Hana Dingle
ISEP Exchange: Yasar University
Major: Political Science
Pre-departure Post
Merhaba! That’s hello in Turkish, and is currently the limit of my Turkish language abilities. I’m Hana Dingle, a political science student in my final semester at UMBC. I am a UMBC Education Abroad Ambassador this semester, so I’ll be sharing blog posts every 2 weeks.
I leave in a week for Izmir, Turkiye which is a port city on the Aegean Sea. I will be attending Yasar University for International Relations, where I will get to take classes on EU-Turkiye Relations, Rising World Powers, and other specific courses UMBC does not offer. I don’t get to sign up for my classes until I arrive, but I have my eye on the History of Turkish Foreign Policy and the EU’s foreign policy towards the Middle East and North Africa. I’m going through a program called ISEP, where you pay UMBC tuition and room and board instead of paying the host university, and you can keep all your UMBC scholarships. ISEP has made studying abroad much more accessible for me than it would have been otherwise.
I chose Turkiye because I want to learn Turkish and UMBC does not offer it, and immersion is supposed to be the best way to learn a language. I’ve been using an app to increase my language skills before I go, but I haven’t gotten very far. I think it will be easier to learn the language by immersion than through the phone. Further, I am interested in learning more about the politics and international relations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. If I like the university this semester I will be applying to graduate school in international relations at Yasar so that I can study Turkish more thoroughly while working on my graduate degree. I’m not anticipating much culture shock, but I know it will hit me hard once I get there.
I’m mostly excited, but I’m also a little nervous to go to a country where I don’t know anyone or speak the language. I’m in a group chat with other students who will be at the university, so that helps some. We’ll all be arriving the same day, so I’m hoping I don’t have to figure out how to taxi from the airport to the dorms by myself.
I’ve been abroad numerous times, but never alone. I’m not worried about the flight because I lived in Japan as a kid and flew back and forth a lot, but I’m a little nervous about getting through customs with 6 months’ worth of medication. I’m trying to pack as lightly as I can by only bringing one checked bag and a backpacking backpack as a carry-on. I’ve had to pair down my clothes a lot, and I’m only bringing 2 pairs of shoes. I’m preparing as much as I can by getting portable chargers, an adaptor because of the different voltage there, and a million other things that I might need while I’m abroad. Luckily, the weather in Izmir ranges from 45 degrees F in January to 80 degrees in July. Due to this, I’m mostly packing short sleeves and jackets, as I won’t need any heavy-duty clothing that will take up valuable space.
I also have some travel planned while I’m there. I’ve spent hours researching everything there is to see in Izmir and the surrounding cities. I want to visit some Greek islands nearby throughout the semester, along with Ephesus which is a city of ancient ruins just a few hours away. Navigating my way there using public transportation should be an adventure. Pamukkale is also on my list, and it is a nature preserve made up of thermal pools you can swim in. Additionally, I plan on ferrying over to Greece for a week once my classes are done, so I have had to pack carefully to travel with just a backpack.
I have a friend whose brother lives in Turkey, so I’ve gotten a lot of advice from them. The tip that stands out the most is that morning in Turkey is for tea and cigarettes. I don’t plan on taking up smoking, but I will happily drink my weight in tea. I’m especially excited about finding tea at the bazaar. The bazaar is a huge market in the city center that sells food, jewelry, clothes, and home goods. However, I’m nervous because I think haggling is the expectation, and I don’t think I’d be very good at that. There will also be an artichoke festival and an herb festival in some towns nearby that I’m looking forward to attending.
Overall, I have much to look forward to in Turkiye, and while I’m a little nervous about navigation and culture shock, I think it will be a great experience.
In-Country Post 1
I arrived in Turkiye two days ago and was exhausted. My parents dropped me off at the airport around 3 on Sunday and my flight was supposed to leave at 6, but got delayed and didn’t actually leave until 7:30, which was bad because I only had a two hour layover in Frankfurt before continuing on to Izmir. The flight was seven and a half hours, but I had an empty seat next to me so I could stretch out. When the plane landed I checked my boarding pass and saw that my next plane was supposed to leave in 15 minutes, so I had to sprint across the airport up and down a million flights of stairs and take a train to get to a completely different building where my departure gate was. By the time I got to the gate I was certain I had missed my flight by a solid 20 minutes at least so I asked the desk clerk if I could get on the next flight to Izmir and he said that my flight had not boarded yet. As it turns out, the time on the boarding pass was different from the time of the actual flight so I still made it in time for boarding. While I was waiting to board I ran into another girl from my ISEP program, so I had someone to get a taxi with to the dorms. Once we got to the airport we got our passports stamped and left. There was no customs or anything, which I thought was interesting. I was under the impression there were going to be more hurdles involved in entering the country. Further, the bathroom in the Izmir airport was literally just a hole in the ground, which was an adjustment. When we got to the dorms I couldn’t get in because there was a paperwork issue that had not gone through yet, so I waited for it to go through at the coffee shop across the street and read for a few hours while it was drizzling. It was stressful not knowing when the paperwork would go through and trying to coordinate it with my parents at home on limited service, but it was 60 degrees and there were palm trees and several cats wandering around, so it was overall pretty pleasant though uncertain.
Once we got settled in, we explored some of the city around the dorms. The campus is two blocks away from the dorm buildings, and I had to walk twenty minutes to a photo shop to get passport photos because the photos I had for my original application were the wrong kind. On the way, I passed various food stands with donor kebabs and these special types of rolls I plan on trying in the next few weeks. There were also plenty of stray dogs wandering around or laying on the sidewalk. They were different from American dogs in that they just minded their own business and left me alone completely. They just acted like you weren’t there, and people stepped over or around them if they were in the way. Most people here don’t speak English, but navigating hasn’t been as hard as you would think despite that. I get by mostly with gestures, and I know how to say hello and thank you which actually gets me pretty far in basic interactions like buying things. Even though I cannot read Turkish, I’ve learned that if the sign is blue or yellow it is probably a grocery store, so I can mostly function without the language so far. There is a huge smoking culture here. It seems like every other person out on the street is smoking, and there is generally a smoke smell in the air, but I got used to it pretty quickly and barely notice it now.
The food in the cafeteria is pretty basic but good. The way it works is you get to choose 4 things and then you use a meal swipe. So far I have gotten something different every time to try it out and see what I like. At dinner, there is always a stew or soup option with meat or vegetables in it. That is usually pretty good. Then there is always some type of rice and what I believe is potato soup. I have no idea what the dessert options are made of, but there usually seems to be some sort of coconut or gelatin involved. There is also this yogurt drink that is really popular. It tastes kind of salty and is definitely an acquired taste. For breakfast, there is cereal, along with tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, cheese, and a variety of dressings you can put on the vegetables.
I will say that I’ve made one huge mistake since being here, and that was drinking the water. Apparently the tap water in Izmir is undrinkable and the locals don’t drink it either, but I wasn’t told that until after I had already drank several water bottles full of the tap water. It made me really sick for about a day, but I went to the store and drank clean water and juice constantly for two days until I felt mostly better. I’m still having some stomach issues from the bad water, so I would suggest anyone who studies abroad finds out if the water is safe to drink before trying it because it’s a painful mistake to make, even though it works itself out after a few days.