Day 1 of Orientation

Merhaba All

Ok, I promise I will not write about each day of my orientation, but today was a little interesting. First we had the President of the Higher Education Council of Turkey give the opening speech and it was kind of crazy. A crowd of press was there to film this and practically talked the whole time he was speaking to us. We were all kind of shocked at the press to start with, but it was an interesting experience. Apparently there is some kind of issue with examinations in Turkish universies and they literally had a press conference about the issues after he spoke with us.

Went on to have political, health and security briefings from various people and an introduction to the Turkish langauge. Yea!!

Oh, FYI Mom- do not worry, I am being well fed.......all I do is eat! I have not yet been cold or hungry :)

Finally, I had my first introduction to the turkish toilet which is pictured here. It's basically a hole in the floor that you must squat over and this is the preferred toilet here and in much of the East. Just had to suck it up......hey, I'm adventurous!