Internet is Back!! (For now)

The internet situation here in the Misafirhane has been sketchy at best. It's up and down. This is not my first attempt at blogging this week. I have lost many a blog post to the dreaded "Safari Cannot Display Webpage" message. I had intended to do a ton of blogging tonight (I have a lot of updates in the next few days), but it took a while to get the internet up and running, so one for tonight will have to suffice.

I figure the most interesting post would be one about the city of Eskişehir since I live here and am in the city center each day. Plus, it's an attractive city.

So, let's begin with a little etymology. "Eski" is Turkish for "old." "Şehir" is Turkish for "city." Ironically, it's a college town with a substantial population under the age of 30. It's positioned about halfway between İstanbul and Ankara (if you don't know where they are, I suggest consulting a map. I don't know that I can help you any more than that). The population is roughly 1 million people. I think, of everything, that has been the biggest culture shock for me. I'm not remotely used to city life, but I've rapidly acclimated. I sorta like it. It's great just to have everything right there when you need it. The public transportation system in Eskişehir is excellent. You can take the tram (street level rail-line), minibus, or otobus. We typically take the Dolmuş (minibus) into town, and an Otobus (number 31) back home. And yes, as you probably could have guessed, they're not terribly punctual. Not bad though. Today, in fact, was the worst. 31 was almost 20 minutes late.

Okay, enough of my ramblings. We all know you skipped to the pictures anyway.

Speaking of public transport, this is the tram line. I apologize for the poor camera work. If you'll notice, I was standing on the tracks of the opposing line and it was coming at me, so I snapped this as I was getting out of the way.

This is the opposite direction. You can see the wires crisscrossing above. The trams sort of come out of no where. This was taken maybe a minute before the previous one and suddenly I was dodging a tram!

There are stray dogs and cats everywhere. They just sort of roam the streets and no one bothers them. This particular dog I see quite frequently. I generally see the same dogs every time I'm in town. Funny enough, he stopped to take this picture with me.

This very large, very beautiful Mosque is in downtown Eskişehir. I've not been able to go inside yet. I'm going to try and visit at some point.

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but I laughed so hard that I thought I would share. They have Converse store downtown in this was the image in the front window. No, your eyes aren't going bad. Those are seriously Converse flipflops.

The streets are line with tons of shops. Typically, above are apartments. This particular shot is of Erdoğan's friend's apartment. 

This a better shot of the market district. You can see the multitude of shops below and the apartments above... and the loads of people. It's always crowded here, even at night. This is a good time to mention that the entire city is lit up at night. There are all sorts of lights strung up on trees, in parks, on poles, just around the city. I can't seem to get a good shot of it. I'll keep trying.

These are the Dolmuşlar. We take one of these into town. This particular stop is one of the major stops in the city. They refer to it as Stadyum (in reference to the large soccer stadium of to the left (not depicted)).

The beautiful Porsuk Nehir, runs through the center of the city. Porsuk is the Turkish word for Badger. Personally, I'll just stick with Porsuk. Sounds better. You can see in the background the typical Eskişehir apartment buildings.

More Porsuk Shots

Speaking of the river, another mode of travel is ferry's. This is a more touristic approach, but it gets you where you want to go on top of affording awesome views of the city. I think we're going to take a boat around sometime. 

Day trip to Venice? Nah. This is just the better, even less efficient way to see the city. 

The day I took these [last Sunday night (19.06.2011)] was the day before a big football game. Football is a huge deal for people of Eskişehir. That night, the team paraded around town chanting with people swarming around them taking pictures. They take "local celebrities" to a whole new level. In any case, the team stopped here for a short while and enjoyed a dinner party on this raft on the river. A very elaborate dinner party at that. There was a DJ playing Euro Dance music, caterer, waiters, really delicious looking food (but, hey, all the food here is good).

On that note, I'll introduce you to Kumbru (also known as an Izmir Sandviç) This unbelievably good little sandwich is one of my favorites. It's a combination of 3 different salamis, cheese, and pickles. Delicious.

This is some sort of administrative building in the city. It's not only old, beautiful architecture, it sits behind an elaborate fountain that pours into the river.

