Roots

So I was on my own for the first time in my overseas travels and I have to say I was kind of scared...if we are keeping this blog rated PG..."poop-less." I was going to go to the town of Menemen which is where my great grandmother was born and lived until the Greek/ Turkish population exchange in the 1920's. Problem is, the town is so tiny most Turks haven't heard of it, and being a white female who doesn't speak the language, and is traveling by herself, I couldn't really find a safe and easy way to get there. SO instead I went to Efes (Greek: Ephesus) which was amazing. I walked through a compound house structure that was built in 3rd century AD and still had the mosaics and paint intact even after 2 earthquakes and multiple reconstructions. PAINT! We can't get the paint on the walls of the bathroom I share with my siblings to last more than a year and this stuff was still bright like it was applied yesterday. Ephesus is rumored to be the place that the book of John was written in, it also has a huge gladiator graveyard, the Library of Celsus and The Theater (which was the largest outdoor theater in the ancient world, thus why it gets to be called just "The Theater"...much like "Madonna" or "Cher".)

The Theater is also the place where Saint John gave his speech denouncing Artemis to the Ephesians and preaching the word of Jesus. They sat there and for three hours chanted something along the lines of "Praise Artemis" at him before running him out of town. The Library of Celsus is one of the most beautiful pieces of ancient architecture I have ever seen (1st picture.) There is just something so majestic and mighty and humbling about the facade. I could have sat there for hours, it was wonderful. As I walked down the marble streets all I could think about was the fact that not only did John the apostle walk these same steps, but Cleopatra and Antony, Alexander the Great and possibly even the Virgin Mary. All of these people came to this spot and walked these halls and carved crazy greek writing that I can't read on these walls. Okay, and now you know what a dorky history geek I am. There is no hiding it at this point. I love this stuff.

After walking around a little bit more and getting to the top of the excavation site. OH...did I mention that Ephesus is only 25% "dug up" at this point? Yeah, this is what they have found after going through a quarter of what could possibly be there. SO NIFTY!! Anyways, I got to the top of the site and realized that they were selling "audio tours" at this entrance that I had missed at the other one. Now normally I would have to go because I would be in a group and someone undoubtedly has to pee at this point, and another wants to see the shops, and half of the group is hungry and the other half is sunburned...but wait...I was traveling alone. So you know what I did? I applied some sunblock to my nose, retied my shoes, and bought myself an audio tour and walked back through the entire thing!!!!! It was glorious. I didn't have to stop to take pictures either because I had already been through once, and I learned a ton more (audio tours are the most amazing thing known to man.) So amazing.

Okay I am going to continue this post later and tell you guys about the House of the Virgin Mary as well as some f the bumps in the road to getting back to Istanbul. But for now I have to make sure everything is ready for the bus tomorrow. Keeping everybody in my thoughts and loving on ya from overseas.

~Claire

Michael Jackson

I would just like to take a moment out of my travel log to give pause for a man that truely changed the music and dance industry. Michael Jackson was an amazing influence on my life, he sang the first songs I ever listened to, the first rhythm I danced with and shaped my general appreciation for music as a whole. I want everyone to know this, I am sad he is gone. Michael Jackson inspired me to music and when my Dad talks about how he remembers where he was when he heard that John Lennon had died, I will remember yesterday in the same way. I will miss him, and I would like everyone to know, that even though we were in a Turkish bar when we heard, that we made them play MJ anyway. Here's to an inspiration gone.

RIP King of Pop
~Claire

My Squishy

Well, as per usual, my mother was right. As we closed out our final lecture in Turkey today it hasn't seem like a month has gone by, or even anything close to it. At the same time it feels like forever since I have seen any of you beautiful people. This country has been so wonderful to me, its people, its food, its culture and the very land itself. I love it here and when my professor chimes in with his occasional "this is your first trip to Turkey, not your last" I believe him with every fiber of my being. Tomorrow we are going to party it up in Taksim Square with last min shopping, a little bit of drinking, a fair well dinner...and a little bit of drinking. On friday Avery and I are going to catch the bus to Izmir. I will be staying in a hotel or hostel and then spending my Saturday making my way to Menemen the birthplace of my Great Grandmother. Avery will be heading on to Ephesus but then meet me back in Izmir on Sunday. Monday morning we are going to catch our ride back and have a last dinner in Istanbul before boarding our 5am flight (tuesday) to Brussels. I don't know what adventures will be waiting for me there, but if they are even half as good as the ones in Turkey the fact that I will be as broke as a hobo when I get back will absolutely be worth it.

