Orientation Week

Orientation was jam-packed full of things to do and see. Each morning we started with a three hour crash couse in Turkish. This consisted of learning the alphabet, pronunciation of Turkish, and basic phrases. It was difficult in that it was all memorization. We didn't learn conjugation or any grammer rules, just how to say useful phrases. The orientation Turkish couse was just a survival course; the grammer will come in my Turkish as a Second Language course during the semester.

The afternoons of orientation were spent sight-seeing.

• Monday we got a campus tour and attended info sessions on dorm life. 
• Tuesday we went to Ataturk's Mausoleum. This was the most interesting thing we did all week. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the founder of the Republic of Turkey and it's first president. I would say that he is comparable to George Washington in American culture, but this would be a vast understatement. Ataturk is far more respected are revered by the Turks than Washington is by the Americans. Ataturk's picture and/or bust is displayed in every building in the country. This is because he made Turkey the secular state that it is today. In the span of fifteen years, Ataturk revamped the entire country. He changed the alphabet, implemented the use of surnames, improved the educational system, and increased woman's rights. For this reason, his mausoleum was very extravagant and beautiful.

 

• Wednesday we met with our academic advisors and registered for classes. I'm taking Foreign Policy Analysis, Politics of International Economy, The European Union and Turkey, Turkic/Muslim People of the Former USSR, and Turkish as a Second Language.
• Thursday was a down day.
• Friday we went to the Department of Foreign Ministries and applied for our residence permits, and then went to the Museum of Ancient Civilizations in Anatolia (the area of Turkey that is in Asia). The museum consisted of artifacts from all of the ancient civilizations, like Mesopotamia and the Hittite Empire, that once resided in Anatolia. The artifacts were cool, but I don't get a whole lot of joy from looking at old clay pots.

The evenings of orientation week were spent apartment hunting. After talking with Turks who have lived in the dorms, and finding out how far removed Bilkent actually is from Ankara, I decided that in order to get the full Turkish experience I needed to live in the city. Apparently this tends to be a common thought among exchange students, as more than half of the 55 of us moved off campus. One of the Turkish orientation leaders hooked us up with a real estate agent in town that works with international students every semester. I found a three bedroom place that I am sharing with four other exchange students: Edip from Sweden, Andreas from Austria, Kashia from Poland, and Caitie from California (UCSC). The apartment is located right across the street from the US Embassy. To say that it is a safe neighborhood is an understatement. There's also a little cafe on the ground floor (just like Friends as Mom said). Another plus is that it's only three blocks away from the school bus stop.