

I got really excited when I flipped on the TV the last morning in Malatya. On the kids’ channel, Looney Tunes was on! I was really excited, because Looney Tunes hasn’t been on TV for several years. I watched for two hours straight, until Mert came to get me for breakfast. After breakfast, we packed up as we had to check out of the guesthouse by 10am. We left our bags near the front desk and went to waste time downtown. Mert, Canan, and I just wandered around downtown. We met up with Beril and her husband. Beril is another grad student from METU. I sat next to her and her husband on the bus ride to and from Mt. Nemrut. Her husband was really interesting to talk to. As he and Beril are slightly older than everyone else, they were great to talk to about more socio-economic issues in Turkey.

He explained to me that Turkey’s largest problem was their refusal to dissolve the class-based society. To become a politician or businessman, you need to know be a part of the upper class, or be closely associate with someone who is. Another problem is that men will own large areas of land, becoming self-appointed governors of small areas, probably about the size of counties in the US.

We all got lunch at the same restaurant. By this point, they had recognized me, not only as an American but also as the guy who only eats baked potatoes. I knew I couldn’t eat for a while because of our flight at 6pm, so I ordered too. They were kind enough to scoop out the potatoes and arrange them on a plate for me. It is just another example of the kindness displayed by the Turkish people.

After lunch, we walked over to the tourist information booth, so I could get a Tourist Ministry poster from Malatya. The tourist information office was located inside a beautiful garden lush with palm trees and fountains. It was very much an oasis in a broiling and dry city. We sat down and enjoyed cool drinks for a few hours until we had to grba our bags and head to the airport.

Beril’s husband had negotiated with a taxi driver to take us to the airport for the amount it would cost us to take the Havas bus. We picked up our bags and all crammed into the taxi. I had forgotten how far the airport was from the city, but I guess they can’t position air force bases too close to city centers.

After getting into Ankara airport, we took a Havas to the Asti, or Ankara bus station. They dropped me off at my dormitory at around midnight. I was completely exhausted, but it was a spectacular trip. I wish I could have visited Urfa, a city near the Syrian border, but at least I got back safely.

Malatya Day 6

2008-12-27T19:23:00.000-08:00

The next morning at 6am, Canan, Mert, and I got up to catch the tour bus to Urfa. After waiting at the designated spot for 30 minutes, the owner of the tour company came by and told us that due to the accident the day before; everyone else had pulled out of the trip. She offered to allow us to accompany the two-day trip and have a car bring us back that night. We would be leaving for the return trip to Malatya at around midnight and getting in around 3am. We all decided that this was not a very safe plan, as we could be stranded by an unreliable car. We told the woman that we would not be taking the tour, and that we wanted our money back. She said that we should come by her office later in the day to claim it. So, we went back to the guesthouse and slept for a few more hours.

When I finally woke up, Mert turned on the TV in our room. There were military parades on most of the channels. August 30th is Victory Day in Turkey. It signifies the Ataturk’s victory in the Battle of Dumlupinar, which signified Turkey’s independence from Greece, who was supported by the allies in World War I. It is celebrated by several hours of military parades at Ataturk’s Mausoleum in Ankara and televised throughout the country on government TV channels.

We, finally, woke up and ate breakfast. As Canan and Mert had not seen the museum in town yet, so we decided to go see that. The streets were lined with red and white streamers and balloons in celebration of Victory Day. Lots of street vendors were around from the parade that happened earlier that day. Although we never witnessed the parade, the decorations were evidence of the importance of this day to the Turks.

There was a vendor selling these white pods from a plant, which are a naturally type of chewing gum. Mert bought a small bag, so they could try it. It was apparently good that I didn’t want to try them, as they were apparently somewhat awful.

When we got to the museum, the security guard recognized me from the other two visits. He asked Mert if I was a journalist as I had carried my camera with me all three visits. He told Mert that he could arrange for me to meet with the archeologists who work at the museum if I come back in two days, or Monday. Mert told him that I was an American who was visiting, and the guard laughed. He told us that we could take pictures of whatever we wanted, as long as I didn’t use my flash. This was the third set of rules regarding my camera in as many visits. By this point, I had seen everything; so I focused on taking pictures of the more intricate pieces, particularly glass vessels and gold coins.

After leaving the museum, we went and got lunch. Still eating bread, I started to find mealtime being the least favorite part of my day. Afterwards, we went to go get some dondurma, Turkish ice cream, so they could have some before we left the next day. We were meeting up with everyone else for dinner, after they all returned from a trip to a waterfall nearby, so we had lots of time to kill. At this point, we went to go pick up our refund at the tour agency office. Mert and Canan were surprised that we got a refund at all. Apparently, refunds are a rare occurrence in Turkey. I was rather happy that we received one as the trip cost over 100 lira.

We ended up walking around the bazaar again. I ended up buying a few hand made copper dishes to act as sugar dishes for my tea sets that I had purchased earlier. We went for dinner at the same restaurant we had been going to for the past few days, so I could have more potatoes. I really have to say how much I appreciate everyone for accommodating to me to such a degree. I know that everyone felt somewhat guilty that I got so sick in their country, but everyone really went above and beyond to make me as comfortable as possible.

Since we had gotten up so early, we turned in early. Although it had been a relaxing day, it still was quite tiring with the extreme heat.

Malatya Day 5

2008-12-24T22:30:00.001-08:00

I have to apologize again for the lapse in posting. Between research, school, and the holidays, I have been hard pressed to find time to update. It’s probably a good thing as my advisor has been using that as part of the metric to determine if I’m actually busy or not. ;-) Anyways, I have some free time over the next few days, as I am finally taking a break from work. Happy Holidays to everyone.

So the fifth day, or Friday, was an exciting day. It was the day we took the first conference sponsored day trip. Leaving at 3pm, we took buses up to Mount Nemrut. For an in-depth description of you should definitely read the Wikipedia article, the sites’s website, or see the APOD picture. As I don’t want to blatantly copy the description from Wikipedia onto the blog, I highly recommend you go read the four short paragraphs which are posted.

Since I planned on hot weather the whole trip, I did not bring a sweatshirt at all. When we arrived in Malatya, Damla inquired to check that I had brought a sweatshirt. As I had not, everyone was worried that I would freeze on the trip to the summit of Mt. Nemrut. That morning, I decided to quell their worries and buy a sweater. I decided to go down to the bazaar to purchase one from one of the street vendors, as I thought that would be the cheapest solution.
I went downtown with everyone, but split off when they waited for the dolmus to take them to the university. I walked down the street, which was lined with clothing merchants. One seemed to feature tops and sweaters. I walked in and through hand motions and the Turkish word for sweatshirt, he started to pull down lots of types of sweaters. I chose two of them and he told me that it would cost 150 lira, which I knew was outrageous. I as I said that I didn’t want the second sweater, which was more expensive, we started bargaining the price of the second sweater. I eventually got sick of it and was adamant that I did not want the sweater. I paid what he quoted me for the first sweater, which was 70 lira.

The thing about the whole situation is I got worn down enough where I just wanted to get out. I didn’t keep in mind that I could leave at any time, which I knew full well was an option before I walked in there. I guess I hope that this serves as a reminder for someone to not forget that you are meant to bargain for anything not sold in a store while abroad, especially in the Middle East. Anyways, I thought I would point that out, so someone else might benefit from my mistake. The worst part about this is that the summit of Mt. Nemrut wasn’t even cold!

After buying the sweater, I went to go stock up on bread before the trip. The trip advertised that dinner would be served at the summit, but I knew that whatever it ended up being would not be something I could eat. I grabbed a loaf from one of the bakeries, and stocked up on pretzel sticks at a convenience store around the corner. I, accurately, hoped that my system would be able to handle the pretzel sticks, as I was getting really sick of bread after eating it for nearly two weeks and almost exclusively for the past week. I made my way to the university to meet back up with everyone at the conference before boarding the buses.

I chilled out in the lounge while the conference wrapped up and everyone was fed lunch. The buses started arriving at 2pm. We stood out front waiting for the buses, and tried to board one but I wasn’t able to find a seat, so all 8 of us piled back off. This small fact will be extremely important later. Meanwhile, another bus pulled in, and we were able to take over the whole back of the bus. At this point, I think I should point out these buses were in the style of dolmus, so they seated about 14 people with an aisle on the passenger side of the bus. To get to Mt. Nemrut from Malatya is a 4 hour drive on a dirt road with the last few miles consisting of steep and narrow switchbacks. This dirt road is a non-descript turn off from the main highway, so it would be very hard to find it without prior knowledge that it takes you to the top of the mountain.

We made two stops along the way. The first was about an hour into the trip at a small convenience store, at which people could buy water and snacks. There was a natural spring there as well that some people took an interest in. Everyone in our group bought a few snacks and rested in the shade. A small cat came to nuzzle us and beg for food. After about ten minutes, we boarded the buses again and continued on. After about another hour, we passed through a small town, which was incredibly cute. All the town consisted of was a small mosque encircled by a few even smaller houses.

Later, the second stop was slightly more exciting. We stopped at a small waterfall on which was built a fishery and restaurant. They had a fishpond within the building, from which one could choose a fish to be prepared. Tijen, Damla, and the Canans found berry bushes below the restaurant and picked several fist fulls of blackberries. I didn’t have any as I was still cautious about what I was eating while on such a long bus ride. We loaded up into buses and drove for another 90 minutes. After the waterfall, I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to the drive until we came to the switchbacks during the last 2-3 miles. Instead, I was actually trying to update my blog as best as possible. Apparently, it is hard to type at the bus rocks back and forth. Who knew?!?

As we crossed the tree line, we could see for miles. The road at this point became barely a one-lane trail. It switchbacked steeply up the side of the mountain with very tight turns. The road, as well as the rest of the top of the mountain, was made up of a reddish limestone. Upon arriving, we disembarked from the buses, and walked about 1000 ft before we reached a shack. Thinking that we had already paid for the park entrance fee as part of the tour price, I continued to walk up the hill before getting yelled at. Apparently, visiting the site cost an additional 5 lira. I found this slightly irritating but paid it nonetheless. There are two sides of the summit to the site, the eastern and western sides. As the tour was intended to get us there around sunset, the colors of the setting sun on the rocks was stunning. Unfortunately, there weren’t any tour guides to explain the history of the site. I would have even settled for an explanation in Turkish to none at all. As it turned out, once again, my guidebook saved the day. After seeing the statues of Zeus, Herculues, Tyche, Apollo, and King I Theos Antiochus on the eastern side, we moved to the western side to watch the sunset. Both sides have the same statues but the surroundings are slightly different. Both sets of statues are supposed to be on throwns, but all of them have been moved over the ages. There was an formation of rocks that all the METU students sat down on. We all broke out snacks and waited for the sun to set. At this point, I broke out my guidebook to read the description of Mt. Nemrut to everyone as no one really had any idea what the significance of the monument was. As you can see in all the pictures, there is a reddish light cast on everything. The reddish limestone reflected brightly in the light. As the sunset faded, we all walked towards the buses. The little shack that served as the visitors’ center was selling little plaster figurines of the statues. Since there were only 3 lira apiece, I ended up buying 5 of them, one of each statue.

Upon reaching the buses, we were given a cheese, pepper, and tomato sandwich with an apple and bottle of water. We all hoped back into the buses and started the long ride home. I noticed the bus driver was driving rather fast for it being pitch black outside and a one lane, dirt road. I tried to write as much about the Malatya trip on my laptop as possible before I finally couldn’t take the rocking any more. I tried to sleep as best I could with the rocking. About 45 minutes from home, we suddenly pulled over. The driver was frantically calling someone, and someone else on our bus received a text message from someone on another bus saying that another bus had gone off the road and rolled down a steep embankment. Someone else received a call, from which we learned that no one had died but several people had broken arms and/or suffered from cuts from the broken glass as the van had rolled down the embankment. The creepiest part about this whole experience was that the bus, which overturned, was the one we were originally going to ride in. It only happened to be dumb luck that I couldn’t get a seat on it that we didn’t get seriously hurt along with everyone else on that bus.

The driver determined that there was nothing for us to do other than continue on returning back to Inonu University. Apparently, several ambulances had been called to carry people to the university’s hospital. We all sat there silent and stunned for the rest of the trip. The driver was nice enough to drive us all the way to the guesthouse from the university. We turned in as soon as we got back, as we were supposed to get up at 6am the next morning for our day trip to Urfa, a city near the Syrian border.

Malatya Day 4

2008-10-21T03:15:00.000-07:00

I want to apologize for the month long hiatus, which I have taken from updating this blog. I am no doubt back from Turkey, but instead of giving an update at this time, I will leave that until later to keep the events in the order in which they happened.

The fourth day in Malatya left me wondering what I should do with myself for the 3 whole days, which I had to left to explore the city. Wanting to see ancient Malatya, currently called Battalgazi , I read in Lonely Planet that after a 15 minute bus ride to reach the town square. Once again, I joined everyone in walking to the dolmus otogar, from where I continued another few blocks to the otogar at which the Battalgazi bus was located. The bus itself was much older than the ones operated in Ankara, but they were still very comfortable and spacious. It cost me 40YKR or .4 YTL each way, which ended up being quite a deal for a 2.5 hour trip.

Upon finalizing my arrangements for my flight to Malatya, I had looked up what there was to do in Malatya. From the description in Lonely Planet, I envisioned a cute village that was basically abandoned with lush green grass growing everywhere. What it ended up being was nothing of the sort. The village itself seemed to be inhabited by many families who commuted into Malatya via the bus system to go to work. There were small groups of children roaming the streets while mothers performed chores at home. Instead of the lush green path ways, the streets were dusty and lined my houses coated in concrete. Down most of the street were empty lots containing the rubble left from whatever structure had previous stood there with knee high weeds growing through out. In almost every direction, you can see the evidence of the 29 towers that protected the city during medieval times. Upon arriving in Battalgazi, I walked over to the newly refurbished park in the center of the town square and sat down in the shade to consult Lonely Planet. Finally figuring out the directions to the three mosques of interest in this itty bitty town, I headed south of the square. A small group of boys scoped me out and started to follow me, presumably because I looked like a tourist with my camera.

I first visited the Alacakapi mosque, which is located no more than 100 ft south of the square. It was constructed early on during the Ottoman empire with an inscription dating back to 1592* or 100 years after Columbus. Just past the mosque is an old caravan stop along the silk road constructed in 1637*. There is a small market located in the building these days. Trying the find the mosque of Ulu Camii , I started to roam the streets while picking up a larger pose of children. They quickly became disinterested as soon as I took their picture and assured them that I would not be giving them any money. This is all with the exception of one cute little boy. He didn't say a word while the other were begging and just tagged along. As soon as the rest of the boys peeled off, he asked me to follow him. While I had finally gotten back on track towards the mosque, it was still nice to have a little tour guide. He led me further down the main street leading south from the square and turned down a narrow street that was marked with an arrow towards the mosque. I would like to say that this was the first time in Turkey that I actually witnessed street signs of any form on an actual city street.

When we arrived at the Ulu Camii, I found the ruins of an old theological school by way of a sign giving it's history. It was constructed starting in 1303 and continued to operate through the 18th century. Turning around, the Ulu Camii is a more conservative looking mosque without the immense spires and stained glass windows. The conservatism of the architecture of the Ulu Camii and Alacakapi surprised me as the other mosques I had come across have intricate stone carvings and metal work covering their structures. With my little friend, I walked around the mosque taking pictures of the different architectural aspects, especially the alcoves that contained the doorways.

My little friend motioned for me to follow him again, so I tagged along. He took me to what Lonely Planet refers to as Ak Minare Camii, or the White Minaret Mosque. Where as Ulu Camii seemed deserted, Ak Minare Camii was more tranquil and seemed to be better taken care of. The architecture is much more similar to that of most other mosques you'll see in Turkey, especially with the minarets and stone work screens covering the windows. My little friend went to go drink water out one of the faucets about the courtyard. Not wanting to trespass, I decided to wait outside the gate. I would like to add that at no time during the trip did I ever get the feeling that visitors were not welcome in or around any of the mosques. In fact, I have read in Lonely Planet and elsewhere that visitng mosques is encouraged with the clerics being very accomidating even if they don't speak english. After seeing everything there was to see, my friend and I headed back towards the town square. He did try to get me to head towards one of the towers, but I was tired and just wanted to get back to the conference hall. Reaching the town square, I decided to pay my little tour guide with some cookies, so I visited the grocery store that's housed in the old caravan stop and bought a few cookies. Many of the kids started to surround me hoping that I would start handing them out, but I didn't make any motion to do so until he was the only one left around. As it so happened, he wouldn't take any of them, even though he had watched me buy them. I boarded the bus back to Malatya and saw out the window that my little friend was there to watch me leave. I started waving to him, and the bus finally pulled out of the station.

Upon reaching Malatya, I boarded a dolmus for the conference. After hanging out for a while, we decided to head downtown to see the museum. Since I had already seen it, I wasn't too thrilled but it was nice to get away from the conference center with my friends. We arrived at about 4:30pm and were informed that the museum closed in about 5 minutes. They convinced the guard to let us roam without charging us. We quickly checked out the exhibits, and everyone was happy that I had already photographed the whole museum. Upon leaving, we decided to check out the park adjacent to the museum. One of the many improvements made to Malatya was the recent addition of this park which doubled as a thoroughfare to a neighborhood to the south. Water was pumped to the top of a hill and flowed down stone block lined canals. We were standing at the foot of this hill where several fountains and water falls were located. It was a very relaxing place to be, especially on a hot day in August.

