I am, in fact, back from Turkey. Unfortunately, the class was so intense that I didn’t have time to finish posting pictures and my immediate return to Minnesota was filled with thank-God-you’re-back-because-I’ve-needed-you-to-do-all-of-these-things-for-the-last-two-months moments.
BUT!
I will be posting the rest of my Turkey pictures probably some time this weekend. Everything is beginning to calm down finally.
Went to the Gaziantep Museum to see the “Gypsy Girl” mosaic fragment, had some really yummy eggplant stuffed with lamb (which a waiter had to cut up for me because I was eating it wrong hahahahaha) at Imam Cagdas (one of the most famous restaurants in Turkey), visited a mosque where my professor once served as imam, wandered around the bazaar, and ended the day with a housecall at my professor’s good friend’s home. CUTEST TURKISH KIDS EVER.
While in Urfa, which many historians and anthropologists believe to be Ur, we went to the birthplace of Abraham.
According to legend, King Nimrod sentenced Abraham to death by pyre, but God intervened and turned the fire into water and the wood into fish. This sacred pool is still in existence, and legend has it that anyone who tries to fish the carp will go blind.
There is a park, a mosque, and madrasahs surrounding the birthplace of the prophet Abraham which is located in a small cave within the neighboring mountain.
Later that night, the receptionist at our hotel invited us to come have tea at his house and meet his family. His daughters insisted on dressing someone in our group in their traditional clothes, and his sister gave gifts to my professors including a doll she handmade. It was so cool!
His sister brought her family as well, and she offered to make us some food that normally men make. After the food, she was talking to my professor about how important tradition is, asking if we as American college students found it difficult to retain our traditions in such a fast-paced progressive world.
I was eavesdropping and, playing the devil’s advocate, asked if she felt like she was breaking her own traditions because she had mentioned just getting her driver’s license and that she refuses to make her children go through arranged marriages. She laughed and gave me a funny look for being so sassy, but then she went on to talk about the delicate balance between traditions and change. I wish I could have recorded the eloquent way my professor translated her words to me.
In her eyes, getting her driver’s license isn’t going against tradition. It’s a positive change that doesn’t corrupt her way of life. She said that she protested her arranged marriage once before meeting her husband at the altar, and her mother slapped her. As for her views on arranged marriage, she told me that had she known what she was getting herself into, she would have been slapped one hundred times more and that she would never make her children go through the same thing.
She explained that although it seems that the Muslim world’s traditions hold them back from progress, it doesn’t. It gives them the leverage to make change where it is needed while allowing them to keep the traditions that serve as the foundation for their culture.
I told her how lucky she is to have tradition and such a rich culture flowing through and rooting her life. Americans don’t realize what they’re missing. Our culture encourages individualism to the point where some people set themselves so far apart that they’re lonely and try to fill the void with material things. I think this stems from the huge influx of immigrants with the pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps and the come-to-America-for-a-chance-to-start-your-life mentalities of the early 1900’s.
Unfortunately, this era and its ideals also exterminated most of the traditions and cultures of the immigrants who wanted to be American. Since then, immigrants have tried to learn English, lose their accents, and give into the American way of life so they could blend in. This has led to a subconscious mourning generations later, a longing for a community with which we can share habits, foods, and life itself. If you ask most Americans what they’re nationality is, you’ll get a response like “I’m 25% Polish, 25% Irish, and 50% Czech.” This isn’t something most people from outside the US can understand. I mentioned this to my friend in the Netherlands and she had a good laugh about it (not in a mean way, of course). We’re an unanchored society, and we don’t even know it. Most cultures have this unspoken sense of community and togetherness with unconditional care and support that even some families in America lack.
After being so welcomed and taken care of, not only in Turkey, but in all of the countries where families and friends have taken me in, I’m burning with jealousy. If you were working in a hotel and heard that thirty college students were looking for a family to visit, would you have offered your home, food, and tea to them that same day? The Turks have a saying, “Our homes are small, but our hearts are large.” That saying has been reflected by every family that we’ve visited. When I return to the States, I plan on taking that value with me. As a nomad, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to, but I’ll try to instill the same sense of community in everyone I meet everywhere I go.
