Ankara güzel mi? (Ankara, beautiful?)

Generally when I talk to someone in Ankara, they ask me if I like their city. I will always respond by saying that I do, and that it is a very beautiful city. Often, I'll get the reaction, "Ankara güzel mi?" Though it's true Ankara isn't the most beautiful city in Turkey, or the world, I do find it a very beautiful place. In the following photographs, I will attempt to explain why....
(If you're on the front page, you have to click to keep reading.)

"Dinç bamba gibi. Enerji var." (Explaning the meaning of a word in class. 'Vigorous' is like a bomb, there's lot's of energy!) [Teacher's explanation of a word.]

Today was relatively sedate. No protests during class, and I successfully have talked my way into a harder class tomorrow. After class, I ate some sucuk with some friends of mine. Sucuk is like beef pepperoni, it is better than bacon in my opinion in part because it isn't over rated. My delicious sucuk sandwich cost the equivalent of $2.50. That cannot be beat. After lunch, we had our first weekly meeting as a group, which went fine, and after that I checked out some bookstores. Underneath where I have class there are quite a few of them. Kızılay is a very nice neighborhood. It's central, bustling, and filled with shops.
Here's what one of the side walkways away from Tömer looks like:

Before I got home, I stopped by the local used book store and bought two books. One is a Turkish translation of Goethe's Faust, the other is a hefty volume, apparently number two on Ataturk's views on the Turkish language. Though I know I cannot read either without a sözlük nearby (sözlük - dictionary; two morphemes. Talk/say is söz, while lük is the abstract noun suffix.) I am excited that I have them both, and I hope to one day be able to read them. :)

After I got home, I went on a walk with my host family. They took me to the campus of Ankara university, which is big, beautiful, and has a large gardeny space with statues, blackberry trees, and stuff. It was a very beautiful and relaxing place, filled with college students studying.

Me underneath a blackberry tree. Gürsel takes excellent photos!

There are a few of these ponds. They contain live fish!

Another park, with a view of Ataturk's mausoleum in the background.

A beautiful Ankara sunset.

 Afterwards, I met some more members of my extended host family, and had a good time at my host grandmother's house. It was an excellent evening.

Coming soon: A panoramic view of Ankara from the 10th floor balcony of Tomer, lovingly assembled in paint!

"Buraya Bakarlar" (They pay attention to this.)

Can I write about two days of Turkey in one blog post? No. This is just Wednesday.
It starts with class and includes a lot of pictures, so if you're accessing this from the blog's front page, I'm going to make you click a link to continue reading...

Güle güle kullanın (Use it with a smile)

Today was a faırly uneventful day. I woke up at the right time, had my stuff together, and left home, expecting my first day of classes at Tömer. Before classes could start, I had to take a placement test, and suffice to say it was an interesting test. It opened with a 100 question multiple choice section. After you got to a point when you didn't understand anymore, you were supposed to stop. I did some, but sometimes I found it a little difficult to understand what the questions were asking for. After that, it was time for a break at the rooftop cafetria. Then the writing section, and another lengthy break. Then the speaking section, and since the breaks were so long, that was it. I read a newspaper article on hydrofracking, went to the grocery store with my host mom, went on a walk, and later went to the mall to buy a new camera. (This is where the title of this post comes in. It's a polite/common thing to say to someone who has bought something new.) I also watched some Turkish television. I had trouble deciding between some comedy that looked like the most obnocious thing ever, and a cooking show, but the cooking show was boring and the comedy ended, so I somehow ended up unable to watch anything too interesting.

And now, a further word on the protests. The protests in Ankara are in Kızılay, which is right where I have class, but I get out of class wayy before the protests start, so that isn't a problem. I will be avoiding the protests for obvious political and safety reasons. News coverage of the protests is very interesting. International stations show the police blasting people with water cannons in Taksim Square, while Turkish news stations all show an extremely zoomed out picture and then cut to Tayyip giving a speech. Hmmmmm....

"Nasılsınız?" "isviçre çakısı gibi" ("How are you?" "Like a swiss army knife" [prepared for anything])

Photos forthcoming because my friends took them and I do not currently have them. This post will be updated.

Okay, before I fall asleep right here....