Investigating further up the hill, we discovered an ice cream shop. The ice cream made in Turkey is very different than that served in the western world. Dondurma, Turkish ice cream, is made with Salep and Mastic resin, which give it a more elastic and tougher texture than western ice cream. According to wikipedia, Salep is made from the ground tubers of an orchid, and is also used to make the drink of the same name (which I ended up having once I got back to Ankara). These ingredients also allow for higher melting temperatures which allows for easier vending on the streets. Dondurma vendors are easily recognized as they use paddles on long metal rods to churn the ice cream to keep it easily workable. In our case, the dondurma was made with a mold and cut off into cubes, which were then served on a plate with a fork and knife. With the temperature at around 90F that day, I was really surprised to see the ice cream stay solid while they were consuming it. Still being cautious, I only had a small taste of the dondurma. The taste was sweet and slightly milky but nothing extraordinary. I would definitely say that if you ever have the chance to eat dondurma you should. The texture and experience of eating it alone make it worth it even if the flavor isn’t necessarily memorable.

As Sertan and I were the only guys in our group of 6, we were persuaded to go stroll through the bazaar in search of shopping opportunities. I directed everyone to the section where I had encountered the coppersmiths the day before. We spent about 30 minutes in one of the shops where I ended up buying several copper pieces for my mother, two of my friends who were recently married, and myself. I had to be very careful to make sure everything was handmade as several of the pieces had manufacturer markings on the bottom. When asked, the shopkeepers were honest about which pieces were handmade (or at least to the best of my ability to tell).

Wandering further through the bazaar, one could see the stalls, which sold freshly slaughtered meats, aged sausages, and chickens that have been rotisseried. One whole square block was dedicated to butcher shops. Other blocks contained other food related stores, including a large number of shops that sold a large array of spices. I think this is the one aspect of Turkey that I will greatly miss and regret not being able to take advantage of. With the sun starting to set, Tijen decided to head back to the university for the night. As the Canans had an extra bed in their room, Damla decided to stay out with us that night and crash at our guesthouse. Damla, Sertan, and I walked over to the mosque located in the center of the town to wait for Mert and Canan who had stayed at the conference to see a few talks. In the mean time, I decided that I wanted to learn how to properly wash myself outside the mosque to prepare for Muslim prayers. Even though Sertan had no clue how to do it, he offered to watch what other were doing and tell me what order to wash myself in. I will describe this later as I feel like it deserves proper attention in a more detailed fashion. During my attempt at learning how to properly washing myself, Mert and Canan arrived and Mert took a few pictures of me.

Everyone decided that dinner sounded like a good idea. Mert and Sertan had been craving Kokorich(sp?), a dish involving chicken intestines. I had this dish about a month and a half earlier and found it really good. Because all ther restaurants selling it smelled too much like raw meat for Canan to handle, we ended up eating at a semi-upscale place on the main street. Upon walking in, I got really excited because they advertised that they served kumpir, or baked potatoes.

After dinner, everyone wanted beer, so we ended up going back to the bar we found the first night. Once again after ordering drinks, we were served large plates of cantaloupe, honey dew melon, and grapes and nuts. After a few drinks, we all dragged ourselves back to the guest house where we all crashed. It had been a really long day…

* It occurs to me that the years posted on the signs, which I read and am heavily basing the posting on, are not based on the Christian calendar, which we use here in the US. (If I'm wrong about that, please correct me!)

Malatya Day 3

2008-09-10T04:26:00.000-07:00

I decided that I needed to start venturing out. Lonely Planet told me that the only real destination in all of Malatya was an archeology museum with artifacts on display from an excavation nearby. Everyone had decided that we would wake up later that morning and catch the dolmus to the university. Since the dolmus otogar (bus station) was somewhat on my way, I tagged along to see which one I needed to take to get to the university. Once that was all figured out, I proceeded to meander my way towards the center of town through the edge of the bazaar. Needing to keep my bread supply stocked, I stopped in a bakery that had just pulled some brown bread out of the oven. After purchasing a loaf, they kindly sliced it for me. For the rest of the week, I lived on nothing but bread and kumpir (baked potatoes). In some ways, this made everything incredibly easy because I never really had to worry about where I was going to eat because I always had food with me. Continuing towards the museum, I stopped in a store that specialized in Muslim clothing for women, particularly head scarves. The patterns on the headscarves can be quite intricate and beautiful. I kept wandering down the street looking up the side streets that lead deeper into the bazaar.

The bazaar is laid out in a pretty simple fashion, with different regions specializing in different types of goods. Vendors selling food related items are located closer to the highway where the dolmus stations are locations, hence the bakery where I bought my bread. Heading towards the town center, the vendors become more related to apparel. Tailors are intermixed with ordinary clothing merchants, vying for your attention and money. The apparel that they are selling is consists mainly of cheap dress shirts and major European and American brand knock offs. Some of the merchants were selling t-shirt with various art and writing on them. What caught my attention was that many referenced San Francisco. Most of them didn't make an sense really. I remember one saying "Intrigue" with San Francisco, CA written underneath it.

While in the bazaar, it is really important to keep in mind that you have to haggle on every price they give you, especially if you don't speak Turkish. This will be important for day 5. There is a street here that is lined with gold merchants, displaying their ornate pieces in large windows that in turn glow when the sunlight hits them. I decided to meander through the clothing area for a little bit before reaching the mosque that sits at the center of town.

I crossed the main street of Malatya, which predictably is named Ataturk Caddesi (Blvd). Heading south, I walked along a side street lined with shops. I came upon two men sitting along the sidewalk who waved me over. One of them was an owner of one of the stores, and he wanted me to take a picture of him and his friend. After snapping a few photos, he wanted to make sure I knew his name and to remember where he met me. He gave me his card on which he added Malatya, Türkiye. The other man offered me cay which I graciously declined. Smiling from ear to ear at this super-friendly encounter, I continued on my way to the museum. I think what makes me so happy about things like this is because they were genuinely interested in talking to me and finding out my story. If this had happened in Istanbul, it would probably have been to get an angle with which to sell me something, but here and in Ankara, that hasn't been the case. It is just really pleasant finding other people that are as excited and interested to meet new people as I am.

Upon arriving at the museum, I paid the 3 YTL entrance fee and was pleasantly surprised by the air conditioned interior. The museum itself was rather small consisting of only 4 rooms, but it was laid out and documented rather well. As with every other museum I have visited, I photographed everything. The artifacts were all excavated from a site north of town at a location called Arslantepe from which some of the artifacts dated back a few thousand years before Christ. These artifacts mainly consisted of every day items such as arrow heads, swords, clay and stone pots, glass containers, coins, and various tools. One of the rooms was dedicated to illustrating how various activities in day to day life worked, such as milling grain, making arrow heads, and making clay pots. Outside the museum, there was a small garden which contained various stone carvings and head stones, particularly from the era of Roman occupation. After finishing at the museum, I headed back to the catch the dolmus along the route on which I came.

Right outside the museum is a small park that sits between a small canal and several man-made waterfalls. As with the university and other aspects of Malatya, this park was made possible by large amounts of funding from the government. I enjoyed the plumes of mist created by the churning water to rejuvenate myself before my walk back. The streets were more crowded as it was close to lunch time. I got back to the dolmus station in time to hop on the one that took me to the university. Not knowing exactly where to get off, the dolmus stopped at the university hospital, so I decided to hop off since the hospital is attached to the conference center. I walked into the hospital hoping to find directions, but I couldn't find any. I walked around the hospital complex. Just before giving up, I saw two women who were carrying the bags that they conference had given out. I ended up following them (while feeling slightly creepy) to see if they knew where they were going. They ended up striking out as well, but they were able to ask for directions. By this time, I had introduced myself and we were able to weave our way through the hospital to the conference center. The signs pointing the way to the conference center were all located in the back hallway, far from where anyone would see them entering from the main entrance. It is things like this that make me laugh and shake my head about Turkey.

I arrived just in time for lunch, or more precisely give my lunch to everyone else and eat bread. For the rest of the day at the conference, I basically just hung out and tried to get a little work done. I found out long ago that it is close to impossible for me to get work done in places that have lots of distractions. It's safe to say that I didn't get much done. At 4pm, the poster session started, and everyone but Damla, Mert, and Sertan had to present their posters. I walked around and snapped everyone's photo.

Afterwards, we all boarded buses and were taken to a denim factory. For some reason, the conference organizers decided that this would be an exciting event. The factory was a little interesting bceause there wasn't a guide of any sort, so we had to figure out what everything did on our own. After the tour, we were loaded up into buses and taken to some random place with a garden for dinner. No one seemed to know where we were, but apparently the denim factory had paid for the dinner for us. With it getting late, we decided to just have the bus drop us off at the guesthouse on its way back to campus.

Malatya Day 2

2008-09-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

I decided to stick with everyone the first day, so we all got up early to catch the free bus that the Inonu University had sent to pick up conference members not staying on campus. We first stopped by the guesthouses restaurant to eat breakfast, which was the typical Turksih fare: bread, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, and cay. We took a taxi to the bus stop. Not knowing what the bus was supposed to look to look like, the rest of the group recognized that a few professors from our department were sitting on the front patio of the hotel that was directly behind us. They were taking the bus too, so we just followed them when they boarded a ordinary looking bus that didn't have any markings on it. Thankfully, it got us to the convention center, or the Kũltũr ve Kongre Merkezi.

İnönü University is named after Turkey's second president who was originally from Malatya. As the current president is also from Malatya, a lot of money has been put into the campus. This improvement money went towards a new state of the art hospital and conference center. The campus itself is very large, in fact it might rival the size of UC Davis even including our farm land. While everyone checked in, I scouted out the place. The ground floor (the zeroth floor in Turkey) contained 3 small small conference room and the lower entrance to the main conference hall. The conference started with an opening session where a tribute was made of a prominent chemical engineer that had died that year, the Turkish national anthem, and a Mozart performance by one of Inonu's students. I don't remember if I commented on the Turkish national anthem before in my post about METU's graduation but, I find it really interesting. When it is played, everyone is expected to sing. I think that they should made a custom in the United States. I have never been one for making senseless rules, but I think customs of this sort are always nice. I guess it also helps that I like to sing.

After the first session, I just hung out in the reception area on the second floor. Unlike a lot of American conference, coffee, tea, and snacks were offered throughout the day. I found out that wifi was available throughout the conference center, so I planned on bringing my laptop the next day. While I was sitting there, Damla rushed up to me and told me that the talk going on at the moment was in English, so I decided to check it out. It turns out that the presenter was a Turkish native that attended MIT. Apparently very arrogant, he presented in English even though the conference was officially in Turkish. With Global Warming as his topic, he was deginitely looking to push some buttons. I felt that his talk was a little lacking on exact details and more propaganda, but it was interesting to see what he had to say. Several times throughout the talk, he said that the main problem with curbing global warming emmision was that the United States had not yet signed the Kyoto Protocol. At the end, he mentioned fuel cell technology as being part of the solution. As this was his research area, I felt that it was a conflict of interest to only mention this possible solition and not other such as solar, tidal, ethanol/methol, and nuclear energy solutions. What I was waiting for was the Q&A period. As I guessed someone immediately asked in English if he wanted questions in Turkish and English. When the speaker said it didn't matter, the man asking the question said he would ask his question in Turkish so more than a few people in the audience could understand. Afterward, another man raised his hand to supposedly ask a question. He ended up going on a rant for 5 minutes. I asked Damla afterward what it was all about. She said his rant was based on that increased CO2 levels was great for plant life, hence global warming was a great thing that should not be worried about. I found this rather amusing as one of the causes of this increase in CO2 levels is the reduced number of plants to convert it back into oxygen.

Afterwards, there was another talk on Nuclear power, but since it was in Turkish, I decided to go back to the reception area. I hung out until lunch was served. Because Mert had the extra tickets, I tagged along mostly to see if it was something I could eat. Predictably it wasn't, but I was able to give my food to everyone else. This actually happened at every lunch for the rest of the week. Lunch was lamb that was roasted in a bag along with rice. I tasted a sliver of it, and it was quite good. After lunch, I ended up passing out on a couch for about an hour. At that point, I went to watch Damla's talk on synthesizing polymethylsilane for use as a flame retardent in polypropylene. Her talk went really well, and she only got one question. Afterwards, I went back to napping until about 6. Because there was a cocktail party at 8pm, we decided to go get dinner. Once again, I ordered Tuvuk Sis hoping that I could get plain chicken. Unfortunately, this is when the server told us that all restaurants around here marinade their chicken in oil and chilies to preserve it throughout the day. More unfortunately, this was after I had taken a few bites that I thought were chili free. Well, even thought my stomach hurt for about 24 hours, everything turned out fine, and I learned about how they prepare chicken in Malatya.

At 8pm, we loaded onto buses for the short trip to the University's pool. Large tables has been setup in the grass area around their relatively new, olympic sized pool. Each table has several bottles of water, coke, and other sodas on it. There was a glass with sticks of carrot and cucumber in lime juice. There was a buffet table that had cheeses, sausages, veggies, yogurt dips, and bread. After finding out that there was a large amount of bread in a bin, I made a bee-line for it and stocked up for the night. I figured I might has well get my free ticket's worth of bread considering I couldn't drink any of the wine. Although, I think everyone drank enough wine to make up for the fact I wasn't drinking. Everyone has a great time. There was a 5 piece band that played more traditional sounding Turkish music. The bands members were from the University's music department. The vocalist also played the Ney. Apparently this is one of the hardest instruments to learn, necessitating around 10 years to become a competent player. It sounded like a very airy flute. We all ended up dancing to the music and having a blast. Damla got quite drunk which only made her want me to dane even more. We eventually loaded up into the buses and were driven back to the dorms. At that point, we asked the driver if he could take us back to our guesthouse, and he agreed. We arrived back at the guesthouse exhausted but happy. We ended up going for a walk to get me bread for the next day, as well as water for everyone. I ended up just collapsing on my bed and passing out. It was a long but fun day.

Malatya Day 1

2008-09-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

Because the price of bus tickets were the same price as plane tickets, my labmates decided to fly to the chemical engineering conference here in Malatya. Not wanting to go through another 10 hour bus ride if I could fly for 30 YTL more than a bus ticket, I decided to join them. We flew aboard an Anadolu Jet Boeing 373, which is the value branch of Turkish Airlines. The flight took about 55 minutes, and we flew into Malatya's only airport. On approach, I looked out the window and noticed that I couldn't see the ground because there seemed to be something that resembled fog like smog. Well, Damla told me later that a dust storm had blown in from Egypt. In some parts of the region, the dust storm caused rain to turn into mud. Yes, it actually was raining mud. Thankfully, we didn't encounter any of it. Because the region is rather rural, a Turkish air force base allows commercial jets to fly in and out of a small airport. There is only one flight per day from Ankara, so the plane ended up being filled with chemical engineers. I ended up sitting next to one of the conference organizers, and he informed me that the conference had arranged for a professor from a university in Edinburgh to speak. As this was going to be the only talk in English, he strongly recommended that I attend.

Upon landing, we boarded a Havas bus to take us into town. Havas runs a fleet of buses with the specific purpose of shuttling people to and from Turkish airports. I took one of the their buses from the airport to a station in Ankara the day I arrived. The bus dropped us off a few blocks from out guesthouse. The guesthouse is run by the government specifically for teachers who are new to the area and need a place to stay while looking for more permanent lodging. We are able to stay because open rooms are available for professors, graduate students, and other government servants. The number of beds per room differs, but we were able to get one with three beds, one for me, Sertan, and Mert. The rooms aren't great but they all have TVs. I would have gladly traded the TV in for internet or air conditioning, but I'm not really going to complain for 25 YTL a night. We settled in and rejoined the Canans for dinner. Damla stayed with her mother on campus, since she didn't have to pay for her room.

We walked down main street trying to find a restaurant. There weren't any restarunts near the guesthouse so we walked about 10 blocks to find one. It was a very small place located in the basement of one of the shops along the main street. Because I had started eating chicken again, I thought that Tavuk Şiş (chicken on a stick) wouldn't be a problem. Everyone else got regional dishes like Iskender or dishes made in ceramic pots and placed in a wood oven. When the food arrived, I realized that my chicken was coated in chilies. Because my stomach had been uneasy, I decided that I needed to eat something, so I decided to wipe off the chicken with a napkin. Was that a bad idea! For the next two days, my stomach hurt pretty bad. I ended up sticking to bread after that.

After dinner, we walked along the main street for about 45 minutes looking for a place to drink beer. Mert was pretty determined to find a place, so we searched for 10 blocks until we finally found one. Like I said earlier, Malatya is afar more conservative city than Ankara, so it makes sense that drinking places would be few and far between. In fact, the bars are actually hidden and segregated. Most of the bars are for men only, but a few have a second room where families are allowed to drink together. We ended up finding one of these by asking around. There are not any signs for these places, so locations are shared by word of mouth. They ordered beer, and I ordered a bottle of water. Along with our drinks, they brought us two plates. The first was covered in parsely and cilantro, and it was rimmed with slices of cucumber. The second plate contained cherries, grapes, and slices of water melon and honeydew melon. I sneaked a few tastes because I figured that if my stomach was already uneasy from the chicken it couldn't hurt too much to eat some fruit. It has always striked me as interesting that the level of hospitality in this country is so high. I have always heard that Turks were very warm and giving, but it is just such a change from American restaurants that even after two months here, I am still slightly surprised every time something like this happens.

Around 11, we started to walk back. We stopped along the way to get me a loaf of bread. We finally trudged our way back to the guesthouse and called it a night.

