Registration and Stuffs

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Feb. 13th, 2008 Registration

Things are starting to pick up here. I've been hanging out with some really cool people lately. Most are foreigners like me, but the student-led Exchange Commission is starting to lead us on fun things while we're waiting for school to start. Last night we all went to a fancy desert place (there were about 30 of us) and sat around and talked for a few hours. It was cool, I had just eaten a crazy kabob kinda dinner so didn’t get any of the deserts, but it was still a nice atmosphere - a shop with a store on the bottom and then two additional floors for sitting and socializing. I stayed to the very end and ended up talking with a bunch of Turks who were pretty all awesome. Tonight I met up with some of them and went to a nargile (Turkish hookah) café to watch the Turkish football team square off against a German team. It was pretty fun, but the game ended in a tie despite the Turks having about 13 shots on goal compared to 2 against them.

Registration was today. They do everything online here, but there is absolutely no method to the madness. Basically, at 10 am, the site goes up for registration. At 10:00:01 am, everyone logs on because there is no pre-registration or distinction based on year, or any other criteria. At 10:00:02, the system says “whoa, there are too many people here, I can’t handle the pressure” and starts randomly booting people off the site and blocks them for 20 minutes. It’s an insane process. For better or worse, the classes seem like they’re going to be larger than classes at St. Olaf, so I think most people got what they wanted.

Registration was a royal pain for me. I haven’t had the internet in my room yet. I asked the manager of the Superdorm about it the first night, and she said they had been experiencing problems, and that it should be worked out soon. Almost a week later, I asked again, and was given a Turkish IT guy to take back to my room to figure it all out. After almost an hour, we were no where. I’ve since determined that there is likely something wrong with my Ethernet port. So, there’s really nothing I can do about it at the moment, which sucks. So I’m stuck going to the library to do my internet things, which isn’t terrible, but it’s not a very comfortable place. Which brings me back to registration. I woke up early, got ready, and walked over to the library around ten, only to find it packed with students in virtually every chair and study space. It was the craziest thing I’ve seen yet. Everyone hunched over their laptops working like mad or hitting the “refresh” key with a vengeance. I tried to log on, but my wireless connection refused to connect, so while I would get a reading on all the different wireless connections in the library, I couldn’t actually connect to the internet due to all the traffic. After a half hour of waiting, I decided to try my luck in the computer labs, and wandered from North Campus to South Campus. It was even more packed - 3 whole computer labs were filled, and 2 other laptop-oriented labs with cables were filled. There was not one spot in any of the labs. So I called my friend Mickey and went back to the dorm to use his computer to register for my classes just after 11 am. Fortunately, everything turned out ok, and I got a good schedule with a bunch of really spiffy classes. I’m taking…..

Elementary Turkish for Foreigners
Hittite History and Archeology
Classical Ottoman History
Byzantine History

Lots of history classes… so hopefully at least one of those translates to a 300-level course at Olaf so I can virtually finish off the History major. It should be a fun time. And I already know some of the people in my classes. So yay.

And it snowed all day today. Yesterday, the sun broke free for a few hours. It was the first time I had seen actual unencumbered daylight since I had been here. Now all the streets are sloshy and the sky is cloudier than ever. Fortunately, I was talking to Zeki, one of the guys I watched football with, and he says that this lousy winter weather usually goes away starting at the end of February.

As the library’s wireless is the sole source of my internet at the moment, I don’t know how many pictures I’ll be posting, but I’ll try to get some up soon so you can at least see some of the views I’m enjoying daily.

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Comments

[ed hunt]

hello
Hi Brian, Barb and I were at dinner last evening with your grandparents and Uncle Dick, which is how I know about your blog. Greetings from Arizona where the only snow is above 6000 feet normally and the temps are in the low 70's daytime. Your beginnings in Turkey sound very interesting-did you go to a desert place or a dessert place? I'm trying to reconcile desert with snow. Your courses are impressive. What are your plans beyond graduation, if you have any at this time? What year are you at St. Olaf? We are doing well, and we are expecting two more grandchildren next summer, which adds to our excitement. I work part time as the sales and marketing person for a print shop and Barb works part time for a non-profit helping families of low income. Golf continues to be my other pasttime. Off to my breakfast now and then to work. Peace, ed

[Arey]

Howdy, Yeah, I missed that typo. It was a dessert place, with truffles and chocolate and ice cream and who knows what. The weather is pretty nice, nicer than February in Minnesota or Wisconsin anyway. It's been around 50 usually, but the winter months are the "rainy months" - the only time that Turkey really gets any precipitation, usually it's rain, but there was a light snow the last two days, no real accumulation though. I'm a junior at St. Olaf, majoring in history, and depending on how these classes transfer back credit-wise, I'll likely be adding on Economics for a second major. I don't have any concrete plans after graduating, though I seem to be heading toward some kind of graduate school and teaching position, likely history at the college level. But we'll see, I've still got some time to decide. Sounds like Arizona is treating you well, and two incoming grandkids will be a handful. Glad to hear from you. If you'd like to know anything about Turkey while I'm here (or after) just keep checking back, or ask me directly. Brian