"Expect nothing, be surprised by everything!" That was my personal motto to myself before heading off to my first year abroad, my senior year of high school. Here it is 11 years later -ugh that sounds bad- and I am doing it all over again. I chose that as the title for my blog because it is just as applicable today as it was back then, if not more so. The url to this site is "yozgattakiami" which means "The Ami (Shortened for American) in Yozgat."
This first post was written a few weeks ago upon arrival in Ankara, Turkey for our orientation. I will follow up with the rest of the Ankara story in a few days, not to mention an explanation of what exactly I am doing here, what led me to this point and what is next... all to come in this fun-filled, exciting blog! Stay tuned!
Can Someone Run to Autozone? We need a fuel pump for a 1990-something Boeing 767-400ER or we can’t leave New York!
I actually texted that to a few of my friends who would think it’s really funny - I hope they were laughing because I wasn’t! My journey to Turkey was a long one (the actual transportation journey- the real journey to getting here is a different story). I had been at my sister’s in Laurel Hill, FL (basically Lower Alabama) for the past few weeks because that is where I dropped a bunch of my belongings off, including my car- so I flew out of Pensacola to Atlanta to JFK to Istanbul to Ankara. I know that sounds fairly easy and it should have been, but then there was DELTA Airlines.
I was actually quite proud and impressed with myself because my checked baggage both weighed in on the scale at 50.0 lbs which is exactly the limit (150$ fee for 51-70lb luggage). I was so surprised because the night before I had been weighing myself on a bathroom scale and coming up with all sorts of numbers: 49.5, 52.5 ... maybe it was the Heath ice cream?
I got away with a carry-on that weighed about 28lbs and my laptop bag stuffed full with 2 laptops and an assortment of heavy objects that wouldn’t fit anywhere else. I was very stubborn and brought my heavy heavy figure skates- I am already zeroing in on a rink here in Ankara!
Back to the delayed flight- we took off nearly 3 hours late and that made connection in Istanbul very iffy. I had emailed our program director from the plane in NY so she had a head’s up and someone was waiting for us at the plane and directed us through that airport in a style I can only relate to the first episode of “The Amazing Race” where everyone is running looking for the clue box in groups of unorganized tourist-looking pairs. We were running, sweating, swearing and for the most part, all of us were towing about 150 lbs of luggage.
We arrived in the domestic side of the airport about 12:55 whereas the flight was to take off at 1. The rep. lady instructed us to leave our luggage in one area and began handing out tickets, informing those with tickets to proceed to the gate and not to worry about their luggage. Uh oh. Then there 5 of us who didn’t fit because the plane had been double booked. Us unfortunate 5 who have last names with letters that began towards the end of the alphabet- a curse as most things go numerically 1,2,3... as alphabetically a, b, c... so if you have a name that begins with R-Z do your kids a favor and just throw an “A” on the front of it: Arobinsons, for example.
We handed her our passports and my jokes of a deposit and first class went over quite well- to me at least. Then something strange happened, the men carting our luggage on the belts asked for help. There were about 5 of them and only 58 bags, but still I went to help and they asked me if I play American Basketball- I should just start saying yes- (the world basketball championship had just been won by the US team -vs- Turkey- the day before here in Turkey, so they had it fresh in their heads). I was lifting bags on that belt like it were my job then I noticed they were just watching me so I stopped. Devam Devam *continue continue* one guy said, “Param nerede?” I asked wondering where my money was for working. Some guy tried to hand me some Lira, and I should’ve taken it because I was thirsty, but I didn’t. Then one guy came up and said in Turkish “Where’s your money? Here- “ and handed me the luggage tickets of all 58 bags. Then I smiled, understanding the joke, and walked back to find my passport!
One last interesting thing from that scene was a luggage carrier who had a strange voice. He was very flamboyant in his gestures and his words didn’t sound like anything. Then it hit me- he was deaf! I had encountered my first deaf Turkish person! This might not seem significant to any of you, but I had given a presentation in my Turkish class on Turkish Sign Language (Türk İşaret Dili) just last semester. I am fascinated by sign language and Turkish Sign Language is a gold mine for a dorky polyglot because it is an unrecognized, unofficial language here in Turkey. I wanted to sign to that guy so badly, but refrained in case he wanted to try to have a conversation! Let’s work on spoken Turkish first.
