Uber Alles

We have had a shift in our class. For some reason, my class is now mostly German, and most of these German speak Turkish quite well. One girl has a Turkish father who talks to her alot in Turkish, though she responds almost exclusively in German. One is a physicist who is interning with Greenpeace. He looks very German hiker. One is a very cool political science student at Bogazici University. One is very tan. We also now have a Greek Cypriot, a very sweet, very smart girl who speaks English with a pleasant English accent. She is also studying political science and Turkish studies in general. She had her bank card eaten by a bank machine yesterday and mentioned that if she had problems with money, she had no consulate here. Right.

So, that means that the Iraqi has disappeared, and my fake-sweet American nemesis and boyfriend have been missing for days. They went to Prague for a long weekend and I thought they were supposed to be back by now. Hm. Who knows? I am sure they will also be most surprised by the change in our class. We are somehow now higher level than before. I figure it might be like pool: sometimes you can improve your game by playing against better opponents. Here's hoping.

Yesterday I had to give a presentation in class. I chose the Fall of Constantinople (1452-3), hoping that everyone would know the basics as we all live here. The German environmentalist had done a presentation the day before on the Greenhouse Effect. The only part of his presentation I really understood was when he said that people were like tomatoes (domates gibi). Well, heck, I never really understood the Greenhouse Effect in English.

So, anyway, I had a whole long paragraph on how the Ottomans rolled their boats overland over oiled logs to get to the Golden Horn. The Byzantines had blocked the water route there with a large chain. Really fascinating stuff. However, I don't think anyone understood me at all. Totally blank faces. The hiker said he didn't understand. I asked him what he didn't understand and he said, well the whole thing. So I went to the board and tried to draw it. Zeynep (my fabulous teacher who I appreciate more and more every day) tried drawing it as well. It was like a painful game of Pictionary. I think Zeynep went in and out of understanding me. I wish I could have had a translated version of what I was saying. I think it might have been hilarious.

So, today is Valentines Day. Since Turkey isn't one for saints, it is called Lovers' Day here. Same red hearts, same fuzzy white bears. Oof ya!