Entry 2: Week 1 at Bilkent

Hello all,
I am finishing up my first week of work at the Bilkent University Business School (Işletme Fakultesi).The apartment I live at is about 30 minutes from Bilkent, however, it is approximately a 40 minute bus ride to and from the bus stop. The closest bus stop to my apartment is a 10 minute walk (up and down many hills at that, I am beginning to appreciate the flatness of Ann Arbor). I am still getting used to the public bus system (separate from the Bilkent bus system). I work from about 930 AM-530 PM. The people here are very friendly and most of the faculty, staff, and students speak English. So, as I said, I am here to do primarily research and general office work. The research professor is out of the country until next week, so this week I have been focusing on administrative work and my job tasks will alter next week when she returns. I was given my own office to work in, which is a plus, however, it is a floor below my superiors so I am a little isolated. One of my bosses said that it is okay for me to audit some of Bilkent's summer classes, which start in June, so I will probably take a Turkish class. Besides that, I am enjoying the food, the tea, and the people. Yesterday was a national holiday called World Youth Day so nobody had work or classes, so I had a nice day off. Ankara is a beautiful city, which I believe involves the fact that there are many hills meaning that there is usually a good view wherever you go. There are many shopping malls here, too. On one street, there are 2 complete malls right next to each other (and one or two more along the same road just in different places). Kinda funny. That's about it for now, I will write more next week. Please let me know if you have any questions.