Merhaba... from Austin!

Hey, everybody! Well, it's the end of our first day here in Texas as guests of the UT Austin's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. After a long day of traveling (for Julie, our team member from Hawaii, especially!) we made our way to the Hardin House where we received a warm and welcoming reception to a cozy bed & breakfast. The participants and program coordinator arrived, and I found myself in the company of some incredibly interesting, passionate, talented, and good-humored people. We have teachers of all sorts: world history, English, humanities, ESOL, art, photography, and a librarian to boot. We're our own travelling liberal arts program!


After introductions, we hopped aboard a shuttle and made our way to Town Lake to watch the famous Mexican free-tail bats take flight from the Congress Avenue Bridge... and it was everything we hoped it would be. It was amazing! The colony is 1.5 million, and we must have seen at least two-thirds of the group come racing out from beneath the bridge. A few fun facts: did you know that these bats can consume up to 30,000 pounds of insects... every night? You'd be hard pressed to make a living killing bugs here in Austin. Or, did you know that bats give birth to babies that are 1/3 their own size? That's 45+lbs and up in our scale, folks - yikes! Well, try this one: did you know that bats are mammals, nurse their babies, but won't adopt abandoned bats if their mothers don't make it back from a night of hunting? Or that this Austin colony of bats is almost entirely female - and each year they arrive from Mexico already pregnant? That gives a whole new meaning to Spring Break in Cancun... Thanks to a knowledgeable and entertaining tour guide (and day-time teacher!), we learned more than just the usual Turkish fare. :)

So it's time for some rest; we begin our orientation in earnest tomorrow. A little Turkish language, some Ottoman history, and much discussion about our curriculum projects. There's no such thing as a free lunch, kids - there's lots of work to be done!

So long! - Sarah (and roommate Julie - aloha!)