The last week-ish has been full of excitement, adventure, and what-have-you. Not really, but it makes for a better opening than "It's been really busy," no? I started out my first week of school by trying to register for the only class Fulbright will fund, Turkish, only to be told that there was no set time, no set place, and there may not even be a class if the professor couldn't find enough people to fill 8 spaces in the class. Fabulous. I made it to one of my classes last Thursday, Turkish Foreign Policy, only to find that I'd already read the textbook last year for my thesis (probably a good sign for my thesis, but not so good for the class). Luckily, that was an undergrad class, and the grad class on the same subject looks to be very interesting, so it works out well. It also appears as though there are enough students for the Turkish class, although classes are on Thursday and Friday for that, so there goes my formerly free Friday.
The weekend was occupied first by internet issues (always exciting to troubleshoot in Turkish, let me tell you), then by a full day of expat activity. Sunday I met up with a friend to walk up to the Vatican Embassy for Mass, which I did not get lost for this time, or get in a bus crash. Considering my track record, this is excellent. Before Mass, I met a Princeton Ph.D student here for a year to learn both Turkish and Ottoman from scratch. We talked for a bit about Turkish, living as expat students in Ankara, and such, and he seems like an affable guy. After Mass, we stayed around for coffee (again, they serve real coffee after Mass; in Ankara, this is a wondrous thing) before I had to hightail it home to drop off church apparel, grab running apparel, and get to the hash house harriers meeting point. The run Sunday was in this rocky valley-ish place, and most of it was up, up, up, then straight down before climbing up again. I most certainly got my workout for the day :P Afterwards, they had a barbeque, which was really nice and a good chance to chat and to practice my conversational Turkish with some of the folks. We got back to Cankaya just in time for me to rush back, change again, hit up an internet cafe for 10 minutes, and get to Arjantin Cad to watch a friend performing at a cafe with a whole group of folks from the Refugee Support Group, plus my friends from Mass that morning. It was a really great relaxing time; Erin has a beautiful voice and the ARSG folks are really interesting people.
This week, I've attended a few more classes and run round all over the place trying to get documents in order for Fulbright and my apartment. Inshallah that's all done for the time being... Later this week I have Fulbright orientation finally, which should be a fun time; I'm looking forward to finally meeting the other Fulbrighters not in the city. Everyone's research sounds fascinating, so I can't wait to pick a few brains about their subjects.
Next week is Seker Bayram ("Sugar Holiday"), the end of Ramazan, where Turks visit family and celebrate for a few days with feasting and fellowship. ODTU's shut down for the week. Not to be left out, I'm also heading out on vacation, with a few friends, to the SouthEast. I think it'll be much calmer than my last trip to the region (see my early April 2006 blog entries for those stories), and the fact that all 3 of us speak semidecent Turkish will be an enormous help/ The region is absolutely gorgeous, and we're hoping to end up at Nemrut Dagi, which is a mountain with giant stone heads a la Easter Island on top. Expect copious amounts of pics when I get back (and inshallah I'll even catalogue the ones up on Flickr at the moment...).
On that note,
hope you're well!
-R

Just a few quick thoughts

1. I have internet! Harika! It only took 3 flatmates, the boyfriend of one, on the phone from Germany, and a TTNet service rep, but it's here and it's working!

2. My new blender makes hummus better than anything I've ever seen. This is awesome.

3. I have a new roommate; there are now 3 of us, my second roommate is a German Turk in the same program as the first. She seems very nice and I think she'll be here for a few months; don't worry, though, future visitors, I still have guest room abilities!