The orders were that I was to be picked up at 7:30 AM. I went to bed at some time past 11. I set my alarms for 6:30. Both failed. I woke up at 7. At 7:05 they were there to pick me up. I threw on clothes, grabbed my passport, and exited. My host mother packed me a traditional Turkish breakfast. First on the minibus. After travelling around Ankara picking up my classmates, we stopped at a truck stop. A truck stop with fresh tea and home baked bread and other treats. It was quite tasty. After a break, we went to a far away branch of Tömer for a shortened version of in country orientation. Lots of food, typical spiel.

(EDIT: Have to update here because I forgot to mention that the minibus driver both asked me if I played basketball, proving that I will never be able to go anywhere without being asked this question, and also asked me if I would wrestle him. Can you believe I refused?)

After orientation, we journeyed to the American Embassy downtown. A few months ago there was an attack there. One of the front guards was killed. The embassy is like a fortress. It is also very busy. After passing through security, we were briefed by a man from a branch of the state department that protects people overseas... sort of like the state dept. police. Someone else was supposed to talk to us, but he was missing. This guy promised he could take up a full hour. He did. He told us that if we go to any of the protests, we will be kicked out of the program and the country. He then went on to talk about his glamorous career talking to his 10 year old kid about corpses in Nigeria, eating snails, living in Burkina-Faso, Iraq, and Turkey. He strongly advised us to pursue careers in the state department, and talked about his most recent vacation. It was a very interesting briefing. I was sitting in the chair of their ridiculously fancy conference room that apparently belongs to the economics chair.

(Police guy is also responsible for the title of this post, he explained he was experimenting with his Turkish, and the title is one of the answers to "How are you" that he likes to use. There are others.)

After that, we went to the campus of Tömer where I have classes. From the cafeteria on the top floor there is an excellent view of Ankara. I met with my conversation partner/language buddy Umut, and his friend. I had some trouble speaking to him in Turkish. He wanted me to come with him and his friend so I did. We walked a long ways to his car, an old Citron. His driving was much scarier that typical Turkish driving because he drove very fast and his car wasn't very good. Burak, his friend was playing some disco tunes. We picked up another of his friends and had dinner at Burger King. They smoked a lot.

Gel keyfim gel (Easy Going)

Today was picnic day. Because of the protests, plans changed somewhat, so instead of having my in-country orientation today, it was spend time with your host family day, so that's what I did. My host family went on a picnic with their son's best friend's parents, and it was quite the picnic. I wasn't expecting it to consist of three meals. I have eaten so many new foods that I don't know what to do with myself. Probably my favorite Turkish food thus far is simit, which is kinda like a giant bagel but better than a bagel. Also plenty of köfte, (lamb meatballs), mushrooms, cucumbers, tomato, onions, and cheese. And eggs. And other bread. It was very good. And potatos cooked on coals. That is the best way to eat them, trust me.

Leave them here for a while and then they are charred on the outside and wonderfully flavorful on the inside.

The park itself was nice too, although it was somewhat muddy. It's Mavi Göl Parkı, or blue lake park, named after the blue lake in the middle of it. The name is very original. :)
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Park is also a bit muddy...

This is a fantastic photo, which I took with Gürsel's camera. Note the skyline of Ankara in the background. It is beautiful.

Mountains in the background.

After going for a stroll around the park, and watching some Turkish backgammon, and sitting in the hammock, and drinking plenty of tea (tea should be made at ALL picnics), it eventually started getting windy, and later raining. This led to my host mom and her friend insisting that I should wear a table cloth while I was sitting on the hammock. 

I like hammocks a lot. You can tell.

Never before has anyone looked so ridiculous on a hammock.

Eventually that became two table cloths and a hammock. Then it started raining and we carried stuff back to the car. I get the impression that it is very important to cover your head in Turkey when it's raining, especially if you don't have an umbrella, which is why I carried stuff wearing a table cloth and a plastic bag on my head. Because I didn't mind much, Gürsel told me I was "gel keyfim gel ", I went with the flow of things. (Today's title.)

Best host family photo ever.

