Turkey: the good, the bad, and the creepy

First the good. As you know, I am in Turkey for the weekend. This included a flight to Istanbul, a bus overnight to Ephesus and Kushadasi, a bus overnight back to Istanbul, and tomorrow I fly back to Greece. It was a lot of work and a lot of money, but Ephesus was worth it. On that tour I saw the Temple of Artemis (that is one of the 7 wonders of the Ancient world), the traditional house of the Virgin Mary after the crucifixion (sketchy evidence that this is truely the place, but the Catholic Church seems to have accepted it, based on the many visits by Popes), historical Ephesus, and all that just before lunch. Ephesus was absolutely amazing. I stood in the theatre where Paul got in trouble. We did not make it over to where he was in prison due to running out of time. The ruins at Ephesus are the second best preserved ruins, after Pompeii. From the buildings all still standing, to the evidence of amazing pillars, to ancient public toilets it was all so absolutely amazing. I was pretty much gaping the whole time I was walking around with my guide. Lunch was a traditional Turkish meal (included in my tour price), then I was shown Turkish carpets. I was shown how they are spun, naturally died, and hand woven. Then they sat me down in a big room, brought me a turkish coffee, and started spreading them out at my feet. Carpet after amazing beautiful carpet was spread at my feet. I was afraid to touch them, but the lady told me to walk on them and touch them, in my shoes!! These carpets, even with frequent use will last for 300-400 years with little to show for it if they are taken care of. I ended up buying a little one for 250 dollars. Next we went to where they made traditional Turkish pottery. There I used a spinning wheel to make two pots. One is "Indiana style" and the other is a little more Turkish. I am pretty sure they were smashed down after I left, but I got pictures and fun memories. After all that my time was up, so they dropped me off in Kusadasi after helping me with my bus. I wandered around and generally took in the town before the bus was due to leave.

Then the creepiness started. I had my first marriage proposal and was too nice about trying to get away. I eventually managed to get away in a taxi to the bus stop. Today, when arriving in Istanbul, it was 7 AM when I got to the area I wanted to be at at 9. I started looking for breakfast and some guy led me to his restaurant. It was a very good breakfast, and he gave it to me for free, but he started asking me to go with him to see more of Istanbul tonight. He informed me we could get in his brother's car and go on a ferry to the Asia side. I got out of there as fast as I could, but accidently walked by again this afternoon and had to bow out as quickly as possible. Men just latch on and follow me. I was given a free Turkish tea last night at the busstop, and another one at lunch today, in addition to the 4 or 5 he kept bringing me at breakfast. One man walked me to the Blue Mosque and showed me around. He wasn't really that creepy, more nice, but he was an exception. I have had more offers for meals and tea and coffee than I can remember. They range in age from about 16 to 40. The blond hair and blue eyes attract them like a magnet. Next time I go out will be with a head scarf and sunglasses (until it gets too dark anyway).

Another bad thing was when I walked into a public restroom and found, not a toilet but a hole in the ground with platforms on either side for your feet. I turned around and walked right back out. Unfortunately this morning after being on the bus, that was my only option. Really awkward. Let me tell you, I was glad to get to tourist locations after that.

I will continue this in my next entry, because my internet time is about over.

Goodbye from Turkey!!

Mysteries of Modern Greek

Not much interesting has happened lately, but I can tell you of the joys of learning a new language. Learning Modern Greek in Greece is fascinating, because I can actually apply what I have learned in my every day life. For instance, the best place to practice numbers is the farmer's market. A good place to learn the difference between left and right is in my Aikido class. Aikido is also a good place to just hear Greek spoken, even if I have no clue what they said. Usually somebody speaks enough English to help me out, but occasionally the instructor will talk for 5 minutes straight about something, and I will have no clue what he is saying.

We had our second Modern Greek test this week and I did something a bit stupid. We were supposed to fill in the blanks in a dialogue between a kiosk ower and a customer. At one point the kiosk owner asks the customer meepos echete psila, do you have smaller money. What I put down instead was meepos echete philo, do you have a boyfriend. I guess he was being flirty.

