To my Mercy Girls

Blogging this semester clearly has been a struggle for me. For good reasons, I think. As my days left in Erzurum dwindle, I’ve doing my best to spend the most time I can with friends and students and see as much of this country and this part of the world before I’m back on the other side of the ocean. I’ve had some wonderful trip this spring: north to Trabzon for Easter, south to the beaches of Cyprus, further north to Kiev to visit the Engstroms and celebrate Orthodox Easter and I have two more trips scheduled for May to the beaches of Bodrum in the West and the sandy Southeastern cities of Adiyaman and Mardin. (Personal accomplishment: I have finally posted facebook photos of these travels (although it’s 11 pm and lesson plans still must be written!). I’ve been doing my best so that my students do not suffer from these trips but clearly my blogging has. 

I was asked to write a letter for the development office at Mercy about my time abroad. The request was to write about how my Mercy education has impacted my life in Turkey. I actually enjoyed writing it and thinking about the 5 Mercy values (Mercy girls, say them with me): mercy, justice, human dignity, option for the poor, and service. Although I’ve certainly discussed these topics already with many of you who follow my blog, I wanted to share the letter here. 

To my Mercy Girls All Over the World:

I spent this past year as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in the city of Erzurum in Eastern Turkey. I teach English to Turkish students, some of whom are first year engineering students at a university and others are practicing physicians at a local hospital. I'm one of only four Americans in the city and only a handful of English speakers of any kind --although my students are slowly joining that group! Erzurum is a snowy, conservative city in the mountains--a far cry from Mercy High in suburban Detroit. With reflection, however, I realize that the values I learned

between those North and South halls on Eleven Mile are still inextricably woven into my experience in Eastern Anatolia.

From Turkey, when I think about Mercy, I think about the Mercy girls who were my closest friends. In Erzurum, unmarried men and women interact socially less often than in the U.S.A. In Turkey, it is only socially acceptable for an unmarried woman like me to have girlfriends. Being a Mercy girl, I see something wonderfully familiar and natural about birthday celebrations with my Turkish friends: there are cupcakes, movie nights and sleepovers.  Friendships between females in Turkey are similar to those at Mercy in other ways too. At work each day, one of my co-workers inevitably asks everyone on the floor where we should eat and a collective decision is made, no one is left out. When someone has an idea about going to a movie, she often will post the idea on her facebook page so anyone who wants to come, can. I learned to value such inclusivity and communication at Mercy--where I was taught to be a good friend. I miss my Mercy sisters everyday but thanks to the example they set for me of friendship,  I know I will one day miss my Erzurum sisters too.

After sisterhood, the next word that comes to mind when I think of Mercy is diversity. As one coming from Detroit, I appreciated the effort made at Mercy to attract a student body from all communities. Mercy's teachers and administrators taught me that diversity did not simply appear after providing enough bus routes, but through conversation and intentional actions. Programs like Ethnic Bazaar and classes like Race Relations taught me that diversity must be valued but also worked towards. I have mulled over these lessons many times when I've engaged my students and co-workers in conversations about diversity in Turkey--a topic that is never easy. Turkey's history with minorities is a painful one as ethnic groups were forced out of the country or killed during its foundation. Their troubles are far from over and can still be glimpsed in my classrooms when the seating arrangement is sometimes based on ethnicity. Turkey's relationship with diversity is far too complicated for me, a foreigner in Turkey for only one year, to completely comprehend, but when

conversations on the topic turn pessimistic, I often turn inward to the ideals I learned at Mercy--that unity in diversity can be achieved through thoughtful discourse and process.

Next--faith. The faith that I established at Mercy has grown this year in Erzurum, in the way I hope it continues to grow each year of my life. The faith tradition of my neighbors, students and friends in Erzurum is nominally very different from the faith I cultivated at Mercy. The closest

Catholic Church is a five hour bus ride to the north. The minarets of three mosques that I see from my apartment window are signs that demonstrate the faith of this city. I am consistently inspired by the piety and devotion of my students, all of whom are Muslim. The care they take to say their

prayers on time and the meticulous preparation for those prayers reminds me of the importance of prayer and reflection in my own life. I remember my Kairos leader reminding us that God can be found in all actions made with love. I recall this truth when I see the love for God in the religious

practices of the people around me.

