Tuesday, September 28th, 2004

8:00 am found me up and waiting to be picked up by Hakan. We drove to the second campus located on the outskirts of town, where the business, accounting, automotive, hotel and tourism management, furniture design (???) and other departments hold their classes. I think I preferred this campus slightly, as there is a more equal ratio of male to female students, perhaps close to 50/50. The first campus is where the more technical classes such as electrical engineering and whatnot are held, and almost all the students are male.

I had the pleasure of sitting in with Hakan’s first level English course. It was pretty good stuff; I was able to interact with the students in a non distracting way that seemed to compliment the class very well. The previous day they had learned to introduce themselves, to say their age, their likes and dislikes, where they live, and whatever else they could muster. They introduced themselves to me, and then I responded in turn and told them a bit about myself. I believe I said I was Simon, age 23, like reading and techno (ha) music and dislike getting up in the morning, have a family and whatnot, and so on. They asked me some questions (all in English, the class was 90% in English) about my life and opinions. After Hakan told them about my economics interests the discussion quickly shifted towards Iraq and the Bush administration. It was a very good talk; I managed to cover Bush, Fox News, World Bank/IMF, the UN and NATO, and a few other things. Hakan translated a bit, but I was surprised at how much the majority of students could understand. I think the students enjoyed it as much as I did.

After this I returned to the first campus to meet the “principal” or main guy in charge, Prof. Dr. Sabahattin Balci. He had been out of town until today… what a bear of a man! He was huge, and would be scary if not for the fact that he is incredibly nice. We had a good chat and sorted a lot of details out about my time here. I now know that their program for me includes spending approximately three weeks in Çankiri, then six more in Ankara, then perhaps to Istanbul and some other cities in that region, and then who knows? In Çankiri I will be mostly observing classrooms, visiting professors, and presenting a report on my education experience at Goshen College! In Ankara I will attend a language institute to learn some basics in Turkish, visit many government agencies in order to gather data on the Turkish economy, and see various development efforts and public works that are being undertaken at the moment. Balci has many connections to people in high places and seems to be using them! As far as Istanbul and the surrounding areas, I think the goal is for me to see historical sights and learn about the scope of the Ottoman Empire. All in all, it sounds amazing!

The Turks seem to be taking my time here very seriously. I think they see it as a great opportunity to strengthen ties between the US and Turkey. Although I really don’t see myself having any sort of affect on these things, symbolically it is quite nice. They have even given me the title of “Guest Intern Professor” and an ID card for my time here. It’s almost ridiculous… wait… yup, it is.

I also had tea with the Student Affairs people again, and ended up staying for an hour and a half. It was a blast, and I learned some more basic Turkish with Fatma. I think the others tease her about getting along so well with me. I pretend to be oblivious; romance is not in the picture for me. Things are challenging enough as it is… adding that on top of it would be disastrous.

Selo took me out for dinner tonight, which was tasty as always. I am living it up here… he says we will try every 5 star restaurant in Çankiri before I leave! The funny thing is I haven’t spent a single lira since I’ve been here. No one will let me pay for anything! I may very well come home with a whole $5 of interest built up in my crappy junior high savings account that I keep my money in. Woo hoo!

Ah, one other thing… I’m moving! No more odd, gigantic gun factory home for me… tomorrow I’m moving to a government subsidized housing facility close to downtown Çankiri that Balci set up for me. It should be a nice improvement. We visited today and it’s actually fairly nice. The room is better; I have a small balcony, a nice enclosed green backyard, and a bunch of hairy Turkish old men to play cards with. Awesome… I love hair. This will mean that I can walk downtown whenever I want to, and will be very close for people when they pick me up. Things are looking up and up it seems… I wonder how long before something horrible happens here to ruin it?!?!?! ;-)

Better not end on a bad note, so… yay Turkey!