Had there been a syllabus for my modern Turkish history class (there was, but only one copy, and she doesn't really plan on making more), it probably would have looked like this:


ATA 405.1 - The History of the Turkish Republic for Foreign Students

Professor Sevtap Demirci

• MA (Bogacizi University, Istanbul)
  
• MLIP (Cambridge...Cambridge University... University of Cambridge...)
• Ph.D. (LSOE... and Political Science)

Office Hour
Thursday, 3-4 (notice: this coincides with my coffee break, so please only visit me if you'd like to drink something with me. I multitask).

Course Description
This class covers the period of Ottoman and Turkish history from 1839 (does anyone know why that date is significant? Hmmm, anyone? 1839.... no? Tanzimat. Westernization. Tanzimat.) to 1938. No, 1939. No, 1938. So... about 100 years. Why is 1938 significant? Anyone? Anyone? Ataturk's death. Mustafa KEMAL ATATURK. I will teach this class in literally any way you would like- presentations, discussion, lecture. I assume you're all very familiar with the subject matter already, so all of these methods are valid.



Required Readings
Please select a book and read it.
There are no weekly readings.
Do the readings before class so we can discuss them.


Schedule
Week 1
This week we'll go over the syllabus, determine who can and can not speak Turkish in strange and vaguely humiliating ways, change this class from 15 people to 60 people, and show how little preparation is required to teach this course.

Week 2-12
Whatever is on my mind at 3 pm on Tuesdays. Theoretically, we will cover these subjects:

1. Ottoman Empire
2. Political, Economic, and Social Structure of the Ottoman Empire
3. The Eastern Question (does anyone know what this is? Anyone? No, American students, but good guesses! It happened after World War I and occupied European relations with the Ottoman Empire for the next 150 years! What's that? Oh no, it came to an end after WWI, obviously. It began in 1774.)
4. Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (After WWI, we can no longer talk about the Ottoman Empire)
   
5. Efforts to prevent the Decline of the Ottoman Empire (But somehow, this part comes after WWI.)
6. WWI (Someone say the word armistice! I will look each and every one of you in the eyes until you say the word armistice!)
   
7. Period of National Struggle
   
8. Lausanne Peace Treaty
9. Kemalist Principles

We'll probably be able to cover all of these topics in only 2 hours a week, with at least 1 hour devoted to me fluttering around the room.

We'll have our final a few weeks before the end of the term, and then our final in January. Oh whoops, I mean mid-term. We'll have our midterm, then one class period, then our final.



Grading
Midterm - 50%
Final - 50%
Total - 100%

so...

Midterm + Final = Grade
because
50% + 50% = 100%

Wait, let me show you that on the board. Are you students familiar with dividing by 2?

Class attendance - extra credit
Class Participation - extra credit

If you are studying abroad this semester, let me know. Oh wait, "for foreign students" is in the name of this class? So you're all studying abroad? Please wait one second while I disregard that and complain about how registration works at this university.




Should be a good semester.

READ WELL, ADORING FANS

It's possible that on an overnight bus ride, wherever you are at dawn is the most beautiful part of the trip. However, it's just as possible that a perfectly clear morning in rural northern Turkey, with mountains silhouetted against a silent sky, fails all explanation. Welcome to Sinop.




Sinop is a small town along the Black Sea. It's not really a tourist destination, but Ali and I decided that we wanted to go somewhere along the Black Sea, and this place looked nice. An overnight bus ride from Istanbul's Otogar (this place is ridiculous, by the way. It's a bus depot for a country that relies heavily on them, complete with convenience stores and restaurants. Imagine a gigantic parking garage with like 100 businesses operating out of it. Thousands of buses. Mind-boggling, really) put us in Sinop at about 9. We got ripped off by a cabbie (for the first time!) and found a small hotel. The duder there was about 140, really nice, and patient with our miming / complete ignorance. We tooled around the port for a few hours, took a nizzap, and hit the town. First stop: prison.


Sinop's Fortress Prison for Redundant Criminal Crooks existed in some form since the 7th century BC before closing down in 1997. Now it's a tourist attraction, although I should be very clear about this part- it's some buildings you can walk through. Place was weird. The rooms were either not cleaned out or poorly decorated, entire buildings lacked signs or explanations, and for a place as big as this prison, there was no one working. Like, no security. No custodians. Just people wandering around, apparently peeing everywhere. Oh yeah, the place reeked of urine. That was its redeeming feature.

