Work

Alas, our time in Turkey is not all play, at least for me.  I am on a teaching Fulbright which means my main duties for the Fulbright are instuctional in nature.  I am teaching IE 380 Quality Assurance which is a required class of third year students (juniors).  There are three sections and I teach the Wednesday and Friday one.  The other two sections are taught by my colleague Emre and this is his maiden voyage with this class having graduated last year from Carnegie Mellon.

It is interesting in Turkey that courses are scheduled daily independently, that is, they are start and end at different times on their different days.  For example, my course is from 1:40 to 3:30 PM on Wednesdays (with a 10 minute break in the middle) and from 3:40 to 5:30 PM on Fridays.  Now, if you add up the contact hours they total four, not three.  This is because at Bilkent courses are scheduled with an extra class period to allow for recitation, make up classes or whatever an instructor wants.  Needless to say I chose the 4:40 to 5:30 PM block as the extra hour.  I figured going so late on Fridays was already asking a lot of the students.  This extra hour scheduling makes sense once you understand it.

My class has 48 students in it.  I have not counted proportions of men versus women but I would guess 40% perhaps are ladies.  I was graciously given the services of a teaching assistant and this is Bilgesu.  She is a master's student who also completed her undergraduate degree in IE at Bilkent.  She plans to graduate in summer and hopes for a career in industry.  She is very helpful and always cheerful.  Bilgesu hails from Eskisehir, a city about 3 hours drive west of Ankara.  She travels to her family most weekends using the high speed train that connects Ankara to Eskisehir (and will eventually connect Ankara to Istanbul).

The students' English is very good from what I can tell.  I teach using the same language and pace as I do in the U.S.  They students are also like U.S. ones.  When I ask a question, there are normally only a small subset who readily answer while the rest sit politely.  They do seem less involved with their cell phones in class than their counterparts in the U.S.

Our classroom is in the computer building, a 10 minute or so walk uphill from my office building.  The classroom is well equipped and just the right size for our class.  All in all, pretty decent teaching arrangements.

My wonderful teaching assistant Bilgesu

My class, happy that it is Friday afternoon

Another view

You can see the coat rack in the back and the windows which look out on some fir trees

The classroom is just the right size and very modern and bright

A posed picture of me getting ready to conduct the day's lecture

My office is on the main floor of the IE department, which is housed (along with the engineering departments except for electrical engineering which has its own large building) in the Rectorluk.  By its title you can also guess it houses the Rector (that is, President or Chancellor of the university).  His kingdom is on the second and third floors (using U.S. terminology) and the IE department is on the fourth (by they call it the third) floor.  Some IE offices are also on the third (or they call it second) floor.  My office is between two other visiting professors. Oguz was actually a student at University of Pittsburgh when I was there and is now on the faculty at University of Wisconsin.  He studied at Bilkent so he has returned to his alma mater for his year of sabbatical.  He is on a mainly research sabbatical and is not teaching this term.  The other is Claudio a professor from a university in Italy near Rome.  I have not yet discovered its name.  He is teaching two classes and conducting research with another IE faculty member.  He is also only here one term, like me.  (I seem to be the only Fulbright scholar at Bilkent this term.)  You can see by the pictures that my office, although half the size of regular faculty offices, is very large with spectacular views across to the city of Ankara.  The computer in my office broke just before I arrived so a rather ancient one was substituted.  This proved unworkable and my ever obliging department chair Osman arranged for a new computer which was just installed.  So, no excuses for me not to be productive at Bilkent!

The Rectorluk building seen from across campus.  My office is on the fourth floor towards the right

My original PC - note the floppy drive!  It seems that in Turkey (or Bilkent at least) the floppy drive is not dead.  I have seen the floppy disks for sale at the university bookstore

My original monitor.  I am using a Turkish keyboard which is taking some getting used to as the arrangements of some characters are different from the English keyboards.

My desk.  The furniture is basic but satisfactory.  In Turkish academic offices along with the two guest chairs there is always a small low table between them (normally the chairs face this table but I moved mine).  This is designed so the guests can take tea.

View towards the southeast from my office.  BTW, my office has a small balcony.  If I were a smoker I could smoke there.  As a non-smoker I am not sure what other utility this offers other than getting fresh air.

View to the northeast from my office.  The cityscape is visible with Atakule, the bulbous tower that is a landmark, easily seen on clear days.  The tall apartment buildings in the middle of the picture are actually the group in the Middle Campus where we live.  Our lojman is just off to the left and not visible.

Yunus Emre and Bird Heaven

Our first excursion outside of Ankara took place yesterday.  With Mehmet Gulsen as able tour guide we left traveling west from Ankara through Polatli with our first destination the tomb of Yunus Emre in the town that bears his name.  Yunus Emre lived in the 12th century and was a mystic poet who wrote about love and life.  He is revered by the Turkish people.  His final resting place is in a small town and is little visited (from what I could tell).  Along with three tombs (more on that later), there is a small but very beautiful mosque, a small museum and a "culture house" (a house done in old Ottoman style).  Mehmet conversed with the caretaker and learned that the first tomb ended up being next to the high speed rail between Ankara and Eskisehir and local people had dreams where Yunus Emre complained to them about his sleep being disturbed by the close trains.  He was dug up (and found to be a non-decomposed body after 800 some years!) and moved a little way.  This was his second tomb.  For reasons I am not clear on, he was thence moved to his third and current tomb, about 50 feet from the second tomb.

