Days 22-27: Holy Mountain Hiking, Batman! (Gümüşhane/Sümela/Trabzon)

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Late Friday night I happened to wander outside and bump into the other volunteers and Dr. B chatting in front of the hotel. We found out that there was a mid-term exam on Monday that we knew nothing about. And the authors of that exam? Us. There was plenty of time to do it but it was the principle of the thing! So I spent most of Saturday trying to remember what I’d taught the students and coming up with ways to test their knowledge. I feel like I haven’t taught them nearly as much as I could or should have but I guess it’s better than nothing. The nicest thing about Saturday was that some kind of cold front moved in; the cold and rain were a nice change of pace from warm and sunshine (strange, I know, but I think Americans are addicted to variety).

Today we had a very full day. We visited Sümela Monastery and the city of Trabzon. I’d seen pictures of the monastery so I knew it was literally attached to the side of a mountain, but it was my understanding that there were two ways of reaching it: hiking from the bottom of the mountain to the top or driving up to the carpark and going about 5 minutes by foot from there. When we arrive I found out we’re hiking. “Oh Jesus,” I thought, which was quite appropriate given we were going to a monastery and all. So basically the trail is several 45 degree sections up the side of the mountain. I’m so embarrassingly out of shape, but my students are wonderful. There was always one of them with me, and several of them insisted on trying to carry my backpack for me. It was shockingly embarrassing but when I reached the top they all clapped for me. Dr. B and I had a moment of levity when I struggled over to him, told him I hated him and that he was the Devil and then tried to punch him. We had a good laugh over it.

The monastery was built in 386 AD during the time of the Byzantine Empire and then enlarged during the 6th- and 13th-centuries. When the Greeks and Turks booted out one another’s people during the Treaty of Lausanne then the monastery was abandoned.

After the monastery hike, I think everyone was quite hungry. We headed to Trabzon and had a huge meal together at a restaurant on the Black Sea. It was truly lovely. We had köfte (meatballs), chicken, chickpea salad, pickled vegetables and some pastry thing for dessert. Then they brought out the customary watermelon and tea. The best thing about it for me was the breeze coming off the Black Sea; I’ve really missed sitting next to a huge body of water and just enjoying the breeze.

The real highlight of Trabzon was a massive mall called The Forum. And by mall, I mean a real mall – as in it could have come straight out of America. I was really looking forward to hitting the bookstore in the hopes of finding a travel book on the Caucusus. But when I found the bookstore they only had three English books and Newsweek. So I bought a fiction book about the Ottoman Empire and the latest edition of Newsweek. Oh well.

The rest of the time I spent with the kids because the movie theater was also a bust. The only movies in English were some Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz flick and the new Twilight, neither of which I was tripping over myself to see. I ate ice cream with some of them, wandered around the bookstore with others and watched a couple of games of billiards. I had a minor argument with some of them about the origins of the word “simulator,” which they swore up and down was a Turkish word. Well. It might be, but it was originally an English word. You run into this occasionally where the Turkish and English are the same or similar – their assumption is that we took the word from them, not the other way around. Anyway, the mall had what they claimed was a 5-D simulator. I didn’t dare try it, being concerned about a machine that can manipulate space-time. The most hilarious thing was the bull riding machine they had, which one of the cockier students claimed he was expert at. Well. The man at the controls was a bit more expert, and I had a good laugh out of watching him being bucked off time and time again.

In incredibly creepy news, undercover police are following us now. The other two Americans go out in the evenings more often than me, and it seems they run into trouble on occasion with jeering/sneering locals. There have also been an increasing number of random gunshots in town, and an increased military presence because of trouble with the You Know Who not too far away from here. I’m not too worried about it, but it is kind of disturbing.

Ah well, 35 more days until I’m home.