Welcome to Trabzon!

Today is our third day in the lovely port city of Trabzon, Turkey, the place that will be my home for the next nine months. When I travel, this is the dot on the map to which I will return. When I root for a football club (that's soccer, people), I will loudly proclaim the superiority of Trabzonspor over the big teams from Istanbul...and even over bigger European clubs. Like Inter Milan.

Perhaps that is a good place to begin when describing Trabzon--with Trabzonspor. On the night before we flew out of Ankara (with excess baggage costing 85 TL...since you're only allowed 15kg free on flights with Turkish Airlines' regional carrier, AnadoluJet), Trabzonspor took on Inter Milan in its first ever UEFA Champions League game--the beginning of the group stage--and went home victorious. A sweet far post, side netting goal in the second half stunned the Italian club, and all over Turkey fans went nuts. So when we arrived in Trabzon every street corner had someone wearing a Trabzonspor jersey, and you can basically bring the team up to anyone and get an emphatic nod. Of the Turkish football clubs, three of the four most competitive are out of Istanbul. The other? You guessed it.

Turns out that there's also a women's Trabzonspor team, but women's football in Turkey is not very popular and not terribly well-developed, though they do have a league. I am all up on this; my hours of internet research have yielded little as to the location of the stadium where they play, but I'm going to ask around and I want to go support them. In my wildest dreams, maybe I could even play some pickup. Apparently, most of the players are students or have other day jobs, so they train in the evenings. The question now is where.

Anyhow, onto other matters. How about...a little on Karadeniz Teknik Universitesi, the university where I will be teaching this year. Still don't know what classes I'll be teaching (it's all still getting worked out), but I do know that Fulbright ETAs to Turkey are not actually English Teaching Assistants. We're straight up instructors. I will be teaching university classes by myself. If that doesn't help qualify me for graduate school, I don't know what will. Amiright?

So Karadeniz Teknik Universitesi (KTU, or, as it is referred to colloquially, Katu) was established in 1955, and is one among the top universities in Turkey. Check out the sweet logo:

I still have no idea what the logo actually symbolizes, but I keep meaning to ask someone. I'll get on that...

So Katu's campus is right on the coast, though also right next to the airport (lots of takeoff and landing noise). It's a nice campus (not Sweet Briar mind-blowingly beautiful, but then again it's a big ole university founded in the 50s, so for that I think it gets props) with a lot of greenery. There's also this intense row of ATMs, one from basically every bank in Turkey. One of the instructors who showed us around pointed out the one that we'll most likely be using, though I've forgotten its name for the moment.

For more of your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures I took the other day when we had our first campus tour:

 Walking down toward the Foreign Languages and English Literature faculties (departments). From left to right are Ali, John (the other ETAs), and our lecturer friend who was showing us around.

 A view of the sea (and the highway). We're still on campus.

Hanging out and talking about the school. This is very typical of the campus's beauty. :)

As I said, Ali, John, and I still don't know what English-related things we'll be teaching yet, but we met a number of faculty out of both the Foreign Languages and English Literature faculties, and felt extremely welcomed. I drank five cups of tea and one cup of Turkish coffee yesterday. That's how hospitable people are. Ali and I were also escorted by two more faculty members yesterday (in the midst of introductions galore) to Forum, the regional shopping center, which is HUGE and super nice. It also has a Popeye's, Arby's, McDonald's, Burger King, and Sbarro, in addition to other chain fast food. Not even Asheville has a Popeye's. Just sayin'. Anyway, Forum is apparently the place to go to get...well, everything...so some trips back to pick up some homegoods and perhaps some serviceable black flats and/or a cell phone are most likely in order this beautiful Saturday. Oh, also gonna need an umbrella...it rains here a lot. And yet it hasn't rained yet since we arrived. Perhaps we brought sunshine with us from Ankara.

Well, that's all for now. Gonna go check out the city centre (and hopefully see the Trabzonspor stadium!) with even more of our future colleagues and/or friends of our wonderful university contact, Ali Bey. (Bey basically means "Mr." but comes after first names.) More to come soon!