Blogging
From Abroad

Thanks for reading my blog. This is my first time ever doing this so cut me some slack, I’m still figuring out how to do all this. I arrived in Turkey two days ago on a government scholarship. First off, let me explain exactly what that entails:

Every year the US State Department sends students to various countries to study languages under the guise of the Critical Language Scholarship. Languages include Turkish, Arabic, Chinese, Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Persian, and more. In March I was awarded a scholarship to study Turkish at Yildiz Teknik University in Istanbul, Turkey. Here in Istanbul there is an institution called the American Research Institute in Turkey or ARIT. Essentially ARIT sets up and provides funding language programs at local universities. For anyone interested in learning a language, this scholarship is definitely a fantastic option. For much more useful information, and to apply visit clscholarship.org.

I should also tell you that I studied at Bogazici University in Istanbul for two semesters during the 2006-2007 school year through the WVU Office of International Programs’ direct exchange program.

I arrived in Istanbul on Friday morning and although I was delirious from exhaustion after staying up for almost 48 hours, I managed to make it through to watch the Turkey-Croatia EuroCup semifinal soccer match that night. I was sure glad that I did because Turkey scored to tie in literally the last few seconds of stoppage time and went on to win in a shootout. The entire country went absolutely ballistic and naturally I couldn’t justify just going to bed so another student. Heck, I’m here to learn culture too ain’t I? My friend and I ran all the way down to the main throughfare in Istanbul, Istiklal Caddesi, a good mile and a half, to check out the action. Along the way people were hanging out of speeding cars, waving Turkish flags and chanting ?Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai?. Ooooo Turkiye!? Even the cops got in on the action, blasting their sirens and in one instance were standing on a median waving a huge Turkish flag. What a great re-introduction to Turkey.

While I was in Morgantown I met a Turkish exchange student named Aydan (a female whose name literally means “from the moon”) and we have been dating since. She lives in Istanbul so on Saturday I went to see her and eat at what was my favorite restaurant as an exchange, Arkadas Café (mean ?friend café), owned by my good friend Huseyin Cicek. Aydan had free tickets to a music festival called the Efes Pilsen One Love Music Festival. It was the first of two days so the music was just alright, but I was grateful for the opportunity to speak Turkish to Aydan and her friends, as well as the fact that it was just an interesting experience.

On Sunday Huseyin called me and said he would pick me up at 1 pm. Huseyin speaks no English, save for the words “snake” and “fish”, so I wasn’t entirely sure what we would do. At 1 pm the entire Cicek family rolled up to the curb I was sitting on and we drove outside of Istanbul to a many hundred-year-old church/fortress on the Black Sea coast. After the family had taken plenty of pictures of me and Huseyin and I shot the breeze about how he is my Turkish baba (father), he drove me out to a town called Riva for a Black Sea-side fish dinner. Delicious. And again I was grateful for the opportunity to practice my rusty Turkish with patient friends.

Later that night a friend from the language program and I went back to the festival to see two incredible Balkan club acts, Shantel who played music from his new album Disko Partizani, and Gogol Bordello. If you don’t know these bands, I highly recommend that you check them out. I am almost positive that you have never heard music like this and it is infectious. I know I danced my tail off with all the Turks.

Finally today we had Turkish proficiency tests, and although I was nervous I did pretty well because I had been practicing so much. Turkish people are some of the friendliest in the world and if you’re a foreigner that speaks even a little Turkish you instantly have friends. I’ve been actively making friends with the restaurateurs around my hotel, so in the coming weeks I’ll hopefully have plenty of conversation partners.

I will post pictures just as soon as I can. Unfortunately my computer kicked the bucket two days before I left so I have to bum off the people in my program. When I get the proper equipment you can all see just how incredible this city is.