Okay so. Mr. Lyon has asked me to update you which could take a while so I will just cover significant and cultural things for now and save the rest for later. I got here for the last three days of Ramazaan and then the bayram afterwards. I went on a sailing trip to Bodrum on the west coast for a week with my family. We sailed through some ancient geek islands and I got to walk through lots of abandoned 2000 year old cities. I went with my sister by bus, which is the main method of long distance transportation here, at midnight and I wish I had been smart and kept my camera out to show what it looked like. Bus stations on the night before bayrams are like Americas airports during Christmas only outside and everyone is smoking and everything actually leaves ontime. I'm also pretty sure that they had way more buses crammed into the station than was the legal limit, it was insane. On the drive back through the mountains we saw gypsies camped out on plateaus and that was really cool. We had to come back early because there was a political reforandum voting taking place. The country was voting on the allowance of military power in the govt courts. As a result of PKK interference in the east the results kept the current military/conservative standing pretty much the same. Then there was the world basketball championships that Turkey played the USA for but lost. It was like the msu u of m game, the city was completly dead and then a total party after semi finals.
The school system here is very different. Stduents take and exam at the beginning of high school that place them into classes for language, science, social sciences, or Turkish and maths. Tey usually stay in this class all through high school and they determine which jobs you can hold in the future. Then at the end of high school everyone takes one huge test that tells you which universiies you can go to and what major(s) you can go into and you do it. So right now most students know what they're going to be because it was determined at the beginning of high school. Hence I feel incredably lucky. However college is insanely cheap or free here.
Right now I have school off for the rest of the week because it is the Kurban Bayram which means the sacrifice holiday. Rich and middle class families sacrifice sheep and goats and donate the meat to the poor so right now the neighborhood soccer fields and bazaar areas are filled with pens of sheep and goats waiting to be killed. The bayram after Ramazaan is called the şekar bayram or sweets because there is an excess of feasting and family visits etc. We were joined by extended family in Bodrum and had 8 course dinners that went past midnight.
To give you a brief description of Antalya it is very hot with lots of orange and pomegranate trees and very old and new at the same time. It is known as little russia because of all the Russian tourists and retirees. There's also a very large Turkish-German population so those are the second languages at school and what all signs and advertisements are in besides Turkish. I'm supposedly learning German right now, but im too far behind the students for it to make a difference. Antalya was founded as a city around 2000 years ago but the territory was originally given to Cleopatra by Antony as a victory gift so the city was built around Hadrians Gate. For about 1500 years the city was simply a giant castle that was burned and pillaged and captured by the Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, ottomans, and turks. In no particular order. The castle is still home to a good portion of residents today and houses the citys grand bazaar. The walls still run the length of the city around the bay and pillars and random walls and towers lay open throughout the city. Nothing is gated or guarded so anyone can just look and climb where they like and it's pretty cool. The reason Antalya remained not much more but a very small but important port town on the Mediterranean for so long was because the city is a very unique land formation. It sits in a bowl that dips down to the sea from the Targus mountain range that in a few places reaches over 2000 meters high as sheer rock so it is fairly difficult to get in and out of and remained orange groves until a major tourism spike roughly 15 years ago. So the majority of the city is very new but the ancient orange groves and managment houses are still standing in the middle of the city and it smells very good here year round.
I have discovered that Americas anti middle eastern sentiment is portrayed and put out much more strongly than I thought. Not once have I been assumed American. I have been thought Brazilian because my host brother is on exchange in Brazil. I have been assumed Italian because my school has another Italian exchange student, I have been assumed Russian and German because of tourism and, especially in Bodrum, british and Australian because I speak English and finally Canadian. And when I say no I'm American I get the funniest looks of 'are you serious?' because people think/know that America has steryotyped this region of the world as radical Muslim and dangerous etc. and you never find Americans over here.
I will have many more updates for you all very soon. I am going to Istanbul not Constantinople this week and then to Antakya next weekend. I would also like you all to look up some information about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk because hebwas the founder of the Turkish republic and I can not in a million years emphasize to you how important and revered he is here. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask them!