Tag Archives: traveling

What’s up *head nod*

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

     The first four days of my trip to Turkey was to Istanbul. Yesterday after a trip to the old spice market, we got our flight to Hatay. After some turbulence, and an airsick neighbor on the plane, I settled in for an hour drive to Iskenderun. I am staying in a convent in Iskenderun with my group from Penn State.

     We were originally supposed to survey for about a month while in Iskenderun, but we were unable to obtain research visas due to a back up in the Ministry of Culture. Our professor informed us that it was not only our group, but just about every foreign Archaeologist that was unable to get the research visa. So we are going to follow our plan B. In this area of the world, people are very superstitious. They believe that if you are given the evil eye, you will be unable to get out of your bad luck unless you wear the charm of protection against it (its a blue pendant that has light blue, white and black swirls and dots. I would upload some pictures, but I am having  a hard time with the internet connection here. When I come back to the United States, I will be sure to place them on my blog). Our misfortune could be due to something like this occurring, problems within different governments, or the head sister at the convent praying to have open rooms for some traveling priests next week. It could also be just plain bad luck. However, without our permits, we are unable to survey, so instead we are going to visit pre-existing excavated sites, and look at how the archaeologist handle and protray their work to outsiders. We are still taking classes, but instead of shorter classes we will have 10 days of lectures that span for several (anywhere from four to seven hours a day) and we will be bumping up our presentations. 
     Last night I played several ball games with some of my group members from Penn State, a priest and Pilgrims from France. We started by playing volleyball with no rules then developed some rules. After a while we started to teach them four square which evolved to a game of six square then up to nine square. That was probably not the safest game I have played. It was interesting trying to teach the rules however, because the pilgrams spoke english, but the priest spoke german and italian with limited english. I have to admit that I am horrible at sports, so I was targeted when we were playing because I am almost a sure point for the opposing team. After trying to play nine square and failing, we tried a game of dodge ball. Oh, the fun that is dodgeball. One of the students on this trip was hit in the face with one of the first throws.

      Classes started today, and I was able to sit through them with no problem. We were given a coffee break early in teh day and later a “dinner” break (there is no lunch meal in Turkey. The main meal of the day is at lunch time, and it tends to be hot and large. When we would have supper, they eat a small meal with salads and soup. This is so after consuming a large amount of food, you are able to burn off some of the meal before going to sleep.

     Another event that occurred today was when I locked myself in the bathroom by mistake. The convent we are staying in is very old, and it has wooden doors with large metal keyholes. Unfortunately the lock sticks on the door, and when I locked it, I was unable to turn the lock back. After getting help from my professor, the graduate student, and five of the other students of the trip, I was able to get the lock to move. I was in the bathroom for about twenty minutes, and my professor had just gone to get help from one of the people who run the convent when I was able to get the lock unstuck. My bathroom is pretty tiny, and the window is too high to reach, so I am not sure how long I would have been able to stay in the bathroom without panicking. Now I think it was hilarious, but I was a bit frightened for a little.
     Right now I should be doing research for a project that is going to be handed in within the month, so I am going to go work on it. I am enjoying my trip so far, and I hope to learn much on this trip.  


Location: Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia Cathedral of the Annunciation Yenisehir Mah. Mithat, Pasa Caddesi 5, P.K. 75, 31201 Iskenderun, TURKEY