Orientation Day 8: Museum of Anatolian Civilizations & Ankara Castle

Monday, September 7, 2015

First things first, happy Labor Day to those back home in America! Hope you are enjoying the long weekend.

On this side of the world, week 2 of Orientation starts today. After a well-rested free day, I woke up refreshed and ready to start. I ate a healthy breakfast  — two boiled eggs, watermelon, wheat bread and butter, simit and Nutella, and orange juice with mint — and  my Turkish homework was completed. I was very awake and made the most of the 3 hours of Turkish lessons this morning. Today, we learned to conjugate verbs and answer questions in proper sentence form. I feel as though I have already mastered half the Turkish vocabulary because Turkish is an agglutinating language, which means letters are added onto root words to form meanings. The books we are using are very comprehensive and do a good job of teaching grammar through lots of visuals and colors. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed by the top-notch materials that the Turkish Fulbright Commission has provided us all, including books, CD's, and a dictionary. I am excited to continue learning Turkish when I get to my host university next week. I hear from former Fulbrighters that Akdeniz University in Antalya provides intensive and comprehensive Turkish lessons that Alex and I can take advantage of.

Baklava, famous Turkish delight.

We went out to lunch this afternoon which was a nice change from the hotel food. Not to sound ungrateful, but I'm getting a bit sick of the hotel selections. We ate inside a museum with food catered from Divan restaurant. I feel like we are being treated like foreign dignitaries with fancy tables and fancy food. The four-course meal; creamy tomato soup with croutons and cheese, spring-roll like delights stuffed with vegetables and pastrami meat, grilled chicken and fried potatoes for the main course, and the famous Turkish sweet, baklava, for dessert. I was stuffed!

We then walked over to the "Museum of Anatolian Civilizations," where I got a deeper understanding of the historical peoples that have preceded the present-day Turks. The museum is built on the historical market where tradesmen and their animals would rest before continuing on their journeys. The Ottoman Empire covered the costs of lodging and food for up to three days, and Angora (former name of Ankara) was a major stop on the trade route from east to west and north to south.

Vase depicting ancient wedding festivities.

Anatolia is a land rich with historical settlements and is therefore a popular archaeological site. The tour guide quickly walked us through the history of different civilizations in 20 minutes using an interactive map on a touch-screen. The geographic maps changed as she clicked on these eras: Paleolithic, Neo-Paleolithic, Chalcolithic (copper age), Hittite Empire (unknown where they came from), Phrygians, Assyrians, Lydians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and of course, Turks. We walked around and marveled at the stone tools and animal paintings made by hunters and gatherers; pottery and statues by sedentary peoples; gold jewelry and coins by civilized communities. Archaeologists and museums around the world envy the vase shown on the left because it pictorially depicts the wedding ceremonies of the ancient peoples.

It was interesting to learn how the ancient people's belief system changed over time. For example, hunters and gatherers worshiped animals because animals were different and stronger than humans. In all the cave paintings that have been discovered, archaeologists found animals to be drawn much, much larger than humans, symbolizing animal superiority. The belief system changed when nomadic tribes began to settle down. The sedentary people idolized plump women statues because they symbolized fertility and prosperity, which was important for the survival of a settled community. This symbol evolved once again, when developed communities worshiped skinny women, and the idea of beauty changed. I find it interesting that women, not men, were worshiped. In today’s patriarchal religions, God, gods, and other idols are often men. I am not sure when that switch happened, but I am curious.

Alex, Amer, and I in front of a souvenir shop.

After a group photo outside the museum, we were given two options; to board the bus and head back to the hotel or tour the citadel (Ankara Castle) and find our own transportation back to the hotel. I’m an adventurous person and I like to seize the moment, so I decided to stay behind with the crowd that wanted to climb to the castle. The path to the Ankara Castle was steep and hilly, but so very beautiful. Along the way, there were houses and souvenir shops, children running up and down the alleys, and astray cats meow-ing at the tourists.

When I finally got to the top of the Castle, I was blown away. It was so breathtaking! I don’t know how to describe in words the feeling I had when I saw the entire city of Ankara below me. I was hundreds of feet above ground. I felt like I was on top of the world. And I felt so liberated, free, and happy. In the United States and Guatemala, I have been to really high places, such as monuments and structures that give a fantastic city view, but all of those structures have some sort of protection, either metal bars or glass windows. But on this castle, there was nothing guarding me from the edge. I could take the leap and fall, if I wanted. I could just sit and stare at the red roofs below me. I could stand and stare at the depths of the landscape in front of me. I could do anything a free spirit desired. There was a beautiful breeze that not only weaved through my hair, but also filled my soul like air filling a balloon. I felt at ease.

Here is a short video and some photos I took so you can vicariously experience what I saw on top of the Ankara Castle.

Fulbrighters sitting and enjoying the beautiful city view of Ankara.

With Michael and Alex on top of the Castle with city view in the back.

I was brave enough to sit on the edge of the Castle for this picture.

