Brrrrr!

You know you're from Michigan when your clothes freeze on the clothesline.

Oh wait, that can be in Turkey too. Yes, it's THAT cold here. Not quite what I signed up for. I guess we have to pay for our awesome weather in December and the first half of January though, don't we. Thankfully, Chris bought a space heater for the bedroom, so we're not freezing at night anymore. Last night when he went in to plug it in, the thermometer said it was 57 degrees in there! And that was only in the evening! So yeah, I'm very happy to get another source of heat. Hate to think about the electricity bill, but love to be warm!

On the bug front, things are progressing. We actually saw one so we know for sure that's what we're dealing with. We also haven't seen much evidence of migration outside the bedroom, which makes my life much easier. (I was dreading taking down ALL the drapes and washing them every 3rd day, especially since you all know how close together the buildings are here. And curtains are good insulation.) We've been spraying Raid for all we're worth and *knocking on wood* have only gotten a few new bites. YAY!!! Doing laundry is really getting old though.

On the work front (I guess I'm covering our lives in this post, sorry if it's boring), Chris is beginning his new seven-week module today. He has level C, which is pre-intermediate. Basically the level of students he just finished up with. He is teaching skills, which means instead of planning 20 hours of lessons and teaching them once to the same class, he will plan 6 hours of lessons and teach them to three classes. So that should make his life a lot easier. That is our hope anyways. My students are on their two week semester break, so I'm basically out of a job for 2 weeks. I have a whopping 4.5 hours scheduled for this week. Not sure if I can handle that heavy of a workload. I may have to speak to my boss about it... :) Things will change a bit for me after the break though. First, I will be on contract, so there will be steady income each week. (Then all the slacker students who don't show up don't cost me money!) I will also be working for ten hours per week in a school, teaching the teachers there how to teach TOEFL. (Say that five times really fast.) So that will be a new challenge, since I've only been teaching TOEFL for six months. Ah well, fake it til I make it. Or just fake it and forget about making it.

I received the sad news from one of my very good friends that she is deserting me for Istanbul. Although I am incredibly happy for her ( I mean, what kind of crap friend would I be if I wasn't?!), I also am VERY sad to see her go, and a little jealous of all the delicious food she gets to eat there. Istanbul has such exotic dishes as Indian, Thai, Chinese, and Mexican. And you KNOW she will call to rub it in a little. (I wouldn't be friends with someone who wouldn't do such a thing, since it would make me look bad when I did it.) So she will be moving next month or in March, and I think all the friends here will miss her. We love you, Jaime! And keep blogging so I can steal your posts again.

Well, I hear my washer spinning out. If I want our blanket for tonight, as well as sheets and pillows, I should probably go take care of that. Hope you all are doing well and staying warm! We miss you and July can't come soon enough (for several reasons)!

EWWWWWWW!!!!

Bed bugs!

Yes, that's right. And while the logical left side of my brain says that this could just as easily happen in the USA, that there are exterminators in Turkey, and that it's not that bad (at least it will make a good story, right?), the emotional right brain has been screaming with disgust for about 2 days, drowning out all logic. Researching on the internet isn't helping matters, since mostly what we read either (a) grosses me out further- they LIVE in my mattress, and only come up a couple hours before dawn to crawl over me and bite- (GROSS!!!! EEEEW, I itch just thinking about it, and the couch looks so good), or (b) focus on how hard it is to get rid of them, with the only option really being an exterminator, and even then, not an easy (i.e. cheap) task. Great. For those of you who are wondering, simply washing the linens doesn't work (it has nothing to do with being dirty, you all know my housekeeping isn't THAT bad!), nor does replacing the mattress. We need chemicals, people!

So how did we acquire these new little pets, you ask? (I requested a kitten or a puppy, not bugs!!!) GREAT question. We have no idea. We haven't been to a sketchy hotel lately (Pammukale was a while ago, people, I've already thought about it), we haven't had friends over or stayed at anyone's house, we don't have pets, nor wild animals roaming in our apartment... All I know is that two days ago, I went to bed fine, and woke up scratching. Yesterday I had new bites to scratch, and today I have even more souvenirs. Lucky girl, I know. You're all writhing with jealousy, aren't you. Or are you squirming because you're imagining being bitten by bugs while you sleep?

So if anyone comments, PLEASE don't tell me stories that (a) will further gross me out or (b) detail how hard it is to get rid of them. A little sympathy and comfort for my whining would be good. That and a care package of calamine lotion...

Hoş geldiniz, 2010!

Chris and I were talking the other night, and we both agreed that although 2009 was fun, we really do hope that 2010 is a little less...surprising. Although I am sure that I will never regret this experience, the act of giving up my home, "career," car, and stuff to travel to Asia and live there is something that I think I need some recovery time from before I do it again.

