Cappadocia

Well after finally reading everyone else's blogs and securing a computer and converter (thanks Ivan, Brandon and Ariel) I can relate to you today's events albeit probably out of order and how I remember them.

This morning began like every other under the Anatolian sun for me. Which means waking up, showering and then a morning dose of turkish music on Turkey's version of MTV. At 9 AM we boarded the bus and headed out to see the underground city. With its long tunnels, cool in the summer and hot in the winter, we were in for a journey. Labyrintine in structure it's hard now to imagine that people lived, cooked and pressed their wine down there. Don't worry while it may been deep underground it was well-ventilated.

After the underground city we visted some more Fairy Chimneys that make Cappadocia famous. Some with religious frescos dating back to when Turkey was prominently Christian. We learned from Dr. Clark, in his "Heaven Earth/ Theology Geology" talk that this region's fairy chimneys are created from compressed volcanic material produces by Anatolia's now inactive volcanoes. They gain they conical shape though from the presence of basalt stone on their caps. Tosun, our guide, further elaborated by explaining that this soft material is easily chiseled into and whole cities (mentioned above) can be carved into them. Dr. Clark further explained that Christianity it Turkey was largely ascetic in nature, with monks denying themselves any form of physical pleasure, allowing the body's to waste away in order to focus on the spiritual rather than material world. This monastic movement he explained is very different from Adventism which is more Old Testament in it's outlook (that physical pleasure isn't always bad), with our church's focus on health and nutrition it can be seen we favor a more holistic form of worship.

Another intersting event to mention was our visit to some of Tosun's friends who actually live inside one of the cones. While to many of us a rock cone may sound uninhabiatble their house was very beautiful. The owners had painted the inside rock white and even carved out windows and a fireplace. Not a bad way to live! Also there had an amazing terrace with a portico with white grapes dangling from above. After some grapes and Lunch we headed out to our last stop of the day Goreme Open Air Musuem where we saw some carved Christian churchs, complete with caverns and Nilmini's expressed favourite, graves!

The very last thing on the agenda tonight was Hayden and Sterling's presentations on Classical Ottamen and Arabesque music respectativly. It was informative, Hayden noting how Eastern instruments our more flexible able to do half and quater notes between Western notes and also utilize more "moods" than traditional Western music. Sterling explained how Arabesque music was created to address the nostalgia for folk music and sounds during Turkey's westernization.

Now I hope I've relayed everything as succinctly as possible, if not pray forgive as I am tired and using I borrowed computer (thanks again Ivan sorry you have to wait up for it)

-Nolan Hollis von Esch