Week Two - Four

Hello everyone!

The past few weeks have been more full of classes, routine, and settling into daily life and less so of drag shows, spy dramas, and embassy visits. This more settled life brings with it whole new insights and experiences, albeit, less remarkable. What has stayed consistent, however, is the amount of sweating. With the summer weather turning hotter and hotter every day, the afternoons themselves turn into Hammams. In this short update, I hope to give some of my perceptions of the language, people, and culture of Turkiye. Sending much love to everyone!

University and Classes:

Pictured above, is the view from our classroom at the university. We are studying at the Tömer Institute at Ankara University. Founded in the 1980's Tömer was the first Turkish language institute in Turkey. The institute has a fantastic set of classrooms in one of the university's newest high-rise buildings. The view from our classroom overlooks Gazi University and the ever-sprawling city behind it. 

The campus is truly beautiful. Ankara University, and Ankara itself, are flush with greenery. Walking through the campus to class everyday feels like walking through a forest. Along our route are several mulberry and apricot trees that have slowly begun to drop their fruit on the sidewalks. It's pleasant up until the fruit begins to rot and stick to your shoes. Every now and again, I see a student or family shaking the branches of one of the trees letting the fruit fall into a basket below. All in all, the campus, quiet in the summer, is a beautiful place to be studying. 

Classes have been a mixed bag. As a group of 25, we have been split into five groups based on our level of Turkish language experience. Being an "absolute beginner" I was placed as such. Unfortunately, this has also meant that we, as a class, are not pushed as hard as some of the higher groups. While the classes themselves have not been as intense or fast-paced as advertised, it has allowed me a certain amount of freedom in the afternoons. This has given me time to emphasize vocabulary memorization, practice, and review. This has proven to actually be quite the advantage. As one of my classmates in a higher group put it, "I know complicated verb conjugations, but I have no verbs to conjugate". Even with less ground covered on paper, time for vocabulary and review has accelerated me beyond some of those in the higher group. Regardless of the frustrations with the pace of the class, my teacher is a wonderful person and even better teacher. She is patient, adaptive to the various levels in the class, and a highly effective teacher. I couldn't ask for better. 

Turkish itself has a very unique structure and is remarkably different in practice to any other language I have seen. Turkish is an agglutinative language, or "a language in which words are made up of a linear sequence of distinct morphemes and each component of meaning is represented by its own morpheme". Essentially, Turkish is a LEGO language. Stuck on top of the base word, are different sized and colored LEGOs that change the meaning or function of the word. In this way, Turkish is a highly structured and linear language to learn. It also means that vocabulary knowledge is king. If you know a word then you can almost certainly change that word into what you need with only a few LEGOs on top. 

While midterms are upcoming, the true test in the past few weeks has been communicating with my language partner (our paid Turkish friend for the four months) and navigating daily life. To me, there is no better feeling than realizing you have risen to a new plateau in your language ability. In the past few weeks, I have realized new plateaus every few days. It is clear that whatever I am doing is working! 

Finding Soccer:

Freedom in the afternoons has also allowed me to pursue my other goals for the summer. Part of being a student-athlete has meant that this summer I also need to maintain my fitness for this upcoming fall soccer season at CC. While following our team, summer training program has thus far been manageable, it does require certain discipline. Mornings are spent in the university gym and afternoons running or getting touches on the ball. 

Previous to coming, I hoped to use soccer to access Turkish culture and the community here. It has proven more difficult than I had initially anticipated. Like many other places in Europe and Russia, sports take place behind closed gates and paywalls. To play, requires finding the right people and right place. In the initial week or so, after many questions and conversations through Google Translate, I have found that playing may be difficult. To play, groups need to, first, collect 14 friends, then, pay the fee to rent the field. As I am not yet part of any community who play and can navigate this system there has been limited opportunity.

That luck changed recently when a few Palestinians let me join their games. The politics of letting me play remain difficult. They all have about 50 friends looking to play, so to let me play and take a spot within the 14 without being a part of the community is difficult. I hope to play a few more times with this group, but it really seems out of my hands. 

Hiking, the Natural Landscape, and the Cityscape:

Last weekend, I went with a friend on the program to "hike" at a nearby lake in the city outskirts. We walked along dirt paths through a clearly planted forest; each tree 14 feet apart and the same height. Upon later research, we found that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the grandfather of the Turkish nation, was known for his love of trees. After his era, hundreds of parks and orchards were planted in his memory. 

We walked through the vast arboretum, eventually reaching a lookout to the lake below. The landscape is not dissimilar to that of the American Southwest. Dry, rocky hills covered in dry grass, interspersed with the occasional wildflower, cover the landscape outside of the city. As we looked out, the bustle of the city dropped away into the vast Turkish country side. 

Turkiye is a deceptively large country that covers what would roughly be Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Ankara itself is West-central. Dotting the vastness of Turkiye, are some of the oldest and most significant human settlements in the world. From the Euphrates in the South to the Ancient Roman monuments in the West, Turkiye is an ancient place. Historically speaking, however, Ankara is an outlier. Unlike the rest of Turkiye, Ankara is comparatively devoid of ancient historical monuments.

Established by Ataturk as a center for government after the Turkish War of Independence, Ankara became the city it is today in the 1950's. As a palimpsest, the city's layers are all relatively new. After the growth in the 1950's, the new growth has been seen in the past few years. Erdoğan's fiscal policy approach of growth, spending, and building above all else has seen Ankara's cityscape expand at an astounding rate. Subsequently, the Lira has plummeted and the government has accrued tremendous debt. The buildings (left) are an example of new development on the outskirts seemingly out of place in the sprawling hills and grassland. These strange outcroppings look like something you would see in one of the Arab Gulf states. Ankara is a remarkably unique city and one that I will continue to enjoy exploring during my time here. 

As I write this, Turkiye is on the three day holiday of Bayram. The entire city has dropped into an eerie silence. The streets, usually bustling with traffic are nearly empty. Bayram is Turkiye's celebration of the Eid-al-Fitr. These three days celebrate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael to Allah. Today, the second day of Bayram, families across Turkiye will gather to sacrifice their own sheep or goat in commemoration. While this tradition is more prevalent in the countryside, we have been told that many families will gather in their own backyards in Ankara to partake. 

I am shocked to already be halfway through this program. While it is impossible to predict what the next few weeks will bring, but I am sure they will be rewarding. 

Cheers from Ankara,

Sam