Ankara: Sites and Sounds

TOBB and our apartment are on what we believe to be the outskirts of Ankara. Travel into Kizilay, the new downtown area, requires taksi, bus or metro; Ankara isn't a walking city like Boston. Therefore, our travel into the city has been mostly limited to specific places with Turkish guides.
The first week, we travled alone into Kizilay. Despite offering the bus driver money, he just let us on. 'Wow, everyone in Turkey is so sympathetic to us poor, lost Americans!' we thought as the bus drove into Kizilay. We would later discover that the reason they wouldn't take our money is because the bus requires a bus pass, and since the driver couldn't communicate this to us, he just let us on.
Kizilay is a buzzing shopping area: very modern, like everything in Ankara, and lacking in that olden charm that European cities have. We explored for awhile but didn't find anything too notable (though we did wander onto government property and had to be signaled off the grounds by a soldier in camouflage). We took the Metro back to ASTI after the bus route stymied our comprehension.
Later that week, when Zach and Will arrived, we ventured into Kizilay again, and discovered Kotacepe Camii (Ko-ta-je-peh), a giant mosque in the center of Ankara (there are photos on my Facebook of this excursion).
The next Friday, we were taken out by TOBB's External Relations Department for a mixer with some Turkish and Polish students. Goksel (Gerk-cell -- or Jerkcell or Turkcell, as we joke in private) works for the ERD and arranged the outing. We met three Polish students who are studying at TOBB through the European study abroad program Erasmus. Interestingly, their educational experience at TOBB is entirely in English, the global lingua franca, so spending time with native speakers is actually helpful for them. The Turkish students with us were either from the ERD or from TOBB's Erasmus club. Though the outing was a little hampered by the loud music at the restaurant, the experience was very enjoyable, and we got to know the students quite well. After dinner, we jammed to techno and bowled at an underground alley. Names you will hear again from this excursion are Goksel; Wojtek, Asia, and Kasha (Voy-tek, Asha-- the three Polish students); Harkan (the Turkish TOBB student who is living in a flat with the Polish girls); Aysenur (ash-ih-nur-- from the ERD); Mustafa and Meli (the 'l' is soft-- they are from the Erasmus club I).

The next night we went to Tunali (Tuna- leh), the college hangout district, with two Turks we met randomly one night, Mert and Yeet (they showed up at our apartment looking for past natives). Mert had just finished compulsory service in the military; I'm not really sure what Yeet is doing because he doesn't speak English well.

That Sunday, in a trip arranged by the ERD, we saw Ankara's historic sites. First, we toured Anitkabir, Ataturk's giant mausoleum and Peace Park perched prominently on one of Ankara's many hills. Anitkabir is beautiful: the stones originated from all corners of Turkey; the Peace Park includes native Turkish trees and trees from other countries (to symbolize international unity); several architectural styles reflect the influence of varied Anatolian civilizations; a stunning World War I and War of Independence museum lies beneath the mauseleum. The soldiers at Anitkabir stand statue-still: it was a while before we realized they were not statues, in fact. The entire mausoleum is a testament to Ataturk's accomplishments and lasting legacy.
It is amazing how much sway this leader still has over the Turkish people; I have never heard reference to any other politician.

Later, we ate traditional Turkish kebap in a small restaurant in Ulus, the old part of Ankara. I have one word for this experience: tasty.

