Americans in Turkey

Jess, Christa, & me reunited in Istanbul:)

If the delay in a post wasn’t enough of a hint, I should tell you that I’ve been going non-stop for the past few weeks with very little time to think about anything other than school, visitors, & my professional future! I’ve been SO very lucky to have 4 friends from the US come to visit over the last month and a half, to have a great start to the 2nd semester, & several job opportunities open up. I’ll try to make this a quick summary of some of the adventures that have come my way recently =)

My A class & guests:)

In February, classes started again, and I was very happy to see my students again after almost a month of vacation. While the classes were pretty normal, I made a few changes to how I was teaching & what I would be expecting from my students. One of the things I decided to do was start a blog for my B class, where I would be posting selected written assignments I started giving at the end of each unit we covered. Even though it’s just a small thing that I really just wanted to use as motivation for my students to actually do the homework & to encourage them to tap into their creative juices, it’s something I would love to share with all of you because the assignments really give some insight into the cultural values & English abilities of my students. (The link is http://www.duzceb11.wordpress.com Please feel free to comment on the posts because it’s a huge encouragement to my students to see & realize there are native speakers who are checking out the blog too:)

The Cell Phone Jail.....

My A class isn’t doing a blog, only because the department is putting a lot of pressure on us to move faster through the curriculum (which is a terrible idea in my opinion because the material’s already over their heads, & going faster through the book isn’t going to help them retain anything more!), and it means that there definitely isn’t time for extra assignments or projects on top of that. Even though it’s a challenge to be constantly rushing through the curriculum, I’m still enjoying my A class so much. They’re just such fun students! One thing I recently learned in that class though is that I have a new nickname from them… I’ve gone from being ‘Catherine Teacher…the American’ to being ‘Catherine the Merciless’! After my crackdown at the end of last semester, which I’ve continued to enforce in the new semester, I now have a reputation for not tolerating tardiness or cell phones. And unlike many of the other teachers, I give more than just a verbal warning (locking late students out, & throwing cell phones into the cell phone jail), which has earned me my new title. I love it! And even though it might sound terrible, my students actually use it with quite a bit of affection;)

Christa, Jess & me in front of the Blue Mosque

So while classes have been going well, probably the most exciting part of the semester for both my students and me have been all of the American visitors who have crashed my classes! At the end of February, Christa & Jessica, two of my wonderful friends from college, came to visit, starting with a weekend in Istanbul together, followed by a day and a half in Duzce, & then us parting ways as they went to Cappadoccia while I stayed behind to teach in the Duz. It was such a treat to have them come to both my A & B classes, and especially to integrate them into my lessons. It was also a pleasant surprise to see that 23 out of 25 students in my A class actually showed up for class the day they came (lately it’s been more like 10-18 students who actually come) which was definitely more than a coincidence! Even though Christa & Jess were only there for one day of classes, it was so great to share my little part of the world with them over things like my daily 5-6 cups of çay, and playing ‘okey’ & backgammon in the café with my students:)

Even if the Fulbright experience hasnt been all positive, at least the friendships weve formed have been awesome!

After Christa & Jess left, I only had a day before our big Fulbright mid-year meeting in Ankara. All of us Fulbrighters were almost shocked that they wanted to get all of us together to tell about how our year was going. (Ali & I have honestly had relatively few problems compared with many of our friends, considering that we have good housing- the heat not working aside- and the fact that our university really wants us there.) During our meeting we were asked to share our experiences & any recommendations we had to improve the program…and they DEFINITELY received an earful of recommendations! Mostly people were saying ‘send Fulbrighters to this university next year’ or ‘don’t even think about it’! We were all also very honest about issues like making sure they had a plan to pay us before we arrived, the fact that we really need Turkish lessons to be provided since most of us are the only Americans in our entire city, and giving a realistic description of the program on the Fulbright website (which they DID recently update, fyi) since the program most of us applied for was NOT the program we actually found ourselves in. Overall, it was good to be able to voice our opinions & feel like we were heard (although YÖK seemed to be the root of most of the problems, and is it surprising that there wasn’t a single representative from YÖK present at the meeting? Not really.) It also helped that they were trying to butter us up by holding the meeting in the Hilton, with the best water pressure, beds, hot tub, breakfast, & nightlife that many of us have experienced since arriving in Turkey.

Go Beşiktaş!!!

The NEXT weekend was also packed full, this time with my friends Haim & Eric coming to visit! (I met Haim & Eric in a bus station in Peru 7 years ago when Eric’s camera had been stolen on a bus, & they needed a translator to help them file a claim with the police. That day they dubbed me their ‘Translator in Shining Armor’ & we’ve remained friends ever since!) Anyways, I met up with the two of them in Istanbul, where we spent a few days together before heading back to Düzce for my week of classes. I would have to say the highlight of our time in Istanbul was definitely the opportunity to go to my first ever Beşiktaş game! We had an amazing time pre-gaming & getting our Beşiktaş gear with a handful of current & former Fulbrighter friends, & then got to experience the football craze that’s so awesome in this country:)

Eric playing spin-the-bottle with my students....in a completely educational way!

