Orientation Day 2: Briefings & Turkish Lessons

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

On day 2 of Orientation, we were welcomed by special guests from the Turkish Fulbright Commission, U.S. Embassy in Ankara, and the Turkish Council of Higher Education. But the day mainly consisted of briefings from State Department officials. During the "Turkish and U.S. General Overview," it was interesting to learn that there was a 73% unfavorable view of US among Turks in 2014, and that number has been pretty consistent over the past decade. Despite this, however, NATO member Turkey is a strong ally of the United States especially for its strategic geographic location to Afghanistan, the Balkans, Libya, Somali (piracy issue), Iran, and Syria. We were also encouraged to learn more about the party system as the Turkish presidential election approaches in November. One party in particular, the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party), an insurgent group demanding separation from Turkey to form Kurdistan, was called out as a terrorist organization. This drew lots of questions from the audience, and I quickly realized that the minority Kurds were a contentious topic in Turkish politics.

One brave Fulbright student sincerely asked an interesting question for which he apologized but said he was genuinely curious to know. It caught everyone off guard. "You said that the United States defines terrorists as those who use violence to achieve political ends, but doesn't the United States  also use violence or enable organizations/rebel groups that support such means?" The State Department officials answered very diplomatically and said it was a complicated question because there are many definitions of terrorism and multiple schools of thought on how to define the word/concept. The room became silent and the topic later became a dinner conversation.

During the "Security Briefing", perhaps the most engaging of the presentations, we were advised about taking general precautions about our safety when interacting with locals (watch out for pick-picketers), being outside (carry a copy of passport at all times), (not) participating in political rallies, and regional travel (avoid southeast). The terror threat level in Turkey, as ranked by the U.S. State Department, is critical because of transnational and indigenous terrorists while crime threat is low. Everyone scribbled the emergency phone numbers at the end of that presentation.

During the "Health Briefing," they cautioned us to drink only bottled water, be careful of bugs outside, and to always keep an emergency and insurance cards on us at all times. The "911" version of Turkey is 155 for police and 112 for medical emergencies.

The "American Citizen Services" was dry and simply told us about what the U.S. embassy can do for us while we are abroad such as passport renewals, etc. One cool thing to note is that after January 1, 2016, they are no longer adding additional pages to passport books for anyone; you are required to get a new one. I think it would be wise to add a few more pages to my passport...

The 12-member Turkish Fulbright Commission then had a 30-minute panel about who they are and what they do; they manage and coordinate various the exchange programs. After a lovely coffee/tea break, we had three hours of Turkish language instruction! I was placed in a beginner class and my teacher only spoke in Turkish, forcing us to figure out what she was saying. We learned how to say the following phrases:

• Hello, my name is __, what is your name?
• How are you doing? I'm doing well.
• How old are you? I am ___ years old.

Here is a short video of me practicing my very first Turkish phrase later that night.

Görüsürüz!

Orientation Day 1: Welcome & Cultural Openness

For the next two weeks, about 130 students including myself are participating in the Turkish Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) Orientation. This number includes 90 new ETAs, about 15 renewal grantees, and staff advisers. I am quite impressed by how well-organized and structured it is. The Turkish Fulbright Commission (TFC) sure knows what they're doing. I prefer not to bore you with everything I'm learning during Orientation, but I'll try to briefly summarize each day.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Our welcome bag full of teaching & learning materials.

After sleeping in and taking lunch, we were welcomed by the TFC's program coordinator with whom we had been in touch via email countless times. We all received a tote bag full of "goodies" such as our orientation schedule, Turkish lesson books, English teaching books, and a notepad. After the warm remarks, we were divided into groups and played getting-to-know -- human knot, musical performances -- and I felt like I was at Bowdoin's freshman orientation again. Then, after sipping on some tea, we all took a Turkish Lesson placement test which I completely failed because I know zero Turkish. This is an ambitious goal but I hope to be fluent by the end of the program. As Baba always says, where there is a will, there is a way.

