{"id":10121,"date":"2026-02-03T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/?p=10121"},"modified":"2026-02-04T10:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:48:39","slug":"the-international-chronicles-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/?p=10121","title":{"rendered":"The International Chronicles\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BY EHSAN SHAREEF (CTIS\/II)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Name:&nbsp;<\/strong>Gaini&nbsp;Mukhambetkazy&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Department:<\/strong> Architecture \/ IV&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Country of Origin:<\/strong> Kazakhstan&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What were your first impressions&nbsp;about&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At first, I thought about how chaotic and contrasting it is\u2014the people, the environment and just the energy of space. It even scared me for a while. However, over time this chaos became something I&nbsp;can\u2019t&nbsp;live without, and what seemed wild to me turned out to be a crucial part of my life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What do you like best about&nbsp;Bilkent&nbsp;and&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I like how most people in&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye&nbsp;are so warm and kind to each other.&nbsp;Also&nbsp;how expressive everyone&nbsp;is made&nbsp;me want to express myself even more. And up to this point&nbsp;Bilkent&nbsp;feels like a big family, which I became a part of, with its own personality that made it special enough to be kept in my heart.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are there any similarities between&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye&nbsp;and your home country?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019d&nbsp;say that the hospitality would be one of the main factors of the similarities between Kazakhstan and&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye. People in both cultures are generous in food and care. There is also a similar sense of deep cultural pride for both countries.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What will you miss most about&nbsp;Bilkent&nbsp;and&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think I will miss the respect&nbsp;towards&nbsp;each other\u2019s feelings and emotions. It is rare that people are this expressive in their personalities without being judged too much,&nbsp;whereas&nbsp;my country emphasizes the importance of not overwhelming others with&nbsp;your&nbsp;own personality. Both countries are good in their own&nbsp;ways&nbsp;and I love them both, but I will&nbsp;definitely&nbsp;miss&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bilkent&nbsp;for their expressiveness and openness to anyone.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s&nbsp;your favorite place on campus, and why?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It might be the stadium. I love it when there&nbsp;aren\u2019t&nbsp;many people, and everyone is taking a walk there in&nbsp;a good&nbsp;weather; it feels like a whole different world from&nbsp;Bilkent\u2019s&nbsp;scurry. It is quite refreshing to visit, and when the sun hits&nbsp;just right,&nbsp;laying&nbsp;on the grass field feels even more special.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s&nbsp;your favorite Turkish food and why?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Definitely,&nbsp;lahmacun. I love the simplicity, yet the need for the texture to be perfect&nbsp;in order to&nbsp;taste the best. It is the most comforting meal that gives you a sense of nourishment and experience of taste in just one bite.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Where do you expect to see yourself 10 years from now?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I see&nbsp;myself being&nbsp;happy. The rest, you will see.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s&nbsp;one thing you learned from Turkish culture?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m&nbsp;going to talk about it again, but honestly, one of the most important things that I learned was expressing myself and expressing my own emotions just the way they are. I grew up to be calm and respectful towards anyone but me, and&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s&nbsp;hot temperament made me learn to respect myself much more, and show myself to everyone as I really am.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What places have you visited in&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye, and which one is your favorite?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The list is way too long, but honestly one of my favorites was Adana.&nbsp;I\u2019m&nbsp;still thinking about the Adana Kebab and&nbsp;\u00c7i\u011f&nbsp;K\u00f6fte&nbsp;that I ate there. Truly unforgettable taste. Another favorite is&nbsp;Fethiye.&nbsp;It\u2019s&nbsp;simply hard to explain the whole vibe and atmosphere it had, so&nbsp;I\u2019ll&nbsp;just&nbsp;advise you to&nbsp;visit it whenever you can.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s&nbsp;an interesting question or comment you hear&nbsp;frequently&nbsp;at&nbsp;Bilkent\/in&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you Chinese \/ Japanese \/ Korean? People often ask&nbsp;that, which is always a reminder that Central Asia is still largely overlooked.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Describe yourself in three words.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authoritative,&nbsp;shining, tender.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How is the studying experience at&nbsp;Bilkent?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t&nbsp;even ask.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY EHSAN SHAREEF (CTIS\/II)&nbsp; Name:&nbsp;Gaini&nbsp;Mukhambetkazy&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Department: Architecture \/ IV&nbsp;&nbsp; Country of Origin: Kazakhstan&nbsp; What were your first impressions&nbsp;about&nbsp;T\u00fcrkiye?&nbsp;&nbsp; At first, I thought about how chaotic and contrasting it is\u2014the people, the environment and just the energy of space. It even scared me for a while. However, over time this chaos<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/?p=10121\">[Read More&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209,83],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10156,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10121\/revisions\/10156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}