Today is the Ataturk created national holiday of Youth and Sports Day. As is the case with all national holidays, the streets have Turkish flags waving over them. Huge banners with Ataturk's image cover the facades of businesses. Since it is Saturday, our school celebrated the holiday yesterday. It started with a "marathon" in the morning (could not have been longer than 3 kilometers, but included some brutal hills which are campus is built on), then track events, and different sports competitions. It ended in the afternoon with an assembly recognizing all the athletic groups on campus.
It was a fun day, with all the student body and faculty up on the track. While the various track events went on, students cheered, threw a football around, formed volleyball circles, and played the Turkish game of Long Donkey. Now Long Donkey is just as ridiculous as the name makes it seem. Students (only saw boys playing this) divide into two teams. The one team lines up in a line and fold into each other (look at pictures). The other team one by one jumps on them and stays there until the whole team is on top. They then have a three second count to wriggle and hop trying to get the base group to collapse. If the team on the bottom collapses, they have lost and are in the same position for the next series. If they can hold the boys up, the teams change place and they are now the ones trying to knock the others down. It was very entertaining and shocking to watch, and even more shocking no one had to be carried off the field with a broken back.
Overall, female athletics lag far behind those in America. The girls' soccer team was started up this year. Most girls had never played soccer in their life. They competed somewhat evenly against some of the other Turkish schools, but received a bit of a butt-kicking from some of the international schools which had ex-pat children. Overall, they looked like a rec league youth soccer team from the States. But this only makes me prouder of these girls who played and drastically improved through this and kept their heads held high. In a society where sportsmanship is rarely exemplified and too lowly valued, these girls showed the male dominated sporting field how true athletes should act. Other RC girls' sports like basketball and volleyball are further ahead, but still not at the level of many American high schools. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since the emphasis for these kids is definitely academics which is positive, but the difference in the amount of male and female athletes I hope will diminish as time goes on.
Due to this disparity, I am making a name for myself in the athletic field by competing against the boys, something quite unusual in this country. Last weekend, the teachers took on the flag football boys and I of course was the sole female out there. On Youth and Sports Day I was the only female teaming up with the Turkish faculty to take on the boys soccer team. This has created a little bit of a buzz among my students which is fun, but really what I hope this creates is a less intimidating sporting environment for the girls to start joining.
I mentioned the lack of sportsmanship in this country. Last weekend, there was a huge championship soccer game between the two big Istanbul teams, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce (think Green Bay v Chicago in the Super Bowl if that was possible). People were expecting the worst from the beginning, and for good reason. Fans seriously do not know how to act. The game was played at Fenerbahce and there were no Galatasaray fans allowed in, although I don't know why any Galatasaray fan would want in seeing that they could face serious injury or even death if their team were to win. I even heard a rumor that they were going to helicopter Galatasaray out if they won for their own safety, but don't think it actually happened. Our dormitory students were given a 7pm curfew instead of the 10pm one because we wanted to keep them out of the possible violence after the game. Emails were sent out to the foreign faculty in case we were planning on being off campus, warning us of the possible danger. The game ended with a Galatasaray victory. Galatasaray was rushed off as security tried to shield them from the barrage of items Fenerbahce fans threw at them. The fans later stormed the field and trashed it. Overall, celebrations were relatively calm, with only a few angry fans going after police, turning over a police car or two. But no injuries that I know of and definitely no deaths.
As much as I try to stop comparing Turkish culture to the American culture I know, I find myself constantly doing this. Culture, it's something you would never think of if you never left your own, but it really does have an effect on the way you do things, approach things, and see things. There are plenty of cultural habits that we can look down on and complain about in American culture, but there are also many great things. One such positive aspect is our education on sportsmanship from an early age. Of course, Americans do have their fans who can lose control, but overall this behavior is seen as unacceptable and outlier behavior. Here I am seeing what happens when a culture does not create this kind of education and expectation from its fans and players.
It was a fun day, with all the student body and faculty up on the track. While the various track events went on, students cheered, threw a football around, formed volleyball circles, and played the Turkish game of Long Donkey. Now Long Donkey is just as ridiculous as the name makes it seem. Students (only saw boys playing this) divide into two teams. The one team lines up in a line and fold into each other (look at pictures). The other team one by one jumps on them and stays there until the whole team is on top. They then have a three second count to wriggle and hop trying to get the base group to collapse. If the team on the bottom collapses, they have lost and are in the same position for the next series. If they can hold the boys up, the teams change place and they are now the ones trying to knock the others down. It was very entertaining and shocking to watch, and even more shocking no one had to be carried off the field with a broken back.
Overall, female athletics lag far behind those in America. The girls' soccer team was started up this year. Most girls had never played soccer in their life. They competed somewhat evenly against some of the other Turkish schools, but received a bit of a butt-kicking from some of the international schools which had ex-pat children. Overall, they looked like a rec league youth soccer team from the States. But this only makes me prouder of these girls who played and drastically improved through this and kept their heads held high. In a society where sportsmanship is rarely exemplified and too lowly valued, these girls showed the male dominated sporting field how true athletes should act. Other RC girls' sports like basketball and volleyball are further ahead, but still not at the level of many American high schools. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since the emphasis for these kids is definitely academics which is positive, but the difference in the amount of male and female athletes I hope will diminish as time goes on.
Due to this disparity, I am making a name for myself in the athletic field by competing against the boys, something quite unusual in this country. Last weekend, the teachers took on the flag football boys and I of course was the sole female out there. On Youth and Sports Day I was the only female teaming up with the Turkish faculty to take on the boys soccer team. This has created a little bit of a buzz among my students which is fun, but really what I hope this creates is a less intimidating sporting environment for the girls to start joining.
I mentioned the lack of sportsmanship in this country. Last weekend, there was a huge championship soccer game between the two big Istanbul teams, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce (think Green Bay v Chicago in the Super Bowl if that was possible). People were expecting the worst from the beginning, and for good reason. Fans seriously do not know how to act. The game was played at Fenerbahce and there were no Galatasaray fans allowed in, although I don't know why any Galatasaray fan would want in seeing that they could face serious injury or even death if their team were to win. I even heard a rumor that they were going to helicopter Galatasaray out if they won for their own safety, but don't think it actually happened. Our dormitory students were given a 7pm curfew instead of the 10pm one because we wanted to keep them out of the possible violence after the game. Emails were sent out to the foreign faculty in case we were planning on being off campus, warning us of the possible danger. The game ended with a Galatasaray victory. Galatasaray was rushed off as security tried to shield them from the barrage of items Fenerbahce fans threw at them. The fans later stormed the field and trashed it. Overall, celebrations were relatively calm, with only a few angry fans going after police, turning over a police car or two. But no injuries that I know of and definitely no deaths.
As much as I try to stop comparing Turkish culture to the American culture I know, I find myself constantly doing this. Culture, it's something you would never think of if you never left your own, but it really does have an effect on the way you do things, approach things, and see things. There are plenty of cultural habits that we can look down on and complain about in American culture, but there are also many great things. One such positive aspect is our education on sportsmanship from an early age. Of course, Americans do have their fans who can lose control, but overall this behavior is seen as unacceptable and outlier behavior. Here I am seeing what happens when a culture does not create this kind of education and expectation from its fans and players.