We went to the Asian side of Istanbul today. On the Ferry Bilgehan pointed out dolphins swimming in the Bosporus out to sea. It was like Sea World...but real. We got off and then thought it might be nice to have a little hike up to see the old castle ruins. What the quaint little road signs did not inform us of was the fact that the castle was at the end of a mile and a half hike at what seemed to my thighs, calfs and butt to be a 90 degree angle. We made it up all the same and the view was awesome (the castle not so much, especially considering there was no information to speak of on what went on there, who it belonged to or if it was of any particular importance.) Went back down after having a Kasarli toast (Turkish grilled cheese) and a beer. Shopped around for a bit and regrouped with our professor who, in all his infinite wisdom, decided not to take the hike from hell. We found another restaurant and even though I had half a sandwich, figured I had to try a fish sandwich because we are on a body of water and I must have burned off something considering the pain I was in. Good plan on my part, the fish was amazing. Got back on the ferry after wards and I got to stare at the awesome groups of jellyfish that chill out in the water near the dock (if you don't get the title of this post go rent "Finding Nemo") Went back to the dorm, chatted with my momma, and am now going to bed.

More later, sweet dreams!
~Claire

How Bazaar, How Bazaar

Hello wonderful people persons! Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, I have been using the weekend to see some local sites and reorganize my life via suite case. So I am going to start off with the bazaar. We took the dolmush Thursday and had quite the time of it. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul looks like your typical indoor bazaar…on crack. The building itself is beautiful, with large painted arches and a few mosaic tiles; and it seems like every square inch of the floor below is covered with shops and booths and clothing and jewelry and scarves and metal things and beads and…everything. There are a ton of people moving in every which direction and I totally understand how one could easily get pickpocketed here and never know what happened to them. Lucky for me I did not have this particular experience, but I have met a few who have.

The best part of the bazaar are the vendors. Each f them seem to have their own game as to how to get you to come and look at their booth of stuff instead of anyone else. I was traveling with three other girls from my group and the first tactic we encountered was the “spice girl” tactic. This mostly involves yelling out “Hey Spice Girls!” and then going through which spice girls each of us were. The second tactic was outright flirtation. “Beautiful girls! Come and look I will give you discount!” this would occasionally work if they told us what the discount would be before we got too far away. Then there was the random shouting of any English words they knew “Hello, yes, thanks!” “American?” “Hello!!!” we figured out very quickly to not approach these vendors mostly because haggling became a problem when you have a 3 word English vocabulary. Then there was one that I totally brought down on myself. I hoped to avoid crazy people by putting on my Koc shirt, in the hopes people would guess I was a student and therefore have no money. WRONG! EPIC FAIL. Apparently every vendor and their mother, uncle, cousin, sister, brother, best friend or wife went to Koc, or is going to Koc, or will be going to Koc. Not only this but what would be a totally logical thought in the US: students are broke. Does not apply here. If you come to a university in Turkey you have to have money, therefore wearing my Koc shirt caught us more flack from sellers than any other aspect of our physical appearance. Yeah, lesson learned.

All in all it was a fun day and I haggled and bought stuff for people and had fun and broke in my shoes that much more. Most importantly I left the bazaar with all ten finger and all ten toes...though if my wallet had limbs I think the carnage would have been...harsh. I justify this because no one will be getting presents from Belgium and I have been using the grocery store so i don't eat out everyday. Speaking of eating out, I have been taking pictures of every meal I have been eating and everyone should expect a food post at some point. :) Write more later, hope all is well.