Health and Next Week

2008-08-24T01:44:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I will be heading to Malatya on a 5pm flight. Malatya is in the Southeaster part of Turkey. It is a far more conservative and less touristy city than I been to during this trip or perhaps in my life. There is a 3 day Turkish Chemical Engineering conference at which all of my lab mates are giving presentations. Since the conference will be in Turkish, the educational aspect will be mainly so see how these conferences are held and the interactions that occur. During most of the conference, I will use this chance to see some of the sites. There is only one small museum in Malatya, which is supposed to be based on the local Anatolian history. The current city of Malatya is relatively recent as the original is about 7 km away. Lonely Planet says that it is well worth the journey to this older city as it should capture what Anatolian life was like around 100 years ago. I think there is a museum there as well. On Friday, I will be taking a tour with my labmates that is for about half a day. I don't recall what it involves, but I will be sure to tell you after I get back. Saturday, I will be leaving on a tour with Mert and Canan at around 5am. We will be traveling to the city of Urfa by way of the Ataturk Reservoir. The reservoir is the largest in Turkey and is apparently something to see. I am assuming it is on the order of out Hoover Dam. One of the other stops is to Mount Nemrut. "In 62 BC, King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene built on the mountain top a tomb-sanctuary flanked by huge statues (8-9 meters high) of himself, two lions, two eagles and various Greek, Armenian and Persian gods, such as Hercules-Vahagn, Zeus-Aramazd or Oromasdes (associated with the Persian god Ahura Mazda), Tyche, and Apollo-Mithras" (Wikipedia). The tour will end in Urfa which is 40 miles from the Syrian border and has a significantly more Middle Eastern feel to it than other areas of Turkey. Lonely Planet says that this is an amazing city to visit especially for its bazaars. I think this trip will be fun.

Now, what could possibly hamper the trip is my health. I can't remember how much I have updated this blog on my health, so I'll give a quick over view. After my first treatment that was described didn't seem to be working, I went to the medical center here at METU for a check-up. the doctor had some tests run here at their microbiology lab and determined that I just had giardia. I would like to add that the tests did not cost me anything. In fact, I only paid .8YTL for the doctor's visit. He put my on Ornidazol, which is variant of Metrodinazol, which I had the first time. After almost two weeks, I didn't particularly feel better, I went back and found the doctor I had was out on vacation. Fortunately, I was told to see another doctor, who ended up being the head of the medical center. He also spoke english, so I was able to describe my problem. He sent me for even more tests than before. They determined that my giardia was gone, but that I might have a small viral infection that should be clearing up soon. He gave me a strict diet of Bread and Rice and told me to come back in a few days. The diet made me feel better, but was indicative that my stomach is unable to handle foods other than these. Beceause I was felt better, I actually tried a fish sandwich which didn't work out so well. I went back on Friday, when he told me to increase my diet to bread, bananas, and soups with veggies. I have been living on that for the past two days. My stomach is very tender, but at least there are foods I can eat. I am trying to slowly add more complex things. Today, I tried some almonds (about 4), and they slightly upset my stomach, so I'll try something else tomorrow but also with just two almonds. I am slowly working my way back to normal food. For the trip, I will probably be heavily reliant on bread and trying small things off of everyone's plates. It's too bad that things turned out this way, but I guess it is all part of the adventure.

I'll try and update from Malatya, but I don't know if I'll have internet access. If not, I'll try posting Sunday night when I get back.

Bodrum Day Three

2008-08-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

After such a long day, everyone ended up sleeping in. I awoke around 10am and lounged around waiting for everyone else. I ended up writing a few postcards which I had picked up during the cake hunt the day before. Everyone ended up getting up around noon, and we started cleaning right after breakfast. At around 3, they told me that if I wanted to see the Underwater Archeology museum I should leave on the 3:20 dolmus. Lonely Planet touted the museum as being one of the best underwater archeology museums in the world. That's quite a compliment considering its competition with museums in London, France, and Germany. I packed all my things and took my luggage with me as we were going to take the bus back to Ankara at 9pm.

I got to the museum at around 4, leaving about 2.5 hours to check everything out before it closed. The entrance cost is 10 YTL, and you get a shnazzy ticket that has a picture of the museum on it. In fact, all the museums in Turkey, that are run by the government, use the same type of ticket which allows entrance after a machine scans it. Maybe I'll post a picture of one of them at some point.

The museum was a little disappointing. The guidebook indicated there there were two self-guided tours you could take. The green arrows are for the short tour, and the red arrows for the long one. Well, it's a good thing they mentioned that because otherwise I would have had to look at the ground at the right time to see the arrows there were marked with long and short, otherwise I probably would have been confused the whole time. So after all that, I basically forgot about the arrows because they weren't consistent and they lead to weird places where things weren't marked. Anywho, there were several cool things about the museum. The first being the replica of a merchant ship that was excavated near Bodrum located in the chapel. The artifacts that were excavated were displayed around the chapel, and the ship was free to be walked on. The really nice part about each building is that they are all air conditioned. So, it made the chapel that much better.

There are two other standard buildings at the museum that house exhibits. One houses an in detail look at the excavation of a Greek merchantship. There is a video in there detailing the excavation but it's in Turkish. The next room houses a scale replica of the excavation site. It was fascinating to see where and how things were located. Dispalyed in the following room were some of the artifacts recovered, including a bust of Nefretiti. The display in that room that I found most fasinating was the bulk glass ingots there were carried on the ship. I never really thought about how raw materials were moved in ancient times. I know that wine, olive oil, and other foods were moved about, but I always assumed that you made glass objects if you had a supply of silica and not by importing it from some other location.

The second building houses glassware that was excavated amongst the numerous ancient near Bodrum. The room was really dark, making photography dificult, but I was able to capture the following picture. With the darkness and air conditioning, this was actually a nice haven from the intensely bright and searing sunlight outside.

There have been several towers built over the years, I think five in all. Each of the towers houses a different exhibit, but all of them were open. As a side note, there are two exhibits that are not included in the price of admission, one is Glass-Shipwreck exhibit and the other is the artifacts from the tomb of Queen Ada, a Carian queen (according to Lonely Plant). Anyways, they weren't even open for me to go in. Actually, they are only open during the week, so go figure. Anyways, in the English tower is another exhibit of an excavation of a fishing boat. At the entrance, there were two artisans selling their wares. The first was a woman who was selling hand made jewelry she was making right there. Her pieces were pretty but none of them really caught my eye. The second however was an elderly man who was painting with water colors. There was one in particular that I found fascinating. So someone is getting a present when I get home...

The view from the castle over looking the harbors, the Aegean, and Bodrum are worth the admission alone. The castle sits right on the pennisula that separates the two harbors that make up Bodrum's waterfront. The Knights Hospitallar built the castle in 1402 to defend the city (also from Lonely Planet). Obviously wanting to see things from afar, the castle offers amazing views. By exploring, you can walk the perimeter walls and capture some lovely photos while listening to the waves lap at the shore. It didn't seem like most of the tourists were willing to wander as I did, so in general I didn't have to fight for elbow room everywhere I went.

I think the funniest thing I encountered on this whole trip happened while I was exploring the northwest corner of the castle. I was walking along the upper perimeter when I saw this guy taking pictures of this dome with glass fixtures embedded in it while using his hand to cast a shadow. Now, I don't know what he was actually doing, but it looked like he was trying to cast a shadow on the nipple looking glass fixtures. :) Yes, I know I have a dirty mind, but it was really amusing because I couldn't think of anything else it could be. Well, not wanting to pass up an opportunity, I did the same thing. I think he found it amusing that I was trying to do the same thing as him, whatever that was, so we had a good laugh together.

I finally found my way back out of the museum, and was glad to meet up with Canan and Mert after a little while. They hurriedly got McDonalds for dinner, and we ended up having to rush to the otogar to catch our 9pm bus back to Ankara. Apparently the dolmus that was running between the development and Bodrum were full, so they had to call for a second one which made them later than they anticipated. Basically, it just gave us a workout as we hurried back.

Overall, the trip was absolutely amazing. It was a really nice break from the large amount of work I have been doing over the last two months. I really hope the rest of my travels in this country are as nice. Next week, I will be traveling to Malatya for a Turkish chemical engineering conference that my group is attending. As part of the conference, there are two different tours I will be taking. One of which will take me to the town of Urfa, which is 40 miles from the Syrian border. Apparently, it will give me an authentic taste of Middle Eastern life. So, I'll have lots to report when I get back!

Bodrum Day Two

2008-08-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

After the french fry fiasco the previous night, I was a little wary of the plans for the day: take a boat cruise. Because the boats leave between 9 and 10, I was dragged out of bed at 7:30, so we could make the trip down to the docks on time. Not wanting to have a bad stomach on the water, I ate lots of bread for breakfast. We took a dolmus down to Bodrum and walked down to the marina. There are several boats belonging to a cooperative that you can buy a seat on. It cost 25YTL for a 8 hour ride, which I thought was a deal. We walked down the marina towards where the boats were moored and were told that the first boat leaving was full. We waited until a second boat started taking passengers and placed our things on board. While waiting for it to depart, we got Cay at a cafe across the street. It ended up being the worst tea we had ever tasted. Oh well, at least I was able to get this photo...

So, here is how the boat trips work. The cruise lasts about 8 hours during which there are 5 stops for about 30-45 minutes each for swimming. At each stop, there is a feature that is fun or interesting about it. The first stop, named the aquarium, has inredibly clear water for it's about 50ft depth. Fish normally are swimming about but not the day we visited, or so I was told. I didn't enter the water until the second stop, bceause of my fear of swimming in anything but pools.

At the second stop, we moored up to a dock which has been built to shelter a cave who's mud is supposed to contain some sort of purifying qualities. Not being the type of person that likes rubbing random mud on them self, I decided to go swimming with Canan. We walked over the rocks and crawled in. The water was really warm in parts. The water temperature gradients in pools, lakes, and oceans have always fascinated me. You can swim a few feet and the temperature changes a good 5-10 degrees F. Anyways, at this point I decided to look underwater with my eyes open, and ended up losing my contacts. It was ok since I can see pretty well without them anyways. We climbed back in the boat and laid out on the top deck to dry off and tan.

The third stop features a deep hole that is supposed to have been made by a meteor. I'm pretty sure this isn't true, but I found it entertaining none the less. I hope in and swam around. This time I had snagged the goggles that Mert had brought along. We swam out to the hole, which is located right next to a cliff that you can climb. At the moment, there weren't any jumpers, but a group later managed to climb up there and a few of them jump off after much yelling and encouragement. The hole is interesting because near the edge, the water is only about 3 feet deep, and then plunges about 200 feet. I dove down to examine the sides of it. I was rewarded by seeing many silvery yet striped fish and a sea urchin. I had never seen one of these outside of an aquarium. It was a deep shade of burgundy. I swan back to the boat where I found lunch waiting for me.

Because of the giardia, I had brought along some of the simit we has bought the day before to eat for lunch. They ended up serving grilled chicken, with pasta and salad along with bread. I felt that since the chicken was plain that I should be able to eat it with the bread. After several helpings of bread (by stealing Canan's) the chicken was all gone, and I felt refreshed.

After laying out in the sun for a bit, we arrive at the fourth stop which was located on a narrow shelf before the bottom dropped off into the channel. Our cruise was actually between a long island and the Bodrum coast. The channel was probably pretty deep, making these shelves ideal places to swim with fish because of the clear water. We played around for a while before I climbed out. Onur wanted a picture of him and Canan, so I decided to jump in so we could take a group photo. The other Canan had some along, so she decided to take the picture for us.

The fifth stop made me laugh. The name of the location was Bunny Island. Now the first thing I thought of (which probably isn't a surprise to those who know me) was Playboy Bunnies. :) When I asked about this, everyone thought it was hilarious. We have no idea why it's called Bunny Island other than maybe there is a large bunny population, but we didn't see any. At the other stops, the bottom had been mostly rocky with maybe a little sand. At Bunny Island, the bottom was covered with bunches of long grass. It kinda creeped me out a little, but I found it fun trying to pick out the fish that were living amongst it.

After climbing back into the boat, we headed back to Bodrum. We got back around 6pm to the dock. The sun hadn't started to set yet, but the lighting on a lot of the boats was stunning. I was able to capture the following photograph of a sailboat, which I think might be one of my best ones yet.

Upon reaching the docks, we set out in search of a birthday cake for Canan, as it was her birthday. After much searching, we ended up going back to the bakery we had been at the day before. Exhausted, we took the dolmus back to the house. Canan's family's house was relatively close by, so she went home to shower while we made dinner. She came back later to celebrate the other Canan's birthday. Sorry, I know all the talk of Canan is probably pretty confusing. What makes it worse is that they are both now blonde. I ended up falling asleep sitting up after having my dinner of bread and water. They sent me to bed and I fell instantly asleep. It had probably been one of the best days I have had all summer.

Bus Trip and Day One in Bodrum

2008-08-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday of last week, Mert and Canan convinced me to go stay with them in Bodrum even though I wasn't getting better. I reluctantly agreed, knowing that I would be seeing the doctor only a few hours before leaving. Fortunately, everything turned out alright though. The best way to get to Bodrum is a 12 hour bus ride. The buses here are different that Greyhound which are normally old and cramped. Here they use charter style buses, and the experience is more like one you would have on an airplane. On every bus there is a driver and a steward. The steward comes around, just like an airline steward, and bring water, drinks, and snacks. You can even get ice cream if you want. The bus terminal becomes crowed around the top and bottom of every hour, as the buses leave every thirty minutes. You can see families waving good bye as the buses back out of their spots and depart. It's a scene that's missing in airports these days.

I was able to sleep for most of the 12 hour ride. That is, after I finished writing an abstract that was due that Monday. The seats are pretty comfy but still aren't great for sleeping. With my weight loss, the padding on my butt has gone away making it harder to sit for longer time spans. Having left at 9:30pm, we made stops at 1am and 3am. These stops are at places that resemble truck stops in the US. There is always a cafe and a few stores. Most of the time, there is a candy shop with lots of yummy stuff to buy.

I arrived at the Bodrum Otogar (bus station) at around 8am. Canan and Mert couldn't come pick me up for atleast an hour, so I got some Cay and sat down to proof my abstract. They arrived by dolmus about an hour later, and we headed down to the water after putting my bag in let luggage. Bodrum is a small town of around 30K during the winter but explodes to a population of close to a million during the winter. There are several developments of summer houses strewn on top of many of the hills overlooking the bays near the town. It is a resort town that is popular with Turks and Russians. Everyone there speaks English which made everything easier. Near the water is a marketplace with probably close to a hundred shops. Each is selling some sort of knock-off clothing, bags, or accessories or jewelry. The one trick to shopping here though is looking like a local, or atleast a Turk. If you let on that you're a tourist the price instantly goes up. When we bought me a swimsuit, Canan had me say nothing until they gave us a price. :) I even added a good "Evet" or Yes for good effect when she asked if I liked it.

There is one shop that is very much worth seeing. There is a bakery that has been located there with 1876 and is very famous. They had all sorts of breads and desserts. We ended up buying a birthday cake for Canan there the next day. Because of the giardia, I could only eat bread, so we got some simit(pronounced see-meet), which is the ring shaped bread covered in sesame seeds that I used to have for breakfast when I first got here. They got some other breads for breakfast, and we headed back to the otogar.

We got back to Mert's house, and everyone started making breakfast. It included cheese, sausage from the night before, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, and bread. This is the typical Turkish breakfast. A lot of times they also have hard boiled eggs as well. We out everything out on the porch table to eat our breakfast with an view...

Amazing?!? Yes, that's what I thought too. After breakfast, I got settled and changed into my new swim suit to head down to the beach. We headed down to the beach to swim around and sunbathe. The other Canan joined us after a while, and then we went to the small cafe located on the beach for some sodas and for Canan and Mert to play backgammon. As Football is the national sport, backgammon is the national game of Turkey. You can find people everywhere playing it over cay. We lounged around for about an hour, and then Canan wanted to head back into the water while the other one had to rejoin her family for a volleyball game on another beach.

Getting tired, I returned to the house to work on my abstract a little more. Needing to hook up to the internet, Canan, Mert and I headed down to another beach's cafe which was supposed to have internet. Unfortunately, their connection was down along with the rest of Bodrum for the weekend. I should have followed the first unwritten rule of the IREE program, always let your advisor know where you are at all times. When I got back on Monday, I had 6 emails from Valeria wondering where I was. Unknown to me, Yoshino had left for Capadoccia the day after I left, so she didn't have internet to tell Valeria where I was either. I had assumed I could get an internet connection in Bodrum, so I hadn't worried about it, but I will in the future.

We returned back to the house to make dinner. Well, we started snacking, and I ate some peanuts coated in sesame seeds that I had bought earlier in the day. I had got them in anticipation of feeling better, but since I had been feeling fine all day I decided to give them a try. I ended up eating half the bag, which was mistake number one... Mistake number two was thinking that since I was in charge of making the deep fried french fries, that I should taste them as well. Well, this just ended up making me camp out in the bathroom for 20 minutes. A word of the wise, don't over do it while you have giardia. Exhausted, I turned in for the night shortly after. I fell asleep listening to the waves. It was an amazing day...

Many Updates!

2008-08-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post an update. With tomorrow marking three weeks since getting giardia, I think you'll understand. I will be updating over the next few days, as I have finally ventured out of Ankara and got to see Bodrum, a resort town on the Aegean. There are photos already posted if you're interested on my Picasa site.

