It shouldn't come as a big surprise to those who know me, but I've been procrastinating on certain vital tasks to prepare for my trip. This is partly because I've been working during normal business hours of the businesses I wanted to patronize and partly because I'm lazy. Anyways, I'm crossing my fingers that my contacts and credit card arrive this Friday since my plane leaves Sunday...but hey, what's a trip without a little stress?
On a brighter note, I have almost completed my packing and I think it will all fit, albeit tightly. I'm hoping to get my big suitcase up to 47 pounds since the limit is 50, but it's stuffed and only 45-I have no idea how anyone could get over 50 without stuffing some bricks or cat tins in there.
This is somewhat sad, but although I have taken four semesters of Turkish I didn't know anything about Turkish history until recently. Normally I don't really get into nonfiction books but I read one about Turkey called "Crescent and Star" and it was fascinating! Here's an excerpt:
"King Midas and King Croesus, Saint Paul and Saint Nicholas, Homer and Herodotus-all came from the land that is now Turkey. This is where Aristotle taught philosophy, were Diogenes searched for an honest man and where Florence Nightingale treated the sick and wounded. Many of history's greatest conquerors have won or lost wars here, among them Alexander, Darius, Tamerlane, Hannibal and Saladin."
Even beyond that, though, Turkey has a really interesting history. After they lost WW1 along with Germany, both countries faced huge "war costs", but the Ottoman Empire was parceled off among the major European powers so the only land that remained was mountainous and inhospitable. Ataturk Kemal, who had defeated Churchill during a major battle in WW1, led the Turks in a successful revolt to recover their land. Instead of taking advantage of his win to conquer more territory, Ataturk worked to establish the Turkish Republic and strove to take all traces of Muslim influence from the government. Although Muslims now don't have as many rights as a true democracy/republic should, Ataturk did save Turkey from possibly becoming another Iraq or Iran. I could go on, but this blog is getting long so I'll leave the history until I learn about it firsthand!
So now I just need to scrabble all my things together, make sure I have all the vitals, and I'm off this Sunday, leaving the country for the first time in...ever!
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