I still aspire to be that woman who Catharine MaCaulay and all the teachers I had at Mercy expect me to be, a woman who makes a difference. With their help and the example and friendship of all my Mercy sisters, I think I am on the right path.

Forever a Mercy girl,
HM

Home and Back Again

It’s been long enough since I last blogged for me to forget my password but I will not waste time with apologizes and jump right back in. I left Erzurum for 5 weeks in January and February and had a lovely time visiting the Labaune family in Paris, Paule in Nancy (6 years have passed since we stopped sharing a room but we have wonderfully not run out of things to talk about), Karolina in Warsaw and Danielle in Istanbul. My journey ended in Detroit. I went home for my Dad’s investiture and therefore conveniently saw every person in my life whom I love and had also traveled to Detroit for the same purpose. It was as perfect a trip for me as it sounds. The highlight was certainly w the people I got to see, even though I feel very fortunate that I saw some new parts of the world as well. 

I’ve been back in the Erzurum swing of things for one month now. And in that month I’ve heard from my students: “Bahar geldi inşallah, teacher!” To which I respond, “Yes, I hope spring is here, too.” It’s 35 degrees outside right now and the sun has set, such a nice reprieve from the subzero days of December. My window is actually open since I don’t control my heat and I think my landlord still thinks it’s in the negatives. 

I’ve been meaning to blog for a few days now, so I’ve “written” the beginning of several different blog entries in my head. I’ve decided to combine them. Since I never made it past the first few paragraphs of this mental writing, I will jot them down here as a few vignettes of my first month back in the ERZ--as I’ve recently started calling it. 

“Step-Touch-Mambo”

I joined a gym last semester and I was very confused when it closed two weeks later. I saw the light on as I walked past two weeks ago. Armed with more confidence in my Turkish language skills and the desire to work off my post holiday kilos, I walked in with the plan to ask to revive my former membership. It turns out the gym was renovated and under new management. Any hope of explaining that I once was a member of this gym was lost soon after I started my conversation with Nurcan, the feisty 4 foot 10 proprietor who did not speak without shouting (was it because the music was so loud or was she just used to yelling at people to run faster?). By the end of our talk, however, I signed up for twice a “Step Arobik” class for the equivalent of $25 a month. 

I’ll have to go back a bit in time for this part of the narrative. In October, during one of the first times I met with the other Fulbrighters in Eastern Turkey, we made two lists entitled “Things Turks are Good at” and “Things Turks are Not Good at”. At the time, it was both a bonding experience and a coping mechanism. We were all going through similar experiences in different cities in Eastern Turkey and we were trying to make sense of the sometimes unexplainable behaviors going on around us. We’ve since edited and added to those lists, our knowledge and understanding definitely improved since October. On the top of the “Not Good At” List was plumbing. On top of the “Good At” list was dancing. There was debate. Some of my colleagues believed that there must be some Turks that can not dance. They were wrong. And my Step Arobik class is proof. Whether it is to the sounds of Shakira, Usher or Tarkan, this group of women glide effortlessly off their step blocks to the floor and back.  Salsa, hip hop, belly dancing--boom, easy. Sometimes I think the teacher focuses a bit too much on everyone staying on beat than actually sweating. But hey, I’m here for the cultural experience.

Learning Arabic

Another addition to my schedule this semester is my new Turkish Language for Foreigners course. Finally! I came in with the goal this semester to not stop until I found a course to force myself to be more structured with my learning. I ended up walking into one--literally. The printer in our department was broken and I was advised to go to a man named Ahmet’s office and use his. Ahmet spoke no English...because he teaches the new Turkish course that will start Monday! Bingo! I am one of three students in the course. The two others are men from Syria. I occasionally meet Syrians in Erzurum and such encounters are always shocking reminders for me to count my blessings and well, because I feel I can do nothing else, pray. My new classmate, Soheb, told me that he and his wife were here in Erzurum but his parents and brothers are still in Aleppo. “Are they safe?” I asked. “No one in Syria is safe,” he replied. I am grateful that saying such things as, “I am praying for your family and your country” are appropriate to say in Turkish cultural (and presumably Syrian as well) because I did not know what else to say. Yesterday, our teacher was explaining the proper use of articles and adjectives when speaking about well-known people, i.e. facts that everyone knows. His examples: 1. Atatürk was a brave man. 2. Assad is a cruel man. 