I also accidently have told people that I don't speak English. Usually when that happens I have mixed up "I don't speak Greek" and "I speak English".

For the most part I am getting more used to speaking what Greek I can whenever I get the opportunity. I now know how to order in a cafe in Greek, and I am really getting quite good at the various words I need to order a gyro. I know chicken, pork, tzatziki, tomato, potato. But then I get thrown off whenevr somebody doesn't speak in complete sentences to me, because that is how I am learning. So, please, when speaking to somebody who knows little English... speak in complete sentences. Chances are they are learning in phrases rather than random words.

Tomorrow, I will try again for the Acropolis and next weekend is Ephesus and Istanbul. Don't worry, I will let you all know everything.

kalispera!

The Argolid

We had our first school field trip from Thursday to Saturday. We went to the Argolid and saw quite a few different sets of ruins. I saw some obscure ones, and some that were amazingly cool. First we went to a set of ruins called the Argive Heraion. Those were a lot of fun, despite the rain, because there was no beaten path to see everything. We pretty much climbed over walls and down into valleys up and down a hill to see everything at our own pace. It was a lot of fun, mainly because it was my first real set of ruins. You could see where temples from different periods had been and even some pillars. Among the many other sites I saw on this trip was Mycenae. Mycenae has some amazingly preserved ruins. The gate is the most famous part. It is known as the lion's gate, because of the triangle tile placed over the mantel with big lions carved on it. It is famous, because it is the only gate of its kind with that tile part still preserved. Some of the stones which were dragged up that hill to build Mycenae, including the gate, were so big that it seems impossible that anybody could get them up there even with our modern machinery.

I also went to Epidaurus, which holds quite a lot on the site. One place is the theatre, the best preserved of its kind. They say that if someones stands in the middle and lights a match or drops a coin, someone at the top of the massive seating can hear it all. It is that acoustically sound. I was pretty annoyed when I was there, because my professor leading my group talked so much that I did not have a chance to hear someone drop a coin. I did watch another group doing the experiment, but I did not get the chance. At that site, she talked so much that we did not get the opportunity to really enjoy the site at all. At another place in the same site is an ancient stadium. I watched from above as another group ran a footrace down there, but my group was standing in some ruins of a temple listening to more lecture. It was pretty annoying that I was not even able to go down there, because we ran out of time.

We also visited the Palamides (sp?) which is on the top of a big hill above the town where we were staying. It was pretty cool, and the view was absolutely amazing. I wasn't really interested in the castle I was in, but the view was breathtaking. Once the bus crested the hill to park and let us out, we all saw the view and there was a collective gasp from everybody on the bus. As I got ready to leave on the bus I stopped to buy some oranges from a stand by the castle, and the man just handed me two oranges for free. They were delicious, and probably grown withing 5 miles of where I ate them. There were orange groves everywhere.

By the end of the trip, I was getting sick of looking at rocks piled on top of each other at a bunch of ruins that looked like one another, so a few more sites that we went to made little to no impression on me.

For the two nights we stayed in Nafplio. It really is a tourist town, but it was fun to be there. I also had some adventures there. On the first night I went out most of the evening and into the night with friends. We went out to dinner and I had rabbit for the first time. That was a lot of fun, except that our group grew to about 9 people, and the taverna we went in got taken over by us. You don't really see culture when you travvel in packs. That night we also spent some time in a cafe and I had my first cup of Greek coffee. I actually had two that night, which was a bad idea. I had one before dinner and one 4 hours later after dinner. I discovered my mistake when my heart pounded hard all night. I don't like coffee, but Greek coffee tastes nothing like American coffee, and it is pretty good. I also had some good gelatto. Nafplio is the place in Greece to get gelatto. The perks to it being a tourist town is that I got some good souvenirs, including worry beeds. Greeks walk around playing with worry beeds all the time, and they fascinate me. I always like to do something with my hands, so they are perfect. I bought some that were made of semi precious stones, bandid agate.

