An investment

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin

So here I am in Ankara, committing to and investing in my completion of a Masters degree during the next two years; investing in knowledge.

Monday was my first day of school as a Masters student. I arrived 20 minutes late to class (after being stuck in rush-hour traffic for over an hour for a distance, which, without traffic, would only take 15 minutes), which hopefully does not destine me for some sort of degree-long failure. Luckily, I don’t adhere to such superstitions and justified my tardiness  (or at least felt less guilty about it) as multiple other people continued to trickle into the classroom for the next hour. Clearly, I was not the only person who was late.

I attended four classes this week, but only one professor lectured for the whole three-hour block – ironically enough the class to which I arrived late. The other professors merely introduced course subject, syllabus, and requirements. Apparently, this is a university tradition – neither will anything be taught nor will Masters’ classes actually be held during the first week of any semester. Most students who had actually registered for the classes didn’t even appear. Advantageously, this lack of actual classes left copious amounts of time for basking in the sunshine while drinking tea as well as navigating the treacherous university bureaucracy to determine how to register for a Turkish class (and initially, determine for which course Master’s students are eligible) as well as preparing to tackle the government bureaucracy entangled in attaining residence permits.

Luckily, I was not left alone in my struggles towards creating order within (or mere understanding of) these systems. Over the course of the week, I befriended a number of other foreign Masters students and we have created an informal yet highly functional cohort for navigating course readings, university schedules, government bureaucracy, and mere campus dilemmas (Where should we eat? When will we get our student IDs? Are the official letters needed for our residence permits finished yet?). We are looking out for one another, increasing our individual functionality and, together, are able to laugh about the lack of clarity concerning things like for which Turkish course we are actually eligible (Thankfully, this quandary was resolved last week).

The language of university instruction is English, so course materials, lectures, discussions are all in English. Within administration, however, speaking Turkish is essential for communication and I am happy to have the opportunity to practice my Turkish in such situations, even if 'Turkish' then seems to be based on a significant number of hand gestures. Thankfully after the first few days here, my brain has mostly sorted out the fact that Turkish and Arabic are in fact different languages, and I am no longer constantly trying to speak Arabic with people here.  I am hopeful that a language course at the university will be the perfect venue to review and improve my Turkish parallel to my study of all things related to the Middle East. This semester: Geopolitics (a very cool idea of the study of the effects of geography on international politics), Migration and Transnationality (carrying out actions across national borders, usually, in this case, as relates to migrants), 20^th century Middle Eastern History and possibly 20^th century history of Iran.

Confronted with these new topics and course readings, I must admit that I happily spent a good portion of my week in the university library. However, I continue slowly exploring the city and will post some additional photos and anecdotes of my adventures in the coming days.

A new adventure

This blog was born in July 2011, in the months before I began working with the Kindertreff afterschool program in Berlin-Neukölln. Since August 2012, the blog has, however – for various reasons – remained abandoned. In the past months, I have regained an interest in posting. I even possess partially completed blog posts that I have saved among my documents. They were, however, neither completed nor posted. Now, however, the time has come to revive my blog. I am now finally ready to commit to blogging again, at least for a bit.

My adventures in the past year have been many. In October I traveled to Turkey on holiday, but mostly continued working with the Kindertreff through the end of January 2013, when my international placement there came to an end. On February 1, I returned to the U.S. and, having decided not to continue my work with Global Ministries, visited family and friends for a month and a half. From mid-March to mid-August, I lived in Amman, Jordan, where I attended an intensive Arabic language course. After a short stop in the Netherlands, I returned to the U.S. at the beginning of September. Last week I arrived in Ankara, Turkey, which, for the next two years, shall be my new place of residence. These geographical locations and my pursuits in each of them create a framework and a context for the experiences, adventures, challenges and blessings with which I am confronted.

It is impossible to concisely summarize the adventures of the past year, and doing so would not do it justice. Therefore, I shall begin with the present, with my most recent adventure.

The view from campus

I arrived in Ankara just five days ago. Turkey will be my new home as I begin a Master’s degree here in Middle East Studies at the Middle East Technical University (fittingly enough) on the outskirts of the city.  As overwhelming as my commitment to live in a new different foreign country for the coming two years sometimes seems to me, I am very excited by the possibilities that my studies and my life in Turkey hold.

Ankara, to most, is a somewhat emotionless impersonable political capital city, which doesn’t warrant a visit from most of Turkey’s tourists. For those who do decide to venture to Ankara on their journey between Istanbul, Cappadocia and the beaches of Turkey, the most notable stop is Anitkabir, the mausoleum where Atatürk (the founder of the Turkish Republic) is buried. Knowing that this is notably the most important destination for Ankara’s tourists and having spent the past two days at the university registering, I decided to fulfill my touristic duties today and also ventured to Anitkabir.

The hill on which the mausoleum is located advantageously also provides an ideal perspective over the city:

At Anitkabir

Having spent the past months mainly in Amman (population 1 million), I am rediscovering what it is like to live in a large city (Ankara’s population is 4-5 million) and all of the benefits that accompany city life. I am happy to be living in the city, but also to be in an apartment on a hill, a bit removed from the noise, dirt, and direct 'busy-ness' in the city. I am slowly exploring the city and gaining a feel for the streets around my apartment. So far, I think I made the right decision in not bypassing Ankara as most foreigners would, but instead in beginning a slow, committed exploration of the city for the next two years. I am curious to see exactly what I uncover.