This Turkey Gig...

As many of you know, I up and moved to Turkey two weeks ago. Despite all of the [tastelessly] hilarious Thanksgiving related quips about Türkiye, there’s more to my story than material for asides about poultry. And that story goes like this...

When I graduated from college in May, I came down with a peculiar developmental condition that isolated me from the general twenty-somethings population of Utah. Call it biological, (I stuck strictly to humanities in my undergrad years, so I don’t EXACTLY know) but I felt no need whatsoever to find a mate and reproduce. As if that wasn’t troublesome enough, I also realized that I hadn’t a drop nesting instinct either--zero desire to establish roots.

Enter the oft prayed for salvation from a restless year of weddings, high school reunions, and baby showers. About two weeks after Commencement (where I delivered this little diddy about really living in a big world: Cassidy Jones, Westminster College 2011 Commencement Speech #shamelessselfpromotion) and just shy of a serious “now what” crisis, I got an email. This email, actually:

Now, Fulbright rings a bell for some folks. (A gong for others.) But my good ol’ dad hands-down had the best reaction: “Well, I really thought this would be the one time that ya didn’t get whatcha wanted.” Comment context: I’d been waiting (and waiting and plan-making deferring and approaching-end-of-lease ignoring) since January when I was notified that I was a finalist for a Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistantship) grant to live and teach in Turkey for the 2011-12 academic year (find out more).

So, three months later, here I am. All trained up and out in the field. I’ll be living in Gaziantep--the sixth largest city in Turkey, one of the ten oldest continually inhabited cities in the (frickin’) WORLD-uh, and the birthplace of baklava (it’s just kind of absolutely awesome)--until mid-June 2012. The six other Antepers and I will be teaching speaking classes for hazırlık (an entry year intensive English language program) students at Gaziantep Üniversitesi.

Backed by the U.S. Department of State and IIE (the Institute for International Education), I am a representative of the Fulbright Commission’s mission to promote cultural and educational exchange. With the support of YÖK (the Turkish Commission for Higher Education) and one uber enthusiastic university in southeastern Anatolia, I am a university instructor.

Stay tuned for tales of jumping out of the pot and into the flame...abroad.