Seeing the City

I've now been in Turkey just over a week. That seems rather wild to me, since it feels like an eternity ago that I was boarding a plane at the Toronto airport. Since my last post, life has not at all slowed down. Orientation continued through last week, with a lot of the administrative tasks with the university getting ironed out. I've been trying to plan my course schedule, which is super exciting. There are so many fascinating courses which I would love to take, especially in the field of my major, political science. I'll be taking a regular course sequence of five courses, but it's going to be hard to pick that few with all the selection. One of the classes I'll be taking is a Turkish Language course, which I'm very excited about too - I'm picking up a few key phrases so far - hello, thank you, and I can count to five - but it will be nice to have a structured time and place to really learn. I have the next two weeks to nail down my schedule, meaning I can attend lectures and see if the profs and the classes are good fits before committing, which is nice (and a luxury not afforded to regular METU students, making me rather grateful of the course selection flexibility I've had at uOttawa).  And while I never, ever believed I would be saying it, I'm also feeling rather grateful for Rabaska, uOttawa's online course registration software. Yes, Rabaska can be frustrating, but it won't be even half as time-consuming as the bureaucratic hoops I'll have to jump through for course registration - the number of signatures, approvals, and stamps I need is rather ridiculous and gives me a bit of a headache just thinking about it.

The weather has been mostly grey, but here's a taste of campus - lots of trees and other green spaces.

Speaking of headache-inducing bureaucracy, in the short week I've been here, I've experienced a lot of it, and I know there's more to come. Everything from getting a student card to buying natural gas for the month has seemed to involve an additional level of bureaucracy than I would find back home. For example, in order to legally live in Turkey for longer than 90 days, I need to get a residence permit (never mind the fact that I already paid for a student visa which is valid for 6 months - no, that's not enough). Thank goodness my orientation contained an extensive session on the topic, because I need at least 12 different documents, from petitions to insurance information to special folders (many of which are exclusively in Turkish and thus absolutely incomprehensible to me without translation help from the International Office and my flatmates). In the coming weeks, I'll have to make an appointment at the Security Office, trek across town (bringing in tow a Turkish speaker because the 'crats won't speak English), wait around, hope my papers get approved, and ultimately pay more money. But, at the very least, I think that will be the last of my "settling-in affairs".

I've also now met my second flatmate, Mustafa, who moved in on Friday. Mustafa is also a METU student, doing his Ph.D. in computer instruction (or something related - I forget exactly. Definitely has to do with computers though). Mustafa is a fantastic cook. He's made a couple meals for me so far, and they have been delicious. As in most cultures, food and eating have important places in Turkish culture, and I've been learning a lot about that, especially from Yasin and especially Mustafa, who maintains a lot of those traditions from his hometown life before he moved to Ankara. For example, we don't really use knives - even when spreading things like honey or the uber-delicious grape molasses & honey mixture on bread, we use a fork. More than I had expected, we eat with our hands, scooping with pieces of bread into a communal dish of the main course in the middle of the table. We eat a lot of bread, and the freshly baked loaves from the local bakery are amazing. I knew that meat was popular in Turkey (and it is), but I admit I wasn't expecting how prominent bread and other baked goods would be (sorry gluten-free friends, you'll really be missing out if you visit!).

On Thursday, our orientation involved a trip to a few of the key tourist destinations in Ankara, which was pretty awesome. First, we visited Atatürk's Mausoleum, namely the last resting place of Turkey's founder and national hero. Mustafa Kemal, who adopted the name Atatürk (meaning "Father Turk"). It was an interesting place for a number of reasons, and I'm still processing the significance of it. It's a huge complex, starting with a walk down a tree-lined avenue of lion statues, towards a huge colonnaded courtyard. Ataturk's tomb, on one side, is the highlight, in a beautiful building, with stunning ceiling and gorgeous lighting, even on the grey and dreary day we visited. Then, there's an extensive museum dedicated to Ataturk and the formation of the Turkish Republic. A lot of his personal effects are on display, which are kinda cool to see and give a bit of a glimpse into the life he must have lived - certainly a fascinating one. Next, there's a museum dedicated to the formation of the Turkish Republic. It's full of nationalist fanfare, to say the least. It seemed as though every second display was a painting of Atatürk, and you can learn the name of just about every person who was at all involved in the nation-building process. That said, I shouldn't be too critical, and I hope I don't sound too dismissive of it all - Turkey is a young republic, less than 100 years old, and the foundation of the Republic is of course THE major event in the Turkish national consciousness and in their republican identity, and I appreciate that. Additionally, there were these huge, murals that were sort of 3D and which were accompanied by sound effects to capture the essence of the events depicted, which was actually really neat.

