You shall not pass!

Though I know the Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand, I think Gandalf’s declaration to the balrog while in the Mines of Moria are easily applicable to the Turkish landscape here in Gazipasa as well. This land is beautiful, but ruggedly so, and every...

Ah Ha!

Last year I wrote a blog entry titled “Ah ha!” – describing the moment when the connections between our site, the sites we had been visiting, and the information gleaned from our lectures came together – this was the moment in which I realized the significance of...

Just keep digging!

5 days have passed since I first arrived at the Istanbul Airport (Ataturk) and a lot has happened. First I had a the chance to take a quick run through the city sightseeing at various points of interest, all while being enamored by the exotic beauty of the country...

The Hike of DOOM

The sun rose hot over Gazipasa this morning. Quickly, the morning shadows shortened and the air rose to its typical stifling temperatures. Rather than spend our day off within the frigid confines of air conditioning, we ventured out to unknown horizons with one goal...

Click here for unexpected fulfillment

My second day in Turkey was one long exercise in flexibility. Never since then have I begun a day so frustrated and confused, and yet never since then have I ended a day so happy with how things turned out. The first bump in my plans came the night before, when I was...

After a 10 hour layover in Istanbul airport which I am convinced was actually purgatory, I arrived safely at the dighouse in Gazipasa this past Wednesday. The most noticeable thing immediately upon arrival was the heat. It is a rather overbearing height. The kind of...

Heat

Heat. My hometown of Grand Marais, Minnesota could never have prepared me for this heat. Grand Marais is a place where I have seen snow every month of the year except July. It is alway cool, mild, chilled, like a bottle of water pulled from the middle of the lake....

Coming Back

Back home on the Acropolis Coming from a small (very small) town in Missouri, I never would have expected to travel to Turkey, much less for a second time.  Last year’s experience can be summed up in one word “unreal.” I had finally done it, for I...

One hell of an office

As a general rule I am not a particularly emotional person and am neither impressed or moved by much.  However, there is truly something otherworldly about Turkey.  From the moment I touched down in Gazipasa I was struck by the raw beauty in everything around me....

A Returning

So here I am in Turkey, in Antioch ad Cragum, for a second time. It’s a funny thing because I wasn’t expecting to be back, I’m not going to be an archeologist and I doubt I’ll end up an academic historian for all that I’m a history major, but here I am. Why’s that I...