The rest of the trip involved a scary take-off that felt like the pilot swerved to miss a deer or something on the runway and then a landing that felt like the gear was going to come up through the floor. A quick and easy taxi brought us to our hotel, where I am now and will be until the 25th of Sept. That is how I got here, but not really what led up to me being in Turkey. While I know a lot of you have heard that story and my rants before, I will write a detailed post about what it is exactly that I am doing in Turkey and how I ended up here. Look for that soon! I have to run back to bed- it is 4:36am and it looks like 7am exists here in Turkey too.
İyi gecenler! *good night
I actually texted that to a few of my friends who would think it’s really funny - I hope they were laughing because I wasn’t! My journey to Turkey was a long one (the actual transportation journey- the real journey to getting here is a different story). I had been at my sister’s in Laurel Hill, FL (basically Lower Alabama) for the past few weeks because that is where I dropped a bunch of my belongings off, including my car- so I flew out of Pensacola to Atlanta to JFK to Istanbul to Ankara. I know that sounds fairly easy and it should have been, but then there was DELTA Airlines.
I was actually quite proud and impressed with myself because my checked baggage both weighed in on the scale at 50.0 lbs which is exactly the limit (150$ fee for 51-70lb luggage). I was so surprised because the night before I had been weighing myself on a bathroom scale and coming up with all sorts of numbers: 49.5, 52.5 ... maybe it was the Heath ice cream?
I got away with a carry-on that weighed about 28lbs and my laptop bag stuffed full with 2 laptops and an assortment of heavy objects that wouldn’t fit anywhere else. I was very stubborn and brought my heavy heavy figure skates- I am already zeroing in on a rink here in Ankara!
Back to the delayed flight- we took off nearly 3 hours late and that made connection in Istanbul very iffy. I had emailed our program director from the plane in NY so she had a head’s up and someone was waiting for us at the plane and directed us through that airport in a style I can only relate to the first episode of “The Amazing Race” where everyone is running looking for the clue box in groups of unorganized tourist-looking pairs. We were running, sweating, swearing and for the most part, all of us were towing about 150 lbs of luggage.
We arrived in the domestic side of the airport about 12:55 whereas the flight was to take off at 1. The rep. lady instructed us to leave our luggage in one area and began handing out tickets, informing those with tickets to proceed to the gate and not to worry about their luggage. Uh oh. Then there 5 of us who didn’t fit because the plane had been double booked. Us unfortunate 5 who have last names with letters that began towards the end of the alphabet- a curse as most things go numerically 1,2,3... as alphabetically a, b, c... so if you have a name that begins with R-Z do your kids a favor and just throw an “A” on the front of it: Arobinsons, for example.
We handed her our passports and my jokes of a deposit and first class went over quite well- to me at least. Then something strange happened, the men carting our luggage on the belts asked for help. There were about 5 of them and only 58 bags, but still I went to help and they asked me if I play American Basketball- I should just start saying yes- (the world basketball championship had just been won by the US team -vs- Turkey- the day before here in Turkey, so they had it fresh in their heads). I was lifting bags on that belt like it were my job then I noticed they were just watching me so I stopped. Devam Devam *continue continue* one guy said, “Param nerede?” I asked wondering where my money was for working. Some guy tried to hand me some Lira, and I should’ve taken it because I was thirsty, but I didn’t. Then one guy came up and said in Turkish “Where’s your money? Here- “ and handed me the luggage tickets of all 58 bags. Then I smiled, understanding the joke, and walked back to find my passport!
One last interesting thing from that scene was a luggage carrier who had a strange voice. He was very flamboyant in his gestures and his words didn’t sound like anything. Then it hit me- he was deaf! I had encountered my first deaf Turkish person! This might not seem significant to any of you, but I had given a presentation in my Turkish class on Turkish Sign Language (Türk İşaret Dili) just last semester. I am fascinated by sign language and Turkish Sign Language is a gold mine for a dorky polyglot because it is an unrecognized, unofficial language here in Turkey. I wanted to sign to that guy so badly, but refrained in case he wanted to try to have a conversation! Let’s work on spoken Turkish first.
The rest of the trip involved a scary take-off that felt like the pilot swerved to miss a deer or something on the runway and then a landing that felt like the gear was going to come up through the floor. A quick and easy taxi brought us to our hotel, where I am now and will be until the 25th of Sept. That is how I got here, but not really what led up to me being in Turkey. While I know a lot of you have heard that story and my rants before, I will write a detailed post about what it is exactly that I am doing in Turkey and how I ended up here. Look for that soon! I have to run back to bed- it is 4:36am and it looks like 7am exists here in Turkey too.
İyi gecenler! *good night
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