4. First day of school tomorrow; it's also my registration day, so I don't know what I'm taking when yet. I do think I have Fridays off though :)

On transitions and bus accidents

Tomorrow, my full research grant starts, and I'll officially be a Fulbright researcher here. I've been here on a supplementary Critical Language grant up til now, tasked with learning as much Turkish as I can sram into my brain. I'm still on the language portion, which will run concurrently with my regular grant until December, but now my main focus of being here will switch to Turkish foreign policy. It's a bit of a transition.
Of course, this month so far has been all about that transition: I now have a flat and a roommate, and on Friday I picked up my residence permit, so I am now a legal resident of Turkey for the next year. This week, I'll be getting Internet, registering for classes, starting my classes, and figuring out my Turkish lessons. So I feel like I'm at long last fully settled. It's kind of nice.
My week was full of errand running and such, although this weekend my intestinal system finally surrendered to the sketchy Ankara water and I came down with a pretty fun bug; luckily after living in Niger I am well-versed in intestines and anti-biotics. Still, I took the weekend pretty easy to recuperate. Today, I figured I'd get up and about and go to Mass, since I was confident I could find it this week easily. However, things happened, as they do here in Turkey: I took a bus, because it went within a few blocks of the Vatican Embassy, and while trying to make an illegal left turn, it got in an accident. Fun times. Everyone was just fine, both in the car we hit and on the bus, but the bus was in no condition to finish its route, so I set off walking, got lost, and somehow ended up on Ataturk Bulvari, 4 blocks from my apartment, half an hour after Mass was supposed to start. So I didn't make it this week. It was a little strange of a morning. Next week I'll try again, and inshallah the bus won't hit anything or make illegal turns and such.
On that note,
ttyl,
-R

Today I went back to ODTU, for the exchange student orientation. It was a little weird, both because I'm not technically an exchange student and because I'd already sat through the exact same orientation two and a half years ago.
The morning session was decent; they had a coffee break, which was awesome as they served real coffee, which I've already mentioned is thin on the ground here. I also got to meet some of the exchange students--there are a loooooot of them! Last time I was here, there were maybe 60, and now there are 125, from all over Europe, the Middle East, and North America. I met students from Sweden, the UK, Ukraine, and Hungary, as well as quite a few from the US and Canada. Most are just here for the semester, but I did meet a few who are here for the year, so hopefully they'll be turn out to be decent folks. It was interesting talking to the exchange students, and realizing how limiting living on campus is: some of them had spent time in Istanbul, and some knew the campus decently well, but none of them had really got outside of campus and seen the city. It really seems a bit isolating, looking at it from the other side. Of course, they can visit each others rooms and dorms any time, and meet up on campus much easier, so I shouldn't gloat too much.
After the coffee break, I headed over to the Emniyet to try and get my residence permit. I was hoping to get there before they closed for lunch, but alas that was not to be, so I spent 45 minutes waiting for the security personnel to get back from lunch so I could even enter the building. Once inside, I spent a good two hours in line, getting my documents looked at, being told to go elsewhere, getting my documents looked at there, going back to the first office, etc. etc. until finally I was all paid up, had all my letters and documents stamped, and got everything turned in. I can pick it all up on Friday, at which point I can finally apply for an internet connection. I cannot wait. It was really interesting waiting in line at the Emniyet: the other students in my student permit line were pretty much all Central Asians. There were Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, an Azeri, an Afghani, and I think a Russian. My friend who got her permit in Istanbul mentioned that they were pretty much all Eastern European at the Emniyet there. It's curious as to why each group seems to have congregated in their particular city; I would guess it's for geographical reasons, but if you're coming from Kazakhstan, I'd hardly think an extra 5 hours on a bus would be at all daunting. Curious.

I also while unpacking found my journal from the last time I was here. I found it humorous and quite prescient that one of my first entries observes "The Turks seem to view the world through Turk-colored glasses..." It's just as true today.