Erzurum's own Shopaholic

And to lighten the mood, a tribute to my officemate, Aysel--who I absolutely adore. This is what I walked into this afternoon. She loves to shop. I asked her what she did before the mall in Erzurum opened three years ago. And she said, “I do other things besides shop!” But she could not think of any examples. 

Being a Good Host

Last weekend in preparation for other some other Fulbrighters to come to Erzurum to ski, I told Korey I was going to clean my apartment like “a Turkish woman.” He laughed and said that I was going to be up all night. I was not up all night but my apartment was also significantly below a Turkish woman’s standards. I’ve blogged at length about Turkish hospitality.  I have not blogged enough about the effort put into being a good host in Turkey. Turks do not just invite you over. They invite you over to a spotless home and a perfectly prepared meal. And as I become closer to some of my Turkish friends here, I am not, as I expected, invited over without such preparations. I am simply informed of the process. “Hey, Nermin, can I come over?” “Sure, come over at 7.” “Seven? It’s four o’clock right now.” “I know, I need to clean.” Three hours sounds excessive, but if you saw how spotless her home was, it makes sense. 

I’ve had conversations with some of my Turkish girlfriends about how the increase of women in the workforce  has not diminished their duties at home, it has only made planning for guests more necessary. One of my co-workers joked, that when she was growing up, guests could just drop by because her mother stayed home and therefore had more time to keep the house in perfect condition. She continued that guests need to give her fair warning for her to get her house in “acceptable” condition. Knowing how much effort my friends put forward just to have a casual sleepover make me appreciate them and this culture so even more. Maybe I will someday be invited over to a messy home, but at this rate, it seems like it will be a while. 

Speaking of, I am receiving a guest tonight. She is a friend from Turkish class in the U.S. and is studying abroad in Istanbul for the semester. And-ah!-she arrives in 4 hours, my floor is not washed, her bed is not made and dinner is not prepared. Whether those tasks will ever be achieved is uncertain. I’m not quite a full “hanım efendi” yet but I’ve learned quite a bit this year. Regardless of my success, I only have 4 hours--I better get started!

Ellerinize sağlık = Health to your Hands

       I’ve lived in Erzurum for four months now but this was my first weekend where I was  officially (or I suppose I don’t really know if that’s accurate) the only American in the city. Korey and Elizabeth took off for break on Friday. Emily is visiting another Fulbrighter a few hours away before returning Monday to teach our remaining 8 hours before we take off for break as well. I imagined this weekend would be full of final lesson planing and preliminary packing but instead it was full of reminders of the hospitality that made me fall in love with Turkey in the first place. 

           I don’t believe that I announced my singular status this weekend to many people but the news seemed to spread quickly amongst my acquaintances here that I was “alone” and should be duly taken care of. It’s Sunday afternoon around 2 pm and this is the first moment I’ve had to myself since Friday afternoon. And I’m waiting for a text from Zeynep, a student in the English Language Faculty who is (ready for this?) the daughter of Elizabeth’s boyfriend’s mother’s patient’s friend and has therefore acted like a member of the family. She is coming over to make dinner and then join me to see The Hobbit at the mall. I spent Friday night with a fellow teacher who had me over her house to meet her sister and roommate and drink wine and watch music videos. She is the only other woman at school who drinks and we had been talking about having a sleepover since I first arrived but finally scheduled it for the last night of the term. I got up early the next morning to ski with one of my doctor students and his family in Konakli, about 30 minutes away. I was the coldest I have ever been in my life but the view from the top of the ski lift was worth it; the mountains were so completely white, they looked like an ocean. I had dinner with Dr. Mehmet and his three children and they then dropped me off at the mall where I met fellow teacher and shopaholic, Nermin. We shopped and we then went to her house to watch “The Wedding Planner”, gossip, drink tea and eat chickpeas. I was once again extremely grateful for how warm the apartments are kept here.  I know I’m not “thinking globally” when I’m saying this but when it’s 10+ degrees below zero, you are fine with some smog from all the burning coal if it means a warm apartment. This morning I had breakfast with the women from my doctors’ class at Dr. Zeliha’s home. I don’t know how she manages a life as a full time doctor with three small children where she can still invite me over for a delicious spread of homemade bread, cheese, olives and eggs at ten in the morning. 