As bad of an experience as getting giardia has been, it has revealed to me a side of Turkey that a lot of people don't get to see, mainly it's medical infrastructure. Their system is loosely based on ours, using health insurance, but there are marked differences. The first being, you don't need a prescription for anti-biotics. There are definitely pluses and minuses to this system. The most negative effect being that people here take anti-biotics whenever they are sick with anything. They sometimes just skip the doctor and take a random anti-biotic that they were given for prior illnesses. On the other hand, these anti-biotics are really cheap. Cipro is 3YTL ($2.40) for a pack of 20 pills. The second is the difference between state and private health care facilities. The hospital that I went to when I first contracted giardia was one that is run by the government. It's facilities were not as clean, and doctors were much fewer and far between. When I didn't get better, I went to the health center here on campus. All students are able to get health care here at and minimal cost of .8YTL per visit. If you are an undergrad, it is free as health coverage is provided as part of tuition. They have their own microbiology lab here on campus which provided the necessary tests for me for free. If I had been in the US, I would have had to pay at least $200 dollars and that's with health insurance. Here, I haven't had to show anything but my student ID and over all it has cost me maybe 100YTL ($80) without ever showing any insurance information. I was able to find a doctor here that speaks english which helps a lot. And today, I finally started eating foods other than bread and potatoes without any problems. I have been put on a new medication who's generic name is Ornidazol. It's a newer drug not yet available in the US, but it seems to be from France and apparently working. After only eating bread for the past week, I am craving anything with flavor. Thankfully, Turkish food is known for that, but I'll have to ease in as most of it is very oily.

Everyone here has been amazing. It's a little weird having people ask you about the intimate details of your bowel movements, but I can't complain since they have been taking me to get my health checkups and translating when necessary. Canan even brought me to her house two Saturdays ago to take care of me when the first medication had completely worn me out. It was really comforting to eat home cooked food, however bland from lack of butter. I was able to lay on her couch and watch American TV. (I have discovered Men In Trees is my new favorite show.) Mert and Canan also insisted I go to Bodrum with them to take a break since I have been working like mad to get everything done. I'll post about that trip tomorrow as it will be long.

I guess the one good thing is that I weight less now... At 155 pounds, I am 60 pounds lighter than I was this time last year. 1/3 of that has happened since coming to Turkey. The first 10 pounds I have lost was due to the diet change and running on hills. Unfortunately, the last 10 comes from not eating a whole lot. I tried running a few days ago realized how much stamina I have lost due to lack of my normal caloric intake. Now that I think I am getting better, it'll be nice to eat good tasting food and again start running at full power. Anyways, I need to crash as I worked for 12 hours today and have to tomorrow as well.

33 YTL

2008-07-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

If you were wondering how much it cost me for the Emergency Room visit, then that would be your answer. Yes, I know I was astounded too. I really want to go on a rant about how America's health care system is horrible, but I will refrain.

I finally found out what they gave me. One of the medications is Flagyl or generically called Metronidazol. Well after looking it up on WebMD, it seems that a lot of people are having a crappy time on it as I am having. Basically the cause of my symptoms from the other night are now being caused by the cure. Well, thankfully I have only one more day on it. The other is called Reflor or generically called Saccharomyces boulardii which is a yeast used to fight diarrhea.

It looks like this weekend I'll be going to Sofranbolu with Yoshino. More details to follow...

Just when I started to yearn for home...

2008-07-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

After getting what I think is gardia, I started to become really home sick. With none of the food here sounding remotely palatable let alone good, I really started to miss all the little things from home. Good beer, Mexican food, hamburgers, tap water, cucumbers only in select dishes, and many other things. Well at this point, I decided that I need to go to the mall and eat something from McDonalds. I figured that eating something synonymous with home would hopefully do the trick. Well, I was right. I went to the mall just off of campus called CEPA (pronounced jepa). It is one of the newest in the area, so it is really nice inside. I took the Dolmus out to the gate, and walked along the highway to get there (Yes, it's normal). I walked around a little before heading to the top floor where all the restaurants are located. I got in line and tried placing my order in Turkish, but saying I would like a number 4 is a little hard when you don't know what order the words are supposed to go in. Well, the girl spoke English, so it worked out just fine. Apparently Quarter Pounder is the same in Turkish as it is in English.

My food took a little while to prepare, but when I got it I noticed one significant difference. The burger is inside a styrofoam container. Remember how that used to be the case in the US? I took a taste of the french fries and they tasted exactly like at home. The crunchy oily goodness that are McDonalds fries. I am pretty sure any American could pick them out in a blind tasting test. The Quarter Pounder was equally as delicious. The burger tasted just like it always does. The bun was soft and packed with preservatives. The cheese is the fake American cheese that we have all come to associate with American fast food. And the meat is the unseasoned ground beef that we eat in the US. Now, those might not seem like weird comments to make about something that has caused me such joy, but considering that all meat here is heavily seasoned, the bread here super fresh, and the cheese here vastly different from what we have the US, it is really comforting to eat something with those attributes.

Carbon Black

2008-07-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any of you noticed, but I haven't posted once about the research that I am doing. I have been thinking about it for a while, but there was always something far more fun to post about. So, I figure that it's about time to at least mention what I'm doing. As most, if not all, of you know, I work with carbon and glass fiber composite structures. More specifically, I use various methods (ultrasonic waves, electrical resistance, etc) to detect damage to these structures. My work here involves using electrical resistance to detect damage caused by objects impacting a composite panel. Previous attempts have just used the conductivity of the carbon fiber to detect this damage, but I decided to also incorporate the abilities of the group here at METU to also make the plastic matrix (the part that holds the fiber weave together) conductive to increase the resolution and resistivity change before and after impact. Also, making the plastic resistivity will also cause it to be around the percolation threshold, which means that the plastic is just barely conductive, making the resistivity very sensitive to any stretching of the plastic. Measuring this resistivity change, one can determine how much a airplane wing is experiencing during flight.

Right now there are two methods that involve carbon to make plastics conductive. The first being Carbon Black which is basically soot. Carbon Black is created by a variety of means, one of which is scraping the soot out of particular furnaces. The other method uses Carbon Nanotubes. These little guys have been hot stuff for the past 10 years or so. They were supposed to be the answer to creating the space elevator and a few other extravagant ideas.

Well, I started making Carbon Black (CB) and Polypropylene blends and measuring their conductivity. Well, working with CB is very messy as it sticks to everything. They have used surgical masks in the past to keep from breathing it in, but I found out that they don't work. (See picture...) After creating the blends, I was told that the CB I was using was of a far lesser quality than the one they used in their journal paper a few years ago. So, I will be starting with Carbon Nanotubes this next week. The ultimate goal is to train an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) how to determine the size and location of impact damage only using a series to resistivity measurements inside a sample. An ANN works on the principle of how we and other animals learn which is based on neuron transport and so forth. If anyone is interested you can read about it at Wikipedia. With any luck, I'll be able to create a conductive polymer carbon fiber composite by the end of the summer that is able to be used to detect damage with in it.

One great benefit is that the conductive matrix also makes the composite conductive enough that it should act as a Faraday cage. This is how aircraft (and cars) are protected at the moment from lightning strikes. When the lightning strikes, the electrons within the material move to cancel out the change in voltage causing the electric field within the structure to be zero, protecting the electrical instruments, aircraft structures, and the passengers inside. Present carbon and glass fiber structures in aircraft have copper meshes incorporated in them to act as the Faraday cage. This mesh would be replaced, save precious weight on the aircraft.

By conducting this summer research, it will be give me some new techniques to use on my thesis research. This work has also given me a clearer path on which thesis topic to pick. So far, it has been a good research experience.

Özcan's Bday

2008-07-26T06:09:00.000-07:00

Özcan(pronounced Er-z-jon roughly =) ) just earned his PhD and will be leaving our group this next week. Thankfully, he was still here for us to celebrate his birthday. We had bought a cake for him on his actual birthday, but the janitor locked the break room before we could take the cake out of the refrigerator. To celebrate, we ended up going to Drunk for dinner. Sertan's wife and Damla's boyfriend, Emre, were able to join us. After a few pints, we all went home.

The next day, we were determined to celebrate with the cake. Actually, everyone else was worried the cake would go bad because they weren't sure how long the cake had been in the refrigerator at the store. So we all gathered in Damla's lab, and at my urging sang happy birthday to Özcan. The funny thing is that their version is somewhat inverted. They sing"

Happy Birthday Özcan,
Happy Birthday Özcan,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to Özcan

Afterwards, we at the Banana-Chocolate cake and drank tea. It was a blast!

Communications Abroad

2008-07-26T04:54:00.000-07:00

Since I don't really want to venture far from my room at this point, I thought I would post on a bunch of topics that I think might be of interest to others on international travel.

One of the most under used technologies associated with the internet is the internet phone, most prominently associated with Skype. It took me no more than 10 minutes to get up and running on Skype and to purchase 3 months of "unlimited" calls for about $10 to any number in the US. I put that in quotes because I read the fine print and it says that you have 10,000 minutes under their fair share rules. I don't know about you, but there is no way I can spend 10,000 minutes on the phone. I am able to call my family or friends without having to worry about getting over charged by some random phone company. In fact, the main telephone service provider is Turk Telekom, which is partially owned by the government.

Cellphone usage is wide spread here. In fact, most people have more than one for some reason. I have read on a few tourism websites on Turkey that cell phones are hard to get or register here. In fact, I had no trouble getting a cell phone through Turkcell, the biggest cell phone company in Turkey. I registered my sim card under Sertan's name, but if I had brought in my passport there would have been no troubles either. If you bring a cell phone from the States, make sure it is unlocked. I believe that it is a simple password that your service provider gives you to input into your phone. All cell phones and sim cards are registered with the Turkish government to prevent the use of cell phones for terrorist purposes.

Internet is everywhere here. Most coffee shops and a lot of restaurants have a wireless connection that's available to customers. Here at METU, the internet is relatively fast. In fact, METU is the organization which is responsible for registering all Turkish websites. With internet access, you can use AIM, Yahoo, MSN, or Gtalk to communicate with friends back home. In fact, it is the one thing that I probably couldn't live without here.

Ankara Ataturk Hospital

2008-07-26T04:01:00.000-07:00

Just like the previous posting regarding when I got traveler's diarrhea, I would like to preface this post with the warning that it is graphic in nature. The sole reason of the in depth description is that it will hopefully aid others on foreign travel in the same situation. I hope that it will be of some comfort to another NSF IREE student who unfortunately ends up in this situation.

I know I haven't posted in a while. I meant to on Thursday night, but I'll explain why that didn't happen. Thursday afternoon, my intestines started to get uneasy. I don't know if any of you know what I'm talking about, but you can tell you about to have an onset of diarrhea. Unfortunately, this is beginning to become a somewhat unpleasantly familiar feeling. Anywho, I went to dinner with this feeling, but then came back to my room. Well over the next few hours, I couldn't retain fluids or food. It all ran right through me. When it started, I started to drink lots of water and took some Imodium. I would like to mention at this point, that other than the diarrhea, I felt completely fine. After a while of not being able to retain water due to diarrhea, I called the UC Davis medical center via Skype. The advice nurse asked me a bunch of questions, then I realized that she was using a computer to determine what I had. She finally arrived at Cholera. She said that I should go to an emergency room soon, because she said that I would start vomiting and my legs would cramp up. Now, I don't know about you, but I started to freak out a little. She told me she hoped I would feel better, and I got off the phone with her.

Now, I was freaking out a little, but I knew that my physical condition was alright at the moment, but with it being 11pm, I didn't really want to wait to get checked out. I was afraid of it being 3am with my condition worsening and no one to get a hold of. Thankfully, Damla was online. I imed her and told her about what was going on. She called the METU health center, and they told her to bring me in. She came and picked me up, and we headed to the health center. When we got there, they were in the middle of a more serious situation. A guy who was apparently allergic to bee stings had in fact been stung, and he was having a reaction. Thankfully for him, his reaction wasn't too serious and they were ready to take him to the hospital. The medic said since I didn't have a fever and wasn't vomiting, there was little he could do for me but offered to allow us to go to the hospital with him. Afraid that it might cost a lot of money but knowing that I would probably be better off going, we hoped in the ambulance.

When we arrived, I was a little taken a back by the scene. Having never been to an ER before, it looked somewhat like a medical center in a war or disaster zone. People were standing around crying, with blank looks on their faces, looking confused, bloody, and/or tired. We approached the front desk, and Damla explained my situation to the head doctor. We filled out a few forms, and were shown inside. While they were looking for bed to put me in, I asked about the location of a bathroom. They pointed the way, but when I got their, it was one of those floor toilets and it was filthy. Knowing full well that there was no way I could use that in my state without getting covered... (I think I'll leave out the rest of that sentence.) I went back, and Damla asked if there was another bathroom with a pedestal toilet. The steward shook his head no and tried to convince me that going that way was better for me anyways. (Now I have read this is true, but that's only if you are perfectly fine...) I think he saw the scared look on my face, and he took me upstairs to the in-patient ward, and found me a toilet. I was so grateful. Coming back the ER, they found me a bed next to another woman who seemed to be in the same predicament as me. At American hospitals, everything is close to spotless. This hospital was a little too dirty for my taste, but I wasn't really in a position to be picky. There was blood on the floor, but I saw a man going around and cleaning the bed surfaces, so I'm not worried about infections. I laid down, and a nurse came by to hook me up to an IV of saline and sugar and take a blood sample. Considering my statement about the cleanliness, all of the syringes and what not came out of sterile packaging, and she made sure that my arm was clean before injecting me. I laid there for about two hours while the IV rehydrated my body.

By this time, Emre, Damla's boyfriend, arrived at the hospital. Because I could only have one person with me, he patiently waited in the car. Damla was kind enough to wait with me in the ER room even though she hates hospitals. I know it's the Turkish way to be hospitable, but I think that's going above and beyond the call of duty. She translated everything the doctor's said. The doctor was very kind, and I was proud of myself that I could answer him when he asked how I was doing. He prescribed two medications for me which I needed to get filled the next morning. They don't have pharmacies at hospitals, because they are so prevalent and cheaper elsewhere. I found out through reading up the medications that he prescribed a medication for diarrhea (obviously), and one for intestinal parasites, mainly Gardia. As soon as I read that, I realized that I had drank water out of a pitcher at lunch. Thinking that is was bottled water, I hadn't really thought much about it. Well it wasn't. In fact, Ankara just switched to using a different river as its water source that was more polluted than the last. Apparently the river has high levels of sulphates in addition to not being filtered for viruses and the like. (This information courtesy of Mert) The medications actually make me feel more sick than the actual original symptoms. I am trying to eat light/bland foods but these aren't as effective at shielding me against the side effects of the medications.

I got back to my dorm room at about 2:30am, and I called my mom to tell her what happened and to let her know I was alright. I ended up sleeping until around 7, at which point I stayed in bed until around 9. I went to the pharmacy to get the prescriptions. Not only did the pharmacist speak English, but the prescriptions cost a total of 10YTL. I really couldn't believe it. I am hoping that the medications takes care of whatever I have. Being under the weather away from home really sucks. It really makes you yearn for home.

Now, I didn't mention anything about paying. Well that's because I have to return in 10 days to find out what I owe. It looks like I might be able to get a transfer from the METU health center and get a significant discount. If not, I have travel health insurance from the University of California. If anyone else from any UC campus is reading this, if you are on university travel you just have to fill out a short online form and can print out an insurance card which covers up to $100,000. This isn't a whole lot when you consider the price of a significant surgery, but most people should be expatriated back to the US if this happens. And the insurance covers that. So, we'll see how payment works out! I'll keep you posted...

The Anatolian Civilization Museum and the Ankara Citadel

2008-07-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

Yoshino and I met around 9am at the Dolmus Otogar to take the dolmus to Ulus. Our plan for the day was to visit the Anatolian Civilization Museum and the Ankara Citadel. We arrived in Ulus at about 9:40am after leaving campus at 9:30. We would have gotten there sooner, but a truck carrying cars had to stop on the freeway because it could not clear an underpass. The truck actually ended up turning around and going backwards up the freeway. The thing I love about this country is, do whatever works the best. He had no where else to go, so he just went slowly up the freeway until he can turn around and get off.

We started to walk up the street in the direction of the citadel and museum, when we started coming across about 100 police officers with riot gear and automatic weapons. Considering that I have only seen automatic weapons at Lawrence Livermore, it was a little unnerving up close. As we proceeded up the street, we encountered more police and then military armed guards. What was going on was some sort of honor ceremony at the Ataturk Monument. It is a monument to the contributions Ataturk and the veterans gave to the revolutionary war effort. A military band was present along with many honor guards. It is really sad that such security is needed to have such a demonstration. I actually called Damla to make sure we were not walking into a potential riot.

We continued on up the hill where we had to bust out my guidebook to find the museum. We finally made it and paid the admission of 10 YTL. This is pretty pricey compared to the other museums in Ankara which only charge 2 YTL, but I think it was worth it over all. All of the signs are in English which is always appreciated. Entering the grounds, one of the first things you notice is that there are a lot of large stone pots around. According to my Lonely Planet guidebook, the museum is built in a 15th century bedesten (market vault) which comprises the center most room.

Most of the museums collection is housed on a series of rooms that wrap around the central room which houses large stone carvings from various areas of Anatolia. I guess now is as good a time as any to say that Anatolia is the high plains region on which Ankara sits. It was inhabited and conquered by many different races throughout the centuries because of its centralized location for trade routes. The museum itself it really well laid out and organized. Looking at the pictures that I have posted is probably the best way to get a sense of the history portrayed here. Most of the pictures of artifacts come with a picture of the sign describing it, either before or after the picture of the artifact. The one things I can say about this museum is that it was organized well, and it seemed to be kept up rather well. They are very proud of the fact that they were voted the best European Museum in 1997. I think I'll let the pictures speak for the museum, and people can ask questions about more specifics. See, I want interaction...

