The first week here in Turkey has been a pretty chaotic one to say the least. I myself had a bit of a rough start after my bag was delayed in Istanbul for a day, leaving me with very few possessions for the first day in Gazipasa (I cannot figure out how to type and s with a cedilla on this computer, I’ve wasted like 10 minutes now trying to figure it out). However, this allowed me to explore downtown, and specifically Sali Pazari, a very short time into my trip because I needed to get a few essentials for the first 24 hours. It all turned out to be fine though and I got my bag back the next morning, so it was all really just an excuse to get some new clothes in the end. Even though I was hoping to get into Turkey a bit earlier in the week, this weekend turned out to be very fun as I got to know almost everyone and we all explored the different restaurants and such near the hotel and around town.
As far as the dig site itself, we had a very difficult but overall rewarding week. Although we were hoping to get started excavating a little earlier than we ended up doing, I am really happy that we finished with all of the clearing work on Friday. We cleared out so many rocks and roots and sometimes it seemed like it would never end, but we eventually got it all done! We also found some pretty cool stuff already (even though it was all out of context), which just makes me more excited for the weeks to come! So far, what I’ve noticed about practicing archaeology is that it can be very tedious work. It’s not even that what we’re doing wasn’t what I was expecting, its more the volume of work that we’re doing that surprised me the most. But, that being said, I’m really loving the camaraderie that comes along with all of us working towards a common goal, and it’s definitely going to be fun to get assigned to our units soon and learn how to excavate an area like this.
Turkey so far is really amazing as a whole, the Turkish students we’re working with and the people as a whole are very friendly and its been really fun to get immersed in the culture here. The food is also amazing. Some of the common ingredients used in dishes here are not usually foods that I would seek out, but everything I’ve tried so far has been fantastic (and I’m pretty much trying everything because of how hungry we are after the work day lol). It has been very interesting to try to adjust to living in this new place for a month. In one sense it kind of feels like home in Southern California because of the landscape and sometimes the weather, although it definitely gets more humid here than it ever has been there. However, being surrounded by ancient ruins every day when we get to work feels unbelievably surreal. Overall, it hasn’t been super hard to adjust, but I’m hoping I’ll feel even more at home by the end of the next week!
Audrey Hoehner