Ahhhh, Life After CELTA

Well, for those of you who don't know, Chris and I both finished our CELTA course last Friday. We both passed, thank goodness! Even though I am VERY happy to not be stressed, losing sleep, and trying to plan lessons until late at night, I miss my students and other teachers a lot! It's weird how quiet the dorm is now: we all used to meet in the hall to let off steam, laugh, and go a little crazy when needed. Now, it's just silence :( But it looks like our students want to stay in touch with us teachers just as much as we want to keep in touch with them, so hopefully we'll get together soon.

So the last day of the course the teachers (us, whoa) planned a farewell party for the students. Some students offered to bring a couple things, so we of course accepted. Well, turns out "a couple" really means "massive quantities" and we had 3 tables of food! I will post pictures on here later, but safe to say we all had a blast. And I got to have dolma (stuffed grape leaves), one of my favorite! When students found out how much i liked them, I had about 3 offers from them to teach me how to do it. Sweethearts, all of them.

One of the students, Mesut, organized a bus to take whoever wanted to go to Çeşme (remember, the awesome place we have pictures of on here?) and for us all to go on a boat trip. First, let me explain these boat trips. You get on in the last morning, it leaves, plays dance music, and people just relax on big pillows strewn all over the deck, which varies in number, but ours was 3 decks. You go to 4 different islands and swim there, or stay on the boat and relax/suntan/sleep. They also include a lunch. These trips usually last for 6-7 hours. and it's all of this for under $20. Can we say AWESOME!!!!! So yes, a bunch of the students went, and quite a few of the teachers as well. (Again, I'll have pictures up for this too. Or Chris will. :D ) Chris and I both got really sunburned, but since the students told us this was predicted to be one of the hottest days (and it HAD to be well over 100 in Izmir!), we were certainly glad to be on the water! And one of the students took us to a drugstore and arranged for us to get some sunburn lotion that worked BEAUTIFULLY! No pain at all, which was awesome.

Sunday we slept and didn't leave the room except for breakfast/lunch. The sun was unbearably hot, and I just couldn't stand to be out in it. Instant headache. So a rather unproductive day, to say the least.

Monday we went job hunting with 2 of our dorm-mates. A little cooler, so it was bearable. We dropped off CVs (resumés) at 5 different places. At each one, we ended up talking to the directors, who basically gave us mini-interviews! Craziness. However, it sounds like most of them already have teachers for the upcoming semester. There were a few promising ones though. We'll follow up.

Yesterday Chris and I went to Ephasis to meet up with Yvonne, the woman who stayed in the dorm next door to ours, and who we went to downtown Izmir with before the course started. Ok, first, I should tell you that it's weird but I found someone who isn't related to me but who is almost exactly like me. To say that we clicked and had a blast with each other is an understatement. So, we planned to meet up with her and her bf who is in town now from England. By the time we got to Ephasis, they had already been through it twice, so they headed to the hotel while we went through it. Very cool, but to be honest, it was so hot and crowded that all I could think about was being DONE. We're planning on going back in the off-season, which will be cooler AND less crowded. We then met up with Yvonne and hung out with them for awhile (as usual, having a blast) before heading back here.

Whew! I think that's the rundown! Now my back is hurting from sitting here for so long, so I'll just plan on writing more later. As usual, miss you all!