After spending about two and half hours at the museum, we finally headed up the hill behind the museum to find the Citadel. Because the citadel is a fortified city, the entrance is just a small hole in the wall. We entered through the southern entrance which is overlooked by a clock tower. Walking in, there is a shop on either side of the entrance. Beyond the entrance is a small courtyard. There are a few restaurants located here. The first is the Kale Washington, which is listed in the guidebook as being slightly upscale and that Hillary Clinton was supposed to have eaten here. I don't know if that's true or not, but the restaurant was not physically fancy by western standards but the wait staff was dressed in black and white. The other restaurant is the Zenger Pasa Konagi which is where we ate at because it was supposedly cheaper. The restaurant is three stories, all of which are dimly lit if at all. It really felt like we were going back in time, or at least thousands of miles away from campus or Kizilay. We ended up sitting on the outside deck on the second floor because it was cooler. Upon reaching the second floor, you can see a woman making bread in a small wood burning fireplace.

I think word has gotten out that their restaurant is in a guidebook, because the food here is not cheap and the portions not large. The two redeeeming factors about this place was that the view was utterly amazing, looking out across most of Ankara, and the chicken that was cooked in a tomato sauce in a ceramic dish was fantastic. It came with a few loaves of the freshly baked bread as well. Yoshino got an eggplant salad because it was the only thing she could find that was light on the menu. She asked for about 4 different salads but was told they were out of all of them. There was also a man and woman who were definitely Americans. We ended up talking to them afterwards and found out that they were working at the American Embassy on short term projects. We ended up deciding to find the first fortification with them. Walking through the streets, you could tell that the people who lived here were by no means wealthy. Most of the roofs were in need of repair, the streets were uneven, and a lot of the houses were crumbling and vacant. We finally found our way, and got to cruise around the fortification. You can see the ports were archers would be stationed. Unlike in the US, there were no guard railings, no security, and definitely no one to tell you that you couldn't play as much as you liked. In fact, as I as climbing around on the top level, I noticed that the drop was about 100 feet at least. In California, that would be a law suit waiting to happen...

We had seen an additional fortification in the distance, and decided to go check it out. Although it was a really hot day, it was a good excuse to explore the streets some more. Although the streets are somewhat like a maze, they are easy to navigate using just intuition. We finally got to the second fortification and found out it was fenced off with barbed wire. Taking the hint that there was no trespassing allowed, we headed back to Ulus to take the bus back to Kizilay.

There are three types of buses in Ankara. First is the Dolmus (which I'll blog about soon enough), city buses that can only be ridden if you have pre-bought tickets, or buses that have a man in the back who takes YTLs. The cost for all these modes of transportation is 1.5YTL per trip. We took a bus which took money back to Kizilay where we hoped on a Dolmus for the ride back to campus. Since it had been a really long day, I took a shower and updated this blog a bit. It was a really fun day...

The Weekend

2008-07-22T11:49:00.001-07:00

A lot of little things happened this last weekend which then ended with a big trip to the Anatolian Museum and Ankara Citadel.

Friday night, Damla and I had nothing to do, so we decided to go to Drunk (Yes, that's the name of the bar/restaurant) for a few drinks and dinner. She invited her friend to come along, as he had nothing better to do as well. As skeptical as I was about a placed called Drunk, it was actually quite nice. The place was packed which meant there were no seats in the really cool garden. The garden seating consisted of coffee table style tables that are surrounded by large pillow like chairs. We ended up getting a table just outside of the garden. Damla's friend recommended a chicken dish specific to this restaurant, so I decided to give it a try. It was grilled chicken with a demi glace and frech fries. It was yummy. In addition to the 1.5L of beer I drank, I was one happy camper. It was really great sitting and talking with them. After dinner, her friend's friend arrived, and we all chatted until I was ready to fall asleep around 10pm.

With Valeria leaving on the Monday, we wanted to get together one last time to see some part of Ankara. They hadn't seen any of the malls yet, so we took the Dolmus to the METU gate, and walked to the CEPA mall. This mall is newer and bigger than ARMADA, as well as being within walking distance. Valeria wanted to eat Iskender Kebop, which I described in my posting about my dinner with Duygu. We found a restaurant that served it and had a nice lunch. After lunch, we decided to split up as Valeria had to change Zev (her 6 month old son). Yoshino and I roamed the mall. I had been wanting a pair of blue jeans since I got here, so I walked into the coolest looking store I could find. This ended up being Mavi, which is like the Turkish version of American Eagle. With the help of the salesmen who spoke passable English, I was able to get a nice pair of jeans. Apparently, I have lost enough weight on this trip to have dropped a whole pant size. To my surprise, they also were selling 1stanbul shirts. Yes, the first letter is a number one. According to the tag:

"This t-shirt has been exclusively designed in support of Istanbul's bid to be the European Capital of Culture in 2010. The European Capital of Culture program, launched in 1999 bu the EU Council and Parliament, will ensure Istanbul's integration with Europe's most conprehensive cultural event. "

The tag also mentions that the shirt was designed by Ulas Eryavuz. Well, in my excitement, I didn't know that I was looking through women's shirts, so the salesman had to come up and ask show me where the men's shirts were. We definitely got a good laugh out of that one. I was also able to buy another shirt. The pants ended up costing 80YTL and the shirts cost 25YTL a piece. If you are doing the math, that's about $112. I didn't think that was too bad considering that Levi's go for $175 a pair here.

We met back up with Valeria, Zev, and her husband Vincent for dessert and coffee. I got two scoops of ice cream, one of caramel and the other contained candied fruit. Upon finishing, we each went to get a cup of turkish coffee. Trying to use my phrasebook as much as possible, I used the phrase for Turkish coffee without sugar. Well, apparently what it means is coffee without sugar, so instead of getting Turkish coffee, I got filtered coffee.

We chatted for a while before returning back to campus. Back at her guesthouse, we discussed our research projects before leaving them to pack. Yoshino and I decided to meet the next morning at 9am to head towards Ulus to see the museum and citadel.

Water

2008-07-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

I have always known that I drink a little more water than other people. I generally have at least 2 gallons a day or about 6 of my 1L Nalgenes. Well, this has never been a problem back home, but here in Turkey where the tap water is not safe for foreigners to drink, it becomes a concern. Before I left, I bought a water filtration water bottle from Katadyn with an extra set of filters. I thought that this would easily see me through the summer, but I quickly found out how tiresome it is to drink from it all the time. You have to pull water through 3 separate filters by either squeezing the bottle, suction, or both. Enter, the ever present bottled water. Unlike in the States, bottled water here is very common, very cheap, and very clean. I think by now everyone has heard that bottled water in the US is a joke. Some companies are bottling tap water or worse. Here, the label on the side tell you what has been filtered out and to what concentration. You won't find labels in the US stating that they have filtered out Fekal Streptecoc (which I assume is Fecal Streptococcus) or Koliform Bak (Coliform Bacteria). Now bottled water in .5L or 1.5L bottles is relatively cheap, at maybe 1.5YTL(~$1.25) for 1.5L, but the cheapest and more convenient option is getting 5 gallon jugs of water delivered. There must be at least 10 different companies servicing the campus. All you have to do is catch the delivery man, and give him either 5YTL for a jug or 15YTL for the jug and pump (pompa in Turkish). My water comes from the Saka company but there is also Aqua Turka and many others to choose from.

Now, why do so many people drink bottled water here when it's only really unsafe for foreigners? Well, Ankara's water is heavily chlorinated. In fact, so much so it has caused my hands to peel (Thank god for Nivea hand lotion)! Apparently the taste is awful, but atleast it is safe for them to drink. Now, why is it unsafe for foreigners? Well the reasoning is along the same lines as Traveler's diarrhea, we just aren't accustomed to the strains of bacteria present and developed a resistance to them. If I was going to be here more than 3 months, I might attempt to become accustomed to save some money, but I want to be healthy for when I get home. So, if you're traveling abroad, I would definitely bring a water filtration system but look for a safe alternative source as soon as you arrive, especially if you'll be staying awhile.

Chinese Food in Altin Park

2008-07-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry about not updating for a while, but things have been really busy. My advisor visited for about a week, so between meeting with her and arranging experiments it has been nuts here. I have been able to sneak out and see some new things though. Hopefully in an hour, I will be able to write about them all...

Last Wednesday, Mert and I went up to Ulus to get some electronics components that I needed. It was a good thing he came along, because there was no way I was going to get by with hand signals and my phrasebook. Well, Canan and Damla met us at the Kizilay. We caught a bus and headed towards Altinpark, although only Mert knew where we were going. He wanted to take us to one of the very few Chinese restaurants in the city. We got off in the middle of what seemed to be a random neighborhood, so I thought we were going to come hole in the wall. Well upon walking down the street, we came to the entrance to a very large park (Google Map). On the way, he had told me that he hoped this place was still open. When we got there, it looked like it was indeed closed permanently. We arrived at 7pm, and the door was locked. From the photo below, you can also see there was nothing in the display case. Well after trying the door, we started to walk out of the coury yard, and a man appeared in the window. They had apparently closed the door because it was cold. I have never heard of needing to lock a door to keep warm, but to each his own apparently.

We were seated on the back deck which overlooked a large man-made pond. There were several fountains around with an covered roller-skating rink on across the pond. We decided to get the meal for 4, as well as beer.

They first brought out the best Hot and Sour soup I have ever had in my life. One of the reasons it was so good was that it was actually loaded full of the solid ingredients. Because pork is not commonly available in Turkey, lamb was used. It was at this point that Mert explained that a few years ago, Ankara participated in a cultural exchange with a city in China. The arrangement was for a few people from each city to move to the other and setup a restaurants. The purpose of this exchange was to not only broaden the culinary horizons of the city, but to train local cooks in international cuisine. Well, I am very happy they did...

Next, wantons and egg roll were brought out. The wantons were served with a soy sauce infused with garlic. It was really good. Afterward, the main courses were brought out. Everything was so good, that we finished off everything. I really enjoyed the chicken in the chili sauce. The sun was setting by this time, and several of the fountains were lit with colored lights. After the dinner dishes were cleared away, fried banana balls were brought out. Chunks of bananas were dipped in a batter and deep fried. They were then coated with honey mixed with sugar which created a hard sugary shell around each one. To finish off the meal, the best tasting Jasmine tea was brought out. The tea looked almost completely clear, but at the most distinctive Jasmine taste I have ever encountered.

After dinner, we decided to take a stroll through the park. The sun had completely set by this time which caused the coolness of the night set in. Because we were so full, we took out time walking across what turned out to be an enormous park. Halfway through, we came upon a roasted corn and ice cream stand. Damla decided that she wanted some ice cream. So, her and I both got ice cream sandwiches. What seemed to be a father, son, and daughter were delighted to find out I was an American and even happier to find out I was Californian. The father started to make movie-making hand gestures. He told Damla that they should move to California to sell corn and ice cream. I think they would make a killing back home...

Anyways, back to the ice cream sandwiches. The "bread" part was made out of the same stuff that our cheaper ice creams cones are made of. I think everyone knows what I'm talking about. I decided on caramel and chocolate ice cream. Now, Turkish ice cream is made partially from water buffalo milk, so it is very elasticy but really good. We caught a bus heading back to Kizilay, and ended up going to a really awesome bar near Tunali street. There were several very low tables that were surrounded by large fluffy pillows. The red lighting was really low, giving the place a very mellow and romantic feel. It made me wish someone was here....

Ankara Ethnography and Sculpture/Portrait Museums

2008-07-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I decided to venture out on my own to find two museums that were supposed to me enjoyable near the border of Kizilay and Ulus (new and old Ankara respectfully). I left my dorm and took the dolmus to Kizilay and decided to walk the half a mile to the museums. Well that was at 10am. Thinking that I could get there by 10:30, I knew I would have plenty of time for when the museums closed at 12:30, to see one of them, and see the other after lunch. Well, I was wrong, I didn't get to the museums until 12:45. That's because I couldn't find the museums because none of the streets in Ankara are marked, and Ankara is a very 3-d city. By that I mean, there are lots of streets that have been dug out of hills with other streets crossing over head that look like train tracks. So, needless to say, it took me a while to find them.

When I got there, I found out both museums open at 1:30 instead of one opening at 1 and the other opening at 1:30. I ended up sitting in front of the museums which gave me a gorgeous view of Western Ankara. I could see Atakule (Ankara's version of the space needle),

Ataturk's Mausaleum,

and Ulus.

So at 1:30, I went inside the Ethnography Museum. First off, both museum buildings are from the Ottoman era. They have gorgeous stone work on the outside and equally gorgeous plaster and wood work on the inside. My guide book had noted that the automatic lighting would drive me mad. Well, it was right. Each room has a motion sensor for the main lighting, but each display case has its own motion sensor for its internal lighting. So, if you don't sway in front of a display case, the light will go off. This got old really fast. Other than that, this museum was interesting. It mostly described the different technical arts in Turkish history: Rug making, metal work, caligraphy, coffee making, wood working, tile making, and a few others.

I think most interesting part of the museum was the main hall. On the walls, were pictures of Ataturk's funeral precession to his mausoleum. In American history, I think the only person that remotely comes close to the respect and awe that the Turkish people have for him would be George Washington. If you would like to know more about Kemal Ataturk, you should look him up on Wikipedia. In the center, is a memorial to him. In fact, in front there is a large statue of him riding one of his horses.

The painting and sculpture museum was lots of fun. I somehow got in for free. The security guard at the door was the same one that I tried talking to at the gate. She led me inside and pointed upstairs. There was a group of school children here as well. They milled about and snapped photos with their cell phones. It was a very normal museum as far as art goes. The organization was a little lacking as well as signage but it wasn't too big of a deal. One room in this museum was left how it was when these museum buildings were originally built. The detailing around the room is quite amazing. The room was filled with a few dining room sets as well as a couch and chairs. It was probably the best display from both museums.

In reference to what I was saying about the rooms earlier, each room was sheetrocked and waiting with white paint to mimic a lot of other museums. I wish they had left the rooms alone, and just hung the paintings on the wood paneled walls that probably still exist behind the sheetrock. There was one painting in particular within this museum that really caught my attention. It is of three women with two children. It is a simple painting without much detail, but the lighting and warmth of the scene is really great. I don't particularly have "sophisticated" taste in art, so I normally just go with what I like or moves me.

Dinner and Mojitos

2008-07-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

Duygu and I met up again on Thursday night in Kizilay with the express purpose of getting mojitos. First we went to dinner, where I got Iskender Kebop and she's got _____. Before the main dishes came, they brought is a type of Muslim puff bread, the salsa like stuff I have talked about, a yogurt soup with barley and chick peas, and a standard salad. I always look forward to this part of the meal because it is a fresh way of starting out before a normally heavy main course.

After a while our food arrived. Her dish was kofte like meat that is wrapped in phyllo and baked. Once it is crispy, a tomato sauce is drizzled over it, and it is served with yogurt. My dish is kebop meet that is spread on top of a bread that is fried until crispy and then smothered in a tomato sauce. It is served with roasted tomatoes and peppers and a side of yogurt.

For dessert, we got a really interesting type of dessert. I can't find the name, so I'll have to Duygu tomorrow when I see her. But it is like chinese noodles that have been pressed around a layer of cheese and then fried quickly to make it crispy, then it is smothered in honey. To top it off, a scoop of kaymak is put on top. Kaymak is really thick Turkish creme. It has been explained to me as the creme that is at the very top of the container when the creme completely separates from the milk. Duygu was really disappointed in this dessert because the cheese was actually put on the top or bottom of the noodles. Also it was served with Turkish ice cream instead of kaymak. Not knowing the difference, I enjoyed it. I'm excited about trying different types of ice cream however. There are lots of vendors in Kizilay. I am also looking forward to tasting kaymak soon.

After dinner, we started walking around looking for a place that served mojitos. Duygu bashfully told me that she didn't know of a place in Ankara that served good mojitos. She explained if we were in Istanbul, London, or Portugal then she could take me to a place she knows is good. We tried to go to Corvus Pub which is the middle level of a three level building with a different bar/restaurant on each level. They didn't have any seating outside or that was quiet, so we walked across the street to Twister. We grabbed a seat outside and asked for two mojitos. After about 20 minutes they finally arrived. Unfortunately, they weren't very good. The mojitos were really weak, and it tasted like they may have used vodka instead of rum.

After a while, I decided that beer was a good idea so we each ordered .7L of Efes. We talked over the beers for a good two hours. They kept refilling our little bowl of popcorn. It really funny how much Duygu can eat for being so thin. The most surprising part of the evening was the bill for the drinks. For really bad mojitos, we paid 14YTL a piece! That's about $12! I couldn't believe it, but I had been warned by Damla and Canan that hard alcohol was very expensive here. I guess I am just spoiled with Havana in Walnut Creek. I think I can live with just beer during this trip. I happen to know that I'll be getting my fill of harder stuff when I get home... At about 9pm, Duygu got a call from her father saying that she needed to be home in about an hour. We talked for a bit more and then she walked me back to the Dolmus station or Dolmus otogar. It was a great night!

Lunch at Armada

2008-07-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

Canan (the blond one and yes there are two) needed a laser printer to print her thesis a few times, so we decided to get lunch at Armada. Everyone suggest that I should get Doner Kebop, because I had not tried it before. So if you don't know anything about Doner Kebap, it can be found across Europe and parts of the Middle East from small little carts to sit-down restaurants. Doner Kebop is sliced meat that s stacked on a vertical rotisserie. You can either get it as Tavuk (chicken) or as straight Kebop (layers of lamb and sometimes beef). My sandwich was very good, and it had lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and some red pepper flakes on it.

I just happened to look at the menu of the McDonalds behind me, and I saw the most atrocious thing. They now have a Mega Mac. I don't know if these are available in the US, but that is just ridiculous. Remember when everyone complained when McDonalds was made to provide the nutrition details of the Big Mac, and people were aghast at how bad it is for you? Well, this just blows me away. That things must be something like 1500 calories. Bleh...

