Iyi Bayramlar!

Just when students started coming to class consistently, Bayram occurred. Kurban Bayramı or the Feast of Sacrifice is the second largest on the Muslim calendar religious celebrations. It is called Eid al-Adha in Arabic-speaking countries and commemorates the almost-sacrifice of Isaac by his father, Abraham. It always begins on the tenth day of the last month of the lunar-based Muslim calendar. This year, it began on October 25th and since the celebration lasts four days, it butted up to Cumhuriyet Bayramı or Republican Day, the anniversary of Atatürk’s declaration of Turkey’s Republic-hood. So Turks this year enjoyed 5 days off work instead of the regular 4 or as the message next to the smiling face of Prime Minister Erdoğan read on posters around the city center, a Çifte Bayramlar or Twin Celebration. 

During my classes leading up to Bayram, I asked my students to tell me how their families celebrated. In Turkey, Bayram is celebrated with an actual sacrifice--usually a sheep but sometimes a cow or a goat that is traditionally killed by the oldest member of the family and then enjoyed during the four day feast. If a family cannot afford an animal, the richer members of the village share. My students learned the words “cut” and “neck” and “butcher” to describe this process to me--sometimes by using a disturbing series of hand-gestures; one student grabbed his classmate’s head, twisted it to the left and made a sawing motion with his hand. Some explained that their father or grandfather did the butchering in their gardens while others (the city dwellers) told me their father just goes to the butcher shop and buys a dead one. Walking around Erzurum a few days before Bayram began, I definitely noticed an increased sheep population. Either packed onto trucks screeching down the street or being pulled down the street by ropes tied around their neck, they all had fearful eyes. Or maybe that is just me creating drama since I knew their fate. 

Although the Sacrifice is the traditional centerpiece of Bayram, today the focal point is travel. Everyone goes home for Bayram. And not just to one’s hometown but usually to the village of one’s parents. As I learned over and over when talking to my students and co -workers, asking where they were going for Bayram if I already knew where they were from was a null question. Some of my students bused 20+ hours to Istanbul and cities on the west coast to be with their families. Only two of my co-workers who have families on the other side of the country chose to stay in Erzurum for the first time to avoid those buses and pre-Thanksgiving price levels plane tickets.

According to my students, after the journey home, the visiting begins. The younger members of the family visit the older and stay for a certain amount of time before visiting the next oldest family members. The younger family members kiss the older ones’ hands and receive candy in return. I did not get to witness these gatherings myself but I imagine there is a lot of sitting and talking. The verb “to sit” is also used to mean spending time with people and every Turkish living room I’ve entered has couches lining almost every wall. 

My Bayram was full of travel (I experienced the Bayram bus station crowds) but not too much sitting (except for on those buses). With six days off work, the Erzurum crew retreated to Georgia, our close but extremely different neighbor. I had a wonderful few days of lively, endless Georgian toasts, a crash course in Orthodox Christianity and Soviet occupation and beautiful views of fall colors in the mountains. I tumbled back over the border feeling like I knew a lot less about that part of the world than I thought I did just in time for the Cumhuriyet parade to begin. Soldiers and school children sang the national anthem under a gigantic poster of Atatürk’s face as we sat down in a tea house to have some much needed çay. In typical small town Turkish fashion, the owner refused to charge visitors who came into his teahouse on Republic Day. Ah, it felt good to be back in Turkey. More details about my venture into the best city in Europe (according to my boss, followed by Amsterdam and Brussels) to follow. For now, I’m off to class and to plan a Halloween Party for the American Corner tomorrow night. Luckily, all the Bayram candy is on clearance. 

Teaching and Dancing. Or Charades and Dancing.

I completed my first week of teaching. My students did eventually find their way to my classroom. And they are lovely people. Emily compared her feelings about the first week of teaching to how she feels about working out. Nervous before starting but completely satisfied afterward. That’s more or less how I’ve felt about teaching this week too.

The rumors were true that my students know hardly any English.  But that does not diminish how hard they try and how eager they are to understand. I do a lot of charades, a lot of exaggerated emotions, and a lot of writing on the board while speaking. If I can cut some of those things out by the end of the year and just speak to them, I will be pleased. 

It’s interesting experiment. Put someone who has been told not to speak Turkish (and basically can’t) in front of a group of students and try to get them to do workbook pages and play scattergories. Right now, it seems like a system that may work. Although many of them have been studying English in high school and before, I am, for many of them, their first contact with a native speaker. Think back to how much Spanish you knew after high school. And although I think they probably understand about 45% percent of what I say, some of them have already begun to imitate certain expression. I heard some “see you laters” when my students left class yesterday instead of “see you” which is a direct translation from the Turkish and what is often heard around Erzurum. I’ve been saying “good job!” at the end of nearly every sentence and yesterday one of my students said “Good job, teacher!” when I finally managed to pronounce his name correctly. 

