When I first walked, or rather, ran out of excitement, into our “lojman” (Turkish for apartment) located in Alanya, the main destination of the semester, I realized why the people in charge don’t fly us there initially. There are many reasons for this, Istanbul being a prime place for orientation and whatnot. But, if I had had to go through the whole trip in one go, I might have died from exhaustion. Just to paint a picture:
Whatever flight you are so lucky to have landed, no pun intended, from the United States to Istanbul, it is at least ten hours. And that’s if it is direct. I’ve been told those are only offered out of New York’s JFK and Chicago’s O’Hare, but that needs verification. Regardless, if you’re lucky, would have spent ten hours in the air, no telling how much sleep you managed to get on the plane. For me, I didn’t sleep a wink due to a two seat-er section I was sharing with some large Turkish man who kept snorting, and, no, I do not mean snoring. Also, who’s telling how much sleep you got the night before, with all the anticipation, packing and early hours of departure to the airport. So then, exhausted, you’re (hypothetically) spat out into Istanbul airport. Then you’d have to change terminals to the domestic flight area after going through customs and claiming baggage. Then you’d have to pay some extra fee for the all of the luggage you’ve brought with you because domestic flights have a much lower weight limit. Then, once that’s all been dealt with, you (hopefully) have found yourself on a domestic flight to Antalya, the closest airport and big city to Alanya. Or let’s say you had a fantastic one flight-er that simply stopped and changed planes in Istanbul with Turkish Air. Well, bags would be dealt with for you most likely, but still, customs and transferring to worry about. Once in Antalya, again bags collected, there is a two and half hour bus ride that is needed to get you to Alanya. Phew.
I must repeat, that this is NOT necessary because the directors have planned the aforementioned two-week orientation in Istanbul to fend off this potentially disastrous situation. But visitors of Alanya students: be warned. And also, traveling home: be warned.
Nevertheless, even though we did not have to do this all in one go round, we still had to do it. The Saturday morning of our departure we went on one last museum visit to the Istanbul Archeological Museum, and then headed off to the airport in our famous Mercedes Bus. Sure enough we (as a group) had way too much luggage, some of us more than others (you know who you are). The ride to Antalya was a short, no stress, hour and 45-minute flight.
Upon arrival (bags collected) we all happily jogged like young puppies out to the parking lot where we found our very own bus and driver, Hussein Kaptan, for Alanya and all related activities. While the bus is no Mercedes Bus, it definitely has its perks. Namely- it is bigger, which means basically everyone gets their own aisle, and well, it’s covered in ladybugs. Not real ones of course, but painted ladybugs. And roses. And there is a very bizarre doll hanging from the rear view mirror. While it was not what I was expecting in the slightest, everyone immediately adopted it as his or her new favorite discovery of our newly found Antalya/Alanya territory.
The “Lojman”
Everyone clambered off of the ladybug bus, which had just scaled the, I’m not kidding you, nearly 45 degree angle hill that we just so happen to live on. I found myself in the rear of the crowd as we all gathered our bags and went down the stairs into our beloved lojman.
During orientation, we realized we would be needing to pick who and where the eight of us were to live. Therefore, since there is a huge gender divide (and women get the low end of that deal) in Turkey, the girls, myself included, decided that we would get the highest floor for students in our lojman since it would firstly, be safer, and secondly, have a better view. Thanks to that, you all get to enjoy lovely photos of sunsets and sunrises that I snapped from my living room.
Settling in was wonderful. We were all on a slight buzz, running around to see everyone else’s apartments (even though they were all identical). Rooming turned out to be not very difficult to sort out because we all kept our roommates from the hotel accommodations in Istanbul. Therefore, Claire, being in front of me, claimed apartment four for us. I ran inside and found the other room left in the apartment.
Each apartment has two bedrooms, which is wonderful because we all had four apartments, which meant two people per apartment, which then meant everyone had their own bedrooms. But the catch is that each apartment can hold three people comfortably. Therefore, one bedroom is twice as big as the other room. I got the little room. Claire realized this and apologized, saying, “Heidi you can have the other room, we can figure something out! I’m so sorry!” Poor girl. Strangely enough, I really loved my little room. I had a dresser with a mirror, a wardrobe, a twin bed, and a small stool. It was quite sufficient! And I spent many hours in there sleeping, reading, doing work, watching some show on my computer. I really was so comfortable in my little room, and sometimes Claire would come into my room and say that mine was much more livable. Hers didn’t have anything in it except TWO wardrobes and a bed. So she had nowhere to put her things except for on the floor. … Anyway, enough of that. The lojman is wonderful. There is a common room downstairs with a television, dvd player, a bookshelf, computer, printer, and even an extra kitchen.
But it’s not always perfect.
