Sefer

Today was a much longer trip for the exchange students (it being a Saturday, the study abroad office decided to take all day). So, I will start from the beginning.


Right in the middle of the city are the remains of an Ancient Roman bath. Even though it is surrounded by modern buildings you can find ancient tombs, the remains of the bath heating mechanisms as well as the decorative accents of the exterior.


We looked at the Column of Julian, which had a large bird's nest on its top, and then walked across the street to the Temple of Augustus and Rome. To the right of the Temple, you can see Mosque of Haci Bayram. Back to the Temple- it was eventually converted to a church, and then was used as a Muslim storage room as evdenced by the Arabic Gravestone below:
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We hopped back into the ODTU buses, and stopped at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. Our crazy guide says it was originally an indoor bazaar. When it was destroyed by an earthquake, Ataturk decided to have it rebuilt and used as a museum. The Anatolian peninsula has some of the first signs of human life, and so it has a great deal of history to cover.




The outer edges of the museum (top) houses the earliest remains. The center of the museum has a 6-domed roof, which makes for very nice acoustics, as well as the home of the Hittite collection (bottom). In the basement there are Eastern Roman artifacts.


It was time for lunch, so we all had pide at the Citadel Restaurant. This building was once a home within the castle walls and now it's a touristy restaurant within the walls. On our way to our table, we passed a stone oven being used by two village women to cook bread. The top floor, where we ate, had amazing views of the city:


After lunch, we went on to the castle. We had to step aside as a small (but noisy) circumsion car procession passed by. When young Turkish boys get circumsized, they wear a special white outfit, and travel in a honking car procession that I could hear still, even from the castle.


The Castle is located in a section of Ankara where the women and children still live traditional village lives. We could see peppers drying on wires, and children approached us, trying to sell us hand made bracelets.

The gece kondu (gej-EH KON-du), built by the families themselves. You see them deteriorating all over the city.


A scenic view from atop the castle


The White Mosque in the Center of the building is the Kisilay section where the students frequent


On our way back to the buses, we had to stop. An overloaded truck was stuck in the narrow road.


A rug shop within the Citadel

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A view from inside the bus

Instead of going back to campus, some of us decided to go to METU's lake. METU has a very large campus and its lake, which is connected to the campus, is 25 km away from the center of campus. It is hard to get transportation there, but our bus driver volunteered.
We walked around some, and took some photos.


As you can see, it was very nice- except for whole place smelling faintly of rotting fish. Once we got used to it, the smell didn't bother us, and we were able to eat some ice cream. They have unflavored ice cream which tastes kind of like frozen milk...

Kağıt

I'm told that Turkish society will never be able to absorb me: my paper's the wrong size and I listen to dirty hip hop.

Telefon

After our first Turkish lesson (and lunch), most of the students had to leave to get chest X-rays. It seems, if you are going to live in the public dorms, they need a chest X-ray to make sure you don't have Tuberculosis. The private dorms (like mine) do not have such an issue. Either way, it gave me a free day and I went with a host student to buy a cell phone. We searched the cell phone shops of Kisilay, then a bazaar, and eventually a mall where we were successful.

It's not much, but it cost 45 YTL which is about...33 USD. Now, I need a SIM card for it to work, but for the time being it makes a great paper weight.

Anıtkabir

The study abroad office took the exchange students on a trip today. We went to see Anitkabir, Ataturk's tomb. The mausoleum functions as the resting place of Ataturk, as well as his friend, the second president of Turkey, and a museum dedicated to telling the story of Ataturk. They had several jewelled gifts from foreign countries, as well as many of Ataturk's personal possessions (fitness equipment, clothing, his favorite dog (stuffed), tea sets, etc) all on display. Another portion of the museum was dedicated to the revolution- its largest battles and its generals. That was followed by photographs and rooms dedicated to Ataturk's actions after the War of Independence was won.

We also saw the first parliament building, but it was really tiny.

Otobüs

During foreign student orientation today, we were told that when we ride the bus it is best to sit in the middle on the right side, since "the back and front are in the most danger." The Turkish people drive insanely and buses and taxis don't have seat belts. Even on our way from the airport, our taxi driver passed cars by driving between them, centered over the white road line. Another group of exchange students were returning from the airport when their bus got into an accident. It's apparently very common, so common that they put bloodtype's on the driver's license.

