Our Best Weekend Yet!

Well, close anyways :) The other weekends are kind of in a blur, everything has been happening so fast for so long! I was writing an email to my parents, and realized that what I was telling them would actually made a decent blog post, and unlike my usual self, it'd be SHORT!

Things are going well here, I got a call this morning and I have another student, so that will be a little more money for 2 weeks anyways. Apparently he has taken the TOEFL (English as a Foreign Language, they need to take it to go to school abroad to prove they know English) and will get his score in a few weeks, but just in case he didn't pass, his mother wants him to take some lessons with me. Uh, ok. Seems like a bit of a waste of money when he may already have passed, but hey, it's their money. So this makes it so I have a total of 6 students now. Lesson planning is getting a little hectic :) Socially we're settling in though and things are getting hectic in a good way!

Friday night we got together with some of our CELTA friends, just to hang out near the sea and relax, have drinks and chat. They all brought some of their friends as well, so we met some awesome new people as well.A very late night, but it was so good to see these people again! and to feel social :)

Saturday we hung out with Pinar, who was in our CELTA course. She took us to Metro, which is similar to Sam's Club. I bought some artwork for the apt, some school supplies that we needed, and a couple other things. A way fun store but no way of getting there by bus, so we'll have to go whenever she goes. It was nice to be able to get some things that we otherwise can't find in the traditional Turkish supermarkets, and also just to hang out with her. we have plans to meet up again on Friday, although that may need to be bumped back a little now that I have that new student.

Yesterday Chris and I went out to the village our landlady lives in. Not a pretty village, but it was very much a picture of an authentic village. We absolutely loved it. She took us to another village along the water, where we had gözleme ('guz-luh-may), which is similar to a quesadilla only WAY WAY better. The lady who had the stall was so funny, she was an older lady, VERY spunky, and so funny! She even made us fresh sarma, which are the stuffed grape leaves. I tried Ayran again, which is that salty yogurt drink that I found totally disgusting last time. Apparently it's an acquired taste, and Nesta (our landlady) told me that it went great with gözleme, so I tried it again. Yup, still gross. But I am quite determined that I will learn to like it, pretty much every Turk does. One of my students was actually really upset that I didn't like it, so yes, I will learn. Anyways, after that we drove to find Teos, which is an ancient Greek town, in ruins of course, but you're free to wander around w/o paying a fee or anything. It's just kind of sitting there, waiting to be excavated. We found it and we'll explore at a later time when it's cooler. Then we went to the beach, which was a blast! Very relaxing and the water felt just like Lake Michigan, chilly but awesome on a hot day! That evening Nesta took us back to her house and made us baked chicken legs, potato salad, corn-on-the-cob, bread and butter, and bean salad. Quite an American-type meal. It was very interesting, their corn here isn't sweet corn. It's actually much more similar to the field corn that my parents grow. So yeah, a little chewier and different tasting that I have been used to in the past. But it was all good. So yeah, all in all, a great weekend! I expect our next few weekends will be good too, we are actually booked up for the next 3 weekends!

Ok, despite my temptation to write more on here, I promised a shorter post this time. Hope to hear from you all soon!

Oh yeah, before I forget: I've only heard the drummer once b/c I was awake for a bit. Apparently I sleep through it, since Chris ASSURES me that the man comes down our street every morning at 3:15 AM. I can't say that it breaks my heart that I don't hear him...

Learning to Let Go

Sometimes I feel like I'm letting go of sanity. But mostly, Turkey is teaching me to let go of my ideas of schedules, etiquette, orderliness, and logic. Which may be a good thing, since I am entirely too neurotic by half. By the way, I have a feeling this is going to be a rather rambling post. For those of you who are bothered by my habit of jumping from topic to topic without warning, this post will either drive you batty or teach YOU to let go. :)

For anyone who knows me even slightly, you know that for me, rude people absolutely grate on my nerves, and will make me angrier faster than about anything else. It is unsettling to be in a country where I don't know the rules of etiquette, and may very well be a rude person myself! And trust me, I can't just do as I would in the US and hope that these things are universal. Um, no. Not unless I want to be completely obvious in my foreigner status. (Actually, funny thing, I've been told many times that I look Turkish and whenever someone needs directions or has a question, guess who they ask? Oh yeah, that would be me, the one who knows basically NO Turkish. Awkward.) So anyways, it's little things like you don't talk to some strangers, but you can to others. Like, NO ONE talks at a bus stop for example. (It's a good thing that's not a rule in the US, Chris and I never would have met!) People either listen to music, talk on their cell phones, or stare into space, but the stops are pretty silent places. Staring is not considered rude, or at least I don't think so, because I get stared at a lot, and so does Chris. And people are completely unfazed when you meet their eyes and catch them staring. They just keep right on! Pretty much no one says anything to bus drivers, taxi drivers, delivery people, or other shoppers in stores. However, it's perfectly normal to exchange pleasantries with shop keepers. I'm not sure I've heard a "please" (lutfen) since I've gotten here. People can come across as abrupt, but when EVERYONE is that way, it's me who has to do the adjusting. Which I am, I can play snob (by US standards) very well. :D

Mostly what I'm finding difficult about manners are the little things. For example, if someone invites me in for tea, are they doing it just to be polite, or would it be considered rude to turn them down? How long do you stay? Turks aren't quick people when it comes to eating and drinking, but really, other than "Thank you" and "Very nice", what am I going to say to a Turk who doesn't speak English? I HAVE learned to always take off my shoes before entering someone's house, but that apply to offices as well? If not, is it rude to take off your shoes in an office? Should I apologize (in my pitiful Turkish) for not speaking Turkish? Is it something to be sorry about? What is ok and what isn't? Honestly, I could go on and on, but I can see this is getting a bit redundant.

