How to handle downed power lines-- only in Turkey!

(Justin) On our next bus trip from Beldibi to Antalya we suddenly came to a stop. It became clear that both sides of the 4-lane highway had been closed for perhaps an hour. Our hearts kinda sank as it looked like we'd be stuck for a while.

The problem was that power lines had somehow snapped off the electric tower on the nearby mountain. You could see the lines across the road and into the picnic grounds of the adjacent park. I got out and walked to the front of the scene, watching a lone worker scale the high transformer and begin reeling the line back up. However, the line was just high enough off the road for low-clearance cars to pass under in one lane. Trucks were stuck, and our bus was stuck between them. Many of the drivers were angry, yelling for someone to cut the lines and go. While wondering how this frustration would end, suddenly traffic started moving.
Someone, maybe a driver or worker on one of the trucks, had climbed on top of a tanker truck on the side of the road and was holding the power line up on his shoulder, creating enough clearance for everyone to pass. You'll have to zoom in to see him, but here is the picture of this unsung hero: 

I wouldn't have had the guts to hold that line, and we sincerely hope that this guy lived to tell the story.

Antalya Part 3: Museum and Falez

(Justin) After the previous day's adventure, we went to Antalya city as an entire family. This was about a 30 minute ride on the bus which came by our resort every 20 minutes. We met Gülnur, my friend and long-time language helper, who wanted to show us her city. First stop was the Antalya Museum, which houses a very large collection of artifacts from around the area-- from prehistoric fossils and cave dwelling artifacts to Greco-Roman statues and early Ottoman period pieces. Here are a few random pics from the museum, so much to see:

The Tapp family in front of the museum

The museum is located in Konyaaltı, and from the nearby bluffs you get a good view of the mountains and rocky beach below.

Next, Gülnur drove us to Lara, her side of town, for lunch at a great kebap place. This was my parents' first good Turkish food experience, they approved!

After lunch, we got some spectacular views of the waterfalls above the "falez" (from the French: falaise, meaning "cliff"). The falls are named Düden and Antalya has built some beautiful parks there. Antalya is to Turkey what Florida is to the U.S. After being in frigid/snowy Ankara all winter, we were happy to walk about like it was a warm spring day! Plenty of people were in the park area barbecuing and picnicking.

At the top of the falls you can see a walkway/gazebo above the river.

A tour boat down below.

Last stop was sandy Lara Plajı ("Plaj" from the Russian word for "beach"). Antalya is remarkable for its sandy beaches in the east and its rocky/pebbly beaches in the west (and down the coast to our resort).

It's not hard to see why this place is a tourism magnet. Beaches and resorts, ancient ruins and artifacts, forests and mountains--something for everyone. German and Russian tourists and immigrants were everywhere. The traffic was a bit difficult to navigate, and I can't imagine what it's like in the summer when the population swells.

We were definitely thankful that we had Gülnur to drive us around town! We made note of other places in town we wanted to see when we came back another day.

Antalya Part 2: Olimpos (Olympos) and Chimaera

(Justin) We went to Antalya with a list of ancient places we wanted to see. The ruins of Olimpos (Olympus), an ancient Lycean and Greek city and national park, along with the ancient Chimaera, or "yanartaş," flaming rocks, was first up for my dad and I to explore. Fortunately, the weather was mostly sunny and high 50s, not bad for hiking.

Our resort was in Beldibi, about 30 mins south of Antalya city and just north of the resort town of Kemer. We took a bus (4TL/person) to Kemer (about 30 minutes) and got let out on the main highway (Kumluca-Kemer yolu) at the intercity bus station. From there, we caught a minibus (3TL/person) that told us it would drop us off close to Çıralı (another 30-40 minutes), the village where they are located.

View from the Kemer bus terminal.

This provided my dad an experience on local transport, where we stood in the aisle of the cramped minibus while elderly village women, fully covered, sat chatting. The road is quite curvy and one local woman got carsick as the driver passed plastic bags back to her while everyone pretended not to notice -- a first for me in Turkey. 

It was going to be a 7km walk downhill to Çıralı. After walking a bit, we flagged down a car to hitchike and some retired German-Turk locals dropped us off at the Çıralı beach and pointed in the direction of the ruins.

Olimpos ruins are at the far end of this beach where remains of fortresses can be seen. The tables are from a local restaurant hopeful to snag us, one of the few open in the off-season.

Mt. Olimpos and its snow-covered peak in the background. Palm trees and beachfront in the foreground. That's Antalya.

So, we walked and found the way obscured by the Çıralı river. We rolled up our pant legs and crossed, the water being quite cold but crystal clear-- much like the Mediterranean around us, a beautiful light blue color.