I felt like I was on top of the world.

Turkish hospitality: çai with two random Turkish ladies.

We then ran into two lovely ladies, with whom we experienced our first Turkish hospitality. They invited us to çai and we practiced our what little Turkish we had learned from our lessons. Despite not being able to understand every Turkish word they were saying, we could understand what they were trying to convey through their body language and facial expressions. The language of humanity is so beautiful—who needs words when you can survive on sounds and gestures? I learned that one lady was from Germany visiting her Turkish friend in Ankara. They showed us photos of their family on their phones, and asked about each of us—where we came from, how old we were, what we were doing in Turkey, how we liked Turkey, etc. As the sun began to set, we attempted once again to walk down the alleyway toward the taxis.

Four girls and I shared a taxi back to the hotel, which means Alex was sitting on the lap of one of the girls sitting in the back. I called the front seat first so I had the pleasure of buckling up my seat belt. Regardless of the seating arrangement, however, all of us engaged with the taxi driver and we experienced our second hospitality of the day. The man was probably in his late 30s or early 40s, very warm, and made all of us laugh. We used the same phrases we had used earlier. When he asked where we needed to go, Alex blurted out “Gule Gule Park” and the man broke out into laughter because “Güle Güle” in Turkish means ‘Goodbye’ and the park near our hotel is actually called Kuğulu Park. Before reaching the hotel, the man placed his right hand over his heart and said in Turkish which I believe was something to this extent of: “No matter where you are from, what is in the heart matters the most.”

Orientation Day 5: History 101 & Turkish Manners

Friday, September 4, 2015

Jummah Mubarak!

Today I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I missed my 7:15am alarm and frantically awoke at 8:32am. In panic, I brushed my teeth, threw on clothes, ran to grab some breakfast, and did my Turkish homework while stuffing watermelon and a boiled egg (I'm usually not a bad student!). I made it to class for Turkish lessons barely in time at 9:02am! Oh, it was brutal. The entire morning felt like a drag. I needed coffee to stay awake and learn the new lessons. We learned how to say different countries, nationalities, and languages, and also how to shop at the market – clearly, a very important dialogue for my next 10 months. Luckily the lessons were for only 2 hours but they felt like an eternity with my constant drowsiness. I could feel my body completely shut down from inside.

I was grateful for a coffee break, when I put more caffeine in my system to help me get through the day. I even ate a biscuit because I had a small breakfast.

We then had a very informative and interesting session by a political scientist, Assistant Professor Ilker Ayturk of the Ihsan Dogramaci Bilkent University, who shared with us the fascinating history of Turkey since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in early 20th century. Unlike the United States, which declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776, the Republic of Turkey transitioned from the crumbling Ottoman Empire and was officially established in 1923. We learned about the War of Independence, battles with Greece, sweeping cultural reforms that transformed Turkish society, and the identity crisis that resulted from these visible (calendar, dress, alphabet, time) and substantive (law, penal ode, Westernization) changes. Turkey is known as the “Cradle of Civilizations” because of its rich diversity of people and cultures—Turks, Greeks, Jews, Arabs, Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis, orthodox, Armenians, Kurds. The “Kemalists” (named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk), who fervently imposed these changes, did not want to repeat the mistakes of the Ottoman Empire and viewed the diversity of its population as a threat to nation-building.

At the same time, there were a good number of people, mainly conservative Muslims, who felt left out of this process and felt they were “wronged” during the formation of the republic. They want modernization but not Westernization and they want to keep Islam and not comprise it. This split in ideology, explained Professor Ayturk, still exists in Turkish politics today. Being the history and political science nerd that I am, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about this process. The professor went on to brief us about contemporary Turkey and important figures such as current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Kurdish issue also resurfaced and I listened carefully to all the viewpoints in the conference room, hoping to learn as much as I can before forming an opinion of my own. The professor encouraged us to stay current on Turkish politics, especially with an election approaching in November.

The next two sessions were not quite as interesting but important nonetheless. They were “English training sessions” which taught us how to use the course book, design adapting new materials, and knowing the responsibilities of teachers and students in Turkey.

The day ended on a lighter, much more entertaining note. An elegant lady by the name Ms. Ayşen Yücel led the “Turkish Way of Living” workshop, which gave us a flavor of do’s and don’ts of living in Turkey. It was essentially a run-down of the mannerism of Turkish culture. I found many of them to be similar to the Pakistani culture in which I grew up during the early party of my childhood, and still experience at home. I’ll quickly summarize them here in bullet format:

• Sharing is caring – never return an empty plate
• Bring a gift if invited to dinner
• Take shoes off before entering the house
• Football is always a conversation starter
• Don’t leave early from a party – hosts might think you dislike them
• Common to spay a few drops of cologne on your hands and run on your arms if the hosts offers it to you
• Turkish way of bathing and refreshing is at a “hamam” (similar to a spa)
• The Evil Eye – not superstitious but a cultural belief in the negative intentions of others towards you.
• Buy a little magic blue bead to save you from the evil eye and say “MashAllah” after all good things
• Traffic is really dangerous – be very careful
• Always a good idea to dress conservatively if you’re not sure if the city/region where you at is liberal or not
• Tipping – don’t have to tip taxis, but yes to barbers and waiters
• No (french) kissing in the public – when greeting someone, you match the cheeks and kiss the open air on both sides
• People do not respect personal space
• Some men do not prefer to shake ladies’ hands
• Know special holidays such as  Ramazan Bayrami (Eid al-Fitr), Kurban Bayrami (Eid al-Adha), November 10 – Commemoration of Ataturk (he died on this day in 1938), and a few others
• Try Turkish drinks such as çai (pronounced chai), ayran (like Pakistani lassi, blended yogurt with water and ice), Turkish coffee, soda (mineral water)
• Raki – Turkish alcoholic drink, but drink with lots of water because it is highly concentrated
• Simit – bagel-like donut made of bread and sesame seeds
• Foods – şiş kebap (sheesh kebab) originally Turkish, salata (salad) eaten during main course not before, Adana has the best kebaps
•  “Afieyt olsun” (“have a good meal”) is wished before, during, after the meal
• Avoid certain gestures which she demonstrated to us – which was hilarious

Orientation Day 4: Atatürk Mausoleum & More Turkish

Thursday, September 3, 2015

With Alex in front of the mausoleum.

Merhaba

Today's agenda began with a trip to the Mausoleumof Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the highly revered founder of Turkey. The word "Atatürk literally means the "father of Turks" and no one in the country can ever posses that surname; not even his sister was allowed to take it on. Like most founders of countries, prior to becoming a highly esteemed leader of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Pasha was an army general and war hero. The mausoleum/museum covers 700 square meters which includes a Peace Park. It was really amazing to see how much Turks honor this great man, who was also a well-known international figure. I have read about Atatürk the Great only in history books, but experiencing the mausoleum was surreal and enriching. 
 

In front of one of the many portraits of Atatürk.

After seeing the mausoleum where Atatürk's tomb is buried and guarded by two soldiers who are required to stand still for 4 hours at a time (they can die, but if they move, there are huge ramifications), we proceeded to the underground museum. I am a history buff and I loved all the historical facts that the tour guide was sharing with us. For the first section of the museum, cameras and videos were forbidden. In this special hallway,  portraits of Atatürk from his presidency lined on the right hand side while personal belongings and special gifts from foreign leaders were displayed on the left. A personal belonging that I found particularly interesting was a side-by-side comparison of Atatürk's old passport in Arabic (from the Ottoman Empire) and a new passport in Turkish (derived from the Latin alphabet). Gifts such as swords, pens, cigar boxes, and smoking pipes decorated in jewels and gold were an awe-inspiring sight.

Atatürk introduced Latin alphabet for modern Turkish.

The second section of the museum was filled with 3-D panoramas of famous battles, portraits of all the past leaders of Turkey, sculptures, a library, and numerous exhibits describing Turkish history and Atatürk's reforms of modernization. I didn't have enough time to read through all the captivating artifacts and historical documents, but I was and still am the most fascinated by how Atatürk was able to, overnight, change the language of a nation that was used to a particular way of speaking, writing, and communicating for centuries. "Overnight" is an exaggeration of course, but the new Latin alphabet, introduced in 1928 thereby abolishing the Arabic script, was implemented in a matter of only 2-5 years. Two to five years. That's unbelievable, and my mind my blown just thinking about that fact alone. The tour guide said that this reform helped resolve the literacy problem in Turkey; literacy rate jumped from 10% to 70% and the adaption of the new alphabet was very quick. Still, can you imagine if President Obama tried to solve the American "literary problem" by adopting a new alphabet (that he handpicks) and imposes it on the entire nation? It's mind blowing.

 

Role of women during the war for freedom.

There were many beautiful paintings decorated throughout the museum. The one showcasing the role of women during war and battles was one of my favorite ones because it brought attention to the important role that women play during wartime, which is often neglected and unrecognized (universally true). In this painting, you can see the colorful clothing that women are wearing (very similar to Pakistani salwar kameez) and a day at the local shop.

After a lunch break, we had a session on the responsibilities of an ETA and how to make English teaching fun in the classroom. Then we plunged into three hours of Turkish lessons. Today I learned numbers, singular/plural tenses of nouns, and practiced more basic dialogues such as "Hi my name is Mariya, what's yours? How are you? How old are you? Where are you from?" I made the class giggle when I accidentally responded with a "si" (Spanish word for yes) to the teacher's question. I did this again later in the classroom when I was struggling to come up with a phrase and I turned to my teacher and said "Como se dice?" ("How do you say ____" in Spanish). My brain is trying to make sense the linguistic interaction between Urdu, Spanish, English, and Arabic. This means I'll either learn Turkish really fast or I will fail at it because there's too much mumble jumble in my head. Only one way to find out: HOMEWORK! Off I go.