So for those of you who are interested in my misadventures, I have a good one for you today. As you probably already know, Turkey has turned out to be great except for the incompetently run bureaucracy which manages to mess everything up- from class registration to riding the bus. To study in Turkey, we must get student resident permits, which will allow us to enter and leave the country freely, and which will also keep me from being harassed by the police unnecessarily (a real possibility here). We had been prepared by our program coordinator, Sarah, to expect a horrible time getting these permits.
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Some people in my program had already gone to get their permits, and they managed to get the paperwork signed, but not to pay the 150 lira charge, so they had to go back the next day (the tourist police station where all applications are accepted is open till 5, but the counter where they take money closes at 3. What?). So the many parts of the application process are: 1) print out your forms - you have to make an online appointment, and then print out the forms that the website gives you perfectly. This involves a lot of editing and fiddling with your printing settings before the forms come out right. The police station will not take them if there is even the slightest problem with the layout. Sarah said that the Turkish flag in the upper-right corner of one of her forms was too thick one visit, so they sent her home. 2) actually getting to the tourist police station. In order to get the residence permit, I had to go to Emniyet, which is about 1 hour and 45 mins away from campus, and I had to take a bus, the lightrail, and the metro. 3) Entering the building- waiting/pushing in line (all lines in Turkey are basically just a clump of people trying to push their way to the front) to get my passport checked. Once I got in, I had to find the correct office. All signs and personnel in Turkish (no one speaks any English, even though the entire building is given over to the Tourist Police). 4) After finding the building and office, I gave my appointment sheet to a guy who gave me a ticket for a window, where they would process my forms. At this point, I had been on the road for 2 hours, and had spent another 45 mins in the tourist police building trying to get in, and pushing my way to the residence permit office. 5) At the window/Banko, a Lithuanian kid was trying to get his residence permit, and his university had sent a Turkish student to help him (*hint*hint* Duke). They took another 45 mins. Then, I got to the front, handed the guy my paperwork, only to discover that my carefully planned folder of important papers did not contain my student documents. 6) Homeward bound to the Superdorm in frustrated dejection.
I am supposed to get my residence permit no later than 30 days after entering the country, which is today. Well, now I can't even get a new appointment for March 23rd (the earliest appointment available), because the internet scheduling system is not integrated with the tourist police office. I can't make a new appointment even though my old one has passed! Oh well, I am sure it will work out. Just goes to show that although the bureaucracy is almost suicide-inducing, it really ended up being my fault for not double-checking my folder this morning. The day was not improved by the cold weather and flu-like symptoms I have been experiencing. Nor did the fact that the lightrail wasn't running at a point on my route home help (I ended up just taking 3 buses and a different section of the lightrail home - another 2 hours on the road).
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Maybe I will have more exciting news later in the week. Classes are going well so far- I am taking Turkish for Foreigners I (Tues from 10-11:50, Thurs from 10-10:50), Byzantine History II (Tues 2-3:50, Thurs 2-2:50), my core class, Cognitive Science of Religion and Morality (Fri 10-2), and Modern Turkish History (Fri 2-5). I am also auditing Classical Ottoman History (W 10-12:50). This weekend we have a group excursion to the Grand Bazaar, Cisterns, and to a Hamam (which we have to pay for- lame, but I am still excited to go to a Hamam)! The above pictures (other than the one of the police station) are from our excursion to Sultanahmet two weeks ago (Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia). Tomorrow, my suite-mate Can (pronounced Jan/Jon) invited me to his birthday party at a bar in Bebek, right down the hill from University. I'm looking forward to unwinding after this stressful day!
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Some people in my program had already gone to get their permits, and they managed to get the paperwork signed, but not to pay the 150 lira charge, so they had to go back the next day (the tourist police station where all applications are accepted is open till 5, but the counter where they take money closes at 3. What?). So the many parts of the application process are: 1) print out your forms - you have to make an online appointment, and then print out the forms that the website gives you perfectly. This involves a lot of editing and fiddling with your printing settings before the forms come out right. The police station will not take them if there is even the slightest problem with the layout. Sarah said that the Turkish flag in the upper-right corner of one of her forms was too thick one visit, so they sent her home. 2) actually getting to the tourist police station. In order to get the residence permit, I had to go to Emniyet, which is about 1 hour and 45 mins away from campus, and I had to take a bus, the lightrail, and the metro. 3) Entering the building- waiting/pushing in line (all lines in Turkey are basically just a clump of people trying to push their way to the front) to get my passport checked. Once I got in, I had to find the correct office. All signs and personnel in Turkish (no one speaks any English, even though the entire building is given over to the Tourist Police). 4) After finding the building and office, I gave my appointment sheet to a guy who gave me a ticket for a window, where they would process my forms. At this point, I had been on the road for 2 hours, and had spent another 45 mins in the tourist police building trying to get in, and pushing my way to the residence permit office. 5) At the window/Banko, a Lithuanian kid was trying to get his residence permit, and his university had sent a Turkish student to help him (*hint*hint* Duke). They took another 45 mins. Then, I got to the front, handed the guy my paperwork, only to discover that my carefully planned folder of important papers did not contain my student documents. 6) Homeward bound to the Superdorm in frustrated dejection.
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Please, Please, Please don't end up in a Turkish Prison.
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