Campus Tour

Last week I had a post with a tour of my dorm room. This week I will attempt to give you a glimpse of Bilkent University through a tour with pictures.

Beginning at my dorm, if you look to the right, you will see the music building all by itself. To the left you would see a hill leading up to the countless dorm buildings. Straight ahead you would see the Architecture building. From my dorm it looks like this:

 But from the academic campus side it looks like this:

All of Bilkent's buildings are relatively the same design. Well, they all look like they belong together at least. You will see from my tour of campus. The main campus is one large rectangle, the top being this Architecture Faculty building, and the bottom being the Library. This entire rectangle is one gradual hill. From the dorms, you gradually go down until you get to the library.

If we continue to walk towards more of the academic buildings, we will walk past the bookstore and one of the workout centers on our left. The orange and yellow building is the work out center and the green sign is the bookstore. So far, I have only had to buy one book, which was for Turkish class. In regards to the workout center, the larger one is closer to the majority of the dorms. The larger one has 2-3 courts for basketball and volleyball along with the swimming pool. This orange and yellow building has one court and a few classrooms for workout classes. You had to sign up for them within the first week of classes, otherwise they filled up. There is of course also a room with gym equipment: treadmills, bicycles, elliptical, and a weight room. 

This next picture I have tried to capture the overall layout of main campus. Behind us is the gorgeous Architecture building. To our left is the bookstore and work out center. If you continue down this path all the way, as we will do, you will hit the library, the ending point of this tour. As I said, this main campus area is just a very large rectangle which you have to walk the entire length just about every day.

As we travel down about 5 flights of stairs, we come to this circular fountain. This to me is the heart and hub of campus. There always seem to be people milling about, partly due to a cafe very close by with outdoor seating and partly due to this being the middle of the rectangle of main campus. Behind us is the building where we had our Turkish classes during orientation. I cannot wait for it to be warmer so I can sit around the fountain and enjoy the sunshine.

After maybe 3 more flights of stairs (remember, this campus is hilly), you come to another large open space with a statue honoring the founder of Bilkent University. Behind me is the library and behind the statue is the gradual uphill towards the dorms. 

This next building is I believe the Computer and Engineering building. Bilkent is famous for its engineering department. It is just such a picturesque building. This building is directly to the right of the statue. All I did was turn to the right from taking the last picture to capture this building. 

Continuing on in our original direction, downhill, and crossing a street, we come to the library. It has three stories above ground and two below ground. It is divided into two sections, A and B, and you can cross to the other section by means of a walkway on the second floor or by traveling through the tunnel below ground. It is another picturesque building that I constantly admire. To the right of the library is the dining center that I normally go to as it is the cheapest place to eat on campus.

Bilkent is set up in three campuses. There is main campus, where all of the classroom buildings are close together connected by lovely cobblestone paths and it contains many cafes in which to socialize. There is no Quad like the American universities, with a large green space between buildings. Just cobblestone paths. The green space that I know is popular is the one that I pass on my way to the music building. So far, there have only been snowmen on this green space, but I am told that once it warms up a bit, it is the place to soak up the sun and socialize. This green space, the music building, and an amphitheater make up middle campus. Past the music building, further down the road, is east campus, which I believe is just more dorms and a few faculty department buildings, but most of the dorms and buildings are on main campus. I do not know much about East campus yet, because I have not ventured that far yet.

That concludes my tour. I did not think you needed to see the music building again, as it has been included in many posts already and is not really a part of main campus. I really do enjoy main campus. It is so well organized and really is the hub of the university. Unfortunately, I only am on main campus for one class, as all of my other classes are music classes. So two days a week I come onto main campus for Turkish class. I get to mingle with all of the other students on these two days. Otherwise I take a peaceful walk from my dorm, past the green space and beautiful view of the city of Ankara, to my oasis, the music building.