Monday, September 27th, 2004

Today was my first day at school… although I did not really do much at all. I was told to be ready at 10 am, and at 9:30 I received a knock on the door while standing around in my undies! I quickly dressed, managed to tie my tie, and headed out the door to Çankiri Technical Institute (or something like that, I can never remember). We arrived and met with the vice principal, who was very friendly and decided that I should go with him to visit the minister of recreation in downtown Çankiri. This visit consisted of me sitting there drinking tons of çay while the minister, the v.p., and a few others guffawed loudly about various things unknown to me. Then they gave me a tour of the place. We saw an indoor swimming pool (empty of water), the outdoor track, soccer field and gymnasium.

By the time we returned to campus it was lunch time, so I ate in the cafeteria with some professors. It reminded me of the stereotypical cafeteria from grade school, except with some arches there and there and random meat pastries and baklava on the menu. In the afternoon I was shown to my office (I share with Selo) and made myself comfortable. We worked getting an internet connection for my laptop, which took a bit of time but eventually was successful. Halfway through the afternoon I noticed that Selo was just kind of sitting around. “Don’t you have classes to teach?” I asked him. He replied, “Yes, but I’m not going!” How extraordinary. He is a strange man at times, but a good friend. I can’t figure out if this is just the way things work, or if he is somewhat of a loose cannon. Other professors I have met seem to take their classes very seriously. I guess time will tell.

The school itself is rather plain, but the equipment they have is surprisingly modern. I have seen Pentium 4 computers with Windows XP, there are Ethernet internet connections in most rooms, and other stuff I can’t remember. Goshen was much more flashy and modern looking, but really, teaching functions are performed in roughly the same way.

I met some people my age today. Most of them were students who now work in the Student Affairs department, which is basically like Student Life at Goshen. One person in particular, a girl named Fatma, seems to be a good friend candidate. She has a fairly good grasp of conversational English (which is rare here for people my age, at least the ones I have met) and seems to enjoy teaching Turkish to me. She invited me for çay at the office, and everyone stopped what they were doing and just hung out. It was very fun… and of course a refreshing change from American busyness.

One of the English professors I met today was Hakan Baykal. He is a great guy and very easy to talk to. He invited to dinner at his apartment, so after the day ended at around 7 pm I went with him. Hakan has a wonderful family of four: himself, Hatîce (his wife), Nílŭfer (a daughter of about 8 or 9) and Zeyrep (another very cute daughter of perhaps 6 years). We had a marvelous dinner of some sort of yogurty garlic soup, dolmas made from both grape leaves and green peppers, and a dish made of beef, potato and various spices that a neighbor (also named Zeyrep!) brought over for us! I felt very appreciated; so many neighbors came over to say hello and to tell me how happy they are that I am here. I feel almost bad, because I’m not even doing anything here other than sitting around and smiling.

Zynep (the little one) was very hilarious. She was quite fascinated with me, so I was able to goof around with her and make her laugh, using such universal games as “chase the fingers across the table” and “make a stupid face”. Who needs language anyway?

After dinner we sat around drinking çay for many hours. The nice thing about Hakan is that he translates back and forth between his family and our conversation. Selo does not seem to enjoy doing this, as I find it hard to get him to explain what is happening for me. We ended up talking quite a bit about global economics and terrorism, the US in Iraq and other meaty topics. While I was ranting about some of my thoughts, Hakan said, “Do you know of Noam Chomsky?” I couldn’t believe it! Hakan has studied Noam’s linguistic work quite a bit, and has encountered his political writings as well. We both agreed that Noam is a genius and talked more about rather lefty political views. It was a very refreshing conversation and quite interesting to find a Turk who feels this way. Most seem to be quite right of center, and extol such organizations as the IMF (in part b/c the IMF money has helped Turkey combat inflation… a short-term positive) due to their desires to be western. I have been afraid to have these conversations with Selo because I don’t think he would be too interested in hearing about my ideas. Maybe I am wrong… I have only known him a few days. It is so hard to judge political views and I am very leery of sticking my foot in my mouth.

At the end of the evening Zeyrep the neighbor gave me a gift: a cassette tape of Turkish folk music from her area, which apparently is very unique as far as the folk music here is concerned. I decided not to tell her that I don’t have a tape player. It was a very thoughtful thing to do, and a good example of the hospitality here.

It was a wonderful evening and a good, more relaxed change from Selo’s house. I appreciate everything the people here do for me here; they really make me feel at home.