Health and Next Week

Tomorrow, I will be heading to Malatya on a 5pm flight. Malatya is in the Southeaster part of Turkey. It is a far more conservative and less touristy city than I been to during this trip or perhaps in my life. There is a 3 day Turkish Chemical Engineering conference at which all of my lab mates are giving presentations. Since the conference will be in Turkish, the educational aspect will be mainly so see how these conferences are held and the interactions that occur. During most of the conference, I will use this chance to see some of the sites. There is only one small museum in Malatya, which is supposed to be based on the local Anatolian history. The current city of Malatya is relatively recent as the original is about 7 km away. Lonely Planet says that it is well worth the journey to this older city as it should capture what Anatolian life was like around 100 years ago. I think there is a museum there as well. On Friday, I will be taking a tour with my labmates that is for about half a day. I don't recall what it involves, but I will be sure to tell you after I get back. Saturday, I will be leaving on a tour with Mert and Canan at around 5am. We will be traveling to the city of Urfa by way of the Ataturk Reservoir. The reservoir is the largest in Turkey and is apparently something to see. I am assuming it is on the order of out Hoover Dam. One of the other stops is to Mount Nemrut. "In 62 BC, King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene built on the mountain top a tomb-sanctuary flanked by huge statues (8-9 meters high) of himself, two lions, two eagles and various Greek, Armenian and Persian gods, such as Hercules-Vahagn, Zeus-Aramazd or Oromasdes (associated with the Persian god Ahura Mazda), Tyche, and Apollo-Mithras" (Wikipedia). The tour will end in Urfa which is 40 miles from the Syrian border and has a significantly more Middle Eastern feel to it than other areas of Turkey. Lonely Planet says that this is an amazing city to visit especially for its bazaars. I think this trip will be fun.

Now, what could possibly hamper the trip is my health. I can't remember how much I have updated this blog on my health, so I'll give a quick over view. After my first treatment that was described didn't seem to be working, I went to the medical center here at METU for a check-up. the doctor had some tests run here at their microbiology lab and determined that I just had giardia. I would like to add that the tests did not cost me anything. In fact, I only paid .8YTL for the doctor's visit. He put my on Ornidazol, which is variant of Metrodinazol, which I had the first time. After almost two weeks, I didn't particularly feel better, I went back and found the doctor I had was out on vacation. Fortunately, I was told to see another doctor, who ended up being the head of the medical center. He also spoke english, so I was able to describe my problem. He sent me for even more tests than before. They determined that my giardia was gone, but that I might have a small viral infection that should be clearing up soon. He gave me a strict diet of Bread and Rice and told me to come back in a few days. The diet made me feel better, but was indicative that my stomach is unable to handle foods other than these. Beceause I was felt better, I actually tried a fish sandwich which didn't work out so well. I went back on Friday, when he told me to increase my diet to bread, bananas, and soups with veggies. I have been living on that for the past two days. My stomach is very tender, but at least there are foods I can eat. I am trying to slowly add more complex things. Today, I tried some almonds (about 4), and they slightly upset my stomach, so I'll try something else tomorrow but also with just two almonds. I am slowly working my way back to normal food. For the trip, I will probably be heavily reliant on bread and trying small things off of everyone's plates. It's too bad that things turned out this way, but I guess it is all part of the adventure.

I'll try and update from Malatya, but I don't know if I'll have internet access. If not, I'll try posting Sunday night when I get back.

Bodrum Day Three

After such a long day, everyone ended up sleeping in. I awoke around 10am and lounged around waiting for everyone else. I ended up writing a few postcards which I had picked up during the cake hunt the day before. Everyone ended up getting up around noon, and we started cleaning right after breakfast. At around 3, they told me that if I wanted to see the Underwater Archeology museum I should leave on the 3:20 dolmus. Lonely Planet touted the museum as being one of the best underwater archeology museums in the world. That's quite a compliment considering its competition with museums in London, France, and Germany. I packed all my things and took my luggage with me as we were going to take the bus back to Ankara at 9pm.

