Student's Village - the world apart

I've been meaning to write a post talking about the place I live, but I wanted to wait a bit for the ideas to settle in. Now that I'm there for over two months and a half, I think I'm able to write a pretty accurate "review" for this place.

On the beginning of our Erasmus journey, the vast majority of the students chose to stay on the Student's Village, or the Ege Üniversitesi Öğrenci Köyü in Turkish. The reason is simple - being in a foreign city for the first time and not knowing anything about it, a place where you can sleep is always appreciated! And in truth, the place was rather nice when I saw it. At least for the first few weeks! There even was a small supermarket and a cafeteria on the entrance and a main building with billiard and a TV room full of puffs. Not to mention the small square with a giant chess game (we just call it "The Chess") and sport fields.

After some time, I started to realize the inconvenients. I'm staying on the Akasya building - although almost every building has a small garden or green grass on front of it, mine has weeds and dirt. Some buildings are close enough to the cafeteria so they get some WiFi signal, I only get the signal of the trucks honking on the road. And we are all paying the same price, only to get different conditions. One of the most comic moments was when two girls came to our room to get some pictures for they USB Flash drives and a security guard saw them through the window. Since this is not a big deal, we idiotically left the window open, and the show began. The security guy was completely pissed and began screaming in Turkish. We just said "evet evet" and stayed there listening until he finally realized we were erasmus and escorted the girls out of our building. So, no mix at all. Even if you want a friend from the opposite sex to help you cook on the top floor, you're screwed if they find out.

One of the most absurd rules is the curfew - apparently there are fixed hours to return to the village, our 'villagemates' say to me it's at about 1 am. Since I'm an Erasmus, this particular rule doesn't apply for me I don't know why, but thank God! Another comic rule is that you have to say to the security staff if you are going to spend the night out - another one that doesn't apply for the Erasmus since I already spent several nights out and nobody said me a word (maybe that's because none of them speaks English hmm! Nice!). If you want friends to come over and visit you there, they can. They only have to show their IDs (the staff will hold them up until you're gone) and say the name, room and building of the person they're visiting. And they must leave until midnight - after that a bunch of security guys will wander around the entire village try to find them and escort them out.

Regarding the size of the shared and individual rooms - they are small. For a single person is enough, but for two persons it's another story. We knew this the first time we saw them of course, but after this much time living in this space with your roommate you start to feel almost trapped. You have no privacy, no sofa to lay back a bit, you can't go nowhere inside the room because... well, it's only a room. Of course you can always go the bathroom if you want a change of scenery. You have a social room within the building, but you don't always feel like going two floors up and stay there with a bunch of people that can't communicate and are not willing to talk to with you and stare at the walls. Again, of course I knew all of this when I first saw the room, but the smallness of the place is only started affecting me on the past weeks. And when you think that other students are paying less and in some cases almost half of what I'm paying for a full apartment (shared apartment of course) I get really frustrated.

Still, this was a decent place to live, at least until the recent problems started. One beautiful day we realized we didn't have hot water, only tepid. Tamam, we can shower with this, no problem. The day after, the tepid water gave place to cold water. And then we got several days like this. It's said that cold showers strengthen your skin, but I'm a fan of a soft one, thanks. Now we have hot water again, but it can fail anytime, talking about living on the edge! Then, the electricity problems started. Sometimes the power goes out, no problem on this, it happens. But the last time it happened for almost one hour, and only in selected building like Akasya. It was really fun to play on the computer until my battery ran out with a candle by my side. Now power shortages happen anytime, the last one happened when we were on the middle of our way to the 4th floor for cooking. It even happens on the cafeteria, were they keep serving meals in complete darkness. The heating also fails sometimes, but it's ok since I don't have central heating back home anyways and this is not like Ankara.

