video upload difficulties

I am encountering some difficulties with uploading .AVI video files to the internet.  If anyone has any insights, please let me know.  Facebook and Blogger are affected.

Türkiye, Türks, and the Flag

As a political science student, I am particularly interested in peoples’ political self-identity.  One thing that I usually am struck by as an American is how we put the American flag on anything that stands still.  I think a lot of it stems from our self-identity as a nation in the aftermath of World War II.  But this has really been highlighted when I’ve been abroad by other countries’ reticence to plaster their national flag everywhere.  A great example is Germany which until the 2006 World Cup was almost ashamed to display the flag in public; and Spaniards still don’t display their flag as prominently as a consequence of the dictatorship. 

So I was really surprised when I came to Turkey to see the Turkish flag everywhere!  Turks are very proud of the Turkish state and its relatively recent founding.  Kamal Ataturk is everywhere in public life (blog post on that is in the works) and the flag is further expression of this pride.

But this flag pride has been heightened in the last week by two incidents.  A week ago, 8 soldiers were killed by the PKK – a terrorist Kurdish separatist group operating in the extreme south east of Turkey and the north west of Iraq.  And then on Friday, a Turkish Fighter jet was shot down with 2 pilots by Syria.  These two incidents have caused even more flags to appear, and it will be interesting to see how long this lasts. 

But this is one of those little things that you notice but can’t put a finger on and then, suddenly, you see it.  And Turks’ pride over their flag and their country is a very noticeable part of their self-constructed identity.

So....What do you actually do?

To spare everyone, I gave my sort of day-by-day account to a separate post (you may now breathe your sigh of relief.)  I’ll just run through what we did briefly, but I’ve been busy.

6/8         Leave Washington DC

6/9         Arrive in Bursa, and arrive in Alaşar at around 10p.

6/10       Orientation at TÖMER in the morning.  In the evening, Mehmet, Yağmur, and I went to the Bursa Zoo and to the large city park (think Grant Park in Chicago).  On Sunday, many urban apartment families will spend the evening outside.  But the picnics are both in the park, but more strangely, can be on the grassy medians of the parking lot.  We also noticed people using the grassy areas in highway interchanges as parks.  It seems strange at first, but there is a certain sense to it, especially in Istanbul with green space at such a premium. 

6/11       Was a testing day at TÖMER.  I was exempt haha!  We all met our buddies in the afternoon and grabbed lunch together.  But in the evening, I had my first experience of çay fuelled late night conversation.  It was really a blast.  I love communicating with people, and it really is just fun for me.

6/12       First day of class which was interesting.  Turkish is very different from the languages that I know, and it was frustrating starting from complete scratch.  But in the evening Mehmet, Yağmur, Ece and I went to Kulturpark (an area that is comparable to Tivoli in Copenhagen.  Part amusement park, part park-park) where for a modest entrance fee – around 12 cents US – we went to dinner and rode on a little roller coaster.  It is much easier to enjoy Bursa in the late afternoon and evening, so this made for a nice night.

6/13       After class, I went with Favziye and her friend Mavre (it almost sounds like “mary”) to explore historic Bursa.  My feet still hurt.  It was probably about 6-7 miles in 39 C with most of it uphill.  But we saw Ulu Cami (U-lu Ja-mee), the oldest and biggest mosque in the city.  We saw the Osman citadel in the city that commanded the heights, and from there I could really see over the city.  It’s really big and just busy.  Then we walked clear to the other side of the city to see the best mosque and mausoleum complex in the city, Yeşil Cami (Yes- sheel Ja-mee) or Green Mosque.  Maybe better described as blue, the building itself really is spectacular and the view is exceptional.  Of course, I forgot my camera, but I promise I will take pictures and post them. 

