Yeah, I'm never coming home. Just thought I'd let y'all know. Man, I wish I could stay. I love it here, even if it is -7˚C. My little southern self is just not used to that. This is the first time I've gone somewhere colder for winter break. I'm bundled up in all sorts of layers, and today I was made to wear earmuffs, but my face is still cold, dangit. I'm getting used to it, though. I have a cold, though. I was hoping the stuffy nose was just me getting used to the huge amounts of cigarette smoke I'm around here. But no - it's my first cold since the last time I was in Turkey. Ugh.
I feel like what I got done today made the whole trip worth it as far as research is concerned, though. I went to the Turkish Language Institution. (Institution, not Association - this is important! When I asked why it was changed from Society to Association to Institution, the answer I got was "because Atatürk wanted it that way." Duh.) Anyway, after getting through security and giving up my passport for a fancy swipe-card, I spent about an hour talking to the president of the institution's assistant, who had spent a couple of years studying in Seattle, so she knew pretty good English. And what she didn't know in English, I knew in Turkish, so it worked out. She gave me so much information!
Then the president came in, and I was told he might have time to talk to me if I waited until after everything else he had to do was done. So I waited about another hour, talking to the assistant and this other girl, who was really really (really really) excited that I was there. She wanted to practice her English. She also wants me to come over and play with her baby and eat food at her house. "As soon as possible - tonight? No? What about tomorrow? You're sick? Well, call as soon as you get better. You are so sweetie." Haha.
The assistant actually turned out to be pretty cool. She was writing her master's thesis on Japanese language change, and had not only lived in Seattle, but Japan as well. We talked for a long time.
Anyway, then I got to talk to the president. He was kiiinda intimidating. No smiling for the first half of the half-hour I talked to him. It was interesting to hear his views on what's "dangerous" to a language - using foreign words when there's a perfectly good native word. He ended up laughing at something in the end though. I was so surprised, I almost forgot to laugh too.
The Turkish Language Institution building was within walking distance of Active English, the language school I spent so much time at in the spring, so I decided to stop by and see if the Turkish teachers, Çiğdem, Görkem and Seçkin, or Kathryn, the director of my study abroad program, were there. I climbed the stairs for old times sake (holy crap I need to get in shape for April's half marathon), and knocked on Kathryn's office door. Of course she wasn't there, but on the walls were pictures of all of us CIEE kids sitting in the hallway, when that weird guy came up and started taking pictures. Our news projects were on the walls, too!
Then I went to the office, and there were Seçkin and Çiğdem! Çiğdem was so surprised to see me. I sat and talked to them, and then Görkem came in with çay. We all sat and talked for the better part of an hour - Türkçe'de, of course. Çiğdem said it makes her so happy when old students come to visit, and when I said how could I not come visit them, she started tearing up. Man, it was so good to see their faces. I asked how this year's group of CIEE kids were, and they said they were nice, but they missed us. They said that our group had the best students. They asked about Claire, Jon, Yusuf, Dan, and "aww... Astıncım" (guess who that was from). They were happy to hear I'd seen Yusuf, Erica, and Austin in the states. They said they missed us all.
A good day. Tomorrow I have basically my other host family to visit. So excited. So are they, apparently, based on messages like these: "Come on as soon as possible, Mom said that she can't keep herself to hug you! Tomorrow we will be at home all day, you can come whenever you want!"
There is so much I can't fit into these posts... like how walking down the big hill to the dolmuş stop felt like I was starting all over, like it was last February and I still had all of those crazy adventures ahead of me. It's nice to know that with the way I live my life, I probably won't ever run out of adventures. So much more to say, though.
Oh, PS, dolmuşes are 1.75 now. Lame. And awkward for the pocket change. And Yeni Türk Lirası is now just Türk Lirası. So it's TL now, not YTL.
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