Mixed Emotions

There is a lot that I would really like to talk about in this post that
I just won't be able to. The title of this post is pretty much the best
way to describe how I'm feeling right now after my experience in
Antalya. This job is absolutely amazing as I've said before and is
offering me opportunities that I have never experienced, but it is hard.
Really hard. When you live in such a small community, and especially one
that when you are at sea, you can't escape from, things become much more
intense than they would in any other situation or community. For student
affairs professionals, this is a great learning environment and
professional growth environment, but any one out there who wants to
apply for this job just based on the fact that you get to travel around
the world, also needs to be prepared to work hard, work long hours, and
deal with many situations you wouldn't be faced with on a land campus.

For those of you who have never heard of Antalya, Turkey before (which I
hadn't until it became a port after we took of Egypt and Tunsia),
Antalya is located in south Turkey right on the Mediterranean Sea. The
port city has a very long history dating back to around 150 BC and is an
area with several incredible ruins from the ancient Roman and Greek
periods. Today, Antalya has turned itself into a resort city. There are
just over a million people who live in Antalya, but the city has over
500,000 hotel beds. It is a top vacation destination from Germans and
Russians and if you ever get the chance to see Antalya, you will
immediately understand why- it is absolutely beautiful. The mountains in
the area are gorgeous and are more like the Rocky Mountains than the
Smokies, and the harbor/general landscape reminds me a lot of a scene
out of Tuscany. The weather was great while we were here, though very
very hot and the old town was a great area to spend time during the
night and at night to explore, shop, and eat delicious food.

The first day in Antalya, I was schedule to go on two field programs.
Immigration was running late again, so we left about half an hour after
we were supposed to, but luckily I made it back in time from the first
field program to eat lunch and make it onto the second. The first field
program was supposed to be a city orientation but it ended up being an
hour and a half in the Antalya museum and then about 20 minutes quickly
walking through old town. I did not feel oriented with the city at all
at the end of the program. As a history nerd though, the museum was
really cool as it was filled with all kinds of ancient artifacts and
statues. My second trip was much better and was to two ancient sites,
Aspendos and Perge. Our first stop was Aspendos which is an ancient
amphitheater. They still use this amphitheater from performances today,
though it is currently under some renovations and is not being used this
summer. A lot of you won't know this, but I love ruins and ancient sites
so I was pretty impressed by the state of the ampitheatre and we were
given time to walk around, explore, climb up the steps and pictures.
During my time at Aspendos, I was approached by a Turkish man dressed in
a gladiator costume who attempted to seduce me and would not let me
leave until I took pictures with him (which of course I could purchase
at the gift shop). It was a funny experience for sure. Perge is a city
about 40 or so minutes from Antalya that is in ruins but still fairly
complete. It was amazing to walk through the ancient city ruins and
learn about the history and what each piece of the ruins was and how it
connected to every day life back in the time when the city thrived. It
reminded me a lot of Ephesus, though on a much smaller scale. I'll
hopefully get some pictures posted on facebook soon so you can see the
city. That night, I decided to go back in Antalya with a group of
friends for dinner and drinks. We walked around old town and ended up
finding a hole in the wall place with all outdoor seating and a Turkish
musician singing and playing guitar. No one in the restaurant spoke
English so we were only able to order beer not food but it was a great
place to unwind and spend time with friends. After that we went back to
the main square and had delicious lamb and chicken donner sandwiches and
watched some fire throwers down below. Overall the first day was great!

The second day I was confined to the ship and was on duty. Luckily this
port had a little cafe off the ship, so I was able to leave the ship
twice and go down there for lunch and then for a snack later on in the
evening. I also spent some time in the pool while on duty which was
really nice because usually when the students are on board, I would
never get time in the pool because it is pretty small. Duty went pretty
well until about 3am when I was called down and got to spend 3 hours
with a student in our observation room. This is the part that I want to
talk to you all about and want to share my experience, but I just can't.
One because it is still fresh/I'm still trying to process everything and
two because even though I would be sharing from my perspective and what
I went through for three hours, it is still about a student and I just
don't think I should talk about it. I will say that it was one of the
worst experiences of my life and there is going to be quite a lot of
healing that needs to happen that might take a while both for me and for
the student. If you saw my status on facebook the other day, it was
about my experience that night and if you really want to check in and
know more, just email me. I have a great support system on the ship so
I'm being taken care of so try not to worry (though I know some of
you....mum...will worry anyway). And this experience made me love our
ship security staff even more than I already did...they are pretty
amazing and I'm thankful to have them around! Also, for those of you who
have read about my "love" of beverage service on facebook, there is
something I like even less than that now and I will stop complaining
about beverage service :)

The third day (which was when I got off duty at 8am) I had only slept
for an hour but I really needed to get off the ship so two RDs and
myself went into town and went shopping. Shopping is a great cure for a
rough night. And we had dessert for breakfast/lunch which was also a
good life choice. I bought waaayyyy too much in Turkey and went super
over my budget that I had for this port, but it was such a great port
that I can't complain. I also had gangway duty last night which wasn't
bad because we didn't have as many large groups coming in at once and
all our students made it back on time again! After gangway duty a few of
us went down to the port cafe for a drink and to relax so that was nice.
And we got to see a lot of the crew in regular clothes, relaxing which
was also great because they deserve time off the ship any time they can
because they work so so hard!

Today was our last day in port and it was actually a bonus day for us.
The students had class and could leave the ship between classes (but
would have a huge penalty if they missed class) but as staff our boss
gave us the day to go into port if we wanted to. Six of us headed back
into town and went to a Hamam, Turkish Bath, that I had found because we
didn't want to leave Turkey without that experience. Some folks on the
ship had really bad experiences at Hamams earlier in our stay so I was
really worried that the place I had researched and found wouldn't be
good and then everyone would be made at me, but luckily it was amazing!
There were 5 women and 1 man so we were separated by gender into our own
bath areas. We all paid for the full package which included a "sauna",
exfoliating rub, what I'm calling the bubble pillow bath, and then an
oil massage. The experience was amazing, so relaxing, and I will never
feel as clean again in my life. I'm going to take a shower after I
finish this post and I know I'm going to be so disappointed with the
ship shower after having the Turkish Bath experience today. If you are
ever in Turkey, this is something you need to do...just do a little
research before to make sure you end up somewhere good. Before heading
back to the ship, we had lunch at a little cafe in town that we have
grown to love and it was delicious. On ship tonight was our belated 4th
of July BBQ which was great! I am so exhausted now though and can't wait
to go to sleep soon and sleep in tomorrow because my body needs to catch
up on sleep so badly after the past few days!

We have one day at sea and then we will be in Crete where I have made
absolutely no plans and haven't done much research at all (I am sure you
are all shocked right now!). I'm looking forward to it because I'm going
to spend time with my non RD friends so it will be a different
experience than I've had in port so far :)