We had an extraordinarily low-key New Years, as is our usual MO. My students all canceled, so I had the day free, but Chris had to work. When he got home we ate, and then watched a movie. Now, I had been pestering him for awhile to watch "Cleopatra" with a young Elizabeth Taylor. I just don't see the fascination with the old lady, and I wanted to see what everyone was so obsessed about. Four painful hours later, I was still wondering...

It did serve to pass the time until 11:45PM though. We turned on our TV to try and find the Turkish version of Ryan Seacrest (Chris swears he's out there! Scary) and instead stumbled upon probably the biggest train-wreck of a New Years Eve show I've ever seen. Although I will try hard to make this believable, let me assure you all that I was having a hard time believing my eyes.

There were 3 hosts. The first was a singer. Although she was quite pretty, her fashion sense was a disaster. First, imagine a gown that is knee-length in the front, and floor length in the back. Now color it magenta (that's bright pink for you men out there). Now add feathers to the back. And her wrists. Within the feathers on her wrists are huge, thick diamond cuffs. So it looks like the feathers got caught there. She also has a matching necklace, although perhaps a more appropriate term would be neck-and-shoulders-lace; oh yes, it was so wide it went from around her neck to draping over her shoulders. And as Turkish women are wont, waaaaay too much blush. So that was her.

The next host was a man who was probably about 70 years old. His hair was dyed jet black, however, which just looked weird, but did match his suit. He had a huge mustache, and was trying very hard to make this a serious show. When he sang, he sort of bobbed around (dancing?) and every once in a while, did a shimmy that just served to look like he was possessed.

The third host was a younger guy who looked surly. I don't think he smiled once.

During the course of the show, feathers were lost, there was a dog on the stage, a cake with sparkler candles, an audience full of old, extremely drunk ladies, audience members on stage dancing, certain audience members hustled off the stage by the older host after they didn't dance well enough (the good (and hot and young) dancers were left alone). But the best part? 11:58, they went to commercial! And Turkish TV doesn't do short commercial breaks, I think the shortest I've seen is 10 minutes. So somewhere between an add for Ayran and an add for chocolate, 2010 was rung in. A ship in the harbor blew its horn, which is how we knew when to clink glasses and smooch.

We opened our windows to watch fireworks. This was partly because we found it so cool that it was warm enough to leave the windows open, and partly because I still haven't washed the windows, so in order to actually SEE the fireworks, we kind of needed them open. We were able to see fireworks all around Izmir, all around the bay. Absolutely beautiful.

So that was our New Year's Eve in Turkey. Low key, but just like we like it. We both hope that this year is as fun and exciting as last year, although perhaps a little less dramatic. We also hope that all of our friends and family have a blessed year in 2010. And that someone will come and visit us. :D

Love you and miss you all!

Home Sweet Home

Here is a video that my awesome wife made of our apartment. Sorry this has been so long in coming; I know we've been promising it to people basically since we moved in. But this was the first time the apartment was clean enough to be deemed video-worthy.

Theoretically, we'll add some more videos showing more of our neighborhood. Don't hold your breath, though. I'd estimate another 4 months.

Btw, once you follow this link, there is a link in the upper right-hand corner that says "View HQ video" if you have a fast connection and want to see it in higher resolution.

From Videos

Genius

I heard a quote that I have loved ever since- "Smart people copy. True geniuses steal." So in keeping with that spirit, I'm stealing my good friend Jaime's posts from her blog. They are similar experiences to mine, only she writes about them much better than I could. And she notices the little day-to-day silliness that I giggle about and then promptly forget to tell you all about. So here it goes. By the way, if you want to read more of her blog, you can find it @ http://jmillerrapp.blogspot.com/. Happy Reading!

Gevrek Geliyor (or, The Bagel is coming)

I've heard him many times before. Walking around the neighborhood, hollering something to draw attention. And despite his daily tour and incessant wailing, I could never understand what he was saying--is he collecting junk? talking about vegetables?--until yesterday. I left the house at 8:28, still in a fog of sleep. As I stepped onto the sidewalk, a teenager sauntered by with a tray of gevreks (the Turkish equivalent of the bagel--only waaaay cheaper and more common and CAKED in sesame seeds) resting on his head.

He hadn't finished his first holler before I recognized him. It's you! You're the one disturbing the neighborhood's peace. Every. Day. At about 8 am. I sped up, wanting to evade his path. When I was a mere meter in front of him, I could sense an immanent holler. The air behind him was sucked into his massive lungs and experienced a momentary vaccuum right before he wailed.

"Sicak gevrek." (Hot gevrek.)

God it was loud. Sort of sing-songy but unappreciated since I was still technically asleep. My hollerer kept hollering.

"Gevrek geliyor!" (The gevrek is coming!) I walked faster, joining the few other people heading to work. No one looked particularly excited about the hot, coming gevreks, let alone rush over to him to buy their own piping hot gevrek before all the gevreks are gone. In fact...

"Sicak gevrek... bir lira... Gevrek geliyor!" (Hot gevrek... 1 lira... the gevrek is coming!)

