Last Week

Last week was my first team. The kids were from Beirut, Lebanon. I had the Neptune team along with John our other counselor. The kids came in on Friday and they left today, Tuesday. It was a cool 5 days. The days were jam packed with activities like missions, simulators, space briefings, recreation, and lots of games. My group was so excited about learning. Some just wanted to play all day, but most were excited about what our next activity was. The week went well and at the end my team won "best mission," which means that their mission was the best out of all 4 teams. John and I were very proud. That ended a fun, eventful week and they left to go home.

Updated recipe of the week June 27

I just added a new link (see the right column) to a recipe commonly found here in restaurants, etc. It is stuffed bell peppers and they are GREAT!

My First Team

My first team arrived on Sunday for check in and to start their journey at Space Camp Turkey. They will be immersed in space life for 6 full days. These kids are from Turkey and in the English program and speak it very well. Stephanie, an American couselor, will be the co-counselor with me for the six days while they are here. We will alternate shifts, morning and afternoon. Sarah is on support duty for this week. Having a group is the greatest thing. It is my designed purpose. I was trained to do this. We learn, play, and play while we learn. The kids are smart and know most before we even do the activities. They are inquisitive and bold. Most of the children are interested in space travel and want to know the simplest things, such as, "Is there sound in space?" no After eight hours of kids you might think that I would wish there was no sound here. Actually, I miss the noise and can't wait till my shift today at 3pm.

Donkey Island

We took a trip to Donkey Island yesterday(Sat) on a fancy yacht. It was really cool. We set out from space camp at 9:30 in the morning and were on the yacht by 11am. The warm sun was so nice. We lay out on the front of the yacht basking in the sun. Life here is so hard, we have 7 days of vacation, 1 day of work, and then back to vacation. Just kidding. It has been fabulous so far. It took about an hour to sail to Donkey Island. The weather was sooooo perfect. Sunny, no clouds, and around 90 degrees, perfect weather.

The Agean Sea is really clear and blue. Once we got to Donkey Island we lowered the anchor most of us jumped into the sea. It was really fun to jump from the boat into the ocean. The depth was around 14 meters. I brought my goggles and could see the bottom and I could also see way off in the distance. Under Water!! Everybody had fun looking through my goggles in the ocean. Connie was worried about swimming to shore because she was not a strong swimmer.

"Don't worry," Beth said "there is so much salt in the sea that you cannot sink."

Tom and I were already in the water and we decide to try it out because Tom always sinks. Tom lies flat on his back and...........sinks right down.

"Uh......Beth," I comment.

"Yeah," Beth asked.

"Tom still sinks," I said.

"Well......he better just swim," Beth told us.

No problem. We had to swim from the boat to the island. It was not that far but a good swim. From the boat we could see all the donkeys that inhabited the island. So once on land we walked to where the donkeys were. We did not have any food wıth us because we forgot to bring some, also because it would have gotten wet and soggy. At first the donkeys ignored us, but when we pretended to have food they all came over to investigate. We petted the donkeys and then explored the surrounding area for a little bit before heading back to the boat. We swam back to the boat and continued to look at the sea under water for a lıttle bit, and then we climbed back up on deck to continue our relaxing day. I read a book for a while before the captain decided that we would go to another spot to sit and relax.

The next place we tried to go was Blue Lagoon, but there were too many tourist boats so we headed on to another, more private location. Tom had to jump into the water to tie us up to the rocks on the cliff. The depth of the water here was about 8 meters and was just as clear as before. We all jumped into the water and swam for a bıt. Then we all just lounged around on the boat. All the guys fished whenever we stopped.

After a couple of hours at the private location we headed back to Blue Lagoon. This time there was enough room for us to stay. Again Tom had to jump into the ocean to tie the boat up to the rocks. Blue Lagoon did not live up to it name. It was BETTER!!! The water was a beautiful torquoise color. Again the water was so clear. When the guys fished we could watch the fish bite the bait. It was sooooo cooooooo!! Alas, the day had to end. We had spent 8 hours out on the open Agean Sea visiting island after island. We sailed back to the mainland of Turkey and went back to space camp. By the time we all got back around 8:30pm, we were tired, but happy and relaxed. It was a great day. I hope to be able to do it again sometime.

How cute 

An island of donkeys? 

Evil Eye 

Friday field trip

Today was our last day of training. We are being cast into the unknown. This afternoon we took a little field trip to a shop in the country that hand makes glass beads. They mainly make a Turkish traditional type of design called the "evil eye". The eye is supposed to protect from evil. I bought some gifts for the folks back home.
There were lots of wild animals including a white peacock and a camel named Efey.

