On Wednesday September 15th I moved from my host family to temporary dorms at the Middle East Technical University (METU). This was bittersweet. I was sad to leave my host family who had been so welcoming. And yet I was excited to start my one-week orientation at METU and meet all the international students. There are around150 international and Erasmus students (European exchange students) from all over the world; including, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, etc... I moved into my permanent dorm on Monday September 20th. I share a small room with a bunk bed, two desks, mini fridge, closet, and bathroom with a shower. My roommate is a Turkish girl from Istanbul, who studying food engineering. So far everything is working out great.
I had the option for the weekend to go with all of the exchange students to a beach town on the Mediterranean for 200 lira or to go visit an ongoing excavation site near Yozgat (a city five hours East of Ankara). There is an ongoing joke here among the Pitzer students that I like ancient ruins. Of course, I chose to go visit the excavation and ended up spending only 20 lira!
On Thursday afternoon I arrived at Kerkenes (the site). It is an ancient Iron Age city that had been burned around the 600 BCE. The city is very peculiar because of its location geographically and chronologically. There is not much known about the 600s in Anatolia so the findings in Kerkenes may unlock some mysteries. The Anatolia region is considered the western peninsula of Asia, which is most of Turkey. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I stayed with METU professors Geoffrey and Françoise Summers. I stayed in their “dig” house on their eco center. While I was there I was able to visit the archaeological site atop a mountain engulfed in clouds twice. I also was taught to cook on a solar stove and oven. All in all, it was a great learning experience and I met a lot of really interesting people who had excavated and traveled all over the world.
On Sunday morning Professor Geoffrey gave a tour of the Yozgat museum (where many of the Kerkenes findings are held). I joined the tour and met a group of 10 Americans professors who were heading to Hattusa and then back to Ankara in the evening. They invited me to come with them, so I did. Hattusa is an ancient Bronze Age city and the capitol of the Hittite Empire. It was very well excavated and beautiful! The group got back to Ankara around 8:30 pm. A very nice women gave me a ride back to METU – where I ate a vegan pizza, skyped, and went to bed!
Today, Monday September 27th is my first day of classes. It has been a tedious and long process of getting approved to take classes. I had to email and meet with many professors. Today I will get a form signed by the president of the department, the secretary, and professors. Then I will take it to the international cooperation’s office who will send it to the registrar's office. By the end of the week my schedule will be finalized and I will post my classes so you can see what I am studying!
I have been posting photos of my various adventures on my facebook. There are currently three albums that you can take a look at.
I hope you are all doing well!
Photo 1: An entrance gate and road to the city of Kerkenes.
Photo 2: Solar oven and stove.
Photo 3: A row of gods etched into a temple wall in Hattusa.
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