More Roma

Pope Benedict (the sun came out just before he did)

Part of the crowd in St. Peter's Piazza on Christmas morning

view from the hotel room

Buon Natale en Roma

Midnight mass on Christmas Eve at Santa Maria Maggiore

view of Santa Maria from our hotel, the Mecenate Palace

heading to St. Peter's for the Pope's Christmas morning message

waiting for il Papa

Via Merulana Christmas lights

Busy Saturday

Yesterday Sim spent several hours with Tyler working on the "Ale Project."  When he was home for Thanksgiving, Sim consulted with the guys at Ithaca Beer and brought back barley malt, hops, and a book.  Tyler has made beer before, so yesterday they mixed it up, cooked it in the very large pot Sim procured for 10 lira in Eminonou, and they now have 5 gallons working.  They hope it might be ready for New Year's.

I met up with Sim and we went to Molly's Cafe for a reading by my RC friends.  Mostly poetry, some songs, a lot of fun.  After the reading a bunch of us went to a Thai restaurant nearby, then to a Beyoglu club where our friend and colleague Jake was playing with his band. The temperature was very mild and it was clear, so it was delightful to walk around.

At the club, did some dancing and had a lot of fun.  We again tried to get a bus from Taksim (the metro to Kabatas closes well before midnight), and I know we were in the right bus shelter, but after waiting awhile and witnessing a young woman barfing right next to us, we opted for a cab. 

Today was rainy and we slept late.  Did the Times crossword, made a stew, which wew just finished. Sim's in heaven because he's got the Giants game on our TV, a glass of raki, and he's got Cooper and Jake on Sype at Coop's to talk it through.

Christmas Spirit

As I mentioned in my last post, the Christmas spirit is strong at Robert College.  Last week there was a holiday bazaar at Bizemtepe, the alumni club, and today there was one in Marble Hall, the large foyer of Gould Hall, the main school building.  Felt antlers were a popular item.  Here's a picture of some of my favorite 9th graders sporting them.

Last evening the temperature was back to springlike mildness, but today there were lots of snow flurries, which excited the kids (and some of the adults) and further contributed to the Christmas spirit. 

Next Wednesday our Christmas/ New Year's Party program looks like this:

Program

5:30 pm

• Bonfire and wagon rides with Santa– Rodney Wagner Maze
• Fireplace and drinks for adults – Faculty Parlor

6:30 pm

• Drinks – Faculty Parlor for Adults
• Santa / presents – Marble Hall
• Children's games – Marble Hall

7:30 pm

• Dinner in Cafeteria           

9:00-10:00 pm

• Marble Hall
• Christmas carols and Dance
• Coffee and cookies

Hard to believe this is a school with a 98% Muslim student body. 

At home



 In the kitchen while Sim cooks

the dining room

My Christmas tree



Bebek 

Wearing the apron Julie gave me last Christmas

And more out and about

More out and about

My favorite mosque, Rustempasa, near the Spice Bazaar



Old lady selling bags




Lucy and Coop at Rustempasa with the Izmit tiles



At dinner in Beyoglu

out and about in Istanbul pics

cat helping herself to the cat food on sale in Eminonou

Lovely mosque in Uskudar on the Asian side

Coop and the rug he didn't buy at Adnan & Hasan, our rug guys in the bazaar 

Just the Highlights

It's been awhile.  That's the result of being wildly busy.  So here's the notables:  Had our first overnight visitors, Cooper from Ithaca and Lucy from Bristol, England.  They arrived from London at about 1:00 last Tuesday morning.  We were up until after 2:00.  I, of course, went to work the next day at 8.  They did sightseeing, led by Sim on his practice round.  They did close to  home stuff, the weekly market and shops in Arnavutkoy, then walking to Ortakoy and Besiktas.  Sim cooked a great fish dinner for us at home.  Not too late that night, but by Wednesday afternoon it was starting to catch up with me.  Still, since Thursday I don't have a class until 10am, I met them  in Beyoglu, down from Taksim Square.  They had done many of the major tourist stops:  the Blue Mosque, the bazaars, and my favorite mosque, Rustempasha. 

We had a great fish dinner overlooking the mob scene that is Beyoglu, even on a Wednesday night.  Thursday we had another memorable dinner at our favorite spot in Arnavutkoy, Abracadabra.  Just mezes (starters) but a great variety of original and tasty ones.

Sim and I have been wanting to go to Kadikoy on the Asian side, and Cooper had read an article in the New Yoirker about a restaurant there, so we headed over by ferry on Friday night.  The downside was that after days of warm and fair weather, the more typical December wind and rain had arrived.  Also Coop had a cold.  But we found the restaurant and enjoyed it quite a lot.  Kadikoy is a happening place  and we definitely will go back, especially in fairer weather.  Another problem:  I assumed the ferries back to Besiktas would run late.  But no.  We just missed the last one at 9:15 and ended up with a long and expensive cab ride home. 

The winter weather has remained.  Saturday occasional snow and ice pellets.  Sim and I bused to Ortakoy and did a bit of shopping and had some lunch (I was craving midye tava, fried mussels, which Sim buys regularly on the street when he's doing errands and shopping.)  We got pretty wet, especially our feet.  At home we turned on the heat for the first time. 