I got to the museum at around 4, leaving about 2.5 hours to check everything out before it closed. The entrance cost is 10 YTL, and you get a shnazzy ticket that has a picture of the museum on it. In fact, all the museums in Turkey, that are run by the government, use the same type of ticket which allows entrance after a machine scans it. Maybe I'll post a picture of one of them at some point.

The museum was a little disappointing. The guidebook indicated there there were two self-guided tours you could take. The green arrows are for the short tour, and the red arrows for the long one. Well, it's a good thing they mentioned that because otherwise I would have had to look at the ground at the right time to see the arrows there were marked with long and short, otherwise I probably would have been confused the whole time. So after all that, I basically forgot about the arrows because they weren't consistent and they lead to weird places where things weren't marked. Anywho, there were several cool things about the museum. The first being the replica of a merchant ship that was excavated near Bodrum located in the chapel. The artifacts that were excavated were displayed around the chapel, and the ship was free to be walked on. The really nice part about each building is that they are all air conditioned. So, it made the chapel that much better.

There are two other standard buildings at the museum that house exhibits. One houses an in detail look at the excavation of a Greek merchantship. There is a video in there detailing the excavation but it's in Turkish. The next room houses a scale replica of the excavation site. It was fascinating to see where and how things were located. Dispalyed in the following room were some of the artifacts recovered, including a bust of Nefretiti. The display in that room that I found most fasinating was the bulk glass ingots there were carried on the ship. I never really thought about how raw materials were moved in ancient times. I know that wine, olive oil, and other foods were moved about, but I always assumed that you made glass objects if you had a supply of silica and not by importing it from some other location.

The second building houses glassware that was excavated amongst the numerous ancient near Bodrum. The room was really dark, making photography dificult, but I was able to capture the following picture. With the darkness and air conditioning, this was actually a nice haven from the intensely bright and searing sunlight outside.

There have been several towers built over the years, I think five in all. Each of the towers houses a different exhibit, but all of them were open. As a side note, there are two exhibits that are not included in the price of admission, one is Glass-Shipwreck exhibit and the other is the artifacts from the tomb of Queen Ada, a Carian queen (according to Lonely Plant). Anyways, they weren't even open for me to go in. Actually, they are only open during the week, so go figure. Anyways, in the English tower is another exhibit of an excavation of a fishing boat. At the entrance, there were two artisans selling their wares. The first was a woman who was selling hand made jewelry she was making right there. Her pieces were pretty but none of them really caught my eye. The second however was an elderly man who was painting with water colors. There was one in particular that I found fascinating. So someone is getting a present when I get home...

The view from the castle over looking the harbors, the Aegean, and Bodrum are worth the admission alone. The castle sits right on the pennisula that separates the two harbors that make up Bodrum's waterfront. The Knights Hospitallar built the castle in 1402 to defend the city (also from Lonely Planet). Obviously wanting to see things from afar, the castle offers amazing views. By exploring, you can walk the perimeter walls and capture some lovely photos while listening to the waves lap at the shore. It didn't seem like most of the tourists were willing to wander as I did, so in general I didn't have to fight for elbow room everywhere I went.

I think the funniest thing I encountered on this whole trip happened while I was exploring the northwest corner of the castle. I was walking along the upper perimeter when I saw this guy taking pictures of this dome with glass fixtures embedded in it while using his hand to cast a shadow. Now, I don't know what he was actually doing, but it looked like he was trying to cast a shadow on the nipple looking glass fixtures. :) Yes, I know I have a dirty mind, but it was really amusing because I couldn't think of anything else it could be. Well, not wanting to pass up an opportunity, I did the same thing. I think he found it amusing that I was trying to do the same thing as him, whatever that was, so we had a good laugh together.

I finally found my way back out of the museum, and was glad to meet up with Canan and Mert after a little while. They hurriedly got McDonalds for dinner, and we ended up having to rush to the otogar to catch our 9pm bus back to Ankara. Apparently the dolmus that was running between the development and Bodrum were full, so they had to call for a second one which made them later than they anticipated. Basically, it just gave us a workout as we hurried back.