On the ride back from the park there were some people standing on the streets waving Turkish flags. They are against Tayyip's supporters, and things have been going on today as he has just come back to Turkey (hence, orientation is tomorrow.) Turkish society seems fairly split on Tayyip Erdoğan (the ğ is silent, hence the hat.) But, even though the main protests are taking place in Kızılay, an area I have avoided, though one close to me, I've still seen civil disobedience around. Before leaving the park, I noticed a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, and during my walk last night, there were people banging on pots and pans. As a noise music aficianado, I definitely approve of these “pot voices.” Tonight I can hear them in the street at 9:00 as well. It's a very nice form of protest. 

And, as a last note for one Dan McFadden, who seems to get name dropped every other post, the most common car used as a taxi in Ankara seems to be the Hyundai Accent.

Canın Sağolsun (It's not important, you're alive, don't worry about it.)

A number of things have happened to me since my last blog post. I'll keep the lamer ones brief.

CLS Pre-Departure Orientation: Some speeches, a lot of meeting my classmates, finding out how the program would be structured, talking about figuring out how to spend my time in the most efficient way possible. The CLS staff on hand, especially David who once was spamming my inbox with all manner of CLS email, are really cool, and on the young side. Although pre-departure orientation was a bit too much time sitting in a hotel basement, it contained some good information on careers and stuff. Also, we went out for Korean food afterwards. It was tasty.

The exciting, swanky hotel room I was in.

The less exciting, less swanky scam to try to get you to pay $4 for a bottle of water. Did I ever mention I take pictures of pointless stuff?

Then, on June 7^th, we left the country Duelles was a dull airport, and the first flight was uneventful. Had a layover in Munich, and there were actually some cool things in that airport, even if it was an airport. Here's what they were:

German ice cream. Mmmm. Definitely a solid breakfast. I had the two rightmost flavors.

Apparently you can pay $30/hr to nap in one of these. What?

And, one of the airport's best features which we should totally have in other places is an interfaith prayer/meditation room. Check it.

Note that this tree is completely covered in Christian and Muslim graffiti. Do other faiths not vandalize?
(Click for full size on this or any pic. This one is weirdly displayed.)

After another flight, one on which I slept for a change, we touched down in Ankara. Customs was easy as cake to get through, and one stamp later I was out in the real world, hopping on a shuttle bus arranged by the CLS folks to take me to my host family. I got my first view of Ankara as a city. It's situated in the middle of a pretty barren landscape, but it's beautiful, and the more downtown areas are humongous. It's very spread out, and very big. Some of the buildings are in cool colors. Obviously I took pictures of hotel notices, and then not this. I am skilled.

I met up with my host family in the neighborhood of Bahçeliver. My host parents are Özgür (my host mom) and Gürsel (my host dad), and they are both fantastic people. They have a host son who is studying mechanical engineering in Germany, and they are both into civil engineering/planning themselves. Besides treating me to some Turkish tea, they fed me, and then took me out on a walk around the neighborhood that I'm living in. Although their large apartment is slightly more isolated from the hustle and bustle of Ankara city life, a few blocks away is Yedici Cad., or 7^th street, which is one of the most hopping streets I think I've ever been on. It's filled with shops, people, and people on the street offering popular novels at a low price, roasted corn, or any variety of stuff. Best of all within the neighborhood, there's a waffle shop, and I knew I had to take a picture of it to show Nur hanım, my Turkish professor from Pittsburgh.

Mmmm... Waffleler

One of the interesting things about Turkey is traffic patterns. My shuttle ride over taught me that driving the wrong way down a one-way street sometimes works if you can get the opposing traffic to shift into reverse. There are no cross walks. Street signs can be disobeyed. My host family kept a close eye on me, but I unfortunately did not keep a close eye on my camera. 

Ouch.

As you can see, I accidentally lost it. It fell into the street, where it was, presumably, run over repeatedly. It is no longer functional. Gürsel, my host dad, offered me a camera to use for future endeavors, and he also taught me the Turkish word that is the title of this blogpost. It's a term for an accident, which more or less means, “it was an accident, it doesn't matter, at least you're still alright.” Perhaps not the title I thought I'd give to my first post from Turkey, but a fitting one nonetheless.

To make a long story short, I'm in a fantastic place with fantastic people, and stuff couldn't be better.

(Post delayed because I forgot the title word, of course.)

Coming up: The events of 09/06/2013 (using Turkish dates.) A picnic!