The day proceeded with a wonderful presentation from a group called Youth for Understanding. The presentation was engaging, intellectually stimulating, and quite reflective. We talked about how the definition of 'normal' varies from society to society, how stereotypes about nations and groups of peoples can lead to misconceptions, and how everything one does in their way of life is related to the culture in which they live. We then completed a group activity in which we were asked us to draw images that come to mind when we think of 'Turkey'. Each group had to present and explain their drawings; however, here are a few of the common images that appeared on almost everyone's posters:

• Ataturk
• Istanbul
• tea
• smoking
• pomegranate 
• homeless cats
• football (soccer)
• Ottoman Empire
• hot air balloon
• crescent/star on the flag symbolizing Islam
• the evil eye
• kebabs
• mosques
• rugs

Check out my group's poster compared to a slide that the presenter shared about how Turks stereotype America. On his slide were images of hamburger, Presidnet Obama, Nike, Statue of Liberty, fat man representing obesity, football, Ben Franklin, The White House, Hollywood sign, American flag, and baseball, among others. He joked that we should blame Hollywood if the images do not accurately reflect the U.S.

"Culture is like an iceberg"
I found this analogy to be quite resonating. Things like food, clothing, religion, and language are easily visible from the top, but what lies underneath -- the bigger part of what makes a culture so unique -- are values and attitudes towards time, leadership, family, history, and political ideologies, just to name a few. The presenter, a 20-year-old youth, demonstrated Turkish values by showing us binary comparisons of what different societies value. Here are a few things I jotted in my notes. In Turkish culture...

• "we" is more important than "I" -- family, friends, tribes, city affiliation and networks matter (compared to the individualistic Western societies)
• punctuality is not important -- a meeting at 14.00 means it starts at 14.20
• a party is enjoyed with everyone, not divided
• elderly life consists of spending time with children and grandchildren, not walking a dog alone
• there is a boss, a leader for everything -- hierarchy is important and respected
• restaurants are loud
• hospitality is critical
• people talk more than listen -- interrupting others is common
• instead of resolving conflicts, Turks avoid the problem and forget about it a few days later
• people are closely connected; everyone knows someone through some connect -- the taxi driver knows the friend of the friend of the neighbor's son
• ego has little significance...people are not pigheaded
• no one stands in a line, people are impatient -- HA! I know this was a Turkish thing!
• Turks never get to the point; complexity of self expression
• people don't show/display anger or sorrow -- they may be smiling on the outside but really sad on the inside, they don't like to draw pity or attention

The presenter left us with four pieces of advice:
1) Try new things, be adventurous and step outside of your comfort zones
2) Don't hesitate to get help from locals, everyone is very nice here
3) Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty, it's the best way to learn
4) Learning the language will provide you with a deeper understanding of Turkish culture

Adapting to Time, Tea, Olives, and More

I wanted to jot down a quick post about things I am learning and adapting to:

1) Turks use military time. Instead of 2:30pm to denote the afternoon, they use 14:30. I know it's simple math to add the numbers to hours past noon, but I have found myself counting on my hands to make sure I am accurately keeping track of time. So odd to see 19:00 marked for a 7pm dinner call. But fear not, I shall soon be an expert.

2) Turks use British style to denote dates. In America, we would denote September 1, 2015 in short date as 9/1/2015 (month first, day second, year third), but Turks use the British style of 1/9/2015 (day first, month second, year third). For single digit days and months, this is really confusing. My brain is trying to learn new faces, names, Turkish words, and now a new way of arranging numerics. The funny thing is that Pakistan also uses DD/MM/YYYY format so I remember learning to write dates that way when I went to school there as a little girl.

3) Turks don't wait for their turn. I experienced this when I attempted to apply for my visa in the Boston Consulate office, and I experienced it again at the Istanbul airport. There is no respect for waiting for your turn to be helped. Turks love cutting lines, asking their questions, and interrupting someone else being helped. I found this to be extremely frustrating at the airport because I was frantic about missing my domestic flight from Istanbul to Ankara and I expected to be served with proper customer service. I quickly realized that was the American in me and I needed to keep an open mind to fully experience Turkey.

