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| Host brother Kerim and your's truly |
Welcome to this blog! As we've moved into the current age, I've noticed that people like more photos and fewer words. Therefore, I have decided to make what I write brief and what I display extensive (relative to what I usually have photo-wise, which is very little).
As you may know, I'm in Bursa this summer on a State Department language scholarship program called Critical Language Scholarship. There are 20 of us and we go to language school 5 days a week but to language lessons 17-24/7, depending on how much Turkish you dream in. In fact, there is very little English here--a good thing in my book--and my head often hurts by the end of the day. Nonetheless, my family's been quite kind to me and the town is fun and historical while the classes are not too boring.
We arrived about a week ago in Istanbul after a brief orientation in DC. After less than a day we were off to Bursa via bus and bus-on-a-ferry. Yesterday, our group visited Iznik (Nicaea), a place of great Christian and Ottoman import.
Here's a typical day for me:
7:30 wake up and breakfast (olives, bread, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes)
9:00 class starts
1:00 class ends
early afternoon: often some sort of activity like drama, Turkish cooking, walking around, etc.
afterward: go home, dinner, tea, visit neighbors or relatives, more tea (did I mention that tea is a habitual phenomenon?)
evening: homework, laugh with my family at my stupid language mistakes, write 17 emails, sleep...or at least try...
~3:30am local roosters find it prudent to announce their presence
5am call to prayer from mosques
6am host parents wake up and make a lot of noise
...but, hey, that's why we drink a lot of tea, right?
Anyway, that last bit was exaggerated. Been having a great time and am looking forward to shcaring more with you in the upcoming weeks!
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| Kerim's cousin Ramazan |
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| From the Istanbul-Bursa ferry |
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| Street wedding--a ubiquitous event |
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| Host brother Abdülkerim (Kerim) |
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| Admiring a simit (common bagel-like snack) |
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| Notable statue of a young Osman I |
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| The group in Iznik |
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| In front of an old hamam (Turkish bath) in Iznik |
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| Iznik's Green Mosque |
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| Museum in Iznik |
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| Host parents making BBQ (from L, Aygül and Metin) |
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| Group near the lake in Iznik |