Overall, the trip was absolutely amazing. It was a really nice break from the large amount of work I have been doing over the last two months. I really hope the rest of my travels in this country are as nice. Next week, I will be traveling to Malatya for a Turkish chemical engineering conference that my group is attending. As part of the conference, there are two different tours I will be taking. One of which will take me to the town of Urfa, which is 40 miles from the Syrian border. Apparently, it will give me an authentic taste of Middle Eastern life. So, I'll have lots to report when I get back!

Bodrum Day Two

After the french fry fiasco the previous night, I was a little wary of the plans for the day: take a boat cruise. Because the boats leave between 9 and 10, I was dragged out of bed at 7:30, so we could make the trip down to the docks on time. Not wanting to have a bad stomach on the water, I ate lots of bread for breakfast. We took a dolmus down to Bodrum and walked down to the marina. There are several boats belonging to a cooperative that you can buy a seat on. It cost 25YTL for a 8 hour ride, which I thought was a deal. We walked down the marina towards where the boats were moored and were told that the first boat leaving was full. We waited until a second boat started taking passengers and placed our things on board. While waiting for it to depart, we got Cay at a cafe across the street. It ended up being the worst tea we had ever tasted. Oh well, at least I was able to get this photo...

So, here is how the boat trips work. The cruise lasts about 8 hours during which there are 5 stops for about 30-45 minutes each for swimming. At each stop, there is a feature that is fun or interesting about it. The first stop, named the aquarium, has inredibly clear water for it's about 50ft depth. Fish normally are swimming about but not the day we visited, or so I was told. I didn't enter the water until the second stop, bceause of my fear of swimming in anything but pools.

At the second stop, we moored up to a dock which has been built to shelter a cave who's mud is supposed to contain some sort of purifying qualities. Not being the type of person that likes rubbing random mud on them self, I decided to go swimming with Canan. We walked over the rocks and crawled in. The water was really warm in parts. The water temperature gradients in pools, lakes, and oceans have always fascinated me. You can swim a few feet and the temperature changes a good 5-10 degrees F. Anyways, at this point I decided to look underwater with my eyes open, and ended up losing my contacts. It was ok since I can see pretty well without them anyways. We climbed back in the boat and laid out on the top deck to dry off and tan.

The third stop features a deep hole that is supposed to have been made by a meteor. I'm pretty sure this isn't true, but I found it entertaining none the less. I hope in and swam around. This time I had snagged the goggles that Mert had brought along. We swam out to the hole, which is located right next to a cliff that you can climb. At the moment, there weren't any jumpers, but a group later managed to climb up there and a few of them jump off after much yelling and encouragement. The hole is interesting because near the edge, the water is only about 3 feet deep, and then plunges about 200 feet. I dove down to examine the sides of it. I was rewarded by seeing many silvery yet striped fish and a sea urchin. I had never seen one of these outside of an aquarium. It was a deep shade of burgundy. I swan back to the boat where I found lunch waiting for me.

Because of the giardia, I had brought along some of the simit we has bought the day before to eat for lunch. They ended up serving grilled chicken, with pasta and salad along with bread. I felt that since the chicken was plain that I should be able to eat it with the bread. After several helpings of bread (by stealing Canan's) the chicken was all gone, and I felt refreshed.

After laying out in the sun for a bit, we arrive at the fourth stop which was located on a narrow shelf before the bottom dropped off into the channel. Our cruise was actually between a long island and the Bodrum coast. The channel was probably pretty deep, making these shelves ideal places to swim with fish because of the clear water. We played around for a while before I climbed out. Onur wanted a picture of him and Canan, so I decided to jump in so we could take a group photo. The other Canan had some along, so she decided to take the picture for us.

The fifth stop made me laugh. The name of the location was Bunny Island. Now the first thing I thought of (which probably isn't a surprise to those who know me) was Playboy Bunnies. :) When I asked about this, everyone thought it was hilarious. We have no idea why it's called Bunny Island other than maybe there is a large bunny population, but we didn't see any. At the other stops, the bottom had been mostly rocky with maybe a little sand. At Bunny Island, the bottom was covered with bunches of long grass. It kinda creeped me out a little, but I found it fun trying to pick out the fish that were living amongst it.