After kebap, we climbed up to the top of Ulus to explore Ankara castle, or the Citadel. This was the highlight of my Turkish experience so far. So much could be said from the half hour we spent there. I will try to be brief. The castle was constructed by the Roman Empire, around the Common Era. However, it is surrounded by slums and lacks any sort of protection from tourists or city-dwellers; one can just walk right up into it. The lack of any efforts to prerserve this beautiful landmark, along with the squalid conditions of its environs (houses with collapsed roofs, waste-water in the streets, intense poverty very evident), illumintate an interesting part of Turkish reality. In Turkey, there are so many historic sites that it is impossible for the government to take care of them all. Therefore, though there is some restoration, the process is excruciatingly slow.
The inside of the castle was awesome; I was brought back to my days in Ireland, just hanging out in an abandoned abbey from the 16th century. The castle has a superb, panoramic view of Ankara. For the first time, we had an idea of Ankara's layout. We could see Ankara's progress: the high-rise apartments, the parks, and the wide bulvaris full of traffic; as well as its past: the decayed slum-houses being demolished at the foot of those high-rises, the rolling Anatolian landscape not quite eclipsed by urbanization, and the densely-packed impoverished dwellings of Ulus. Furthermore, there were signs of globalization and its integration into the Turkish identity everywhere: there were satellite dishes sticking out of almost all of the slum houses, a Quonset hut, and ferris wheels. From the top of the Ankara castle, I was looking out over this sprawling city with a history that is at once 2,000 years old and only 80 years old, when the Call to Prayer started up from minarets around the city. The music swirled around the city, echoing off the hills and plummeting down into the valleys and mixing with the different tones of other mosques. It was as though I was standing at the focus of a giant speaker, with the pulse of the Call concentrated on me. It was a stunning moment, where I could really hear, see, smell, feel--experience-- the elements of Turkey that have intrigued visitors for millenia.
To top it off, there were about a dozen Japanese tourists singing and dancing to happy guitar tunes. Their voices echoed just as the Call did; their music blended with the traditional music. There was only one option for us: we jumped in and sang and danced with them at the top of Ankara's capitol.
That Sunday was a great day.

Then on Tuesday, we went with the group from ERD and belted out ballads from the '90s at Karaoke. That was fun too!

TOBB: The First Week in Review

As of last Monday, I began working as an English "Native" at TOBB University. The morning got off to a rocky start: Zack and Will thought I had woken up and gone upstairs to the girls' apartment in order to take a shower (our apartment still had no electricity, so it was impossible to use the bathroom safely), so they had forgotten to wake me up. I rushed to get dressed, and in the end it was, fortunately, a non-issue.

We arrived at TOBB "dressed to the nines" (as Annie likes to say) for our first day. Semihbay, the director of the Foreign Language Department, introduced us to Inci (In-jay), our academic coordinator and scheduler. Inci took us upstairs to the teachers' wing of TOBB, where we got to choose offices. I am incredibly fortunate: my office has the four most sociable, brilliant teachers in this University (and I'm not even counting myself!). For most of them, TOBB is a temporary job while they work on their Masters in English Literature: TOBB, despite its demanding schedule, affords some downtime for the hardworking teachers to study (frequently, I will see them studying thick pamphlets of philosophy, highlighting and rereading obstruse, heady passages). Teachers arrive around 8 am and leave no earlier than 6pm. This long work week is softened somewhat by a "half day" once a week--half days are from 8 until 3:30, when the last classes finish. I will write more about my new "colleagues" in later posts; they have helped me out alot in my integration with TOBB, Ankara, and Turkish culture.

The first day ended as a disappoint. Once we were in our office, we were given free time-- until 6pm. At first it was nice to have unabridged Internet access for the first time since arriving in Turkey. It quickly became dull, however, as we were told we really had no responsibilities for the day and could do whatever we wanted. Imagining six more months of such a cushy co-op disheartened me, and I ended the day in foul spirits.

The second day, I vowed to use my time productively: if I was going to have nine hours every day of freetime, I would put myself to work. I organized a schedule that includes reading, journaling, communicating, and researching. Before I took the TOBB co-op, I was informed about the downtime; I decided then that I would try and conduct some type of research in my free time here. Serendipitously, my NEU co-op advisor told me about a Middle East Studies Department research grant available for students living in the Middle East. So, last week, with the informal supervision of my Anthropology professor at NEU, I began writing a proposal for the research grant. Any ill-will I had towards my free time disappeared as I set to work on the proposal. I researched Turkey and Turkish culture to try and get an idea of the topic. One thing that emerged immediately in any discussion of Turkey is their recent economic ascendancy; therefore, I decided to examine the aspects of Turkish environmentalism. Particularly, I want to discover the responses to environmental degradation as a result of the economic growth (for example, the Turkish response to increased water pollution due to increased traffic in the Bospohoros, or protests against mining). Indeed, Turkey does have several environmental problems that are readily identified by even the students here, such as water, air, and sound pollution. I spent most of last week preparing the grant proposal; I submitted it Friday with the approval of my professor and am awaiting a response (more on the research later).

