Buena Vista Social Club

On April 22, The Buena Vista Social Club came to Ankara. I came across the listing by accident, and was completely surprised such a cool (yet obscure) Cuban band was stopping in Ankara. Although we bought the cheapest (and furthest away) tickets, when we arrived, the venue was far from sold out, so we were able to snag seats in the third row. It was such a treat to hear live Cuban music.

Although the original band members are dead, the spirit lives on. Here is a little history about them (thanks, Wikipedia):

The Buena Vista Social Club was a members club in Havana, Cuba that held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s. In the 1990s, nearly 50 years after the club was closed, it inspired a recording made by Cuban musician Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist Ry Cooder with traditional Cuban musicians, some of whom were veterans who had performed at the club during the height of its popularity.

The recording, named Buena Vista Social Club after the Havana institution, became an international success, and the ensemble was encouraged to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film, followed by a second concert in Carnegie Hall, New York City for a documentary that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders's film, also called Buena Vista Social Club, was released to critical acclaim, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature and winning numerous accolades including Best Documentary at the European Film Awards.

The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of international interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music in general. Some of the Cuban performers later released well-received solo albums and recorded collaborations with international stars from different musical genres. The "Buena Vista Social Club" name became an umbrella term to describe these performances and releases, and has been likened to a brand label that encapsulates Cuba's "musical golden age" between the 1930s and 1950s. The new success was fleeting for the most recognizable artists in the ensemble: Compay Segundo, Rubén González, and Ibrahim Ferrer, who died at the ages of ninety-five, eighty-four, and seventy-eight respectively; Segundo and González in 2003, then Ferrer in 2005.

The High School Literary Magazine

The LitMag crew has been meeting afterschool every Monday and is soon to produce the fourth edition of BUPS' literary magazine, Ignis Fatuus, a collection of photography, artwork, poetry and short prose. Besides hosting a few small fundraisers to assist with publishing costs, embracing the poet's spirit at Starbucks, and work-shopping our own creative writing, the editors reviewed submissions from students in middle and high school for inclusion in this year's edition of Ignis Fatuus. We're keepin' the creative spirit alive (which is tough at an IB school).

Issiz Adam

No crazy adventures lately... just a general enjoyment of life and people and spring... so I am posting a series of short entries with some pictures of that sentiment. This particular entry is about an evening when female Turkish and international teachers got together for a night of wine and a Turkish chic flick. The film was beautiful. Issiz Adam (2008) (loosley translated: Empty Man) is set in Istanbul, and will quickly dispel the belief about Muslims and Turks being conservative or Middleasternized. It is a story of those people whose lives have been isolated by modern lifestyles. Also included: Food, beautiful Turkish ballads from the 70s, and Turkish mothers. So if you see it in the Foreign Film section, I highly recommend it. It was also really nice to spend time with the Turkish teachers. Kivanc provided a beautiful spread of food.

Montana's Sunday Night Dinner Lives On...

The tradition lives on... good friends gathering for dinner every Sunday night, rotating homes.

Signs of Spring

The tortoises are out and about, looking for their mates...

The grass is GREEN!

We're climbing OUTSIDE! (no more plastic gym holds...'til next Winter)

The trees outside my window are budding. Soon I won't be able to see the soccer pitch.

More laughing...

Cyrprus, "the Greek side"

After the conference, Stacy and I flew straight to Cyprus for our Spring Break, meeting her partner, Liam, and son, Gabe, at the Ankara airport on the way there.

Since the Turks invaded Cyprus in 1974 and "re"-claimed the northern half of the island as their territory, it is kind of tricky to enter the Greek/EU side. We flew into the airport in the Northern Turkish Republic of Cyprus, took a taxi to the UN-occupied "Green Zone," walked with our luggage across the Green Zone getting checked/searched by Turkish Border Control on one side and Greek Border Control on the other, then met our rental car representative, and drove 2-1/2 hours to a town on the south coast of the island called Paphos.

On the Greek side of the Green Zone, there were several propaganda posters showing numbers and faces of "innocent" Greek women and children who were killed when Turkey "invaded" the island in 1974. Funny, because pictures of "innocent Turkish women and children killed by the Greeks" during The War of Independence were used in the Anit Kabir Museum where Ataturk is buried in Ankara. An effective propaganda technique?? On the Turkish side of the Zone, there is a giant poster that reads,"The Turkish Northern Republic of Turkey FOREVER." This is a picture of the Green Zone. Pretty simple and unimpressive. Not at all what I expected.


It felt a bit tense walking through the Green Zone, but then the Greeks we met in Southern Cyprus also became quite tense when we said we were teachers from Ankara. "Why would you want to teach/live there?"




We rented a villa recommended to us by a colleague who went there with his family during our December break. The villa was functional to nice. There was a heated pool, and several patios and patio chair options to enjoy the sunshine. Unfortunately, it rained for the first few days we were there and remained relatively chilly the rest of the time. So we resorted to lighting fires in the evening, cooking warm meals, and cozying up under wool blankets watching movies on cable. To be honest, I was fine with the weather. I needed the R & R; I felt so exhausted from work and then the whirlwind conference, that it was so nice to have nothing expected of me for a few days.

Of course, we still did and saw a lot. We checked out a winery, and visited the Baths of Aphrodite, the supposed pool where she and Adonis fell in love under the shade of a fig tree. The water is supposed to make you fertile and look 5 years younger. I didn't touch it. I teach 12th graders; I don't want to look any younger.


We also went out to eat at some "ethnic" restaurants. There is very little variety in food in Turkey, so we didn't go out for Cyprian food which is very similar to Turkish. Instead, Japanese, Chinese, etc...



We visited this Byzantine Church by the sea. It was nice to see churches again on this trip and in Bucharest. It had been awhile.

Gettin' artsy...


We each got massages, shopped in Paphos, and took a nature walk. The following sign was posted in the area right outside the Baths of Aphrodite, in an area marked, "Nature Walks." Can you imagine seeing this sign posted in a National Park in the U.S.?? You'd think it might be a good idea to find all those explosive devices and get rid of them BEFORE opening a nature reserve.

Luckily, no one lost a foot, and it was a beautiful walk. I love Mediterranean plants. Like a dork, I made Stacy, Liam, and Gabe play "Each One Teach One," and outdoor ed game.






And of course, we visited the sea a couple times. Gabe was so much fun to travel with; to see the world through the excitement of an 8-year-old was inspiring.



These are some sea caves we checked out.



Even though I didn't get to swim, it was still wonderful to sit and take it in. I do wish I lived by the sea sometimes.

Despite the chilliness, Gabe really really really wanted to "get wet" in the ocean. He is also obsessed with Avatar, and though I have not seen the anime films, I understand the characters are able to bend water with their special powers. So here is Gabe's attempt at bending water in the Mediterranean Ocean in March, which to me just looks like a hilarious interpretive dance.






The island is fastly developing. Everywhere you look, you see villas and hotels, all very similar looking. One day when the gang went to a bird park, I rented a bike and rode around some backroads, and everywhere I went there was construction.

I believe the Brits that are settling on the island have outnumbered the Cyprians at this point. And I don't know if it was the time of year, but most people we saw were white and over 65.

On my bikeride, I rode around a lot of banana plantations:

And here's my last time spent with the sea:




That's Spring Break 2009, Folks!