A succession of cities

Last post left off in Ankara, after getting back from Rome. That Thursday morning, I headed back to Istanbul to board a plane to Prague, where I met up with friends, sampled Czech culinary delicacies, saw the sight of the Defenestration of Prague, walked through a fantastic hilltop park leading to Prague Castle, and attended what may be one of the most awful shows I've ever seen: Aspects of Alice. It did make up some points for being a theater experience I'll never forget, and providing me with the story of attending the show, but it's in close contention with a 1960s-set Shakespeare theatre-in-the-round production as the most awful show I've seen. It was billed as a "blacklight show", which in retrospect should have tipped us off, and had clowns, a suave dark man, and a grown-up Alice in Wonderland. Oh yes. I think it would have been less galling if the tickets had not been more than tickets for the opera, which was also playing that night. Lesson Learned. We also stopped by the Communism Museum, which was quite well done as smaller Eastern European museums go. They had a good deal of interpretation, although sometimes the word choice was a little biased-seeming. They did translate everything into 6 languages though, so I don't hold it against them. Their gift shop was very tongue-in-cheek, which I think worked well for them.
I flew back to Istanbul that Sunday, and got back to Ankara just before midnight Sunday night, in time to repack my bag and get on a plane to Erzurum. Particularly dedicated readers or those with better memories may remember that I'd been to Erzurum in January for some pretty fantastic skiing (10cm of snow will do that). This time, I was flying out to give a speech at Ataturk University about 'American Life'. Erzurum was quite nice, snowless at the moment. I stayed at the University's guesthouse, which was gorgeous. The American Corner Director there gave me a campus tour and a city tour, which I appreciated as I'd not had a chance to explore the city in January. There are a few beautiful mosques and medreses in the center of town, but most of the city is quite modern, industrial, and a little gritty. I liked Erzurum though, as it had a vibe that was entirely Eastern Turkey about it. My talk was ridiculously well-attended, with about 200 students in the audience, and I discussed the American Dream as well as perceptions of American Life in pop culture versus the reality of life in America. The question-and-answer section was pretty great; my first question was about cohabitation, whether people actually did that in America, and whether I thought it was moral. We then wandered through various topics from higher education in America, to what people in America think of Turkey, to Superman. I got back that Tuesday night, spent a few days catsitting, and took advantage of temporarily living with an oven to bake chocolate-chip cookies with a friend, Janna. As it was the weekend, Janna and I ended up at a football match after the cookies were done, watching Ankaragucu win with a group of expats and fresh cookies. We extended our luck by going to the Genclerbirligi match the next day, where Gencler also won. So I'm rocking a 60% win percentage for Ankara games I've watched. I should get a stipend for watching these.
That Monday, I again headed to the airport and flew to Izmir, to give a speech at Izmir Economics University. This one was to be on my research, so I was a bit more excited to give it. I stayed at a hotel on the sea, fronting onto Izmir's seaside promenade, and spent a lot of time just enjoying the utterly fantastic weather and laid-back environment. On Tuesday, I headed to the university, where I met up with the AC Director, chatted for a bit, got my photo taken for some sort of publicity purpose, and headed to my speech room...only to find it empty. The AC Director had scheduled my speech, on Turkish Foreign Policy, at the exact same time as a symposium on Turkey's entry to the EU, held in Turkish. If I were a Turkish student, I know which one I'd be going to, and it wouldn't be mine. The Director then mentioned that the student body was up in arms over Obama's statements on April 24th* and would probably boycott anything American for the next week or so. Wonderful. So there ended up being a grand total of 3 people at the lecture, which morphed into more of a one-on-one conversation and which took much less time than anticipated. It all worked though, I took the bus back downtown, met up with Deirdre, a Fulbrighter in Izmir, for dinner, and then we checked out Izmir's expat bar, where we passed the 'good yabanci' test by being able to speak Turkish. We ended up chatting with a British NATO guy for a bit, who didn't think too highly of my choice of football teams, before heading back. I had almost a full free day the next day, which I spent strolling the Kordon (promenade), doing some shopping (the gorgeous weather convinced me to stock up on summer clothes; of course it's been 60F in Ankara ever since), and exploring some side streets. Before heading to the airport, I made a small culinary discovery: patlican boregi, or eggplant borek. Borek usually comes in cheese, potato, spinach, and ground meat varieties; this patlican variety was delicious and smoky. I'm going to have to do some kitchen experimenting with borek, clearly.
After arriving back in Ankara from Izmir late Wednesday night, I had a few days to do laundry, have a simply delicious BLT at the Red Lion with friends, and repack before heading out again last Sunday, to Kayseri. Kayseri is a Central Anatolian town, just south of the Cappadochia region, mainly known for industry, pastirma (a really garlicky, sausagelike product), and manti. I was chiefly interested in the last item, as it's my favorite Turkish food. My speech here was at Erciyes University, again on Turkish Foreign Policy. Luckily this time I had an audience, with 60-70 people attending and giving me great questions afterward on American imperialism, America's position on Armenian genocide, whether America is in the pocket of Israel, and why America didn't give Turkey more money after World War II. I love question-and-answer sessions like that! The AC Director there was a bit of a dynamo: she works full time at Erciyes, and is a PhD student at ODTU, so every Thursday at 2am, she takes a 5-hour bus to Ankara, has a full day of classes, and takes a 5-hour bus back at 5 that night to turn around and teach the next day. She had serious pull with the bus companies in Kayseri. After my speech, I met up with Candace, a Fulbrighter from Istanbul who was giving a speech the next day. We went to dinner with the Director at a traditional Kayseri restaurant, where I had manti of course. It was pretty delicious, although as they are traditionalists they don't have the whole wheat, spinach, or fried varieties that I love so much in Istanbul.

