Şarkıcıler

I had promised a friend that I'd join him drinking at the Baraka (Social Club building) with friends "for chat", so I ended up skipping out on a trip to Kisilay.

Even though this is a dry campus, the students seem to drink anyways (rarely do the Jandarma do anything). Efes, Turkish for Ephesus, is the Turkish beer of choice for the foreigners, but I hear wine is the choice of the Turkish students- and the location of choice for this activity is Devrim Stadium ("It's a tradition").

The Devrim Stadium bleachers are completely dark with a view looking over the lights of Ankara in the hills. Other groups of METU students sing traditional militia songs or Ottoman marchings songs as they drink. It's sort of eery.

That night, one of the stray dogs had gotten into the stands, and an exchange student from Denmark started yelling at it: "Kopek...Jandarma!" Our Turkish hosts started laughing. Calling the army force "dog" wouldn't be looked upon too well.