-R

Benim Dairem, falan filan

Sadly, I still don't have internet in my flat, but should by the end of this week. So there's some decent news. I also yesterday went to get my residence permit renewed at the Ankara Emniyet (..."security office", roughly, I think): I headed down to Kizilay, found a dolmus that said "Emniyet" on the side, and hopped on...
Only to have a nice hourlong ride through the completely wrong part of the city. The Emniyet that the dolmus passed wasn't the Emniyet I needed to go to. On the way back to Kizilay, this guy on the dolmus who spoke a little English asked me where I was trying to get to, so I showed him my residence permit and told him I needed to go to the correct Emniyet. By this time I'd figured out which dolmus I needed to go on, but he insisted that I could get there via subway, and was pretty persistent, so off I went on the subway line to Ankamall. Thankfully, when we got there it was indeed the right place. Ankara did yabancis a great favor by putting their Emniyet right next to pretty much the largest grocery store in Turkey: Ankamall is a shopping mall, anchored by a 5M Migros (Migros is a chain of grocery stores; the size of the store is proportionate to the number of Ms starting the name: MMigros is neighborhood supermarket sized, MMMigros is typical large suburban grocery store sized. MMMMMigros is massive). It's very recognizable.
I headed to the Emniyet's yabanci ofisi, and handed in all my paperwork, only to be told that my paperwork was Istanbul paperwork, and that I needed to fill out the exact same information on a form that was identical to mine except for the font. Bureaucracy, I love it so. The guy behind the yabanci desk then told me that the person who processed residence permits had left at 3:30, so I'd have to return this next week to get the renewal. Then he looked at my passport and saw that I'd been in the country for 2.5 months already. Apparently, even though the Fulbright office assured me I'd be fine, and getting my residence permit up to 3 months after entry would not be a problem, it was indeed a problem. The guy disappeared to go talk to someone about it. I started panicking and trying to guess whether they'd deport me, and if I'd be allowed back in the country. Luckily, the guy came back and told me I just had to pay a fine. But it was a tense few minutes for me. :P
After getting information but no residence permit, I headed over to the magical MMMMMigros for some shopping. It was wonderful. It even had an organic section, and prices were cheaper than at all the grocery stores by me. They even had premade salads/greenery other than iceberg lettuce, which I haven't seen in any other grocery store. It was fabulous. I bought a blender, magic-bullet-style, which promised recipes inside for 10-second mousse, and chicken salad, and smoothies. Sadly, the recipe booklet was not inside, so I'll have to experiment on the mousse (I don't know about the chicken salad...). It came with a juicer attachment, so I think I'll have fun experimenting in the kitchen with it. It was a good impulse buy, and it means I can satiate my hummus fix.
This weekend's been pretty quiet so far: today I spent the morning figuring out how to use my washing machine, whose cycles are helpfully labelled only as "A", "B", "D", "M", and "X". I tried M, and it seemed to work decently, except for the part where it took 2 hours for a single wash cycle. Maybe next time I'll try "A"... Tomorrow, I'm getting up early to try and find the Vatican Embassy for Mass, which should be fun and potentially an adventure as it's a ways away from my apartment. After that, I think I'm running with the HHH again and then getting my place ready for my potential roommate, who gets in to town Monday. So that'll be fun.
Hope you-all are doing great,
-R

My New Apartment (You can come visit!)

So I finally have a bit more time to write about my time so far in Ankara. I've been here for about 2 weeks; I spent the first week and a half at the American Research Institute in Turkey's Ankara researcher guesthouse. It was gorgeous, and I highly recommend it if your research ever takes you to Turkey. I would have stayed there for my entire grant, except they have a 3 month limit on stays...
So I moved, to a great apartment literally 4 blocks downhill from the guesthouse and the Fulbright offices (this is absolutely the easiest move I've ever done). I now live in Cankaya/Kavaklidere, just off of Ataturk Bulvari near a large park and many embassies. The building next door to mine has both a supermarket and a nice restaurant, and there's an upscale bakery across the street. The neighborhood will take a little getting used to I think, but I really like it so far.
My apartment itself is pretty darn nice. It's a 3-bedroom, as Turks don't really do 1-bedrooms or studios (they stay home til they're at the 2-bedroom stage of their lives, even in/after college). I'm inshallah getting a roommate next week, so that'll leave me with a guest bedroom/laundry-drying and ironing room. It came furnished, as I did not want to have to run around Turkey trying to find decent and cheap furniture immediately upon arriving. I'm already doing more than enough running around. I think I'll have to start having dinner parties, as I have a massive heavy dark wood dining table; otherwise, I'll have a very impressive computer desk... The kitchen will take some getting used to: most Turks don't have ovens like you'd think of ovens--instead they use toaster ovens. I originally thought that my apartment came with no oven at all til I found mine hiding beneath the sink.
The apartment is I think a mix of really nice and kind of strange: it has new appliances, it even has a washing machine, but it has a spot of water-damaged floor in the living room. And the bathroom is newly tiled and the bedrooms all have new hardwood floors, but the half-bath is a terrifying pit of despair that I am pretty sure I will just seal off and never ever enter again. So it's got character. And little by little, I'm moving my stuff out of suitcases and making the place my home instead of simply a home.
And of course you are all incited to come visit! After all, I have a guest room now.
-R

