"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.