Evenings for the past week and a half have been active. As a result, I'm fending off an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion. Tonight, I finally decided to take a break and work on lesson plans, write a blog post, play with my new cell phone, and people watch instead off walking around the city of Ankara, frequenting cafes (nargile & chai!), and overwhelming myself at the seeming impossibility of learning the language. I suppose just being surrounded by the unfamiliar is exhausting enough. I rarely know what I'm getting myself into, and every expereince feels like a blind experiment. Am I entering a cafe, or some sleazy tattoo parlor? I typically don't know until either I'm approached with a menu, or a vibrating needle. Everyone is friendly, so either way I'll be taken care of.
Perhaps the most difficult thing to get used to is the constant barrage of staring city dwellers. Make no mistake, I look like an absolute American, which means I look very little like a Turk. My friends and I play celebrity night in and night out, engaging with the onlookers and embarrassing ourselves with our lack of Turkish language. It's fun, but I can feel it getting old. It'll be interesting to experience the gaze of onlookers in Bilecik, many of whom have never seen a strapping, handsome American gentlemen. In fact, many of them have never seen an American period, so I'll be an anomaly of sorts.
In all sincerity, I hope to quietly blend into society, make a few friends, and invest my energies in teaching and learning. I also hope to travel, and my list as of now includes destinations across Turkey's vast geography, and potential visits to Egypt, Lebanon, and elsewhere.
Wish me luck.
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