Been going to yoga class twice a week.  Lisa, wife of an art teacher, is the best yoga teacher I've had.  The classes are in the school's dance studio, so it's a 2 minute walk over there for me.  There are usually only 4 -6  people and I enjoy it thoroughly.  This Sunday after yoga, Maura took me to her hair salon.  I desperately needed a trim.  I asked for only an inch or so off, but Bilal advised cutting more like 4 inches and he was so right.  Had a pedicure too.  Bilal is the owner, but he's got a big staff, shampooing, blowdrying, doing nails, bringing coffee.  It's all very efficient and I love the job they did. I'll be going back for color. 

We've swung into the Christmas season.  Big tree in the office of Tulu, the headmaster's admin assistant.  There's decorations and carols being played in stores. We see trees in the windows of homes.
My students say they're New Year's trees.   Ambrose, my officemate, has continued his good vibes function and brought in stockings and a mini-tree and yesterday a fabulous homemade pumpkin pie. 

Next week there will be a couple of Chrsitmas parties.  We have Christmas Eve day off and so Sim and I will take off in the morning for......................................Roma.  I decided I needed to be somewhere Christmasy.  We have a nice hotel near Santa Maria Maggiore, where I think we'll go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve.  There won't be much open and limited public transportation, but we'll walk and look and eat for 2 days and nights.  That's the plan. 

Aegina Pıctures

Thanks, Danae, for being a fabulous hostess and taking these great pictures.  Come see us soon.

Vacation

I kicked off the week's Kurban Bayram (Sacrifice holiday) break with a happy hour at my place.  Sim was quite the mixologist, primarily mojitos and margaritas.  I made a few Cosmos.  Many of our guests were complimentary about our apartment.  I still find it aesthetically lacking, but compared to many of the faculty apartments it has lots of room and the closets are the envy of all.  We ended up hanging out in the windowless center room that we've set up as a dining room.  It worked pretty well.   We've got pictures up in most rooms and we've bought four rugs (three nice ones and a cheap one from a secondhand store) to add to the three that came in my shipment.  Sim is now in Warsaw on an overnight layover enroute to Ithaca for Thanksgiving.  He took home  a huge suitcase of his clothing that came in the shipment.  I told him when he was packing that for a man without a job, he had an awful lot of clothes to go to work in.  In the empty suitcase he's bringing back more stuff to hang on the walls and things like peanut butter, maple syrup, anchovy paste (I'm trying to perfect a Caesar salad dressing, but I've also asked him to bring a bottle or two of Ken's Lite Caesar, which I love) and Bailey's Irish Cream, that tend to be expensive or not available.

Last Sunday we flew to Athens for a four night-five day holiday.  We flew on Olympic Airlines and on an hour and a half flight we had a meal with wine each way.  The weather was perfect.  As usual we had camera trouble.  (We either forget our camera, get it stolen, or it goes on the fritz, as was the case this time, every time we go on vacation.  The last trip's photos were taken on a disposable because that time we left it on our kitchen counter.)

We visited all the big archaelogical sites in Athens, walked and ate a lot of terrific food.  Our hotel was very nice, with a roof garden and a jacuzzi with a view of the Acropolis. 

On Wednesday we took a ferry to Aegina and spent a night and most of two days with our friend Danae.  She got some great pictures and I hope to figure out how to post them here.  (Sim said he thinks I should only post pictures of Turkey on the blog since it's "Moira's Turkish Adventure" which I think is his way of dealing with the fact that we had no camera.)

On Aegina we toured their classical and prehistoric ruins.  We had squid for lunch, caught by Danae's husband Costas.  For dinner we went to a family place and had terrific moussaka.  I just wish I'd taken the chance to go for a swim.  The air temp was in the 70's and the water was plenty warm. 

I'd love to go back to Greece and to Aegina.  The traveling is easy and I really like it, but there are so many places to go.  We're planning on Sicily in February to see our friends Jose and Pina and to take in the St. Agata festival in Catania.  We've got two weeks for the semester break. Flying to Catania costs 230 rt, with a stop in Rome.  I looked at trying to stay a couple of days in Rome on the way there or back, but that fare is over 500. Even just flying to Rome is more than flying to Catania.  Go figure. Maybe we'll do a separate short trip during that break.

I've looked at lots of places for April.  Right now I'm leaning toward renting a car and doing a 5 hour road trip to Canakkale/Gallipolli/ Troy.

This afternoon I'll do a little food shopping.  I'm missing Sim.  He's done most of the shopping during the last 10 weeks.  He also does most of the care for Bebek, including taking her to the vet, first to get spayed, and then multiple trips for shots.  He carries her in a backpack.  She's dying to go out.  She spends a lot of time on the window sill looking out.  Often one of the many stray cats on the campus sits on the outside sill and they stare at each other, one wanting out the other wanting in.  Once she has all her shots (she's got one more to go) we'll start letting her out.  We're going to try to train her to jump up on the windowsill outside the living room to be let in again.  It'd be nice if we could just leave the window open for her but God knows how many cats we'd have in here then. 

Pictures of the Weekend Away

Along the waterfront in Kusadasi

On the terrace of Fig House in Sirince

The terrace of the Hotel Bella

Can't see it too well, but it's the very cosy dining room at the Hotel Bella

The Theatre at Ephesus

St. John's Basilica
The plaque says that Pope Paul the 6th preached there in 1969