In reality it was kind of nice. Ali and I walked around for a while, speculating as to the various uses of these torture-chamberesque rooms, wondering about what Turkey considers "tourist-worthy." Here are some pictures:



Those don't really communicate anything other than "Jesus Tom, you should learn the basics of photography." But yeah, Sinop Fortress Prison... we spent like 3 hours there.


We were still exhausted, so it was a pretty early night. The next day our plan was to explore these waterfalls about an hour away, but we realized that there was a big hill just asking to be climbed. This was one of the better decision we've made, as it afforded us these views:

Pretty dope, right? To get there we had to trespass on some farmer's land, which may or may not be owned by the government. All I'm saying is some military guy whistled at us from a guard tower. Sinop kind of juts out from Turkey, meaning that the Black Sea borders it on both sides. An island connected to land, basically. Which one of you will be the showoff who tells me the proper name for that in the comments section? Swaney? I think it's going to be Swaney.

That night we took another overnighter (why do Turkish people like this? It's kind of cool, but maybe not for how often we're doing it) back to Istanbul. All in all a successful weekend, and we certainly learned that we can travel without too much worry. People were nice, interesting, and engaging despite our complete lack of Turkish. Classes start tomorrow and I'm pretty excited to get into a routine. These last 3 weeks I've felt in limbo between summer and college, and am ready to fall hopelessly behind in schoolwork. Yeah, 11 week semester.







Oh, and regarding that last post: I guess I'll explain a few pictures in each of the next few posts, starting with the ones i'll forget soonest / are the most interesting. Here we go:

TURK KASI! This is the ultimate team I'm playing with. Maybe half ex-pats, half Turks, half jungle, half stack, 100% rewarding. These people play with the passion that got me playing in the first place, and it's so refreshing to watch 30 year old men and women fall in love with the game, throw terrible forehands, and gleefully chase a 175 gram piece of plastic all over a piece of crap rock pit that calls itself a soccer field. We play once a week from 2-7, which works out well for me. I didn't come to Istanbul to play ultimate, but when I'm not traveling, it's nice to go out there and run for a bit.

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or
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There are a lot of stray dogs here. What's weird is that Istanbul has many of these dogs tagged to show that they're up-to-date on their shots, so you shouldn't be worried when one of them bites you. What? That's some weird logic. These "freedom dogs" have been known to bite, but usually only when they travel in packs... which is after dark... on my campus. Whatever, it's better than putting these dogs to sleep, I suppose. But anyway, a lot of these dogs are sassy. I've spent an unhealthy amount of time trying to take pictures of them, and will soon begin assigning them voices. Many of you know what I'm talking about. The rest of you will find out eventually. There are also stray cats, but they tend to be sadder.

Ughhh!

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Well i'm hopelessly behind. Here are a few photos, pick a few you want to hear stories about, and i'll write 'em up. If you don't want to hear any stories, I won't feel bad about not updating, but I will feel bad about my life. Your choice, Mr. Anderson.

Places and things

Ephesus and Pamukkale this weekend, I'll update when I get back. Search those places, they're sick.

Well here we go again

Here we are, September 4, and I'm getting ready to depart on my 4 month adventure to "the capital city of two world empires." In the words of my good friend, Shane, "why the fuck are you leaving the country so much?" I'm contemplating that question as well, but with the realization that once I get on that plane there will be no room for regrets or self-pity. Studying abroad in Istanbul is truly an incredible opportunity. Sure, the university I'll be studying at is in Europe, but this won't be like my previous European jaunts. It's cool that I'll be in a place which will require learning. I can't just grin and bear 4 months, nor can I fake it. Turkish is crazy, dude. That language has approximately 0 similarities with English, from what I can tell. And with the exception of disc (yeah Turk Kasi, make me homesick), I'm expecting a completely different culture than anything I've ever experienced. Maybe I'm being dramatic and it won't be that different and I'll make tons of American friends and we'll go out and have a nice and easy academic semester while exploring Turkish nightlife and learning all about Turkish history and traditions, but I kind of hope not. While Turkey is dope, it serves more as a platform from which I can learn about myself rather than a subject in itself. My curiosity means I'll want to be informed on political situations, historical context, and everything else I can discover about Istanbul, but the actual experience is more relevant and important to me. How will this city change me? How comfortable will I be in this (strange) place? Do I need the safety net that Lexia and Grinnell provide? These are all questions that this blog will grapple with, along with the anecdotes that kept you people coming back to the Ireland blog like moths to a flame, and lots of caps lock. My computer is almost broken. I hope it survives this trip. Anyway, I'm clearly bored and laying in my bed right now, so I'm going to get up, watch Good Will Hunting, and maybe start packing. Maybe start freaking out. I'll update from Turkey. Peace.

Major