Hello Everyone!!!! My name is Courtney, and I am studying abroad this summer in Turkey for two weeks. The classes I am taking are ANTH/CAMS/HIST 499A and 499B with Dr. Ann Killebrew as well as two grad students, Kristin and Shane, and 11 other undergrads, 2 of whom are from Pitt and Yale.

A little bit about myself —- I am an Archaeological Science major with minors in Classics and Mediterranean Studies (CAMS) and History. My 2 classes here in Turkey cover my major and minors, and this is one of the reasons I chose to study abroad with this particular program. I am from Woodward, PA, which is roughly a 40 minute drive from State College and Penn State. I grew up in Pennsylvania and have never left the East Coast until Monday, May 9, when I flew out of JFK.

I was scared to fly because I have never even flown across the U.S.A., but after the initial liftoff I was completely fine. I arrived at JFK 3 hours early and met up with Nick, a classmate from my CAMS 250U class this past Spring Semester, as well as 2 of our fellow Turkey classmates, Jo and Michelle. We got through security and baggage check in about 20 minutes, so we sat by our gate and slowly met fellow classmates before our flight boarded. The 9+ hour flight was very smooth, with little to no turbulence, great food, and a few babies that whined but remained relatively calm during our flight. They had TVs in the headrests that we could watch movies (though I did not figure out how to change the listening language to English until the end of the flight), play games, and listen to music on. I spent most of my time looking out the window, listening to my iPod, and playing Bejeweled! on the headrest.
 
We landed at around 9am Tuesday, May 10, at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. We got our visas and went through passport security before claiming our bags and heading out of the airport. We met up with Dr. Killebrew, Shane, our tour guide Nazim Uzun, our classmate Ryan from Yale, and then boarded the bus to begin touring Istanbul.

We first went by the Marmara Sea, which separates European Istanbul from Asian Istanbul, and the Constantine Walls, walls built to fortify Constantinople during Constantine I’s reign in the 3rd Century CE (AD).

Nazim lead us to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, which consists of the Ancient Orient Building, the Main Building, and the Tile Museum. It has one of the hugest collections of antiques in the world, and it would take several visits to see everything in this museum. The three things highlighted upon were the Alexander Sarcophogus (Which did NOT hold Alexander the Great’s body but one of his generals), the Kadesh Peace Treat between the Hittites and Egyptians in 1274 BCE, and the Troy exhibit, with the map of the layers of the site (10 so far, numbered 0-9), pottery, ceramics, jewelry, and metallurgy.

Location: Istanbul, Turkey