Sorry for the huge delay with blogging, it took a few days to get the internet up and running out here, and then it took a while for me to figure out how to work around the internet settings to be able to access my blog.
As of a few minutes ago, I just finished with week 1 of field camp. The work consisted of a lot of hiking over hilltops, chasing elusive outcrops of mudstone and sanstone, trying to measure the total extent of the units. Strangely enough, Turkey has a similar history to Virginia, geologically. Most of modern Virginia was added on at various points throughout geologic time by island arcs (similar to Hawaii) being dragged onto the continent Laurentia (ancient North America). Being on the east coast, Virginia accumulated a lot of land mass through this process, including ocean floor bits, volcanic material, and any sediments that had collected on the sea floor near the islands. Turkey is also a hodge-podge of various pieces of volcanic arc systems. We examined some of those rocks this past week, and will map the area in detail next week. Some of these rocks are fairly rare - our instructor said maybe only 1 in 100 geologists has seen rocks of this composition: sandstone composed of volcanic rock fragments. If you're a geologist - we saw olivine sandstone. If you're a non-geologist - we saw peridot sandstone. Very cool.
Summary of trip so far:
On Sunday I flew to Istanbul via Turkish Airlines. If you are ever planning a flight and this airline is an option, take it! The plane was nice and the service and amenities were fantastic. We were served a full hot breakfast on PLATES with miniature teacups for our hot drink of choice (as opposed to the little styrofoam cups they usually give you). Every passenger is automatically given free headphones, and one guy in our group who flew overnight said that everyone is given a fleece blanket for the evening, not the cheapie polyester ones that stick to your clothes.
Upon arriving we took a bus to Taskesti, the small town of about 2,000 where our field station is. The bus is pretty intensely decked out - I notice new adornments every day. There's a Turkish flag hanging from the top of the windshield as well as a strip of fringe (matching fringe on rear windshield), and all sorts of pendants dangling from the rear-view. There's also some small decorative rugs in the aisle and the driver's seat is surrounded by multi-colored fake flowers. The horn plays a little tune when honked. To get an idea of the bus, listen to the Bud Light "Real men of genius" taxi cab driver jingle, it's pretty accurate. Traffic in Istanbul is horrible, especially crossing over to the Asian side when the lanes decrease from 8 to 3. A guy in a new Lincoln rear-ended us trying to squeeze over into a lane. We didn't feel a thing, but he's got a little hole in his bumper. Overall, the cars around the city looked like cars seen in the US: Volkswagon, Honda, Lincoln, Ford, etc. Out here in the country the cars are much older and less American in appearance. Many people ride tractors into town (kind of similar to the shore's farm equipment traffic)!
Our lodge is super luxurious... pretty much on par with old VSFA dorms and classrooms (for non-ESVA people, VSFA is the summer camp where I usually work... ANYTHING but luxurious!). My friend, Andrea, and I are roommates, we are actually in a 2-person room with attached bath, which is nice. We eat breakfast at the lodge, lunch outside, and dinner in town at a local restaurant. Our camp mom, Nejla, cooks for us, packs our lunches, and serves us tea (cay, pronounced "chai") in the afternoon while we're doing homework. She is very sweet but doesn't speak any English! I've made sure to learn enough to say thank you (Tesekkur ederim) and to say yes (evet) when offered something. Eating out in the evening is nice - it's covered by our tuition and supports the local economy. Also, all our food comes from local farmers.
The children here are adorable! There's about 5 little girls ages 6-12 who wait for us by the road on our way back from dinner. They practice their English on us (Hello! How are you? What's your name? Bye-bye!) and bring us cameillas every day. Andrea and I already have a huge flower collection. There's also some little boys who come over to swing in our swing and lie in the hammock. Their dogs also come over and lie under the tree in the shade.
Tuesday was our first day in "the field." Here's a picture from lunch: This is a watermelon being washed for dessert. We have watermelon at least once per day which I love! This area has a lot of natural springs, and where possible, the water is piped to a fountain (chesmeh), so people can use it. The water in most of them is safe for drinking - our camp director knows which ones! - and the water from them is amazing! So cold and delicious! It tastes so clean compared to the clorine-y water at camp.
Friday is market day in town. We went yesterday morning (you have to go before 11 AM, between 11 and 3 it is so crowded you can barely move). It's pretty neat, there's a lot of fruits and vegetables sold, as well as HUGE sacks of grains, dried beans, and spices. There's a lot of people selling clothing (especially women's), but you can find basically anything you need there. It's the Turkish equivalent to Jaxon's, basically. That being said, similarly to Jaxon's, there is probably not a lot there that you would want. Any of the food is good (dissimilar to Jaxon's where the candy has been there for 10 years), and there are some quality items, but there are lots of cheap plastic children's toys, cheap costume jewelry, and an excess of women's clothes that all look generally the same. It's expected to haggle with the venders for a deal when shopping. Ned would excel at this, I'm terrible at it, although I did get a beautiful 10 lira scarf for 9 Turkish lira! I brought my Turkey guidebook with me so I could try to bargain in Turkish. Key phrases are Ne kadar (how much?), on (ten, most things are around 10 lira), bes (5), sekiz (8, what they will usually give it to you for), dokuz (9, what I got it for... lame). At the market, there are young boys carrying around big trays of tea. They just hand it out for free! Tea is the national beverage of Turkey, and is grow along the Black Sea. It is served in small, handle-less, hourglass-shaped glasses, usually on a saucer with a tiny spoon and two lumps of sugar. The sugar, in my opinion, ruins the flavor, and most people drink it straight. Unlike most of Asia, where green tea is the norm, the tea is Turkey is incredibly strong black tea.
Tomorrow we are planning to go to the beach along the Black Sea. It's been super hot and we've been spending so much time sweating out in the field that we've been begging our instructors to take us swimming. If the weather holds up, that should be our adventure for tomorrow, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Salaam alaikum (peace be with you),
Sarah
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