Uptown

2008-07-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

METU is a dry campus, except for the graduate student and faculty pub. Apparently owned and operated by a Brit, Uptown has typical American pub food. Sertan and I got a steak wrap that came with those funny corn chips called Bugles. Damla ordered Mini-Chimichangas. And of course, we all ordered Efes. They all came out in one litre glasses. It was really great, until I realized there was hardly any alcohol in it. I drank 1.5 litres and was hardly buzzed at all. I wasn't looking to get drunk or anything but it was really sad. Well, it is a great after work hang out without undergrads around. =) The beer was cold, so that's really all that matters...

A night in Kizilay...

2008-07-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

On Monday night, it was coming to the end of the day when my labmate Mert asked if I had any plans for dinner. Never having dinner plans, I said no. He invited me to go with Canan and him to Kizilay for dinner. We took the Dolmus to Kizilay, and we walked around for bit. Because Mert was making fun of Canan's descriptions of everything, Canan made him tell me about everything. He pointed out many nice coffee houses and restaurants. Canan has been meaning to take me to stores that have cool T-shirts, so we went to one. I found a pretty cool T-shirt. It was marked 14.5 YTL but the girl only charged me 10 for it.

We then went to Leman Kultur for dinner. Leman is a magazine here in Turkey, much like Mad Magazine I think. It features a cartoon on the cover of each one. This restaurant uses them as its theme. The walls are covered in blown up versions of past comics and the menu items are named after aspects of the cartoons. We all got beers, and I ended up ordering steak in a demiglace with mashed potatoes and fries. I don't really understand why they serve two starches, but I'm not going to question it since it was yummy.

Well, somehow I ended up drinking 3 beers which was Tuborg at this place. Tuborg is a Danish beer (I think, their website was vague) which is apparently much stronger than Efes. Well, on the second beer, I thought the waiter was asking if I was done but apparently he asked if I wanted another....Whoops... After three beers, Mert asked if I wanted to try Turkish Coffee. There was no question what the answer was going to be... Yes! Well, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I was going to be, but that was also because they added sugar after he asked for it without. It is pretty strong but not like espresso. Mert explained that there is a type of coffee more like espresso in Turkey and that we can try that later. Apparently, it's stronger... =)

After dinner, they walked me back to the Dolmus station, and I took one back to campus. It was a great night!

A Day with Duygu

2008-07-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

Well, after that last post, I figured I should post something fun. Last Saturday, I spent my first real day in Ankara. The night before Canan had taken me to the mall, but this was my first trip downtown. I'll first give some history...

When I arrived at the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul for my flight to Ankara, I was one of the first people in line to check in. A girl was in front of me, and we both seemed to have trouble with our tickets. Well after dealing with that, I happened to get behind her in line to go through a second round of security checks. She had a few bags, and we were going to the same gate, so I helped her with her heaviest bag. We started chatting, and I found out she was a Turkish university student who was studying journalism and was just finishing an internship in Portugal. She told me that she grew up in Ankara and would love to show me around. I immediately jumped at the offer, and we exchanged email addresses. Upon getting on the internet, I sent her an email that I had to wait for my ID card to get off campus but I was excited about seeing Ankara.

Well, when I got my ID card, I emailed her, and we set a time to meet last Saturday at 2pm. She picked me up at the gate here at METU and we took the Dolmus(buses that I'll explain a little later) into Kizilay (the downtown district). She lived near Kizilay, and showed me around briefly before moving more towards her neighborhood. We poked into the Karum Mall (pic below) which is really amazing. The malls here are truly great because there is nothing else for the locals to do in Ankara. There is a Marks and Spencer (a British department store) as well.

Afterwards, we wandered up to Tunali Street. This is the swankier part of Ankara where there are many high end restaurants and shops. We stopped in Medmiz for drinks since it was really hot outside. Duygu got orange juice and I got lemonade. Citrus juices here seem to always be freshly squeezed. There are manual juicers in almost every town. My lemonade had freshly squeezed lemon juice with a ground ice and mint mixture on top. The restaurant was furnished in a very Venician style. All the walls were plaster with some great stone carvings hanging on the walls. The food that people were getting around us looked amazing. Duygu was saying that you need a reservation to eat here at night because it is so good. It is also quite "expensive" to eat. By expensive, I mean that food costs up to 30 YTL for things like filet mignon and so on. So by American standards, it's not too bad. And with the lemonade they have, there it no way I wasn't coming back.

Duygu started to get hungry, so we decided to get food. I had told her I had not had Turksh beer yet, so she said we should get Kumpir at a place where she used to go all the time in high school. Kumpir seems to be a favorite around here. It is a stuffed baked potato. The main ingredients are butter, Russian salad, pickles, sausage (beef or lamb I think), and olives. It can be topped with ketchup and/or mayonaisse. The place we went served beer, so that was the motivator. The beer, Efes, is the most popular beer in Turkey. It is a pilsner that has a very light taste. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it is a really weak beer. You can drink a lot of it and not really get buzzed at all. The restaurant we ate at played Radyo ODTU, the radio station run by METU students. ODTU is the acronym for METU in Turkish. So, if I refer to ODTU, that's what I mean. A lot of the music is American, so it's nice to hear something I can sing along to. After dinner, we took a short walk down Tunali street.

She asked if I had ever smoked Nargile before. Not having a clue what that was, I looked puzzled. She said that it was a pipe with water. "OOOhhhhhhhh, a hookah!" Was my reply, to which she looked really puzzled. Apparently, hookahs are called Nargile here. She took me to the coffee shop where she first smoked Nargile. We each ordered Nargile, apple for me and orange for her. We sat there for about two hours smoking and talking. She asked me a bunch of questions about the States as well as stating that she was surprised I hadn't asked about Turkish people being Arabs. Apparently that would have irritated her, which I knew better so that wasn't even on my mind. After smoking the apple flavored tobacco, I kept smelling apple for the rest of the night.

Her brother called and told her that her grandmother had come to visit for the night. She asked her brother to come pick us up, and they dropped me back at my dorm room. It was a very amazing day which exposed me to so many different things in Ankara. We are going to get together again this Sunday, so hopefully things will keep getting better and better. We are also planning on visiting Asmra and Cappadocia together. It'll be nice having a traveling companion that speaks Turkish.

Food Poisoning...

2008-07-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

I would like to preface this post by saying that if you are easily grossed out, then you might want to skip this one. As the post title and past posts state, I had food poisoning, and I will be describing some of the symptoms. However, most importantly, I will be describing what I did to deal with it in a timely manner. So, you've hopefully been warned...

If you are going to adhere to strict definitions, then what I had might not be referred to food poisoning so much as Traveler's Diarrhea. Upon arriving in Turkey, I broke just about every rule there is pertaining to eating in a foreign country. My 5 days went ok, so I didn't really think about it so much. The food was tasting great, so why should I be cautious. That was until I ate this for dinner....

Later that night, my stomach startled gurgling and starting to slightly cramp. My stomach has become sensitive to the grease while I was in Istanbul, but I just took some Tums and Immodium and it was fine. Well, the Imodium seemed to make my stomach cramp worse. Needless to say, I was soon using the bathroom until I had purged everything in my body. After that things kinda calmed down, but I was still having problems with diarrhea. I talked to Sertan the next day, and he said that during the summer, since the students were gone the food doens't get eaten as quickly at the mall on campus and food sits all day. This has the worst effect on chicken and things made with yogurt. If you look at the picture above, that's two of the most prominent portions. By taking Imodium (by now which was helping), and drinking lots of water, my stomach started to get better but not by any means cured. What wasn't helping was the Cay and greasy food that is everywhere. Well, on the third night, I ate this...

Now, this was a bad idea because the chicken curry was really really greasy. In fact, the sauce was thickened by grease alone. I thought I was ordering something light with veggies, and that came out. I ate light, and tried to eat as much of the not so greasy things on the plate, but low and behold the cramping and diarrhea came back. I actually started to get a little scared because I wasn't sure what was really going on. I was in a country where I don't speak the language, and I only have two dosages of Cipro for this very problem. We the next morning, I decided to start taking Cipro. Well, studid me once again, I didn't read the bottle carefully. There was a colorful sticker saying not to take calcium based antacids 2 hours before or 6 hours after taking Cipro. Well thankfully, it didn't effect it too much. Throughout the day, I drank massive amounts of water and ate light foods. And now a few days later, everything seems back to normal.

Now, here is some of the things I learned through this ordeal. First, it is way easier to get "prescription drugs" here than in the States for two reasons. You don't need a prescription, and they have cheap generic drugs here. I was able to get 14 pills for 7.50 YTL or about 7 bucks. Second, finding Imodium is not as easy here. I think I'll have to switch to Pepto, if I can find that. Third, you can't actually prevent Traveler's diarrhea no matter how hard you try, if you are going to eat local food. I mean, you might get lucky, but if you're going to be in a country where food is drastically different from you own, then you'll probably get some degree of this problem. So, if you're reading this, one of the most important things you can do before you trip is get a prescription of Cipro to carry you through until you can manage to figure out what diet is safe and find a larger supply of Cipro. :)

Sorry that may have been disgusting, but I was hoping to convey that getting Traveler's Diarrhea isn't the end of the world. Hopefully, people will feel better about coming to countries that have different standards when it comes to food. The reason the locals don't get sick is because their bodies have developed cultures to deal with the bacteria. So, by all means, go out and eat, but just keep in mind that you might not want to be too zealous without taking some precautions.

Leaving the campus...

2008-07-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

I technically left campus while I didn't have my ID card to get Kebop one day for lunch. I don't really count this because I didn't have my camera and it was only to one place and back. Convenient how not having my camera means it wasn't a real event...

This weekend I left campus three times, once on Friday to see the Armada mall with Canan, then to downtown with Duygu, and then once today to go to the mall for some things.

I happened to need some Cipro the amount that I had brought with me for if I got bad food poisoning (I'll eventually get around to talking about that), and Canan offered to go with me to the Pharmacy to see if they had any. We they did, and it was only 7.5YTL for 14 pills, and the best part is that I didn't need a prescription. I mentioned that I wanted to go find a mall and asked if she knew how I could go about getting there. She said that she could show me right now and said we should take a Dolmus. The Dolmus are a cross between a taxi and a bus. They have set stops but you can get on or get off anywhere in between.. They cost 1.5YTL and the one that leave campus mainly go to Kizilay, which is considered the downtown district.

Canan took me to the Armada mall which is only about 7 minutes from METU. My first impression of Armada was that it was amazing. Then Canan said that they was a small mall compared to others in Ankara. Although it is not as large as a lot of the malls in the US, I think they have better stores here and everything is organized much better. The ground level is office supple and grocery stores. The first (Yes, in Europe the ground floor is the Zeroth floor) and second floors are more upper scale clothing. The third floor is clothing more geared to the younger crowd, and the fourth was where all the food is located.

Damla had talked about a really good Chinese restaurant, so she took me there. It was really good, and I think I'll have the noodles next time I go (that's what she had). All of the food was on the same floor, so I noticed that they have Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, and McDonalds. Now, why anyone would want to eat at those places is really beyond me when they have such amazing food. She then took me to a bunch of stores in search of shoes, jeans, and t-shirts. I brought more conservative clothing because that is what people said to bring. By people, I mean the Professor and Post-Doc who are from Turkey who gave the briefings at the NSF pre-trip conference. Because of this, I wanted jeans and t-shirts. Well, Levis were around 200YTL which is about $160, so that wasn't happening. The cool t-shirts that Canan has been telling me about are at another mall, so that'll have to wait for later. Well, I wanted sneakers because I brought my running shoes and hiking boots because of the limited amount of weight I could pack. We went by the Puma store, but all the shoes were 90YTL and higher. We eventually stumbled on a store that is basically an outlet store. I was able to get a sweet pair of green Pumas for 86YTL. I figure that's a little higher than I normally pay, but then again, I'm not paying for them. :-P

(A picture of my Pumas will go here...)

I met a girl on my flight from Istanbul to Ankara. Her name is Duygu, and she was excited to show me around Ankara because it is her hometown. Since I was finally able to leave campus, she showed my around yesterday. It was a blast and there are pictures posted. I'll write a more detailed description in the morning. Suffice it to say, I had a blast and I am looking forward to the rest of the summer!

Today, I went to back to the Armada mall on my own. I wanted to get utensils, hand lotion, and a fan. I has seen a Carrefour supermarket there when I was there on Friday. Carrefour is a large chain of supermarkets across Europe. I went to one while I was in Geneva to buy chocolate. It was interesting to see a full sized supermarket, as we only have a really small one here on campus. The only thing that caught my attention is that when you buy fruit there, you have to go to an attendant who weighs and prices each one for you. Otherwise, everything was the same as here in the states. Oh, yeah, they are big on payment plans here. A lot of the larger items were sold with 12 month payment plans. You had to look closely to see the actual price. Ok, other than those two things, everything was the same. =)

Muslim Prayers

2008-07-06T07:38:00.000-07:00

My mother really wanted me to post something regarding the Muslim prayers that happen multiple times a day. I had to look it up on Google after we got off the phone because I had no idea what to say, I just knew I find the call to prayers really peaceful and soothing. Now, I don't know the percentages, but it doesn't seem that most Turks are Muslim. The Turkish government is secular as well.

This website has really good instructions on how to perform Islamic prayers. What I have been hearing is the Athan or the call to prayers. There are set words to the Athan which can be read on the above website. At around 8pm and 10pm, you can hear the Athans. It breaks the hum of the city, and for a few moments you seem to forget about everything from your day. I don't know if that is the purpose, to clear your mind in preparation for prayer, but it seems to have that effect on me.

I first heard the Athan in Istanbul. I had been traveling for about 20 straight hours and was pretty exhausted. I had just eaten dinner and had sat down in front of my computer to call home. The Athan started coming over the loudspeakers (I don't know where they are located), but a feeling of calm washed over me, and it was the beginning of a great night.

As I am writing this, I am listening to the evening Athan. It is about 10:15pm, so they do occur rather late. Here in Turkey, everything happens later than in the states. Since it is so hot during the day, everything gets shifted slightly.

Laundry

2008-07-05T02:58:00.000-07:00

You would think that doing laundry would be straight forward, but next time you look at your washing machine, pretend you don't know what you're doing and then try to imagine what it would be like if you couldn't read the instructions. Yes, that's how I felt.

As you can see, their instructions don't really make sense. The only word I really recognized was Normal so I just went with setting B. I asked Sertan about that later, and he told me that was for whites as the water gets hot. I found this out more directly as my new boxers bled onto my undershirts which are now slightly blue. So figuring I had enough time to get into bed by midnight, I started my laundry at 9:30. BIG MISTAKE! The wash alone took 2.5 hours. Yes, I know how you feel about it. Just imagine trying to figure out what the hell you did wrong, although in the back of my mind I had remembered that Sertan had mentioned that it took 2 hours to wash clothing but I thought he meant to both wash and dry. Anywho, finally around 1am, I was finally done. I had mixed all my clothing, and other than the two undershirts, nothing else was harmed. I finally asked Sertan on Monday about the wash time and cycles, and he laughed and straightened me out. Thank goodness for knowing people here who can translate.

Graduation!!!

2008-07-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

So, I would like to apologize for not keeping this up to date this week. I gave a presentation yesterday, so I'm trying to get caught up with things. On top of that, I got food poisoning, so you'll just have to bare with me (yes, I'm alright).

Professor Bayram suggested that I attend METU's graduation ceremony that took place the Saturday after I got here. It was at 6:30pm, so I figured I could get a bunch of work done beforehand and then go. I arrived an hour early, and sat down in the only section that was still unfilled. Families filled in around me, ranging from 3-30 people. Graduation from college in Turkey is quite an affair as only 2% of the high school graduate population is admitted to college. It was fascinating the see the patchwork quilt of socioeconomic statuses all congregated together in such a cozy stadium. Women with headscarves to men with suits to young women with super tight clothing were all clapping and screaming when their friend or relative came passing by. The ceremony was held on the soccer field on campus. The ceremony started with a parade of all the graduates arranged by department. Each department made signs, lit off fire works, "flew" in by an airplane (Aeronautical Engineering), and or had a chant. After all of the departments had filed passed and seated. There were a total of 7 speeches, two by administrators and 5 by students. What I couldn't believe was the speeches took all of 30 minutes. One speech in the US takes longer than that. When they started to hand out the diplomas, I ended up leaving, but the ceremony didn't take much longer than that. They only handed out diplomas to doctoral students and the 1st and 2nd level students from each department. Each department has a separate ceremony for handing out their diplomas. I really like this version of doing things.The ceremony took at most 2.5 hours which is nothing compared to the 4 hours that it takes for the College of Letters and Sciences at UCD and that's only half of the alphabet. Anyways, if you couldn't tell, I had a blast. This was an amazing start to my exposure of Turkish culture.

Tulip and Marmara Guesthouses in Istanbul

2008-06-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

I hope that at least someone will benefit from this post. I looked online for a hostel or guesthouse in which to stay when I arrived in Istanbul. Upon finding a few reviews on the Tulip Guesthouse, I finally booked a room there. Being out of singles, I chose a double for 45 Euro. When I arrived Emret, the manager, informed me that he was out of rooms but had gotten me one next door at the Marmara Guesthouse for 40 Euro a night.

Well, that ended up being a blessing as well, because the manager Elif was very nice. She told me about a few places to eat that were within walking distance. She also arranged for her brother to take me to the airport at 3am. The room and bathroom were very clean. There were towels laid out on the bed.

The two windows opened over a ledge with another bright orange guest house across the way. The guest house across the street on the other side, is a night club until about 1am. They play American music which was a nice feeling to hear something from home. All in all, the ambiance was really quite amazing. I had never been so relaxed in my life. With the breeze coming off the Black Sea, the air was just cool enough to be comfortable. I would definitely recommend either of these guesthouses if you are ever going to stay in Istanbul.

Wandering about....