     This weekend reminded me of one of my first weekends here, when I was shuffled from person to person and home to home. There was something distinctly more comfortable and pleasant about this weekend compared to those first ones though. Instead of fielding questions about why I chose to come to Erzurum and what I know about  Turkish politics, I was asked much more personal ones like if I would see my sister when I went home and how my skiing skills were coming along. I am more comfortable as well. Even though I’m still learning about Turkey and about myself with each interaction, I am not as googly-eyed.  I think I am actually taking in more since I have a bank of basic knowledge. From simple things like being able to distinguish a male from a female name when someone tells me the name of their child to knowing that helva is usually store-bought, not homemade, to more substantial knowledge like what someone is doing when they excuse themselves to the corner to pray, I can ask more competent questions and have deeper conversations. This weekend was a lovely reminder of that. Even knowing a few proper phrases to adequately thank your host for their hospitality can make a big difference. I constantly say thank you” in Turkish to express my gratitude but this surprisingly and unfortunately does not translate very well. Instead, when someone feeds you, you should say what translates as “health to your hands” or just “may God bless your family.” When someone visits, you wish them health to their feet. When someone drives you in their new car, you congratulate them on their purchase. I heard myself using these phrases (even if still awkwardly in my Turk-English) and I could tell that it mattered-I could thank them in a way that meant something to both them and me. 

           These feelings harken me back to a conversation I had with Salih, the husband of one of my professor’s at CUA, on the Red Line during one of my commutes back to Catholic from Georgetown sometime last year. Salih is the reason I’m in Erzurum right now. He hooked me up with his friend who organized the trips to Turkey last summer, my first experience in the country. He further inspired me to take Turkish and apply for the Fulbright. Anyway, he was telling me that he had started taking Arabic classes and was telling me about his struggles with learning the new alphabet. I asked him why he chose to take on another language when he already speaks three. He told me it was necessary for his studies in comparative religion but also cited a proverb (was it Turkish? was it Arabic? I can’t remember) that said something along the lines that when you study a language, your soul grows. I liked the phrase then. I think I understand it now. Disregarding the literal meaning of language for a second, I do believe that with the greater understanding of Erzurum, of Turkish culture, and of Islam that I’ve gained these past few months, my soul has grown. I’ve been able to connect with people on a deeper level. Turkish hospitality has remained the same, the way I’m able to receive it has changed. And I’m very grateful for that!

What skiing on the coldest place on Earth looks like.

Essential to English Language Learning

My students have taught me so many folk dances over the semester, I decided to teach them the "Wobble" on the last day of class. I wish I had video evidence of me attempting to do the "Kolbasti" and "Horon" as well, my students only chose to record this one. Next term.

One of my students told me that if climate change was called "global freezing", people would pay more attention. It's -11 F and I'm about to go skiing. Why did people decide to settle on this frigid steppe? Paris, Warsaw and Detroit are going to be balmy.

All I Want for Christmas is You

              December has been a slow month for blogging. It’s been both busy (4 new hours a week of teaching medical school professors) and a bit melancholy. For the first time in my 21 Christmases, I was quite happy that this one has passed. I spent a lot of December worrying about how it would be to not be with my family in a place that does not celebrate the holiday.* In the end, it was fine. Korey, Elizabeth, Emily and I had a nice little gift exchange at the ski lodge in the evening, I had many conversations with my co-workers all day about why I care about Christmas at all and taught a Christmas lesson to my students. I used vocabulary from Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” song. Afterwards, they had to write what they wanted for a hypothetical Christmas, write their sentence on an ornament-shaped piece of paper and tape it to the board in the shape of a Christmas tree. (Here is where I admit that some of the silly crafts I did as an RA have real life application.) Their answers were creative and enlightening, one of my favorite activities I’ve done this year. Here are some examples. 

