Bayram

After Ramazan there is a 3.5 day festival called Seker Bayram (sheh-KEHR BYE-rahm). It started last Wednesday afternoon and continued until saturday night. Ask any Turk what happens during Bayram and they will tell you that you kiss hands. As a sign of respect, you go around to all the old people you know, kiss their hand and put it to your forehead. Sounds really sweet, like there's a lot of love and respect for old people during Bayram.... Well, what they don't tell you is that the old people put a little piece of candy or some money in the hand you kiss and at the end of the affectionate interchange, it belongs to the young kisser. What people also neglected to tell us is that kids go around to the houses in the neighbourhood knocking on doors and wishing you a happy bayram. Of course, in exchange, you give them handfuls of candy. It's like trick-or-treating at halloween, except in the morning, and without costumes, and "Iyi Bayramlar" instead of "Trick-or-treat".

Let me tell you a little about my first morning of Bayram....

 

First of all, my flatmate and I adopted 2 cats. Shhh..... don't tell anyone. So I was awakened by the cats in the morning. Something had scared them and they came running into my room and under the bed. It was someone at the door. Our doorbell sounds like birds chirping, then the chirping slows down, and sounds like birds dying. One press, and there's 5 seconds of dying birds. Someone pressed 3 times. I dragged myself out of bed (we had gone dancing in Taksim the night bfore and I had only been in bed for about 3 hours at this point). Anyway, I dragged myself out of bed and headed for the door. I took the wadded-up tissue out of the peephole (ghetto privacy) and saw a strange young man. Now bear in mind, it's 7:30 a.m. on the first day of a long holiday. I figure if there is someone at the door, there must be a big problem. I contemplated whether or not to open it, when he killed the birds again. I unlocked the door and poked my sleepy head out. It turns out he has a drum over his shoulder. I then realised that I was standing face to face with the Ramazan Drummer. 

 

During Ramazan, those who are fasting wake up very very early to have breakfast before the call to prayer indicating sunrise. In order to have time to wake up, clean up, pray, prepare breakfast and then eat, they get up quite early, somewhere around 4 a.m. if I remember correctly. However, Turkey being the hospitable place that it is, they aren't going to just assume that you have an alarm clock to wake you up. There's a guy that comes around with a dream, beating on it in the echoey-hallways of your apartment building EVERY SINGLE MORNING of Ramazan at 4 a.m. He doesn't do a halfway job either. He bangs loud enough to make sure that everyone in every flat of every building on his beat is awake. Thank you very much. People who are not fasting are not figured into the calculations here. Therefore, for a month, every day at 4 I was awakened by the Ramazan Drummer. Of course by the time I finally drifted off to sleep after his wake-up call, there was the call to prayer, which, during Ramazan was exceptionally loud, long and hearty.

 

So there, on my doorstep, after I've had 3 hours sleep, is the Ramazan Drummer, waking me up on the first morning that I don't have to be awakened by the Ramazan Drummer. Apparently, it's another Turkish tradition to pay the drummer on the first day of Bayram, in apreciation for his selfless service. Needless to say, I did not give him what I thought he actually deserved. I mumbled incoherently at him and closed the door and tried to go back to bed.

 

I drifted off to sleep, then the dying birds again. I ignored them. Whoever it was was pretty insistent, and after a few more rings of the doorbell I dragged myself out of bed again, secretly wishing I slept as deeply as my flatmate, dead to the world in her room, or her visiting friend, Daniela, our houseguest, also dead to the world. There at the door were 3 little Turkish girls wishing me a happy bayram! OOPS! No candy to give away. I explained to them in stilted early morning Turkish that I didn't know about the candy thing and we didn't have anything to give them. Hoping against hope that they didn't have the tradition of throwing rotten eggs at the neighbours who don't have candy.... Luckily they don't. Over the next 4 hours, the doorbell rang about 50 or so times. When I didn't answer, the kids banged their tiny little fists against the door until someone came. For the first 3 hours, no one else was awake. After that, we got Daniela to go to the door and tell them in English. All the kids in the neighbourhood know that Rebecca and I speak Turkish so having te unfamiliar houseguest babbling to them in English was the only thing that worked. Eventually the dying birds and banging tapered off....

 

Next Bayram I will be prepared with my candy!

 

Oh yeah, and when i caught the bus on Friday, the driver wouldn't let me pay. I asked why and he said that public transportation is free during Bayram. I wish I had known earlier. I would have gone all over Istanbul in the ferry and seabus, and metro and tram, and everything!!!

