Managing Myself in Turkey

What a better time to write about all the good and bad things of my exchange period than on the bus leaving from town.  (And posting it a couple days later just because I forgot to do it earlier )

Good

Great friends. Coming to Turkey, I thought that I would spend a lot of time with the exchange students and some time with the locals, but in the end I ended up spending nearly all my time with the locals. In the beginning it was difficult to get to know the local students – later on I found out it was because of problems with English – but at the end I got a few really close friends who I’m really going to miss. Luckily some of them will spend next semester in Finland on their Erasmus period.

Free busses for students. On campus all busses are free which is a very good thing seeing as the campus is huge. Also the busses from Bilkent to the center of Ankara – about 12 km – are free of charge for the students. For this reason I’m used to just getting on the bus and finding a seat. I wonder what’ll happen when I go back home and start using the busses there.

Interesting courses. The courses at Bilkent really helped me get perspective to what I want to do in my future. Even though all the courses were general studies, they still gave more insight to the things and helped me make up my mind of what I’d like to do after I graduate.

Long-distance busses. In Finland our busses have toilets and they stop every 3-4 hours for a coffee break. And sometimes on the night bus you might get lucky and manage to get a pillow and blanket – provided by the driver, not the bus company. And there’s basically one operator that controls all the schedules and prices. We don’t need to reserve seats as the busses are never full. And even the tickets are valid for a month, not only in a specific bus.
In Turkey there’s about 50-100 bus companies ranging from small companies operating between 2 cities, to big companies that cover most of the country. And the prices with big companies are the same, and smaller companies are a little cheaper. The busses are usually sold out and they have female and male seats – so I would never have to sit next to a man, unless I’m travelling with one. All the busses have hosts/hostesses serving refreshments to the passengers. And the refreshments include everything from drinks to biscuits, sandwiches and ice cream. And usually they are served 2-3 times during the travel. Some of the luxury busses have toilets on them but most don’t – which is an interesting combo with all the tea and coffee you’re served. The busses stop every 3-6 hours and the breaks are 30 minutes long. The biggest bus companies even have their own gas stations where they stop for breaks. Once the bus had to make an extra stop at a non-corporation station (and older passenger was feeling ill) and the whole time he was in the bathroom, the bus driver was jumping in his seat, yelling let’s go already.

Weather. Before going to Ankara everybody told me that it’ll be freezing, there’ll be lots of snow and it’s dark – even worse than Finland. But in reality all the snow was gone by the end of February and now it’s nearly 30°C with the sun shining nearly every day.

Easy connections to everywhere. As Ankara is in the middle of the country, it’s easy to get just about everywhere from there. Busses leave from Ankara every 30 minutes and everywhere is within reasonable travel – even east of Turkey is “just” 20 hours away. Also trains connect to the biggest cities of Turkey.

Lots to see in Ankara (even if it is “just” the capital city) – but it’s still no Istanbul. Many travelers skip Ankara because they think that there’s nothing worth seeing, but it isn’t the truth. As Turkey’s capital and second largest city, it has many things to offer to people. As it’s surrounded by mountains from 3 directions, the view is really beautiful and many historical attractions offer a good way to spend a few days.

Bad

Language. Even though the university operates in English, nobody actually speaks it. Especially the staff. If they find out you speak some Turkish, they’ll start talking at a speed that all sport broadcasters master. And if you don’t understand something, they’ll just repeat it over and over, getting louder and louder until they are practically yelling at you.

“Yabanci, Anlamiyor.” “A foreigner, she/he doesn’t understand”, which is something I heard often in my first weeks in Ankara. And it’s not just with the language. If you do something weird – for example you pack your groceries in your backpack instead of a plastic bag (OMG) – be prepared to hear it.

Rich kids. OK, I lived in the worst possible building for this, but still. Some of the girls in my building simply don’t care about anything. – Accidentally press the alarm on the elevator? No worries, just use the other elevator or go down the stairs. The staff will turn it off (even if the elevator is now stuck on the fifth floor and they’ll have to run up the stairs to turn it off). What about if all washing machines are in use in the laundry room? Just pick one, empty it and put yours in. And of course, use the whole package of detergent to make sure your clothes are spotless (and the washing machine’s useless).

