Being an international student at METU

by Earl Carlo Guevarra

Ludic Memories: Greenhorns

October 2011.

I was still a greenhorn back then.

It was my first time in Ankara, and at that time, I knew nothing about Middle East Technical University except that it was one of Turkey’s top universities. I also never expected that I will take up Foreign Language Education; at the time, I was thinking about getting a degree in Communication Arts or Creative Writing.

I can vividly remember the chirps of the birds flying around the campus; I can clearly see the leaves that fall one by one to the ground, and I can still smell the fresh autumn air that permeated the campus during that time.

Basically speaking, Khaleel and I were late for our registration proceedings: The classes have already started almost a month ago, and the very week that we came to Middle East Tech was the very week that they were about to close down the registration system!

As far as I can recall, I saw myself running from the Student Affairs office to the EFA Building. From there, we went on to the FLE Building, whose doors misleadingly said: Vocational College: We met Prof. Bilal and Prof. Hale. The former was Khaleel’s adviser, and he helped us in finding our way around the department. As for Prof. Hale, she quickly assisted in arranging everything.

Within two days, it was all over. We were now official students of METU.

The question was: How could we catch up? As it stood, the following week was the midterm week, and we basically knew nothing about all the subjects that we were taking. Despite that, we were able to scrape our way through the semester, as well as the next one; it seemed that it was not so bad after all.

During my first year, I did not have a lot of friends and in addition, we were still figuring out the shortest way to our house; at times, we were lost inside the campus, finding only the right places through trial and error. At first, I met Mucahit and he seemed like a very nice guy, so I started to hang out with him. Soon enough, I also met Farrukh, Recep, and Ismael, and we all started to go out and do things together, whether it be basketball, PES, or just simply having a chat at Recep’s room in Dormitory#2.

Being an international student at METU meant that there were a lot of opportunities to meet different people from different cultures and backgrounds, creating a wholesome learning experience. This also meant a different sort of challenge, as we were supposed to sharpen our Turkish so that we can understand our friends; however, there was not much need to do so, since the guys tried to converse in English whenever they can! Finally, most of the instructors were great teachers, so I can pretty much say that we were really fortunate!

The conducive environment in the university meant that the first year passed very easily. I can still visualize the dinners that we’ve had at Çatı Café; I can still see the days when we went to Şok Market and buy tons of snacks for ourselves, and I can still recollect the sleepless nights when we studied for our exams or did our projects…

My second year here at METU gave me the chance to do more things, to see more sights, and to meet more people. Generally, the situation was better than it was before; however, we had to cope with an increasing number of subjects, and we needed to do a lot of work just to complete our requirements.

Thus far, I really enjoyed all the writing classes that I took (it was Prof. Yasemin and Prof. Hulya who taught in the first and second term, respectively), and I tried to have fun while getting through the rest of the subjects at the same time. I never managed to pass French though; I’ll admit that it has to do with my laziness.

The challenges were increasing, but at the same time, I felt that things were getting better and better.

Of course, not everything is covered in roses and tulips: Things were great…until the first semester of our third year, when we were loaded with the nightmare of all subjects: Research Writing.

Basically, I almost crashed down due to the pressure. If not for my friends’ support, I would have fared much worse: The only good part was that I passed the German I course…with the skin of my teeth! Yet, I will never forget the experiences that I had during the Community Service class: I think that helping others really mean a lot in this age…

And as for this semester? Well, so far, so good: I am hoping that it stays this way until the end! Then, I guess I’ll have a very good summer vacation ahead of me! (I am not so sure, simply because the weather is acting like a crazy frog nowadays…)

To sum up, being a Foreign Language Education student brings a lot of things to the table. I feel that I am very lucky to have learned a lot of things and saw a lot of perspectives; I hope that I will never forget them in the end! Thus far, it is a hectic “bölüm”, but one thing’s for sure: I have enjoyed my stay here at the Department!

Now, it is March 2014.

And I still feel like a greenhorn, staring at the bottom of the green grass.

Earl Carlo Guevarra/RavePlue

Cebeci, Ankara

March 13, 2014