I want for Christmas many things: car, money, everything.

All I want for Christmas is GRADUATION.

I want for Christmas: health, money and love. 

I ask people to be good at Christmas.

I would like a red car.

All I want for Christmas is to win the lottery.

Anything. I like myself.

All I want for Christmas is to see my family and success. 

All I want for Christmas is to go to the bar, listen to live music. No sleep.

I want calm and to be with my family.

Peace, success, health. 

No war! (with two fingers for peace drawing)

All I want for Christmas is happiness, new work, a lot of money, very good exam, hot weather!

I want a robot that does my complete business. (My favorite!)

All I want for Christmas is to become in love!

To be awesome!

Family, health, money, tranquility, happy, prosperity, affair, graduation. 

All I want for Christmas is “Accomplishment.”

I will go to mosque and I will make prayer to God for all of people. 

All I want for Christmas is “LUCKY”.

All I want for Christmas is to learn and speak English :).

Prestige!

I want to be with my Angelina Jolie.

All I want for Christmas is an old, sweet Volkswagon Beetle. 

                  I could go on and on. I hope you had a great Christmas. Iyi Yıller! Happy New Year! Three more weeks of teaching and then a five week break, hopefully another entry will come before then. 

Some of my favorites with their Christmas tree.  

Helin, Helen Marie, Hüriye and Gülşah.

A message written on the board by Caner during our break. He wrote the scores of the last two Pistons games and "Be happy Helen M.S.B."

My lovable Tourism students. 

*Side note: There is a strange misunderstanding in Turkey about Christmas and New Year’s. Because New Year’s is a state holiday here and the malls and certain shop displays have been infiltrated with Western Christmas symbols, many believe that the state holiday on January 1st is also Christmas in the West. I’ve give up trying to explain to my students that it’s actually December 25th because they have been hearing that it is a week later their entire lives. Instead, I just say, “In America, we celebrate Christmas on the 25th.” This mix-up lends to a lot of strange replies when I ask people how they celebrate New Year’s. “I don’t celebrate that holiday, I’m Muslim.” Oh man. 

Erzurum PR

One of my new, and rapidly very dear, friends here, Nermin, is in charge of American Corner at Atatürk Üniversitesi. To avoid the risk of insulting my employer, the State Dept, I will not go into too much detail about my feelings about the Corner. I’ll just say though that it is a room in our Foreign Language Department stocked with books about Broadway musicals and Barack Obama and DVDs narrated by Ken Burns. It’s where my weekly “English Music Club” takes place and as well as various speakers, and different events that either we or Embassy visitors host. Anyway, the greatest downside of the Corner in the eyes of those who operate on the daily are the reports that must be written to the Embassy about its activities (and really all activities involving Americans and Turks in Erzurum) on a frequent basis. Nermin has taken to outsourcing this task to me and I’ve been happy to oblige. Here are parts of our last two reports on Thanksgiving (which actually took place in  Elizabeth’s and Emily’s apartment, not the Corner) and our Halloween Party for our students. 

Thanksgiving in Erzurum

This Thanksgiving, the American ETAs living in Erzurum celebrated Turkey Day with turkey in Turkey. Although the turkey (affectionately named Hank Hindi) was certainly the centerpiece of the feast and the source of many jokes and shameless puns, the heart of the celebration was the people.  Nine American Fulbrighters from Eastern Turkey descended on Erzurum for Thanksgiving weekend to celebrate with the Erzurum ETAs and their new Turkish friends. On Saturday, a group of 25 gathered for a feast of mashed potatoes, stuffing, börek, corn, quince compote (cranberries could not be found), sauteed eggplant and of course, the turkey. Hank (thanks to the determination of Erzurum ETA, Elizabeth Dratz and the kindness and resourcefulness of a fellow English lecturer at Atatürk Üniversitesi, Alper) was alive only about 12 hours before he was eaten. Hank belonged to Alper’s friend who was willing to give him up to help the Americans in town celebrate their holiday. It was Elizabeth’s first time she cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving without her mother’s help and her first time she had seen one slaughtered. Before Hank was enjoyed, all the guests said what they were thankful for this year. Many of the Americans were thankful for the generosity that they had encountered in the short three months they had been in Turkey and for friendships they had begun to form. The Turkish guests were also grateful for their new American friends and for the opportunity to share in this celebration. The dessert selection was symbolic, revealing that this night was not about one culture passively displaying their tradition to the other but was an organic merging of two cultures celebrating together. Since the Thanksgiving Party fell close to Aşure Günü or the day to celebrate the landing of Noah’s Ark, aşure pudding, a delicious, sweet hodge podge of rice, dried fruits and nuts was prepared in abundance by one of the guests and enjoyed by all. Along with the aşure, the guests indulged in apple pie, baklava, pumpkin pie, Gumuşhane pestil and köme, and chocolate chip cookies. 

