Sometimes the Fates intervene. 这是我们从阅读古希腊书中学到的人生原则之一:有时命运会介入, usually with tragic consequences.
In the case of my Fulbright experience, 然而, the consequences were fortunate and happy – at least at first. I have been teaching the ancient Greeks – their art, 文学, 哲学, and history – to 资本 students for 25 years now. 每隔四五年，我都会带一群Cap的学生去希腊参加一个短期学习项目. I have become a happy Hellenophile. So when my latest sabbatical came on the horizon, 我申请富布赖特奖学金去希腊教一个学期是很自然的事. 塞萨洛尼基亚里斯多德大学文学系邀请我来教英国现代诗歌和我的侦探小说课, and the Fulbright folk approved, so I thought I was on my way.
然后命运介入了，这次是以削减预算的形式，到处都是. 的y needed to cut a couple of their Fellowships, 很明显, Tourism Science trumps Agatha Christie, 所以我离开了. Of course I was disappointed, 但几周后，富布赖特打来电话，说他们想让我去土耳其，命运又插手了. 我感兴趣吗?? Of course, I was delighted.
I had been to Turkey before, on a short visit with several of my 资本 colleagues to visit Istanbul, 然后又和我的学生一起去以弗所做了几次更短暂的威尼斯人官网. Memories of splendid dinners at ocean-side taverna, 五月的一个晚上，我们坐在屋顶的露台上，一边喝着啤酒，一边吃着开心果，一边听着蓝色清真寺传来的祈祷声，夕阳在赫勒斯滂河上落下, the taste of hummus and strong Turkish coffee – yes, 我确信我会喜欢土耳其，就像我喜欢希腊一个学期一样.
我在土耳其的学术家原来是港口城市伊兹密尔的亚萨尔大学. I knew little about either place, 但事实证明, I could hardly have found a more congenial, 可爱的, interesting place to spend my Fulbright. Yasar is in many ways quite like 资本, 一个独立的, 中等规模的, 大学的学生代表了相当广泛的学术准备. Like my 英语 colleagues at 资本, the Yasar 英语 department is a small group of dedicated, 人道的, 聪明的, 和蔼可亲的人. 我在那里短暂的时间里交了一些朋友，我完全希望他们会持续一生.
学习英语的Yasar学生也很像首都的学生——他们的观点很西方, 他们中的一些人是非常专注的学生，而他们中的一些人需要大量的刺激(是的, 一些 资本 students are like that). 他们对成为成年人和交朋友的过程就像他们对读书一样感兴趣. As normal as that sounds, 我开始对他们产生敬畏之情，因为我每天都要求他们阅读具有挑战性的文章，就像我在《威尼斯人网站》时一样, but they were doing it in a second (and 一些times, 第三!) language, and they rose to the challenge heroically.
Yasar University was not 非常 interested in Detective Fiction, but what they asked me to teach, 看了我的简历之后, proved to be even more fun for me. 他们让我在第一年的必修课程中教授古典希腊文学——这是我在塞萨洛尼基大学从来不会被要求做的事情. 教学大纲的大部分内容都是为了让他们慢慢地、详细地阅读荷马史诗 奥德赛, which was uniquely appropriate in that Izmir, the ancient Ionian city of Smyrna, 许多古典学者认为这里是荷马的出生地:我会在荷马的家乡教荷马吗!
他们让我教的另一门课(也许)是我在国内最喜欢教的课:但丁 神曲. My expectation was that it would be a challenge to teach a poem that is 非常 中世纪和 非常 Catholic to a group of 21st-century Muslim college students, 但我发现，让他们相信阅读旧书的重要性，其实比说服我的美国学生要容易得多. 至于跨文化的宗教问题，也没有我想象的那么令人担忧. Izmir is a 非常 European-leaning, 主要是世俗的, 开放的城市, and my Dante students proved to be much the same. 他们对但丁神学观点的见解对我的启发，就像我教威尼斯人平台他们的中世纪基督教世界观或13世纪佛罗伦萨诗歌一样.
During my time in Izmir I lived in a ninth-floor flat in Alsancak, one of the oldest parts of this 非常 old city. Alsancak三面环水，是一条狭窄的街道，两旁是咖啡馆, 商店, 和许多, 许多酒吧. 的 air has the scent of spices, 浓咖啡, and more pizzerias than I had expected to find, 还有大海:你离海滨的距离永远不会超过六个街区. 阿尔桑萨克的一侧有一条宽阔的公园般的散步道，伊兹密尔人来这里散步, smoke (lots of smokers!), talk, play bocce, and just watch each other enjoy the outdoors. I did a good deal of that myself. 另一边是一个工作的港口，因为伊兹密尔是一个巨大的，繁华的港口城市. It reminded me in many ways of my hometown, 西雅图, except that while 西雅图 is barely three times older than I am, Smyrna was been a city for 28 centuries. And Izmir is three times the size of 西雅图.
就在我觉得自己可以应付足够多的生存土耳其语的时候，我对这个城市已经足够了解，可以开始一些冒险，看看爱琴海沿岸的风景，这时命运又来了一次, this time with less happy results.
I first started hearing, 三月初, 因为我在电视上看不到英语新闻，所以校园里出现了流感大流行的谣言. When the pandemic was declared, Fulbright told us all we could stay or return home, 但我们应该知道，在接下来的几个月里，回家可能会变得困难. After chatting with my dean at Yasar and my wife at home, I decided I would ride the plague out where I was. 一旦天气稍微好一点，我就有很多旅行计划——去看特洛伊, 和第2章, 去希俄斯岛和莱斯沃斯岛——我愿意冒一些风险，从这一生一次的经历中获得最大的收获. But by the first of April, 富布赖特和国务院放弃了我们的决定，把所有富布赖特家的人都叫回家了.
命运啊, as the Greeks taught us centuries ago, life is most precarious when it seems to be at its most rewarding. 的 early-morning taxi ride to the airport was profoundly bittersweet, because while what we all want, in trying times such as a pandemic, is the comfort of our families, 我在土耳其的富布赖特经历的许多计划仍然没有实现. I finished my courses with my students by Zoom, as most professors did all around the world, 但与我能亲自去那里的几个月里与他们愉快的互动相比，这只是一个苍白的版本, and I have yet to get the dust of Troy on traveling shoes.
回想起我在富布赖特的经历，仍然是一种美好回忆和渴望失望感的混合体. 未到访的地方, friendships cut off just as they were getting off the ground, 甚至没有机会对我的新土耳其朋友们说声“再见和谢谢”.
我的学生阅读 的 奥德赛 对这个故事中非凡的好客印象深刻，又多少有些困惑, 比如忒勒马科斯拜访墨涅劳斯和海伦，寻找他失踪父亲的消息, 奥德修斯. 的y are hosting a palace full of people for the wedding of their daughter, so the steward is inclined to send this unknown young man on his way, 但墨涅劳斯插嘴说:“如果人们不为我们敞开家门，我们怎么能从特洛伊回到家呢?? Of course, we should bring them in … ”
As we discussed this episode in the story, 我的一个学生说，热情好客是土耳其人最引以为傲的民族特质. I have to say, my experience confirms that. 的 people I met in Turkey were uniformly warm, friendly, hospitable people. 的ir country is a land of natural beauty and great historical interest. It should be on e非常one’s bucket list. Returning to Turkey is certainly on mine – if the Fates allow.
To learn more about Dr. Summers’ Fulbright experience, read the article by Lily Benedetti in 上课钟声, 资本’s student newspaper.