UPDATES: fun running and salsa dancing— free time in Turkey

In the interest of not falling tooooo behind with blogging, here are a few odds and ends from my life these days:

"Ellerine sağlık"

 Turkish saying literally meaning ‘health for your hands’ said to the cook after a shared meal or gift of food.

After jealously drooling over the billions of pumpkin/fall/spiced baked goods posted by friends to Facebook and Pinterest, I was overjoyed to find that pumpkins had indeed popped up at our local farmer’s market one weekend. They were massive and rock hard, but they were pumpkins nonetheless. So I bought a kilo (they just busted out a saw and handed me a massive chunk), and then spent the next few days contemplating how exactly I was going to make pumpkin bread from an actual, raw chunk of pumpkin in the tiny toaster box posing as our oven.

It turned out better than I expected, and I brought some to share with my Turkish colleagues. Who were confused by the idea of “pumpkin bread.”

This exchange:

“If it is bread, in Turkey, it is not sweet.”

“…I’m not sure why it is called bread, come to think of it. We have banana bread too.”

“Banana?! In bread??”

Turned into this exchange:

“Ah, it is not bread. It is more like cake…”

“Mmm, it is like carrot cake!”

 

Fulbrighters Are Fit

A few weekends ago, a big group of Fulbright teachers from across Turkey all went to Istanbul for the Istanbul Marathon. Several ran various lengths of the race— most either the 10k or the 8k “Fun Run.” The Turkish Fulbright commission even jumped in and helped organize, giving us all blue “Fulbright” t-shirts, and Fun Run registration for those of us (like me) who missed initial sign-up.

Advertised as a “trans-continental marathon,” all three distance courses involved running from Asia to Europe via the Bosphorus Bridge. The Fun Run ended up being more of a Fun Walk/crowded-shuffle at times, but it was amazing nonetheless. Everyone was packed together, waving Turkish flags, chanting and cheering, eating simit and drinking tea, and stopping for numerous selfies over the strait. The energy was crazy, and it was a great way to spend the weekend catching up with Fulbright friends from all over.

"BIR IKI ÜÇ DÖRT, BIR IKI ÜÇ DÖRT"

So one day Sophia and Lisa went to get their hair trimmed, and the stylist who cut their hair happened to speak great English. Friendship was born. We later found out that this same friend’s secondary job is teaching Latin dance class at the “American Culture Center” in Balıkesir. Thus last Friday night, we found ourselves in a small room packed with other young Turks learning to tango and salsa, tripping over our feet, and counting out the beats in Turkish.

"Öğretmenler Günü" 

 

photo credit: the instagram queen herself, Lisa Hoca.

Today (Sunday) was Teacher’s Day in Turkey, and our department organized a group meal at a nice restaurant outside the city. The menu was fixed and included: ayran, soup, bread, köfte (lamb meatballs), chicken, rice, salad, and dessert (höşmerim and some sort of peynirli tatlı or cheese dessert).  (Note that “nice meal” in Turkey is synonymous with meat and that french fries are served with almost everything.)

MY POOR, LAUGHABLE TURKISH

"Merhhhhhaaabbbba."

For all my good intentions this summer, I have to admit this (hello) was one of two Turkish words I knew before leaving, and the only one I could somewhat confidently pronounce.

At the beginning of summer I bought a book entitled "Teach Yourself Turkish," optimistically packed it up alongside my sleeping bag and Keens, and hauled it up to camp. For the remainder of the summer it never left the trunk of my car.

During the the latter half of my time at camp, I discovered a delightful podcast called Turkish Tea Time, which proved to be somewhat better suited to my limited (read: nonexistent) free time. So I would walk up and down the hill from my cabin at Timberline listening and repeating after the nasally podcasted voice, speaking Turkish aloud to the trees (a conscious effort to alert the resident mountain lion my presence as much as to perfect my sorry pronunciation). These brief in between moments were the only practice in Turkish I got this summer.

Fast forward to the first day of orientation where the final hour and a half of the day is devoted to Turkish lessons from a professor at a local university...

Merhaba!
Merhaba, benim adim Kealy! Sizin adiniz ne?
Ben Emily. Momnun oldum!
Ben de memnun oldum.
Nasılsınız?
Iyiym siz, nasılsınız?
Ben de iyiym, teşekkür ederim.
Görüşürüz!
Görüşürüz!

Needless to say, I was more than a little lost as our instructor sped through our lesson, multiplying my nonexistent Turkish vocabulary by 50 fold, but completely overwhelming my jet lagged brain in the process.

Thankfully my fellow Fulbrighters (all incredibly interesting people who studied Middle Eastern History or Political Science or Feminist Literary Theory at Ivy Leagues; grew up in India, Germany or Dubai; studied Farsi in Azerbaijan or Arabic in Jordan; and helped advise political appointees at the White House or senators on Capitol Hill) were on the whole as overwhelmed and lost as I was.

Turkish lessons aside, orientation has been very helpful and interesting so far. Yesterday we were "briefed" on health, security, citizens services and current events by a number of ambassadors, political officers, and Turkish officials. Future sessions include, "The Turkish Educational System: Challenges and Solutions," "Political Structure and Dynamics in Contemporary Turkey," "The Turkish Way of Life," and "Current Approaches and Methods in Teaching English." Unfortunately, we end up listening to all of these interesting topics and speakers in a giant conference room at the very bottom of the hotel, sitting under the florescent lights from morning until evening. Thankfully, there are numerous coffee and tea breaks built in to keep all of us suffering jet lag from falling asleep on the table. Thank God for the Turks and their love of caffeinated beverages. :)