Nature's Candy

Yesterday two of my coworkers (one being the other Fulbrighter, of course) went to a neighboring town in Uşak province called Ulubey in order to see the second largest canyon in the world.

It's pretty big.

We went not really knowing what to do or expect, and as we girlishly wandered around what may or may not have been a path we happened upon two gentlemen who had helped plan ULUBEY CANYONFEST 2K10! Namely, these two men had designed the hiking routes around the canyon for said festival earlier in the year. They offered to show us the best views and then got bottles of water for each of us, so we accepted. Little did we know that this would be a two-hour long hike fraught with terror! Most of the hiking felt great, but the climbing downward after we had rested on the peak in the middle of the canyon? SHEER TERROR. Sheer like the canyon's rocky sides that we could have easily slid down...to our doom! Occasionally our guides would kick loose rocks down the slopes and laugh at our fearful moans as we watched them bounce and roll away, imagining our potentially similar fate.

That is the middle "peak" which had the terrifying downward climb, as seen from about halfway along our hiking route.


That same "peak", as seen from Usak University's Ulubey campus.

Luckily because I am not at all clumsy and the very model of grace and balance, I made it back alive. (In other words, I have no idea how I made it back alive.)
BUT! this was my reward....

A pomegranate fresh from the tree! We ate them overlooking the canyon from the restaurant where we had started our hike. Then our two guides took us back to Ulubey's main street and bought us each a loaf of Ulubey pide, since apparently it is known for its delicious bread. This is what pide looks like plain, with the incredibly scrumptious Turkish cream cheese our guides recommended putting on the bread waiting nearby.

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon (Pazar öğleden sonra). We might meet our two guides next week to see other provincial wonders in other parts of Uşak province.

Gooooool!

Readers, I have an important decision to make. Given that I am thousands of miles away from my beloved Chicago Blackhawks, I have decided that, for cultural and personal reasons, I should attempt to cultivate an interest in soccer (futbol). I do not know which of the three main Turkish soccer teams to support. I feel like I need to choose my alliance early, because I will need to follow the team to some degree in order to achieve some legitimacy with actual Turkish fans, but not so much that I get involved in a brawl outside a cafe somewhere. (Not to mention the fact that now you will know the names of the three main teams to impress all of your Turkish friends.)

In any case, back in Ankara, I had decided on Beşiktaş for a number of reasons. First, the are sponsored by two companies that make up two parts of a complete breakfast: Cola Turka and Ülker (a cookie and snack company). Second, their team colors, black and white, make for a jersey or t-shirt I might actually purchase and wear. Third, one of their players reminded me of a friend from back home. These were my selling points, and I thought I was sold....until I discovered their Facebook pages.

Now, here is a strong photoshop showing for Beşiktaş. It is downright regal. I did not find a photoshopped image of an eagle ripping apart a soccer ball in its talons like a salmon, but oh, dear readers, I have seen such images on promotional items for this team and they are a delight.


However, when I got to the underdog team, Galatasaray, I was shocked to see such exquisite artwork. If that photo included a soccer ball under a gracefully extended paw, I would be wearing the horrid red and yellow McDonald's-reminiscent colors of this team all the time. This almost changed my mind.


And finally, the favorite of most Turkish soccer fans (I believe), Fenerbahçe. From my most basic research, it seems that their "mascot" is some kind of plant. Unfortunately there are no images to share of, say, a plant growing out of half of a soccer ball or perhaps a goal completely overtaken by vines or what-have-you. Instead, just this adorably sincere blue and yellow homage to the team that someone planted (ahem) in their Farmville game on Facebook. Even though my boss is a Fenerbahçe fan, and even though this kind of soccer fandom is really something I can get behind, I don't think I'll be rooting for this team.


But, I put it to you, dear readers! If you can help me make up my mind I would greatly appreciate it. I know it goes against my U of C heritage to be trying to think about sports, but this is a cultural phenomenon I should at least be more aware of, if only to give me something to talk about in EFL classes, if I am ever allowed to teach them.






UPDATE: 27/10/2010 First of all, an English-speaking woman I met this weekend informed me that since my zodiac sign is Leo (aslan in Turkish), I must support the UltrAslans. Second, I learned that Galatasaray and fans refer to themselves as "UltrAslans", which is awesome. Third, I found out that Galatasaray has a 105-year-old woman fan. I think my choice is now clear. Sorry, Beşiktaş.