2008-06-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today, I made a promise to post more pictures of campus and of things that I am eating. So, to be true to my word, I am posting all three of my meals today, as well as a few pictures I was able to snap around campus on my way to and from the office.

As always, I started off my Saturday with breakfast at the place I've been at all week. I decided that I wouldn't go with any of the pre-made sandwiches but with more veggies. From the top left and going clockwise, there is a roll that ended up having a dap of a spicy sauce wtih diced onions in it, a roll filled wth goat cheese and topped with cilantro, cucumbers, tomatoes, and cheese, and then a wanton like thing stufed with goat cheese. Toped off with turksih tea, it was a great meal.

I would like to point out that the tomatoes are amazing here. I have never witnessed such red and ripe tomatoes other than ones that were home grown. Being from California, you would think we would get better tomatoes, but no, we don't. I have gotten alright ones at the Davis and Livermore Farmers' Markets but still nothing like these.

Walking to work, I thought I would take a picture of the small mall we have on campus. This three story building has several restaurants, a clothing store, a pharmacy, a bookstore, and a stationary store. I pretty much eat here for dinner every night. There is a small Italian restaurant closer to my guest house, but I think I'm going to wait for Sertan (the grad student who I'm paired up with) to try it. I ate dinner right underneath the right most green umbrella. That place was pretty good, but more on that later.

I got lunch at a stand that serves fish sandwiches. There are about 5 selections (I am working on getting a picture), and you can also get fresh squeezed orange juice. For 6 YTL (New Turkish Lyra), I was able to get the white fish (not sure what type) sandwich and a cup of the freshly squeezed juice. In fact, I watched the guy squeeze the juice right in front of me. It is really nice to take a small walk in the middle of the day to get something good to eat. For you Davis folks, it's walking to the Silo but actually eating good food.

On the walk back, I decided to cruise by the campus stadium which is mainly used for Football matches (Yes, I mean soccer ;-) ). This weekend however is graduation, so the field has been setup with many white chairs to accomidate everyone. I think the Undergrads graduate on Saturday night, and the Graduate students on Sunday. I am going to attend the graduate student ceremony at the behest of Prof. Bayram. She thought it would be a good way to see some of the Turkish customs that many people don't get to see just because graduate happens only once a year. So with luck, I'll have lots of pictures to share from that. The picture above is of a the statue that is at the entrance to the stadium. You can clearly see the man reaching upward, but there is also a woman doing the same thing on the reverse side.

I worked most of the day in my office (I'll post on my lab a little later) to make sure I have enough information to submit a proposal for the work I would like to do over the Summer. At about 5 pm, I left for my guest house to go for a run. It is a little different running here than in Davis. First, they don't have running paths like the Green Belt. Second, drivers have the right of way. People are relatively careful driving, it just makes it a little difficult running on the sidewalk all the time. The sidewalks here seem like they haven't been repaired since they were constructed in the 1960s. Third, the campus is really hilly. It's a really great work out, so it makes up for it. I run from my guest house to the Aeronautical Engineering building which is about 1.5 miles away. A good three mile run with lots of hills will keep me in shape for Ultimate come the fall.

Speaking of Ultimate, I am planning on introducing it to my lab mates sometime this summer. Sertan said they have thrown a frisbee before when at the beach, but I think they'll like it as an alternative to football. We'll see how that goes.

Like I said earlier, for dinner I went to the mall and sat outside for dinner. I was moseying along looking for a place when I got waved into a restaurant on the 2nd floor. I sat on the edge of the balcony and could see a good ways across the campus. The sun was setting so the scenery was even more beautiful and calming. It was the perfect setting of the end of a pretty good day. I wanted to get what I thought was a fish dish, but they were apparently out of whatever I ordered, the Cin Tavagu. I ended up ordering the Tavuk Nugget out of haste, but it wasn't until I looked at the picture of the menu that I had ordered beef nuggets. They were pretty good sized and coated in a panko like crust. It came with very similar things to my meal two days ago. There was of course a salad with beets, tomatoes, and lettuce with a yogurt like dressing. There were french fries and tabbouleh. And then there was pasta coated in a yogurt sauce. It was all really good. As a accompanyment to the nuggets, there was the salsa like stuff I had two days ago as well. I call it salsa like because if you replace the cilantro in salsa with basil, you would get what I have been eating. After dinner, they brought around Cay (there is a curly on the C), which is Turkish tea and pronouced like chai. When I learn exactly how to make Cay, I'll have to post on that. As you can see, Cay is served in a special cup. It is very strong, and I actually added a sugar cube to it, mostly to see why everyone else was doing it. I did take a sip beforehand, and it was very strong. I can see why people dillute with hot water in the mornings. Anywho, with that I went back to my room a very happy American. =)

I think from now on I'll make smaller postings more often. I'm sorry to have posted such a long post this time. Also, I know people are reading this, so is anyone going to leave comments? Hmm? Maybe if I guilt trip everyone? =)

Good food and friends...

2008-06-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

With my first week here coming to an end, I am slowly getting used to things. The major one is that not everyone speaks English, so making due is the name of the game. Everyone is actually apologetic about not speaking English which I find sad because I feel that I really should know their language if I'm going to be living in their country for a while. Regardless, the Turkish people seem to be very nice. Professor Bayram and her students have been very gracious and nice to me. I have gone to lunch with Damla two days in a row. The first day was with her two friends that are in the dept, and today with Zeynep, another girl in our research group. She is trying to expose me to as much Turkish food as possible. We were laughing that it's going to make us both fat.

As far as the food is concerned, everything is wonderful. I really haven't had food like this before. Whatever restaurant you go to here on campus, they seem to really pride themselves in giving you really great tasting food. The choices are always pretty extensive, and the portions are always large. The breakfasts here are different that in the States. Instead of having heavy meals that include anything but vegetables, here in Turkey breakfast consists of small sandwiches with goat cheese, tomatoes, and peppers, or slices of cheese with veggies with a roll. If you want something sweet, there are syrups to go with bagle looking breads. The one in the picture below has a dark and dense filling. It reminds me of something very similar in the States, but it's not coming to mind at the moment. Although, it does remind me of almonds, so maybe someone has a suggestion on what the filling is called.

I have had Turkish coffee the past few days. Turkish coffee is made with special tea makers in whcih water is boiled and pured over tea in a kettle and set to steep. These kettles have resting places on top of the vessel in which the water was boiled. When the tea is done steeping, you only pour enough tea to fill the bottom section of a special tea cup. The rest of the cup is then filled with water. Well, the first day, I didn't know you needed to add water. Today, I saw the woman in front of me add water, so I followed suit. Interestingly enough, it didn't seem to change the intensity of the tea.

For lunch, Damla insisted we go to a buffet on campus. It was really good! Going clockwise from the bottom left part of the dish is kisir (like tabbouleh), then flat bread filled with spiced ground lamb, a tomator, basil, and onion salad, a Dolma, a small spongy potato patty with rosemary, parsley, and mint mixed in, and the a stuffed mushroom. In the center of the dish was a very yummy eggplant dish that had a tomato base. All of this food was really yummy. For dessert, in the upper right is rice pudding. The version has a lot less rice and is more runny than the American versions of rice pudding. Zeynep got a dessert that I think was sweetened bulgar that has been squished into a ball. It was really good as well. Well, I'm falling asleep, so I'll try to post on the street signs around here tomorrow.

Istanbul and Arrival in Ankara

2008-06-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

I have finally posted pictures to my Picasa space for anyone who wants to see all the pics I took yesterday. I'll post a few here so you don't have to trudge through them all. My guesthouse was set back between the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, two of Istanbul's most famous landmarks. The first pic is of the Aya Sofia.

The second pic is of the Blue Mosque. You can quite literally be looking at one and turn around and see the other. The area in between contains a fountain which is very pretty as well. There are food vendors walking around selling their wares. There was even a man walking around with carafes of tea and spices in which you could flavor it.

For dinner, the manager of my guesthouse recommended a kafta restaurant called Sultanamet Koftecsisi that is right on the tramway. I was seated promptly and given a rather simple menu. For meats, the had kafta or shish kebabs, and for salads they had one with or without white beans. For those of you who don't know, kafta is a lamb meatball which is spiced using spices common to the middle east. I'll try posting a recipe for kafta as soon as I find/make one.

I think I am going to have to get used to the oily nature of Turkish food. This meal was very good and simple, but it rested pretty heavy in my stomach. The woman at the guesthouse told me that this specific restaurant was known for it's kafta, and I can see how that it true. I would have taken a picture of the small kitchen that is in front, but the cook didn't like how I was staring off into space instead of enjoying my food. I think he thought I didn't like it, so I figured it was best not to shoot a photo of him. Since I'm almost falling over in my chair, I think I'm going to write about the really great guesthouse I stayed in before leaving Istanbul tomorrow.

Istanbul

2008-06-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

I don't think I have mentioned this so far, but I will be in Turkey for three months this summer. In fact, I am here now. I got into Istanbul this afternoon at 4pm. I have already taken about 100 pics which I'll whittle down and post to google images and add a few to this site tomorrow. I would just like to say that if any one is considering visiting this country, they should without hesitation. Everyone so far has been really nice. Some vendors have been pushy but not disrespectful or creepy. In fact, I have had nice conversations with several of them. The food here is good, and I am looking forward to coming back to Istanbul at some point. I had kafta tonight for dinner, and I'll post pics and a more extensive post tomorrow. Until then, hope you all are doing well.

YOUR MOM ROCKS!!!

2008-06-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

Your Mom won the UC Davis Intramural Ultimate CoEd B League Championships!!! By Your Mom, I mean my ultimate frisbee team. :-P All of our hard work finally paid off this last Sunday when we won our Semi-Final game 8-6, and then our Final game 10-6 a few hours later. I have had a blast these last several months playing with some of the best people I have ever known. Here's to the next year in A league, I'm sure Your Mom will rock that as well! ;-) If you are my friend on Facebook, you should check out the several photos that were taken during the first game!!!

A Change In Direction...

2008-06-04T01:34:00.000-07:00

It occurs to be that I haven't updated on my research since last September, or there abouts. Since I am waiting for a computer code to finish running, I figured I would update on that part of my life. At the end of December, I switched research groups into the Advanced Composites Research Engineering and Science (ACRES) Group here at UC Davis. Our group's main focuses include Non-Destructive Evaluation of composite structures, structural analysis of Bi-Stable Structures, and building a solar race car for the World Solar Challenge. The WSC is a race from North to South across Australia powering a high speed racer with nothing but solar power. My work in the ACRES group focuses on using non-destructive evaluation techniques to detect flaws or damage in composites parts, particularly ones intended for Aerospace / Aeronautical applications. I will also have the pleasure of going to Turkey for three months this summer. In fact, I leave in less than 3 weeks. I will be collaborating with a group in Chemical Engineering at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. I will be updating this site far more regularly while I am gone, so as to stay in touch with family and friends. As finals wrap up, I'll try and get this all up to date, including my trip to two different conferences. One was for the trip to Turkey, which was in Washington DC, and the other was in Long Beach for a SAMPE conference.

Seabright Brewing Company

2008-05-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty rad brewery near downtown Santa Cruz. With the amazing weather, we had the option of sitting inside or out on their rather large patio. They served really good food, which ended up being a nice last meal on our tour. Our server, Anjyll, had obvious been working their for a while as she had the Angel's Food beer named after her. All of our food ended up being really delicious, so I think I'll be frequenting this place any time I come to Santa Cruz.

Pelican Pale Ale - This Pale Ale has a nice roasted grain flavor which is complimented by a bitter hopy aftertaste. This is definitely a solid pale ale in the spirit of Sierra Nevada. The aftertaste gives the impression that there is rice incorpoarted somewhere in the brewing process. Score: 5/10

Amber - This is a completely awesome amber ale. It has a flavor very similar to Fat Tire but with a far more complex aftertaste. Score: 5/10

Bock - This bock has a banana like flavor which is typical of wheaty German beers. I am not personally a fan, but this is a pretty solid beer, so if German beers are your style then I would recommend it. Score: 5/10

Sacrilicious - This is the beer that I got a pint of. This is a very hoppy, ambery beer. It is a combination of an Amber and an IPA, which are my two favorite styles of beer. This type of beer is what dreams are made of. Score: 7/10

Angel's Food - This unique beer has a sweet and caramelly flavor with a kick from the 11% alcohol content, much like Anjyll's personality. I could easy drink lots of this, but would quickly get myself into trouble. The honey in it definitely gives is a really smooth flavor and texture. Score: 8/10

G-Man IPA - This is an British style IPA which isn't very hoppy like American IPAs. This is a pretty mild beer with a bitter aftertaste. I'm not super impressed with this beer, but never having a British IPA before, I am not exactly sure what to expect. Score: 4/10

Oatmeal Stout - The flavor progression of this beer is very interesting. It transitions from a chocolate flavor, to one that is berry-y, to charcoally, and then to a smooth aftertaste. I think this is an incredible trait of this stout. I would definitely drink this often if I had access to it. Score: 8/10

Beer Tour Day 3

2008-05-19T00:20:00.000-07:00

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Being the last day of our trip, we definitely took it easy. We left Monterey around noon, and headed north towards Santa Cruz. We tried visiting Coastline Brewery and Santa Cruz Ale Works but they were both closed. In fact, Coastline has changed names to and didn't open until much later in the day (like ~5pm). Anyways, we ended up visiting Seabright and having a blast. We then moved down to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and playing on the beach. Soaked from the water, we got back in the car and headed home. We got back home a few hours later. It was definitely a great time, and I am looking forward to doing it again next year!

Firestone Walker Brewing Company

2008-05-16T22:42:00.000-07:00

This was definitely the most serious brewery we went to on this tour. It is just off a somewhat isolated exit on highway 101. Firestone branched out a few years ago into the beer industry after being in the wine industry for several years. In fact, every time my family and I would go to Southern California, we would stop in at Firestone Winery as well as Solvang, a danish arts community just north of Santa Barbara. Their tasting room was only that, they didn't have any food other than pretzels and mustard. We were able to sample 8 beers all together. Most of them were very sophisticated beers which is pretty uncommon for a single brewery to have multiple of. By sophisticated, I mean beers that involve multiple brewings, aging in oak barrels, or barley wine. Firestone definitely had several of these. When the tasting room got relatively full, the bartender offered a tour to clear some of the people out. We jumped at the opportunity, and he gave a really good tour. Being originially a winery, they now age/brew some of their beers in oak barrels. It definitely gives their Double Barrel Ale and Barley Wine a deeper flavor. Basically, if you are within 50 miles of this place you need to stop in.

Pale 31 Pale Ale - This pale ale has a really fresh hoppy smell that makes you expect it to have a very hoppy flavor perhaps even bordering on an IPA. In fact, this pale ale is very smooth and had a very crisp taste. Score: 4/10

Union Jack IPA - This IPA has a nice hoppy taste that leads into the smoothest aftertaste I have ever experienced with an IPA. I would definitely recommend this IPA for anyone wanting to start off in IPA land without having to deal with the strong aftertaste which is typical of most IPAs. Score: 6/10

Double Barrel Ale - This is actually a British Pale Ale which seems to closely resemble American amber ales. This beer is very malty but unfortunately lacks flavor otherwise. I would say pass on this beer at Firestone considering there are a lot of other far better options. Score: 3/10

Walker Reserve Porter - Has the typical charcoally flavor of a porter, but unfortunately does not transform into other more desirable flavors. I would definitely pass on this in favor of the Russian Imperial Stout. Score: 3/10

Unfitered Belgian - This is definitely a sweeter beer that would be good if you are eating savory foods. I would say this is a pretty good "typical" Belgian ale (If you haven't had a Belgian before, then you'll just have to take my word for it). Score: 5/10

Unfiltered Double Barrel Ale - This beer is a barrel aged version of the Double Barrel Ale. It initially has a a slight oaky flavor that transforms into a malty beer. The aftertaste is very similar to that of a white wine. I really think this is an immense improvement over the Double Barrel Ale. Score: 6/10

Barley Wine - One of Firestone's specialty brews, this barley wine has a distinct sweet wine smell. Taking a swig of this beer, you can definitely taste the high level of alcohol but is covered by the sweetness which accompanies it. I wish I had a larger glass of this, and I am not a fan of barley wines. Score: 7/10

Russian Imperial Stout - This is definitely one of their best beers. This imperial stout has a rich deep flavor that is accompanied by oaky undertones. While being considerably smooth, it has strong hints of chocolate. This would be an excellent dessert after any great meal. Score: 9/10

Central Coast Brewing Company

2008-05-15T01:13:00.000-07:00

Central Coast was definitely the most "Micro" of the microbreweries that we went to. This small, yet growing, brewery was tucked away in an office park a few blocks from Downtown Brewery in SLO. As you can see from the picture below, they have quite a large selection of beers. I would say that this brewery has the most interesting of all the beers we have tried. The Chai Cream Ale and Espresso Porter were both so good that we got a growler of each to take home. This brewery does not have a full liquor license yet, so they are only allowed to sell samples. They have a deal for $5 you get 5 samples, otherwise samples are $2. I would definitely be interested in coming back to this place to hang out. The marketing director is also a really interesting guy to talk to. His views on sustainability and the landscape of the microbrewery market are really interesting. Long story short, he feels that the whole point of a microbrewery is to serve the local community and take advantage of short supply lines to keep the beer naturally fresh as long as possible while in the hands of the consumer.

