Apartment Building or Dorm Living? Thankful in April

I confess, I've never lived in a normal college dorm.  Somehow I don't feel like I missed out on anything at all.  I guess you could feel sorry for me.  I still had the neighbors who have crazy parties on Friday night (a good chuck of the cans ended up on our side of the yard, go figure) and friends still dropped in at all hours.  But where do you hang a deer in a dorm?  And what happens when you go crazy and decide to make 16 apple pies in one night?  Or maybe it was only 12.  Go easy on me, college ended 8 years ago.  The incident was....10 years ago?  Maybe more.

Now I live in an apartment building with 14 apartments.  We call them houses here.  When I first arrived it seemed so much more normal to tell people I lived in an apartment.  Woah!  Talk about rich!  An entire apartment building all to yourself.  This is now my gut reaction when a newbie to to the country keeps wanting to say they live in an apartment.

For the sake of convenience, we'll call it a flat.  That and I get to sound European.  I keep hearing that Ankara is losing its neighborliness.  Flat dwellers don't visit one another anymore.  This does not seem to be the case in my building because, well, I visit my neighbors.  When I first arrived I decided it would be a great way to practice Turkish.  Now it's just the way it is.  I visit them, invite the over, go walking with them, take them food, they bring me food.  This is simply how I've chosen to roll in my little world.  And thankfully, they've enjoyed rolling with me.  (A gift from the Lord!  Yes, this just became my thankful thing for April.)

The other night I looked out my kitchen window.  Lo and behold, neighbors I hadn't seen were in town.  I should pop down and say hello.  To clarify, it was actually my neighbor's parents.  My neighbor is away for 6 months in Germany working on her doctorate.  I have the key and the duty of babysitting her flat.  No water leaks please!

I popped down.  They were victims of a wicked country-wide dust storm.  On there way from one city to another and the roads had been shut down.  So there was nothing to do but turn around and head back to Ankara.  They hoped to be gone the next day.  I sit for a half hour, eat fruit, laugh, watch the news with them, and leave with more fruit and pastries in hand.  My neighbor's mom tells me I should come down again later and we'll sit more.  I actually have spoken plans to visit another neighbor (!) and so say...something.

7:45 pm - off to other neighbor after eating dinner and starting a cribbage game with my roommate.

8:55 pm - come home, call a friend in AK on Skype.

9:45ish pm - the doorbell rings.  It's my neighbor's mom, cousin and cousin's new bride with a tray (did I say tray?  I meant flying saucer) of food in pots.  She had cooked supper while the cousin, new bride and other cousin went out to see downtown.  The kids ended up eating supper downtown, which meant a great amount of leftovers.  And then...the roads opened.  What to do with the food?  Bring it to Catherine, of course!  So they come, sit for a half hour or so, and take off.  My roommate and I now have a flying saucer full of food, almost none of which my doctor would be happy about me eating.  My roommate hasn't really cooked much since.

Apartment?  Dorm?  I don't know.  But I love it, I'm thankful, and yesterday I received another bowl of food to celebrate a major event in another neighbor's life.  I don't think my roommate will have to cook for a month.

Changing Your Mind

For the last few years I've been in a never-ending education track.  It started when I got off the plane and I could understand about .001% of everything people said to me.  "Merhaba."  Okay, that's hello.  I say "merhaba" in return.  "Nasılsınız?"  And that's how are you.  I say "iyiyim", I'm fine.  I even can ask, "siz nasılsınız?"  "Ben de iyiyim." they say, followed by something that at the time sounded like motors running top speed but not very smoothly.  Nope, not a word of understanding.  Fortunately I did have a glorious moment when the men at customs asked me if I was a student.  I understood enough of their question to say yes and keep walking.  I think it was asked in response to the large number of backpacks and duffel bags I had managed to bring into the country.

In the middle of language study I get a brilliant idea.  Why not keep this studying thing going?  I learned that in order to teach English here, my bachelor's degree needed to be from an accredited institute.  I start thinking about getting a master's degree.  Surely that will suffice.  But no, the B.A. must still be accredited.  The thinking moves from just a master's degree to a second bachelor's degree and a master's degree.  But we're not done yet.  While we're at it, why not pursue a doctorate?  Heavens.  At this point I'll be out of school when I'm 80.  Wait, there's more!  Why not teach at a university institution?  That seals it, I'm in school until they carry me out. 

All while this thought process is taking place I receive several recommendations to write a book.  About Turkey, about language, about whatever.  Thoughts begin to roll around in my mind.  In my iTunes alone I have two and a half days of recordings to listen to about Turkish culture.  My friend just gave me a CD full of recordings from her lesson, and she's only been here a year and a half!  There's much more where that came from.

The project is still never ending.  I may still be studying and/or writing until they carry me out.  But I think I may be in the process of changing my mind.