Rainy monday morning...

Leo
By Rick Levine
You may feel as if you're in a dream where everything is just as it should be today. Unfortunately, your actual life can be far from ideal once you open your eyes. Naturally, you're tempted to indulge your pleasant fantasies, but avoiding reality isn't a luxury you can afford now. Instead of mind-tripping to a faraway place, concentrate on your home base where you can actually make a positive difference

fall2010 schedule...

Graduate Research seminar: learning time management and getting our thesis projects kicked into gear
Greek III: Audit since I've already taken it once
Turk203: review of 2nd semester Turkish and focusing on speaking skills and more grammar
Late Antique and Byzantine History Writing: Looking at primary sources to see how the Byzantines viewed and wrote about their own history
French: Managed to fuss enough that they are creating a brand new, graduate level, beginners' french class...seeing as it is very pertinent to our research and future internship and career goals:) Just glad I won't have to sit through the alphabet one more time with the undergrad kids

ohh yes, and my thesis!
wish me luck!!

Cesme Vacay

Alalakh - Summer 2010

daily schedule...

what you have to conform to to make it in this business...i.e. Bronze Age (c. 2000 B.C.) archaeology in the deep south of Turkey:

daily work schedule for Sundays through Friday:

4.45am hit the snooze alarm on your alarm clock...it is still dark outside, why should you be awake?

5.00am scramble out of bed, into clothes and to the bathroom...and notice that the sun is barely up yet

5.10am scarf down some "first breakfast" which may be bread, tomatoes, jam, chocolate and tea

5.15 say goodbye and 'kolay gelsin' to the excavators headed off to the field in the truck or hop a ride if you want to spend the morning digging in dirt and sweat!

5.40 If you have stay at the compound then you better get to work asap...no time to waste sooo...off to study ceramics, bones, metals, to conserve big pots, to register all the little figurines or to illustrate all the tiny ceramic sherds and make them look like a big, full piece of pottery.

8.30 time for "second breakfast" prepared by the couple of women from the village so there is at least fresh bread now and sometimes eggs in addition to the tomatoes, cheese, jam, chocolate and tea.

9.00 back to work!

11.00 break time....relax, take a catnap in the hammock chair in the sherd yard or pet the dogs or drink more coffee or tea or walk to the bakkal and buy some soda and candy

11.20 back to work!

1.30pm lunch time...finally...

2.00 nap time for most...computering, showering and gossiping time for others

4.00 tea time in order to recaffinate after the exhausting nap in the heat

4.30 back to work...again!

7.00pm dinner time and the end of the work day finallllly...

rest of the night --> backgammon, movie nights, chatting, facebooking, sunset watching from the roof, beer drinking, sleeping....life here is pretty slow so even on our nights off not too much excitement occurs. Fridays at least end after lunch time and the afternoon is partly spent by going on a mound tour in order to catch up on the excavations and also by cooking and bbqing for friday night dinner.

Then Saturday is the day off so sometimes a fieldtrip is planned or just a trip into town or else we are lazy and just lay around the compound all day and do nothing. I'll work on adding pictures here or on facebook soon but just wanted to let everyone know how the past 5 weeks of my summer have been going.

It's 4.30 now so end of tea time and back to work I go!

Finals!!!

writing writing writing...

1. Archaeology: Macro and Microscopic Analysis of a Pot Shard from a Bronze Age Excavation site in Turkey

* I have learned that I am not a scientist but am glad I took 'Rocks for Jocks' as my one lab science class in college

2. Constantinople: The Depiction of Space in Byzantine Art and Literature

* we will see if this actually works out...

3. Ottoman: The Creation and Destruction of Public Space during the foundation of Ottoman Istanbul in the 16th Century

* the 'negative space' of an urban landscape! we will see if this also works out the way I picture...

4. Museum Studies: A Museum Management Plan for Orhan Pamuk's (actual) Museum of Innocence in Istanbul

* this museum is not actually open yet nor is there any practical information available beyond what is stated in the novel and in a few interviews over the past year. I am still waiting to hear back from "Mr. Pamuk who is currently in New York." But his publisher did thank me for my interest, Hah!

but all must be finished soon....Jess is coming to visit Saturday night and then Liz, Jordan and friends are coming next Wednesday! I must finish so I can play proper hostess and relax with my guests!!

back to work....

mmm...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/dining/26pretzel.html

pictures pictures pictures...

google is taking over my life...

web albums of more of the pictures... i'm working on making it accessible and uploading everything...patience:)

Museum Trip to Berlin

Life Abroad...

Dublin- Thanksgiving09

Summertime 2009

Summertime Trips 2009

The visual evidence of my weekend down south...

I'm not very good at remembering dates and names, and I don't want to overload you with too much extra information...so I've just included the basic descriptions to go along with the pictures. If there is something more you are desperate to know, just ask and I'll do my best to get you the info...enjoy! I most surely did:)

Met the group out at Beyşehir, a beautiful lake town and district. There was a gorgeous old wooden mosque, lots of water...

and on the opposite shore there was a summer palace for the Seljuk sultans. Then, back in Konya we went to the the most popular museum which was Rumi's original dervish lodge. The turquoise tower denotes where Rumi's tomb is located.

then a tea break down the road....Then a much later Ottoman mosque, built in a very Baroque/Oriental style, it looked more like a European Cathedral than a mosque.

Walking around Konya we saw some more medreses, tekes...

tombs, and mosques.

Inside the main historic complex on the top of the hill in the center of the city was a mosque (which people are sitting in front of in the previous image) there was the oldest example of Seljuk art in the form of this wooden minbar. Down the slope from the complex were the remains of a tower that would have supported a pavilion for the sultan on top of the city walls. And the strange 60s cover for it that rather resembles a spaceship... oh, historical preservation techniques can be so amusingly dated sometimes.

Of course we had to check out the whirling dervishes performance at the Cultural center in Konya, complete with stadium seating and dramatic lighting design. Sunday it was off to the most famous Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük accompanied by the archaeologist himself.

In the experimental, reconstruction of a house he is explaining the debatable interpretations of a wall drawing. Then inside the first structure showing the newer excavations.

Hands on explanation of the spacial organization of the house. Then in the older building showing the excavations that had been initiated in the 1950s.

Another mosque entrance and Bamya Soup (Okra!!!) with yogurt, spicy tomato dip and pide.

One more medrese, this time with an open courtyard and it is currently the museum for gravestones.