No sea. Basically the only thing missing from Ankara is the beach. On a warm day it would have been really nice to go to swim and relax on the beach. There is a lake that offers a water-environment, but it’s not enough to fill the need for swimming.

Kokoreç & İşkembe. The two Turkish foods I hate. Kokoreç is basically grilled intestines and İşkembe is a soup made of guts. If Turkey joins the European Union someday, Kokoreç will become illegal which is one of the reasons why so many Turks are against joining – it’s their favorite food. :/

Swinging both ways

Drivers. The Turkish drivers will give you a blood rushing thrill with their crazy way of driving and I’m still undecided on whether I love it or dislike it – but I don’t hate it. On my first morning in Ankara the taxi driver was speeding at a speed of 140 km/h through speed bumps while I was jumping up and down on the backseat banging my head on the roof and wondering if I’ll ever see the campus. And while writing this, the bus driver is speeding down curvy mountain roads at a speed that would leave race drivers second. And I’m trying very hard not to spill my nearly boiling tea on my laptop.

Now these were just a few things to mention and only my opinions. There’s definitely more to say about Turkey but I’d like it if people would make their own conclusions about the country, not just listen to others.

This is it. My Erasmus period has come to an end. My bags are nearly packed and tonight I’m leaving from Ankara. Time here has passed really quickly and I would love to stay longer – if my loved ones would be here with me. I’ve always felt at home in Turkey but during these months that feeling has increased. I feel closer to the Turkish culture, understand their customs better than ours and feel nearly a nationalist rush hit me when someone criticizes Turkey – even when the other person is Turkish. Even though the country has many bad sides (What country doesn’t?), the warm-heartedness and kindness of the people makes up for a lot. There’s a saying that once you become friends with a Turk, you stay friends for a lifetime. I really hope it turns out to be true.

When's the best time to go to market?!? During a storm! (And I wish my camera was this good, it's a friend's pic)

Even though my time at Bilkent comes to end, I’m not returning to Finland yet. I still have nearly a month left for travelling, relaxing, tanning and visiting old friends. Feels like I haven’t done anything or visited any of the places that I wanted but maybe three weeks of sitting on busses and staying in hostels will make me feel better about it. And luckily I can always come back again – unless all the volcanoes in Europe decide to erupt one after another.  I really hope the volcanoes in Iceland stay calm for a while (experts are saying that Hekla will be erupting soon) because I really don’t feel like travelling back home by train – it takes 4 days.

But tonight I’ll get on a bus and head to Fethiye in south-west Turkey. The bus ride there will be a nice, relaxing 9.5 hours which is why I’ll be travelling at night. Tomorrow morning I’ll hopefully find Uncle-Ömer – the owner of the hostel I’ll be staying in – waiting for me at the bus station. My plan for the next weeks is to travel trough the Lycian region of Turkey: Fethiye –Patara – Kalkan – Kaş – Antalya – Alanya. This area is known for the beautiful landscapes and turquoise waters as well as many ancient cities. I’m also hoping to be able to visit the Butterfly Valley in Fethiye.

 And now I’ve found out that I’m coming back to Turkey in August for at least 9 days. A friend of mine told me about a youth project taking place in Alanya in the beginning of August, and after a while of thinking, I decided to apply to it. A couple days later I got an email from the organizer telling me that I’d been chosen to the project. And to make things even better, my friend Mirka (from the language course) will be joining me there. It’ll be perfect to show her the city that I (still) love the most – even though it’s really become a mass-tourism place.

The semester in Bilkent has really been an interesting experience. In my next piece I’ll write about the pros and cons of my time here, and things I’ll miss vs. things I definitely won’t miss.

The semester is really coming to end. Last week we were asked to give evaluations for our courses and teachers. They seem to take the evaluations really seriously here at Bilkent. The instructors aren’t allowed to be in the classroom when the evaluation forms are filled and the teachers will never see the actual forms, they get the results (averages of grading and summaries of written comments) after they’ve been typewritten by assistants, grades have been posted to students and semester has finished. So in other words, this was the first time I could actually write how I felt about the courses without having the nagging thought at the back of my head saying “what if he/she compares the handwriting of the evaluation on the exam papers”. Unfortunately, we didn’t fill the evaluation of the course I’d have most to comment about. Well, here’s to hoping we’ll do it this week.