4) Turks love tea. There's no freshly brewed coffee; they use powdered/crushed coffee beans which they mix with boiling water, milk, and sugar. Tea, on the other hand, is widely enjoyed here. We have tea/coffee breaks scheduled twice a day for our Orientation. Not to mention the assortment of cookies they offer reminds me of Pakistani bakeries.

5) Turks love olives. Like tea, olives are also very enjoyed here. Turks love all kinds of olives; black, red, green, other colors. At the Niza Park Hotel, olives are served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I have made it my goal to eat at least three black olives a day. This reminds of my Boston roommate Abi who used to indulge in a can of black olives with me. Did you know that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of olives make them a natural for protection against cancer?  Looks like I'll be eating healthily here!

6) Turkish money is called lira but the acronym TL is pronounced "Tay-lay". The subunit of a Turkish lira is kuruş (pronounced ko-roosh), just like cents are the subunit of a dollar. One Turkish lira is equal to 100 kuruş. So far, I've only seen 1 Turkish lira coins and I'm not sure if they have coins for kuruş. That is all on this one, just a cool cultural thing I thought I'd share since currency is kind of important :)

Niza Park Otel

We are staying at a fancy hotel here in Ankara. It appears that the Turkish Fulbright Commission has been using this hotel for quite some time now. The staff are mentally prepared to host 150 scholars and the conference rooms are set up with Fulbright signs everywhere.

I'm going to keep this post short and show you through pictures where I am staying. The food is absolutely delicious and the amount of options are overwhelming. Enjoy!

PS - I did not misspell hotel, it is actually called "otel" in Turkish.

More info on the hotel is here: http://www.ankaranizapark.com. 

Sharing a room with a lovely girl from MA.

 

Journey to Ankara

There are two take-away's from this post:

• First, that I am safely in my final destination of Ankara, alhamdulillah.
• Second, the journey was quite bumpy and interesting. See below for the three legs of my journey.

IAD (Dulles), 9:30pm to CDG (Paris), 11am
After saying goodbye to my family, I waited at my gate for an hour. An Air France staff lady walked around the waiting area looking for volunteers to check in additional carry-on items for free; I gladly gave up my carry-on, becoming a minimalist traveling only with my backpack which held my laptop, wallet, and journal. For the first time in my life, I had a seat near the emergency exit. I was promised extra leg room in exchange for guiding passengers safely to the exit in case of an actual emergency. There were two ladies who accompanied me in that role. To my left sat an African woman who was traveling to Mali for a peacekeeping mission for the UN, and to my right sat a white woman who had a cold. The worst part about this 8-hour flight was that I may have caught the white lady's germs. I did watch Legally Blonde 2 and The Queen though, which was a good balance between fun and serious movies, and helped me not think about the germs I was breathing. I'm very germophobic.

CDG (Paris), 12:35pm to IST (Istanbul), 16:55

A view of mountains while flying to Istanbul.

This was a very troubling flight. It was late, I felt sick on it, and there was an unusual passenger on board. While waiting at the gate, I ran into another Fulbrighter headed to Turkey. She was also Pakistani like me and therefore we bonded over our desi culture. But as we started boarding, we heard screaming from the back of the 25-row plane. At first I thought someone was getting medical assistance, but as I made my way towards my seat in the 20th row, I saw two French police officers holding down an Arab-looking man. When I put my backpack in the overhead compartment, I could see that the Arab man was handcuffed. He was yelling at the top of his lungs, repeating the same two phrases. I can't remember what he was saying, but I remember hearing the word "Hezbollah" a few times. I felt nervous and uneasy being seated so close to him. The Pakistani girl was seated in row 24, and she was even more scared than I was, so she asked that I sit with her. As a good friend, I agreed to be supportive. In row 24, we both sat directly across from what appeared to be a detainee, literally 3 feet away. As he screamed and banged his head against the seat, I couldn't help but stare. I felt nauseous, jet-lagged, hungry, sick, and sleepy; and now, very uncomfortable because of what I witnessed. After everyone was seated, the French steward noticed us turning completely yellow and he moved us to seats towards the front of the plane. I felt better about my new window seat, but still had a ranging headache as I tried to make sense of my sniffles and what was happening. As soon as we were served lunch (best plane food I have ever eaten, by the way! - mushroom/mozzarella cheese hot pocket sandwich, bread with brie cheese, pasta with salmon, and a chocolate brownie!), I took two pills of Advil-like pain killer medicine and slept like a baby. I managed to snap a picture from my window seat during landing. Enjoy the pretty mountains! (Unfortunately I don't know what mountain range that is.)