Once we got back to Duzce, Eric & Haim were special guests in my classes, & all of my students LOVED getting to know them. It warmed my heart to see my students, like Ahmet, having in depth conversations with Haim about airplanes (involving diagrams of engines drawn on the board), and being able to have ‘manly’ conversations with both of them about topics I really have no knowledge (or interest) in! My initial plan had been to send Eric & Haim on a couple of day-trips away from Düzce since I figured they’d get bored with classes & my ordinary life…but then it snowed in the Düz. And this was the most intense snow we’ve had in Düzce since I’ve been here! My students were kind enough to inform me that they wouldn’t be coming to class that Thursday because of the snow, so we had a self-declared snowday:) It snowed without stopping for over 24 hours, resulting in several feet of the most perfect snowman building snow that has ever existed. And so, a snowman we did build! And not just any snowman, but the PERFECT snowman, depicting the PERFECT man (as anyone who spends any time in Turkey quickly learns): Atatürk! It truly was perfection, from his bright blue eyes to the typical Turkish man-stance…;)

Haim & I with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk! (He lives!)

Anyways, other highlights from their time in Düzce were the dinner we enjoyed on the Black Sea (fresh hamsi/anchioves, calamari, & shrimp), as well as a trip to Burger King with my students during the ‘blizzard’, and a glorious snowball war. I’m sure there would have been more if we’d had more time in the Düz, but when Friday rolled around, we packed up and headed to Cappadoccia for the weekend!

Adam, Abdulaziz & me

There were soooo many things that made Cappadoccia incredible…starting with my fellow Fulbrighter friends, Adam & Abdulaziz:) They were kind enough to let us crash in their apartment, make a mess of their kitchen every day, use their students as tour guides, and just have a phenomenal time while we were together. Our first day there, we met up with 3 of their students who were studying tourism & who jumped at the opportunity to practice giving a tour in English to a group of Americans. We saw the amazing cave churches & fairy chimneys that were places where people actually LIVED during the 11th & 12th centuries.

Tour guides, teachers, & tourists all together!

We even enjoyed the local mealtime specialty together: testi kebap! I wasn’t really sure what to expect…but Turkish testis are quite a memorable experience! When they brought our food out, we all admired the testis before the server came around to break each testi open in front of us. We then dumped the contents out over some rice, & enjoyed the flavor of this delicious meal. And in case you didn’t realize, a testi is a special kind of clay pot the food is prepared in, not to be confused with its common English homonym, which is something entirely different!

Eric riding along the river

Our second day involved some wine-tasting at one of the famous Cappadoccian wineries, followed by horseback riding with a new friend we made on the bus from Ankara to Nevşehir. On the bus I was sitting next to this girl named Dilek, and after talking with her for a little while I learned that she was a lecturer at a university for aviation students in Mustafapaşa (one of the many small towns that make up the region of Cappadoccia). Her English was wonderful, and she was extremely friendly, especially when she found out that Haim & Eric were both pilots:) She ended up inviting us to go horseback riding with her if we had the chance, which we were able to do that second day of our visit. I, for one, really enjoyed the horseback riding…especially since it had been years since I’d been on a horse! (That’s a sad fact coming from a girl who grew up on a farm & used to ride horses every day when I was younger!) Of course it all came right back to me, & I was happy to hear Hasan Bay (our guide) pointing out in Turkish that I was the best rider in our group, & ‘a natural’…lol…I should HOPE so! After riding along the river & admiring the mountains from atop our horses, we headed back to the stables, & Dilek took us to her university for a quick tour.

Me & Dilek

I was blown away by how gorgeous the buildings were! Mustafaşa is known for its Greek architecture, which was evident as we walked through buildings with multiple levels and open courtyards in the center, but all built out of sandstone & marble. She told me if I needed a job for next year, I should apply to her university because they would LOVE to have a native speaker like myself working there. After our tour, we drank some Turkish coffee together before enjoying an amazing dinner. Yet another wonderful day! The next day was bittersweet as I had to say goodbye to my friends and head back to Düzce. I’d hoped to attend one of Adam’s classes before leaving, but with the bus times, I had to leave Nevşehir by 8am. I parted ways with Haim & Eric as they headed further South in Turkey, and returned to my ordinary, old lady life in the Düz.

Of course there’s so much more that’s happened since then, but I’m going to end this post here, & hope the next update takes less than 2 months to write!

~ by Wish you were here... on March 26, 2011.