Pub

Today was the first day of orientation classes. The exchange students celebrated by...going to a pub near the embassies. Nothing like feeling nauseous without any alcohol in your system. Traveler's sickness, blah.

Hava

I've said on multiple occasions how nice the weather is, but I'm told it's not going to last long. Now that it's September Ankara should start cooling down and the rain season should begin. Didem, my host student, says it starts snowing in Ankara around late November. It seems I should get my gorgeous photos of Turkey now, before it becomes polluted with gray skies.

[Edit] Now, on the third day of September, we have rain and a sweatshirt is nice to have.

Zafer Bayramı

Today is Turkey's 'Victory Day'- their independence day celebrating Ataturk's victory over the Greeks. There are gigantic Turkish flags hanging from nearly every building, along with several humongous images of Ataturk everywhere. I was eating breakfast with my friend from Denmark outside, and we were able to see several military planes in formation fly overhead. The TV showed the parade with lots of armored tanks and other military weapons.

That afternoon, we went to the Kizilay section of Ankara, where students hang out, and walked around. It was a holiday so there were some extra stalls selling other items (besides the usual flowers). Besides that, most of the excitement had settled down (including the heat). We had lunch inside a cafe, where we managed to break a hooka (there is another word for it in Turkish). Afterwards, Sener lead us to a cafe where we could drink. He says that "All the study abroad students, they say this is what they want. So, we take them somewhere so they can drink."

Uyku

So, I lied about that sleep thing. METU said they would provide linens; I have a pillow and a heavy blanket. The heavy blanket isn't helping the heat problem. I opened a window (the weather is gorgeous), but that apparently let in a mosquito which bit me in 6 different places. Scratch that, 3 mosquitos.

I got my venegeance. I killed him (and one of his brothers).

So now I'm up at 4 am (9 pm Philly time) sleepy, hot, and itchy. So, I write blog posts for a time when I have internet access.

[Edit] I was eventually able to ask the front desk for linens, but I didn't know all the words in Turkish, so I made this:

The paper says, "My room/Room 2008 (Floor 5) #1 There is no sheet. #2 There is no pillowcase. #3 There is no duvet cover. Thank you!"

Fındıklar (Hazelnuts)

It started on the plane. Instead of a package of salted peanuts I received a package of Turkish hazelnuts, its packaging claiming all sorts of health benefits in rough English. And then there were the ads between movies, touting that "Turkish Hazelnuts add value." Even dinner came with a candied hazelnut.

I'm not sure how to interpret this, as I haven't seen much hazelnut fanatacism since I left Istanbul. Either Turkish Airlines owns some hazelnut farms, or it is a really popular product in İstanbul. Maybe a bit of both.

[Edit] I have since seen dried hazelnuts served as a snack in Ankara bars, instead of popcorn.

Geliş (Arrival)

The stars were against me on the 28th. We hit horrible traffic in 3 or 4 different places on the way to JFK airport. If my plane hadn't been delayed, I might not have made it. But then again, had my plane not been delayed I would've been able to make my second flight from Istanbul-Ankara. No harm done, though, I just managed to confuse the International Students Department here (they rightly assumed I'd be on the next flight in).

Besides that, all went pretty smoothly. There was someone there to pick me up, along with another American from California. I met two other students from Denmark and we all went out to eat. My eating schedule has been terribly thrown off by the jet lag.

The water bottles I brought saved me a lot of trouble. I tend to get nauseous on planes when I'm riding by myself (an apparent side effect of exhaustion and anxiety), but water bottles and sleeping through it helped a lot. So, I bought myself 5 more liters of bottled water, so it can help in the future, too.

The airport at Ankara (ESB) is so tiny. I think it has two belts for luggage pickup. To get to METU from the airport, you need to catch a Havas bus to the ASTI bus depot, then you take a taxi to METU/ODTU.

Anyways, time for sleep (10pm here, 3pm at home).

P.S. I nearly forgot! The guy I was sitting next to on the plane from Istanbul-Ankara started talking to me. I think non-native speakers of English enjoy practicing with someone who's fluent- it's a shame I use so much Philly slang. Even my METU host has consistent problems with my usage of the verb 'to get'. He's a 'Physics Engineer' and left me his phone number in case Ankara got too boring. What that means, I'm not sure, but I think I'll stay away from it.