Friday, October 1st, 2004

Ahhh, a very nice day indeed. Started at the second campus, sat in with Hakan’s English class that I had taken part in before. More good stuff; the students are used to me and we have fun. Hakan is very happy and says my presence helps, which feels quite nice. A funny story though: Hakan played a nasty trick on me during the morning break. He’s standing by the window, puffing on a ciggy, and suddenly says, “Hey, you know I met a student from Indiana once. It was a few years ago… I think his name was Chris… yes, Chris Westerbeek.” I was shocked. You’re joking, right? Chris went to Goshen in my year! “No, I’m serious. I met him in London. He was visiting someone.” I was amazed. Small world after all and all that. Started gushing about Chris. Oh yeah, classes together, really funny & smart guy. He could be an investment banker some day; I’d let him manage my money. Can’t believe you know him! And on and on. As I was about to burst from delirium and wonder, Hakan breaks it. “Just kidding,” he says. “I looked you up on Google and found a picture of you two.” And with that he busts up into hearty laughter. I was had. Completely and utterly.

I’m now plotting on a way to get him back. I don’t know how, don’t know when, but it’ll happen! If you have ideas please let me know.

Over lunch Selo, Hakan and I went out for lunch to an out of the way, dark and dingy restaurant in the old section of Çankiri. This place is the only spot in town where you can get a special dish (blanking on the name). Consisted of beef stewed in a light sauce with nice little onions and cloves of garlic. Mouth-watering, melt on your tongue type of tastiness. I need to learn to cook these things. Had a good talk with Selo and Hakan. I’ve been receiving many invitations to hang out with students. A high percentage are female. Hakan is all for it but Selo has reservations. He was worried that these girls are going to get me into some sort of “awkward occasion” that might be bad news. We talked it through though. I think it was good to let them know my intentions (honorable) and see that I’m willing to discuss things in order to come to an understanding. So I feel like progress was made. And now I have his blessing to hang out with girls. Mwa ha ha.

After lunch I went and bought myself a mobile! It’s a very basic old school thing that I got for about $50. You buy a counter card (it’s not exactly minutes, no one seems to be able to explain it to me) and enter in the code, and you gain talk time and message credits. When it runs out, you just buy another card. The biggest one available costs $15. Considering the un-staggering amount of talking I have to do on the thing, I’ll probably manage for a month or so on one card. And when I leave, they’ll buy back the phone! Swell. You can call me if you want, as it doesn’t cost for me to receive calls. The number is 0566-256-8795. I don’t know the country code. So ya… I’m 8 hours ahead. If you wake me up at night I’ll end you!

And finally, I went with Hakan and Selo to a mosque. Friday is the holy day, and everyone who can goes to the mosque over lunch. It was pretty amazing really. In the courtyard of this thing, with minarets towering over you, feet, hands and face are washed. You drop your shoes at the entrance and head inside. Everyone sits cross legged or on their knees and listens to the prayers. The imam doesn’t speak them, he sings them, and they are absolutely beautiful. I had goose bumps. After the sermon everyone gets up and stands together. The imam begins to pray, and a number of actions are performed. First a lifting of hands to the face. Then standing, bending to touch the knees, standing, then prostrating on the ground with forehead on the floor. Up. Then down. Up. Then stand. Then repeat. The worshipers responded at various times. I didn’t know the scoop but followed along and did my own little prayers. After the kneeling is finished, the whole group looks left, then right, then is finished. Most people leave, but some stay to repeat it up to maybe ten times? I can’t quite remember. The whole thing was breathtaking. And it’s the same God in my mind, so I have no qualms about worshipping. In fact, it was nice. For me the service was purely aesthetic, so I could create my own prayers and messages without the obligatory crappy praise song and 10 minute too long sermon. I hope to experience this again. On the way out, Hakan said that many believe that two angels accompany every person, one on the left and one on the right. The looking from side to side at the end of the prayers is to acknowledge these guardians. Neat!

Afternoon was great. Met a new friend named Umut I was sitting in the office after Selo left for classes, reading this insanely dense pdf from the Turkish economic planning agency (like 250 pages of something written in a second language, ran through the Babelfish web translator into a third language, then translated by hand back to English. Yar). Some student comes in a starts rattling off some Turkish (this happens at least three times a day). As I was busy explaining that I don’t speak any, another student pops his head in and says “So you’re the American!” He had heard about my presence on campus but had never seen me. He’s a computer science major that wants to take the English exams and become an English teacher. He learned English by working in a tourist town as a dancer, and then guide. He’s also DJed in clubs! I started playing him electronic stuff off my laptop and ended up discussing all sorts of things. He’s essentially fluent; it was amazing. We probably hung out for two hours. So I sense a good friendship here… he’s my first male friend outside of the teachers, and I think it’s a much needed outlet for me. We’ll probably start hanging out quite a bit; he also said he goes to Ankara every few weeks, so when I’m there we can go out to clubs. Eeeeeexcellent (Mr. Burns style)!

Oh, received an invitation to go to some party from the tourism studies girl that I talked to the other day. Couldn’t make it as I already had plans to go to Hakan’s house but got the number. So my social life is definitely on the up and up. It’s surprising to me that I’ve only been here a week and have so many social opportunities. It’s this whole pseudo-celebrity thing. I think Kurt Vonnegut said something like “You are what people think you are.” Rather than who you are. Which is me. Seemingly ultra-cool American who is really a huge dork. But they don’t know that. They’ve been shammed by their own preconceptions. Actually, I think he said that we are what we pretend to be. Which doesn’t apply here because I can’t even talk to most people. Umm…

Anyway...

Went to Hakan’s again for dinner. It was great; I love his family. They are so cool! We had a wonderful dinner (of course) of yummo yougurty çhorba (soup), these tasty meat ball thingys, friend potatoes, rice and some strange drink made of carrot juice and yeast. Seriously. I even peeled the potatoes myself! Good stuff. Turkish coffee afterwards, then over to the neighbors where we stayed up drinking tea until midnight. Good stuff, lots of great talking and just hanging out with really nice people.

Also, if a bird poops on your head in Turkey it’s considered a blessing!