Holler at your girl, Balıkesir!

To fill you in: the last few days of orientation in Ankara pretty much dealt with us learning how to teach English at our respective universities in a very general manner. Also, I had to say goodbye to all my new buddies! Womp times fifty-nine!

On a far more exciting note, WE MADE IT TO BALIKESİR! It only took about nine hours by bus! Our first half day was great-- we were met by our two contact people at the bus station, had tea, and visited on of the university campuses/buildings. 

Then we finally got see our apartment, which is super great, especially since we live there rent-free. It could be haunted, which makes it even better. Pictures'll be up soon, as will pictures of Balıkesir in general.


So you have an idea of the feel of my next few posts, we are literally the only Americans here for miles. I might be the only American female in the entire province. If this fact is true, I wouldn't be surprised in the least. Oh, and so you know, foreigners in Turkey are called "yabancı" if singular and "yabancılar" if they enter towns by the droves. Personally, I embrace my yabancı-ness, as you will see it certainly has upsides.


On our second day here, we found a nice little cafe. More important that its level of niceness is the  overpowering fact that it has free wireless internet, something our free apartment unfortunately lacks. Anyway, when we came back to the cafe later that night (after seeing the main campus and meeting coworkers), we came to realize that it turns into an all-out football bar (sans beer) at night. I inadvertently watched my first Turkish soccer game-- Fenerbahçe versus Gaziantepspor. We also scored awesome balcony seats. Why? YABANCI STATUS! We made friends and watched soccer! It was the best!


Oh, also... this cafe-- and every other restaurant in Balıkesir likes to make us feel at home when we enter their establishment by playing the most hardcore rap they have. It's great. And can I just say, kids LOVE us. They love shouting one-word phrases of English at us and asking us our names. And can I just say, I love it as much as they love us. Perfect symbiotic relationship.


The next day was pretty chill, we made our way back to our new cafe hangout, did some food shopping, and watched yabancı sinema all night. Yabancı sinema, dear readers, are American films dubbed over in Turkish.  Spoiler: films dubbed in Turkish make everything funnier, and interestingly enough, Turkish voice-overs make Jackie Chan a better actor. Who knew?

Ten percent better in Turkish.

Seventy-five percent better in Turkish.

Why wouldn't you just assume he'd be one hundred percent better in Turkish?

Tonight's yabancı feature is 3:10 to Yuma, so we'll see how Russell Crowe measures up in Türkçe. I'm thinking it'll be promising. 


After my next post, which should help those of you not familiar with Turkish soccer teams and Turkish soccer in general, I pinky-promise to put up some pictures from around town. I'll mark myself as a full-fledge yabancı for the entertainment of my readers.