Lojman F 11, Home Sweet Home

Lojman (lowzh mon) is the name for apartments.  This is one of the few universal Turkish words I hear the international teachers always use.  No one says, "I'm going to my apartment."  It is, "I'm going to my lojman."  

Lojman to the South of us up the hill

BLIS is located on the east campus of Bilkent University.  There are 12 lojman (no "s" to pluralize words here) built on a hill just south of the school, with the exception of buildings 93 and 97, which can be converted into a lojman and are just west of us.  The 12 lojman are mostly all the same, a basement with locked storage areas for each flat (what they call the individual apartments) along with a room with 8 washing machines.  The machines are front loaders with the super fast spin cycle to remove most of the water from the washed garments.  There are three floors of living space, again in most buildings, 4 flats per level. There are one or two buildings where the administrators live that have only three flats per level, as their lojman are larger than the worker bee's quarters.  Damn administrators.  

Lojman F.  Our living room balcony in upper left.

Our lojman is closest to the school entrance gate on the south.  There is also another gate to the northeast.  There are guards in guard shacks (my word, as they're actually nice little buildings) at each school gate, as well as an electronic gate that is always manned with another shack at the entrance to the lojman from the street, dogu kampus (east campus street-very creative)  There are also guards occasionally in the entrances to the buildings. All entrances to the university are guarded.  This will either worry you or give you peace-the presence of guards- however,  they are not armed, not even with a radio.  There are phones in the shacks.  When riding the university buses back onto the campus, a guard does walk through the bus and  all show their university ID cards. I think they even look at some of them!  

So, our lojman is closest to the school entrance and is known as lojman F flat 11.  Our living room and bedroom face the south and each has a small walk out balcony.  The spare bedroom has a balcony as well that looks west.  It is small, but larger than what I lived in while at UNC and definitely larger than the student apartment we lived in at Western State. The floors in the living room and bedrooms are wood, and the kitchen and bathroom are tiled.  They are totally furnished, with the hardest cushions I've ever experienced on the sofa.  The chairs are a little better. The sofa folds into a bed, which we used when we got up at 2:15 AM last Sunday to watch the last quarter (and overtimes) of the Broncos.  Then, the firmness wasn't a problem as it was actually pretty comfortable.  The Bronco's defense should have been so firm! 

New sheets and cover after IKEA next week!

Spare bedroom

The queen sized bed in our room is very comfortable, which was one of my worries given my back. There are also built in closets in each bedroom with just enough room.   All the bedding, a set of towels, and all drapery were here, washed and waiting for us. Someone must have gotten a deal on bright print sheet sets, as there's nothing simply white.  

Don't spend time looking for the dishwasher.  One took the picture and the other one is teaching across the street.

The kitchen is just large enough for two people to walk around in, if you keep your hands at your side.  I can reach across it and touch both walls, so it is less than 6x8 feet. The university supplied, and I'm serious: 2 large glasses, 2 small glasses, 2 forks, 2 spoons, 2 butter knives, one tea pot, one baking dish, one frying pan and one larger pot.  They very carefully inventoried all this so that we don't get greedy and swipe stuff when we leave.  Fortunately we purchased a lot of items from the guy who left in December, so there are most basics in the kitchen.  We bought a microwave from Real, and from him got a toaster, electric hot water heater, and extra dishes, pots and pans, etc.  Still its very sparse, but the school is taking a bus to IKEA a week from Saturday, so Peggy's excited.  We also pay 5 TL for a 19 liter water bottle and bought from the teacher Peggy is replacing a water cooler.  The water guys deliver water here every Friday.  You put the used bottle out your flat with the cash and by noon you have a new bottle outside your door.  Everyone drinks bottled water, with the same coolers in the school buildings.  We've heard two stories:  the water is filled with too many minerals, and the water is not purified well and has too much bacteria.  Either way, it's bottled water for us.  The housing guys also pick up your trash, 3 times a day during the week and 2x on weekends, and we just have to set it in the hall on our floor.  

The heat is all hot water radiators, just like Edgar and I fought with for years in the old building at Cotopaxi, except these actually work.  Two knobs, one on top and on on the bottom open/close to allow the water to circulate.  We leave all off except in the bathroom and spare bedroom.  If it is cold, they warm up pretty quickly, but it takes a long time to cool off.  

Lastly the bathroom is really pretty roomy, but it only has a curved shower stall.  I won't complain about my small shower in Howard again!  There is always plenty of hot water, and so far everything is working out just fine. We bought/brought electrical adapters, but most everything in here is wired for the local outlets.  The computers, and Peggy's curling iron are about the only items that need converting.    

Our dryer??

Remember those super fast spinning washing machines mentioned earlier?  Well they spin so fast to remove moisture because there are no dryers here.  Seriously, every kid and adult have smart phones and laptops, but drying racks are still being used? This was the same in both Italy and Hungary when Tyler and Sam studied overseas.  I really didn't appreciate their complaints until now.  So, the heat is up in the spare bedroom and the rack is brought in from the balcony.  Fortunately, we bought a floor fan on a stand from the previous guy, and with the door mostly closed and the fan running, clothes dry in just a few hours.  And, they have that nice crunchy feeling I like when we hang our clothes outside at home! Peggy is not as big a fan.  

Well, it will take you 5 times longer to read this than to tour the place, should you decide to visit. But it's very comfortable, minus the sofa, and will really be nice after going to IKEA.