"What I did on my summer vacation..."

Tomorrow is my last day of Turkish 1 at Tomer Language School and it doesn't really make sense to take Turkish 2 although if we were here longer I would. These are intensive courses (4 hours per day plus more for homework) and missing even a day or two makes me feel like I'm hanging on to a tow rope with no skis on. Everyday we have to speak a few sentences and so today after learning the verbs meaning "to wake up" and "to look" my mind made an involuntary and ancient connection that I thought looked like a great opportunity to entertain the other Americans. 


When it was my turn to speak I started with "Birinci, uyaniyorum. Sonra, shehir merkesina geliyorum ve ish bakiyorum" which as every baby boomer knows comes from Sister Mary Elephant, one of the greatest comedy skits of all time by Cheech and Chong. Since we're only learning the present progressive tense it roughly translates into "First I am waking up. Then I am going downtown and I am looking for a job." After a comedic pause I laugh at my own joke and look at the other Americans. It's clear now in a way that it wasn't before that they are all about half my age, but still, thanks to iTunes and YouTube my kids listen to Zepplin and have a broad repertoire of lines from old SNL skits. Cheech and Chong anyone? They give me nothing, not even a glimmer of recognition. Cheech and Chong don't seem to have made it over the digital divide and now the teacher is giving me a look intended to make me feel like a junior high kid that's been caught passing notes. It works. 


Intolerance for old comedy routines aside, I'll miss the teacher and the class for all sorts of reasons. Everyday I would pick up some new tidbit of Turkish information and everyday I was amazed by how the students arranged themselves. For no particular reason, around a U-shaped table we sat with the 4 americans on the left or western side and the 6 Russians on the right or eastern side. I sit the furthest east of the Americans, interesting in and of itself, which also happens to be right next to the Russians at the bottom of the U. A Spaniard, a Syrian and a Serbian are scattered at the top of the U and our one Japanese student sits with the Americans while the only German sits just on the other side of the Russians. Even though two of the "Russians" are from the Ukraine the Americans imagine there is a certain kinship between the Eastern bloc folks. They sit there in their tight little group I'm sure imagining the same about us. Scary.