Yabanci, Yabanci

Week one in Erzurum comes quietly to an end. We do not start teaching until October 1st so we still have one more week to get settled and met other people in our department or faculty:the “Yabancı Diller Yüksek Okulu” or School of Foreign Languages. And after this week, I certainly feel more settled that I did we first arrived. We have Internet in two of our three apartments. My apartment is unfortunately the odd one out, I don’t have a phone jack so I need to learn more Turkish before I can ask for that. We have become familiar with the city’s grocery stores, everything that we need is within walking distance. I joined a gym with two of my Turkish colleagues on Wednesday. Women go on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, men go on the opposite days. And we have sampled some of Erzurum’s finest cuisine (hence, the gym membership): ezogelin soup made of mint and lentils, kadayıf dolması or a baklava-type dessert made of shredded wheat and walnuts, ciğ kofte or seasoned cold meatballs wrapped in lettuce, and what I think is my favorite so far, mantı, a ravoili that is eaten with yogurt sauce. And of course, çay--the tea that is served with nearly every interaction with everyone from the laundromat man to the person at the apartment lease office. 

Mehmet Bey, our director, says that he wants us to be as comfortable as possible here since he thinks it is necessary for us to be good teachers. I think that is probably true and it is very kind of him to be constantly asking what else he can do to help us. It seems, however, like he got the entire city on board as well. One of my professors at Catholic, Zeyneb Hanım, often told me that people in Eastern Turkey are even warmer and more hospitable than people in the West. It has been a little surreal to see that hospitality in action. 

I will attempt to give a rundown of the week through examples how Erzurumis seem to bend over backwards to help us, the “yabancı” or foreigners in town. I know, however, that the list will be incomplete. On Sunday, we attempted to find the Target-esque Carrefour store to get some necessities for our apartments. We google mapped but the lack of street signs made it difficult to find. We were wandering around a neighborhood south of our campus for a while until we finally worked up the courage to ask a woman and her daughter for directions. Instead of telling us, she beckoned us onto a bus with her, insisted that we sit by her and then told us when to get off, right in front of the Carrefour. When we arrived at the mall where Carrefour can be found in the basement, we decided to check the authenticity of a rumor that all McDonalds have WIFI. We didn’t get a chance to check though because when we asked a McDonald’s employee if “WIFI var mı?”, he asked for our laptops and typed in his personal password so we could access the mall employee’s network. 

The following evening, we were wandering around Atatürk’s campus. We found a movie theater that seems to show second rate films and also noticed a sign advertising the viewing of the Trabzonspor football match on the second floor. We decided to peer in but had no plans to stay and watch the game that night. The security guy outside the building was determined to find us something else to do when he saw we did not want to see the game. He kept making suggestions in Turkish: There is a coffee shop around the corner. Do you need any food? We have a restaurant and grocery store. Did you see the movie theater? Oh, if I only I could tell him more clearly that we were just looking around and would be back! Speaking of accommodating security guards, we could not have completed our wireless installation process without the help of the computer center’s security man. The wireless king of Atatürk U determined that the problem with Emily and Elizabeth’s router was that he did not have the correct phone number to program. He told them to go back and call the operator from their apartment and find out their phone number. Of course, they do not have a landline. When he heard that, he told us to follow him. He marched us down to the entrance of the building, unplugged the security guy’s desk phone and handed it to us. The security asked no questions and just nodded and welcomed us to Turkey. Sidenote: They do not live that close to the computer center. That security guy could not receive any calls for about an hour. 

Our greatest, most entertaining, example of hospitality took place Wednesday night in a packed room of about 300 Turkish men and 20 women on the fourth floor of an apartment building in the city center. Istanbul’s Galatasaray v. Manchester United. First game of the Champion’s League for the season. It was an experience in itself to be in the midst of so much emotion in such a small place. There was such a crescendo of noises and cheers during the breakaways (and the instant replays of these breakaways) that I was  more entertained by my fellow spectators than the match itself. We would not have been in that room without the excessive help of some Erzurumis on the street below. We were (once again) wondering the city looking for a place to watch the game (Additional sidenote: I did not suddenly become a sports fan upon moving to Turkey: Korey loves soccer and was leading the way, I was happy to find out what locals do in the evenings) when an older man on his cell phone intuited that was what we looking for. He took it upon himself to get us there. This involved him shouting into a nearby teahouse for a young man to lead us the few blocks and four flights of stairs to the viewing party, which was held in what is usually a snow boarding school, by the way. The owner of the shop made an entire row of people move over so we could all sit together. At half time, we were asked by the children sitting behind us if we were Man U fans. Thankfully, we had learned the appropriate answer from one of our co workers the day before; “Hayır! CIM BOM BOM!” I still do not know what that means but it is what Galatasaray fans scream from the stands and satisfied the little kid. 

In a few hours, we are headed to Kars and Anı for the weekend. Kars is a city about three hours East of here. Apparently, there is not much to see there. But we all read and enjoyed Orhan Pamuk’s “Snow” which takes place in the city and it has the reputation of being the only place in Turkey that is colder than Erzurum so we thought now would be a good time to go. Anı is the former capital of Armenia that is now a ghost town. Also, any step I take east of Atatürk’s campus is “the furthest East I’ve ever been”, so that is pretty cool. Our Turkish colleagues seem surprised we are visiting either site. Of course, when we went to the bus station to buy tickets, we were immediately asked by a random traveler where we were headed and then led over to the appropriate ticker counter. We have no place to stay in Kars tonight but I’m not concerned at all that we will be homeless. 

So first conclusion about why I am here in Eastern Turkey? Maybe to teach me unconditional kindness and patience? Even and especially towards foreigners who can barely speak my language? 

More and better pictures to follow! But here are some shots of the campus.