My mind has been all over the place today, so don't expect a coherent post. I took a long break from life yesterday afternoon (read: nap, blogs, reruns of American tv on my computer) and I've had a difficult time readjusting to the here-and-now. This morning, all I could think about was my (yet to be started) new life in New York, and this evening, I've been going back and forth between that, drooling over Turkish food, and trying to understand my host family better.

In terms of conversation, I'm back in a mostly listening stage, especially since the guest (a friend of a cousin..? I'm not really sure) staying with us this evening talks about as fast as I do when I'm in my high-speed SoCal mode. As she talked, I went back and forth between trying to pick out individual words I understood and playing a game in which I don't focus on actual meaning, but rather try to distinguish each word from the rest while maybe catching a verb tense here and there. This exercise isn't productive when I'm actually trying to understand a conversation, but I think it's useful when someone is speaking so quickly that I wouldn't be able to make sense of it anyway. I noticed an improvement in my listening comprehension by the end of the evening, but the spoken words still didn't come.

Our morning classes today were replaced by a lecture on Ottoman history, given by a professor at METU, the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Being one of the few people on the program that doesn't seem to have a background in any Turkish history, I really appreciated the overview of the empire's rise, decline, and overall structure. The same professor is coming back on Wednesday to talk about modern Turkish history, and I'm looking forward to that quite a bit. I'm hoping she'll be able to elucidate some of the tenets of Turkish secularism, as I'm kind of fascinated with its similarities to French laicite. I was originally drawn to Turkey because of its connection to Germany, but more and more it's making me think of France. Don't tell Sarko this, but I can't help but feel that the French and the Turks have a decent amount in common.

After class, I spent about an hour drinking tea in a local cafe with program friends before heading home. On my way, I ran into my host sister and her best friend, so I turned around and walked back with them to the city center, where we looked in some stores before saying goodbye to the friend and meeting up with my host mom. On our way back to the apartment, we stopped by the local market together, and I nearly collapsed at the sight of about 1/4 mile of beautiful produce stretching down one of the main roads near our apartment. Piles of tomatoes, peaches, peppers, potatoes, melons and more lay next to each other without barriers or any sort of embellishment, allowing what I consider to be the only thing worth showcasing, the food itself, to take center stage. A few signs here and there pointed to the prices, but they were overshadowed by the sheer quantity of produce displayed on the long tables lining the road. We bought a few bags full of cherries, grapes, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and greens before picking up a whole watermelon and schlepping it all up the rest of the road back home. Our dinner on the balcony consisted of mushroom soup, (shepherd) salad, fresh grilled fish, and arugula. About an hour later, my host mom brought out a bowl of grapes and cherries that we quickly devoured before drinking our evening tea. I've been getting worried in the last few days that I might get sick of eating only Turkish food soon, but I think I've still got a while to go before that happens.

On an unrelated note, I've set up a poll on the right to find out what you'd like to read about. Feel free to leave comments as well if there's something in particular you'd like me to write about more. I'm writing this blog in large part for myself, but I'd still like my readers to stay interested. :)