Touchdown in Turkey

25 June 2015

So  much has happened in the few days since my group landed in Istanbul, met up with our program coordinators, and took a short flight to Ankara for our country arrival orientation.

touchdown in Turkey

Orientation was held at Ankara's Neva Palas Hotel, a very nice, but small, European-style hotel. At the two-day orientation, we talked more about cultural and language learning. While there, I also had free time to hang out with and get to know some of my fellow exchange students.

I slept soundly my first night as I was tired, but the second night I stayed up way too late talking and having çay with my fellow exchange students, which thus messed up my circadian rhythm which was just beginning to adjust to the jet lag. That night, I woke at 3 am and could not sleep. My room window was open to let in the cool air, and I walked over to look out. A few men playing huge drums walked down the street. I later learned that this was the "ramazan drum", meant to awaken fasting muslims for their last meal before the 17 hour fast begining around 4 for sunrise.

I will be in Turkey for the Muslim month of Ramazan (Turkish spelling of Ramadan), during which many of the country's practicing Muslims fast from sunup to sundown. In Ankara, this means a 17 hour fast from food and water. I digress, but mean to say that the azan (the call to prayer from the top of one of Ankara's many minarets) is one of the most beautiful, spiritual, and mystic things that I have ever heard. I have though about trying the fast for a day, as an experiment just to see how difficult it is for the faithful. (My host family is not Muslim, and thus not fasting.)

Rainy road to Ankara. It was supposed to be "hot and dry," but has rained almost every day since I've been here!

View from the roof; I had an "incident" with a bidet at this hotel... cultural learning

After the two day orientation, on Monday, we visited Ataturk's mausoleum, a massive and monumental compound which made the Turkish nation's adoration of and devotion to their founder evident. The compound included the tomb of Atuaturk and a museum. It also had a monumental garden. It was a gigantic and perfect place; nothing was out of line. The Turkish people adore Ataturk, and many supporters of his ideals have pictures of him throughout their houses.

Outside the mausoleum

I witnessed the changing of the guards, a similar to my experiences in London and Bangkok

That afternoon, we went to the U.S. Embassy, and attended a session on safety in country and a foreign service presentation by a diplomat. Security was tight, but the presentation was interesting, and we all got neat little flag pins. Regrettably, I had stayed up way too late the night before, and was in desperate need of some Turkish kahve.

Lunch - Chicken Doner - çok lezleti (delicious)!

Finally, we met host families (host aileler)! My family is a secular Turkish family, who lives in an apartment in one of Ankara's upper middle-class neighborhoods. We have had a little trouble communicating, but my Turkish is improving fast. I have a 14 year-old host brother who loved basketball and politics, and two parents; the father is a lawyer, the mother works for a radio station.

The food I have eaten had been very good and my host brother is very helpful with Turkish and with public transportation planning. I have eaten many delicious things, some of which I am not too sure what it really is. Good, nonetheless.

I take the Metro to school everyday for my Turkish lessons; my stop is a 20 minute walk from my apartment.

There have been some confusing moments regarding protocol, cultural customs, and how to communicate, but the experience of staying with a host family will be very beneficial in both cultural and linguistic learning.

Also, my Turkish lessons are going well. I am learning quite a bit; it if difficult now, but I am told that once I learn the grammar basics it is a very predictable language to master. The teacher is very nice and helpful, and the lessons are held at the TÖMER University, where many foreign students learn languages. I am in the beginner class, which was expected, but I plan to work hard to improve.

Finally, it has been a very busy first week- wow! An overload of all the senses, new things to learn, see, and do everywhere, and a completely different culture to adapt to and understand. Not to mention the language learning. I am just thrilled to be here and partake in such and awesome experience!

More on my language classes, language learning, and the nitty-gritty of language learning in my next post. I will also talk about my group's trip to Ankara Kalesi, Ankara Castle and a service project in this post.

~I have received a scholarship from NSLI-Y to study Turkish; please continue to follow my blog to learn about my cultural and language learning experiences while abroad.~

Visit www.nsliy.org for info about this scholarship.

Stay tuned! Görüşürüz!