Ma Helwa Turkeya! « A Year of Arabic and Archaeology

Posted by: sarahcferg | October 2, 2009

Ma Helwa Turkeya!

Alas, Eid is over and I’ve been back in Amman for a week. Post-Ramadan, classes are longer and more tiresome, but at least I can eat during the day! I have to say, my friends and I have been relishing how wonderful it is to see people eating and to be able to bite into a big sandwich in public. Ah, the little things in life.

At least the end of Ramadan gave me the opportunity to go to travel to Turkey for 9 delightful days. It’s such a beautiful country, and I barely even scratched the surface! I went with four other friends, two of whom branched off after Istanbul to visit Cappadocia and Ankara while the two others and I headed to Izmir, on the Aegean coast, Ephesus, and Fethiye, on the Mediterranean (Turquoise) coast.

Because we saw so much, I will leave you with highlights from the trip

- Turkey is SO GREEN! I knew Amman was brown and dusty, but I didn’t realize just how brown and dusty (having come from Egypt) until I left and went to Turkey! There are so many trees, so many flowers- the countryside is simply spectacular. Hills simply covered with green with weird and beautiful rock formations poking through.

- Istanbul was wonderful. Where else can you cross a bridge, stay in the same city, but move to a different continent? Nowhere! That’s where! It has so much to offer- from the museums to the incredible monuments, it’s like Cairo, in that you could spend a lifetime there with things left to see.

- Ephesus was such a treat for me to see. It’s heavily reconstructed, but nonetheless the ruins are beautifully preserved, and it’s almost like walking through an ancient city. The surrounding countryside is beautiful, as well- I would have been happy to have a few days to go hiking and explore.

- The Turquoise Coast, on the Mediterranean is just lovely. The water was perfect, and we spent two days soaking up sunshine and swimming in the clear, blue water. It’s very touristy- frequented by lots of Europeans- but we stayed at a lovely pension with a view over the water, and enjoyed the freedom to be lazy.

- Being in Turkey made me appreciate how much Arabic I speak and understand! I felt like I didn’t get everything I hear here, but there I actually understood nothing! I never thought I’d feel more comfortable reverting to Arabic!

Back in Amman, everything is back to normal. The only thing on my plate for the next couple weeks is delving into research for the 15 page paper we have to write (in Arabic!). Talking about appreciating things, one visit to the library here made me yearn for Columbia… you can only take out three (3!) books at a time (the limit at Columbia is 950) and when I tried to find a book on my topic (the significance of the appearance of the first human-form statues in Neolithic Jordan) I failed miserably. Not that I didn’t understand what was going on, they just didn’t have ANY resources! And I’m writing about Jordan! I don’t know what to do!

I had great fun with my camera in Turkey- enjoy the results: