FINAL DAY

So it’s the last day and I finally get to blog. I must admit that this is a very emotional moment for me… we’ve had so many beautiful moments here in Turkey. My keyboard is damp with tears as I write. My only regret is Dr. Mallery leaving us without any warning. Why would she leave us?! As we students have wrestled with this issue, I’ve been thinking about how she always told us to look for the hidden curriculum. With this is mind, David, Alex, and I decided that the only possible explanation is that she is a super hero. Perhaps Wonder Woman? But where would she stash her invisible plane? She must have been called away to save innocent people at the last minute and didn’t have time to warn us. If this be the case, God Speed Dr. Mallery, God Speed.

*

BUS TRIP!!!!! We drove from Cappadocia to Ankara today... on a bus. The landscape looked like Central California, flat and baron with a few hills. I’m sorry if you live in Central California, but seriously there’s nothing there. You should move. The Bay Area is nice this time of year.

*

Our first stop, once we’d reached Ankara, was the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Mausoleum. If you don’t know who Ataturk is, he’s basically the father of Turkey and a mix between George Clooney, Superman, and Chuck Norris. If that one doesn’t work for you, he’s like Lennon mixed with the Savior sprinkled with John Wayne. He’s respected like a religious figure. On November 10^th at the exact hour of his death, the whole country stops, buses pull over, business stops, and five minutes of silence is observed. He’s a war hero, politician, and legend. Turkish Superman wears Ataturk pajamas.

His burial sight looks like a huge Roman temple complete with a courtyard and underground museum. The path to the mausoleum is lined with stone lions and guarded by color guard from the Turkish Army, Navy, and Air Force. Like I said, he’s the man. His museum contains his stuffed dog, shaving set, medals, and paintings of famous battles during Turkish war for independence. My favorite of these depicted an epic battle where Ataturk stands at the highest point on the field calmly smoking a cigarette while cannons and rifles go off around him. When I grow up I want to be just like Ataturk.

*

Turkish Fanta tastes funny.

*

Next we went to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. There where lots of nice broken pots and sculptures but no labels to be found. This forced me to make my own conclusions on what things might be. For instance, this sculpture depicts Eros the god of love. The hole through his middle however was inflicted by a Nazi bullet aimed at Indiana Jones as he swung to safety on his whip yelling, “THIS BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!!!” I love archeology.

*

Well now I think I’ll rest my imagination and get some sleep. Tomorrow we wake up at five o’clock in order to leave at five thirty so we can catch a plane to Istanbul. From there we fly to Munich then L.A. Everyone here is doing well except for a few feeling a bit sick, but we’ll see you all tomorrow night.