 Nick Dahl and Professor Royalty examine the ruins |
With half of the trip completed, Wabash men are deeply involved in their research. They are engaged in studies brought to life by this trip to Turkey. Professor Royalty feels the teams are working diligently, envisioning how they will bring early Christian texts to life with their photographs and film.
 Joe Warfel and Ben Faraone check out some digital tape |
Chris Buresh, still pumped after finding a large piece of the hand of a 2000 year-old statue, framed shots, sketched out possible narrative pieces for on-site filming and reviewed his team's photographs on their laptop. Josh Tatum used the latest version of Adobe Photoshop to quickly create a web-based portfolio of his team's digital photographs. The software allowed him to create web pages with thumbnail images that his team could click on to see a large version of their photographs. The team organized their shots while traveling between sites. They leaned over bus seats and stretched across the aisles pointing out shots they liked and offering suggestions for new angles. "I'm having a blast," said Josh.
 Farone at Didyma |
On Tuesday in southern Ionia, we left Selcuk and drove to Didyma to see the oracle of Apollo. Two small girls and a boy, ranging in age from 5 to 9, circulated around the Wabash men. These budding capitalists tried to sell daises to the guys. Nick gracefully turned them down, pointing to the over abundance of these weeds sprouting in the cracks of the ancient temple; an early lesson in supply and demand. Their incessant pleas, foreshadowing careers as enthusiastic and tenacious carpet sellers, drew the attention of the managers. They were unceremoniously kicked out of the temple, richer by at least 3,200,000 Turkish lira and some gum. We spent the night in Bodrum, location of the Mausoleum of King Mausolus, heralded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the second one visited by students on this trip. Not much remains other than the foundations; earthquakes, recycling of marble for new buildings and burning of its reliefs for lime took their toll. That evening, Ben Faraone, Bryan Gonzalez, Ron Kelsey, Gary Moore, Ahmad Paarlberg, David Schoenefeld, and Todd Vogel feasted at TranVa on octopus salad, fried calamari, shrimps on a skewer, sole, a 5-pound lobster, grilled chicken, a collection of Turkish starters too numerous to list and Turkey's take on spaghetti and meatballs.
 A Turkish rug weaver |
For three hours these men chatted about their experiences in Turkey. Ben and Ron recounted meeting Bulent Adiballeri in Selçuk. They visited his home and met his two children and wife in a small two bedroom apartment. They shared Turkish apple tea while looking at his photo album. "I feel a real sense of camaraderie. I feel as close to Bulent as I do to guys in my [Army Reserve] unit. I'd be willing to fight alongside this man if there weren't these cultural differences; I respect this man that much," Kelsey shared.