But the real problem is about the Internet - or the lack of if. For the first weeks we didn't have a problem, except there is no wireless on the rooms and we had to buy our own ethernet cables. The internet wasn't very fast but it's enough to call on skype without many interferences.  Then, we started having connection issues - first the internet would go down for a few minutes. A nuisance if you were talking to someone on skype or downloading, but otherwise fine. Then for a few hours, then for one day, a couple of days and as of the 27th of November I'm without internet for 2 weeks already. If you think that in this moment the Internet is my only mean of communication between me, my family and friends in my country, you can see how we need it. There is some sort of wireless signal on the cafeteria, but even so, the place is so crowded that the internet signal is very weak, not allowing us to call home. And then after sometime our laptop battery dies. What angers me the most is that the other buildings have the problem solved for over 4/5 days, and mine is still with the problem - and we pay the same price. Seems like inside the village there are differences between the students even if we pay the same. I'm not even going to talk about how half of the washing machines are broken and it's becoming a matter of luck to find a empty washer. For 350 TL you'd expect to have clean sheets once in a time, but no: they give you sheets and a blanket but you must washed them when you want. And you pay to use the washer... and the dryer. Beware that there isn't pans and cooking material on the common kitchen - you have to buy those yourself.

So, in a nutshell: stay in the village for one month or so just to get used to the city and then try to find a flat. It's cheaper and you'll have plenty more space than here. If you like peace and quiet, someone to clean your floor once a week and don't mind living in a box, come to the village! I cannot deny there is plenty of social interaction here, which I like very much.  But don't expect having a reliable connection to the world!

Volunteering in Bodrum

 A well packed dentist chair

Almost on the beginning of our Erasmus period we were told by the previous Erasmus that the Pedodontics department in our faculty used to do volunteer work on some weekends, helping disabled children and the ones that couldn’t afford a dental consult. Of course me and my colleague were interested in this and asked if there was the possibility of going on one of these trips. They accepted (for our delight), and it was scheduled for the 23, 24 and 25 of November.

After that, the other two Erasmus girls came to the faculty and also asked for this. Due to not having enough space for everyone, or trip was in danger - we might not go after all, the department had to choose 2 or 3 persons to go. After some weeks of hesitation, we were confirmed, it was really happening. It was a pity for our French friend though, who wasn’t included on this weekend along with me, my colleague and the other Dutch Erasmus due to lack of space. We didn’t know details of the trip until the very last minute – we only knew we were supposed to be on the faculty at 16:30, packed with some clothes for the weekend. I was prepared to sleep on a tent on the middle of nowhere, since our professor specifically told us not to expect too much several times. After a 4 hour drive we arrived to Bodrum, our destination. On the weeks before departing, when we told Turkish people we were going to this city, everyone made a furtive smile and said “Sure, volunteer work”. And I could understand why – this place has a marina, nice streets with shops, gardens along the road with palm trees and everything a rich town should have, including all the things with English translation. It must be amazing here in the summer I tell you!

Bodrum's marina

Our 'modest' hotel

We ate in a restaurant close to the sea, a famous restaurant I was told, with all the professors, assistants, students and helping staff that were in this journey – 20 in total. It was just great to see all the people talking, laughing and socializing together, professors with students, assistants and helping staff, just great really. I wished we had just a bit of this joy and friendship among all in my home faculty. After a nice meal of pasta with some glasses of wine, for free, we went back to the bus to the hotel. When we arrived there I was shocked… in a good way! We thought that this was the hotel for the professors, but it turned out to be a hotel for everyone! Each 2 persons got a room with private WC, cable TV, two beds, wireless and breakfast. I was speechless, the hotel even has a common room with a fireplace and leather sofas and even a pool decorated with many colored lights on the backside. This was when I thought if I was making volunteer work or if the faculty was making humanitarian work for me adding a touch of luxury on my Erasmus time. I slept like a rock, finally having a double size bed after two months.

The swimming pool was too cold, terrible conditions





The rehabilitation center for disabled children

The surgery room

We all woke up and has breakfast at 8 am. I ate like an hippopotamus and off we went to the Rehabilitation Center for the disabled. Once we reached there, we were greeted by the nice managers of the place and started to unpack the necessary material to do the job. Let me tell you, when I saw the conditions of the “field” work, I was speechless again. I won’t be writing here the materials they had available, but the conditions were perfect. Portable bags with engines for the rotation materials, dentist chairs and even spitters were available. All the main kinds of dental treatments could be done there. The point of coming to this place is to make the kids feel more comfortable being treated on a place they know and love – and that was visibly on many of them, they weren't so afraid of the treatments since they were in a place they knew. We treated then during the morning, has lunch there, danced with them Gangnam Style (oh God, I’m really sick of this song now) with all the professors included – I can’t stress out enough how great it is to see the professors dancing with us. 