Once we had a staff meeting on Tuesday, our responsibilities became much clearer, and it was evident that Monday's freetime was not indicative of the rest of the semester. Indeed, when I wasn't researching and writing, the other Natives and I were introducing ourselves to the Turkish students. I have been very busy talking with students: we discuss American and Turkish culture, talk politics, and, of course, debate football (soccer). So far, I have not been able to mention that I play soccer without the immediate follow-up question of, "Who is your favorite team?" They mean Turkish teams, and I essentially have three choices: Fenerbache, Beshitash, and Galatasaray, the biggest teams in Turkey, all based in Istanbul (note that these are almost certainly NOT the correct spellings haha). I have yet to actually WATCH a Turkish game however-- to them this shouldn't prevent me from choosing a favorite team.

The students are incredibly friendly: most conversations start out with "Where are you from?" and end up diverging in every direction. Many of them speak slowly and haltingly; however, they are not deterred by their speed and take time to practice the language. They are enthusiastic to communicate with us. For example, a student named Habib sat with us for over an hour: it seemed as though he had only taken a month or two of English. Every sentence was a struggle-- it wasn't so much of a conversation as an exercise in patience. However, Habib is a prime example of the Turks' refreshing approach to language: their perservance differs from my experience in the United States with language education (more on this later). Despite the misunderstandings, dropped topics, and failed attempts to make a joke, talking with the students is fun and educational ("fun-ducational" as I told the teachers in my office): they are very curious and want to learn; we are curious and want to learn, so the relationship works out despite the frequent language difficulties.

I taught my first two classes yesterday: it was extremely gratifying. I have occasionally toyed with the idea of teaching; yesterday confirmed that I may one day seek to pursue teaching further. There are 3-5 50min. conversation classes per week. The students were all very good, and there were few problems. I enjoyed speaking with them, and they liked asking me questions about where I was from. For the most part, everyone in both my classes contributed to the conversations at different points. Students even seemed to have a good time when we (they) were debating football teams. In one class, there was a bit of a bump: one of the best speakers asked me if I thought the Obama administration would accept the reality of the Armenian genocide. This is, of course, a taboo discussion topic in almost any situation, and with good reason: for Turks, the Armenia question is preventing them from entrance into the European Union and creating bad press for them in an era of economic expansion. After initial surprise, I sufficiently deflected the question, saying I would answer it after class because of the topics' sensitivity. Later, I gave the student an abridged answer to his question. I told him I wasn't averse to talking about it; in fact, because we have differing opinions, we should discuss it. However, that particular classroom was not the place for a lesson in Turkish-American international relations (more on this later). The student was apologetic, not so much for the question, but for my reaction I think. I was very surprised by this: I naively thought the subject wouldn't be broached.

Other than that one incident, the classes both went swimmingly. I look forward to teaching again tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to do some preliminary work on my research. Also, Mackenzie and I are in charge of Movie Club this month: tomorrow's film selection is Tarzan. We are shamelessly using free food as an incentive for the students (we chose Tarzan because of its simplicity, rating, and availability more than its appeal to college students).

So far, I am very happy to be to TOBB. It will still be a bit before I fall into something resembling a professional routine: I am constantly looking out for opportunities to make a real contribution to the school and not squander my time. In the meantime, I am catching up on my reading (right now: Turkish culture books and Jack Kerouac's On the Road, a book I feel is suited to my youthful wanderlust).

Hope to hear from all of you soon! More updates later this week (a lot has happened!). Hoshcakal!

Merhoba!:The First Few Days

This is my blog for my time in Ankara, Turkey, during which I will be teaching English to students at TOBB University of Economy and Technology. This is for my six month co-op internship at Northeastern University.