That evening, we went a saw a movie. It was a ridiculously stupid French film (subtitled in Turkish... talk about challenging my language skills) about these vampire zombies. Reminiscent of The Hills Have Eyes, if any of you have seen that equally stupid movie. Yes, to answer your question, that IS my hand. I had the theatre rolling with my dog impression during the interlude (the ear was better before... didn't get the picture at the right time). In my defense, although I was acting like a child, the 30 year old next to me started it! But really, we were the only ones there and so we enjoyed the 15 minute break with a few shadow puppets. It was quite entertaining. All in all, exponentially better than the whole movie.

I think that's about all for now! I'll be blogging a bunch more this week. Updates include some more work photos (field work, finally!), microscope shots, trip to the park, and an event at the Stadium. I'll continue to add photos of the city as I get them as well. There's a lot to take pictures of here in Eskişehir. 

Almost 1,000 views!! Keep 'em coming, guys! As long as you're reading, I'll keep posting. I'm glad to know you all are interested. 

Çok teşekkür ederim!

İyi geceler—

Andrew

Anadolu Tarımsal Araştırma Enstitüsü — Campus Tour

ATAE — Anadolu Tarımsal Araştırma Enstitüsü — Anatolian Agriculture Research Institute 

ATAE is the institute where I work. My department is SBP (Soil Borne Pathogens). I am affiliated with CIMMYT (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo — International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center)

This photo is of the Misafirhane (Guest House). My window is the fourth from the left on the bottom. It's nearly always open. Nice fresh air. Those flower beds are filled with roses (gül) and snap dragons (aslan  ağız —lion's mouth), and the smell wafts in the window. I'll stay here 90% of the time, except when I'm traveling for field work and such. Currently, I don't know if I've mentioned this, I have a roommate for Uzbekistan. He speaks broken English and even more broken Turkish, so it's difficult to communicate at times, but it's been fun. I've learned a significant amount of Russian since he's been here, that's for sure. However, he leaves on Monday for Konya.

This is the entrance to the laboratuvari. It's probably 10 yards from the entrance of Misafirhane, so very close to walk to work. 

Now, we'll follow the sign to the right to the Yemekhane — lit. food house. Obviously, the cafeteria. The food here is by far the best cafeteria food I have ever eaten. This evening, the director's daughter had her wedding reception in the cafeteria. Since I'm staying here, I was allowed to go in before and eat. Fantastic wedding food. Every day, after we're finished eating, we stroll around the campus grounds and walk off a few calories while enjoying the nice weather. 

On a side note, you'll notice on top of the Yemekhane two black rectangular panels. As you've probably guessed, these are solar panels. Behind it is a water heater. Here at the institute, all hot water is generated by the sun. Since we've been receiving and exorbitant amount of rain, the hot water is sparse. I essentially have to time my showers right to have hot water. 

This is the administrative building at the center. This is the business end of things. I have only been in here a handful of times. Once to meet the director, once to obtain a network ID, once to attend a formal meeting, and few other times for random things.

This iss one of my favorite parts of the center. That little red truck is like a grocery truck. It comes twice every day around meal times and for a few türk lira, you can buy all sorts of things, from eggs, to soda, to bread. Good stuff. Really handy when you don't feel like taking the bus into town.

Now, actually where I work. This is a photo of the Pathology Laboratory from the door. The black desk chair you see is where I sit, and the microscope in front of it is the one that I use. I spend around nine hours in it each day.

I know you all wanted to see my microscope. It's awesome. That petri dish in underneath is filled with washed soil (I'll explain in a few pictures). I look through it to find nematode cysts. That small glass dish just to the right of it is filled with probably a hundred cysts (3 days worth). That small brown smudge in the center is all of them, if that gives you some perspective on how small these things are.

This is at the back of the lab. Those are bundles of wheat sampled from the fields. They were tested for both Fusarium culmorum (crown rot fungus) and Heterodera filipjevi (cereal cyst nematodes), the two disease we work with for the most part.

Through a door at the back of the lab near that wheat is this room. This is a sterile room. You can see the fume hood off to the right for working with chemicals and fungus. A lot of the preparation for experiments happens here. 