One of 24 snow-covered lions.

Columns in the courtyard.

The mausoleum itself (and a gaggle of exchange students).

Atatürk's tomb.

Trying to capture the beauty of the ceilings. Just not doing it justice with my digital camera.

Next, we bused to Ankara's Old Town, called Hamamönü. This was a great area to just walk around in, though since we were in a group we kept getting herded along faster than I wanted (I'll have to go back!). The streets were narrow and felt almost European, but the foods and smells and details were undeniably Turkish. We also entered a lot of little art shops, which were pretty cool and housed in historic buildings. We even saw some demonstrations of traditional (and very cool) art techniques, like this woman who poured paint on water, swirled it around to make flowers, and then put a blank sheet of paper on the water. When she pulled it off, the paint (and its flowers) was gone from the water and was instead on the paper - pretty neat. We also stopped for Turkish coffee, which was served in the traditional way and included these absolutely delicious marshmallow-like sweets. It was fantastic.

I saw this couple and asked to take their picture. They just looked so, well, Turkish to me, enjoying their cays outside at one of these little tables.

I thought this guy with his little butcher shop was great too - the building was so unique looking, and he just stands at the door, waiting to welcome customers inside.

Beautiful AND delicious - Turkish coffee is such a treat.

Finally, we made our way to the ancient Ankara Citadel. It's an incredibly old fortification, started in the 7th century and expanded in the 9th century by Emperor Michael II of the Byzantium Empire. We climbed around on the ramparts and took a bunch of photos and it was pretty cool!

From the citadel, looking back on the snow-capped roofs of Anakara

The inner walls of the citadel (ft. a lot of Germans)

No one's pretending it's the most beautiful city to look at, but I like the red roofs and the mountains in the distance.

The 1300-year-old fortifications juxtaposed with some crumbling modern houses below. The neighbourhood around the citadel actually looked rather rough.

The interior of the citadel, from the walls.

More ramparts, more city.

On the weekend, Yasin showed me more of the city. Saturday morning we visited a farmer's market right in my neighbourhood of Balgat, which was a lot of fun and had great food. Even though it's winter and it's relatively cold in Ankara, other parts of the country are much nicer and still producing delicious fruit. The oranges we bought are some of the best I've ever tasted.

Later, we went exploring in Kızılay, the downtown neighbourhood. We walked along some of the more famous streets, which are especially popular among young people. There's also a concentration of leftist political groups in the area (due to the younger demographic) and a ton of little cafes and shops which seem to accompany such groups.  Again, it was fascinating and requires a second visit - when the weather gets even warmer, I'm sure I'll spend more time outside and exploring this cool area. We met up with Yasin's friend, and drank tea and chatted at one such cafe [I heard some interesting stories, but I'm not going to share them now - I think they belong in a later blog post]. Overall, a delightful afternoon.

In the evening, there was a Welcome Party for exchange students hosted by the METU International Students Network at a club downtown. It was a lot of fun, but the real reason I mention it is just to note that clubs and bars in Ankara - which is NOT by any means known as being a party city - don't close until 5 or 6am. As a Canadian (and specifically having lived in Ottawa, the city where you can't find a coffee shop open past 9pm), I find that mind-blowing. Needless to say, I didn't stay out that late, but can you imagine?