To learn more about the evil eye of turkey...
http://www.business-with-turkey.com/tourist-guide/evil_eye_amulet_nazar_boncuk.shtml

Church in Pyrgi center 

Mavros Gyalos Beach with black pebbles 

Some rocks for geologists 

Church of Panayia Sikelia on Chios 

Sarah and Tom at local Turkish winery 

Scooters

Scooters. What else can I say. Our 1st day on the island of Chios we, Tom, Darren, Connie and I, rented two scooters to travel around the island on. One for Darren and Connie and one for Tom and me. The day before when our travel lady showed us around Karfas, she pointed out the best scooter rental place. In the morning we went to rent the best scooters available. Only one problem, the good scooter place wouldn't rent us scooters because we did not have international drivers licenses. Okay, strike one. We walked down the street to the next "Rent a Moto" place. Here there was no problem.

"You want scooters?" the Greek lady asked us.

"Yes please," we replied.

"Do you have licenses?"

"Yes. Here you go," we said as we produced out American drivers licenses.

"Okay," the lady replied.

We continued to follow her out to the street to get our scooters.

"Since you are tall," she directed at Tom, "Here is a bigger scooter. And here is a smaller one for you," directed at Darren.

"Do you have experience in riding?" she asked Tom and Darren.

"Yes, plenty," Tom replied.

"No," Darren said cautiously.

"Oh no. We have a problem," the lady said.

Now of course we are thinking that we are not going to be rented the scooters because of lack of driving experience. But that was not the case. The lady just told Tom to take Darren out for a spin and teach him how to ride. Connie and I waited for Darren and Tom to get back from the driving lesson, and then we all got helmets, paid 12 euros for the scooters, and left for our adventure of exploring Chios.

First we had to get gas, so he rode down the street to find a gas station. Now, Tom is an excellent scooter driver because he has had much practice on dirt bikes and motorcycles, but Darren is not such a good driver. The first gas station came up rather rapidly after a bend in the road and Tom and I turned into it without problem. Darren and Connie did not have as much luck. Darren skidded on the gravel and the bike toppled onto its side. Darren was okay, but Connie hurt her leg. The Greek gas station guy was really nice. He brought a chair and a cup of water out for Connie to sit on and drink. I had an ice pack which we applied to her growing knee. Nothing was broken, except maybe Darren's confidence in driving. Connie was such a trooper and said that we need to get going and we all got on our bikes and kept going. Tom told Darren that his fall was most likely due to using the front brake to much.

"Remember what the scooter lady said, '70% back, 30% front'," Tom told Darren. "Don't be afraid to use your front brake, just be careful with it."

As tom and I rode off in front of Darren and Connie we were worried about how this trip was going to go. For the rest of the afternoon it was great. Riding along in the south of Chios was the best experience of the whole trip.

We did not have much of a plan, just head south-westish. We stopped in Armolia for lunch and then headed south with the plan to go to Komi, Emporios, and Mavros Gyalos(the black pebble beach). Not much has happened yet, injury-wise. Just wait.

The drive was very nice and I had been relaxed for some time now, after I got used to "scootering". Tom and I were usually a little ways ahead of Darren and Connie. Tom and I were rounding a bend just outside of Komi, when a car pulled out in front of us. Tom swerved just in time. I felt the car near my leg. We missed it hitting us by only inches. Luckily no one was coming the other direction because we had swerved to the other side of the road and almost hit a fence, and almost lost our balance on the side of the road. Tom kept his wits about him did not crash the bike but kept it upright and kept going down the street and we stopped to catch our breath at the stop sign. Of course you have to remember that we are on scooters and anything that would hit us or anything we would hit would cause a pretty good amount of damage. I was deathly afraid of crashing with the scooter. But Tom kept control and we did not have to call Space Camp and tell them that we were in a Greek hospital with concussions and broken limbs! The car that almost hit us came and apologized. It was an ancient old couple. The diver had really thick glasses and kept signaling that he couldn't see around the bend. But that of course did not stop him from accelerating out onto the street instead of cautiously creeping out to see if there was any traffic!!