The mosque at the Yunus Emre tomb

The third and current tomb

Randy and Mehmet at the current tomb

The second tomb

Alice with third tomb and mosque behind

A statue of Yunus Emre

Inside the wonderfully tiled mosque

Tile detail

More tile

Another tile example

We then drove the back roads through sheep and goats (see pictures) to the town of Mihaliccik.  Randy was hungry so we found an open lokanta on the main square.  The chef/owner was also a landholder on nearby village Dinek and grew his own vegetables.  We had the best ever Turkish green beans and I bought his last jar of them to take home - home grown from his garden.  We also ate the local cheese (rather bland) and yoghurt and Randy had chicken and potatoes.  Mehmet and I drank the local spring (cesme) water.

A sheep (part of a large herd) crosses our path in the hinterland of Turkey

The shepherd dog who watched over the sheep herd

A herd of Ankara goats also crossed our path.  The sheepherder offered to catch one so I could see it up close but that generous offer was declined

Chef/owner of the best place to eat in Mihaliccik

Mehmet and Randy waiting anxiously for food

The local cheese made from "mixed" milks

The best green beans ever!!

This is the place to go in Mihaliccik and worth coming from a distance to eat at

We then drove over the mountains through a beautiful snow laden fir forest to the first hydroelectric plant in Turkey and its dam.  This was at Sariyar.  We could actually drive over the dam.  Next was a bonus visit to the tomb of Yunus Emre's master Tabduk Emre at the town of Emremsultan (appropriately named).  This tomb was not as impressive but it was nice to see where the master was laid as a kind of symmetry to the day.

We then went to Nallihan, a town with some history to it as one of the han towns on the route from the western Turkish coast to Ankara.  The hans were built by the Selcuk turks one walking day apart from each other for travelers and their beasts to lodge at.  While the han at Nallihan is no longer there the town had a few less historic buildings and press for poppies next to its city hall.  Our next and penultimate stop was at Bird Heaven (Kus Cenneti), a bird viewing place next to a wetlands.  The talkative caretaker did not see many (if any) visitors and was anxious to share his high powered binoculars with us and tell us about the many birds that lived there.  It was a particularly beautiful place with colorful rock formations in the mountains.  The main bird we saw was the ruddy duck, a very pretty yellow, black and white large duck.   They were there in great numbers.  We hope to return later in spring when even more species are present.  Lastly, we stopped at Beypazari, a historic town that is something of a tourist destination.  Our first choice restaurant was closed but we did quite well at Konak and ate the typical cuisine including the taharna soup.  We walked a bit but it was dark so we need to make another trip to this appealing destination.  They are famed for carrots so Mehmet bought himself and me a bunch.  All in all it was an amazing trip full of surprises and learning.  We can't wait for the next one!

The snow forests.  We were told that hunters sometime hunt for wild sheep here.

One of the spectacular views along the drive - like a mini Grand Canyon

View to the lower side of the dam at Sariyar

Mehmet, Randy and our trusty Megane car on the dam

Final resting place of Yunus Emre's master Tabduk Emre

Historic city hall of Nallihan (a mansion from the late 1800's)

Ruddy ducks at the Bird Heaven wetland preserve

View across Bird Heaven to the green and red colored mountains

The friendly caretaker of Bird Heaven (Kus Cenneti)

Alice and Mehmet at Beypazari, known for its carrots (note large and a little scary carrot statue behind)

Visiting Old Friends

We were happy to connect with several people we had not seen in a long time this past week.  First we met Orhan and Tahir Dengiz at our favorite Ankara mall - Panora - to shop for a new laptop for Alice.  We visited the Sony and the Apple store and narrowed down the search to a couple of models.  Then we had dinner at one of the several upscale, international restaurants in the mall.  We downed Efes beers (so refreshing) and had a relaxing time.

Tahir and Orhan Dengiz - two smart and handsome Turkish men!

Toasting with Efes - always a good idea!

Dinner at Midpoint at Panora Mall

Next was Mehmet Kurt and his lovely wife Baris.  She is an English teacher and we converse so easily with her.  Mehmet is a career Army officer who was also a student (M.S.) at University of Pittsburgh when I was there.  He has been a part time Ph.D. student at Auburn and aspires to come full time when he retires from the Army, perhaps in 2014.  They took us to a nearby restaurant with an enormous menu and I had a new kind of manti that is fried and in tomato sauce.  It is spicier than the regular (ev) manti and I liked it a lot.

Mehmet Kurt and Randy

The new kind of manti - little dumplings in a spicy tomato sauce with yoghurt on top - yum!

Alice and Baris

Finally, the generous and friendly Sakinc family arranged another mangal dinner with the Kulturel family - Mamila and Mustafa.  They are parents of my student and now Penn State professor Sadan Kulturel-Konak.  They were about to head for Isparta but took time from their preparations to have dinner with us.  This was an even better dinner because it included along with the amazing kofte and chicken piyaz (a bean salad that is one of my favorites), yoghurt and coban salad (shepherd salad which is onion, tomatoes and cucumbers).  Again, my Turkish got a workout and it is humbling to know how elementary my Turkish is after four plus years of study.  Well, it gives me motivation to keep working on it.  Warning - the pictures below will make you hungry!!

Piyaz at its best

Coban salad

Chicken wings mangal style

The best kofte

The youthful looking and sophisticated Kulturels

The mangal feast with friendly hosts - the Sakincs