Halloween in Erzurum

On October 31st, about 35 students of Atatürk University attended the American Corner Halloween Party. The night was was filled with games led by English lecturers and Fulbright ETAs, dancing that spilled out into the hallways and of course, lots of Halloween candy. Students bobbed for apples with a competitive zeal that the ETAs noted far surpassed what they had seen at Halloween parties in the States. Some students opted to be blindfolded as they played pin the nose on the jack o’lantern while others wrapped their classmates in toilet paper to mimic mummies. As the sounds of “Thriller” and “The Monster Mash” drifted around the room, students laughed and poked fun at those that struggled to eat donuts off a string. Not many attendees donned costumes but there was a cheetah, a witch and even the late Bariş Manço in attendance. The climax of the night was certainly the dancing. Trading off between the hustle and other dances led by the Americans and traditional Turkish dances by the students, students participated in a spontaneous dance exchange. Needless to say, many are counting down the weeks until Thanksgiving and the next large American Corner event.

Salı Günü, Tuesday.

Hello family and friends! Tonight, I would like to tell you about my day in Erzurum. 

I woke up at 6:15. It sounds early but the sun had beat me. Turkey only has one time zone so cities in the East like ours enjoy very early sunrises and early sunsets. I’m grateful that I don’t teach afternoon classes because it is usually dark before 4. I’m looking forward to the winter solstice. I made some Nescafe. I’m in the market for a French press. 

As I waited in front of the fruit stand where Aysegul usually picks me up, the manavci (fruit seller) insisted that I wait inside his store because it was way too cold to wait outside. We have experienced our coldest temperatures this week--in the low 40s. He also told me that I would learn more Turkish inside than I would outside. He had clearly noticed my terrible accent in mornings past. I sat on the chair behind his register and ate a pastry for a few minutes as he bustled around stacking tomatoes and speaking to me in Turkish. Probably giving me advice about how to stay warm but who knows for sure.

I arrived at school ready to knock out my four hours of teaching. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I teach two hours of engineering students and two hours of tourism students. Although both fields require an English proficiency, engineering students must score much higher on the college entrance exams and the difference in my two classes’ speaking levels reflects that difference in scores. What the tourism students may not have in vocabulary and grammar, however, they certainly make up for in their enthusiasm and competitiveness.

In each class, I teach (or sometimes attempt to teach) my students how to speak about two topics. Today our topics were “Food Around the World” and “The Movies.” Highlights include: When I was explaining that enchiladas were bread rolled up and stuffed with meat and cheese, one boy chimed in: “Oh, like a cigarette.” Sure. When discussing pizza, I felt it suitable to explain the beauty of a Little Caesars’ “Hot and Ready”s--especially in a city like Erzurum where there is no such thing as fast food. I went on at length about how one could walk in and take a pizza and only be $5 poorer. One of my very serious students stood up in the back of the room, took a deep breath and said: “Teacher, this pizza--maşallah.” Maşallah is a phrase which roughly translates to “may God bless and keep.” It’s usually reserved for newborn babies. But apparently also appropriate for Pizza Pizza.

