home

.
back yesterday, -15F with snow.
gonna break my ass on the ice anytime.
long underwear from a street vendor, 7 lira well-spent.
.

walking to the office

Erzurum pics

View from the clock tower

Looking up at Yakutiye Madrassah, Mongol Empire, 1310 AD

Erzurum's Inner Fortress and Clock Tower, Roman Empire, 5th Century

-----
Erzurum is gorgeous! that's where you get to spend yr every day? you've been holding out on me/us.

yes, face, these pictures maybe. they are beautiful pictures, but as you wrote this i think they don't represent my experience or the experience of viewing the city in full. i haven't really figured out what a picture of erzurum is like.
i wanted to take some pictures of the university in fall, and that is really beautiful too, and quite different from these views of the city. the university is different from the city, the historical sites here are different than the commercial streets, the outskirts of both the university campus and the city are different than their more manicured centers...
even on my same walk to the office everyday, i can choose between either beautiful or sad or confused scenery (i'll stick to this position- i'm not confused, the scenery is). i hope to put up more pics soon of different parts of town, shepherds and sheep and their dogs, horse drawn carts, BMWs in unruly traffic, the dirt paths leading to my apartment, the advanced sprinkler system of Atatürk University, the men with their wild suits and the boys and elderly shinning their shoes

Generic Update

at this time i've been in Turkey for about 3 weeks. i came during Ramadan, which just ended a few days ago and has affected my visit in interesting ways (image of women in headscarfs hollering while they play air-hockey in the park). i will be living in Erzurum, in the mountains only about 200 miles from Tehran, and i have already visited and set up my apartment and office there (i feel extremely comfortable because of the hospitality of everyone). for the moment i am in Konya, about 150 miles south of Ankara, with a gracious friend for the Bayram holiday. i've also spent 3 days each in Ankara and Istanbul, mostly visiting tourist sites and eating good food. i have posts drafted about religion and public education, driving in Turkey, McDonalds, and being the only American in Erzurum (a subjective reality that has recently changed). in the coming months i'll be teaching english and american studies at Atatürk University, fearing God and -40 weather, and traveling as much as possible.