After our time as the mosque, we drove to Harran. In Harran is located the ruins of an Islamic mosque/university called Ulu Cami, where the number 0 was first used in mathematics and the distance from Earth to the moon was first accurately calculated.
Harran is also famous for its “beehive” houses. These houses look like beehives from the outside (duh) and the shape helps keep them really warm in the winter and really cool in the summer. They’re made of clay and mud, and the one we went into had 22 rooms. It was so cool.
Islam requires that Muslims pray five times a day. On Friday, the Sabbath, it is especially required for men to come to the mosque to pray. For women, I believe, it is encouraged but not required.
My class had the opportunity to observe the Friday noon prayer service, which was quite the experience. All the girls had to cover their hair with scarves as a sign of respect. Then we got split up. The boys followed our tour guide to the men’s section, and the girls followed one of our professors to the women’s section. The women’s section of this particular mosque was in the basement, so we all walked down the stairs outside and stumbled around to get our shoes off before we stepped inside.
The women who were there for the service stared a little bit, not that I was surprised. Tourists hardly ever actually come in to observe prayer services. Also, we had no idea what we were doing. Our hair was sticking out of our scarves all over the place, and we weren’t sure if we were supposed to sit and stand when they did, so we awkwardly tried to follow along before giving up and trying to sit quietly without disturbing anyone. Some of the kids would run around during the prayers and stare at us until they realized we were staring back and smiling. I think the Muslim women liked that we were there though. One of the women even came up to us afterwards and gave us candy that she had also given to the well-behaved children hahahaha
After the service, we were all invited into the imam’s office (boys in one room, girls in the other) for tea, which is a huge gesture of acceptance and welcoming.
A cool note about the particular mosque we were at: There’s a small cave outside the mosque that is traditionally believed to be the cave that the Bible tells us Job stayed in.
First, I fixed my blog. Something was wacky with the galleries.
Second, sorry it’s been so long since I posted! This trip, unlike my last adventure, is first and foremost a class (I hope my professor reads that). I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Islam and writing papers about my responses to my surroundings. My favorite academic aspect of this trip is the great existential conversations about faith and spirituality with my classmates, something we don’t normally get to have in America.
I’ve done soooooo many things that it’s almost hard to put it all into one post. I think I’m going to split it up and do a small post for each thing. Here’s a small taste of our recent destinations: mosques, the first church of Paul, an underground city in Cappadoccia, the Goreme open air museum, Pasabag, Uchisar, and Avanos.
We’ve also been going on a lot of house calls, which involve Turkish families spontaneously inviting all twenty-nine of us over for tea and food. The hospitality of Turkish people continues to blow me away.
I have lots and lots and lots and lots of pictures, and (assuming the next hotel has a decent internet connection) I will put up a bunch of posts with the pictures and short descriptions of what you’re looking at.
Today we woke up at promptly 4:30am and flew to Southeast Turkey, more specifically Mardin. Mardin is thought to have been the home of Noah, Moses, and Abraham. We had the wonderful opportunity to take a tour around an Assyrian Orthodox monastery and an old Islamic religious school, including the inside of their mosque.
Something that fascinates me about Turkey is how peacefully Islam, Christianity, and Judaism coexist. The Turkish people seem to pride themselves in it and want to set an example for the rest of the world where faith groups war over important religious sites.
While we were in Mardin, we also met a boy who kept trying to give us a tour. Kids in Turkey are super funny. We got cat-called by some twelve-year-olds while we were standing outside of a museum. Hahahahaha
I tried throwing all of my pictures into a Flash slideshow since it seemed like the larger pictures weren’t loading before. I’ll keep trying things out until I find something that works. Enjoy!