There were also two beverage firsts for me yesterday.  The first was my first Ayran, a very popular beverage that every Turk drinks but has a mixed review among Americans.  Ayran is a mixture of yogurt, water, and salt which my travel book describes as “refreshing.”  I think I fall in the middle on this.  I had it and it did not taste like death as one student warned, but I wouldn’t order it again.  Something about the salt plus sourness from the yogurt plus the extreme heat just made it unpleasant.  My other first was my first kahve which was delightful.  After drinking up, Favziye, Mavre, and I tried to find shapes in the dregs like looking at clouds.  Loads of fun after a hot sweaty day of hiking. 

The day ended rather abruptly, however, as I missed the last minibus back to Alaşar.  Favziye called Mehmet to explain in Turkish what happened.  I ended getting in a different minibus that ran kind of near Alaşar and giving my cell to the driver so Mehmet could explain.  But it worked.  I was home around 10:30 and starving.  After dinner, it was homework, çay, and conversation with Mehmet, Ahmet, Safiye, and Ece. 

Tomorrow, I will be back with Favziye and Mavre to watch her friend graduate and then we will go out.  I’m looking forward to seeing what we will do because I don’t really have any idea what to expect.  Then on Saturday, TÖMER students and their buddies are all going up the cable car on Uludağ (where it can be 15 F cooler and which has a permanent snow cap) for a picnic and game day.  We are all looking forward to it very much.  Then finally next Wednesday, the TÖMER leader is giving a tour of the old city that is only for beginners, so I will be going back to the Osman center (with camera this time haha!) and I plan to post pictures next week. 

But that’s been my time so far and the near future.  Busy and hot – Favziye finds it hysterical that Sıcak (hot) was the first word I learned in Turkey – are the order of the day.  But I am beginning to kind of communicate and I look forward to improving. 

As always, comment and keep reading, and I promise to bring my camera with me from now on.

Life in Turkey

Daily life for me has three main places to it.  First is the city of Bursa in general.  I will get out and about in the city, and while I look forward to some travel, I’m pretty tied to the city during the week.  Second is Alaşar where I actually live.  And third is the TÖMER Institute where I study.

Alaşar is a small little town, but I spend time with the family in the home, and it is lovely.  All our food is homemade (cheese; yogurt; the ubiquitous Turkish salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, and spicy peppers; eggs, olives, etc.) and the farm is shady (vital when it’s 40 C like it is every day) and quiet as compared to Bursa.  Plus we are a little less polluted which just feels clean. 

In the evening, we’ll have dinner and then sit around drinking çay (chay or tea) which, contrary to the common perception is the national drink, not kahve (coffee).  I really have a good situation, and I am very glad.  Ahmet – the father – is very curious about very specific aspects of American life (car companies, whether Americans dance at weddings, and what our circumcision parties are like – in Turkey, it takes place around age 10 and is celebrated like a bar mitzvah – are all representative of Ahmet’s interests).  Safiye is more interested in my interest in languages (her son is beginning to learn English, and she wants him to pursue language study.) 

When we sit around, there are several dictionaries (Mehmet’s English is quite good and Yağmur’s is also pretty good.  Safiye can also speak some, but it is limited.  That being said, neither the parents nor grandparents speak English, but I am getting better with them.  In any case, conversations happen at night with çay; and it’s generally just a pleasant way to spend the evening. 

The main part of my life here, though, is the TÖMER (toer-mehr) Institute.  It is a program of Ankara University, and the first of its kind in Turkey, to systematically teach foreign languages.  It is amazing that every day when I walk in, there is another student in our class from another part of the world.  Two Afghanis were in our class today, for example.  Learning Turkish has 3 aspects to it in our program.  The first is class work.  Our CLS group is divided into 4 skill-levels with mine having 8 students.  We spend 4 hours per day in class – 160 hours in 8 weeks.  The second aspect of the program is being partnered with a “buddy,” a Turk who is somewhere between someone paid to be my friend and a tutor.    My buddy is named Favziye (fahfv-zi-ye) and she is a 22 year old student at Uludağ Universitesi, and is very good.  We explore together, and generally expose me to Turkish Culture.  I’ll get into what we do in the next post.  The third aspect of the program is the most obvious: immersion.  By living in Turkey and thinking in Turkish, students use their claas work in real situations. 