Odds and Ends

This picture has my survival kit for Turkey. This is basically all I will need to live here indefinitely. It has a small hot water heater replete with spoon, my new coffee cup for Nescafe and soup, my tea thermos on a homemade coaster, my travel spoon/fork/chopsticks from Mitsuwa, and Bratz wipes for cleanliness. I guess I didn't include my Swiss Army knife in the photo, but it is also an important travel dealie. (You can imagine it in the blank space at the bottom of the photo.) I am very, very glad I have the travel cutlery and tea thermos. They are two of the most useful things in the universe. I highly recommend everyone travel with them.

Speaking of really important things, here is the kitchen. Please note that on the right there is an additional 2L hot water heater which I bought yesterday. I take hot water very seriously. There is also a giant bag of tea and a box of sugar cubes on the table which you can't really see, but they go hand in hand with my survival kit.


Here is a photo illustrating that my sheets match my computer. They also match my coffee cup and plate.


And here is my whole bedroom, which has two beds. The rules of the building include "No visitors overnight except your mother and siblings", but after we put up quite a fight they said Fulbrighters could use the extra bed for one or two nights if the need arose. Then the landlord looked at us very angrily, suggesting we should not actually take advantage of this special permission. We shall see.


The building also has roughly 1,000,000 (bir milyon) security cameras, and at night a little old woman watches them like a soap opera ("Life's Hallways" would probably be my title for it). We have to sacrifice a bit of privacy to have a beautiful apartment, I suppose.

Uşak, A History

Uşak University is being built from the ground up, literally. The building which houses the foreign language office had no railings on some staircases on Monday, and on Tuesday a man wearing a sleeveless jumpsuit was sawing metal tubes to make the railings with no protective equipment whatsoever, sending sparks flying across the hallway towards unperturbed students and teachers. The chemistry labs have sinks and gas feeds laying on the ground in boxes waiting to be installed. One of the two access roads from Izmir Road to the campus is still gravel, and is almost unnavigable. It's incredible. The guest house, however, where we stayed for the first five nights, is complete, not to mention utterly beautiful inside. My pictures don't do it justice so you'll have to take my word on that.

Campus construction.


Uşak as a town is almost equal parts rubble and new construction (inşaat), with the currently used and maintained buildings of course in the majority. According to our department head, 30 years ago (otuz yıl önce), Uşak was a "village" of about 30,000, but there has been rapid development in the past 20 years. I have no concept of how old the buildings are or what alleyways are interesting. As it is, I can just manage to find my way back to my apartment from the grocery stores on Izmir street and/or "Compulsory Street" (Ismet Pasha Caddesi).

The lands around Uşak, in addition to being home to packs of wild dogs, are dry rolling hills. Today on the bus ride to campus we saw a herd of sheep on the side of one of the hills. It is very scenic (as one of the men who met us on Saturday said, "If you like The Nature, you will like living Uşak"), but I really miss being anchored (pun intended) by some kind of large body of water.

The Four T's (Things in Turkey Take Time)

Many things have happened in the past few days since I was on a cross-country bus using free Wifis. Many things...and nothing. I'm still not teaching for confusing reasons, and our housing situation is unclear at best. These hiccups aside, here's what's been happening this week.

My fellow American and I arrived in Uşak at 4PM on Saturday (Cumartesi). Three people from the university were there to greet us, two spoke excellent English, and all were exceedingly kind and helpful. We moved our heaps of belongings into the university guest house and then went to the main street of Uşak, known sarcastically by the students as "Compulsory Street", because if you want to do anything remotely cool you will probably end up on that street. After eating delicious pide and going to a cafe with our new coworker R, we then went to the local Migross-anchored mall (it is tiny and adorable) and met our head of department for ice cream. At this point, being too fat and/or sassy to move much, we went back to the guest house...for sleep.

The next morning (or early afternoon) we took the dolmuş into town and met R at her apartment. We then proceeded to the grocery store for fixin's to made fırında patates --chicken and potatoes oven roasted with tomatoes and onions. We also made tarhana soup (apparently really popular and famous in Uşak) and hazelnut chocolate instant pudding. After this small feast, we went bowling at the aforementioned mall. There are six lanes. This is a six-lane-bowling-alley-in-the-tiny-mall kind of town.