We made it to Komi and relaxed for a 1/2 hour or so before heading over to Emporio. After Emporio we went to Pyrgi and then wound our way home without any accidents. The only thing that aroused was when Darren took a 90 degree turn a little too fast and ended up on the side of the road. No one fell off or got hurt, just shaken up. At that point Connie was ready to walk home rather than get back on the scooter with Darren. We took the rest of the way slowly and carefully and arrived back in Karfas around 8pm. We were all glad to be back home and off the scooters. 8 hours scootering around the island can make you tired. We saw most of what we wanted to, did not die or break anything, and arrived home just in time to go to dinner. Saganaki for starters, and Mousaka for the entree. But, that story will have to wait for another time.

Greek Island Adventure

Four of us, all Americans, planned a trip to the Greek island of Chios for several days we did not have to work. We called a taxi cab to Space Camp and took it the Uçkuyular bus station for a bus to Çeşme. We arrived just in time to board a bus leaving to Çeşme. We arrived in Çeşme and walked down towards harborabor. The road to the harbor was a rough brick and stone street lined with a gauntlet of tourist stores. Shop keepers shouted strange English slang and "Turklish" expressions to get us into their shops. We ate, bought our ferryboat tickets from ErTurk travel, then looked around the city.

A sultan had a castle there and it was interesting. We exchanged our money, with some problems. I exchanged new Turkish Lira to Euros, but Sarah and Darren changed US dollars to Euros. Darren had no problem, but Sarah did. The lady changing her money took far too long and I was concerned Sarah was getting screwed. She got done and sat down saying she got too many Euros. Oh well, we all left and caught the ferry to Chios. The ride was only about 45 minutes long to the island. The ride was a little bit wet from the wahittingting the bow of the boat. We had to retreat from the bow area seating to a more covered area to the rear of the boat. The ferry arrived at the Chios harbor and we went headed for customs.

We went to the customs for non-Euro peoples. We got into line, when several people started pushing past us with no regard for anyone else. At first we thought maybe it was an emergency, then realized it was some stupid tour group. We quickly started to block the intruders from cutting in line. They started yelling and pushing more. A few more got by finallynaly we were close to the customs window. We had some of the crazy tour group still at bay behind us. One women got creative and held her stomach and yelled "Bebe, Bebe" as she pushed by us. She was a little thick in the stomach, but a fake. The Greek guard saw this and actually told her to wait. She shoved her passport into the window anyways. We pushed and fought our way to the window and got our passports stamped. We walked towards the city and stopped at the first travel agent to find out where we should go for rooms. The owner of the travel agency was there and told us about a great apartment on the beach about 5 km's away. His wife picked us up and showed us the place. They told us that for 4 of us it was 50 Euros a night. That was 12.50 each, which was good. The travel agents owned the place. We took the apartment, complete with kitchen and a shower with no walls. We ate at a restaurant on the beach that night. We had some meatballs on macaroni.

The next day we were to explore the island by scooters. Each couple got a scooter bike to ride. I had experience on motorcycles most of my life and once owned a scooter like we rode, however, the other couple had none. I took the other driver, Darren, out and showed him how to drive the scooter. I drove while he rode. I described the brakes, leaning into turns, and how the passenger should lean with the driver, and anything else I could think of. Now it was his turn to try it. He was unsure and a little wobbly on the corners, but I thought he'd get it. He drove until we decided he could do it on his own.

We went to get gas...and bad things happened on the turn into the petrol station. Somehow, the other couple fell into the turn and crashed. The female passenger was hurt and in pain. No visible blood. They were going slow when they fell, but she had a deep bruise on her leg below her knee that prevented her from walking. We waited for a while, to find out how she felt. She was tough. After some ice and rest, she said we should go on with the plans to see the island. She was brave to say the least. I'm sure that Sarah was somewhat apprehensive after seeing this, but she didn't say much. Off we went into the island.

We traveled inland and finally stopped at a Byzantine monastery called Church of Panayia Krina (Our Lady). [pictures should be posted soon] It was a 13th century, small stone structure complete with great arches and domed ceilings. We could only see it from the outside. We left the church and headed to Armolia for lunch. The first place we tried had Amstel beer glass covering the floor. Someone had broken hundreds of bottles on the floor and a woman was sweeping it up as she waved us to leave. We ate something called a Mafioso, which was spaghetti with tomato sauce and seafood, including mussels. We headed south again to the town of Emporios to find the black pebble beach called Mavros Gyalos. As we drove down a hill, a little silver car pulled out in front of us and almost made me hit a fence. I had the bike as close to the fence as I could have been without hitting it. I had the rear brake on hard and the front brake on firmly. I needed to slow but not loose control in the gravel. I told Sarah, "Hang on to me!" So that our weight was centered well, and she responded, "I AM!" We straightened up and were ok. We pulled over and the older Greek couple said some stuff we couldn't understand. We exhaled. Our partners behind us caught up and we moved on to Emporios.