Gym Jam

(I started this entry about 2 weeks ago now, so just add 2 weeks to all time references in the first 2 paragraphs)

 

I joined a gym a week and a half ago when I came back from Sofia. There was a promotional special for Interlang staff, and I had been looking for one to join for the past month or so. It all worked out perfectly.
On Tuesday I was chatting with a couple of the trainers (the gym, like all Turkish businesses, is very service-oriented. You don't have to think about anything, the instructors are all there for you constantly. I don't even have to get off the treadmill when I run out of water, just press the button and the instructor comes over to you, you ask for water, instructor calls down to the cafe on the intercom, cafe guy shows up 10 seconds later, at your treadmill, with your bottle of cold water! It's great. But I digress.) So I'm chatting with the trainers, and somehow it comes up that I play the violin and guitar. One of them suggested that I bring one of them sometime and play for them. It just so happened that the next day was a Baha'i Holy Day and I would have my guitar because I was going to the gym before the Holy Day  celebration, so the next day I had it there. I wasn't going to say anything, thinking that the trainers were just making the suggestion for the sake of conversation, but when I was leaving, one of them saw me with the guitar and called me back to play something. I went into the office and played a song. Some of you may know that generally when I'm playing the guitar and singing, I close my eyes. This is not out of shyness or anything, it's just that I still have trouble focusing when playing and singing at the same time and with my eyes closed I can concentrate. So I'm almost at the end of the song, and I open my eyes, and there at the door of the office, are 4 trainers, a couple of cleaning staff, and about 6 of the other member who had been working out. When I started the song there were just the 2 instructors there! Anyway, I was quite embarassed, but they all loved it and asked for more. I played one more then packed up. It turned out that one of the other members who was there working out was a professional guitarist and singer. He works in a cafe just around the corner from the gym. His name is Ozgur. He suggested we jam together sometime, and the other members, and the instructors all were trying to be sure it was a time when they could all make it, as you can imagine, it was pandemonium, and all in Turkish! Anyway, we decided to get together at the gym cafe on the following Friday night at 10. Hence the title of this entry :Gym Jam.

On the Friday morning I went to the gym, and one of the trainers told em that there was another guitarist coming. I was really looking forward to it.

Friday after class I headed over to the gym with my flatmate and another English teacher. We went down to the cafe, and there were about 30 people there! I was shocked. There were 3 chairs set up for the "performers" and there it was. We all took turns playing songs, singing, improvising backup, improvising gitar parts, and I occasionally drummed out a rhythm on the body of my guitar when the chords got too far out of my league. We had a great time jamming, and the audience (which I defintely wasn't expecting) loved it! What I was really surprised about was that I really wasn't nervous. That was nice. Anyway, it's encouraged me to play the guitar more and sing more. Ozgur and I are talking about setting up another time to actually work on some stuff together. I'm really looking forward to it. I really miss sitting down with musicians and just playing music together. It'll be interesting being a part of that as a violinist, guitarist and singer now... it's so weird. People at the gym now refer to me as "the singer" (in Turkish of course)....

That was the Gym Jam! 
 

My Day Trip

Last you heard, I was on my way to a seemingly boring day in an interesting place. Here's the rest of it.
After I left the Internet cafe, I wandered around the city a bit. The plan was to visit the zoo, which seemed like an interesting place to see. One of the things I realised very quickly is that almost no one speaks English. Usually I'm not the kind of person to go to a country and not try to learn a few basic words and phrases first, but as you know, this trip was quite different. My mission was to find out how to use the public transportation to get to the zoo. One thing that I've realised is that the languages we speak are only a part of how we communicate. I got to put this to the test. The word "zoo", fortunately, seems to have made it into the lexus of many languages, so that was easy. Here was a typical conversation:
Me: (big friendly smile)
Sofian[that being someone from Sofia, not an actual name]:(smile back)
M: (still smiling) Do you speak English? (using that higher-than-normal pitched, friendly voice that we all seem to use when talking to strangers politely)
S: (shaking head) No (in this dialogue, italics mean it was in Bulgarian)
M: (undaunted and still smiling) Zoo? (pointing in many directions and shrugging shoulders using body language to ask the way)
S: (nodding vigorously and with a spark of understanding in eyes) Zoo! (then shaking head sadly) Very far!

At this point I must add some commentary. I didn't realise until then that there was obvious body language for "Very far". There is. It was extremely clear that that was what the person was saying although it was in Bulgarian. I dunno if it was the slump of the shoulders, the raising of the eyebrows, or the hand motioning in repeated air circles radiating away from the body in a clockwise direction, but it was all very obvious.

M: (mirroring sad look and spark of understanding) Ok. (then smiling) Thank you
S: (smiling) You're welcome.