I know I've complained about things not working, or not working well, before. I am gradually learning to never take things working for granted, and always have a plan B. Because this is just how things are in Turkey. If something doesn't work, people are completely unfazed, shrug it off, and continue on. Whereas in the US, there would be irate customers, managers falling all over themselves to give away free things to make up for the non-working this, here it's so expected that no one throws tantrums, no one gets bent out of shape, and no one even tries very hard to fix the problem. Again, not only my desire for orderliness but also working in customer service jobs way too long interferes with my ability to walk away as easily as the Turks do. Although I can manage to not throw a tantrum right then and there, poor Chris DOES get to hear all about it when we get home! I think that one is going to take awhile. I think I'm making progress though, simply because there have been a couple times when I could just shrug things off. That needs to happen a little more frequently.

As far as things being illogical here, it can be summed up quite neatly (and short too!): a friend (a Turk who has lived in America) told me, "If it's logical, then you won't find it in Turkey." Yup, makes sense to me now.

The sense of competition between businesses is something that still fascinates me. Mostly because there really isn't any. Hard to believe, but picture this example: Chris and I need to find a stationary store to get things like binder clips, 2-ring binders (ah, ANOTHER tirade I could go into but will refrain), notebooks, day planners, etc. Our landlady told us we will need to go to Konak, to a certain section of town, because that is the section with all of the stationary stores. Each type of business has a certain section of town, and all of them are next door to each other. If one doesn't have it, they'll simply send you next door for it. No competition about better locations, LOGICAL locations (um, by universities, anyone?) carrying different products, etc. Nope, they even help each other out with breaking big bills. Amazing. And it's all of the types of businesses, not just stationary. I walked through the electronics section the other day, and there are furniture sections as well. Very interesting. But in a way, very nice too. Not so blood-thirsty, dog-eat-dog type of business dealings. (I'm sure there are exceptions, this is just generally what I've observed)

Noise ordinances? Non-existent here. Contruction next door + no noise ordinance = no sleep until after midnight for me = cranky and whiny the next day. Again, I'm going to have to get used to this and see it as a positive thing: we can have wild loud parties and no one can do anything about it. :)

LOL, actually, speaking of noise ordinances and lack of sleep, you all will love this. Ramadan started last night. For those of you who don't know Islam very well (which included me until I got here), Ramadan is a month during which Muslims eat before sunrise, and then fast until sundown, when they then have huge and wonderful meals. Fasting includes food, drinks, and cigarettes. So, it started last night. Apparently there is a drummer who walks up and down the streets at about 4AM to wake people up so they can eat their breakfast before the sunrise. This will be every morning for a full month. I don't know HOW Chris and I slept through it this morning, but I have little hope of that being the case every morning. I just hope people aren't as cranky as I would be if it were 90 degrees and I couldn't have water or food. I'll keep you updated on that front.

I see that is is turning into a really long rambling post. Sorry for all of you who didn't have much time and got stuck reading it. Anyways, Chris and I both miss you all, and hope to hear from you soon.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Easier said than done, especially when it's 95+ degrees every day. :) sorry, poor joke, but i couldn't resist. as you can probably tell, i'm in a much happier mood than last time i blogged. mostly because we got our water back! showers and flushing toilets are a beautiful thing, that's all i'm going to say. i'm just crossing my fingers that the power isn't next, i can't live without AC right now! (Although that WOULD be a perfect excuse of why we just have to spend every day at the mall....)

Chris and I went out to Cesme last week on Thursday, and taught our first students! Poor kids. One of my students must have known what she was in for, she canceled! Chris is doing SAT prep (thank goodness, that's the more difficult one!) and TOEFL, I am doing TOEFL and one General English course. TOEFL is mostly for students here who want to get into good universities here in Turkey, if they do well on that exam, they can skip the prep school year in which they take English courses before they can enter university. the SAT prep is pretty self-explanatory. we got paid cash at the end of the day, so that was brilliant! we're headed out there again tomorrow and thurs, and hopefully after that the students will be back in izmir with their families. (we've been out in Cesme because everyone except us is on vacation.)

still no internet in the apt, this is turning into quite a fiasco. lucky for us, we have WONDERFUL turkish friends who have been helping, but it's just a complicated process. we wanted to get the 3G offered by turkcell. however, after phone calls (made by our turkish friends, of course) we found out that even though it's being offered all over the tv and billboards, they had problems with it and right now it's not available. So we looked into turk telecom. In order to get internet, you need a phone line. in order to get a phone line, we're pretty sure you need a utility bill to prove your address. and all of this requires going to several places, making several phone calls, etc. again, all in turkish. we owe our turkish friends a drink, i think. (i won't subject them to a home-cooked meal, they've been punished enough with this fiasco.)

other than those things, it's going well. we still love our apt (i did laundry, yay!), we're finding our way around, and chris' turkish is getting better. mine is still non-existent. i may need to actually start trying...

anyways, this may be my shortest post yet! but i've been sitting in this chair for over an hour, and my rear is numb. i'll type more later. as usual, we love and miss you all!