Honey Wheat - You can taste/feel the honey in this refreshing light beer. The honey mutes the malty aftertaste, making this a beer that one could drink a lot of after a long day at work. Score: 5/10

Chai Creme Ale - This beer tastes like a Chai Latte! No joke! After talking with the marketing director for a bit, we found out that it took them several batches to figure out when and how much of the chai to get the taste just right. I would have given this beer a 10 if it had more of a vanilla-y flavor, but that's just being really nit-picky. This was definitely one of the top beers of this tour! Score: 8/10

Kiakis (sp?) Beach Ale - This is a straight up, good tasting, light beer. Score: 4/10

Golden Glow Pale Ale - This is a really good pale ale. I could definitely drink a large amount of this if it didn't come in just sample glass sizes. :-P Score: 5/10

Stenner Creek Stout - This was an alright stout. It has a mild charcoally flavor that's not too overwhelming. I would probably drink this after dinner if there wasn't another stout to choose from. Score: 4/10

Espresso Porter - This is definitely one of their best beers, along with the Chai Creme Ale. It tastes like chocolate milk when you drink it, and turns into an amazing espresso flavor in the after taste. There is definitely a reason that we picked this porter as one of the two growlers we brought home with us. Score: 8/10

Downtown Brewing Company - SLO

2008-05-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

This is a really cool place to watch a game on the weekends or maybe shoot some pool after work. It is located on the second floor of a building in downtown San Luis Obispo. The history of this place is somewhat interesting. According to the owner of Central Coast Brewing Company, Downtown Brewing Company had its assets liquidated, and Firestone-Walker Brewing Company bought the Downtown Brewing chain. Firestone's and Downtown's beers are completely different however. I would definitely recommend hitting this place up the next time you're in SLO.

Blueberry - As advertised, this beer starts off with a blueberry taste that fades to its wheaty base. This is overall a really good beer for people who don't like strong beers or are just starting out in the world of beer. Score: 5/10

Honey Blonde - This is also a very mild beer. You can taste a hint of honey, but the real impact of the honey is the way it smooths out the taste and thickens the beer slightly. I would also recommend this beer if you're not a person who likes strong beers but want something refreshing. Score: 5/10

Wheat - This is a beer for people who don't like the banana flavor of German wheat beers. This beer has a nice refreshing taste to it. I would say that this tastes almost identical to Pyramid's Hefe. Score: 4/10

IPA - This IPA has a straight forward hoppy flavor without the harsh aftertaste that is normally associated with IPAs. If a person wants to start broadening their horizons into IPAs from milder beers, I would definitely recommend this one to them. Score: 5/10

Reggae - This beers score might have suffered from the fact it came after the IPA, who's stronger flavor may be overshadowing it. This beer lacked flavor but did not taste watered down. Over all I wasn't that impressed with this beer, but I would not say it was bad by any means. Score: 4/10

Porter - This was a good standard porter that had hints of chocolate and charcoal. Score: 5/10

Day 2

2008-05-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

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To start off the second day, we headed out of Santa Barbara north on highway 101. Our first stop was actually in Solvang, a town centered around Danish traditions. If you ever pass through, you should stop for Abelskiver (Danish pancake balls with Raspberry jam). Our first brewery stop happened in San Luis Obispo at Downtown Brewing Company(B). We then walked a few blocks over to Central Coast Brewing Company. Heading north, we stopped at Firestone-Walker Brewing Company before pulling into Monterey that evening. Apparently, it's hard to find things to do in Monterey after 9pm. We looked high and low for places to eat and get a pint, and there were so few that the places we found were packed.

Lengthwise Brewery

2008-04-26T23:59:00.000-07:00

The people of Bakersfield are truly blessed to have this awesome gem in their city. This brewery/restaurant has a very industrial feel to it, which is right up its alley being located in an industrial/commercial part of town. I don't know if I'll be able to sing this place enough praises. This place has a very local feel to it. Before entering, you encounter a corrugated metal awning supported by two keg columns. Upon entering, you realize that this place is one of the biggest brewpubs you have ever been to. You are told to seat yourselves and place your order at the bar. Not knowing they had a sampler, we just got one pint each of three different beers. For food, we ordered a basket of hot wings which were really good. The wings were hot from being freshly deep fried and smothered in a thin house-made hot sauce that had visible pieces of jalapeños in it. Overall, if I lived near to this brewery, I would be here several times a week.

Centennial IPA - This IPA is not very strong, making it perfect for people easing into IPAs. The initial hoppiness turns into a smooth finish which makes for a nive compelte beer. When I drink mulitple beers, I never have more than one IPA because of the strength of their flavors. I could easily drink a few of these and not get tired of the IPA taste. Score 5/10

Triple Hop Red Ale - This is my favorite of the beers we had at Lengthwise. It has a solid caramelly taste that is normally alcking in a Red Ale. Score 6/10

Kern County Porter - This porter has a great hints of charcoal with a smooth aftertaste. I have never had a Carbon Dioxide / Nitrogen mix in a beer before. This was an awesome combination for this beer. It seemed to make it super smooth while adding the a hint of texture from the CO2. Score 5/10

Brewbakers

2008-04-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

This brewery/restaurant is located in an awesome place in downtown Visalia. Unfortunately, their beer does not reflect the awesomeness of the space that contains it. Their beer and hand-made sodas all taste watered down.

Rootbeer - Tastes like Mug Rootbeer. It was served with ice, so the watered down taste might have come from that, but I find that unlikely as all everything tasted watered down. Score 1/10

Orange Creme - Tastes very close to Thomas Kmeper's Orange Creme but unfortunately watered down. The creme taste coupled with the orange created a taste very much like the orange crème ice cream bars. Score 1/10

Green Apple - This disappointing soda tasted like a Green Apple Jolly Rancher which has been watered down considerably. Score 1/10

Raspberry Apple - I had high hopes for this cider after the disappointing sodas earlier. This is a straight forward apple cider with a raspberry flavoring. It does not have the weird malty aftertaste that a lot of apple ciders have which is the only reason it didn't receive a score of 1. Score 3/10

Apple Cider - This cider is a perfect melding between sparkling apple cider and alcohol. This apple cider didn't leave any of the typical aftertaste of most apple ciders. I have always been turned off of apple ciders for this specific reason and have been searching for an exception. Because I seem to have high standards for apple ciders (maybe unwarranted), I gave this a 5 out of shear surprise that there was an apple cider that actually met me half way. This was the only beer that I actually liked. I didn't get it when each of us got a pint because it didn't fit my mood at the time. Score 5/10

Honey Wheat - No honey flavor what so ever! I would have been better off just drinking water than wasting time with this beer. Score 1/10

Schwartzbier - I have never had this style of beer before, but I am sure that it wasn't suppose to taste like it did. My first thought after tasting this beer was that it tastes like teriyaki sauce. Now at first, that greatly disturbed me. But, if you drank this beer with sushi or other asian dishes, this might be a great beer for that. Not being a great fan of Asian beers in general, I would drink this beer before them when going to restaurants that I can pair this beer with. Score 3/10

Sequoia - It's an alright red ale. That's about it.... I think I have said that these beers are all watered down enough... Score: 3/10

Sherman Stout - This very plain stout has hints of charcoal, just like a stout should. That's about all to say about this lackluster beer. Score 3/10

Sequoia Brewing Company

2008-04-23T00:55:00.000-07:00

Sequoia Brewing Company is one of two micro-breweries in Fresno, CA with the other being Full Circle Brewing Company. Most of the beers in this brewpub/restaurant left a lot to be desired. Their food was alright, but most of it wasn't fresh. My burger came with a BBQed frozen patty inside which I ordered medium-rare that came definitely well done, All in all, this is an alright place to go to if you are ever in Fresno, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go here.

Blossom Trail Honey Wheat - This is a really good starter beer. It only has a slight malty taste to it, which most new beer drinkers don't care as much for. For me it didn't provide much taste, and I probably wouldn't get it again. Score: 1/10

Moto Brew American Pale Ale - This Pale Ale lacked all the flavor that I think that Pale Ales should have. Pale Ales are meant to be a kick in the mouth second only to IPAs. This beer lacked a kick what so ever and made me feel like I was drinking water. Score: 1/10

Sequoia Gold German Kolsch - This beer had a super smooth taste with a mild aftertaste. This is a really good all around beer for someone who wants to have a refreshing pint after a long day. Score: 4/10

Del Oro Mexican Light - Don't waste you time with this beer unlike you are a Corona fiend. It tastes exactly like Corona with a much higher price tag. Score: 2/10

Tamarack American Amber - Tamarack Amber has a really nice amber caramel flavor with a smooth hoppy aftertaste. I could have drank a good amount of this beer. This is another great beer after a long day. Score: 5/10

Mineral King IPA - This beer has a great hoppy and piney flavor. This beer reminds of me Russian River Brewing Company's Pliny the Elder without the immense kick in the mouth. This is the beer I got a pint of while here. I would definitely get another next time I'm in the area. Score: 6/10

Black Oak Porter - This is a alright after meal beer. This porter has a standard porter taste that has hints of charcoal and chocolate. Score: 5/10

Day 1

2008-04-23T00:09:00.001-07:00

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On the first day, we headed out early taking Highway 99 south towards LA. At about lunch time, we arrived at our first scheduled stop at Sequoia Brewing Company (B) in Fresno. We attempted to try Full Circle Brewing Company as well, but they were closed. We then visited Brewbakers (C) in Visalia, and Lengthwise Brewing Company (D) in Bakersfield. After, we headed for Santa Barbara where we stayed the night. That night, we tried Santa Barbara Brewing Company (E). Here are the reviews for Day One...

2nd Annual Beer Tour

2008-04-22T23:33:00.000-07:00

Last year around this time, my friends Charles and Will and myself went on a two day road trip up the coast of Northern California to sample beers from as many breweries as we could find. This year we decided to do a 3 day tour that consisted of a loop down Highway 99, over to Santa Barbara, and back up 101. For those of you not familiar with Calfornia's roads, I'll include a Google map for each day of the trip. With reviews for seven breweries, it'll take me a few days to get everything posted. Stay tuned...

Blue Bottle Cafe

2008-03-10T23:16:00.000-07:00

So after reading the New York Times article about the new $20,000 dollar coffee brewing apparatus that Blue Bottle Coffee had bought for their new location in SF, I just had to go and see what it was all about. I ended up getting directions off of Yelp since the Blue Bottle website didn't have directions or even an address. Well, I was a little apprehensive about my experience after reading some of the posted reviews.

I ended up arriving at 8:45 AM on a Saturday morning, and there were only a few people in the whole place. Upon getting to the counter, we were informed that the siphon brewed coffee didn't start until 10AM. I was a bit miffed considering that was something that should have been posted somewhere. I ended up ordering a cappuccinos, which ended up being a really good move. I had read on Yelp that they had really good caps but hadn't given it much thought since all I wanted was a $20,000 cup of coffee. My dad ended up getting a bottle of their organic apple juice which was surprisingly sweet but not too sweet. We ended up sitting down in front of the siphon coffee maker, and decided to wait, like at a rock concert, to see the process up close.

To pass the time, we decided to have breakfast. They only offered 4 things which insisted of toast, poach eggs on toast, and two other simple breakfast fare. The bread was from the ACME bread company which has a shop in the Ferry building. We ordered 2 of the poached eggs on toast, and I got a cup of drip coffee which is brewed Kono style.

Upon finishing, we ordered one of the first pots of siphon brewed coffee made that day. It was really a site to see, albeit somewhat amusing. They start off by filling a rounded beaker looking container with hot water and placing it over a halogen lamp. While the water is coming to a boil, another contained which looks like a beaker fitted with a glass tube to its bottom is filled with coffee grounds. When the water boils, the beaker is fitted over it and the two are sealed together by a rubber stopper on the glass tube. The water vapor pressurizes forcing the boiling water into the beaker above to mix with the coffee grounds. While this is occurring, the barista is slowly stirring the grounds with apparently a difficult type of stirring. I didn't ask too many questions because I didn't want to ruin the taste of my pot. Once all the water had been pushed to the top, they let it sit there a few minutes before slowly separate the bottom bulb from the beaker which lower the pressure in the bulb allowing the now brewed coffee to flow through a metal filter at the bottom of the beaker and into the bulb below. The bulb was then brought to us on a special carrier. The cups that they brought included a piece toffee for each of us, which was nice considering we had just spent $10 on a pot of coffee. Well, the coffee was really good. Considering that they couldn't have gone that wrong since the were using Blue Bottle beans, it was a really good cup of coffee. With that in mind, I want to say their drip coffee was far better than that from the siphon coffee maker. They were brewing a blend that day that was only sold there and at a certain restaurant (Fifth something) which was a bummer since I really wanted some. In general, you can't go wrong with going to Blue Bottle Cafe. Even though the siphon coffee maker costs $10, I think it's worth the show. At the very least, treat yourself to some of the best coffee in possibly this country at Blue Bottle Cafe. It is so good, my dad even enjoyed it, and he has always hated coffee! It also is an excuse to go to the Ferry Build Farmers Market. :-)

Berkeley Foodie Trip!

2007-08-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

So, I'm now house-sitting for one of my mom's best-friends. This last sunday, I decided that I really wanted to go on a trip to Berkeley to go visit Ici. More on Ici later... Anywho, I figured that getting there around 10am would probably be about right to hit up the shops around opening time. Ici is located near the intersection of Ashby and College Ave. or just south of the UC Berkeley campus. Well, I was way off the mark with 10am opening guess. Everything seemed to open at noon. Well, I ended up getting coffee and a lemon-blueberry scone at Beanery Coffee, which is across the street from my ultimate destination. I have to say that the taste of the scone was really good but the texture was different. I have heard of people using corn meal in scones but have never eaten one. Well, I think it is a good thought but in this case was poorly executed. The scone ended up being grainy. On the up side, I enjoyed their coffee, which I think was French Roast. Well after that, I headed down to A.G. Ferrari Foods. It's a pretty cool Italian food store that has mainly imports straight from Italy. Well, I got a bottle of Presecco, a loaf of sourdough bread, and bottled tomatoes. The tomatoesdecision was based solely on the recommendation of the cute girl who worked there. After leaving there, I realized it was only 10:45 (Ici doesn't open until noon on Sundays), and I decided to walk around the corner to Nabolom Bakery. After some research, I found out that it is a worker-owned collective. I'm not sure if it was because I was there too early or too late but their selection was lacking. The only things on most of the shelves was the labels indicating the past or future existence of baked goodness. Being a lover of Challah, I was delighted to see that they had two loaves left. I had it this morning as toast and made some of it into a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich for lunch. It was one of the best loaves, I have ever had. The only one that compares is the plain Challah available from ACME Bread in San Francisco. I decided that I couldn't wait around for another hour, so I decided to take a drive over to the Scharffen-Berger chocolate factory on 6th St. I was able to fenagle my way into the 11:30 tour. It was a pretty boring tour with the highlight being you got three pieces of chocolate. If anyone hasn't heard of them, make sure you get your hands on some of their chocolatey delights. Make sure to try the 62% and 70% bars. Being so close to Pyramid Brewery, I decided to go grab lunch before returning to Ici. After reading all about Ici on other foodie blogs, I definitely believe that all the hype was warranted. This place was amazing. The interior was really plain and stark, but the flavors available seemed to make up for that small fact.

Well, I decided on the Stout and Creme-fraiche Hazelnut Praline ice creams. I can't tell you how awesome each flavor was. The Stout has hints of a malty chocolateyness. I didn't exact feel like I was drinking a double-chocolate stout but it was a really nice a mellow flavor that did indeed remind of a stout. The Creme-fraiche hazelnut praline was even more amazing, if that was possible. The creme-fraiche base was definitely tangy which contrasted the sweet praline and strong hazelnut flavor. The consistency of both ice creams was smooth and creamy. It was pleasant end to a great day!

LLNL Here I Come!!!

2007-07-23T23:10:00.001-07:00

Well, after what seemed to by forever, I am finally at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to collaborate with their Biophysics group on the DARPA project. Today being my first day, I ended up leaving early to get other work done since they couldn't figure out what safety classes I need to take. Since this is a government facility, my training might possibly include how to wipe my nose. With that being said, I had a few really productive meetings to plan out the upcoming project. Since the project is part of a competition for funding, I can't really describe it much but suffice it to say that it is using the sensor we have been working with for sometime now. I'll try and post a picture here pretty soon. It's nice to be home again after such a long break. In fact, I'll be leaving again on Friday to house-sit for one of my mom's friends. They have this sweet house in the next city over, and I'll have it all to myself. :)

Grad School Blogging

2007-07-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

In honor of the 100 year anniversary of Einstein's 1905 papers, the United Nations classified 2005 as the "Year of Physics". In commemoration of this distinction, the American Physical Society set up blogs for over 20 physicists to talk about their daily lives throughout the year. I was particularly interested in the blogs by American graduate students. In that spirit, I thought I would start a line of blog entries that are particularly about my life as a graduate student in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering. I currently work on applying the latest in sensors technology to analyze the condensation collected from cooling human breath. Although this may seem obscure, it is one of the leading new areas of medical research. We are looking at analyzing breath to determine if the tested subject has been working with explosives in the past few weeks. Using our technique, we are hoping to implement this technology at ports or entry (airports, seaports, border crossings) to filter out potential people of interest. Instead of going after the bomber, we are looking for the bomb maker himself. I feel that this area of research will enable me to work in an area that will directly help people. With any luck, breath condensate analysis will lead to anti-terror techniques, new ways to diagnose the sick, stop the spread of infectious diseases, and ultimately raise the standard of living for people around the world. Ok, I know that's really optimistic but I really hope it happens.

Here's to a new beginning...

2007-07-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

So, I have finally decided to become serious about blogging. I have always leaned back and forth between wanting to share my life with strangers. Having been really into reading other people's blogs for the past year, I finally decided that I should contribute my thoughts, opinions, and inner most feelings on a myriad of issues including restaurants, recipes, scientific findings, and a hodgepodge of other things. So here's to the beginning of a new chapter in my life.....