... Everyone else was ignoring him, too, rushing away, trying to avoid the blast of sound emanating from his fit, soon-to-be-man lungs. He should still have been in school. Maybe he's practicing to be an imam, I wryly considered. He could do the call to prayer without the frigging megaphone broadcasting to the neighborhood.

I kept my pace up. After awhile, he stopped hollering about the gevreks being hot and simply kept repeating that the gevrek was coming.

Eventually The Hollerer must stop and set up his tray somewhere like all the other gevrek vendors. God only knows where he stops, but he uses my neighborhood as part of his route to the eventual resting point. It's a trade-off: Would I want him anchored to my corner, hollering all day, or would I be happier with his current morning route? I don't know but I'm just glad it's not me doing the hollering.

Domates--Bir Kilo, Bir Lira

I am living the life: sitting on my balcony in a light breeze, drinking my morning Nescafe and eating my muffin, watching the waves a few hundred meters away.

A truck rolls slowly down the street. The driver is on a loudspeaker blasting: "Fresh tomatoes--one kilo for one lira." The message ricochets off the tall walls created in the corridor of apartment buildings lining Mithat Paşa Street. His son stands in the bed of the truck, yelling a similar message at a lower volume.

The truck--laden with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers--stops midway between the two small grocery stores in front of my flat. The driver gets out, stands in the street and hollers about his tomatoes again.

Women in the flat directly above the truck start to notice. A couple poke their heads out of windows and lean off of balconies, craning their necks to see the produce. One on the sixth floor confirms the price with the driver and disappears into her flat, only to emerge a few moments later on the street to buy.

A head appears in a second floor window; her friend from the sixth floor buys her tomatoes for her.

The driver, as he looks around at the tall flats and balconies, notices me peering down at him. He hollers about tomatoes at me, but I sink back in my chair, out of his line of sight. Thankfully I didn't have my camera out right then when he looked at me. What a yobancı...

No one else comes to buy and he climbs back into the cab, his son braces himself against the truck walls and they continue their crawl down Mithat Paşa.

This kind of thing happens regularly in İzmir. Farmers with local, fresh produce park their truck--often in the street--and set up temporary shop. I can't imagine that local manavs (green grocers) are happy about this, but what can they do?!

Maybe I never lived in a big-enough city in the States, but this approach to food is entirely new to me. I think that there would be all sorts of red tape stopping my farmer and his son from selling their veggies on the street: no business permit; health and cleanliness standards that someone in a white coat would be willing to quibble about; disturbing the peace with all that hollering.

Then there's the moving traffic violation of his son enjoying the morning sun in the back of the truck... Not to mention the crime of selling tomatoes for so absurdly cheap: At today's exchange with the American dollar, that's 32 cents a pound for fresh, farm-picked tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes. Beat that Monsanto.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I hope you all are having/had a great day! Chris and I really enjoyed ours!

My first Christmas abroad was remarkably like being home! I made cookies last night, woke up this morning and went over to our friend Nesta's house. She had cooked a feast for us! We had pork (a beautiful, beautiful thing, forbidden pork...) that she had gotten when she was in Greece, potatoes, candied carrots, fried mushrooms, apricot dumplings, with gravy all over it. Absolutely divine! For dessert (it's not Christmas without dessert!), she made us a New Zealand special dessert, which is basically a homemade marshmellow cake, baked until it's crispy on the outside, but still marshmellow-y and soft on the inside. Smother it in whipped cream and put some kiwi on top, and you're set! The rest of the afternoon was spent in a food coma. Absolutely wonderful.

Tomorrow we're meeting one of our new friends. I was in Starbucks the other day, heard English being spoken, and almost got whiplash when I tried to see who it was. I introduced myself, and found out that he is from South Carolina, is here doing logistics for the military, and his wife is visiting him for the holidays. Since she likes shopping as much as I do from the sounds of it, I suggested we meet up sometime soon. :) Later we will go to our friends' Roxana and Ata's house for a Christmas party. It's strange that it is beginning to feel like Christmas only now. I have another week to enjoy it though, since in Turkey, Christmas is celebrated as New Year, complete with the "New Year tree," "New Year Santa," and gifts. So I kind of get Christmas twice. I love this tradition. (And Chris loves Turkey because he doesn't have to deal with any Christmas!)

I have managed to get Chris' cold. I'm not going to complain too much though, since, as he pointed out, I've avoided being sick for many months when he has been nothing but sick. It's just a cold, and I'm sure with all the great American medicine that he brought back I'll be fine soon. We're going to have to invest in gallons of Nyquil though...

So tomorrow it's back to work for us, although a short day. It's been a wonderful day for us, and we do hope you all have enjoyed it as well. Miss you and we are thinking of all of you, especially today.

A Balmy December Day

It is 8pm on December 20. It is also a pleasant 66 degrees (19 Celsius). There are certainly SOME advantages to living in Izmir.