Türkçem çok iyi değıl

That means "My Turkish isn't very good," a phrase that I have used many times in the last two days. As Barb said in her post, we have been in for something of a rude awakening coming to Izmir. In Istanbul, many people spoke at least some English, and a decent number spoke pretty fluently. So far in Izmir, we haven't found any who speak fluently (except the program coordinator) and only a couple who have even spoken a little. On the one hand, this is forcing me to use the Turkish I know, so it will get better. On the other hand, we feel like idiots everywhere we go because we don't know what's going on. It is definitely an isolating feeling. I'm sure once the other people from our program get here, they will speak English (it IS a program for English teachers, after all), and we'll have a few people we can talk to.

There are also a few Americans in the dorm for a program learning Turkish. I just talked to one of them, and it sounds like they'll be around for about the same time frame as us. It was nice to speak a little English with someone else, but she has a ton of homework to do, so I decided to leave her alone.