Most of the English I’ve heard from them has been in incomplete sentences or sentences completed in Turkish. For example, “Teacher, at home book kaldim” for “I left my book at home.” That still got a “good job!” though, as did any attempt at communication has received this week. With these attempts, they are unintentionally helping me learn Turkish--and making me smile. All four of my classes are very sweet (with the possible exception of one that because of a few ringleaders, all coincidentally with the same name, Muhammad. These Muhammads insist on maintaining a soft roar of Turkish whispering throughout the entire class; I’m sure I’ll learn to like them eventually) and I’m excited to get to know them this year. My former RA life has taught me that memorizing names is of preeminent importance to get a group to take you seriously. And although I’ve done pretty well with the memorizing so far, my pronunciation is pretty awful. Luckily, my students think it’s hilarious.  I think it’s a way for them to have some greater authority on a topic--and I’m happy to give them that chance. They literally crack up at my struggles with Ö’s and Ü’s. “No, teacher, oooooo, no oooooo.” The same number of o’s indicate my lack of understanding that there is a difference between the two. We struggled for about 10 minutes for me to understand why it was hilarious that I called Mahmet, Mamet. It turns out when you don’t emphasize the “ha” in the middle, you call someone a “wooly mammoth”. That took a lot a charades and references to the movie Ice Age to get that across. 

How writing that paragraph made me feel confirms to me how much I am going to enjoy spending 4 hours a week with each group this year. “Teacher, it is much distant!” said Özkan to me when I told him that I would see him again on Tuesday. Yes, I agree, Özkan! It has been one week, but I’ve been having visions of grandeur of a career in teaching. Maybe this is the reason I’m here, it’s what I’m supposed to do! Maybe. We will see how week 2 and week 3 and the rest of the year go. 

In other news, we made our first attempt at entertaining last night. A joint birthday party for Elizabeth and one of our fellow lecturers, Nermin. And Uncle Dan, I’d call it a success. We served tea, a store-bought ice cream cake and figs and apricots. We didn’t buy alcohol because we were pretty positive that none of our guests drink. The first thing Zuhal said we she walked in was, “You don’t have alcohol? What kind of Americans are you?” We found out she was completely joking though when we told her that we did have some bottle of wine in Korey’s room and could grab them if she wanted. We already discovered that you don’t need alcohol to have a good time in Erzurum but we found out last night that you also don’t need it to have a spontaneous dance party. Dance exchange, I should say. Zu taught us some belly dancing moves, Burcu taught us some gypsy dances that I can’t remember the name of them and several tradition Turkish wedding dances. And we showed them the Cupid shuffle and the Cat Daddy along with the Macarena and YMCA. Nermin loved the Cupid Shuffle so much that she texted me last night to tell me she was still dancing to it when she got home. I feel the same way about the dances they taught us. Although my abs hurt from the belly dancing, I want to keep practicing the Turkish wedding ones. They involve holding pinkies in a circle and running and kicking to the music. I’m looking forward to our next party/practice session. 

Overall, a very satisfying week; I barely remember my anxiety at the beginning. I’m grateful to be only teaching 16 hours a week. I think I will fill my free time eventually but right now it’s great to have ample of time to lesson plan and do things that take all day due to my lack of Turkish and understanding of how things operate here. Like printing the syllabi for my classes. 

First Day of Teaching without the Teaching

I write this entry from the front lines. My classroom. Derslik 1-7 in the Yabancı Diller Yüksek Okulu--School of Foreign Languages. It’s 10:06 a.m. I’ve been here since 8. I’m supposed to teach two two-hour long classes of “Speaking” for Engineering students. I arrived at 7:45 with a vague outline of introduction dialogues and name game activities. My colleagues warned me over and over that the students do not take the first week of classes seriously. They told me that no one would come. I thought they meant “no one” in the way I use “no one” to describe how many people go to football games at Catholic. Some people still go. And although I may have to stop writing at any moment, for my 10 to 12 class, it seems like they literally meant no one. I feel like an RA who planned a program at 9 pm on a Friday. 

Two boys did come to my 8 a.m. class. Enes and Bektaş. I should have guessed that something was fishy when they introduced themselves as medical students. I’m supposed to teach engineering and tourism students but I thought perhaps it was just a mix up in the schedule. We talked for about 40 minutes about our hometowns, families and  favorite food. After the 10 minute break, they informed me that they realized they were in the wrong class but since they were not sure where their correct class was, they wanted to stay and talk. I’ll take any students. And since I don’t have a roll sheet yet, maybe they mistaken and they are mine. We ended “class” (or maybe just hang out time) with playing word association. The first words that they associated with America were “military”, “strong” and “freedom.” Okay. Seems like I have a lot of work to do this year. Maybe that’s a reason I’m here? So that next year, they are able to associate other words with my country? 

