Let the Classroom Learning Begin

Bathroom signs here are the best.

Things they like in Turkey:
1. Ataturk 2. Baklava

 I am now in my 4th week of classes. I finally

1. Know what I am taking
2. Know where my classes are and 
3. Am in fact registered for all of them.

Each of these events came with its own bit o' drama.

1. Knowing What I am Taking: The course catalogue has little to do with the actual courses that are offered. I had one swell experiencing of arriving in a class entitled "Politics, Religion and Social Change" only to discover that it was actually "Anthropology of Central Asia." I also arrived in Sociology of Gender to discover that the course is actually about Gendered Violence in the Media. This second surprise was much more welcome than the first. More on that later though.   In general, Bogazici takes course shopping to the MAX. I went to 7 or 8 classes my frist week, down to 4 my second and have only now figured out which 2 I am actually taking. Some of the shopping experiences were great, like when I fell in love with the sociology of the city professor, who has the cutest lil' accent and wears sweaters and LOVES CITIES (imagine Lanegran plus what I can only imagine Mosley is like). Others were less, like the Religion and Society professor who's intro class was mostly a political rant about secularism which ended with an equally long rant about how he is not a leftist political individual, but actually an unbiased professor here to educate. 
2. Knowing Where My Classes Are: Maybe this should have gone first, because I needed this one earlier. Turns out, all of the buildings here are known by acronyms but the classes are listed by their full names. The map which includes both is only available through the Turkish version of the university website (also a trend I've come across a lot. I now use that one more. Thanks google chrome!). The highlight of this challenge was trying to find my Turkish class. First, the building we thought it was in is under construction, so it took 3 tries to find the entrance, and navigating THROUGH the construction until arriving where we thought the class was. It was not there. Some helpful folk in the office next door informed us that class actually started an hour later, so my friend and I pet cats (ANOTHER THING I DO ALL THE TIME THEY ARE SO SOFT!) and looked over the MAGICAL view of the Bosporus on campus for a while. When we returned to the classroom, we found Intro to Archeology instead. Frantic--well, mildly concerned--we called our classmates. Turns out we were entirely on the wrong campus. But nbd. I'm taking a different Turkish class anyway. 



View on the way to class

3. Registering for Classes. There isn't that much to tell except that you have to ask your professors for consent and I love consent, so I thought that was a great little process to go through. Hooray! Consent! 

This is another rendition of Ataturk

So in the end I'm taking four classes. One required by Duke which is only met twice and for which we don't have a syllabus yet, and one Turkish class (i'm gonna be a pro. Just wait.) and then

Sociology of Gender: Gendered Violence in the Media.
this class is by far my favorite. Here is why: a big part of the class is our own independent research projects, which we present about once every two weeks. Which means that, besides learning about a topic which genuinely interests me, from a specifically Turkish point of view, integrating challenges of the Western gaze of the professor and many of the students, we get to hear about the Turkish, German, and American research projects and learn A LOT about whats going on in Turkey through that.
One of the things I've been struggling with is the inaccessibility of information/activities that comes with my language barrier, so through this class I am able to get insight into the country that otherwise is much harder to come by.

and

Chora Church

Ottoman Istanbul: Architecture, Urbanism and Representation. 

This is basically an Urban Geography and Urban History class, which is very helpful in giving me a clear, full picture of the city's cultural/historic routes. Also I'm learning tons about the Ottoman Empire. Why had I never learned about the Ottoman Empire before? It was so cool!

At a Mosque in Istanbul, famous for its tiles.

As for the rest of my life, I feel as if we've mostly exhausted the exploring that can go on up on the hill immediately around campus (did I mention that Istanbul is on a hill and my butts gonna look SO good when I return? it is and it will) so my programmates and I are making active strides towards exploring rest of the city. At this point we have at least 7 copies of Istanbul Eats floating around and are making our way to new and different areas. Last weekend the program took us for a walk to a fishing town on the Asian side which was adorable and definitely a place to go once weather improves.

Gevende

I went to a pretty sweet St. Vincent concert, as I said I would, and then also saw a band called Gevende which a friend of a friend took some of too. It was pretty sweet Turkish folk-rock type situation, with some nature scenes projected behind the band and the whole audience on pillows on the floor. We discovered the Turkish hipsters. They are real. This weekend I went to Tune Yards, another favorite band of mine. Also another great opportunity for hipster spotting! That night turned into a slightly more successful excursion into Taksim, the center of night life (well, also of day-life) in Istanbul. This inspired us for future evenings of excitement and exploration; hopefully we'll only get better at finding the cool places to go.


Honestly, morale here is a little low, as its about twice as warm and pleasant in Minnesota right now and it is here--40s and rainy doesn't lend itself to leaving the dorm. Which is tough, because the dorm is a pretty depressing place.

This is my living room. We are not allowed to put things on the wall.

BUT I have big dreams. wandering, discovering the feminist organization on campus (I went to a cool lecture on LGBTQI activism in the middle east yesterday and am about to go to a film in the International Women's Film Festival.) And I emailed the street art people, and a guy I met at the occupied Starbucks  which will hopefully give me some leads. In general, as I've mentioned above, the lack of language is proving more disconcerting than I anticipated. Both socially and in terms of involvement, its hard to convince people that I'm worthy of interaction and to get over the incredibly temporary nature of my interest here.

I've also started practicing with the Bogazici Fat Cats. They have games on Sundays, which are harder to co-ordinate, but theres a tourney in 2 weeks, and I played for another team last weekend with my friend from Macalester who is here on Fulbright.

All in all, I'm doing pretty well! I have a friend coming to visit at the beginning of next month, we're counting on the weather improving, and also planning some trips around Turkey for the next couple of weeks to get some fun in before midterms.

Would love to hear updates from the states! Except not about how nice the weather is :)