Dad crossing the rocky river. Not a typical senior citizen at this point.

We proceeded to the ruins where we took a few photos. Because it was the flood season, the waters were high and we didn't walk too far into Olympus. The winter wind was quite strong and we got a good lesson as to why it was dangerous for ancient Mediterranean sailors to sail during the winter (see Acts 27). This area is part of the Lycian Way, a backpackers' haven, and we saw plenty of internationals carrying their packs on the beach.

Olimpos was built on both sides of this river with a bridge connecting the two sides. Ruins of many buildings still stand, and in the center of the picture you can see what remains of the bridge.

Ancient tombs

Flood season meant water running through much of the ancient city dwellings.

We then trekked up the rocky bank of the Çıralı river, inspired by a covered elderly woman ahead of us who was balancing on rocks and clinging to branches like we were, back to Çıralı village. The village is filled with "pansions," bed-and-breakfast places, and restaurants-- all unfortunately closed for the off-season. From the village, it was another 3 kilometers to Mount Chimaera.

This hike took us through the village with its beautiful orchards and to the base of the mountain, where we had to buy tickets (5TL/person I think) and hike another kilometer uphill to the flaming rocks. (This blog has a good review of how to navigate the area during the tourist season.)

Methane gas seeping through pores in the mountain that have remained alight through millenia is what makes the place legendary. In ancient times the flaming mountainside served as a lighthouse for sailors. The ruins here are only partially excavated (This is common as Turkey has so many ancient sites and new discoveries are made seemingly daily). We watched tourists play around the flames, some using them to cook dinner, and hiked back down.

I almost stepped on this flame on the ground.

You can see the flame burning over my right shoulder.

Ruins at Chimaera.

Dad and I were rather weary having hiked quite a bit (I should also note we also forewent lunch), but we still had a 10km journey back uphill to the main highway. So, after walking a bit we hitched a ride with a family of Turkish tourists who luckily were staying in Kemer and graciously gave us a ride all the way there. I enjoyed chatting with them about teaching as they were public school teachers in Izmir.

From Kemer we caught the bus back to our hotel and made it back in time for dinner. My dad is over 65 but was probably less tired than I was. I definitely recommend renting a car for an excursion like this if you don't fear driving in the country. We had a great adventure experiencing the great sites and hospitality of Turkey!

Family Visit, Part 1: Trip to Antalya

(Joni) Before we left Ankara, Justin's parents came for a visit, and we traveled with them to Antalya, a southern coastal region of Turkey we had never visited before. So it was a fun adventure for all of us! We enjoyed the flight there, and flying into Antalya was pretty awesome because they flew out over the sea and then turned around for the descent into the airport.

Then we rode a shuttle out to our resort, the Marriott Antalya Renaissance Resort. It was all-inclusive and a perfect place for us to use as our home base when exploring the area. Best part was that, because it was off-season, we were able to get a really good deal on the rooms.

The resort was beautiful!

The view from my in-laws' room

What's cool about Antalya is that is has huge mountains AND seaside all in one place. So one side of the resort faced the mountains above, the other side faced the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was a little too cold for beaching, but we enjoyed the scenery!

The resort also had activities and shows. This was an evening of traditional Turkish dancing.

The resort was all-inclusive, which included meals, snacks, and an open bar. Elias LOVED the juice mixes called Rainbows where the different juices separated into rainbow colors!

A really unique thing about this resort is that it was a cat shelter, so they feed and shelter homeless cats. There was this Cat House structure, but the cats just roamed freely around the grounds, sometimes even sneaking into the dining room!

Elias LOVES cats, so he loved this part of the trip!

They also had an enclosure with geese, ducks, and rabbits!

This was a really fun place to stay, and the scenery was incredible!

Back in the U.S.-- just barely

(Justin) We're behind in posting because we've been busy moving to the U.S. Eventually, we'll post pictures of my parents' visit and our trip to Antalya.

We had plenty of goodbyes from friends before we left. Some of our friends graciously are housing many of our household items in the hope that we'll be back in August, or sometime soon enough.

Leaving was very tough emotionally, and then I was almost physically prevented from leaving Turkey at passport control in Istanbul. Joni and Elias got waved through but the system flagged me; there was a problem.

An immigration officer at the airport walked me to a line of people having stayed in Turkey illegally and waiting to receive their punishments and learn what they needed to do to leave. I chatted with the officer a bit in Turkish and he took me to the head of the line. He even had me translate for another person in line who couldn't speak Turkish. I was thankful I could communicate, or else I'd still be in that airport. Turns out, when I resigned my teaching position and the school informed the labor office, my work permit was canceled and so therefore my residency permit was cancelled -- I was thereafter living in Turkey illegally.