It’s now 10:17. Enes and Bektaş are gone. Will anyone come to my 10 am class? Will they tomorrow? My colleagues also warned me that the level of the student’s will be very low. That’s pretty intimidating for a speaking teacher to be told that her students may not know how to speak at all. I was very impressed with how much English Enes and Bektaş knew and how well they understood me. They are students in the Medical Faculty though, the school that accepts only the students who score the highest on their entrance exams. 

10:22. Ibrahim, the man in the Yabancı Diller with all the keys, just popped his head in and asked if I did not have any students today. I answered, I don’t know. Which in retrospect was an incorrect thing to say. I should have just said no. Wait, I didn’t even say “I don’t know”, I said, “We don’t know.” Oh geez. Turkish. I’m so used to saying “we” since I’m often with another yabancı. 

I’m still not used to how well they treat us here. Could you imagine any University in the U.S. welcoming four new “lecturers” who are younger than everyone else and can barely speak your language? We went to a faculty meeting yesterday and the director often stopped to translate for us. A embassy official gave us a speech at orientation to pump us up about teaching. He told us that we were invaluable as native speakers at our Universities. He said that 50% of the Internet is written in English, our students will be expected to be proficient in a growing number of fields, etc. It seemed a little “rah-rah” State Department to me when he said it but the way they are treating us, it seems like they view us in that way again. 

10:55. Elizabeth popped in and we reminisced about our first few weeks of freshman year. Our conversation reminded me that our students are probably more nervous than we are. It is strange not to have a real first day. I have 62 more minutes. If no one shows up, I suppose I will be going to bed with a anticipation brewing in my stomach once again. Inşallah, I will not be the only one in this classroom tomorrow. 

11:07. Four girls came by and introduced themselves. But told me (in Turkish) that they were not coming today. I’m not sure why. They were carrying a lot of textbooks. Maybe today is just pick up your text book and leave day? I was given all the textbooks but since I don’t have a list, I did not want to give them out. The girls (I only only remember one of their names--Fatma) asked if I was Korey. What? How do they already know Korey? Korey teaches here in the afternoon so I thought maybe they were just checking out the room and would be back. No, apparently their speaking class is in the morning. But they told me that in Turkish, so I may be mistaken. 

11:14. I suppose I will write some emails. My low WIFI lifestyle has taught me that emails can be written at any time, they can be copied and pasted online much later. 

11:32. Three boys stopped by. One introduced himself right away in understandable English. He told me that he was a second year engineering student and he had Max (a former Fulbrighter) last year. He was showing his first year cousin and his friend around. First year cousin and friend looked terrified. And insisted that second year translate everything. Alas, they were not my students, they were scheduled for one of Korey’s classes this afternoon. Maybe everyone just overslept? 

16:59 Still sitting in the classroom, hoping someone will arrive. Just kidding. I left around  around noon. I’m back in my apartment. My afternoon was much more productive than the morning. I finally tried Erzurum’s famous cağ kebab--lamb meat on skewers served with lavash, yogurt, peppers and spicy salsa-type sauce. When you squint your eyes, it looks like Mexican food but the tastes are different. We went out to lunch with three of the directors of our school--including our boss, Mehmet Bey who I’ve mentioned before. Mehmet Bey likes to rank things. For example, cities: Erzurum, New York, Paris. Tblisi, Amsterdam, Brussels. And football teams: Trabzonspor, Barcelona, Manchester United. He also likes to drink something called “Şalgam” which translates to turnip. He let us try some at lunch. It must be akin to a gin and tonic of a non-alcohol drinking region. Because it burned my throat. I felt like I drinking salty vinegar. But I kind of liked it. 

I’m also one step closer to getting Wifi. The electrician came today. I also have roll sheets for my classes. So, tomorrow, if/when anyone comes, I will be ready! 

Monday evening...

I still not started teaching my English classes. Term officially started today though. The lines at the ATM machines where 10 people long all day and there were no tables at the outdoor cafeteria that my fellow English teachers and I prefer. But the new energy on campus from the students’ arrival certainly outweighed that inconvenience. I had gotten used to the relatively quiet atmosphere of tree-lined Atatürk’s campus, now I will get used to the bustle of sidewalks crowded with students (I’m so surprised how young some of them look!). Some of those students will have to deal with me from 8 a.m. to noon every Monday through Thursday. I was supposed to start teaching today but due to a delay in quantifying the results of the placement test, we will start Wednesday. I’m nervous. I’ll be paired up with another professor who will teach the grammar, reading and writing sections of an English course. I will teach the speaking and listening sections. I’m excited to start though too. If it goes well, maybe the most obvious and simple answer for why I came to Turkey will be revealed: to, well, teach English. 

But for at least one more day, I am still free to explore Erzurum, drink çay, and fill out paperwork. (By the way: I finally got my residency permit application in today. Two days before the 30-days-in-Turkey-without-applying-and-you-will-allegedly-be-deported deadline. Tax number attainment is next on the list!)