I have been in Turkey since December 16th.
The first flight from Corpus to Houston was delayed due to rain, the Lufthansa flight from Houston was held up for a few hours and only after German Shepards searched the 747 and the passenger queue. I missed my conecting flight from Frankfurt to Munich and instead found a direct flight with Sun Express. I arrived in Turkey and left the terminal to look for a payphone to call my contact. There were no pay phones outside so I had to go explain why I was returning and went through security. After finding a payphone I discovered that they do not take cash or coins. Most stores were closed but I finally found one who sold me a phone card. I spent a good deal of time dialing my contact's number with no luck, finally, the woman who sold me the card helped me use the pay phone and I finaly told my friend I arrived.
Finding the proper bus downtown also involved asking a number of people... it seems that less people speak English than the impression that I got from what I had read. Nevertheless, I wound up downtown and my friend boarded the coach to find me after I failed to get off at the proper stop. The End.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
I've got an internship
I have an internship in İzmir, Turkey and I'm flying there on Monday. It's certainly a relief, as I was supposed to start co-oping (interning) three months ago. I was trying to get an internship in Mumbai (Bombay), but in light of the recent terrorist attacks, it's a mixed blessing I did not (I still would like to go).
It's either a rare coincidence or destiny to get an internship in that city. I've been staying with my folks for the past 2-1/2 months and while I type this I am sitting a few feet away from a ships portrait of my great-great-great-great grandfather's ship, the bark/barque Scio, in İzmir, then called Smyrna. My fourth great grandfather was a New England sea captain in the 1840s and 50s until his untimely death to scurvy, in 1849 he organized a company of miners, 49ers, from Beverly, Massachusetts around Cape Horn to the mouth of the Sacramento River in California for the Gold Rush; the ship returned to Beverly with gold. In 1855 the three-masted 429-ton Scio was built in Bath, Maine with Patterson as master and partner. My family has a ship's portait of the ship from the following year in Symrna Bay (İzmir) done by an Italian living there. Capt. Patterson died of scurvy less than two years later.
I will post a picture of the ship's portrait when I take a picture of it
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Trip to Mexico
Whenever I am down visiting Corpus, my father always suggests visiting Mexico. I've been trying to secure financing to visit my friends who are working in Mexico City, but I have been less than successful in that endeavor. Last weekend my folks decided that the next best thing would be to cross the border and arbitrarily walk around. So the afternoon of "Black Friday", we drove down to Brownsville, Texas.
We parked the car in a parking lot in Browsville and joined the hundreds of people crossing the border into Matamoros, Mexico. We paid the 50 cent bridge toll and walked across the bridge only to stop before we physically crossed the Rio Grande because the garage called my father with information about his car. There were a number of people who appeared to be returning to Mexico from Brownsville with shopping bags, but we were the only easily-identifiable tourists crossing the bridge.
Bienvenidos a Mexico, we made it, my mother warned us all to turn off our phones because there were people under the bridge that would steal our numbers, whatever that means. Someone told her that, at least, about the horrible cell phone trolls who live under the bridge.
We went straight through customs and immigration, no one stamped our passport or asked to see it. ...if we were going further into Mexico we would have needed to acquired tourist visas, but at this border they assume you are either a Mexican citizen or a day-tripper. As we walked further into Mexico we saw this miles-long backup to the US border and were thankful we did not take our car.
We got to a tourist map and then I asked what the plan was. We had no plan, and my mother did not want to take my Mexico guidebook in her handbag, so we had no idea what we were doing. I said we should walk to the plaza. My parents assumed there would be all sorts of attractions conveniently located along the river. As we walked a block into the city we started getting hustled by Taxi drivers for rides, a man claiming to be a guide came up to us offering his services and his abilities to get us a Taxi. He had a laminated ID-card around his neck, you can't counterfeit something like that! So we got a Taxi and he took us to the market.
The market sold all the famous trinkets that Mexico is famous for, Sombreros, silver, maracas, leather, wool ponchos, hammocks, et cetera. My mother bought a tacky silver wall crucifix and I bought a set of maracas with "Mexico" painted on them. We were brought around to every vendor in the tourist market, we saw no other shoppers. Although it was near closing time, it was Black Friday and apparently, according to our guide and the vendors, we were the only tourists in the entire city all day.
We parked the car in a parking lot in Browsville and joined the hundreds of people crossing the border into Matamoros, Mexico. We paid the 50 cent bridge toll and walked across the bridge only to stop before we physically crossed the Rio Grande because the garage called my father with information about his car. There were a number of people who appeared to be returning to Mexico from Brownsville with shopping bags, but we were the only easily-identifiable tourists crossing the bridge.
Bienvenidos a Mexico, we made it, my mother warned us all to turn off our phones because there were people under the bridge that would steal our numbers, whatever that means. Someone told her that, at least, about the horrible cell phone trolls who live under the bridge.
We went straight through customs and immigration, no one stamped our passport or asked to see it. ...if we were going further into Mexico we would have needed to acquired tourist visas, but at this border they assume you are either a Mexican citizen or a day-tripper. As we walked further into Mexico we saw this miles-long backup to the US border and were thankful we did not take our car.
We got to a tourist map and then I asked what the plan was. We had no plan, and my mother did not want to take my Mexico guidebook in her handbag, so we had no idea what we were doing. I said we should walk to the plaza. My parents assumed there would be all sorts of attractions conveniently located along the river. As we walked a block into the city we started getting hustled by Taxi drivers for rides, a man claiming to be a guide came up to us offering his services and his abilities to get us a Taxi. He had a laminated ID-card around his neck, you can't counterfeit something like that! So we got a Taxi and he took us to the market.
The market sold all the famous trinkets that Mexico is famous for, Sombreros, silver, maracas, leather, wool ponchos, hammocks, et cetera. My mother bought a tacky silver wall crucifix and I bought a set of maracas with "Mexico" painted on them. We were brought around to every vendor in the tourist market, we saw no other shoppers. Although it was near closing time, it was Black Friday and apparently, according to our guide and the vendors, we were the only tourists in the entire city all day.
We then ate at a local restarant, I had some very good fajitas and some Tecate (beer). I practiced my Spanish with our guide, I remember a lot more than I thought I would.
We took a Taxi back to the border and then walked across. At the US border, they inspected our passports but did not stamp them.
After nixing the idea to stay in South Padre, we drove home.
We took a Taxi back to the border and then walked across. At the US border, they inspected our passports but did not stamp them.
After nixing the idea to stay in South Padre, we drove home.
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