New Mode of Transportation

After being here for a month, I realize how I really miss driving a car. Especially winter driving.  The feeling of turning into the neighbourhood on an icy road and losing control, yet being fully in control at the same time…a feeling that I cannot experience here…sadly.  I do have my international driving license but since I’m on a student budget, I’m not up for renting a car or anything like that at the moment.

The first week I was here, I had no idea how to get around, as the campus is massive.  The METU campus is basically a separate town inside Ankara.  Once it gets a little greener around here, I’ll take some photos and try to put things into perspective.  To walk from my dorm to the main gate of the university takes a solid 35 minutes.  And when we want to head out to the mall outside campus it takes about 45 minutes to get there on foot.  Sometimes it feels nice to walk that much, it’s a good way to relax and talk to friends at the same time, but sometimes if you’re in a hurry and want to go somewhere quick, it’s almost impossible to do so on foot.  The Ring bus which comes every 15 or so minutes to specific stops around the main faculty buildings and dorms is sometimes inconsistent with its schedule and when it actually comes, its bound to be tightly packed.  I feel like they have those Japanese guys in the Tokyo subway stations packing people in trains doing the same to us.  Its almost not worth the hassle.

So one day I was with my Italian and Palestinian friend.  We didn’t have much time and needed to get some cooking supplies from CEPA (pronounced Jeppa), the mall just outside campus.  We noticed a few people sticking their thumbs out at oncoming traffic near our dorm; they were hitch hiking. We tried the same and after waiting about 10 minutes we actually got a ride from a student with room for us three.  We got there in a few minutes on car and were able to make it back in time as well thanks to hitch hiking.  Now whenever we need to get somewhere on the other side of campus we can count on this new mode of transportation.  Besides getting a ride, you get to meet some interesting people.  One time I was alone and picked up by a guy who actually worked for the UN as an international police officer in East Timor.  He was telling me about his Canadian and Pakistani friends and how he misses them etc.  Another time a couple of us got picked up by one guy.  And there was someone sitting next to him in the passenger seat that looked a little miserable.  The friend I was with was Turkish but at first glance he doesn’t look like it.  The driver and passenger probably assumed we weren’t Turkish.  So it seemed like they were having some sort of argument in Turkish and my friend quietly chuckled so the guys at the front didn’t hear.  He looked at me and told me he’d tell me what they were talking about later.  So we get out of the car, thank the driver for taking us, and off they go.  My friend just burst out laughing right after.  He told me that the guy in the passenger seat was upset because the driver didn’t pick up these good-looking girls who were also trying to get a ride.  And he went on to describe what kind of girls the driver should have picked up in detail.  From the sounds of it to me, they were debating about some big issue in politics or something, turns out it was just about some girls haha.  Another time I got a ride from someone who actually lived in Ottawa for two years.  He loved Canada, except for the winters of course (typical).  I asked him if he knew about hockey and he said just a little bit.  We talked about the Ottawa Senators and their chances this year at the cup.   It felt good talking NHL hockey with someone; even though it was for 2 minutes, as it’s been about a month since I’ve talked to anyone about it. (Usman, Henna, Humza, Umer, Fouad, Salman and Minaa) if you read this, we will have lengthy discussions when I’m back.  We even talked about the rivalry with the Maple Leafs and how they’re a joke.  He even knew that the team’s name was grammatically incorrect.  We had a good laugh about that one.

Although I miss the luxury of having a car to use whenever you need to go somewhere; there’s something interesting about hitch hiking.  Each trip is different; each trip is filled with new stories from a different person, which makes it interesting.  As of now there haven’t been any weirdos or anything. I mean it’s all fun and games until a psychopathic killer picks you up, right?  While I’m in Turkey though, I’ll take the risk.  If I had a choice, I’d still have my own car but I think I’ll enjoy the hitch hiking for the next few months.

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