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Published: August 4th 2005
this sign pretty much wraps up the irony of our trip
"Istanbul -- city of love and dreams," right next to a huge model gun and bullets. Sweet...So, we are back in the United States… and not a second too soon. We had such a wonderful trip, but there is something about home that you just can’t beat. Maybe the key to that equation is the ability to communicate with other humans. The language barrier really does start to affect your perception of an experience after a while. At first its great, but after a while it really gets old. Like when you order at a restaurant, you basically are spinning the wheel on what you will actually get. It’s funny - but it gets old.
So while still in Turkey, I had been telling Tucker all along that it is not a great idea to eat what we call “street meat.” It is basically gyro-type sandwiches that you can buy for the equivalent of about $.75 on the street - you know the kind where they shave pieces off a big block of meat. They just don’t look very sanitary… But anyway, Tucker and all of the other guys in our crew eat them all the time. Last week, the poor lamb mounted on that rotating meat dispenser got her revenge on old Friar Tuck. He
Galata Tower
This tower is amazing. You can see the entire city. I think it was built as a watch tower. was incredibly ill with awful food poisoning for like 2 full days - did not eat and did not leave the hotel room. Tucker was about the 5th person on this trip to become very ill from the food here - in fact, we have two new vegetarian converts as a result - Liz Rogers and Zach Stewart. I feel like a proud parent - my fledgling vegetarian friends.
Anyway, the last week that we were in town there were two bombings in Istanbul - one in a restaurant underneath a bridge that we travel frequently, and one in a neighborhood called Taksim, where we go all the time. The explosion under the Galata Bridge injured two - a Danish tourist and a Turkish waiter. All together, that is about the 6th terrorist bombing in the country since we arrived. Although the terrorists were aiming to mess with the Turkish government, they were targeting touristy areas… so in that respect, we were vulnerable. However, I never felt unsafe, and although I was a little nervous in the abstract, we certainly were not about to let that affect our trip or activities. Glad to be safe at home though….
To celebrate the last day of our trip, Professor Yenessi, one of the Turkish professors, had a party at his home for us. He lives on one of the Princes’ Islands, off the coast of Istanbul, and you have to take a boat to get there. It was really nice - we went to the beach and Mrs. Yenessi prepared a traditional Turkish meal for us. All of the Turkish students were there, and we gave each one of them KU Law T-shirts. They all were so excited and wore them to our final the next day. Some of them even had the American students autograph the backs of their shirts. It was really cute. It turned out to be sad to say goodbye to them, and the other students that were on our trip with us. We really did make some great friends, got to know some amazing, diverse people. And we plan to keep in touch - there are a few trips to Lawrence already in the works!
This experience, to travel to another country and really immerse in a foreign culture, truly was a once in a life time opportunity, and I am so glad to
have been a part of it. Turkey is a wonderful country, with wonderful people. It’s so good to be home on U.S. soil, but this has been a month that I will never forget.
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Joan Clark
non-member comment
Glad you are on US soil!!
..but so glad you had this wonderful opportunity. Sounds like you and Tucker worked hard as well as played hard/ the way to live!!