Think of the Children

Each time I see a map of Turkey my heart skips a beat. Take a look.

Map of Turkey

Now think of all those little Turkish school children struggling to reproduce a hand-drawn image of the map for their notebooks on Turkish history, and you can understand why seeing a map of Turkey causes me unrest.

In elementary school I used to wish I were from one of those states that had maps with lots of straight lines like Colorado, Wyoming, or Utah instead of from Texas because drawing maps of Texas was just hard.  


I started looking at state flags.  The Texas flag wasn't so bad.  The lone star on the Texas flag always gave me fits, but the nice tri-color background with straight lines was easily reproduced. That means a lot. If I couldn't draw a picture of our state map, at least I could draw one of the flag.  Those poor kids in Wyoming will never, never be able to draw their flag, and it is plain sad.

State Flag of Texas

In fifth grade the big project was for the students to select a state, write a letter (using our newly learned letter-writing and envelope-addressing skills) to that state's department of tourism asking for pamphlets and maps, and use what we received in the mail to create an elaborate notebook about the state.

State Flag of Wyoming

It was so exciting to receive the big packet of information, and we all brought our packets to school to show them to our friends. The poor kid who choose Wyoming acted like he'd won a prize or something when his packet arrived, but I knew the ugly truth—we'd all have to include a hand-drawn map of the state we chose. And with the buffalo image and the state seal right there in the middle of Wyoming's map, well, not even a new box of map colors could save the day.

Think about this. If trying to reproduce the state flag of Wyoming could bring a strong fifth grade Texas boy to his knees, what must be happening in the elementary schools all across Turkey? 

Sobering thought, isn't it?

A Turkish Roller Coaster

Well, Hunt got a second haircut yesterday in Bodrum, and I thought, my, I haven't blogged since his last haircut.  I haven't blogged since his last haircut???

I feel like I am on a high-speed Turkish roller coaster, and I am just trying to hang on.  Every day is another adventure which includes great museums, great meals, great bus rides, great sites.  I have never been on a trip quite like it.  Full-steam from dawn to dusk and sometimes later.  Take today:

8:00 Breakfast
9:30 Depart hotel for walk to Underwater Archeology Museum
12:15 Break for a quick lunch
1:00 Meet at dock to depart for 3-hour Aegean cruise (and optional swim)
4:30 Return to dock (optional trip to city market)
7:30 Dinner at hotel
9:30 Farewell to Bodrum Party (dancing by the pool, I think)


Now here I am with 10 days to describe, and only 23 minutes until today's craziness begins.  

Volcan, Guide Extraordinaire

Our guide, Volcan Yazici, is quite marvelous. He is funny and smart and absolutely on top of every situation. I mention this because a guide can make or break a trip. Our last trip to Turkey ended with the guide being fired—about 14 days too late—after the students begged and begged us to shut him up. People from that trip still quote the guide and mimic him, and, in retrospect, he probably provided a group bonding experience.

Quintessential Jay

 
We are also traveling with a very nice young man, Caner Jay Baykal, who is a representative of GlobTur, the extraordinary travel company arranging things in Turkey. Jay has a dry wit and extensive international travel experience which combine to make him an interesting and fun travel companion.  

Both men find no question we ask without merit, no problem we pose unsolvable. What a Dynamic Duo!  The students adore them.

 
And my 23 minutes are up.  No tales, just a framework.  We are in good hands.  More to follow when this roller coaster slows a bit.  I promise.

Ear Torching 101

When Hunt travels abroad where his language skills are limited, he generally looks up a few key phrases in advance like “Is this a ukulele free zone?” or “I do not wish to donate a kidney.” I, on the other hand, never look anything up in advance and rely heavily on increased voice levels and my incredible pantomime skills.

Sometimes this backfires like when I needed to purchase ground beef at a butcher shop in Germany and did not know how to ask. I won't describe what happened next, but for the following 7 months the proprietress “moo'ed” every time I walked in, then turned to the other customers and said something in rapid-fire German as she made little “horns” with her index fingers, a gesture that is apparently NOT the universal sign for ground beef.

It took us just over 25 hours to get from our home in Sherman, TX, to our hotel in Ankara, Turkey. And in 25 hours you'd think Hunt would have taken the time to look up all the phrases he might need for our first evening in Ankara. 