I joke that my mornings are filled with teaching and my afternoons are filled with drinking tea. This is actually the truth, not a joke. I drank my first glass (and they are served in glass cups here) with Elizabeth and Korey at the Medical School cafeteria with our menemen, a casserole-type dish of tomatoes and eggs. When I got back to school, Muzaffer Bey, the vice-director of the Foreign Language School invited me into his office for a glass. I think of Muzaffer Bey as the grandfather of Erzurum. He has bright white hair. He has taught English here for his entire life. Our boss, Mehmet Bey, had him as a teacher for his first year of high school. He always stares out the window as he speaks to me in his office. He has a look in his eyes like he is gazing at the mountains that surround Erzurum and thinking about all the people he has influenced here. This would be really cool if he actually had a view of the mountains but his office is on the first floor so he can only see cars in the parking lot.

I went upstairs and drank a glass with my office mate, Aysel, as I graded speaking presentation topics. When I went downstairs to print some grading sheets, I refused a glass with Zekir Bey the printer. I instantly regretted it. He is someone I should befriend but I had left my office door unlocked upstairs so I felt like I could not stay. I drank my fourth cup of the day with Zeynep, one of my partner teachers. She teaches my tourism students grammar and reading. She wanted to hear how they were progressing. I was happy to tell her that they are trying very hard and was also secretly pleased when she agreed that one of the best students is a girl named Helin. She’s pregnant and as I was leaving, she told me that the next time I stopped by, she’d love to discuss what it is like to give birth in the U.S. I’ll have to do some research on that one. 

After dinner with Emily and Korey, Emily and I embarked on what we knew would be an Erzurum adventure. As I mentioned, we had agreed to give English lesson to the family that owned Guzelyurt, Erzurum’s fanciest establishment, but still did not know many--or any--details about these lessons. We were told to arrive at Guzelyurt at 7 where Mervlat the waiter would meet us. Emily accurately described our experience with Mervlat as something out of an old movie. The bar is empty. Classical music is playing. A man wearing a suit beckons you urgently over to two empty bar stools. Tea is poured. A phone rings. Just as urgently, you are beckoned down some back stairs. You introduced to another man in a suit. You are told to sit  inthe back seat of a car. You have not idea what is going on since everyone is speaking a different language. You are suddenly zooming down the city streets. This is where my narrative breaks down. I really can’t imagine Cumhuriyet Street as one in Paris or Rome--but up to that point, we felt like film noire stars. The driver (who turned out to be the owner’s brother) drove us to Dadaşkent. The suburbs. Although it was dark, I could tell it was the nice part of town. At a first floor apartment, we were greeted by Sibel and Dilay. Dilay is 12 and she will be our pupil. From the mere hour and a half I spent in their house, I could tell that Sibel is the ultimate Turkish Tiger Mom. She is a doctor at a private practice in town. Her apartment was impeccably decorated. She made us tea with such haste, I did not know water could boil that quickly. She does not speak English so she immediately put Emily on the phone with her sister who does. I heard the conversation secondhand but apparently Sibel wanted to know about our qualifications for teaching her daughter. Emily told her that we were English teachers at Atatürk. “Wait, are you Fulbrights ETAs?” said Sibel’s sister, “I work for the Fulbright Comission in Ankara.” Yes, just to prove that the world is smaller than I already thought, we had met this women during our orientation in Ankara. She is the accountant for Fulbright’s programs in Turkey and knew details about us from our applications long before Sibel handed Emily the phone. 

Sibel wants Dilay to be accepted to Robert College (actually a high school) in Istanbul in three years. Robert College could probably be described as Turkey’s Exeter and English fluency is required. Dilay is well on her way. She can understand me better than the majority of my students and her accent is flawless. I’m looking forward to spending an hour with her each week and figuring out how to keep her attention. We might try to read Harry Potter, she told us she enjoys the movies. Sibel was lovely to us as well. Although I emphasized her intensity, she seemed very happy to meet us. When she drove us home, she told us about a Blues Festival--the first in Turkey--that was visiting Erzurum on Sunday. “Tickets are hard to get but my husband has some if you would like to come.” I think we may have accidentally fallen in with Erzurum high society.

For those of you that made it to the end of this account, it is now later than I would like to go to bed to be rested for my 8 a.m. class--and what will follow. Luckily, however, I have no doubt that my tomorrow will be charged with the caffeine from the glasses of tea. Inşallah.