Aynur Doğan concert

Look carefully at the photo--can you see the guy with the red shirt close-ish to the stage? That's Alex! You can't see me because I'm standing in front of him.

I'm still in pajamas and drinking coffee (at 11 in the morning) because we went out to see Aynur Doğan in concert last night. Her voice is incredible--she sang for two hours--and the crowd knew most of her songs by heart. (Here's a clip from Facebook promoting her new album.) As you can see, the venue was tiny and packed. There was even some side drama when some older men got offended by the young folks in front of them (and almost got themselves kicked out). 

One highlight of the concert was her being accompanied by a Spanish guitarist, Javier Limón. I was impressed by the combination of their styles and harmonies. It reminded me a lot of the musical connections documented in the film, Latcho Drom.

Aynur was featured in another of my favorite documentaries, Crossing the Bridge.

The concert was definitely a great way to celebrate the end of winter break. Next week Monday, classes begin again!

Cornbread--a minor victory!

This is just to report that I have successfully made one batch of cornbread without any baking powder. Thanks to our friend, the internet, I learned that a little baking soda plus plain yogurt will do the trick, and it did. It was also a nice antidote to a little homesickness...

A few of my favorite things...

I still have a few more days before I have to think about teaching, so yesterday I went out to see a couple of my favorite places in Istanbul--the Archaeological Museum and Aya Sofya, and one place I hadn't been since 1999, the Basilica Cistern (which I won't count as a favorite place, and this visit should last for another 15 to 20 years at least).
Ten days in France hadn't obliterated my Turkish, and I was able to get a Museum card with my residence permit, which is quite a bargain--about 15 dollars to see more than 300 museums around Turkey!
Apparently, it was field trip day for the schoolkids of Istanbul--mercy! It's miracle any of the artifacts survived that onslaught of rambunctious kiddos. I wish I had dared to take a photo of these two guards who were obliviously playing on their smartphones while the little ones poked and prodded ancient things. I didn't take nearly as many photos as before, which you can see on these posts from 2008: Gezme: Sightseeing, Hafta sonu Istanbul'da: The weekend in Istanbul, and Aya Sofya en iyi: Hagia Sophia is the best!
Here are the highlights from yesterday:
(I couldn't use a flash in the museums, so some of these came out dark.)

Archaeological Museum

Aya Sofya

 Cats basking in the heat of the lights

 Medusa Head from the Basilica Cistern

 Sunset from the patio at home

France, not Turkey

Yesterday evening Alex and I returned from our visit with his family in France. It was great to see everyone again and enjoy seeing the Alps for the first time. Alex's sister and her family live in very small settlement, Les Geymonds, in a plateau of the Vercors range of the French Alps. Of course, people there love skiing and anything wintery-outdoorsy. This winter, though, has been a big disappointment--when we arrived the high temperatures were in the 50s. It did snow a little, but the rain kept winning out. For us, the point was to spend time with family, so no skiing was not an issue at all! It was a lovely visit with time to hang out, play cards, play chess, eat incredibly delicious vegetarian meals prepared by Alex's sister, and just be.
Here are a few side trips we took:

Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval / The Ideal Palace of Postman Cheval

Ferdinand Cheval (1836-1924) collected rocks on his route delivering the mail and built the palace of his dreams over 33 years! It was such a delight to explore this fanciful place. 

Le Mémorial de la Résistance / The Resistance Memorial

Reminders of the struggle and sacrifice of World War II are frequent around Vercors. With Alex's dad, we went to the Resistance Memorial which commemorates local fighters and supporters in the local community. Some of the most cruel massacres happened in the last months of the war. 

The road from the memorial to Pont-en-Royans

Gorgeous gorges, winding roads, one-lane archways--truly astounding!

Pont-en-Royans

Don't let cliffs or a river stand in the way of building a town!

Grenoble

Look, a Calder!

Alex and I spent one day in Grenoble, where we visited two museums and walked around the old part of town. The Archeological Museum encompassed a two-thousand-year-old-site which had begun as a Gallo-Roman burial ground and developed over time as a church and monastery. The website is worth seeing for the photos, but here is a montage from the postcards and bookmarks we got:

At the Musée Dauphinois, we saw a variety of exhibits based in local culture and arts. The most interesting to me was one about sundials, and the surprise was a history of the lingerie industry in Grenoble--who knew?

On the last day, some of us went on a hike to a mountain inn. The weather was pretty cold and wet, so Alex chose not to get soaked in his only pair of shoes. It was definitely an effort for me to keep up, but I'm glad I did, and the rain turned to snow as we went up. Our reward was blueberry/raspberry pie with mulled wine!

And then it was time to go back to Turkey... the end!

What would Gilligan do?

Well, we weren't marooned on a desert isle, but our trip to Ateşehir on New Year's Day was a new milestone in our public transportation adventures! It was a four-hour round trip extravaganza to the Asian side--and not even the furthest eastern point of Istanbul. On the way there, the transportation gods smiled: the 150 bus was coming down the hill just as we approached the bus stop, from Sarıyer the Beşiktaş dolmuş made good time in light traffic, from Beşiktaş we caught the ferry to Kadıköy with just 5 minutes to spare, from Kadıköy we took the metro to Bostancı where we met our friends (the host and another guest) and took a taxi to the hosts' house. 

It was a lovely evening--low-key conversation with the most generous, delicious meal. I wonder if they had been cooking for days... and I only wish I could cook like them. So, the menu included: roasted red peppers, stuffed eggplant/tomatoes/zucchini, lentil salad, green salad, mushroom soup, chicken popovers, whole grilled fish! (çopra / loach), and bread; followed by Turkish coffee, poppyseed cake with fresh fruit and tea. Mercy, that was three meals worth!! The sad part was that we couldn't stay as long as we wanted because of the long road home. 

On the way back, we three guests took a bus to Kadıköy. About one minute into the bus ride, our friend noticed that he had forgotten his phone, ooooops--time to panic! We almost got off the bus to go back with him to retrieve the phone, but he figured out that he could live without it in the last two days of his time in Turkey (before going back to Arizona). From Kadıköy to Sarıyer, we had two more dolmuş rides, which in terms of time, were about as efficient as it gets. 

But on the first ride, we witnessed an ugly incident. As the dolmuş was filling up at the first stop, an older man, clearly drunk, started by annoying the very young driver and his friend and then moved back to sit next to a young woman behind us. For a while, it seemed like he was just being noisy. Then, I don't really know what he did to harrass the young woman, but she complained loudly. Everyone on the dolmuş was on edge. The dolmuş driver told her to move up to another seat, and another passenger gave her his place. The old man started shouting at her and as she moved to another seat towards the front, he spat at her. I don't think the spit hit her at least. The man sat back where he was before; I wonder why he didn’t get kicked off the dolmuş at that point. Alex guesses that the driver didn’t want to risk a fight. A couple stops later, the old man got off the dolmuş, much to our relief. I suppose it’s good that this is the only such harrassment I’ve seen in the five months that I’ve been here...

The new year...

It is such a gray day... it's almost noon and I can hardly believe it's not twilight. The Black Sea sure does generate heavy, low clouds here. I'll have to get some energy soon because we are going to take a huge trek across Istanbul to visit friends who live in Ateşehir for a New Year's Day celebration.

I'm trying to take one day off from doing planning for the Spring semester. After working so much in the last month of the semester and in the week following exams, it's very hard just to sit still and not get anxious about what I haven't done.

There's a goal for the new year--get my life-work ratio in balance. Oh that, write more in my blog, and get more exercise--not particularly novel ideas, but still worthwhile.

So, here's to a less hectic, more fun New Year!