All of a sudden, I've got opinions!

So, in the course of any given 50 minute lesson, there are often times where a class finishes an assignment early and there's dead air. Some classes have no issue occupying themselves.... others sit quietly and stare at me, as if at any moment I should start jumping through flaming hula hoops that I produce from my Mary Poppins bag. Which is an extremely uncomfortable position to be in, since I have neither the bag nor the hoops nor the technical skill required. Since my job description is, in full, "Conversate!" I come to a decisive crossroads: Put my head down on the desk and play possum, or try to force people to talk to me. Possum hasn't been working so well (don't think I didn't try).

Trying to talk to strangers isn't an easy task to begin with. Add a layer of ill-fitting authority (I'm their age, but still in charge... but unable to enforce anything), plus some general young adult awkwardness, and just a pinch of cultural resentment- and throw all that over a language barrier that rivals the Great Wall. And now imagine encountering the same students weekly, without having the memory retention capabilities to recall their names or almost anything about them.

In response, I've come up with all sorts of opinions I never knew I had. Not only am I required to have an extensive, yet easily explainable, opinion of every political event in the Middle East in the past decade, as well as the basic history of Ataturk, and the previous Ottoman Empire, I ALSO needed to invent loyalty to NBA, NHL, and National Turkish Football teams. None of this would have been necessary had "possum" worked out as a viable alternative, but since it hasn't, I've discovered- through trial and error, naturally- that saying "Uh, I don't really watch much football (soccer)" is a bit of a conversation killer. And then they recommence staring in near-perfect silence. I've never felt more like I should have a glass barrier in front of me in my life- "Please don't feed the native speaker." Anyhow, so having already magically produced athletic loyalties (under duress), I suppose I should state them now. Mostly just to horrify my younger brothers.
NBA- Boston Celtics. They've won something big recently, right? And I go to school in Boston. It's logical.
NHL- Devils? This one was only asked two or three times, and I was able to turn the conversation back to football, which they thoroughly enjoy shouting at each other about. Not usually in English, but the staring stopped, so I don't care.
Turkish Football- This is the risky one. Loyalties between the top teams are divisive and brutal. Which meant that it was absolutely imperative that I choose a team- they needed to know where I stood on such an important issue. After asking several classes which team was the best, letting them shout for a bit, and then asking why, I've basically gotten this much: Galatasaray is the top dog, Fenerbahçe is the weathly younger brother with the most obsessive fans, Sivasspor is the little engine that could (and did- recently won a match against Galatasaray), Beşiktaş is the outsider, and Ankaraspor (local team) is the joke ("Why are they good? Why do you like them?" I asked one student. "Cheap tickets!" his friend laughed). There are tons of other teams, of course, and my info might be completely wrong- it's all mostly impressions, with bits of Turkglish thrown in around the edges. But, having had to choose, I've thrown my lot in with Fenerbahçe. My logic is rather lacking, but here's what I've got: most of my classes had at least a few Fenerbahçe diehards, even in classes filled with loud obnoxious Galatasaray supporters, and they didn't mind being the minority. "Fenerbahçe," one girl explained to me, "their matches- there is very much feeling, very much- passion! The fans, they are very..." she smiled. (they drift off a lot, especially once they think I've got the gist.) So even though they aren't quite the underdog, and they do have too much money to throw around, I'm a Fenerbahçe-ian. Fenerbahçe-ist. Whatever. Now I should probably go watch a game.