Tidbits

Well, our first four weeks of "orientation" are coming to an end. We're getting close to having an apartment, work starts on Saturday, and soon enough this will stop feeling like vacation and start feeling more like real life. But here are some things that I've learned in four weeks of orientation:

• Ankara has a delightful website called "Yemek Sepetti" where you can order food online from many restaurants, and they deliver straight to your door. No awkward Turkish phone calls necessary! I've heard you can also have groceries delivered, but we've yet to try that.
• Turkish people eat a lot of bread. At the grocery store there's always a stockpile of fresh loaves of bread. We usually pick up one or two. Everyone else in line has like ten. Last night we ordered in, and my soup came with like half a loaf of bread.
• Every morning, if the muezzin calling people to prayer at the mosque doesn't wake you up, the simitci probably will. Simit is a traditional snack, a round pretzel-looking bread that tastes something like a bagel covered in sesame seeds. There are stands all over town selling these snacks, but simitci (the vendors) also wander the streets in the morning with a stockpile on their heads, hollering and calling for people to come buy breakfast.
• To say "no," Turkish people will often tilt their heads back and click their tongue. I have yet to get used to this.
• Movies at the cinema have a smoke break in the middle. Our English classes also have "tea" breaks, but I noticed that it's more often used to sneak out to the balcony for a cigarette. There's a lot of smoking.
• University students view cheating as "the rule." Every teacher I've talked to has talked about what a rampant problem it is. Cheating is culturally viewed as clever if you can get away with it. Some students I talked to the other day said that it's a problem, but there's no way to fix it because it's so prevalent. (That might have been their way of saying they cheat without admitting to it.)
  
• Worldwide, Turkey has the third highest percentage of Facebook users.
  
• Forget your stereotypes of women in burqas. Plenty of women on the streets cover their heads and wear modest long skirts, but just as many are out there wearing leggings as pants. Or better yet, tights as pants with tops that definitely aren't long enough to count as dresses.
• There's a fairly large Chinese community in Ankara. I have no idea why, but I hope this means I can somehow get my hands on ingredients to make Chinese food with some snooping around.
• Turks like tea a lot. Everywhere you go, you'll be offered tea. This is brewed exceptionally strong, but they are willing to add some water to dilute it for foreigners. However, if you want to impress your Turkish friends, you'll ask for "rabbit blood" tea, which means it's super strong. I haven't the guts for this.
• Soccer (or football, as I must now call it) is very popular here, but allegiance is not related to geography. People here are mostly fans of the three Istanbul teams. Ankara has a team as well, but apparently this is the team for "hooligans."
• I have to lie about what's in my wallet. Nobody likes breaking large bills and giving change, and if you hand one to a cashier hoping to get some smaller bills, she'll usually ask you if you have anything smaller. Smaller stores are often willing to give you a 50 cent discount rather than try to make change from a 5 lira bill. I have not yet figured out how I'm supposed to get the coins to pay in change when nobody is willing to break my large bills and give me coins in return.