CIEE Weekend Trip

This weekend CIEE organized a hard-core trip for the whole group. It was really fun, despite the disproportionate time spent traveling and the fact that several people got food poisoning. Fortunately, the food poisoning happened at the very end, and the time spent traveling we still had fun.

On Friday we flew to Gaziantep, in southern Turkey right by the border with Syria. On Saturday we took the bus from there to Antakya (Antioch), which is a bit farther south. The green is the general region we were in (Gaziantep is actually farther northeast):

There was a lot of time spent on the bus, but we had a lot of fun. We played this really fun game called Contact where one person thinks of a word and tells everyone the first letter. Everyone else thinks of words that begin with the same letter and ask questions referring to one of those words. The point, though, isn't so much to guess the word but to ask a question that the person can't answer. If the person can't answer, the guesser has to find someone else who thinks they know the answer and they say the answer at the same time. If they had the same answer, the person with the word gives up the next letter. So, say Chelsea is thinking of "Nebula" and gives up "N". We guess things like "Is it a cell of the nervous system?" and so on. The thing is you have to ask questions that other players will be able to figure out but the person with the word won't. Plus you have to use your noodle :D I also had some really interesting conversations, especially with Tim and mostly revolving around cognitive science.

We also had a guide for the trip. He was a real character. Many of his facts were flat out wrong. He tried very hard to get us to sing and dance on the bus. And he often referred to the things were we seeing in the superlative: "oldest in the world"; "most in the world".... Even the program leaders were continually rolling their eyes, and it seemed at one point that Kathryn Bourgeois got angry at him.

Gaziantep

We went to the Euphrates!!!! Actually it was a valley where there had once been a city that was now submerged after the Euphrates was dammed. In one place you could still see a mosque minaret poking out of the water above the submerged mosque itself. Omg, it was so cool. The boat ride itself was great, just being there. And then we went up onto the surrounding cliffs to check out the ruins which was fascinating. It was really beautiful how smooth the transition from building to cliffside was. There were cave homes and castle ruins and church ruins and mosque ruins. And the Euphrates...!!!

We went to an archeological museum exhibiting primarily mosaics. It was an incredible collection. I have such a different understanding of mosaics now that I've seen these. Apparently, the mosaics in this museum were salvaged from the submerged Roman city of Zeugma (I'm not sure if it's the same one we'd been sailing over). Plus the super famous "gypsy woman" mosaic was there.

This is actually the Euphrates, but blogger is being really weird about moving pictures around :P :

Another mosaic:

Then we ate perhaps the most delicious meal I've had in Turkey yet. It helped that I was super hungry. It was all kinds of lamb in different sauces eaten with deliciously fresh pita bread. There was also amazing baklava, a specialty of this region.

After the mosaic museum we went to the Gaziantep castle, which wasn't very interesting because the only part that was open was one passage lined with informational posters and illustrative metal reliefs.

Then, we went to the bazaar area. There were many shops selling a variety of things, but more interesting was that you could see many of the artisans working. There was mostly metalwork (including the place in the picture) but there was also some woodwork.

The next day, John was turning 21 so we went to the bar next door to be sure to be celebrating at midnight. It was kinda sketch and not a great atmosphere, but for a couple of songs the locals at the bar did traditional line dances, which was so much fun for me. When Kathryn and I went back to the hotel we hung out with Tim, Jonathan Madison, Caitlin, and Ivy for a while which was fun, especially since I hadn't really gotten to know Jon or Tim by this point.

Gaziantep to Antakya

The next day (Saturday) we traveled from Gaziantep to Antakya and made a couple stops along the way. We stopped at what had been a trading post along the silk road. There was a mosque, a bazaar, what seemed like a castle, and a hamam (Turkish bath). I think the only part that was still in use was the mosque. The hamam was really cool and I had never seen one before. There were different rooms for different temperatures and the building design was cool. We stopped at a restaurant that served local cuisine (of course) and I had nummy lamb kebab (I think).

Then we went to an Armenian Catholic village. I think they said that there was a population of about 120 in 35 houses. The best thing about it was how beautiful the area was. It was in the hills and surrounded by mountains. There was a ton of lush greenery and a fantastic view of the Mediterranean. We went to some ruins nearby that had similarly amazing nature. We saw the sunset from way up high:

The bus was parked right on the seashore and we quickly jumped in the sea before heading out. It was totally perfect, so warm and indescribably refreshing after walking around in the heat (it was hot!!) the whole day. When we got back to the hotel we had birthday cakes for John and Kathryn Bourgeois. Won't complain. Afterwards we went to the restaurant across the street and had dinner and hookah and some really great conversations. Then the manager started dropping some US beats, straight from YouTube, just for us. Eventually, he just let us use the computer to pick the songs. It was fun, but we were all exhausted.

Antakya

The next morning I woke up at 6:30 to go see a marginally interesting waterfall close-by. The coolest thing about it was the way restaurants were built on and around it. It was also really early. After breakfast we were supposed to see an Orthodox service, but in the end weren't allowed to disturb it and could only go into the church later :( In the meantime, Kathryn, Nathan J, Emily Christensen, Linda and I went to another archeology museum. It had some really great artifacts as well. It had mosaics, coins, glasswork, Hittite statues and Greek pottery.

After the museum we took a walk through the nearby park and stopped to get tea and Linda (whose mom is Turkish) taught us a typical game played with tiles called Okay. From almost the moment we left the museum a tall and gangly teen took a avid, although distant, interest in us. He followed us for over an hour. It seemed like he made a slight effort to disguise the fact that he was following us: he'd stop to wash his hands, sometimes it would seem like he was going a different direction or disappear altogether. But without fail he would reappear and go where ever we went. He followed us all through the park, into the cafe (he didn't even finish his tea when he saw we were leaving) and all the way back past the museum and to the Orthodox church. That's when we lost him lol.

After that I wandered around another part of the city with Ali, Kim and Linda. It was nice hanging with them because I haven't as much as with other people. I really liked the feel of the city, small winding streets, a lot of light.... It had that "rustic" feel, Middle Eastern style. We met up with the rest of the group and had nummy lunch at a restaurant, after which we got Künefe, a dessert unique to this part of Turkey. It's like baklava but with sweet cheese in the middle instead of nuts and honey and you eat with some creamy stuff and ice cream. Super good, but we were so full it was hard to truly enjoy it.

Our last stop was at one of the first churches "in the world". Apparently this is where the term "Christian" or "Christianity" was first used. There was also an escape tunnel in the back. There was some other pretty special stuff about it, but it wasn't totally clear to me. Here it is:

From there we headed to the airport and eventually back to campus, ridiculously exhausted, but with some wonderful memories :D