Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Week 5 at Bilkent

This past week has been pretty routine. I have been attending Turkish classes for 3 hours in the mornings after which I have lunch and do some work. I am enjoying most of the work I do, but what I find more interesting are the differences between the university system here and universities back at home (mainly UM.) I like to observe the seemingly subtle differences that actually have a great impact on how things function. Besides that, this week I started to work on research with the professor and her research partner, they are both really nice. The professor I work for was actually a visiting scholar to the UM Psychology Dept (my concentration) while she was working on her PhD. It was neat to hear about her experience at Michigan.
Outside of work, I have made some friends, so sometimes I meet with them or I relax or study. I am really enjoying the food (both the home cooked Turkish meals I have most nights and the restaurants).
The family I stay with took me to a nearby city called Beypazarı this past weekend. Its an old city that has many old style Ottoman houses--they also grow alot of carrots there I guess. On Wednesday, my aunt (also my closest friend) will arrive in Ankara and on Friday we will visit Kuşadası/Efes together. I will post pictures of the university, Beypazarı, and my trip this coming weekend soon.

1 comment:

  1. What are those differences??? I'd love to read your comments on US v Turkey in general....

    ReplyDelete