~Claire

A Tribute to Mr. Benedict: The Hagia Sophia & Blue Mosque

After the whole spa thing and then a wonderful night of sleep, we woke up and climbed to the roof to enjoy the free Turkish breakfast provided by our hostel. From the roof of our hostel we could not only look out over the Bosporus river but could see the spires of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. It was amazing. We watched the sun rise in the sky and decided to head out about an hour later. We thought the Hagia Sophia might be a good idea to cover early because it costs money to get into and we wanted to beat the crowds. WOW…first off for those of you who have never seen the Hagia Sophia (or the Blue Mosque for that matter) it looks straight out of Star Wars. Think firstly, a freaking huge building, both in size and in the generally presence of the building itself. Then think of the main dome, which is about the size of a very large house all on its own, suspended in the sky. This was for a centuries the tallest dome in the world. Under these are a bunch of smaller domes about the size of mobile homes. They are supported by large buttress type dealios, but for those of you who are going to be picky they aren’t quite as harsh, think more arch and less…butt. Hehehehe. All of this is supported by giant walls that are a reddish type color and tower over the square. And then you actually go in.

First off you should remember to breathe. If you are at all interested in Islamic style decoration, Byzantine architecture, or any kind of mosaic art, you have to go here. It isn’t even a suggestion, you just have to. The walls shoot straight up to the domes, the domes are covered in golden Arabic. There are also four large circles with Arabic writing. Had I had enough money for a tour I am sure I could tell you what they mean, and how they are important historically…but I didn’t, so you should just go look it up on google or something. The structure is also supported by giant Corinthian columns that are simply stunning. On the far end of the amazingly large room is a dome that has on it a partial mosaic of Virgin Mary holding the Christ child and next to her on another dome is an even more partial mosaic of Arch Angel Gabriel. What is really interesting is that other than a couple of mosaics on the second level, there is very little Christian art left over on the walls of the Hagia Sophia, some of you might think: of course there is no Christian art, it is a big mosque like building. But the fact is, is that the Hagia Sophia used to be Saint Sophia and was at one point the third largest Catholic church in the world. If you look carefully under the delicately constructed swirls of Islamic art you will see crosses that have been painted over. It is really cool…and I am such a geek.
I could go on forever but there is this other really awesome building across the courtyard I am now going to tell you about.


The Blue Mosque is an equally stunning building situated about a football fields length away from the Hagia Sophia. This is a working mosque (the Hagia used to be until it was turned into a museum and there is currently debate going on to switch it back) and when you enter you do so with those going to practice their faith. Once you are in the courtyard you are separted into two groups; practicing Muslims and visitors. Visitors wait in line while reading signs in five different languages about proper behavior within the mosque. Women must cover their heads, wear skirts that hit their ankles and have their upper arms and shoulders covered. Those that don’t meet these standards are given large bolts of blue cloth in order to cover themselves to the point that is proper. I have to say I was a little pleased with myself about the fact that I wasn’t stopped or given more cloth. Then again I was wearing a skirt that hit the floor, a long sleeve black shirt and had a head scarf in my bag.

After taking off your shoes you enter the mosque and then you eyes explode in your head because the mosaics covering the walls are so complicated and so immense that you don’t even know how it is possible that things like this exist. The walls and domes are all covered from head to toe (much like me) in blue and red flowers and swirls and patterns that look like someone quilted the walls. It…I can’t even…you just have to go. The pictures don’t even come close to getting it right. People watching in the Blue is fabulous. You see women in headscarves, women in burqa, women with the blue cloth covering their head, and then the best group of people, women who have been given cloth to cover themselves, get past the guards and then remove it. If you are a person like this, you better not travel with me…ever. I will not only bite your head off about it, but I will simply refuse to go anywhere with you. It is not appropriate, it is not okay, and if you give that much of a crap that you “look good” in a holy place of worship you should go to the bazaar and wear your tank top and mini skirt over there, don’t even come to the mosque. Okay, I am done Anyway, I sat and watched people and thought and observed how the women in the prayer areas were praying and then attempted to mimic them and offered up a prayer of my own. Don’t get me wrong, I love big cathedrals that Christian’s tend toward, but I think we should take a page from mosques and do the whole mosaic/ dome thing. I don’t think Jesus would mind.

