Tuesday, February 15th, 2005

Today was a very eventful day. I woke up at 8 a.m. (nice), ready to meet some guy that I’d never talked to before. Apparently I’m living at the guest house of the city engineering department. It’s located on their “campus” which also includes offices, storage, and probably lots of other stuff. This guy (I can’t remember his name) is a civil engineer here. Well we met up and heading off to the office building to have breakfast. He knows a bit of English, and I know a smattering of Turkish, so we made due. He was so pleased to have me there and took me around the building to meet all of the engineers. The funny thing was that I thought we were going to his house for breakfast, and so I was still in my pajamas! I don’t think anyone cared… or at least it added to my novelty value.

Ebru showed up at nine and we took off for the school. I met with Selcuk, the principal (head honcho) and we had a nice lengthy chat over a few cups of tea. I had met him once before in Nevşehir, but we never really talked, so it was very good to get to know him. We then moved on to a larger meeting where many of the professors came to say hi. Turkish hospitality is really something… I felt like I was a visiting prince or president or something.

After this Ebru and I did some hanging out and chatting, then went for some lunch. In the afternoon we drove to Antakya and met with the rector of Mustafa Kemal University. Quite an honor! He didn’t speak any English but still managed to let me know that he was very glad I’m here. Antakya was nice enough; apparently it’s a much more historical city than Iskendrun, but I think Iskendrun has much more charm. I’ll get to spend more time here later, and even make a presentation to the Business department about my education in the states. Nice!

In the evening I went out with Ebru, Mustafa and Hasan. We had some lovely dinner, drank tasty drinks like salep, which is a hot beverage made from salep root (whatever that is), sugar and cinnamon. We also talked about politics and the way the world works. They really appreciated my humanistic view of things… I know this because they told me about 700 times! I guess we’re kindred spirits.

We then went shopping, and I picked up an electric kettle, some nice tea (both normal black and some sage) and of course, some sugar. After that, it was back to my flat, where we christened the kettle and laughed our heads off! I love these people; they’re so kind and hilarious. What a good combination. Ebru is my favorite by far. She’s a very free spirited lady with a great sense of humor. Tomorrow she promised to tell my some good times from when she was an au pair in England. I’m sure they’ll be way more than I need to hear… I can’t wait!

In the evening before bed I decided to explore my guest house a bit. I met up with a guy I had said hello to a few times before. After grabbing my dictionary from my room, we sat down and had a really nonsensical and wonderful conversation. His name is Hussein, he’s half Syrian and half Turkish, works at the engineering complex, loves music, and all sorts of other things. Tomorrow he’ll bring his photos of Istanbul, which will be great to see. It’s really amazing; we both speak the others language at infant level, but we still manage to get the message across. Intellectual conversation is great and everything, but our broken conversation was one of the most enjoyable talks I’ve had in some time. It’s incredible how much you can get across if you just try.