After climbing back into the boat, we headed back to Bodrum. We got back around 6pm to the dock. The sun hadn't started to set yet, but the lighting on a lot of the boats was stunning. I was able to capture the following photograph of a sailboat, which I think might be one of my best ones yet.

Upon reaching the docks, we set out in search of a birthday cake for Canan, as it was her birthday. After much searching, we ended up going back to the bakery we had been at the day before. Exhausted, we took the dolmus back to the house. Canan's family's house was relatively close by, so she went home to shower while we made dinner. She came back later to celebrate the other Canan's birthday. Sorry, I know all the talk of Canan is probably pretty confusing. What makes it worse is that they are both now blonde. I ended up falling asleep sitting up after having my dinner of bread and water. They sent me to bed and I fell instantly asleep. It had probably been one of the best days I have had all summer.

Bus Trip and Day One in Bodrum

On Tuesday of last week, Mert and Canan convinced me to go stay with them in Bodrum even though I wasn't getting better. I reluctantly agreed, knowing that I would be seeing the doctor only a few hours before leaving. Fortunately, everything turned out alright though. The best way to get to Bodrum is a 12 hour bus ride. The buses here are different that Greyhound which are normally old and cramped. Here they use charter style buses, and the experience is more like one you would have on an airplane. On every bus there is a driver and a steward. The steward comes around, just like an airline steward, and bring water, drinks, and snacks. You can even get ice cream if you want. The bus terminal becomes crowed around the top and bottom of every hour, as the buses leave every thirty minutes. You can see families waving good bye as the buses back out of their spots and depart. It's a scene that's missing in airports these days.

I was able to sleep for most of the 12 hour ride. That is, after I finished writing an abstract that was due that Monday. The seats are pretty comfy but still aren't great for sleeping. With my weight loss, the padding on my butt has gone away making it harder to sit for longer time spans. Having left at 9:30pm, we made stops at 1am and 3am. These stops are at places that resemble truck stops in the US. There is always a cafe and a few stores. Most of the time, there is a candy shop with lots of yummy stuff to buy.

I arrived at the Bodrum Otogar (bus station) at around 8am. Canan and Mert couldn't come pick me up for atleast an hour, so I got some Cay and sat down to proof my abstract. They arrived by dolmus about an hour later, and we headed down to the water after putting my bag in let luggage. Bodrum is a small town of around 30K during the winter but explodes to a population of close to a million during the winter. There are several developments of summer houses strewn on top of many of the hills overlooking the bays near the town. It is a resort town that is popular with Turks and Russians. Everyone there speaks English which made everything easier. Near the water is a marketplace with probably close to a hundred shops. Each is selling some sort of knock-off clothing, bags, or accessories or jewelry. The one trick to shopping here though is looking like a local, or atleast a Turk. If you let on that you're a tourist the price instantly goes up. When we bought me a swimsuit, Canan had me say nothing until they gave us a price. :) I even added a good "Evet" or Yes for good effect when she asked if I liked it.

There is one shop that is very much worth seeing. There is a bakery that has been located there with 1876 and is very famous. They had all sorts of breads and desserts. We ended up buying a birthday cake for Canan there the next day. Because of the giardia, I could only eat bread, so we got some simit(pronounced see-meet), which is the ring shaped bread covered in sesame seeds that I used to have for breakfast when I first got here. They got some other breads for breakfast, and we headed back to the otogar.

We got back to Mert's house, and everyone started making breakfast. It included cheese, sausage from the night before, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, and bread. This is the typical Turkish breakfast. A lot of times they also have hard boiled eggs as well. We out everything out on the porch table to eat our breakfast with an view...

Amazing?!? Yes, that's what I thought too. After breakfast, I got settled and changed into my new swim suit to head down to the beach. We headed down to the beach to swim around and sunbathe. The other Canan joined us after a while, and then we went to the small cafe located on the beach for some sodas and for Canan and Mert to play backgammon. As Football is the national sport, backgammon is the national game of Turkey. You can find people everywhere playing it over cay. We lounged around for about an hour, and then Canan wanted to head back into the water while the other one had to rejoin her family for a volleyball game on another beach.

