1. Wear comfortable shoes
My first day on campus was relatively easy with just a bit of walking in the morning. But the second day was crazy. I went to training and then I went to my office. But the problem is that I missed the shuttle bus in the morning (we waited in the wrong place), so then I had to walk to main campus, which was several miles. I have huge blisters on my feet, which makes walking a bit painful. I learned my lesson and I will wear comfortable walking shoes and then change into my good shoes when I get to the office. I also will not miss the shuttle bus again!
Learning Turkish is essential to helping me communicate with others and survive life here in Turkey. I can't even order food or read a menu at this point. I also don't know what anything is at the grocery store unless it is obvious. There are many, many mysterious cheeses, meats, etc. that I'm sure are delicious, but I don't know what they are right now. I also need to learn Turkish to communicate my maintenance requests. At the moment, I have to take someone with me or call someone and have them explain what I need. It is annoying and I feel like a kindergartner. Everyone has to take me around by the hand and show me everything. I know that I will learn, but it is annoying at the moment. I think the coolest thing is that most of the expats who are here speak Turkish. They don't assume is going to conform to them and they don't demand English wherever they go. They learn the language, the culture, customs, and holidays. I love that about ESL teachers.
This job has an incredibly supportive network - from the people to the services - everyone is so, so nice! I am super, super spoiled. The systems here seem to work incredibly well and everyone is so well adjusted.
4. Bilkent University is everything I expected.
Bilkent University is impressive. Not only is it large, but it is a well, oiled machine. Our offices are well equipped, the staff is knowledgeable, and everyone is very helpful. Bilkent has a reputation here for being an excellent university and it definitely lives up to its reputation. Today I helped out with an English test that all accepted university students have to take to check their level of English. This first test takes about two hours and all students who are incoming to the university take it. So, we had 4,000 students taking the exam this morning. Then, next Monday the students who scored higher will take a longer version of the test to really figure out their level. Apparently about 20% of the students I will have in English 101 have been through the PREP program. This is a program that prepares university students who are not ready to take classes in English at the academic level. After PREP and passing an examination, they are placed into their facilities and get to see me for their first English course. :) I will be teaching three sections of English 101 and I couldn't be more excited about it. In the future, I will design my own topic, but this semester I get to take someone else's topic, which really helps for a soft landing. Learning all of the grading systems, etc. along with dissertation will be enough.
The food here is ridiculous. It is seriously the land of milk and honey. The olives, cheese, fruit, yogurt, olive oil, and bread are out of this world. I know everything is grown here, but the availability and accessibility is amazing to me. I can get any type of food I want here and I can even get it delivered to my apartment. Those of you who know me know that this is a dangerous option!
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| I bought these chips and thought they would be spicy, but they aren't. Kind of BBQ like. |
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| food at the Bilkent cafeteria - yes that is baklava |
6. You will cry at least once in your first week.
I had an issue on Wednesday (the same day I got the blisters) and I had reached my breaking point. Jet lag is a crazy thing. It seems to sneak up on you and today was the first day that I actually had time to catch up. On Wednesday when I got home, I just wanted to heat up something, watch Netflix, and go to bed. The maintenance guys came by to bring me some extra chairs and remove a door from the kitchen. I asked the guy how to turn on the stove and he showed me. So, after he left, I turned on the stove. About five minutes later, I head a loud pop, saw smoke, and my electricity went out. It seriously scared the crap out of me. I haven't lived a long in about four years (well, except for Africa) and it was too much. So, I went downstairs to one of the other teacher's apartments and her husband came back up because we thought a blew a breaker. Apparently, it was more serious than that. So, I called maintenance and they came about 45 minutes later. In the meantime, I was on the phone of with a friend and I walked out into the stairwell to wait for maintenance and the wind caused my door to slam shut. Of course, I didn't have keys, so when the maintenance guy came, he had to call someone else with the keys. So, we waited in silence (because I don't speak the language yet) and then the other guy came. They checked my stove and told me not to use the oven, but I could use the burners. We had to do this using my cell phone while talking to one of my Turkish friends so he could explain what was happening. I would tell him and then he would tell the guys. It was crazy. I must learn the language. They flipped my electricity back on and said they would be back on Friday to work on it. After they left, I just sat down and cried. It was all too much...the culture, language, work, jet lag, new people, etc. It happens and I know to expect that. So, I had my moment and it passed quickly. Today (Saturday), they brought me a new stove. It seems to work beautifully, except I need to print out the conversions for the temperature in Celsius. I will figure it out. Hopefully, that will be my last issue with the electricity.
7. The top floor is great except...
when you need to do laundry (down three floors) or bring up groceries (two floors). Holy moly I am getting my exercise. This will help with all of the amazing food that I am eating! This is a picture of the face of one of the washing machines downstairs. There are six free washing machines downstairs and they are great. However, the cycle I chose took like two hours, so I will take the recommendation of my colleague and use a different setting. I am definitely too used to convenience back home. There are no dryers, but I have three balconies and a drying rack that I can use to dry my clothes. The washing machines are much smaller than home, so I plan to do a few small loads a week. Then, I will have space to dry all of my clothes.
I guess that is all for now, but I am sure there will be many more lessons.