On Monday (Pazartesi) we went to the police station with our other coworker F, and the driver for the Rektör (head of university). The driver knows everyone in town and how to navigate anything in a Fiat SUV. I wish I could keep him around all the time. In any case, two cups of tea into our residence permit application, the police officer abruptly stops and says (in Turkish of course), "There is another American from Chicago here!" He then proceeds to call her from the number in the registry, instead gets her Turkish husband, and moments later said Turkish husband is sitting in the office with us enjoying a cup of tea. He puts his wife on and she informs us she is actually from Nevada, she met her husband on the internet, and she has been living in Turkey for some time,would we like to go on a picnic sometime. Her husband then takes his phone back contentedly and shares a cigarette break with the police officer. This is how Turkey's bureaucracy stays alive.

On Tuesday (Salı), we went to the police office again to get our completed permits. They are like tiny passports just for foreigners in Turkey. We tried to open a bank account but we need tax ID numbers from Ankara, which will take time. We returned to campus with the hope of meeting the Rektör himself and maybe getting our teaching schedules, neither of which happened. However, our head of department decided to make up for it by taking us on a magical mystery tour with our coworker, R. (I don't know if I can call her a "coworker" if we have yet to do any work and do not know if we will ever work due to bureaucratic concerns, but still.) We got in our department head's car and he started off towards Izmir, begging the obvious question, "Uh...are we going to Izmir?" (Izmir'e gidiyoruz, hocam?) He said,"Oh, maybe not tonight," thereby keeping the mystery alive through awkward use of English. Eventually we ended up at a very surprising place-a Turkish truck stop.

At the truck stop/rest stop, we were treated to some of the most delicious homemade pide, grilled chicken, and grilled (whole) fish I have had in a long time on shabby tablecloths and with bent tableware. Our head of department said "No need to be polite here. I come here to rest, they know me, they care for me." Then we had three cups of tea and talked about movies and the difference between "diseased" and "deceased", and also about how American accents are the worst (good thing they're paying us to teach people to talk real 'merican!) Then we drove back to Uşak towne and went to a cafe to play backgammon (super popular in cafes here). Then, more sleep.

On Wednesday (çarşamba), we finally met the Rektör and had a trilingual conversation with him. We mostly spoke French, but sometimes English and Turkish would slip in on all our parts. Basically it was the best conversation I've ever had (maybe not content-wise, but, you know, details). Our housing problem was somewhat solved as a result of this meeting, but I am still wary of unpacking lest our situation change again. We shall see.

More details on all of this forthcoming. My internet situation is shaky at times so I haven't been blogging much. I will post pics of Uşak U as well. Until then!

A well-oiled machine

I am writing this post on a Pamukkale bus line. This cross-country bus...has free internet access. This is a bus in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between Ankara and Uşak...and I am on the internet.

Pamukkale is one of the more reputable Turkish bus lines. They make some attempt to regulate how the drivers drive (such things as 'staying in lanes' and 'obeying speed limits'), but of course all other drivers still pose a major threat. Turkish buses are many in number and variable in quality, but I am really impressed with what I've seen of them today. The drivers get personally fined if they do not leave the station on time, so at 10:30AM (my bus left at 11), the station abruptly emptied of buses, and five minutes later new ones pulled in. It's amazing.

As I was leaving, our main Fulbright liaison asked if I was excited. I said yes, and she said, "I know, it is a new life!" And now I'm on a bus in Turkey, using the internet for now, but about to start re-reading The New Life. How ridiculous is this?

MacGyver would be proud

While the overall intent of this blog is to provide some informative observations on Turkish culture and a way for people at home to keep track of me, I must take a brief moment for self-congratulation. (It's actually couched in a story about how things in Turkey are not always perfect, so I guess it is still blog-worthy without my disclaimer.)

Last night when I returned to my room at about 10PM, none of the lights or electrical outlets were functioning. Since it was late and I was lazy, I decided that, rather than ask the front desk or somesuch for help, I would play it by ear. Now, the bathroom is a separate room into which no light from the outside world penetrates when the door is closed. How could I bathe in abject darkness? Simple: I took Lil' Brudda into the bathroom (normally a terrible idea, but you know what they say about desperate times), turned his screen up to its full brightness, opened a blank word processing document so the screen would be white, and voila! -a bathroom with enough light to bathe by.

Hopefully I can bring this kind of resourcefulness into the classroom when the time comes...and that time could be as early as Monday. I have my bus ticket to Uşak in my purse already. Heyecanlıyım!