Today Is the last day of summer (I slept in till 8:30 today and I miss it already). Tomorrow I start working at the embassy here in Ankara, and I couldn't be more excited! I'm starting to get to know my surroundings better, and I'm getting used to everything that comes with living on your own in a foreign country. I spent the day today trying to figure out where everything is (moderately successful), and tonight, hopefully I'm getting wifi installed.
But I've out together a compare and contrast of Bursa and Ankara for laughs.
Ankara good: high visibility
Ankara bad: tap water has high levels of lead and other heavy metals
Bursa good: tap water is spring water
Bursa bad: the Turks call it cloudy. It's smog.
I thought that this might make a few people laugh. Ad I don't worry about the water too much. Five liters costs about 80 US cents!
But I think that's all for now. Happy Memorial Day, and wish me luck!
Monday, May 27, 2013
Friday, May 24, 2013
In Ankara!
I write as I sit in the bus terminal in Ankara waiting for my friend Matt to pick me up. I start my internship at the US embassy on Tuesday, and I'm very excited, but before then, I need to find an apartment haha!
All this caps off a week that has been my first real break for quite some time, if by break I mean crash course in refreshing/relearning my Turkish! It was very nice to spend that week in Bursa (Alaşar köy) with my host family from the CLS program last year. The Memiş's are incredibly hospitable, and I'm very thankful to have friends like them.
Before I go, I also want to wish Jenny good luck as she leaves for her internship in Thailand today you should check out her (video?) blog too (link at bottom). I plan on trying to keep a post or two every week, so send me an email complaint if I don't.
Finally, prediction: Dortmund wins tomorrow 2-1 AET.
Jenny's Thailand blog:
http://www.landofsmilesthailand.blogspot.com/
All this caps off a week that has been my first real break for quite some time, if by break I mean crash course in refreshing/relearning my Turkish! It was very nice to spend that week in Bursa (Alaşar köy) with my host family from the CLS program last year. The Memiş's are incredibly hospitable, and I'm very thankful to have friends like them.
Before I go, I also want to wish Jenny good luck as she leaves for her internship in Thailand today you should check out her (video?) blog too (link at bottom). I plan on trying to keep a post or two every week, so send me an email complaint if I don't.
Finally, prediction: Dortmund wins tomorrow 2-1 AET.
Jenny's Thailand blog:
http://www.landofsmilesthailand.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
I didn't think I'd be back in Turkey so soon, but I'm glad I am! Just to recap, I'm here in 2013 as an Intern at the US Embassy in Ankara, though I'm writing from Bursa where I've been the last week. I plan on really restarting the blog soon, but in the meantime, something to think about:
"Political perception... is a matter of date. If you want to judge anything written by a foreigner about a country, you need to know when the writer first went there... So often the first encounter is formative. Emotionally and implicitly,... it remains the standard by which all subsequent developments are judged."
-Timothy Garton Ashe
"Political perception... is a matter of date. If you want to judge anything written by a foreigner about a country, you need to know when the writer first went there... So often the first encounter is formative. Emotionally and implicitly,... it remains the standard by which all subsequent developments are judged."
-Timothy Garton Ashe
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