Wow, this post is going to go on forever…if you are still reading I am mildly impressed and I am going to make sure the pictures I pick are really cool so you have something to look at.

Then we went over to the archeological museum and I was like a kid in a candy shop looking around at all of the sculptures and awesome art and Roman and Greek and Hellenistic period amazingness. It rocked, I got to see mosaics from the Ishtar Gate…yeah you know you are jealous. The Istanbul archeological museum is one of three that holds dragon panels from the original. I am hoping to get to Berlin in order to see the entire gate, but we will see if I run out of money before then. Speaking of that, just checked in on my account balances and I need to slow my roll…for reals. Then again I don’t really plan on buying ANY souvenirs in Belgium, mostly because Turkey is cooler and more different, so that might help a little.

I am going to pause here, because this post is getting entirely too long and I need to break it up a little bit; might do a food post next or something so the blog doesn’t look so damn dense. Hope this post finds everyone well. Thanks for tuning in!

~Claire

p.s. Wanted to let you guys know that you can click on any of these images and see a full view that might be a bit more clear than the mini version I fit into the text. :)

Your Head and Your Heart

Okay so yesterday’s update part II:

It is at this point that I might get a little bit political/ interject some of my observations. In order to enter the Blue Mosque those that run the mosque ask that there are certain clothing restrictions that are met. As you might be able to image there are more restrictions for women than there are for men. Men are asked not to wear shorts. Women are asked to wear long skirts and don a headscarf, as well as cover their shoulders and upper arms. This wasn’t really a problem for me because I figured this would be the case anyway and came prepared. What was really the kicker about all of this, and you will have to forgive me to jumping the gun when it comes to the order of my day, was when Jenny and I went out for dinner that night. I wore a black cotton dress that in the states I would not have even thought twice about because it goes down to my knees and isn’t altogether that low cut. To get to dinner we had to catch a cab from the main square; never have I felt more like a hussy in my life. I was very literally wrapping the scarf I had brought around my shoulders and chest in attempts to cover myself. It was silly and I was fine but the fact that I had spent my entire day covered from head to toe and being surrounded by women that were covered from head to toe made my self-consciousness level off the charts. It was horrible.

I thought back to the lectures we had, had early in the week in class and how all of the women professors had said that we as Americans would of course find the law prohibiting women in Universities as a repressive measure and that everyone should just be able to practice religion as they want. I would be lying if at first I didn’t think just that. I grew up and was educated in America and therefore it has been pounded into my head that everyone should have certain freedoms and everyone should have certain liberties. Why shouldn’t a woman be allowed to wear what she wants in a school? My feeling like a hussy walking through a square in anything less than long sleeves and a skirt down the ground, is why. If you let women wear head scarves in the classroom, all women will eventually wear headscarves in the classroom. By preventing the more conservative group to practice this outward showing of faith, you enable the entire population to be free to do what they wish. You enable many by disabling one. To allow head scarves in universities you would strip the right from women to not wear them. I cannot possibly imagine what it would be like as a practicing Muslim woman, who chooses not to cover her head, to be in a classroom full of women who cover. The pressure would be immense and I don’t know if I would be able to do it, as an American grown up with different convictions, let alone getting judgments from my peers.

Many of you are going to read this and think I am turning into a repressive wench, but the fact is, is that Turkey is not the United States, neither is Iraq, or Germany or China. We are different and therefore we MUST be governed by different rules and laws. I still believe that there are some basic rights for us as humans but the parameters of those rights in my mind have changed. Also my views about what should be allowed in the United States have changed. We as Americans must push for religion to be delegated into the private sector of our society. It isn’t going to happen any time soon, if it happens at all, but we have to try. Religion has no place in our schools, our courts or our patriotic decorations. If you are a believer and you want to practice, do so in your mind, in your thoughts and actions and in your home. If you want to don a symbol of your religion do so in your house or when you go shopping; don’t bring it to a university. In your mind is the place in which you can truly be free, run rampant with your convictions there. You should be living your religion anyway, is there no greater gift to G-d than to practice in your life what you believe in your heart? No one needs a head scarf or a cross or a yarmulke in order to do this. And from here I will make a promise: from this point on (though not like I do so all that much anyway) I promise that I will not wear religious symbols on my person while at Michigan State or any other university I might attend. The only exception to this would be when I am traveling to get to church or coming back. I am going to try and practice what I preach and I think this would be the best way to do so. Religion is beautiful, keep it in your heart, not on your person.