But he didn't. So when we stopped at a late-night barbershop for a Turkish haircut, was it fair to expect me to pantomime “just a little off the sides”? I think not. Those things have to be looked up. I was, however, able to communicate “May I take pictures of your cutting my husband's hair?” and “Yes, I would enjoy a cup of tea as I watch Turkish television.” I do have resources. If you ask the right questions.

So Hunt simply got the haircut he got. And because this is Turkey, and because Turkish barbers are artists, Hunt got a terrific haircut, no thanks to me. The barber used 4 different clippers, a blow dryer, 2 round brushes, a comb, scissors, a razor, and lighter fluid. (I am not kidding about the lighter fluid.) The barber also combed cotton balls into tufts, sprayed them with water, and used them to collect all errant hair. VERY cool. But the pièce de resistance was the unusual process of burning the hair from inside Hunt's ears. I like to call this process Ear Torching. And you may quote me.

Ear Torching is fun to watch, both the delicate burning process and Hunt's delicate facial expressions.

Step One: Wrap a cotton ball around the tips of a pair of scissors.

Step Two: Drench cotton with lighter fluid or other incendiary.

Step Three: Light the cotton.

Step Four: Briefly place burning scissors next to ear canal.

Step Five: Remove scissors and pat ears with palm of hand to snuff out errant burning ear hair.

Step Six: Repeat Steps Four and Five until all hair is gone or customer is unconscious.

Step Seven: Wipe outside of ears with cotton ball dampened with alcohol to remove soot.

Step Eight: Replenish Karen's tea. Revive Hunt.

What a first evening. Beautiful hotel. Delicious, warm Turkish meal. Brisk stroll in the capital city. And a haircut. Next time, though, I will take my phrase book because pantomiming “a little off the sides and torch the ears” is harder than it sounds. But it is possible.

On the Road Again

Well, it seems like only seven weeks ago that I last blogged. Oh yeah, it was. My, how time flies once Halloween arrives. Before you know it you are putting away the Christmas ornaments and saying how dreary the house looks without all the hoopla. And it does.

Our holidays were fantastic--and fast.  And now Hunt and I sit at Washington Dulles Airport waiting for out flight to MUNICH!  I love Munich. Schnitzel, yodeling, men wearing leather shorts. What's not to like? The bad news is that we're only in Munich for a layover. The good news is that from Munich we head to TURKEY! Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! 

The blog begins...again

This trip, which is three weeks long, will be a little different from our last one. This time we are traveling with 28 of Austin College's finest. There are 12 men and 16 women, mostly seniors and juniors. Our son, Harris, is among the mix. The students are taking the trip for course credit, so there won't be an option to sleep in one day and see the museum the next. We have a schedule to keep and little room for spontaneity. I guess that is the biggest difference. Well, that and counting 28 heads again and again.

Getting to Turkey is never easy for us, and this time is no different. We have 3 flights and hope to land sometime tomorrow in the capital city of Ankara. During the first flight the students were so happy and upbeat. They had a lively discussion about plane crashes and chances of survival. And that brings up the...

QUOTE OF THE DAY

If your father dies in a plane crash, and the people sitting in the exit aisle get out safely, you can sue the people who were seated in the aisle.

I found this discussion inspiring, and I have vowed never again to sit by an exit.  It also made me happy to be here—and not smoldering in some rubble with my family getting ready to sue.

This past June Hunt and I took a rather unsettling flight from NYC to Istanbul. After an hour the pilot announced that we had to return to New York because our two altimeters didn't agree (a bad thing) but first we'd have to dump our fuel into the Atlantic (a bad thing) so the plane wouldn't burst into flames (a really bad thing) when we landed. The pilot didn't actually say we might explode, but we did dump the fuel, and this added another hour to our flight back. The landing at JFK was pretty hard but extremely exciting since the runway was lined with emergency vehicles. I have only seen such a thing in action movies. Of course we were in the wrong city (a bad thing) but we were extremely happy to be alive (a very good thing!)

And I am happy to be alive today and eager to help introduce this group of students to a country I love so dearly. Turkey. Just typing the word makes me smile.