A Second Trip to Antioch

If you don't recall, I took my first trip to Antioch in November of 2007. I absolutely loved it, and found an excuse to go back this last week. I'm so glad I went! It was a wonderful opportunity to soak up some extra history before I leave, as well as spend time with dear friends in a beautiful setting. I also got to go to the Archeological Museum, which we ran out of time to do last time I went. I particularly wanted to go there because it is known for its collection of mosaics, and boy were there a lot of mosaics! There were 2 large rooms and 3 small rooms full of mosaics, and more in the courtyard outside. Most of them were recovered from that region, though certainly there are mosaics all over Turkey.


Even though I went for the mosaics, I enjoyed the last 2 rooms as well, which featured ancient artifacts from as early as the 3rd millennium BC up through coins from the 17th century. I just love walking through 4000 years of history, knowing that it was all found in the region that I'm standing in. Antioch itself was founded by Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great's four generals who inherited part of his vast empire. The area overall has been in the possession of many empires, including Akkadians, Amorites, Hittites, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Seljuks, Byzantines, and Ottomans. The lion below adorned the steps into an ancient temple, and that blue Egyptian-style bowl was just one of the prettiest ancient artifacts I've seen in a while.



In addition to the museum, we visited some of the sights I saw before, such as the Roman aqueduct and Peter's church, and along the way enjoyed much of the unique Turkish scenery. Some sheep (a common sight here) were kind enough to pose for a picture, a man was selling handmade bayberry soap from the back of his mule, and the sunset on the Med was gorgeous. One of the towns in the area is named Daphne from ancient times because, according to local legend, it was where the river nymph Daphne was changed into a bay tree to escape the unwanted affection of the god Apollo.

Two more weeks of Turkishness

I have just 2 weeks left here in this country, and I'm still in denial. I keep telling the people around me how much time I have left, in order to remind myself that I'm leaving. It's not that I don't want to go back to the US. It's just that I haven't seen the US in almost 2 years. I've gotten used to this place. Since my old roommate left, I spend considerably more time with Turks than I do with Americans. In the last month, I've especially found myself becoming more comfortable being myself in my "new" language, and more Turks have commented how I've learned to communicate more naturally. I love learning, and every day I learn new words or phrases from every day conversation. I've even mastered 2 new Turkish dishes! Several months ago I wrote about learning in class how to make a bulgur pasta-like dish with a garlic tomato sauce (see previous post). Tonight I made it all by myself, with the help of a friend to chop and grate and form. She said it turned out great! Two weeks ago I made Turkish beans and rice and had my neighbor (who is an excellent cook and a good friend) taste it for me. She said the only thing I needed to change was to add more salt to my rice (I didn't salt it). Next week I think I'll try soup. I'm trying to soak up every moment of my cross-culture experience, drinking as much tea as possible, and stopping to sit and talk with an aquaintence for a while or have dinner at their house when asked even though I was originally on my way home.

Adventures in language learning

Tomorrow I have an exam in DNA class, so of course I feel the need to procrastinate from studying by doing things like updating my blog. (I got a lot more cleaning done during exam time in grad school!) Since my exam tomorrow will be in Turkish, it seemed appropriate to blog about my experience I had in language learning this week. I read an article once about acquiring a second language, and it said that when you are learning a new language, the language you are speaking is not really the language you are trying to learn (for example, Turkish), but instead a language you invent based on the building blocks of language you have learned. Eventually, when you become fluent, you will really be speaking that other language (such as Turkish).

So on Saturday I went to my friend's house for dinner and had a lovely time chatting with her and her family for a long time even after dinner. She made a TON of food for us, I think I counted 9 different dishes. Lentil soup, beans and rice, fried cauliflower, stuffed grape leaves, salad, potato salad...you get the idea. And of course she insisted I eat a considerable amount of EVERYTHING. After dinner, we had tea, as is the custom. After I had finished my tea, they asked if I wanted dessert. I said I didn't want it just yet because I was full. My friend asked, "how could you still be full, it's been a while since we've eaten." I replied by gesturing towards my empty mug of tea and saying literally, "yes, but I'm continually filling." The meaning I was hoping to convey was "I'm full because you keep giving me more to put in my stomach!" But in Turkish, the object (for ex, "stomach") is not always necessary like in English, which is convenient for a lazy language learner like me who prefers to stick to simple sentence that can be formed quickly. Well, when I formed this sentence from the building blocks I had acquired, my friend's family started laughing. I didn't ask why (I never do), so my friend offered an explanation. "In Turkish when a baby eats a lot and there's stuff in it's diaper, we say 'the baby is filling...'" So apparently I was implying not that I was stuffing my stomach, but that I was wearing a diaper and it needed to be changed. Ah, the joys of language acquisition.

What I'll miss the most

The focus of this blog has been new things I have seen and experienced in Turkey. Since I have been here for almost 2 years, there's not a lot left that's new anymore. Now I am getting ready to leave in less than a month. Someone has asked me what I'll miss the most from this place, and the answer was easy: the people. But I haven't talked much about the people on this blog, so today I wanted to show you some of them. Some of them I've only met once, or seen in passing. I Others are good friends. The good friends I'll miss very much, but I'll also miss the warmth and uniqueness of the many people I don't know (or know well) who I see here every day. I hope it gives you a glimpse of these people that I love.