Love you all,
~Claire

Turkish bath...Not Turkish Delight

Hello All! So I finally found a second to sit down and update everybody on life. Sorry it has been so long but between traveling, lectures and sightseeing life has been a little hectic on this side of the pond. We made it to Istanbul safely and checked into our amazing hostel in the Mosque district, appropriately named Istanbul Hostel. I would highly recommend that if you are in this part of the world you stay here. It is clean and safe and the staff was the most amazing and helpful people you could ever meet. The hostel is situated about a 2 min walk from the square that holds both the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. For those of you who have no idea what these buildings are I would suggest you go and look up some stuff right now. They are the most beautiful examples of Ottoman architecture I have ever seen in my life and the history behind both buildings is wonderful. I would account it for you but I don’t have the time and quite frankly I don’t think you have the patience.

We decided on the bus that it might be a good idea to relax and find something nice to do in the evening once we arrived and since the mosques and bazaars were being given whole days to do later we thought a nice traditional Turkish bath might be kind of cool. Oh boy. The hostel has a really awesome deal with a local traditional bath where you pay 45 TL and you get the whole package deal. So we went for that and grabbed a cab into what must have been one of the more sketchy parts of the area. Upon arriving an older Turkish woman who spoke very little english ushered the girls down a cement staircase in a back alley and into a large room with smaller rooms/ lockers coming off of it. Each of us were shown into a locker, given a towel and a pair of bath shoes and told to strip. (Yeah it keeps getting better after this so only the brave should venture on reading.) After this all of us emerge from the lockers and into the larger room (where there are a couple of Turkish women chilling on couches and pillows as well as some Germans (?)) clutching our towels like there are our last hold on life. The old Turkish lady motions that we should follow her and we go into this tiny little corridor that leads into a sauna. This room then connects to a larger room made of marble with very high ceilings and a very large slab of rock in the middle.

We are greeted by yet another old Turkish lady, accept this time she is very large, very saggy and very much naked (accept for her bathing suit bottoms…which were very small.) Around the edge of the sauna runs a big built in bench thing and this then has little basins with faucets on every wall. Each of us are shown to a basin and told to use the bowls to pour hot water over ourselves. It is also at this point that that old Turkish woman, who doesn’t speak any english, and is large and naked, snatches our much loved towels away from us…oh goodness. We chill in the big sauna room for a bit before the lady comes back and motions to me that I should lay out on the big slab of rock. I do so and she puts on this big mitten thingy, at this point I am just hoping to get out of there with all ten fingers and all ten toes. She uses the mitten to scrub off every piece of dead skin on my entire body and I cry a little bit as the tan I had kind of been accumulating goes along with it. Then she leads me back to my basin and motions for me to continue washing. So all of us get the Turkish scrub down and a different lady comes in and again motions for me to lay down. This part was the best. She takes a giant luffa and suds you up and then gives you a body massage. There was a little more to the spa thing but I think you have heard enough at this point and there are other adventures to relay

I have to go to a tour of campus now, but for anyone who is reading this currently, I will finish the post when I get back!

~Claire

...Not Constantinople

Making this one really quick too, I have made it to Istanbul and am staying in a fabulous hostel in the mosque district. As soon as I get some reliable internet I will update. Promise, promise, promise. Awesome pictures to come too.