TÖMER is a wonderful place that really takes care of us.  We are in class from 9-1 and have programming in the afternoon two days a week.  These can be excursions (Izik, better known as Nicea is nearby), cultural activities such as a paper marbling class, or mini cultural trips like to museums. 

In all, I’m very busy, but enjoying myself!  Please comment and keep reading!

Welcome to Türkiye

Merhaba all,

I know I haven’t written for a bit, but I’ve been getting my feet in Bursa (and a wifi connection for the laptop is a 25 min bus ride away haha!)  But a quick update.  I left DC on the 8^th and arrived in Turkey on the 9^th.  Two flights: DC-Munich & Munich-Istanbul.  From there, we hopped on a bus to a ferry for a three hour drive to Bursa.  If not for the bus, Istanbul is only an hour and a half from Bursa, but what can you do? 

In Bursa I live with a family of a 24 y/o son, Mehmet Memiş; two parents; and the Mehmet’s paternal grandparents.  Mehmet’s married sister, Safiye is often with us during the evening as well along with her son who’s 7, another cousin Ece (ay-zheh), and Mehmet’s girlfriend Yağmur.  We live about 25 minutes away from the city center in a village called Alaşar (al-ah-shar).  The father and grandfather are both orchard farmers with 300 Olive trees, plus almond, walnut, mulberry, lemon, green fig, black fig, plum, and cherry trees.  Then in the garden are these vicious peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, parsley, mint, grapes, and lots of other garden vegetables that I couldn’t recognize.  Plus the chickens running around and the giant carp in the fountain.  So I live on what could safely be described as a farm, and it is wonderful!  It is far enough outside the city to escape but close enough to be accessible.

Bursa is a fascinating city.  As the first Osman (Ottoman) capital, it is very historic.  It was traditionally known for its weaving (especially silk) and for being an oasis west of the interior of Turkey.  Bursa is known as Yişil (green) Bursa because it really is green.  The city is dominated by Uludağ (U-lu­-da’a.  Literally: great/historic mountain) which is the source of several springs, both cold and hot. 

In 1970, Bursa had about 200 thousand people.  Today, it has 2.5 million, and is known for manufacturing.  Fiat has a factory, and there are many other car companies here.  The city is also home to many soft drink and bottling companies, drawn to the spring water and the industrial infrastructure already in place.  With all this manufacturing, the pollution is pretty bad, but the mountain really makes up for it, even if it’s smoggy.   

So this is the quick over view of where I live, but I hope you keep reading to see some of what I actually do haha!

Görüşürüz! (see you later!)

Waiting in line, waiting in the airport

Well, I'm in the airport.  Security was very fast, and once my privacy was violated for all to see (wear clean underwear folks) I was through.  Several internet issues followed (dear NYTimes, I totally have an account) but they are now all fixed, and I'm getting ready for the flight.  We board in.....two and a half hours! Until then, I'm gunna read.

Hi all,

Apologies for my lack of posts, but I actually developed Strep here in D.C. so I have a good reason to be incommunicado.  But there are a few things that are especially note worthy.  First, I am a huge fan of corned beef hash.  It's delicious.  And we went to a restaurant called Ted's Bulletin which makes homemade, chunky corned beef hash.  The potatoes are herb roasted, and its just generally delicious.  Go check it out.  Just very memorable.  The smaller second note is that fresh, in season softshell crab, crabcakes, and raw clams make a delightful Chesapeake dinner.  Hands down.

But as we speak, I'm in the hotel, prepping to leave TOMORROW for Turkey! We've been meeting all day as a group for orientation, and it's been fun meeting everyone going to bursa with me.  I'm very excited, and feeling a little better that I'm not the only novice going.

After some last minute errands, I'm back in the room, just resting my throat.  It's still pretty raw.  We leave the hotel tomorrow at noon for the airport, so I'm probably going to call it a night here, but I'll be sure to really kick this into high gear once I'm in Bursa.

Until then,