My time in Turkiye so far has been amazing, both intellectually and physically. While in retrospect, I probably should have worked harder to be ready physically for the dig, I feel like I am doing fairly well and working as hard as I possibly can. Though I was told again and again about the heat here, I was still somehow surprised when I stepped off of the plane onto the tarmac and it quite literally felt like I’d been hit in the face with hot air. After traveling throughout Europe before this, I was also surprised by how nice the lodgings are (I was not expecting air conditioning in my room).
In terms of the city of Gazipasa itself, the thing that was most unexpected for me was how vertical it is— I didn’t expect so many tall buildings, mostly because I had this notion that lower, wider houses would be easier to keep cool during this brutal summer. Gazipasa is also significantly more walkable than I would have expected, other than the heat and sun. Back home in Maryland, I live in a suburb where walking to get groceries from anywhere other than the stupidly expensive corner store is impossible. Even in the cities back home, it’s harder to comfortably walk places, with overcrowding, expensive parking, and narrow sidewalks. Here in Gazipasa, the central boulevard has wide promenade-style sidewalks (which seem to have tactile paving to increase accessibility for blind people?) and many stores nearby.
Before coming here, I was obviously nervous about being in a country where I don’t even have the slightest grasp on the local language. But what I’ve found about the Turkish people is that they absolutely live into the culture of hospitality that many Mediterranean countries are known for. At the same time there seems to be almost a cultural shyness— many of the Turkish grad students we work near seem to avoid talking to us because they are embarrassed about how little English they speak. Maybe it is just a certain type of reservedness that can coexist with their hospitality? One thing I can tell is that no matter how reserved some of them may be, they put so much warmth and care into food. Everything that I’ve eaten here has been delicious, even the things that wouldn’t normally be to my taste.