~Claire

Quicky #2 Turkey

Had an amazing time in Olympus this weekend, going to have to tell everybody more about at some point or another, just wanted to let everyone know I got back and will be posting pictures of the most amazing blue sea and gorgeous mountains you have ever seen sometime soon. We are going to Ataturk's mausoleum in about an hour and I plan on getting a mini bust if I can. He rocks and his eyebrows are cool...nuff said. Loving it here still, the people and the food and the country are something I am enamored with. At this point I am pretty much living on a large tub of yogurt I bought a week ago, honey, bread, jam and I had a kabob yesterday. Post more later, missing and loving you all!

~Claire

Gusto

I have the feeling I am beginning to burn out with the whole update the blog every day. I knew this was going to happen so I am going to slow up a little bit. The group is taking the train to Antalya this weekend and I will not be taking my computer so maybe I will recharge and return with more gusto and whatnot.

So random ponderings of the trip since i don't feel like giving a breakdown of the day. Interestingly enough, as I mentioned in my last post, life here has become much more simple. Here I focus on studies and seeing the country and the rest of the time is spent trying not to spend money. My diet has drastically changed. At this point I am living on small strips of cheese, cucumber, bread and jam and if I get up early enough an egg for breakfast. Of course coffee is included with all meals. for lunch I am using up my power bars because we get about 30mins between lecture and class to eat and go to the bathroom and stretch our legs. Dinner is whatever I end up buying at whatever restaurant we end up at. This is going to change though because I bought a HUGE tub of yogurt (medi style, so sour tasting to americans who aren't sued to it) and a box of muesli. I "borrowed" a small spoon from the kitchen and mix these things with honey in a tea cup and will be using this for breakfast and dinner (since I need to slow up on spending.) Very simple. Even when we go out to eat, I figured out how to order a grilled cheese in Turkish and it tends to be a lot cheaper than anything else. Not to mention the cheese is awesome. Don't get me wrong I have been enjoying slightly more traditional meals as well but I can't do that everyday or I will have no money by the time I get to Belgium.

I would just like to emphasize how much I love hearing the call to prayer a couple times each day. It is beautiful and anyone who has anything to say against Islam should sit in a mosque and listen to it for a moment. Why is it that I was born into one of the only major "old" religions that doesn't have a service that is mostly in song??? I have been to a Jewish service and I know enough about a Muslim service to know that both of these have sung prayer. I am all over the Latin and whatnot but Catholics have pretty much done away with chanting at this point. Bad plan in my opinion.

Going to Antalya this weekend and then have plans to get to Izmir on the four days we have between Ankara and Istanbul. So the 13th and the 14th and leave on the 15th. Before this we are going to be going to a smaller town outside of Izmir (can't remember the name right now I will post it later.) All fo these places have really awesome history of Turkey and I am looking forward to going to some museums and learning what I can about ancient Mesopotamia. Mr. Benedict would be proud. :) Okay, bored now, going to go do something. :) Hope this finds you all well.

~Claire

Mosque

Best moment from yesterday: sitting on the steps with Chris, Kim, Jen and Randle that lead down into the Mosque at Bilkent University and listening to the call to prayer while looking out over the night lights of Ankara. I must say it was so peaceful and made me so amazingly content that is worries me that I have these moments all the time and am just moving too fast to realize that I am having them. I have been able to slow down here, get back to simple things, and simple pleasures; focus on my education, both inside and outside the classroom. It is so nice.

The last day or so has fallen into what I can only assume will be end up being the rhythm of the rest fo our time in Ankara; lecture from 10:00-11:30ish and then a 45min break and then class till 2:00pm (on Tuesday s and Thursday s we will have another lecture at 2:00pm.) After this if we need to, the group heads to the campus market to buy bread, jam and any other necessities for the next couple of days. Then we either catch a taxi or walk about 45mins back to Aysel (the guesthouse we are staying in.) People get on their computers and talk to family members and nap a little bit (or update their blogs) and then those that want to venture out to find dinner do so and some stay at Aysel to sleep and catch up on reading. Yesterday the five of us decided that we would walk over to the other campus in Ankara, Bilkent University, and check out the Mosque. Long flowly skirt adorned and headscarf in hand we took the 10min walk over to the campus and were greeted with a very modern looking mosque that was amazingly stunning in the setting sun. The guards didn’t seem to mind us there (there were a lot of police/ guard looking people walking around or looking at us from towers) and via sign language we figured out that it was okay to take pictures. I think they were very interested/ appreciative of the fact that we all took our shoes off and the women donned headscarves before entering the Mosque. Either way when we went in there was one guard and when we came out there were three. They were very friendly though as we looked around and took some snap shots.