The treatment room

The kids were happy and we were happy. The treatments continued during the afternoon, and at the evening we were free. We all went to the marina to see the boats close by, and we turned out to find a really nice café shop on the shore. This time I ate like and hippopotamus and an elephant combined, chocolate and ice cream in obscene quantities. For my defense, there were free chocolate bonbons everywhere and I was really happy, hence it was impossible to resist. Next we went to have dinner with the mayor of Bodrum in a fancy restaurant near the sea. I wasn't ready for this since I haven’t brought formal clothes, but even so it was fantastic. I had fish again, and drank lots of red wine. The mayor made a fine-looking speech, so as the directors of the rehabilitation center and also our professor. At least I think they did because I didn't understand I word. By now I was REALLY happy… with all the wine I was having. In the last part of the dinner they started to call each person’s names to be presented with a symbolic gift from the center, and this got me thinking. They brought us here, gave us an excellent room, nice food, the opportunity to work and to know a different and still they gave us a present? Come on, I felt I didn't deserve this at all, and I don’t because this experience was amazing and I should be the one giving presents. After the dinner we all went to a bar near the marina and had a good time, again, all staff included!

Receiving a gift on the dinner with the mayor

The erasmus and our amazing teachers

The Sunday morning began with a breakfast at 9 am, and straight to the center to work until lunch. At about two o’clock we packed everything (talk about stuff to pack) and went home – stopping for ice cream and an afternoon snack (again, for free!).

I can surely say this one of the best Erasmus weekends, if not the best!

Exploring Ankara

After several weeks without travelling (c'mon I'm an Erasmus, I have to explore!) my trip to Ankara finally happened. Since I had a fried studying Dentistry there who offered housing, I didn't think twice!

Seeing the prices, the bus ride was about 100 TL and the plane travel 120 TL by Pegasus airlines. Since the flight takes only 1 hour and the bus ride lasts roughly 8:30 hours I didn't think twice and booked the flight for the 17th November. My trip would last from Friday to Monday.

The first step was getting into the airport (when I arrived in Izmir in September I had someone to pick me up, this time I caught the Metro until Halkapınar an then the slow Izban until the airport).

The flight went smoothly except for the landing - I had a condition named Aerosinusitis which gave me lots of headaches during the all weekend, but that wasn't properly the airline's fault! Once I landed in Ankara Esenboğa Airport (an interesting airport since it even has an interior lake) I had to take the 442 bus. Ankara transport system isn't one of the best - the metro lines don't reach the airport, not even near. I had to go to the Ankara Transport System website (in Turkish of course, without an English option) and with a little help from Google Translator I somehow figured out were that bus stops. After a 40 min journey, and with the assistance of my phone's GPS, I found out the correct stop (yes, the bus doesn't tell you the name of the stations). After a 15 minute walk from Gazi Hospital until the Beşevler station, I was greeted by my friends who took me to their house - they live with 2 Syrian guys and a female Husky puppy!

The first thing I noticed in Ankara was the weather: cold and dry. Izmir in this time of the year has a temperature around 15ºC-20ºC and it was only 6ºC in Ankara. Being clever as I am, I didn't bring gloves or a bonnet, which lead to frozen, swollen and purple fingers and cold ears. Therefore, my whole description of Ankara is influenced by my bad mood and discomfort!

Everyone told me that there was nothing worth seeing in the capital, but I always want to see things by myself to check if it was true or not. For my three-day stay I made a list of the must-see points:

The Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk - Anıtkabir

Anıtkabir as seen from the sidewalk

The girls' house was very near to this monument, so we simply walked there. For the ones who have to travel by metro, the exit station is Beşevler ankaray station.

The construction of Anıtkabir, which took nine years, commenced on 9 October 1944 with the ceremony of laying the foundation stone. All stones and marbles used o the construction were brought in from various parts of Turkey, to be a representation of the Turkish People's devotion to Mustafa Kemal.

The main building who holds Atatürk's symbolic grave

This is the resting place of Atatürk's body. Having heard so much about Atatürk this past couple of months and seeing how  much the Turkish people love him, I felt really honored being able to be there. The place is surrounded by a beautiful park named "Peace Park" (in honor of Atatürk's famous expression "Peace at home, peace in the world"). The place is huge, having a big open square and a main building.

