Now Ramazan is over, but in August and earlier September the call of prayer in the evening had great significance to me, as it signaled the time for which Muslims could eat. However, this also meant that over half of the country was all running home at the same time to eat--the end result being traffic jams with scattered accidents caused by the rushed, tired, hot, and delirious ramazan drivers. This was quite frightening, especially in Istanbul. I don't know how many accidents and almost accidents I saw, but let's just say it was worse than driving with a certain Russian friend of mine in rush-hour in LA. (For the record he IS a good driver)
My daily routine consists of waking up, eating a bowl of plain yogurt, drinking 5 cups of chay, and if I have time, going to the local store to purchase fresh bread or pida for less than the price of $1. I then walk to the Tunus bus stop, passing through the island in the middle of the road loitered with pigeons and covered with their excrement. The island is across from the bread shop--they throw out old bread and someone puts out water for the pigeons, but the end product is a chaotic clustering of angry hungry birds in the morning, and later a minefield of white. As I walk down the hill toward Tunus I walk cautiously at my feet, attempting not to die or break any teeth before my morning class. The roads in Turkey are ok, but the sidewalks, especially in Ankara, are truly horrible. They look as though each section was planned individually, as many pieces of the stone walk do not evenly meet other sections, resulting in many opportunities to trip and bleed. --If I am doing this sober, how do the drunk Erasmus students manage to walk home in Ankara?! -- As I walk down the hill my Korean roommate grabs some Poaja and my other roommate grabs her ayran. I want both, but I am trying not to eat two breakfasts every day, even though I probably could get away with it with the amount of walking up and down hills I do.
I then take a 20-40 minute bus ride to Bilkent, walk down the hill to my class, and the rest is self explanatory. I am taking Ceramics--new techniques and ancient, Economics of Monetary Union of the EU, Financial Economics, Turkish, and Political Science--cities local and global (urbanization policies and such). They are all fairly interesting--some more than others. Ceramics is really exciting because I get to make a mosaic, but I had to pay 180 Lira for the class, so I'm going to try and make 2 or 3 mosaics to get my money out of it. The professor is nothing like a professor I have ever had, but I guess he is an art teacher. The first time I met him he walked out carrying a handle of absolute vodka and walked into his office. I thought it was some kind of demonstration or for the shape of the bottle, but no--it's just how he starts his mornings. He talks to each of us one by one, as he drinks from his glass of peach absolute, and really enjoys the morning. He offered me some once, but I personally am not a big vodka fan, especially in the mornings, so I declined. I guess it is Turkey, but you can't really get away with that in another subject like say economics or math. ...I think. So far all my professors seem to be quite accommodating though, especially in terms of me taking my finals early to leave early. I have mixed feelings about leaving early--I did come to Turkey for Turkey, but concurrently I have to leave early either way in order to get back to UCD on time since we are on quarters. Furthermore, I would sort of hate to miss some opportunities to travel in the region since I am here. I have decided against a trip to Europe in November though---I feel like I need to see Turkey and regions of the Middle East more than Europe--I came to Turkey more for that than Europe after all.
Classes are interesting. My school, Bilkent, requires that all students take courses in English. Many students take 5 years to study because they need an additional year of English in the beginning. This seems a little crazy, but Turks do take many years of English in high school and elementary school, so all have some level of exposure, but most often it is more "book English"--ie reading and writing--than spoken and conversational skills. This poses a big problem. So even though my school has this policy that "YOU MUST ONLY USE ENGLISH" it is not really followed from what I've seen. All my professors tend to randomly start speaking or joking in Turkish, and all of them appear that they would have used Turkish if no exchange students had been present in the class. My political science teach mistook me for a Turk. Yeh! =D The students also don't have the best English for the most part--and they are really reluctant to use their English too.
People don't seem to believe I'm from America. I guess I don't "dress like an American," but apparently my accent isn't "American" either. I can kind of see this--I just don't know how it happened. Last night these guys were trying to guess where I was from, and they guessed basically every country but America. Amusing. I said I'm from California, and they didn't believe me. I asked my Korean roommate what it sounds like, and he replied "mixed. like a world traveler." I guess so--that's something Brian (my Brian) and I have in common I guess.
Then there's LUNCH--I eat most of my lunches in a small cafeteria called Marmara. It is such a cafeteria. The food isn't amazing, but it's decent, and it's really cheap for a large set meal. I really have no other choice with my schedule as well.
DINNER--I enjoy cooking this at home or eating at a local restaurant with my friends or roommates. It's so nice to have people to cook with. We eat rather eclectic meals, but it works for Turkey. It was a little hard to adjust to Turkish food--simply what's available in the grocery store is so different than the US. I'll talk more about that later though.
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