Wednesday, September 29th, 2004

Day three of school. I’m getting used to the randomness of these days and am enjoying being the pseudo-celebrity that I am. Today a girl came up to me while I was with Bekir Gülbidi, the head of the Computer Information Department, and had him ask if I enjoyed archery. I replied that I had done a bit in high school gym class. She replied that she ranked second in some Europe-wide archery contest. What do you say to something like that?!?!? I guess I’ll have to be careful around that one, even at a distance!

Selo was out for the morning, so I goofed around the office and finally got the blog to work. I ended up switching Ethernet cables with Selo’s computer… it seems that mine just sucks. He can hardly check his email on his own anyway so it shouldn’t have any great negative effect on him. So all is posted, all is well… at least on that front.

I had just made that work when I received a call from Hakan, “How would you like to visit the Çankiri Forestry University?” Sure, why not. So I ran outside, hopped in his car and headed to yet another school in town. This one is also run by Ankara University, but is a four-year institution. We met with the dean (called this, but functions as president), drank çay and small-talked. I found out that he is a German Turk. I had read about this but forgot about it. I think in 1961 a large population of impoverished Turks, maybe 2 mil, immigrated to Germany to find work and send remittance money home to help their families. The Turkish government encouraged this as it gave a much needed boost to the Turkish economy. This created a strange group of people that were somewhat out of place in both cultures, German and Turkish. I don’t know too much about it, except that some have come back to Turkey and found it very hard to assimilate into the way of life. Well, it seems that the dean has managed to do so.

The forestry school produces students that primarily work in the public sector, as there is only marginal demand for such skills in private industries. Most are involved in conservation efforts. Around 20% of Turkey is covered with forests, and with a busy paper industry that produces all the paper the country needs, it is crucial for them to maintain their already dwindling levels. According to the dean, the Turkish government is very concerned about sustainability issues and does a good job of maintaining their natural resources. Other students may work at combating invasive species of plants and animals, and apparently always with environmentally friendly methods. I was surprised to hear this, and think it is a commendable effort given the others things the gov. could be spending their money on.

I also made a new friend, Sezgin Ôzden. He is a research assistant for the school who is working on his doctorate. We had a good conversation in English. He explained his research on migratory forest-dwelling people in Turkey who are primarily herders. He has been chronicling their increasing income troubles as Turkey has become more modern, and is working on developing ways for them to find more prosperity without sacrificing their traditional way of life. Interesting stuff. Asked if I would review his papers in English and make grammatical corrections. I agreed and was taken out for a wonderful lunch to show his gratitude. Not bad; tasty payment for minimal work. And a nice new friend too! We did some decent Bush-bashing and Michael Moore discussing with Hakan over the meal too.

Backing up before the lunch, I spent a few hours in Hakan’s English class at the forestry school. A ripping good time for sure. The class was very advanced; most could carry conversations with me. They asked good questions, I did my lines about myself, political views, etc. I was hit with some good questions, both serious and funny. I also received quite a few smiles from an absolutely gorgeous girl across the aisle. Talk about distracting… Hakan told me later that she kept asking him questions about me during break… oh, these temptations are ones I do not need here! I guess we are arranging a lunch for next Wednesday… the class, not just the girl! It should be a good time; they were by far the most excited and enjoyable class I have participated in… probably because we could actually communicate.

In the evening I visited Bakir’s database management class and got to see what they get up to. It was very similar to what I experienced at Goshen, except earlier versions of Oracle and NT instead of Windows 2000. But very in depth and good. I was surprised at the quality of the teaching… not sure why really. It was entertaining to listen to the lecture, which went something like “blah blah blah blah blah SELECT blah blah blah INSERT blah blah blah blah client-server blah blah.” This is probably funny to approx. three of you, but I thought it was noteworthy.

Today is Berat (sp?), the Muslim day of forgiveness. Everyone goes to the mosque and prays to Allah in order to be spiritually cleansed. Oh, some just watch it on tv instead of mosqueing it up. I found that to be very entertaining. I also found out that Ramadan will be happening in October, so I’ll get to take part in it. It will I guess consist of no eating, drinking or fornicating during daylight hours, followed by lots of eating, drinking and fornicating during the night. Sounds like my kind of religious experience! Perhaps I’ll have to get to know that girl after all!!!! Yar har, kidding of course mom and dad! I actually don’t mean to be disrespectful to Islam here, so please don’t take it as such.

Ah, the last thing. I’m now in a new apartment. Which is just a bedroom and bathroom but is infinitely better than what I had before. I’ve got clean carpet, a balcony, and a very nice bathroom WITH A TOILET THAT MAKES SENSE TO ME! Actually, it freaked me out a bit the first time I used it. There’s a lever on the top of the tank that you use to flush. Right side down for the flushing; left side down for an end to the flushing. After my first flush I got nervous when it continued to make odd noises after the water had stopped flowing. After a nail-biting minute (post-hand washing of course) it dawned on me that the bowl was filling. So crisis averted.

And on to my next problem: I did a hasty packing job this morning, so I opened my suitcase tonight and found a pile of very wrinkly shirts and pants. Basically everything. I managed to smooth some of them out but ended up putting the worst ones on, shutting myself in the bathroom, and creating a steam room by leaving the shower running on hot until it ran out. After prancing around trying to shake and smooth the #@*$#@# shirts out, I managed to achieve a partial success. They have now backed off from the “incredibly wrinkled” state and moved to the “somewhat wrinkled” state. Perhaps a purchase of an iron and some hangers is in order.

Other than that, the new digs are swell. I now hear the call to prayer from about six different mosques, which creates a glorious stuttered phasing effect that I’d record if it would do any justice. Have to live on in my mind after I leave I guess.