mmm, mashed potatoes...

thanksgiving in DUBLIN was lots of fun!!!

View of Dublin and the Liffey

Tea and Scones with cream and jam is a Must!! (Also glad to be back in a country where it is appropriate to put milk in my tea:)

Statue with bullet holes remembering Irish Independence

Christ Church


I think this was the Dublin Castle....sorta looks like a castle I guess...

While Noho cooked I made napkin turkey namecards!

The Meal

the day-after Irish breakfast!

and Guiness!! (noo, Guiness was not part of the breakfast)

thanks to the delicious cooking and company of noho, jkwan, and mairtin!!

*i'll work on putting pictures complete with people on my flikr account soon...

syllabi

well, i don't go to parties or have fun exciting adventures in istanbul to document, but i do spend a great deal of time going to school and this is what i do at school everyday...:

the syllabus of my life:


Archaeological Theories: Next semester we will actually recieve hands on training in a new archaeology lab which they are setting up, but for now we are focusing on the philosophies, intellectual developments and theoretical underpinnings of the field of archaeology. We have read articles about New Archaeology, processualism, post-processualism, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, hermeneutics, Binford's theory of 'man's extrasomatic means of adaptation' (or something like that), and Ian Hodder's postmodern refutal and full acceptance of everyone who has an opinion, even the goddess worshippers.



Cultural Heritage Management: This semester we have been focusing on site management (as oppose to next semester where we will be studying more museum studies). We've looked at lots of examples of management plans from Turkish Arch. sites to the plan for Stonehenge. Guest lecturers come from various fields in the industry have come. So far we've covered conservations issues in Turkey, architectural restoration and preservation in Egypt as well as by the Germans in Pergamon (Turkey), the Turkish laws established for historical site preservation work, technological advances in digital restitution and augmented reality, and finally the importance and digital developments of database construction. Lots of fancy jargon but also some really interesting theoretical issues that are often hard to deal with in the real world which can be based on popularity, politics and money. It is always important to stay optimistic and positive!



Anatolian Civilizations: So far we have studied the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and are just beginning to study the Early Bronze Age of Anatolian Civilizations. Due to the specific interests of our current teacher I have a feeling we won't make it to the Hittites, Phyrgians, Greeks or Early Romans. And next semester, somehow, we will be covering Byzantine and Ottoman periods. Its a lot of history for one geographic area, not to mention for one class.



Ancient Greek: I have been reading Xenophon's Anabasis. Back in late 400s/early 300s BC a man named Xenophon, originally from Athens but with strong loyalties to Sparta, went off as a young man to help Cyrus a persian prince try to overthrow his brother. On the way down from the west coast of Anatolia in Sardis, Cyrus amasses his troops and lets the hired greek armies do a little pillaging along the way. There is also a bit of hunting by the generals in the Arabian Desert of ostriches, bustards, gazelles, and wild asses. The battle does not go so well, so the Greek troops split, and take the road north meeting the kurds and armenians along the way and eventually making it to the black sea coast. From here they can march and take boats through Byzantium (Istanbul) and back to their lovely homeland across the Aegean sea. Its a real classic of a travel narrative.
The other day I also had a unique opportunity of looking at recently found mosaic byzantine inscriptions and seeing how far my greek knowledge could actually go in the material world. Not going to quit my day job, but it was a lot fun and a good learning experience.



Turkish: Merhaba! Siz nasılsınız? Ben iyiyim. Şimdi Koç Üniversitesin'de öğrenciyim ve Sarıyer'de oturuyorum. Sarıyer İstanbul'da. İstanbul çok büyük ve çok kalabalık ama çok güzel! Siz ziyaret ediyor musunuz? Görüşürüz!

*this post has not be edited fully so please pardon any mistakes*

sunday morning breakfast...

eggs, bread, tomatoes, carrots, cheese, chocolate, and juice.

tea and coffee.

what music to listen to?

i wonder if there is a website, sort of like pandora, where you could put in the time of day, the weather outside, and what you are presently doing (eg. homework, cooking, reading, etc.) and it would come up with the perfect playlist for you to listen to...

if there isn't, there should be...

okay, back to 'doing' my homework and listening to the rain....maybe some carla bruni?

Orhan Pamuk's new book and museum...

NYTimes book review of Museum of Innocence

NYTimes article on Pamuk and his real 'Museum of Innocence' in Istanbul

food and dead ducks...

first of all I am very appreciative of Turkish mothers. Especially those of my friends and roommates who come and cook for their daughter (or son) and friends. And then they stick around to clean our kitchen and dishes!? Also fathers of roommates who send gi-normous boxes of multiple kinds of borek for the entire house. I should/would have taken a picture of all the delicousness if i hadn't been overwhelmed by the supply of food for my breakfast, and which lasted almost a full week (for 6 girls mind you). It was a lot of food. If it ever happens again I will be sure to photodocument it just to prove it happens.

also, today, while checking up on my supposed mailing address...i found out that my 'street' or 'road' is called, in translation, something like 'butcher's meadow place.' this name might explain why a classmate of mine witnessed a woman carrying a dead duck down the road and disposing of the guts, etc. in the middle of the street. There are also a lot of cows and sheep, in addition to some meadows, down the road. it's good to know with all this abrupt, modern developing projects that some things will remain the same...

morning traffic in the meadows of the butchers

life changes...

in addition to the very large changes that may occur in one's life when you move abroad there are also many small changes that only you may notice. Some that i have noticed lately are:

- i now put yogurt on EVERYTHING, especially pasta. it is delicious.

- and for the first time in my life i have wanted, and thus went out and bought, a yellow article of clothing. never EVER in my life have i ever worn yellow, by choice. and its a strange, muddy yellow color too. i'm not sure if this change has any positive or negative conotations, but i do find it extremely curious. it's just a plain pullover, v-neck sweater by the way. and i did buy the same sweater in brown as well, just to offset the novelty of the yellow sweater. i didn't want to completely abandon my comfort zone of clothing choices.

this is my life...

first i wake up in my bed and in my tiny room...

then i can open up my window and look at my view...

then i walk down the hall past my living room...

then end up in the kitchen for breakfast...

and if i have time i can eat breakfast out on my balcony...

then i walk out of my apartment complex...

and wait on the corner for my minibus to school...

then i go to class...

the end.

for now.

Diary of a Foodie: Gourmet.com mmm, Turkish food!

Diary of a Foodie: Gourmet.com

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