I could burn hundreds of words trying to explain how I
narrowed down the list of Fulbright countries, regions, statistics, and
opportunities, but in reality that would only give a portion of the story.
What
I really wish is that I could invite others into way my dad and grandparents
have excited over the opportunity to share a portion of their past with me— their
memories of those few years living outside Ankara in the late 1960s while my
grandfather worked for Mobile Oil. The clipped newspaper articles about
Turkey mailed by my granddad, my Nana’s home cooked meal from her old Turkish
recipes, and my dad’s shared memories of junior high antics and reactions to life
in the Middle East.
Stories of eating handful upon handful of pistachios in
class and shoving the shells under desks so that “every time you moved the
furniture or pushed a book in underneath, all the shells would come clattering
out like the payout of a slot machine.”
Or of driving a VW bus full of blond children across the
countryside and being mistaken for Germans.
Or of the brief and tragic saga of the family pet lamb that
imprinted on the family pet dachshund.
I can’t wait to come back with stories of my own to contribute. :)
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