These are the sinks just outside the room depicted above. This is where we do our soil washing. The tube coming out of the second sink (from the left) is the Fenwick machine. It washes a lot of soil at once. We never use it. Typically, it's faster to wash in buckets. Here's the process:

1. Soil samples are placed in bucket. The water is added.

2. Samples undergo rigorous mixing to suspend the soil in the water.

3. Suspension is poured through a series of sieves. The first catches the larger materials (root fragments, sticks, large rocks) and then a fine sieve catches the cysts, sand, and organic material, letting the actual soil run through. This result is jarred and given to an intern or employee for inspection.

These are assorted fungi cultures in the lab. They are from samples taken from the fields or growth chamber experiments. All pathogenic fungi.

I mentioned earlier that we've been getting a lot of rain here. This was taken (in the sun) after a particularly severe thunderstorm this afternoon. It was great.

This was a quick picture I snapped of one of the many köpekler (dogs) that roam the campus grounds. I think there are at least ten different ones. There are dogs all over the city too. As well as a great deal of stray cats.

Here I am, hard at work. And clearly fine. So stop worrying. You know who you are...

I suppose that's all for now. On account of the wedding, we didn't make a trip to the city today. I'm intending to go tomorrow, so hopefully I can get some pictures then. I may also roam around campus more extensively (it's enormous). I'll post what I've got on Sunday. Erdoğan says we're spending Pazar (Sunday) in this park in Eskişehir, so I know I'll get some good pictures there. 

Once again, I really appreciate you stopping in to read the blog. Feel free to post thoughts under these posts. I enjoy hearing from everyone!

Çok teşekkür ederim,

İyi geceler—

Andrew

Eskişehir

Last Monday night, after spending the day in the office, I took the train from Ankara to Eskişehir with Didem. I'm staying on the grounds of the research institute outside of the city (I worth in the pathology laboratory). These are some photos from just outside the complex. I was going to take some of the institute, but my camera died. I will post them later.

These are the fields out behind the institute. Much of the land actually belongs to the institute and is used for experimentation and observation plots.

This is the rocky terrain I was talking about. Very rugged, but very pretty. These red flowers are everywhere. They are poppies. These are much too small to be the ones used to produce pain medications. A cousin. The large ones are called haşhaş in Turkey. They have white flowers and are MUCH bigger.

This was the path we walked down. There were signs periodically down it's length warning of severe electrical shock. We never did figure out where the electricity was supposed to be coming from.

In the distance you can see the city of Eskişehir. I will eventually get some pictures of the city. It's a very interesting place. I've been there a number of times to the same places. I'd like to see more of it, though.

This is a cemetery straight down the hill from my window in the pathology laboratory. It's been the source of a number of jokes about "bir hayalet" (a ghost) slamming the windows. There used to be a small village right in this area, and this served at their burial ground. Either it was a very small village, or people grew to be very old there, because the cemetery is miniscule.

Here's one more of those "proof of health" pictures. 

That's all for now. I'm charging my battery presently. I'll be sure to get some more pictures of the institute, the people, and especially the city. I'm also going to break out the Flip this week, I think. I don't really know what to do with it yet. I mean, I can work it, but I won't do a testimonial or anything. I would just embarrass myself. I'm sure I can find something interesting to film. Or maybe not yet. 

Work, for now, is the same. No complaints here. I enjoy it. For now, the institute is busy preparing for the arrival of Julie and Etienne who will review the research being performed. I don't yet know what I will be doing while they're here. I'm looking forward to finally meeting the infamous Julie. She's sort of famous around here. She worked at CIMMYT/ICARDA Turkey for around 10 yrs. 

Sunday was election day here in Turkey. It was very interesting to observe. Days before, there were posters, signs, and flyers everywhere. There were buses full of supporters driving down the street blaring campaign music and there were parades of party advocates marching the streets with different sorts of chants. It was crazy.  I wish I had gotten a picture. I really apologize. Yesterday, I made the odd observation that alcohol is not allowed to be sold or purchased on election day. 

I think that's all I've got for now. If anything else interesting happens, I'll be sure to post. 

I appreciate you stopping by!

Çok Teşekkürler ve İyi geceler,

Andrew—

Türk Yemeği

Turkish food is fantastic. I mean seriously delicious. I will be surprised if I don't gain 20lbs while I'm here (not that I don't need to gain weight... I was just saying).

