Turkey- Take Two. Back and Better!

Welcome To Izmir – and back to my blog!

This is my second attempt at creating a blog for those of you curious about my adventures abroad. Last year I was doing fine for the first few months and then I was plagued with Turkish censorship. Blogspot.com was blocked by the Turkish government for some reason and that ended my drive to keep up a blog. I also became very busy with my duties at Bozok University (I’ll talk about that later) so I didn’t want to spend my free time writing about the work I had just been doing! However, I think I did some pretty cool things there and they are definitely worth talking about now.

Where am I now and what am I doing? I bet a lot of you are wondering that. I need to back up to last winter when all of us Fulbrighters were asking each other “what are you doing next year?” Some of them had plans and knew exactly what was next but a big chunk of us were scrambling for options. The year turned most of our worlds upside-down and planning for the next year took a back seat to making it through the year unscathed.

Well, I actually considered applying to Fulbright for another year in Yozgat (yes, it was an irrational crazy thought) because I had done so much work to start foreign language classes and really had a good thing going. However, after the way the university treated me, I could not sacrifice another year of my life to be a pawn in their ridiculous games of power tiffs (tangent to follow in later blog).

However, I really loved Turkey along with its people, culture and language. So- I decided to stay another year…but how? I started looking at private universities in places that would be the most desirable to live in. Izmir was the first place I looked at because it’s a costal city on west coast seated up against the Aegean Sea, third largest city in Turkey but doesn’t feel like it. There are 4 private universities here so I researched them and found the one university that had a German program, Yaşar University – since I am really a German teacher more than an English teacher.

I applied and received a positive response for an interview shortly after I sent my application but at that time of the year I was just so busy that I couldn’t respond and arrange for a weekend interview (an 11 hour bus ride away from Yozgat). But after my friend and fellow Fulbrighter, Catherine, told me she had an interview with Yaşar University, I got on the ball and arranged it so that I would have an interview the same day she did. Catherine flew down to Izmir but I took the long bus.

When I arrived in Izmir I didn’t even think I was still in Turkey. There were palm trees and water fountains (WITH water in them!!!). I was amazed with the site of green grass and other assorted plant life. Then I almost got hit by a car and was reminded that I’m still in Turkey! I ended up at an outdoor mall that had everything you would want, including an IKEA. I saw a man skimming the outdoor water features for the occasional cigarette butt and I almost approached him: “Sir, Sir, you don’t have to do that!! It’s Turkey!” But this is a different side of Turkey I guess.

The interview was something completely unexpected. Having been in Yozgat and used to the formal arbitrariness of everything, I figured I’d be talking to someone very important in a stiff office over lots of çay (tea) and so I dressed for that occasion ~ formal. So when the director of the school of foreign languages came out in jeans and a t-shirt I actually experienced a bit of culture shock! The interview was really just me talking about my experiences in Yozgat. Tell anyone in Turkey you live in Yozgat as a foreigner and you have to explain why . . . tell this to a prospective employer and you have to give the whole story. They really seemed to love my story and had lots of positive things to say to me for my efforts in Yozgat, funny that a school who didn’t even know me was more appreciative of my efforts than the school I was actually working hard at!

But, as many of you know it became a waiting game. They told us we wouldn’t find out until the 15^th of May. Catherine and I were really pleased with our interviews and both received emails that said something like “we look forward to seeing you on the 2011/2012 academic year teaching roster.” So because of that, we were a little less motivated to look for other options for the year. However, we did apply at some other institutes in Istanbul. Catherine even had another interview at on of the other private universities in Izmir. However, she was really unimpressed with that school.

It was the second day of my conference in Yozgat (definitely more to come on that) that Catherine and I found out about the job at Yaşar University. It was early in the day before I was to open up the second day of sessions at the conference when the email came. I was checking my email for materials to be printed for the day’s sessions and saw the headline from an unrecognized Turkish name . . . “Dear Mr. Robinson, we are pleased to offer you a position. . .” I started shaking and said very neutrally, “Catherine, you need to check your email.” She knew exactly what I was referring to as we had been anticipating the email but sort of expected it the next week.

When she finally read the mail we were able to celebrate! It was on Friday the 13^th at 12:51, the time on my wall clock in my Yozgat office that never moved because despite the nice Bozok University clock that they had given me, a battery was never provided. It’s now a running joke about everything important happening at 12:51.

So that’s the story of how it came to be that I am in Izmir, a city that at first glance appears to be more European, but is really just Turkish with a twist. I have been here for two weeks now and constantly reminded why I love this country. That’s not to say there haven’t been bumps, but I know this is going to be a great year.

Now that you know why I am back in Turkey, I’ll work on post that tells the story of finding a place to live- one of the most frustrating things I’ve dealt with in Turkey. Find out why in the next blogpost.