Home Sweet Home

Good news everyone! Chris and I found a place to live, and it’s not a box in an alley like we feared! Rob, one of our tutors from the CELTA course, put us in touch with one of the teachers @ IEU who had a FURNISHED apartment to rent in Izmir. Umm, can we say PERFECT? A landlady who speaks English, an apartment that is furnished and air conditioned (believe it or not, this is not the case in all apartments in Izmir, even though I think it should be a crime not to with as hot as it is!), and in the city we need it to be! We were also about to be kicked out of the dormitories, so we needed to find a place quick, although many Turkish friends offered us a place at their apartments. (Thank you, all of you, we really did appreciate your generosity.) Anyways, we looked at the apartment Friday, moved in Saturday morning, and we’re here now. I will describe it, although I’m sure Chris will put up pictures as soon as we get internet connection (I’m doing this in the internet café down the street.) Oh, and I should preface this whole blog post by saying I’m sick, doped up on cold medicine, and really really groggy, so if something doesn’t make sense or I don’t finish sentences, you know why.
What sold us right away (well, besides the English-speaking landlady, the furnished state, and the location) was the view. OMG. If we thought our view at IEU from the dorms was amazing, this blew us away. Believe it or not, even better than the view in GR (sorry, Gina!). Mostly because we not only see the city, but we look over the bay. There are huge windows everywhere, so it’s even better.The apartment is quite high up, so it’s quite a panoramic view. AND we see a beautiful sunset every night over the water and behind the mountains. I couldn’t ask for a better view!
The apartment has 2 bedrooms, one bathroom with a washing machine (finally!), a kitchen, a living room, a balcony complete with a clothes line (YAY!) and ( my favorite room), a sunroom with windows on all sides, facing the bay, perfect for breakfast and plants. Mom, you will LOVE this room! Nesta, our landlady, redecorated a couple years ago, and basically it’s exactly like how I would have done it! So yes, we feel VERY lucky to have gotten this place, and at a very reasonable rent rate as well. Oh, and did I mention that, unlike some parts of Izmir, it’s not stinky? This was a huge requirement for me; as we’ve walked around a bit in the past, there are certain areas that smell like sewage pretty strongly. I did NOT want to live in such an area! Gross. I think we’re high enough up that the breeze of f the bay takes care of that for us. It’s pretty much perfect.
Or at least it was until we woke up this morning to no running water. We hoped it was just a quick thing, but after about 10 hours, we walked next door to the building manager, who said that it is a huge area without water, and is supposed to remain that way for 4 days. Four days without running water, so no laundry, no showers, no washing dishes, no washing hands, flushing the toilet, etc etc. omg, I don’t know if I can handle this. UGH.So those of you taking hot, long showers, think of me and try not to laugh. And I will think about it and try not to pout. I’m just glad we had the job interview yesterday! We called Nesta and she said that this happens about 3-4 times a year. I was afraid it was going to be every other week or something! But I guess since the water pipes are quite old, I can understand them needing to fix leaks and such. Understand, yes. Stop whining and feeling sorry for myself, no.
Despite this cold that I managed to get right after CELTA ended, we have some leads on promising jobs. One possibility is at IEU, where we took the CELTA course. We’re waiting to hear from them, which should be within the next couple days. That would be a plum job, health insurance included and being paid on time a given. Ahhh, the luxuries! It’s just a really nice place to work, and many people have to work at crummy language schools before universities will hire them, if then. We got lucky because our tutors loved us J The other job was the one we interviewed for yesterday in Çeşme. It’s for a language school, but different that other language schools in that it’s more one-to-one tutoring, and getting students prepared to take SAT exams to study abroad. The pay is quite good, the hours flexible (possibly a little too flexible? We’ll see), and the couple who own it seem like good and honest people. The husband was actually born and raised in Chicago, so he knew where GR was! And BethAnne, he regularly sends Turkish students to MSU, so he’s quite familiar with that area too. Chris and I got along with them quite well. At least I thought so, I was so doped up on cold medicine we could have completely flubbed it and I wouldn’t have known. I guess we didn’t though, since they offered us both a job, starting this week. We kind of wanted to wait to hear from IEU, but if they don’t hurry, we’re taking this one and we’ll figure out what to do with IEU later.
Well, I can see that as usual, this is way longer than I intend for it to be. One last thing though: Sherri from CH, I think if I’m going to stay in Turkey any length of time, I may need a WTF stamp like you have. Seriously. Miss you all, and hope to get internet access soon as I can start actually sending individual emails to you all again.