IST (Istanbul), 19:35 to ESD (Ankara), 21:02
Istanbul was a mad house! I felt like an ant squirming in an ant house or a dirt hole, pushing over other ants to move ahead. Needless to say, it was the most stressful airport experience of my journey. I had to single-handedly retrieve my luggage and recheck it for a domestic flight. This was not an easy task. My first challenge was getting a cart; I didn't have any Euros and the currency exchange line was huge. I decided to offer the lady in line ahead of me Turkish lira for a Euro coin; much to my surprise, she was very kind and gave me the coin for free! So glad to know goodness still exists in the world. I proceeded to my luggage claim area, which was the furthest station in the airport. Just my luck. With God's grace, I got all my luggage and exited the "international" section of the Istanbul Ataturk Airport and proceeded to the "domestic" section. This is where things were haywire. It was very disorganized and people were rushing in every direction. I managed to finally find Turkish Airlines desk and waited in line to book my luggage and get my boarding pass. Not only did people cut me in line, which I found to be rude and frustrating, I had to pay again to check my luggage, which as you know I despise. The man who was helping me could not speak any English, and I encountered my first gesticulating experience. He gave me a receipt with luggage weight printed on it and instructed me to go make a payment at the sales desk; noting that he would withhold my passport until I do so. What a hassle, and how inconvenient. I had to make my way back through squirming ants, wait in another line at the sales office, and pay approximately $60 in Turkish lira. After my first successful Turkish lira transaction, I went back to the short man at the Turkish Airlines desk, gave him my receipt of payment, and he finally issued me my boarding pass. Many people asked him questions while he was helping me and I exercised my patience skills.

When I found my domestic flight's gate, I found a huddle of young people sitting in a circle on the floor. Such an American thing to do at airports, and at once, I knew that was the Fulbright bunch. I chatted with them, made new friends, and waited for the flight to Ankara with dry eye contacts and an exhausted body. The food on the flight was eggplant sauce and a turkey sandwich -- ha, I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a punny joke on their part. The domestic flight was quick, maybe 40 minutes but the landing was atrocious. Instead of a smooth "woosh", the plane landed with a big "THUMP". Luckily we were all safe.

Ankara to Hotel
Like a sheep following a herd, all passengers getting off the Ankara flight went to the first sign that said "baggage claim". What many people missed, including myself and all my fellow Fulbright peers, was that there were two baggage claim areas -- an international one, and a domestic one. So where does everyone go? To the wrong baggage claim. For some people who were able to book their luggage directly to Ankara, the international baggage claim area was the correct place to be. But for majority of us, we waited like fools in the international section not realizing that our baggage was actually in the domestic area since our flight was coming from Istanbul. These are real life experiences, people. It would help if I knew some Turkish -- inshAllah, soon I will. At about 23rd hour (11pm), a group of of us found our luggage, took the Belko Air bus to the hotel (very fancy and comfortable for only 8 TL ~ $2.50), got off at a big station, took a taxi that drove 100mph without seat belts, and reached our destination, the fancy Niza Park Hotel, at 12:30am. My phone battery was at 3% and the first thing I did when I got into my room was charge it and let my family know I had safely arrived.

Why do airports make you cry?

August 29, 2015

Today is my last day in the U.S. and it has been a pretty hectic one. I woke up two whole hours earlier than my normal summer hour, noon, and finished packing. My older sister took me to the mall to get comfortable Nike shoes, but malls over the weekends are crowded and it took us longer than we had anticipated. Nonetheless, we got home in a timely fashion, ate Mom's delicious chicken biryani, and got ready. As per tradition, my family took photos and then we all prayed for my safe journey. Around 5:30pm, we hit the road for Dulles airport.