The humiliation part of this spring was included in one of my courses. It’s traditional at Bilkent that all foreign students who study Turkish have to make a show for the rest of the students. In Turkish of course. My Turkish course decided to make a modern version of Snow white and the seven dwarfs. In two weeks we crammed together a play and had our first practice one day before the actual Showtime. Which obviously wasn’t enough. But luckily I was the storyteller of the play so I didn’t need to make a fool of myself like the others did. But unfortunately I had to use a microphone. Now those of you that know me, also know my poor experiences with microphones – lets just say it’s a hate-hate relationship. So needless to say, I wasn’t happy when the teacher told me I’d have to use a mic. But now that the play is done and the humiliation has passed, I can honestly say I wasn’t the one that F-ed things up in the play. This time it was someone else.

After the play it was time to relax as last weekend was Mayfest at Bilkent. Mayfest is the biggest event of the year on campus which includes concerts, shows, fairground rides and naturally drunken students – even though alcohol is strictly forbidden on campus. But as everyone who’s once been young knows, just because something is forbidden doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Unfortunately some people seemed to run out of drinks or just needed more excitement to their lives as they decided to go through some bags. As a result, some of my friends lost their drinks and I lost my keys, earrings and a T-shirt. So now every time I want to get into my room I have to explain to the staff of my building why I don’t have my keys with me – because for some weird reason they can’t tell each other that my keys have been stolen and I haven’t received replacement keys yet. But at least I’ve learned the Turkish phrase for “My keys were stolen from my bag on Friday and I need someone to open the door for me as I don’t have new keys yet” by heart. I guess it’s true that repetition is the key of learning.

But the weekend wasn’t all bad as I learned who my true friends here are and who I shouldn’t trust. Also the summer as definitely arrived to Ankara. The whole campus has turned green and for the past week the sun has been shining like there’s no tomorrow. All grass areas of the campus are full of students playing games, having picnics or just cuddling with their sweethearts. Feels like time has stopped on campus. While writing this I’m lying on the grass watching the sunset while listening to the sounds of Bilkent – birds, grasshoppers, laughter, distant cars and airplanes and finally a lonely tuba. Maybe I should have chosen another location for my nature dosage, not the grass area next to Bilkent’s concert hall.

Turkish culture day on campus

The last month of studies in Ankara has started. Or actually there’s only 2 weeks of courses left and final exam weeks after that. With some of my courses I’m starting to wonder what the final exams will be like. E.g. one of my teachers just told us that the material we’ve studied after the mid-term won’t be included in the final. So the material for the final will be exactly the same as mid-term materials. OK. So why have we studied those things if we aren’t expected to know them? :/

Another teacher of mine has really turned out to be Anti-Turkish. She is really strict with the local students (correcting their pronunciation, commenting on their presentations and sometimes even laughing to their faces) but we foreigners can do just about anything in her class. One day I lost my voice just before her class and of course couldn’t answer her question in class because of it. After the break she showed up to class with two cups of tea, one for me and one for her. She also told me to contact her anytime if I ever need anything. As a reference, the Turkish students aren’t allowed to talk to her about anything that isn’t related to the course.

Last Friday was a national children’s holiday (Çocuk bayramı) which meant that all schools and universities were closed for one extra day. In Turkey a national holiday means that just about everybody travels to see their families or, like students, travel to the coast to relax a little more. And this of course meant that all busses were sold out days in advance. Normally we can just go to the main bus station without a ticket and get on the way within 2 hours. Last week all busses were reserved full on Monday. Luckily I managed to get a ticket to sunshine (also known as Antalya) even though my original ticket was sold to someone else 22 minutes after I’d bought it… A weekend relaxing on the beach was just what I needed to get enough energy to focus on the last few weeks of studying. Also Ankara is now in full summer-mode but it’s still a lot colder up here than on the coast. And here’s no beach which is the biggest minus for Ankara.

Even though my time at Bilkent is nearly over, the good news is that my time in Turkey won’t end at the same time as my studies do. I booked my flights for mid-June so I’ll have a nice 3 week holiday in Turkey before returning to Finland which is a good thing because I feel like I haven’t had time to do anything even though I’ve been travelling around Turkey and even getting to know Ankara but there are still too many places I want to visit. I wonder if it would be possible to clear out next semester and stay in Turkey travelling around?!