I arrived in Turkey on Thursday the 7th, after about 24 hours of travel. I was reminded of the movie 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,' because the travel was a whirlwind of different modes of transportation. I did not tell my mother, but in order to get to TOBB University, I had to make my way from Esenboga Airport on the outskirts of Ankara to central Ankara via shuttle bus, then take a taxi to TOBB University. Making my way through the airports and bus stations was easy enough; in fact, it was almost too easy: English is very much the second language of the world. My flight out of JFK was delayed two hours; consequently, I missed my connection to Ankara. My new flight to Ankara from Istanbul left within 20 minutes of my landing; I didn't discover this until the clerk at the Turkish airlines counter told me to (literally) "run" to the gate so I wouldn't miss my flight. It was only a 40 minute flight to Ankara from Istanbul; we were descending as soon as we reached altitude it seemed. When I finally found my luggage (in the darkened, deserted international terminal, as opposed to the domestic terminal) I almost hugged it. The shuttle bus brought me to ASTI, the central bus station; from there I took a taxi to TOBB. At TOBB, there seemed to be some initial confusion as to who I was; when I finally did meet my boss, a jovial Turk named Semihbay (bay is a term meaning 'sir'), baggage in tow, I was suddenly aware of my fatigue, my disheveled appearence, and my acute body odor. Nevertheless, Semihbay was very nice, and had someone take me to my apartment. Triumphantly, I lay down in the apartment for a nap...

I was awoken an hour or so later by the arrival of Mackenzie and Annie, two more co-opers. We discovered that the other apartment had no electricity and emitted a foul odor (later we discovered just how much food the previous co-opers left in the refrigerator to rot!). After a brief crisis (Mackenzie got stuck in the elevator!), we went to TOBB to pick up Julia, the other co-oper who was arriving that day. She arrived with tears streaming down her face: she had just left her important documents, including her passport and the confirmation number for her lost baggage, in the taxi! Fortunately, she was safe (we now have the passport and the missing baggage :) )

The next day we had lunch with Semihbay, then explored Kizilay, the new part of downtown. On Saturday, Zack and Will arrived; now we are just waiting for Jamar, who comes Wednesday. On Sunday, we had a late start (we are all still travel weary; also, anyone who has been to a non-English speaking country knows the mental fatigue as your brain constantly works to process the new language); we took the bus into Kizilay and explored some more. We walked in the plaza of a large mosque, though we're not sure its name. Hearing the call to prayer everyday has been an amazing experience as well; it really drives home exactly how far from home I am! Furthermore, it is a subtle reminder of the Turkish past and the complexities of integrating that past with the Western conception of modernity (more on this later).

I'd like to note that everything I have read about Turkish hospitality is true: everyone has made an attempt to communicate, regardless of their proficiency (or, more often, lack of proficiency in English). Ankara is off the beaten path for most tourists-- imagine the appeal of DC without the monuments and statuery; however, people are somewhat knowledgeable of English and the United States. For instance, there is Ekram (all names are close approximations: it is difficult to distinguish names from other words at this point), the custodial head whose crew of cleaners set to work on the malodorous apartment; Dugyo (pronounced like a short form of 'do you go?') the security guard who tried to teach us Turkish, gave us cay (chai: tea) while we waited for Julia, and later Zack and Will; and Yoos, who calmly helped me free Mackenzie from the elevator when I, in panic, knocked desparately at his door and began babbling in English.

For our part, we are trying to learn as much about Turkey as quickly as possible. This is such a dynamic land with such a vibrant, complex history that I could easily spend more than six months researching Turkish culture and identity. I plan on working on at least one research project while I am here; Northeastern offers a scholarship for students conducting research in the Middle East (while I could do my entire project on determining whether Turkey is indeed part of the Middle East, I think I will focus on Turkish environmental movements instead). If anyone could recommend some research I would be very appreciative.

I am currently at my first day of work. This is the first prolonged period of Internet that I have had. We have had to walk to ASTI everytime we wanted to use the Internet thus far. Since it is day one, not much is happening. Right now, I'm just enjoying Internet time.

I apologize if there are any egregious spelling or grammatical errors; also, if you would like me to explain anything further, I certainly will.

Hoeshjeckal!