Getting tired, I returned to the house to work on my abstract a little more. Needing to hook up to the internet, Canan, Mert and I headed down to another beach's cafe which was supposed to have internet. Unfortunately, their connection was down along with the rest of Bodrum for the weekend. I should have followed the first unwritten rule of the IREE program, always let your advisor know where you are at all times. When I got back on Monday, I had 6 emails from Valeria wondering where I was. Unknown to me, Yoshino had left for Capadoccia the day after I left, so she didn't have internet to tell Valeria where I was either. I had assumed I could get an internet connection in Bodrum, so I hadn't worried about it, but I will in the future.

We returned back to the house to make dinner. Well, we started snacking, and I ate some peanuts coated in sesame seeds that I had bought earlier in the day. I had got them in anticipation of feeling better, but since I had been feeling fine all day I decided to give them a try. I ended up eating half the bag, which was mistake number one... Mistake number two was thinking that since I was in charge of making the deep fried french fries, that I should taste them as well. Well, this just ended up making me camp out in the bathroom for 20 minutes. A word of the wise, don't over do it while you have giardia. Exhausted, I turned in for the night shortly after. I fell asleep listening to the waves. It was an amazing day...

Many Updates!

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post an update. With tomorrow marking three weeks since getting giardia, I think you'll understand. I will be updating over the next few days, as I have finally ventured out of Ankara and got to see Bodrum, a resort town on the Aegean. There are photos already posted if you're interested on my Picasa site.

As bad of an experience as getting giardia has been, it has revealed to me a side of Turkey that a lot of people don't get to see, mainly it's medical infrastructure. Their system is loosely based on ours, using health insurance, but there are marked differences. The first being, you don't need a prescription for anti-biotics. There are definitely pluses and minuses to this system. The most negative effect being that people here take anti-biotics whenever they are sick with anything. They sometimes just skip the doctor and take a random anti-biotic that they were given for prior illnesses. On the other hand, these anti-biotics are really cheap. Cipro is 3YTL ($2.40) for a pack of 20 pills. The second is the difference between state and private health care facilities. The hospital that I went to when I first contracted giardia was one that is run by the government. It's facilities were not as clean, and doctors were much fewer and far between. When I didn't get better, I went to the health center here on campus. All students are able to get health care here at and minimal cost of .8YTL per visit. If you are an undergrad, it is free as health coverage is provided as part of tuition. They have their own microbiology lab here on campus which provided the necessary tests for me for free. If I had been in the US, I would have had to pay at least $200 dollars and that's with health insurance. Here, I haven't had to show anything but my student ID and over all it has cost me maybe 100YTL ($80) without ever showing any insurance information. I was able to find a doctor here that speaks english which helps a lot. And today, I finally started eating foods other than bread and potatoes without any problems. I have been put on a new medication who's generic name is Ornidazol. It's a newer drug not yet available in the US, but it seems to be from France and apparently working. After only eating bread for the past week, I am craving anything with flavor. Thankfully, Turkish food is known for that, but I'll have to ease in as most of it is very oily.

Everyone here has been amazing. It's a little weird having people ask you about the intimate details of your bowel movements, but I can't complain since they have been taking me to get my health checkups and translating when necessary. Canan even brought me to her house two Saturdays ago to take care of me when the first medication had completely worn me out. It was really comforting to eat home cooked food, however bland from lack of butter. I was able to lay on her couch and watch American TV. (I have discovered Men In Trees is my new favorite show.) Mert and Canan also insisted I go to Bodrum with them to take a break since I have been working like mad to get everything done. I'll post about that trip tomorrow as it will be long.

I guess the one good thing is that I weight less now... At 155 pounds, I am 60 pounds lighter than I was this time last year. 1/3 of that has happened since coming to Turkey. The first 10 pounds I have lost was due to the diet change and running on hills. Unfortunately, the last 10 comes from not eating a whole lot. I tried running a few days ago realized how much stamina I have lost due to lack of my normal caloric intake. Now that I think I am getting better, it'll be nice to eat good tasting food and again start running at full power. Anyways, I need to crash as I worked for 12 hours today and have to tomorrow as well.