The next day I hopped a bus back to Ankara, where I again changed out my luggage and turned around the next day to take a bus to Bursa. Bursa is 6 hours from Ankara, and I lucked out by getting Kamilkoc's Rahat bus, which is a bit like business class in an airplane (or maybe closer to economy-plus; but they have big leather chairs and satellite TV and internet, so I can't complain). It was pretty uneventful, and I got in to Bursa late enough to grab a light dinner, find my hotel, and write my speech (...). Thursday I got up, checked out, and took the Metro to the Bursa Chamber of Commerce, where their American Corner is. The building looks like a giant pyramid, so that was snazzy. I had lunch with the AC Director and her boss, before giving a speech on the American tradition of the State Fair as a microcosm of American Life. Good thing I did that History Day exhibit on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and good thing I know my Minnesota State Fair. The talk was to a group of about 20 Turkish students, and the fun part was that they spoke almost no English. This meant that I got a translator, which was cool but also a bit different to get used to, as I had to pause after every sentence to let her translate. The questions this time were again all about Armenia, the US' position on Armenia, what Americans thought about Turkey, Americans' view on the Conquest of Constantinople, and US foreign policy failures through history. It was a bit like a mental ping pong match, and felt like I was back in my debate days. The students also told me I look like Tansu Ciller, who is Turkey's first and so far only female Prime Minister. She's pretty heavily linked to some corrupt dealings, so I'm thinking it's time for a haircut to put an end to that resemblance. After a few more questions about education in America, I headed off to the bus station, caught a bus back to Ankara, and got in late last night. Finally.

I do have one more speech, but it's in Ankara, so I don't have to travel for it. While I do love travel, I'm looking forward to being able to actually attend research lectures in Ankara, and football matches, and being able to buy produce and other perishables. It doesn't last too long though, as the Fulbright conference starts late next week on the coast.

Hope you all are doing well!
kib,
-R


*April 24th is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in many Western countries; Obama's remarks that day didn't specifically use the term 'genocide', but used a term close enough to earn Turkish ire and damage Turkish pride. The strength of the response to Obama's remarks in Turkey is a little difficult to explain, because honestly it's such a sensitive issue here that it's hard to understand the scope from outside Turkey.