let it snow

Ankara is in the heart of Anatolia.  It's summers are hot and dry, it's spring and fall is rainy and foggy, and the winter can be just about anything.  It's been between 40-60 degrees for the last month, and the temperatures finally dropped in the past week to the forties, and freezing temperatures for the past few days.

The altitude of Ankara is so odd too.  It's on a plateau ranging from 850-1000 meters.  The city is hilly so you can't look across it nor get a true sense of its size or population.  There are 4.5 million people here, but from our apartment we can look out to an empty valley with mountains in the distance - mountains that aren't so high, but bank the city beautifully.  Within the city are deep valleys that have been taken over by the gece kondu.  Night houses where the poor came in and built homes over night - poorly made construction of brick, cement, clay roofs, and scraps - stones, plywood, whatnot.  They are heated by coal and littered with garbage.  Many go around collecting garbage form businesses and they bring to their homes to sort for a meager income and inevitably, a lot of the garbage can be found around their homes.  The valleys are shrouded in a black cloud of burning coal - their heating systems.  Some of these people are lucky, and builders take over the areas to develop - building expensive apartment complexes and buying out those that live there by offering them one or two or more apartments in exchange for the land.  Those that live there don't have the land legally, but in some cases the government has given them the right to the land.  In other cases, their homes are bulldozed.  Ankara seems always to have many buildings and complexes under construction with gece kondular at their feet.

When it snows, the main roads are maintained - salted and sanded and plowed.  Ankara doesn't have an army of plows, but they do their job...eventually.  The problem is the side roads, especially those that dip into the many valleys - so when it snows, it can be downright scary to be on the road.  Bus drivers don't seem to have the sense of responsibility for the lives in their vehicle because they are typically the poor - dirty, smelly, and careless.  Their biggest concern is getting to their destination on time by whatever means possible.

It snowed for the first time Monday and Tuesday.  It was beautiful, exciting, and a bit scary.  I drove to work on the main roads slowly without a problem.  But today, many were late because the conditions worsened as the morning continued.

The feeling at school is exciting too.  The kids are wild, excited by the first snow.  Schedules seem thrown off because of many absent students and late buses or teachers.  And we all are waiting for school to be canceled.  The mayor was claiming the city could handle the snow, while everyone grumbled and waited...and in the end we had an early release.  The snow had stopped, but in anticipation of temperatures dropping and the roads freezing - we were all anxious to leave because everyone remembers two years ago when they didn't do an early release and many people didn't get home until 9-10pm at night!

I made it home no problem.  I was excited to take the kids outside.  I simply bought them downstairs to play in our parking lot.  Teoman jumped in the snow, threw the snow, and tried to make snowballs but the snow was to dry and not good for packing.  I set Tomris in the snow too and she just froze, looking at her feet.  I'm sure she felt the cold seeping into her feet and she didn't like it.  She never moved, just fussed and reached for me to pick her back up.  She was happy to be outside in the snow, as long as it was in my arms.  She was saying "snow" and "col" and "burrrr".

School has been canceled for the next two days in anticipation of the cold temperatures and freezing roads.  I'm wishing a little bit of Minnesota was here - snow pants, boots, sleds - all the stuff that makes a great snow day.