This a typical Türk Kahvaltı (Turkish Breakfast). On the plate is simmit, a type of bread, with some delicious sort of spread with maple in it (the bowl with the spoon in it). I'm not really sure what it was. Behind that is Beyaz Peynir (lit. White Cheese), which is what we call Feta. To be fair, Feta is the Greek version of Beyaz Peynir. It originated in Turkey. There was also Nutella. Good stuff. Dr. Dababat was cutting different bread when this was taken that we ate with Zeytinyağı (Turkish Olive Oil) and Oregano. That cup to the left is filled with the most common Turkish drink, Çay (tea—pronounced just like chai). I average 10 cups of this a day. If you like hot tea, you'd like this a lot. Also, they drink a lot of juice here in place of soda. It's good stuff. Vişne Suyu (cherry juice) is the drink of choice for many people, especially in restaurants. 

This was one of the restaurants along Göksu Lake. On one side of each table was a swing. On the other side was a stationary couch. Very unique.

This was my meal: Köfte. Roughly translates to meatballs. They were somewhere between sausages and meatballs in taste. Very good. The fries were... foreign. Of course, America still does fast food best. The middle is pilav (rice, of course) prepared in the traditional Turkish fashion. The rest is a salad that was dressed with vinegar, oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

This is a traditional çay pot. The top contains a dense, concentrated tea. The bottom, boiling water. You mix them to taste. The very bottom part contained some sort of fire jelly and was continuing to boil the water. We sat for about 90 minutes after I meal and finished 75% of the pot. 

Obviously, I had to sneak this picture. This chick kept staring at me (I look really foreign), so I had to snap it really quick. What she is holding is the host to a nargile. It's essentially just a hookah. All sorts of people smoked them in this restaurant. She had berry flavored tobacco of some sort. She kept blowing it at us, so we could smell it. Turks, typically, smoke often.

Göksu

I finally figured out the best way to post photos. Sorry to all those expecting photos earlier. 

Like I said before, I spent a couple days with Dr. Amer Dababat in his apartment. This is the view from his apartment. The park you see is Göksu Park. It's really a spectacular view. The park itself is also really great. Sunday, Dr. Dababat and I spent several hours there.

This is some sort of roller coaster-type thing. That building at the bottom is the "station." The line was quite significant when I was down there, so I didn't ride. The yellow dome there has something to do with it. Dr. Dababat wasn't sure either. He hadn't ridden it either.

Yes, these are paddle boats. Big ones. They call them Su Bisikletleri (Water Bicycles). This photo was taken at something like 05:00, so no one was yet there. By the time I had gotten there, they were all in use. If you look at the pictures of the lake above, you can see some fountains. People would drive the boats into the fountains. It was really funny. On a complete side note: these fountains lit up at night. It was really neat to see. The view is equally good at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture.

If you look closely at the sidewalk, someone has written "Seni Seviyorum" meaning "I love you."

This is one end of Göksu. You can see the great number of apartment buildings. They are very colorful here. In fact, most of the cities are more colorful, bright, and lively than those in the United States. 

This was taken to demonstrate the rocky/rugged/mountainous terrain of Turkey. You can see it in the background. I would compare it to South Dakota—similar to the Black Hills or Badlands.

Down on Göksu Lake. This is the biggest duck I've ever seen. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but this duck could have killed my dog, Skip. <---Haha

Ördek

Very unique water fowl here. I have no idea what this is. We really don't have an equivalent in the United States. It appeared somewhere between a cormorant and a duck.

More wildlife in the lake. I wish I could have gotten the duck and turtle in the same frame to give you some perspective. The duck could have eaten this thing whole. 

Kaplumbağa

See, I'm still alive. I hate pictures of myself, but apparently, I'm supposed to take more of these. I'm having troubles getting people in them with me. They're more than happy to take it, but no one wants to be in it. They share my disliking of photos.

Alright, well, I'm going to get some sleep. I'll blog some more pictures of Ankara and some new ones of Eskisehir tomorrow evening.

I appreciate everyone reading this! It makes it worthwhile to have readers.

Teşekkürler ve iyi geceler!

Andrew—