just a quick update...

Hey folks,
So lots is new since my last post, I've moved for one, but that'll have to wait til I either get Internet in my apartment or find a free wireless spot with a plug, as I'm on limited battery power. I figured I would, though, update with a wholly exasperating observation: Turks almost never tell you they don't know something, at least in the customer service/business front-counter world.
Last Thursday, I closed on my apartment, and to get the cash for my deposit (USD, they're pretty fond of the $ still for some reason) I needed to cash in some of my travellers cheques. No big deal, I thought, I'll just go to a bank and take care of that early. Oh, but boy was I wrong. The first bank sent me to a second, which sent me to a different branch, which suggested two different banks, and by the end of the day I had visited 10 banks, walked over 4 miles, and had not cashed any of my travellers cheques. Every single teller I talked to told me that a different bank "absolutely," "guaranteedly" would accept/exchange travellers cheques. It was moer than a little frustrating. I started crying in the second HSBC I visited, the eighth bank I'd been to that day, after they almost exchanged my travellers cheques, only to say "oh wait, these are American Express travellers cheques, we don't accept these." And of course all these transactions were in Turkish, so about half the tellers would, noting that Turkish wasn't my native language, ask the lobby at large if anyone spoke English, at which point I would try to explain that I did, really, understand what they'd told me in Turkish, but would have to sit through the same explanation, this time in questionable English. And of course at each bank I had to take a number and wait in line for 10-40 minutes. I was in various banks for hours on Thursday. Incidentally, if you're planning on going to Turkey with travellers cheques, the PTT will cash them, I've found. IsBank will as well, but they want to charge 30 YTL per check. For reference, a $50 travellers cheque is currently worth about 55 YTL. If one was particularly desperate, I suppose that might be an option.
And this week, I get to go through the whole thing again, luckily at a slower pace. I tried to get internet set up for my apartment (sadly, all my neighbors saw fit to secure their networks) this morning, and after having checked with the TurkTelecomNet website that post offices here were licensed resale points for their internet services, headed off to my post office, and asked for internet. They handed me an internet sign-up form, so I figured I was golden, filled it out, and handed it back in. At that point, they told me (twice, in Turkish and English....) that I needed to go to the more central post office in Kucukesat. So, after a wifi cafe stop to check the address, I headed out to Kucukesat, and waited in line at that PTT, only to get to the front and be told that they couldn't sell me internet, and that I'd have to go to the Turk Telekom office for that. They gave me directions, and off I went again, only to find the TurkTelekom offices definitively boarded up and locked. Fantastic. At least this time, I think I've wised up and will not spend time walking to 10 places on the advice of people at each preceding place. Instead I just asked my waitress, and I'm pretty sure that tomorrow I'll be able to get my internet at least ordered, if not set up. This lack of internet at home is really not fun.
On that note, I'd better save my battery. Stories from my first legit week in Ankara (I went running with the Hash House Harriers; it was quite an experience), along with pics of my new apartment, will be forthcoming pending internet, of course,
Hope everyone's doing splendidly,
-R