I have been offered a position and I'm up for the adventure of living in Turkey, learning Turkish, blah blah blah, bright shiny newbie blather...anyhow, I'd really appreciate any input here. If you aren't familiar with the apartments that Bilkent offers, or the staff, or how OK/not OK in is to live on the campus away from the *relative* bustle of the rest of Ankara, well, that's fine too! I just wanted to hop online and start chatting with folks in the area and maybe figure out what brings you all to Ankara, if not teaching 8-year-olds. I'll update this info if I decide to have them fax me the contract and I sign.

Hi, and welcome!

I'm working and living at Bilkent. Generally it's quite a good place to live. It is outside the city...maybe about 8-10 km, but there are service buses to the city that run hourly, 7 days per week, and it's an easy trip into the city. A taxi from the city is approx. 15-20 lira. The surrounding area is quite modern, there's a shopping center down the hill with a supermarket, movie theatre, Marks and Spencer, Praktiker, lots of restaurants etc. There's two campuses, the East campus and Main campus, the International School is on the East campus, so you will probably live there (there is a bus running between the east and main campus, they're just side by side). The housing is nice, not huge, but quite clean and comfortable. Most apartments have a balcony, and I believe washing machines (some buildings have communal machines, but I think East campus have individual ones in each apartment). Basically you pay around 100 lira per month(sometimes more, sometimes less) for heating and electricity. The area is nice, there are lots of trees on campus, and it is on the hill, so we're usually above the smog in the city.

On campus there's a decent sport center, there are squash courts, a fitness room, lots of aerobic classes. There's also a big Sport International gym nearby, but it's a lot more expensive than the (free!) campus gym. Anyways, hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions.

Good information, the lot of it. How is the expat scene within Bilkent- friendly, meet-ups, outings, or do people mainly find their social connections through other methods? I'm nervous about being single, fairly young (uhhh, 30, does that count anymore?) and moving to a campus where people may just keep to themselves/ their families. I'm hoping that staff from elementary-uni have opportunities to meet each other...what's your take on that?

There's really not much in the way of meetups planned specifically for expats on campus. There is a (faculty) pub on campus, which is a decent meeting place, and where you'll find some expats, but to be honest it seemed to be a lot more lively a few years ago. I don't really know anyone from the school, but from what I've seen in the past, they seem to be a young, social bunch. Plus the english prep school is on the east campus, and if the majority of english teachers live there too, should be a pretty good community. But I guess the point of what I'm saying is I don't really know

Hi Konchiter,

I've more or less just done the same thing - moved here two months ago to lecture in at Atilim university in Ankara. The first couple of months were a bit quiet (very few foriegners at the university) as I didn't know many people apart the few Turks I work with -- up till the point I found this website. I think you've done the right thing in finding this site first! Why I came? Job offer and the opportunity to go somewhere different! I haven't regretted it so far. Sadly I don't know much about Bilkent - apart from where it is (roughly!) but if you have other questions about Ankara, go ahead - being a newbie too I probably can't answer them but I'm sure someone can!