After that we followed the signs to Bilkent Centre which ended up being a shopping mall, which was just fine with us because we wanted to eat dinner. On the slightly ironic side of things we found a “traditional” Chinese food restaurant, and Chris was in our group (Chris is Taiwanese but speaks Mandarin) as well as Kim who speaks Cantonese. So I ended up having sushi in Turkey for dinner. It was a cool experience but I like the sushi better in Ann Arbor.

More later, haven’t finished this post yet, don’t have time right now
~Claire

The EU is a Butthead...

Pictures later today!!!!! For all posts!!!!!

Okay, so I have worked out a system. I can’t get internet in Aysel but I can get online when I am in the classroom that we have our lectures in. So, what I am going to do is write up this blog entry in the evening as well as upload any pictures from the day and then post it the next day after my lecture is done (or before if I get there early.) This way I can get everything done without taking up too much time or staying up late at night. Today has been going well. We had our first lecture by Dr. Ozlem Tur entitled “Turkey and the Middle East.” She was wonderful. She gave us a brief background on Turkish foreign policy and then went right into Turkish history when it comes to associations within the west and a newly found identity with the Middle East. Dr. Tur was very engaging and it was a great way to start off the day. After an hour and a half lecture with a brief question and answer secession at the end, we broke for lunch for about 45min and I took my meal (bread and jam with a power bar and a couple of mentos) out to the courtyard with Avery and we sat in the sun on a swinging bench and discussed the secular and religious divide in Turkey as in comparison to the US.

I think it is interesting here because Turkey has made a very clear and very strict policy on creating a secular government. The banning of headscarves in universities as well a strict anti-Islamic role within the GOVERNMENT all point to policies in which Turkey refuses to be an Islamic state. Avery saw this as a slightly oppressive move in which religion is banned to the private sector and has no place in the public square. I saw it as liberating. Would the US be having as much of a problem if we practiced truly secular government? And for those of you who would argue that we do: give me one non-religious based argument against gay marriage/ civil unions. Tel me the last time we had a President who isn’t a Christian dude…oh wait…we haven’t. Explain to me why every public school holiday is based around the Christian calendar. Don’t get me wrong, it is convenient for my life, as a Catholic, to have our government function this way, but it is not right nor fair. Turkey has made the choice to sacrifice religion in the public sphere as much as it can (because truly a government based on the people cannot ignore the religious aspects of the people’s lives) in order to have a much more effective version of a “separation between church (or in this case mosque) and state.”

Is it worth it? Turkey has obviously paid dearly in that it, at least for now, has given up acceptance by the EU with no help from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. When two of the most powerful countries of the EU are against a Muslim country joining, how does a country get over that? Europe is afraid of Islam, Europeans don’t like Muslims; the idea of letting them into their little social club means that they have to not only accept Muslims onto the yacht but they have to begin to associate and identify with them to some extent as fellow members of the EU.

So there you go, a taste of what is going to be going on in my education life for the next two months. If you are sleeping right now you should not be a James Madison student. This stuff gets me fired up and I love it. I think if this trip goes well I might declare a Middle Eastern specialty. I like it here, and I don’t see that changing. On a more social note, I think I am going to get fat off of waffles. Sorry Mom, there is no way getting around carbs here (though I am doing okay with sweets…kinda.) But Turks are all about the fruit/ ice cream/ flavored cream covered waffles as a desert. Included is a picture of my down fall. Not a bad way to go if I do say so myself. I will write more later, maybe but this is going to be all for now. Love in bunches and baskets!

~Claire