Last note: I think it’s really funny that Turkish people stare super blatantly at our large, loud group of American college students hahaha A couple nights ago at a bar, some even kept calling one of the blonde girls in our group “Lady Gaga” and insisted on touching her nose to see if it was real. AHAHA I love it here.
Today was our first day of class. We had breakfast on the terrace overlooking the Blue Mosque and then spent the first class introducing ourselves and talking about our preconceptions of Turkey, Islam, and Muslims, and how those perceptions since our arrival.
After class we went on a wonderful private boat tour and had the chance to observe the architecture and landscape of the European and Asian sides of Istanbul at the same time. It was so cool!
Our guide knew the history of almost every building along the Bosporous. Here are some pictures!
One thing about this part of the world that fascinates me every time I go somewhere new is the unique ability these places have to intertwine ancient and modern civilizations.
As my class and I drove through the old city walls cradling the diners and shopping malls, I found that Istanbul greatly reflects this balance in its culture, its buildings, and its people.
It was rainy and dark when we arrived, so I didn’t even bother trying to take pictures through the bus station. Instead, I will elaborate with pictures I found on Google hahaha
Old city walls of Constantinople
Traveling always reminds me of how young the United States is. Today alone, we drove through the Walls of Constantinople (7th century BC), over what was once the location of the dining hall in the Great Palace of Constantinople (330 AD), and past the glowing Blue Mosque (16th century) with its six minarets protruding the sky (which I can see from my hotel room).
Blue Mosque
It’s almost an overwhelming feeling to be in a place brimming with so much history and so many untold stories. The city is so full of life you can practically feel its heartbeat in the cobblestone under your feet.
Today, around 6:30pm, I experienced my first Call to Prayer. The sound of one person at each of Istanbul’s 3,000 active mosques standing in the minarets calling millions of people in the city to come together and pray at the same time fascinates me.
Here’s a video of the call to prayer so you can get some sort of an idea of what it is:
I’m going to go grab some dinner and go to bed. I need to rest up for a whole new day filled with exploring and learning. Good night!
So sick. Pretty sure I’m dying. BUT! I leave for Turkey tomorrow nonetheless, and I am very slowly getting my packing done. I’ll just have to pop a couple extra vitamins or something, because this trip IS happening.
As a reminder for those who missed my previous post about Turkey: I’ll be there for about a month taking a theology course, and I’ll have the opportunity to visit Istabul, Mardin, Urfa, Gaziantep, Adana, Cappadocia, Konya, Pamukkale, Izmir, and Bursa.
And, during my packing procrastination, my-list-loving-self found this:
Brownie points for anyone who gets this for me
This video made me feel a lot better though hahaha:
House Rule #1: No counting down how many days we have left in Ireland. I’ve managed to convince myself that I’ve only been in Europe for about a week. The thought of returning to school, work, and three straight weeks of job training starting literally the day after I return to the United States is depressing. (BUT I’m really excited to see all of my friends and family again)
To avoid breaking the house rule, let’s just say I planned to be abroad for ten weeks, and last week was week nine.
Fear not! I have plenty to look forward to! In January I will be venturing to Turkey for my “Perceiving Islam in Turkey” class.
I’ll be travelling to Istabul, Mardin, Urfa, Gaziantep, Adana, Cappadocia, Konya, Pamukkale, Izmir, and Bursa.
According to the course description, this is what I’ll be doing:
“While traveling across Turkey, visiting sites essential to the development of Islam, sharing meals and conversations with Turkish Muslims, and reading about Islam from both insiders’ and outsiders’ perspectives, we become familiar with the basic beliefs and practices of Islam and its influence in Turkey including worship, family life, politics, modernity, gender relations, relations with other faiths, and intellectual and artistic traditions.”
Cool, no?
Some of you are probably wondering why I’m taking this course. My university requires three theological courses, and I needed to finish up my 300-level this year. I knew I wanted to take a course on something I have little to no knowledge about, and I wanted to take something that would immerse me in a completely new culture (I’m sure this is shocking). So, I picked this, and I couldn’t be happier :]
