I have been really busy for the past couple days. We have been having our classes at the convent we are staying in, and I haven’t had much time to do anything but study. We eat with the staff and any visitors, which for about 3 days was pretty packed. A group of Germans came in on Monday, and then a group of Syrians came in on Tuesday. They are both gone now, but we had a full room when we were eating dinner and supper. The meal system is different here. We have breakfast and then a main, hot meal called dinner at the American lunch time. Then when Americans would eat dinner, they have a cold meal and call it supper, so that when you go to sleep you are not still digesting a huge meal. I think the meals are amazing. The cook is really good, and we get to listen to the two fathers, the sister, and the bishop talk in mixed languages. There is also a German student (I think they have been calling him brother) that is studying to become a priest. Like I said, there are different languages being used. There are staff members that speak in Turkish, the fathers speaks in German, Spanish, Italian, and a few phrases in English. The Bishop speaks in several languages, but mostly mixes Italian and English for our use, and Sister Leonora speaks English. When they talk to each other, they generally use Italian, or they change to something else depending on the subject. I love to watch the interactions between the people who live here. Sister Leonora is pretty much in charge of the running of the convent. If you have any problems, you go and talk to her. She likes to control what is going on, and even likes to preside over how much the one priest eats.
For five days straight (today is the 6th day) we have had continuous lectures and labs for landscape archaeology and GIS. We start about 9, 9:30 in the morning and we have class until lunch (which is 12:30). We pick back up in the afternoon around 1:30 and continue until we have completed the lecture and lab for GIS (when you finish your lab you are done for the day) so I have been finishing about 4:30. It might seem like a normal amount of time for class, but we are only taking 6 credits. We had to cram all the lectures into about 5 days, due to the traveling we will be doing starting tomorrow. Like I said, we can’t do survey, or anything that even remotely looks like survey (unless we want to answer to an angry Turkish government) so we will be going from site to site. All of the students have a site that we have researched and are giving presentations on today. We will be visiting these sites and a few more. When we finish with the study tour, we will be back in Iskenderun for 3 days so that we can work on our finals (two papers and two GIS projects). I am doing research for Hattusas, so I get to write a paper on it, as well as do a GIS for this site and the other sites and cities (or areas) we are visiting.
We will be going to:
June 4: the Antioch Mosaic Museum & Cave Church of Peter; Gaziatep Museum and Gaziantep
June 5: Zeugma; Harran; Urfa
June 6: Gobekli Tepe; Kahta
June 7: Arsameia; Mount Nemroud; Malatya
June 8: Aslantepe; Kayseri
June 9: Kultepe; Kerkenes; Cappadocia
June 10: Cappadocia
June 11: Hattusas; Yazilikaya (which is beside Hattusas, sometimes incorporated in the site); Alcachoyuk; Ankara
June 12: Ankara; Gordion; Konya
June 13: Catalhoyuk; Karaman; Uzuncaburc/Diocasearea; Silifke
June 14: Cannet/Cehennem Cave; Elaiussa Sebaste; Kizkalesi; Mersin
June 15: Tarsus; Karatepe; back to Iskenderun
Like I said, this was not originally what we were supposed to be doing. We were going to continue the survey work that had been done every summer for 6 years (the MOPSOS project). I think I would have really liked to do the survey. It would have been a wonderful experience (even though it is completely tiring and hot work). I, however, and supper stoked to be going to Catal Hoyuk and Hattusas. I have done research on Catal Hoyuk for previous classes I have taken, and I am getting a chance to go see the work that I had only read about. This is something I would have never thought I would have gotten to do.
Location: Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia Cathedral of the Annunciation Yenisehir Mah. Mithat, Pasa Caddesi 5, P.K. 75, 31201 Iskenderun, TURKEY