Turkish View: Taking the Escalator to School

I live a 25-minute walk from my school. If I walk the other direction, I can be in the hills in about the same amount of time.

I plan to take a photo from my walk to work to post here every few days or so. From experience, I know that things get normalized quite easily in a new place, so I want to capture scenes that are new to readers, if not to me.

About five minutes from school, I have to cross the highway. It's a busy highway that connects Izmir with the airport. Fortunately there is a crossing bridge.

But look at this bridge! It has escalators on either side (there is an elevator in the brick tower at the back). It's nice to have a relaxing ride to the top of the bridge after 20 minutes of walking.

I don't think I've seen outdoor escalators as often as I've seen them here. One warning, though. The handrails are very dirty. If I grab one, i get a nasty black mark. Otherwise, it's a nice addition to my daily walk to and from school.

Here's the view going down the other side. You can see the highway. To the left are a few of Gaziemir's numerous cookie-cutter, six story apartment blocks. And you can see the exit for Sarniç, the train station I use.

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Sunday at the İzmir Archeological Museum

After church today, I resolved to beat the heat and go to a museum. My target: the İzmir Archeological Museum , just south of the bazaar in the Konak district. My friend, Jen, had told me about a slogan she had seen: "Turkey, it's the world's largest museum." It's true. At any given place where I might stand, especially at an important harbor like Izmir, I may have seven millenia of history at my feet! I quickly learned, upon entering the gallery that ancient history is a pretty broad topic to examine. When we think of Ancient Rome, we think of a specific civilization that endured for 500 years. Ancient Greece casts our minds to Socrates and Alexander. But Ancient Turkey? There is really no one thing. I don't want to go into much detail here. I have years of living in and exploring this fascinating country ahead of me. So I have plenty of time to figure it out for myself. I'll just write that before the Greek civilizations, known as Ionians and Aeolians, ...

Turkish Lesson: Köpek

I passed this place on my way home from the train station today. I pass it every day. It's quite common to see owners here playing with a Köpek. It's not the only place I see a Köpek or two. Most are strays I see lying languidly throughout the day. In the evening they clean up the streets and make their rounds of alleyways. My landlord says they keep him up at night, but I haven't heard any barking...yet. Köpek . Your newest Turkish word! Postscript: i spotted this sign on my hike Saturday. I took several shortcuts, but never when I saw this sign. Var means "have or has" in English.

Türkiye in one Photo: Hopes & Fears

The first week of school we went over procedures with the kids. One procedure that caught my attention was the Earthquake Drill. We have to be ready for earthquakes here. The ground often shakes. Here's what we do: a siren sounds for 30 seconds. When it sounds, we duck under our desks and protect our heads. When the siren stops, I lead the class out the front door to the edge of campus and follow a wall to a parking lot, where we wait for ... aftershocks, clearance for return, I haven't figured this out yet. I have experienced one earthquake already, the week before school started. It wasn't much. The building shook for about 15 seconds, and my swivel chair kept moving around under me. But I wasn't knocked around or anything. I saw the tweet below this week. For me, it combines fascination and fear. I'm fascinated by the history and art that has shook this landscape for thousands of years. People moving in and out, empires rising and falling, and art that is anc...

Aegean Pearls: My Life in Izmir

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