Orientation, Ankara-style

So I figured before I started regaling you all with my adventures in the East, I should back up and get around to writing about Fulbright Orientation, which was a week and a half ago, right before we left for vacation. It was held in Ankara, literally 3 blocks from my apartment, which was pretty darn handy for me, at the Turkish American Association.
The Istanbullus all came to Ankara together the day before orientation, so I met up with them when they got in for lunch. Afterwards, they wanted to see a bit of the city, so I took them up to the citadel and we watched the sun set as the call to prayer echoed around us from mosques surrounding the hill. It was really beautiful, and I think the call to prayer from citadels is one of my favorite experiences here in Turkey. We got a lot of chatting in on the way to and from the citadel, so I got to know more of the Istanbullus (as well as an ETA from Balikesir, who we bumped into at the hotel). On the way back, we stopped at this great fish restaurant in Kizilay before strolling back to their hotel; I felt like quite the tour guide showing the whole group around my city, and hopefully dispelled some of Ankara's reputation as depressing and dull (it really isn't, folks; I like my city!).
The actual orientation lasted 2 days, and consisted mainly of various academics, Embassy personnel, and Fulbright folks giving informative sessions. While the sessions varied in their informativeness, I couldn't help but note that a lot of the information they presented would've been useful for me 3 months ago when I arrived, but was pretty much useless now that I'd moved in and took care of bureaucracy myself. Oh well, this seems to be the way Fulbright works. It was a great chance to meet the whole Fulbright staff though, as well as the other Fulbrighters. I'd known about most of the other Student Researchers and English Teaching Assistants, as we'd been exchanging introductory emails over the summer, but it was a surprise to meet several Lecturers, Senior Researchers, and Teacher Exchange Fulbrighters. They all were really nice, and quite a bit older than most of the student researchers and ETAs. As a bonus, almost all of them are based in Ankara, and at least 2 (and their significant others) are in my neighborhood. So that was good to find out. I also got in touch with my professor from 2 years ago at our welcome reception at the Ambassador's residence; she's the wife of the head of the Turkish Fulbright Commission, and I took Communications in IR from her when I studied abroad here before, small world (the class turned out to be primarily an English class, but it was awesome, and I learned quite a bit). On the second day, we toured the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, which is a really nice museum, but it was my 4th time there, and my 3rd time had been just about a month ago, so I wasn't quite as thrilled as I could have been.
The Museum does have a great collection, and does have material written in English, but, as with most Turkish museums, really has a dearth of explication, which could've added so much to the experience. Maybe in my next life I'll design museum exhibits...
After the museum, the plan was to let us explore Ulus, and wander back towards Cankaya, but the weather was not exactly conducive for such things. It started pouring, so after a bit I grabbed a cab back to Cankaya along with George and Joan, a couple who were staying at the same research hostel I'd stayed at when I first arrived in Ankara. On our way home it started hailing, so I'm thinking it was a good idea to abandon the Ulus plan.
We ended orientation with an informal get-together at Corey's; it was really nice, as at first it was only the Ankaralis, so we had a good chance to bond before the other folks showed up. It's really interesting to see what other people are doing, and what their connection to Turkey is--some of the older folks have been coming here for over 30 years, while many of the ETAs have not had any Turkish experience, and are going to be located in disparate cities with less of an English-speaking infrastructure. I'm really so impressed at how well they've managed, living on cities with very little English when they speak no Turkish. Lord knows I've had days when I've wanted to throw in the towel, and I'm surrounded by expats and speak Turkish.
It looks as though it's going to be a good year, Fulbright-people-wise, and I think I'll be doing quite a bit of travelling to visit the non-Ankaralis (actually, I already have, but that's a story for my next post, on my vacation).
On that note,
-R
(P.S. I'm uploading new photos as I type, check them out :) )