Sunday, October 24th, 2004

Well, this is my one month anniversary! I’ve been here exactly 31 days, and it’s gone pretty well really! I haven’t had any major freak outs, people are nice, friends have been made, tasty food has been eaten, and perhaps I’ve even learned a few things. I don’t know about the culture shock. I’m still anticipating something… maybe the difficulties in communication are it. I don’t know. I’ve felt well and I’m glad for that. We’ll see what happens in the future though. I mean, come on… what would a trip to Eurasia be without a little hysteria??? In my mind… not complete.

Anyway, let’s add another mark to the good days chart. The weather was gorgeous today, about 25 degrees Celsius, whatever that is. Nice, that’s what it is. Süleyman and I went out on the town today. First we went to the Tandoğan campus of Ankara University, where I’ll be visiting the Data Processing Center this week. What that is, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s where they do the computer science courses. Perhaps it’s where they just do all the grunt work for the university. Or maybe it’s just some out of the way corner that they’re going to distract me with. I don’t know! But we’ll find out. I get to go there tomorrow, having no idea who to meet, what I’ll see, or what I’ll actually be able to do. So, it’s a classically Turkish visit!

After checking the campus out (which was lovely by the way; very green with lots of trees and gardens), we headed to visit Atatürk’s Mausoleum, the resting place holding modern Turkey’s father and founder. This thing was huge in every way. It rests on a large hill in the west of the city, and is surrounded by tree-lined gardens. You climb a massive hill that finally leads to a long corridor, lined with imposing lion statues. After walking even farther, you come to a courtyard where the main action is. Three sides are lined with museums holding photos, various Atatürk memorabilia, and even his old cars. The fourth side contains the massive mausoleum. You climb a big set of steps and enter through bronze doors into a spacious marble-lined hall, where Atatürk’s sarcophagus lies. It was an interesting visit. Something very notable: the visitors were all Turks. I saw maybe a few Germans, but the vast majority was the country’s citizens paying homage to their founder. He is still very much alive after all these years.

Following this stop, we met one of Süleyman’s friends and made our way to the city center, near the Kızılay area (where I will attend language school!). We swung through a huge bookstore called Dost, which is apparently the largest and best in Ankara. I found what I was hoping to find: Turkish literature in English! I purchased a book by Orhan Pamuk, his first, called The White Castle. Unfortunately I paid 19,500,000 TL for it. It’s about $13, not that bad I guess, but when you’re used to spending $5 on Amazon.com for used book it seems a bit much. Anyway, the book looks great. It’s about a young Italian scholar who is captured by pirates during a trip between Venice and Naples, and is sold at the Istanbul slave market. He and his Turkish savant master (that’s what it says on the back) develop some sort of serious friendship and end up joining a Sultan’s army on a trip to the White Castle. Whatever that is. It seems interesting, and I like the idea of a west meets east cultural exchange as the premise of the book. Also, critics are comparing it to Kafka and Gabriel García Márquez! So it seems promising; I can’t wait to start it!

Following this we headed to a restaurant for some tasty İskender kebabs! Yummmmmm. I love this stuff! It’s thin sliced döner kebab meat on bread with a very flavorful tomato sauce and yogurt. Very good… I want more!!! I answered a lot of questions from Süleyman’s friend, many of which amazed me. An example: he had read a theory the newspaper that America was doomed in the foreseeable future due to the combination of climate change and an African American uprising! He asked when I thought this might happen, and was surprised to hear my answer of “not in a million years”. It’s so amazing what people believe about our country. I hate to think of how many similar ideas I have about other places that are just as completely off base. It makes you think…