I also finally did my assignment for my Orthodox Church class to interview a Greek Orthodox person. I had to walk up to about 5 tables before I found somebody who spoke English, but when I finally did, he was a 34 year old father of young children. I found out that young adult christians in Greece are just like those in America. Very little difference. They think sermons are irrelavent, but they start going back to church when they have families, because they want their kids to know church. They also think that the priests are hypocritical, doing one thing and saying another. It was interesting to listen to him talk, and to see his obvious discomfort at saying anything against the church. But he did say it.

yia sas!

Blog Title

I think today is as good a time as any to explain the title of this blog. If you are not aware, I am away from my usual school, DePauw University. I am studying in Greece this semester at College Year in Athens. I decided to create this blog so I wouldn't have constant e-mails asking me how things are going and where I have been. It was a convenient way to let everybody know what I am up to and how I am doing. It is also a good way to chronicle my trip. Therefore, the obvious reason for the title arises. I am traveling from home to a new place. I have traveled to Greece and will be in this country for the next three months, for a total of four months. The number 21 was to indicate that at the start of this blog I am 21 years old. People look forward to age 21 as a milestone. Alcohol is legal in the US. Insurance rates go down. You are no longer in that awkward middle ground between 18 and 21. In many ways, turning 21 fells like truly entering young adulthood from the awkward teenage adult stage. As the age 21 was a turning point, so is this trip. When a student studies in a foreign country for a semester, they change. I have seen people come back looking very different in imperceptable ways. So I chose the title to indicate that I start this blog at a turning point of my life. Doubtlessly at this time, I have no clue how big this turning point could turn out to be.

My second underlying reason for choosing the title is slightly different. I wish to be able to use this blog in the future, beyond my trip in Greece. I needed to choose a title which would reflect to the best of my ability at the moment something relevant to my life in the future. Traveler fit this, because I don't stop traveling just because I go home. People grow and change through their lives. Just looking back at my 21 years of life I can see how much of a journey it has already been. I look ahead to the next 70 to 80 and realize that there is so much of a journey left. In that time, I will graduate from college and seminary, be ordained, get married, have kids, pastor churches, have trouble, joy, pain, love, retirement, rest, illnesses, and loss. How much further do I have to travel, in stages of life that I cannot even fathom? While this blog will not go for the next 70 or 80 years, I hope for it to continue for some time. Therefore, I chose the name traveler. Not just because I traveled to Greece, but because I have quite a ways to travel in my life. Beyond just travelling in my life, I also have some traveling to do in my call. I am called to be a pastor, but calls tend to develop as time goes on. I don't know where God will lead me, and I have chosen traveler to say that I will travel wherever that is.

So I am a traveler, and will continue to be. What is the point if I stop traveling, stop growing and exploring and learning? Now you read about me traveling in Greece, when I get back...we'll see.

Aikido and Ancient Greece

I finally started aikido yesterday. I stayed for both classes, 2 hours. It was rough. I was absolutely exhausted upon return to my apartment. There was a bit of a language barrier, but that was the least of my problems. They stand and fall differently than we do in hapkido. The stance is a little bigger forward and back, and the front knee is more bent. The hands are held only waist high. Falling was the hardest thing for me to grasp. Rolling was exactly the same, except that they have another even simpler form of rolling that they made me do over and over where it emphasizes control of your body. You go over very slowly. But then they had me working with people who have been doing it for awhile while the other new person was still getting trained in rolling. Hapkido and Aikido are similar enough that I do not look like a beginner in many things, but different enough to greatly confuse me (like with falling). A lot of the locks are the same. I spent two hours yesterday getting thrown into a roll or a fall. Or doing the throwing. The only bad part was that they treat me like I am made of glass. They don't put any pressure on me so that I have to fall or roll or go around in a circle. They just expect me to do it. Whereas I watch them working together, and they are definitely using some force on each other. I wish they would take off the kid gloves and just do it.

