Beginner,
Ankara, Turkey
2011

Senior, Rutgers University, State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
Middle Eastern Studies and Languages

A friend told me about the program

I was always interested in Turkey due to being a huge history buff. Turkish history has always attracted me because of how amazing I found the Turkish migration and transformation from steppe tribes into one of the strongest, most innovative, and long-lasting empires in Middle Eastern History.

I am hoping to continue studying the Middle East, with a particular focus on religious history. Turkey, in this case, provides an extremely interesting example as a fertile ground of the mixing of various schools of Christianity, Islam, and the mysticism of both. In this case, the study of Turkish opens up many doors to being able to study various documents in their original language.

Right now I am only using Turkish in an educational context, such as taking classes on it. However, during my upcoming senior year I am writing a comparative thesis on martyrdom in Christianity and Islam. For this thesis I am definitely going to make use of Persian sources, and Turkish sources may also (hopefully) come into play.

I plan to either try to become involved in some sort of research and policy post which makes use of Turkish, or work for an international NGO that operates within Turkey or the broader Turkic world.

It definitely did. Before I participated in the CLS, I was very set on living my life and setting out my future in a particular way, but now I am much more fluid and open to taking various career or educational opportunities as they present themselves.

The Turkish people and my host family. Despite the obvious linguistic barrier, I never once felt prejudiced against or like a foreigner. My host family immediately made me feel like a son, and they referred to me as “oglum” (“my son”) the entire time I was with them.

I never realized Turkey was such a nation of immigrants. All the Turks think of themselves as Turks, but after the Ottoman Empire fell, Turks from various parts of the empire immigrated to Turkey, so there is a huge collection of peoples from all over the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

One day I was coming home from class late, and I accidently took the wrong bus. I ended up going an hour and a half outside of Ankara, where the bus stopped, since it had reached the end of its line. Eventually, three hours later, I managed to get back to my house. I was exhausted, stressed, and really annoyed... but when I started telling my family about what happened, we all couldn't help but laugh. Then my host dad told me a similar story that happened to him when he first moved to Ankara. All in all, the story helped to highlight for me how you need to keep a positive attitude, even during the worst of times, because even experiences like that can end up positive.

. This phrase literally translates as rabbit's blood, but it is used to describe the color of a perfect cup of tea which should be a dark reddish color. I am particularly fond of this phrase, since Turks never expect Americans to know it, and they were always extremely happy if you could manage to work it into a conversation.