Either/Or

Selin arrives in Ankara, where she is staying with her grandmother. She recalls past summer trips to Turkey, and although she’d always been enchanted by the sweet shops and her grandmother’s apartment, her memories are mostly of the jet lag of the first week of the visit: She would read all of the books she had brought for the summer during her sleepless nights and then spend the duration of the summer re-reading them. She hates to admit it, but she never truly enjoyed the time she spent in her parents’ home country.

Selin peruses the Ankara section in past versions of the guide and buys a Turkish cell phone. Part of her work is to look for errors in the guide, and after a few days of homebound jet lag with her grandmother, she sets off to explore Ankara. Much of what is written in the guide turns out to be accurate; the work is easy, and she enjoys the freedom of being on her own in the city. She visits the Hittite museum and is fascinated by its large sculptures and a diorama of a Neolithic family.

Selim also has to explore Ankara’s nightlife.