I'm flying Air France from DC to Istanbul, with a quick layover in Paris. I packed two checked luggage, one carry-on, and a backpack. Luckily my first checked luggage was free, but the second one cost $100. There's nothing in the world I hate more than luggage fees. But alas, such is life. And no, this is not what made me cry at the airport.

Next, my parents and my younger sister went to the exchange booth because I wanted to have some Turkish lira on me before I got to the country. The current rate in the market is 2.91 lira per dollar; but the guy at the booth cheated us and gave us 2.51 lira per dollar, in addition to charging us a $10 service fee. Baba was not happy about this, and I rolled my eyes in frustration. There are some things in life that you just have to accept; sadly, a corrupt world is one of them. Again, no tears here.

The Departure Gates. That's where it happened.

There was a man standing in front of the big sign labeled "All Departure Gates." His job is to check boarding passes and only let traveling passengers through, which means he probably witnesses a lot of emotional moments. What a tough job! Speaking of emotional moments, my family and I had mine. My mom started crying, which made me cry, and we shared a warm hug for a good two minutes. Then I turned around, and saw Baba teary-eyed, and I hugged him goodbye too. Last time I saw Baba cry was when he dropped me off at Bowdoin College back in August 2009. Finally, I hugged my airport photographer, my sister Laraib and proceeded towards the man witnessing the scene. I didn't want to look back but I couldn't help it. I waved my family a final goodbye, took a huge breath (which helped clear out the emotions), and went down the escalators.

Saying goodbye to my family at Dulles Int'l Airport.

There's something about airports that just brings choking tears to people's eyes. I don't know what it is. Maybe they spray something special in airports to make sure eyes water up. Parting from family members, regardless of the occasion, is very symbolic and often emotional. I told my mom she had nothing to worry about because I would be back in 9 months, and she and Baba would be visiting me in a few months too - that we will all be reunited in just a matter of short time. This didn't console her much because I knew the thought that was lingering in her mind -- it was the same one that lingered in my mind. The thought that no one likes to admit but expresses with their tears: what if there is no next time? What if this is it, this is the last time you see your family?

As scary as that thought may be, I'm an optimist so I like to think the best of every situation. I am confident that my travels will be safe and that I will return to the USA in one piece, inshAllah. That said, there was one last thing that made me cry at the airport: I badly chipped my left thumb's nail, so much so that it bled a little. It must have happened at some point while I was handling luggage. I didn't have clippers on me, so a bandaid did the trick.

Some News

First, some good news: I got my work visa on Monday! Woo! I'm so happy to check that off my list. It's a huge relief. I went to the Turkish Embassy on Monday, August 3rd between 9am and 1pm, just as the shrewd lady had advised. When I picked up my passport, the lady handed me a receipt and quickly bid me adieu. While I've had warmer encounters, that morning, I was just happy I got my vize.

Second, some okay news: I've started packing a little bit, but not too much. I can't decide what clothes to take, what items to leave behind, what can be bought in Turkey (like shampoo and soap) and what cannot (apparently index cards). I'm not sure if I should pack some American board games like 'Apples to Apples' or 'Uno' -- would my students even enjoy them? One of my roles as a Fulbright Scholar is to serve as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Hmm, I need to think some more about how I can best convey the values of America while still keeping the classes fun and engaging. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any!

Third, some exciting news (saved the best for the last): I have received my flight itinerary from the Turkish Fulbright Commission. It's official -- I am flying out on Saturday, August 29th! I will be having a small layover in Le France before arriving to my final destination of Istanbul. In talking to other Turkey Fulbright scholars on Facebook, looks like we are all arriving to Istanbul around the same time. All of us will then have a connecting flight to Ankara, where we will have a two-week Orientation. In preparation for the intensive Orientation, I have checked out some books from the library to learn some Turkish phrases.

This is all becoming real, slowly by slowly. I suppose you can say the countdown has begun.