What I most like about doing research is traveling around. The first country I have traveled from Turkey was Azerbaijan. I traveled there for a field work on internet and democratization. I did in-depth interviews and worked from early morning to late at night since I had to fit to the schedules of my informants, and most of the time they were talking so much and sending me to some other people. My host was a nice lady, a russian language teacher, azeri nationalist, hard working, open minded person. She told me on the weekend-- you cant work everyday! You have a right to rest and you should visit holy places when you travel to some new place. It is good and a necessity for your psychology. So she took me to the museum, zoroaster temple, a mosque... and to a wedding of her relative. I danced with the people and the bride at the wedding. And with joy sent a message to my boss (I was working as a researcher at a center in the university) with a picture of me dancing. Saying it has been a great opprtunity and thanking her... I returned to Ankara and was sent to United Kingdom, to do research on the networking of Turkish speaking community by the Institute where I was writing my masters. My boss told me-- you wont find a wedding to dance in the UK. The first days we spent in Oxfordand when we went to London to do the field work, the first night we went to Cemevi (religous center of Alevis) and encountered a circumcision feast and I danced with the people and took a picture to send to my boss. I wrote to her-- you can never know what you will come across in the field.
So after this I was more comfortable, more open minded, and enjoyed every minute of field work travels. Because I knew-- anyhting could happen and it will be informative for my work and good feeling for my soul.
My third field work outside of Turkey was to Romania, to understand the determining factors of identity of the Crimean Tatars. I came across the tennis team of my university (who I very well knew since I spent a lot of time at the courts) in a bus stop on the way to Costanza. There I swam in the Blacksea and not much enjoyed the feeling of saltless brownish-blackish dirty water.
From there I travelled to Budapest, Vienna, and Prag as a backpacker. I Budapest I spent time with the most intersting group of people, all from different places and danced for more than 6 hours in a bar. To Vienna I arrived on a sunday and everywhere was closed. I did not like it much there and I moved to Prag. There I did not enjoy much the houses and details since I had heard about them so much and after this root it was kind of boring. However, I enjoyed a variety of modern art exhibitions and I dream of organizing one in Abkhazia in a near future. When I arrived to Stutgart, Germany- I had only one Euro left in my pocket with which I called my aunt and asked her to pick me up at the train station.
I traveled to Poland from Germany. Before attending a conference in Krakow, I visited my best friend from university in Szcezcin, who was visiting her family at the time. At the conference in Krakow, I met a very interesting researcher from Israel and we walked in Zakopane mountains.
Later, I traveled for the first time to the Caucasus- to Adyghea. Stayed there for 3 months, enjoyed real good friendships as well as many troubles but managed to write my dissertation with the help of sisters* and big brother* there (*very distant cousins in European senses) .
I saw all Adyghea in two months while I was doing research.
After a year I quitted my job, than finished my masters and decided to travel the world for three months. My friend suggested I start my travel from Abkhazia. And I said --why not! And that is how my life changed.
coming soon: field work in Abkhazia
