June 26, 2007
Introductions and Arrival
This is my first official blog, so bear with me while I try to figure things out. I’m a rising senior and I’m concentrating in modern European and Middle Eastern history. I’m keeping a Watsonblog because I was given the Richard Smoke Summer Internship Fellowship through the Watson Institute for International Studies to intern with the U.S Department of State at the Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey.
I began the application process in late October, while I was studying abroad at Bogazici University in Istanbul. The application process is lengthy, in part because of the number of applicants, but also because the initial offer is contingent on passing a security clearance, which takes at least 3 months to process.
I’m lucky enough to have gotten the exact assignment that I wanted—working in the Political/Economics section in Istanbul. Even though the embassy in Ankara is larger, I lived in Istanbul for about 6 months of the past year, so it feels like home. I spent last summer on another State Department program called the Critical Language Scholarships, which supports language programs for Turkish (as well as Arabic, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Urdu). In 8 weeks I took an intensive course that was the equivalent of a year of Turkish. During fall semester I was able to continue my studies and practice on my Turkish roommate. I’m by no means fluent, but I’m functional, so it’s great fun to be able to speak with people. I’m hoping to take classes while I’m here, but I’m waiting to see how much energy I have after work.
This is a great time to be working on political issues in Turkey because there is an important parliamentary election on July 22. I’ll explain this situation more in my next post because there’s just too much to talk about here, but the issues have been covered extensively by American media sources, including The Washington Post and The New York Times. If you’re feeling really ambitious you can even check out the Turkish Daily News, an English-language daily published in Turkey.
My plan is to try to write once or twice a week. Thanks for reading!
Posted by Jill Luxenberg at June 26, 2007 01:54 AM
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