March 14, 2014
School Days: Were never like this
The next morning the sky was grey and there was a bit of light drizzle as I made my way east with the sea to my left and mountains to my right. I was amazed by how lush and green the slopes were and this was a very different Turkey from the one where I had spent the previous weeks. I was very tired from my exploits of the previous days and I was reluctant about an appointment that I had at a school. I had been contacted online by a teacher, Ayse, who asked me to visit her school and talk with some of the students to help with their English. I had agreed of course, why wouldn't I, but now I was regretting it a little given how very tired I was feeling. Having to deal with a school full of excited little kids wasn't high on my list of things that I wanted to do.
I had arranged to meet Ayse outside of her school at 12:15 and I was on schedule to make it in time, but then with just four kilometres left to her town I got a flat tire. I couldn't believe the bad timing, this being maybe the fourth puncture since Paris and coming at such an inconvenient moment. I quickly set to work, deciding to just replace the inner tube to save time, and soon located the cause. A large piece of glass had managed to find a way through the protective wall of the Marathon Plus, an exceptionally rare occurrence, although probably more likely in Turkey given the large amounts of broken glass everywhere. Annoyingly I pulled out the main bit of glass but there was still small pieces buried deep in the tire that I couldn't get out no matter what I tried. I was getting very frustrated with all the time that I was wasting until finally a voice in my head said 'You have a spare tire you idiot, just put that on for now' and I was able to do so and get moving again.
I arrived into the town of Besikduzu and tried to follow Ayse’s directions to her school, which I was a little confused about. I knew the school was on the right after a bridge, but after crossing a bridge there was no sign of the school, so I looked around for someone to ask. I needed to be quick because I was already late. I looked around frantically. The streets were completely empty. It was really bizarre. Then I cycled past a mosque and saw men lined up queuing up to pray, in numbers like I hadn't seen anywhere in Turkey before. Just my luck to arrive in the most religious town in the whole country at prayer time.
I just kept cycling and saw a lot of young school children walking on the streets, obviously on their lunch break, and I was easily able to locate their school by following this trail of children. But I didn't see anyone waiting for me so I cycled around, circling the school on the child-laden streets. The young kids shouted at me as I passed and I mostly just ignored them as I was looking for Ayse. As I cycled on down another street I could hear a particularly annoying kid screaming after me. 'Wow, these kids are annoying' I thought.
I got to the end of the street and I could still hear this stupid kid screaming so I turned to have a little look at the annoying little brat. What I saw instead was a fully grown woman running as fast as she could, arms waving madly in the air to get my attention. Oh! I see! Oops!
When she had got her breath back the woman introduced herself as Hatice, a colleague of Ayse. As it turned out this wasn't even the right school anyway, and Ayse was waiting for me up the road. Double-oops! But it was all okay because I had been found and I was taken out to lunch with the two teachers before we would go on to the right school. During lunch it was revealed to me that the right school was in fact a female boarding school, home to several hundred girls aged 15-18, and for some reason I didn't feel quite so tired anymore. Ayse said that I could stay at the school if I wanted to and, although I had been planning to just stay a few hours and then keep cycling I said 'Yeah, I mean, I suppose I could stay."
We walked through the school gates and immediately girls started screaming. Some ran over and asked me questions, others were peering out of the windows of the buildings and waving, still more giggled shyly behind trees and from benches. My arrival appeared to have caused quite a stir. Perhaps for the first time on this whole journey, I actually felt like Ryan Gosling. I was in no way prepared for any of it. I think I must have been like a rabbit in the headlights. I'd certainly never had this much female attention before. 'This is definitely not how I remember high school' I thought to myself.
I locked up my bike and one girl asked to escort me into the building and took my arm and did so. I looked to Ayse for help, I thought she would tell the girl to stop, but she just marched on ahead of us. The girl asked me my name and told me hers was Gokce. 'Okay, well, I mean, I suppose its okay for you to escort me.'
We walked upstairs and along corridors with more noisy students staring at me, whispering to their friends, the more bold ones firing questions at me. I somehow made it through the chaos to the English teachers' lounge, where Gokce left and I was able to sit down with the three English teachers and relax for a moment and try to work out where I was and what the hell was happening. But a second later more girls burst in through the door, only to meet me it seemed. Apparently the English teachers’ lounge was not off-limits to the students.
Ayse hurried them out the door and I was again able to relax for a second. But then she turned to me and said, "Right, come on, lets go to the first class," and I was straight back out into the madness.
The classroom erupted with screaming and giggling when I walked in. I still had absolutely no idea what was going on, except that I now had a much better idea of what it must be like to be Justin Bieber. Ayse introduced me and then the students fired questions in English at me. They were the usual questions that I get all the time, but somehow seemed much more fun to answer now, in front of a class that was 90% female. There were three or four boys sitting at the back, as the school did teach some boys although they did not board at the school. I wondered if these boys had any idea how lucky they were - in my own slightly-geeky-awkward teenage years I think even I would have managed to kiss a girl behind the bike sheds if I'd had that kind of ratio in my favour.
We went to five or six different classes in the same manner. By the end the novelty was beginning to wear off a little bit, as the same questions were repeated over and over. But credit must go to the girl in one class whose English extended to asking me "And what is your opinion of the Ottoman Empire?" I can only imagine she was a little disappointed by my limited, uninspiring, and some might say downright ignorant response. Also, by the time we made it to the last class, pictured below and whose English was better than the others, I was so exhausted one of the students asked me if I was bored. "I'm really not bored, believe me, I'm just very, very tired. Its been an unusual day for me."
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 14,778 km (9,177 miles)
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