I will be totally honest - studying abroad is an emotional roller coaster. I really do love the area and the people in the CIEE group that I've spent the last two weeks with. However, I definitely underestimated the amount of Turkish that I'd need to know to feel comfortable. I'm working on it, but it is so different from any language I've ever studied, so it's taking a while! Homesickness doesn't wait very long to set in, but it's juxtaposed with exciting adventures and wonderful new people and places. All in all, you don't know what to feel! However, now that I'm more settled, I'm just so excited to spend the semester here and traveling in the area. We were talking the other night and realized that we're already 1/8 of the way done with the semester here - 2/16 weeks gone. While that may seem to be a short amount, it's gone by so fast that it makes me realize that I really can't waste a single second! I'm pretty satisfied with the amount of things that I've accomplished in these first 14 days or so, I just need to keep it up.
Even though Koç is an "English medium" school (all of the classes are taught in English), all of the people who work for the university (secretaries, cafeteria and restaurant workers, and in all of the venues on campus) speak only Turkish. Therefore, especially before the other students arrive, it was very difficult for us exchange students to communicate. I feel like I have a much better grasp of what it's like to come to the United States not speaking English, and have a new found respect for those who dare to try.
Although language is a huge barrier, I/we have found that the Turkish people are some of the kindest and most helpful I've met. Especially if you try to speak some Turkish, shop owners and restaurant workers will work with you to figure out what you're looking for or communicate a price. You just have to be willing to try and understanding.
Although I hate to generalize the Turkish people (as if they're all alike), there are some things that I've noticed in the past two weeks.
Hospitality is goal #1 - Everyone wants to give you something! On our first day walking around town, it was almost unbearably cold. One of my friends, Will, didn't have a scarf and was really cold. Someone walked up to him and just handed him a scarf and told him to keep it! Additionally, a few of us walked into a cafe in Sultanahmet, looking for some çay and a break. The owner just told us to sit and brought us plates (plural) full of baklava, turkish delight and other desserts to sample. Finally, just last night my roommate came back from a weekend at home, and her mother had sent me some gozleme, this Turkish pastry/bread that is stuffed with feta. I've never even met her! Everyone has just seemed to nice, willing to help, and trying to make your visit to Turkey a great experience. One of the nicest things, too, is that people seem to take a genuine interest in you.
Turks LOVE snow (or, more aptly, snowballs). I think that maybe it is because it's more of a novelty here than in ME or PA, but we have witnessed SO many snowball fights. While we were waiting for the residency permit application appointments, we saw the police (many of whom carry AKs, slightly unnerving to this girl...) outside having a snowball fight with some people off the street. Yesterday, at the Rumeli Hisari fortress, we also saw some of the guards throwing snowballs at one another. Mostly what is funny is that it is usually people who you wouldn't expect to see throwing snowballs.
There is construction everywhere and this peculiar mix of old and new. It seems like the city of İstanbul doesn't exactly know what it is or wants to be. One of the CIEE directors told us that people who leave the city and visit 10 years later hardly recognize it. A passage that I read about Turkey before I arrived claimed that it was a country filled to the brim with potential, yearning for the opportunity to release it. The truth in this is palpable. People are so hard working and the country is trying so dedicatedly to "modernize" and move the city and country forward. It's changing and developing all the time, and I'm so excited to be a part of that!
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