NSLI-Y 2024 Turkey – Week 5
Merhabalar! Welcome back as we wind down the program. We can’t believe that the NSLI-Y Türkiye cohort has officially completed five of our six weeks in Bursa. Even though we are running short on time in this fantastic city, we are working hard to enjoy every last second and experience as much of the culture as possible. We started the week by meeting with our wonderful Resident Director Karenna, sharing our progress so far and talking about our experiences with Turkish cuisine.
On Tuesday, we attended a Turkish cooking workshop where we learned how to make traditional mantı along with helva and dondurma (aka, ice cream) for dessert. The traditional mantı process consisted of the chefs teaching us how to make the dough while we chopped onions. The chefs mixed the beef (or the spinach for the vegetarians) with the onions while we kneaded the dough and then flattened it out using a traditional rolling pin. We also used a long metal rod to flatten the dough further, using a special technique to speed up the process. We sliced the dough into squares, placing the meat or spinach onto each piece, then folded the dough into tiny, star-shaped pieces. After we assembled our mantı, they were placed in a big pot of oil and stirred for 15 minutes until ready. The result was worthy of a five-star restaurant.
On Wednesday, we had free time after classes, allowing us to either spend time with our host siblings and families or spend time together with cohort members and our host siblings.
On Thursday, we went to Kültürpark for our weekly peer language partner activities. American students teamed up with their Turkish host siblings to apply possessive grammar with different items. Then, we practiced the provided vocabulary that we learned in class and constructed recipes in Turkish for different meals we found online or made ourselves during our time here. Each person and their host sibling presented their recipe’s instructions to the rest of the cohort to practice their pronunciation and speech. We then traveled throughout the city and recorded ourselves ordering food in Turkish!
Lastly, on Friday, we traveled to the Karagöz Museum, where the cohort watched a playful shadow puppet show that followed the lead characters Karagöz and Hacivat. The most exciting thing about this play is how far it dates back, as well as the legend that the two goofy characters may have existed at some point in time. According to the legend, they were clownish, often distracting construction workers at a Bursa Mosque. Given that their actions slowed construction, the ruler punished them with execution. However, their story lives on through these shadow puppets that entertained the Ottomans and our modern society.
Written by Akhilesh and Niko.
The cohort stuffing the mantı before folding them.
Kate holding the plate of finished mantı, doused in baharatlı sauce and yogurt.
A group of the cohort playing a game that involves applying possessive grammar with different objects.
Nima and Yaren presenting their recipe in Turkish.
Students enjoying the shadow puppet show.
The group standing inside of the Karagöz Museum, while a tour guide explains the history of the shadow puppet show.
The cohort stands in front of the Karagöz Museum.