I had to sprint through the airport to get photocopies made, pay a fine, and bring all the paperwork back to the officers, then go back through passport control, where there was another delay as the officer had to call to make sure everything had been taken care of. I arrived at my gate after everyone had boarded, and then had to go through the hassle of again being searched and such. I was one of the last passengers on the flight -- just barely made it back to my worried family and we took off on time.

A LONG time (2-hour delay in Chicago waiting for our plane to be de-iced!) and another connection later we arrived in Cincinnati, where Joni's parents were waiting and drove us to central Kentucky, where we'll be based for an indefinite time. We're all still recovering, but the transition to the new time zone is going well so far.

Teaching English in Turkey

(Justin) Two weeks ago I finished my first semester teaching 2nd-4th graders here. I had a tearful goodbye with my colleagues, since our family made the decision to return to the U.S. to help Elias's progress with his special needs. Everyone commented that it felt like I'd worked there for years rather than just one semester-- it was such a good fit for everyone. Here are some fond memories. This was my view after arriving every morning (most days more sunny than this one):

You can just make out Anıtkabir in the center of this one.

On a bulletin board in the high school wing I was met with a daily reminder of where I'd come from:

Below are a couple of items I got from students during my time that I appreciated. The first is a set of Atatürk Turkish coffee cups that one of my students gave to me on Teacher's Day.

The second is a picture one of my 2nd graders drew for me for Christmas with a note from her in Turkish that she loves me and will never forget me.

Having read this book and talked to countless other veteran teachers here, I can say the complaints of Western teachers in Turkish classrooms are universal. It is tough. The schools are loud, discipline is weaker than at a typical American school. At my school, the acoustics of the rooms and corridors were akin to a racquetball court. During the 10-minute recess after each period, the shrill screams literally hurt your ears. This can shake you deep down to your nerves (signs written in Turkish on the walls pointing out the scientific hazards of "noise pollution" only make it worse). So, you strive for peace and quiet in your own classroom-- meaning you have to keep the kids busy at all times. 40 minutes have to come loaded with 10-minute activities, and any exciting games you have to play need to have strict rules/boundaries to keep kids quiet.

Kids are emotional. They are just as passionate about their football teams as their parents are. There is no age limit for crying to be unacceptable. Insults quickly lead to violence.

And the kids LOVE and want to be LOVED. The best teachers are mugged in the hallways by their students/former students who want to hug them. (Touching is very normal here, it often makes Westerners uncomfortable.) They are lavished with gifts on Teacher's Day. I never achieved that status. In part because I'm not the most teddy-bear kind of guy, it was my first time teaching little ones, and I also had the misfortune of preparing young students for their first Cambridge exams (and their first English speaking/listening exams in any case), which added a bit of seriousness and stress to what had previously been mostly speaking-English-for-fun class.

My advice to anyone wanting to teach in Turkey: Learn Turkish first. This will make you a better co-worker and allow you to understand problems in your classroom. You need to make friends outside of your department and it will be hard for you if few of your colleagues speak English well. You obviously don't want to use it in your classroom, but if I hadn't spoken Turkish, I wouldn't have been able to get help with issues from the homeroom teacher, principal, etc.

But here are a couple of native English speaking colleagues who made my time there go faster as well. I'm glad to have met Jim, a retired Royal Air Force man from Scotland, and Robin, a South African surfer. They helped me have fun. 

 

Here's to the toughest job I've had with the greatest colleagues and boss (Ayşen Hoca) in the world. 

Book Review: The Yogurt Man Cometh by Kevin Revolinski

Some friends of ours lent us a copy of The Yogurt Man Cometh: Tales of an American Teacher in Turkey as it's a humorous read about an American's crash course in living in Ankara and teaching at the same school where Justin teaches. We highly recommend the book to anyone living in Ankara or coming here for the first time.

Ankara was Revolinski's first real foray outside the U.S., he has since become a travel blogger. He captures the hilly slopes, the perils of public transit, and the difficulties of trying to teach English to private school students very well. Kevin was able to make friends quickly and accomplished a lot of sightseeing in Turkey in just a year's time, despite getting seriously ill in the process. The experience takes place in 1997-1998 and it's interesting to see how much the city has grown and changed even in just 15 years.

The book is a quick read, it's like a series of blog posts. It's the book that will get you closest to what our lives look like in Ankara. Trust us, you'll enjoy it even if you never plan on visiting here.