There is also the Museum, depicting many parts of the modern-Turkey history, almost entirely dedicated to Atatürk. It's really informative if you pay attention, and you can now a bit more about why this man is so adored. You can even learn about the story of Atatürk's funeral, how his body didn't decay and was stuffed. Since the tomb in the main building is symbolic (a.k.a. it's empty) there is a live broadcast of Atatürk's real tomb shown (in a non-accessible part of the museum) on a tv screen! Yes, a live broadcast to a tomb! One of the best parts was the gift shop, were I bought a giant Atatürk 2013 Calender, an Atatürk tie and Atatürk car stickers! I have a bit of Atatürk fever right now.

Gençlik Park

Gençlik Park by night

Later that day we went to Gençlik Parkı, a very beautiful city park (with a Luna park inside it!). This place is specially great in the night because of all the lights it has. During the day time you can appreciate a water-show in the park's immense fountain. It's also an ideal place to lose things - I actually lost my camera there. Luckily my friend found it untouched, laying in a bush half an hour later. Uffs!

The main entrance

Panomara by sunset

The 27.5 ha park is almost at the center of Ankara. Its altitude is about 850 m, which makes it one of the lowest points in Ankara (lowest!). It's surrounded by coffee shops and kiosks, ideal to spend a Sunday afternoon. In the evening, the giant lake fills with lots of water jets playing to the sound of pop music.

The giant wheel, inside Gençlik park

Hacı Bayram Mosque, Temple of Augustus and Rome, and the Column of Julian the Apostate

The next day we had lunch in a fancy place and went straight ahead to visit the Hacı Bayram Mosque, witch had the Temple of Augustus right next to it. The mosque looks old, with some old construction on the front, but since there was nothing in English explaining, we just looked from the outside - nothing special at all. On it's left side lays the Temple of Augustus and Rome - named also Monumentum Ancyranum,where the inscription Res Gestae Divi Augusti, a text recounting the deeds of the first Roman emperor Augustus, was found, the most intact copy of which is preserved on the walls of this temple. Thank God there was a small board with some info in English! There is also a very nice and small fountain in that place and a good view to the hills - Hacı Bayram Park -, where you can see Ankara's Castle.

The Temple of Augustus and Rome

Ancara's Castle as seen from across the hill

Down the hill at the right, hidden in a square, there's the Column of Julian the Apostate, surrounded by administrative buildings. It is popularly known as Belkis Minaresi, or Queen of Sheba and possesses columns derived from Corinthian order. No plaques, no information - if you don't search in advance you won't really know what and old and big column is doing int he middle of a square. It's nothing special if you compare to the ones there are on Istanbul  but I thought it was perfect - placed on the edge of a small garden with a fountain in a quiet place, with a stork's nest on the top.

The Column of Julian and the small park

Kocatepe Mosque

The huge lamp on the center

Our next stop was Kocatepe Mosque. It's about some 3 km if you walk from the Gençlik park. You'll walk in some nice streets with several shops and the typical rush-rush of the big cities. When we arrived there, we thought the entrance was at the street level - and we ended up in a shopping center. A complete mall right underneath the mosque, that's modern (and warm, a nice change from the freezing weather outside)! Once we got off, we found the main entrance of the mosque. Let me tell you, I was completely flabbergasted by this mosque. It's very recent, about 25 years old, but it's grandiosity makes it one of the must-see points of Ankara. Inside, I found an amazing lamp right on the center of the mosque, which is beautifully decorated with Arabic motifs and with a wide open space. I can't exactly tell you what amazed me the most, if the decoration of the grandiosity, but I really really liked this place, I could feel peace inside it - I even made a little prayer =)

Towards the end of the day we went to a fancy street with lots of posh and expensive shops to have a snack before dinner. I didn't want my wallet to be empty so my I decided my stomach should take one for the team.

We did all of those places by walking - undoubtedly the best thing to do if you are sightseeing - but beware that Ankara has lots of hills and few information for tourists. I had the appropriate trainers and my phone's GPS, otherwise I'd be completely lost.