The black pebble beach Mavros Gyalos, was beautiful. We spent an hour there and went to Pyrgi. Pyrgi was beautiful. The streets are less than one car wide in the main part. We parked and walked into the center and looked around. They have a neat way they paint the building there with shapes cut out. [see pics] We left Pyrgi and headed north to go home. We went a different route to get home. We took a steep mountain road into a scrub pine forest. There were bee hives all over. A sign said, "Warning: Forest fires." The decent was fast and had many switchbacks. Darren lost control of his scooter again, but no injuries. His female passenger looked at him with a "death stare" and I wished there was another way for them to get home. We pushed on and finally made it home. The next day we relaxed on the beach, swam, and got sun burned. I bought a corona size cigar and smoked it on the beach the next evening. We ate great food and the hospitality was great. The last night in Chios, Sarah and I sipped CAIR champagne on the beach. Nice end, but why does it have to?

Kamikaze Shopping

Shopping, the simplest and benign of activities. That droning sound of endless elevator music drives you insane.

Not here, not in Izmir. It's all about shopping completely blind...Kamikaze style! Myself, Sarah, and Darren all went to the the local Kipa store for things we needed. Kipa is the Walmart of this area. They sell everything. We needed laundry detergent, face wash, milk, alarm clocks, snacks and other goods. It was strange to say the least. When we started things were ok. The prices were clear and we had fun looking at all the funny things they sell. The first difference I noticed was that there was a lot of employees. They would fill up a space immediately when you took something off the shelf. The other thing I noticed was that they were all attractive young women doing the job. If you needed help finding an item, they were there to serve you. Now that's service! Since I knew where nothing in the store was, I must ask the girl. The other counselor we were with got some shampoo and the bottle had a woman's picture on it (i.e. girls shampoo), however, he was a he. So the young attractive Turkish girl offered him a picture of a man to stick on the shampoo so he wouldn't be humiliated or caught buying a feminine product as a man. We looked all around the store and it was fun. Sarah got her European sweets, and I got some milk that is not refrigerated. We found some very good juice and snack chips. The chips are different in flavor here. They have more different spices, but good. the milk tastes different, but ok. I got some sweets for myself, such as nestle crunch bars and some hazelnut bars. We were shopping for laundry detergent, but it appeared that it may be dishwashing liquid. After some time, we found the laundry detergent in another place, after almost buying some dishwashıng soap for our clothes. The fabric softeners smelled strange. The perfumes used were not good smelling to us. They sold lots of bulk nuts and spices. We finally checked out. I could not get some soy sauce I wanted because the UPC symbol did not scan, so the Turkish girl looked at me and said, "No." So that's it, no soy sauce for me. I tried to get it but the language barrier prevented this. We took a taxi home for 5 yeni Turkish lira. The taxi ride is great fun and a risk to your life. Get in, shut up, hold on!

Days Off

We don't get many days off here at space camp. But all of a sudden we have 7 days off in a row. It's basically time off after training and before the kids come. And I am ready! All we've done so far is wake up, work for 10hrs, eat, sleep, repeat. We weren't given much planning time for this though.

Wednesday morning Beth, our boss, says that we have Friday off.

"Oh," she says "also Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are optional."

"Optional?" we all repeat.

"Yes, you don't have to work but you won't get paid."

"Duhhhh!!" we all think.

So the remainder of this week has been full of planning trips around Turkey and Greece. Darren, Connie, Tom and I are all going to go to Chios for a couple of days, and then maybe go to Efes(Ephesus). Darren and Connie opted to work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so Tom and I are going to go South. We're not sure quite yet, probably Efes, Sirince, The Temple of Artemis, and places like that. There is only one slight glitch in or plan. We had planned to go to Chios for Friday and Saturday night and then go back to space camp for Sunday night and take day trips down south. We were telling Beth this and she all of a sudden said,
"You can't"

"What do you mean 'we can't'?"

"Space camp's closed of Sunday"

"What do you mean 'closed'"

"Locked. Nobody will be here. You cannot come here Sunday night."

"But this is our HOME. This is where we LIVE. How can you close our home?"

"Well......everybody said they were going to be gone." (We said that after 10min of consideration Wednesday morning)

Lots of stammering of "but....how?....where?.....why?....but.." followed, but it did not good. We are going to have to find someplace to stay the night on Sunday.

So this is our plan for our fabulous vacation time. We leave tomorrow (Friday). We'll let you all know how the trip went in a week.