Onur haftası ve ikinci hafta

Merhabalar!

A lot has happened in the past several days and I apologize for not posting yet. My computer is experiencing culture shock, I think, so I'm posting from my iPod.

In Turkish class there's been a little more attempt to explain things in English if we're just not getting it, but that's a last resort. We've been going over grammar a lot and some things are coming back to me but being reinforce in different ways (such as the difference between geniş zaman vs future tense).

Outside of class this week has been where the cool stuff has happened, though. I've been to Taksim every day for three days straight, because there have been events (some related to Pride and some not) every day. I haven't been getting as much sleep as I'd've liked, but that's okay because the events have been great.

I went to a meeting of the Istanbul Toastmasters club, which is a public speaking group mostly of professionals practicing giving presentations in English.  The ideas expressed were often pretty standard corporate liberalism but it was amazing to hear so many people striving to better themselves.

One of the Onur Haftası events I went to with my friend Syndey was a music-sharing event. People did everything from body rhythm to a song about animal rights set to the tune of Mad World to TPop songs to contemporary art music that Erin Cameron would have loved. I also met several people there and elsewhere in the community, including Karem, who is involved in a group at Boğaziçi  that does activism and research in the LGBT community here, which is awesome and who I'll hopefully be able to meet this summer.

I'm also going to a picnic this afternoon in Maçka Park, where a lot of my new friends (both from the program and Istanbul more generally) will be. So I'm excited for that too.

Anyway, I'll sign off now. İyi günler!

İkinci hafta başlar

Merhaba friends!
Blogger on my computer is in Turkish now; I've been posting from my phone so I didn't notice until now. It turns out I get computer-compatible Wifi on South Campus and North Campus (including the library), which is nice.
Anyway, classes have begun in earnest. The instructors speak almost entirely in Turkish unless we ask specific vocab questions, which is great for immersion but can be confusing. I'm still unsure what homework is due tomorrow and which questions I'm supposed to do for the reading. It's a bit disconcerting.
Unfortunately, it seems like I'm already behind on work, because instead of sitting in the library doing work I've been hanging out with people from the program, exploring the city, and attempting to talk to people in Turkish. I don't think that's a problem though; there's no reason to stress out about grades that are just going to show up pass-fail, and I have been learning a lot from what I've been doing outside of class. I can more or less ask simple requests and respond politely, even if I can't express complex thoughts while speaking just yet. I think within a couple of weeks I'll be better, because the grammar in class is giving me the tools to be able to think and talk in Turkish.
Also, I should be able to start making research contacts this week, because Istanbul Onur Haftası is this week and I'll be going to the events that don't conflict with required TLCP activities (unfortunately I had to miss a panel today for class). I don't know how hard it will be since I'm not conversant in Turkish, but it seems like there's a lot of English speaking people at least. So, that's exciting. I asked one of the organizers if I could assist but I didn't get a reply; I probably started too late since the preparation mostly happened before I got to Turkey. One of my classmates wants to come to stuff with me, which is great.
I'm still adjusting to the schedule and accommodations, but I think I've already acclimating to Istanbul itself. Other than the language, daily life isn't all that different from living in any city in the US (though with Seattle's hills and New York's crowdedness; I imagine San Francisco is a good comparison). The views, though, I might want to avoid getting used to; there's probably a dozen gorgeous views of the Marmara and Anatolia between my dorm and class each morning. The hills may be a lot of climbing but you can't fault the scenery.
Anyway, I'm going to get back to work now, because I have Things To Do tomorrow evening and I need to get ahead.

First day

Today is the first day of Turkish classes!

I arrived two days ago, and yesterday instead of class we had a placement test. I'm in the "Lower Intermediate" class, which makes sense since I haven't taken any Turkish in over a year, so it shouldn't be too hard. (I have at least seen all the grammar before, even if I forgot most of the vocabulary.)

There are a lot of cats and dogs around. They also don't tend to bother people at all, especially the ones in the street, but on campus at least people feed the cats but not really the dogs.

Istanbul isn't laid out on a grid, so it can be pretty confusing to get around, but I'm learning the nearby area and I'm pretty sure I know the way to and from campus. Google Maps is helpful by looking, but not for searching or figuring out public transit. Yelp helps even less. However, we found a couple of stores and kebapçiler so it's working out pretty well.

For some reason most of my class lives in the same dorm as me, which will be convenient. I've already made lots of friends; all my fellow students speak English, though, which means we haven't been only speaking Turkish. Maybe we will by the end though.

Also, I'm somewhat confused as to where we are, exactly. Google Maps says Sarıyer, but I'm pretty sure that's not right. Still, there's buses from here to Taksim so that should work out well. I more or less know my way around the immediate neighborhood, can get to campus and such pretty easily.

EDIT: I believe I am in Etiler. Also, enough of us have been trying to speak to each other in Turkish that I suspect it's helping. The group of us that was hanging out tonight has enough variety in proficiency that those of us on the lower end can improve from listening.

New summer, new adventures

Hello everyone!
It's summer again, and this year I'll be going to Istanbul to take a language course rather than to do interview research, but while I'm there I'm sure to meet new people and talk to them about things, hopefully in Turkish. At least, that's the plan. We'll see what happens when I get there.
I'm flying out around noon tomorrow and will be landing in the late morning the day after, Istanbul time.