I went to the National Archaeological Museum today. It was so cool. It was awe inspiring to be standing there among things that were formed ten thousand years ago. Some of the oldest man-made things we have today were there. I didn't see everything in the museum, because I got tired, but I can always go back. As a student I can get in free. I saw the really big kouros, which was much bigger than I expected, and many mansized ones. There were a lot more than I expected. I also saw artifacts from the neolithic period, the mask of Agammenmon, sone red figure pottery, and quite a bit else. I saw gold, bronze, clay, marble, and stone which had been worked throughout much of Greece's history. Some of the things I saw, I just stood and stared at, practically gaping. I saw things that most of us have only seen in pictures, and I didn't even see it all.

At about 1:40 I got on a trolley for my 20 minute ride back. 30 minutes later we had been stuck in traffic for 20 minutes. I was getting really annoyed, so I just got off and walked back. It took me 45 minutes to get back, but that was with stopping to buy a pastry and some more bus tickets. I figured out what was wrong with the traffic. There was a demonstration blocking one of the major roads. Quite annoying. Demonstrations are legal here, even at the expense of traffic, as long as they do not become violent. They were surrounded by police directing traffic elsewhere. This was the first demonstration I have seen. Now, I know where it is, so I just have to stay clear of it in case it becomes a riot. Sometimes that happens at the tail end of peaceful demonstrations. I have no idea what this one was about.

Next week, we have our first field trip. It is to Argolid/Mycenae/Nauplion and a few other places close by. One of the things we will see is the Lion's gate, which should be fascinating.

Kalispera!!

Church and Children

So, I have done it again. I said yes. It is amazing what happens when you go to a church, open your mouth, and say that one little three letter word. Let me back up and tell you the story from the beginning. I went to St. Paul's for the second time on Sunday. I couple came up to me and the girl I was with during coffee hour. They are late twenties to 30 years old. They were told that they should introduce themselves to us, because they are American and we are American. It turns out that he is on a fellowship to work on his doctoral thesis about early Christianity and Corinth (with a few more details that I can't remember). She is in the process to ordination in the Presbyterian church. She got her M.Div at Boston University, and he got his last degree at Harvard. When she found out that I am going to be a pastor, she was very excited. We had some of a chat, and then she disappeared, presumably to choir practice. About ten minutes later, she comes running out and grabs me and says that she has a wonderful opportunity for me. She said that the children's program needs help. It would be a wonderful opportunity to work with immigrant children (most Anglican children in Greece are immigrants or children of immigrants). So I told her that last summer I worked as a children's director, and said "sure." Next thing I know, I am inside the church talking to a lady named Linda about the children's program. We planned to meet on Tuesday (yesterday) to discuss the children's program. So we met yesterday, over hot chocolate, and talked for 2 hours about the situation they are in. Basically, we need to get the families to bring their kids back, and we have to fight much adversity. You cannot walk from door to door, it all needs to be personal contact, or you will get arrested for proselatyzing. That is illegal. So, she informs me that my job is to figure out how we can get this going with a bang, get the families to bring in their kids, and keep them coming. I have until Sunday to figure this out, and two weeks from Sunday we want to start. Not much time, in a country where I do not yet know the culture. So, that is the challenge ahead of me. I could definitely use all your prayers. Hopefully, we will reach these families, and have the opportunity to teach their kids. Wish us luck.

So, I am still trying to get started on aikido. I don't think I have told you about this yet. I decided to do aikido in order to learn a new martial art and fill my evenings. So, I took a trolley there on Thursday. The sensai wasn't there, so I couldn't sign up. I sat and watched that day. I went back on Friday, met the sensai and filled out paperwork, but I needed to bring in a copy of my passport and two small pictures. I went back yesterday, so equipped, expecting to finally get started. However, my gii (the uniform) was not in yet, much to the sensai's chagrin. I also, expecting the gii, did not take sweat pants with me, so I could not get started. Hopefully (fingers crossed) my last class will end early today, like it has every other time, and I can get there in time to start tonight. Otherwise, tomorrow, I should finally start. Finally. It has been an ordeal.

Well, hopefully I will soon have a little more of Greece to tell you all about soon.

Yia sas!!!