Day 26: Ankara

I really miss Istanbul. and I really miss WordPress!

But at the same time, I’ve learned to love Ankara. Touted locally as the “best city to live” in Turkey, Ankara is another mix of the old and the new, with somewhat a Washington DC twist (considering that almost all government ministries are located in the city center).

For some info, Ankara (Turkey’s capital) is home to some of Turkey’s best universities (METU is at 289th in the Times world rankings and ranked #1 in the country, while Bilkent is at the 201st-230th rank in the same system, with a national rank of #2 ). Thus, I became used to see a lot of foreign students practically everywhere!

Weird…To be honest, I feel very lucky to be here right now, considering that my SAT scores were not enough to land me in METU!!! But, thankfully…it did!

For 25 days, I tried to cover as much ground as possible; going to different places, knowing the local culture, knowing new people…It was a completely different experience! I like their transportation system: It’s very simple…

As of today, I was completely able to settle down, and I’ll spend the rest of my days studying for my English Proficiency Exam! People say that it is pretty hard, so I’m not expecting anything…I’ll just do my best! As for my new neighborhood, it’s pretty noisy (and pretty much fun…): There is a restaurant, supermarket, bazzar, and so much more! The Internet here is pretty fast and it’s cheap!!!

My house is actually in the basement…Well, there’s not much of a difference, except that you only get to see the shoes of people on your window… 🙂 Well, I’m staying with four Turks who also study at different universities…The house is lively, though I wished a little bit that Khaleel and I stayed together (accounting for all his pangugulit!)

Time to be serious 🙂

I just wish everyone luck at this point!

Shoutouts to my family, RoN (my semi-pro DoTA team), my friends in Antep, Kayseri and Istanbul, my Crossfire clan XLaiNURFacEX, 10th Batch, and the Storywrite FW group…I hope you have a good time wherever you are!