Museums

Naked fat ladies were famous in ancient times

Our third and last day, a Monday morning, began with a trip to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. We went by metro until Ulus, the station near Gençlik park, and walked up the hill until the museum. Turns out it was really near the place we were the day before (Hacı Bayram Mosque and the Temple of Augustus). My GPS wasn't working because the sky was too cloudy (my phone isn't exactly new, give it a break) so I just followed the map - finding the museum wasn't very hard but it wasn't easy also. Again, the lack of proper signalization didn't help. There were some shortcuts and stairs to reach the hill top more easily but I just found them when I was coming down from the museum. To tell you the truth the museum was a disappointment - I had my expectations high since I knew it has won some sort of important award and everybody spoke about it in the travel websites. When we arrived I found a cool garden and we entered the building. The collections goes backwards, meaning you enter in the gift shop and to the final part of the museum (????), not to mention the cleaning lady who was vacuuming the floor. After just two rooms, we had come to an end. When asked about this, the security guard told us the bottom floor was closed. Ok... so we walked for an hour to see two rooms. Also, they were charging full price (15 TL). Since I have the Museum Card, I entered for free, but if I was a tourist I'd be pissed and demand for half of my money back (since only half of the museum was opened anyway).

We saw we were near the citadel, Ankara's Castle, so we decided to go a bit further up the hill to enter it. When we reached the top, we saw lots of trucks and constructors. Doubting that was the castle, I approached the rock walls and I saw an inscription (in English, the same text that is on Wikipedia!) and yes, that was the castle. I entered the walls and inside there were some nice restaurants and old houses - but all of those closed due to the works they have there. The floor was dirty, holes opened, mud, water everywhere and lots of noise. We decided it was not worth it and we left.

The Ethnographic museum

Until this point our Monday wasn't the best day but we thought this still could be productive day if we went to the Ethnographic Museum. It has some nice reviews and they say the view of Ankara's landscape was exquisite.  Plus, I knew Atatürk's body had been there for several years until his mausoleum was ready, so it must mean it was worth the visit. After a long walk, the reached the place with the help of my GPS although this place has some signalization. From the main street you can see the writing on the walls saying Ethnographic museum. We entered the place, two good looking buildings and a square in front of them - the gardens were small but the view was excellent  There is an Atatürk's statue on a horse overlooking his mausoleum far away on the other corner of the city, somehow poetic huh? So, outside this placed looked great (it even has a red carpet on the stairs leading to the door), so we entered the museum... only to hear the words "Kapat Kapat"! The museum was closed. At least one of the two buildings was. A bit frustrated, we walked to the other one, but of course it was closed too. It seems everything is closed on Mondays - which is completely stupid and inappropriate  BUT, I can't really complain since in Lisbon, my country's capital, the museum and attractions are closed on Mondays too to complement the stupidity. So, we sort of wasted the morning because we only saw two museum rooms. But hey, better than staying at home sleeping, at least I saw something.

Entrance to the museum... who was closed

Our stay came to and end and we had to go the airport. We chose to go on the same bus that drove us from the airport to the city center the previous time, the 442. We checked the internet to see if the bus stop was the same, and on the website it said we could catch the bus on the other side of the road, which makes sense since the bus is driving to the opposite side now. We waited for more than an hour and the bus never came. Time was ticking and our flight was about to departure in a hour. On the exact moment when I was thinking about hitchhiking to the airport (which is not very likely since we were two guys) or taking an expensive cab, my mate had the cleverness of asking a police that was passing by if the bus even stopped here. Turns out we had to take the bus on the same spot it stopped coming from the airport, then I does a complicated circuit on the city center and goes to the airport on another road. We were lucky enough to have a 442 bus the exact moment we crossed the road to the other side. When we realized the bus was still going to the city center on rush hour and our flight was less than one hour away, we started to panic a bit. That's when we realized the time on the ticket was when the gates opened, the actual flight departed half an hour after that. So, thanks to this little mistake we had a really nice scare but we were there in time.

To sum up, I liked Ankara but just for a few days - the city isn't properly beautiful and attractive for tourism, it's not even ready for serious tourism I guess, the metro system is short (it should at least reach a place close  to the airport) and the payment should be done in a different method since you pay every time you walk away from the station and enter again, even if it is a 3 minute stop to get the newspaper. The traffic is chaotic, the weather is terrible and cold (compared to Izmir at least) but it has several nice thinks also: it's a green city with lots of parks to walk around, they have some really quiet places to live within the city center (it's really good in my opinion, you live in the city but without all the rush) and there are lots of museums to see (but closed on Mondays!). It's a nice place to visit, but just if you are near it or if you like Turkey's history and Atatürk like me. And hey, after all it's always cool to visit the capital!