I had this exact conversation with about 5 people before deciding that the zoo was too far to reach and I wouldn't be visiting it that day. Probably all for the better because I soon realised that the wather that seemed cold at 6 a.m. wasn't warming up. So I wandered around. I found a guy who sold maps of Sofia. He spoke about 4 words of English and was really excited about being able to practice them on me. Of course, they were interspersed with a liberal sprinkling of Bulgarian so it was puzzling at best. He invited me to sit with him at his newsstand and chat. I had nothing better to do, since the zoo thing was off the schedule. So we chatted for about 10 minutes about life the universe and everything, or at least I think we did... like I said, most of it was in Bulgarian. At the end of the conversation he told me that he had maps in  Swedish Russian and Greek, but none in English. I decided to try my luck elsewhere rather than paying for a map that I couldn't read. It was hard enough deciphering the street signs from cyrillic script. To then try to work it out on a swedish map was a little too much for me.

Eventually I found a map. It cost 2 leva (or what I called "Bulgarian things" in my head for the whole trip). Yes, I found out the name of the currency. It's exchange is about 1.25 to 1 for the New Turkish Lira (which is one to one million old Turkish Lira), and the New Turkish Lira is 1.65 to one Euro or 1.35 to one dollar.... So that means 1 Bulgarian Leva is worth....??? Exactly! I had no clue either. I called them Bulgarian things, changed 30 Euro at the border, and hoped it would be enough! Basically, when it came to food, I looked at the price and decided if it sounded like a decent amount of money to pay. A big slice of pizza for 1 Leva? Excellent! A sandwich for 5 Leva? I don't think so! See! No conversion required :o)

Soo I window shopped, and took in the sights of Sofia. At one point I bought some postcards (they were quite expensive - I wouldn't imagine paying more than 0.25 - 0.50 whatevers for a postcard, but these were about 0.75 Levas) in a 5 star hotel. I figured I needed to sit for a while, and I might as well be comfortable, and I wasn't buying a pen to write the postcards... So I went into this really nice hotel, asked the receptionist for a pen, bought the postcards in the gift shop, and sat in the lobby for an hour (writing postcards for 10 minutes, staring out the window for the other 50). It was nice. I then went on a search for the post office to buy stamps.

This post is too long. I'm posting.

...to be continued...

At the Internet Cafe in Sofia

At the Internet Cafe in Sofia
Originally uploaded by Krisia.

This is me :o)

Sofia

So, at 3 in the afternoon yesterday, I decided to take advantage of 3 days off and take a trip. I packed my backpack (realising later that I had forgotten essentials like toothbrush and underwear) and headed to Kadikoy. I found a bus to Sofia Bulgaria that was leaving at 8:30 p.m. When I called, they said there was no shuttle from Kadikoy to the main bus station, but when I turned up for my ticket, I asked again and they obliged. I went to Kadikoy to buy said forgotten items and got back to the bus station at 4:30, in time to get a little service bus that took me to some way out place, where I was put on a bus that had come from Ankara, and about an hour later, I was in Esenler, with 2 hours to spare.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a pretty spontaneous person. However, this time it was a new level of spontaneity. When I reached the border at around 11 p.m., I went to the currency exchange place. It was at that point that I realised that I didn't even know what currency they used in Bulgaria, and since everything was written in cyrrillic script, the signs were no help either. Anyway, I changed 50 Euros and got 96 Bulgarian Whatevers and got my passport stamped and got back on the bus. I also realised at about that point that I had no idea when the bus would arrive in Sofia. I knew that there were a number of stops in Bulgarian cities, and Sofia was the last one, being on the far side of the country, but that's about it. In fact all I really knew about Bulgaria was that Sofia is the capital and the word "Restaurant" looks like "PECTOPAHT" - this last piece of information I gleaned from the big signs above the places with chairs and tables that served food by the side of the road. For the next few hours, between naps, I looked at street signs and tried to become literate. By the time I reached Sofia at quarter to 6 in the morning, I was semi-literate. Started to figure out vowels and consonants, and which sound the same as English and which are different, and which ones are just strange to me... e.g the "L" sound is made by something that looks like the Greek Pi but with a backwards hook on the left leg. The regular Pi is a P, X sounds like the english letter H, the D sound is made by a weird-looking boxy letter with squggles at the bottom. The backwards N, similar to the one in Hebrew that is the generic vowel with the same range as the English phoneme schwa, makes the I sound. S,T,A and many others are the same.... Anyway the substitution game is kinda like doing a cryptogram puzzle. The trick is remembering the ones you're not sure of and checking them in words you can figure out.
So I arrived at the Sofia bus station at quarter to 6. I had a cup of coffee and a sandwich while working up the nerve to figure out where to go and what to do.I finally went downstairs  and asked directions on how to walk to the city centre. According to the woman it was a 10 minute walk. I know I walk slowly but... it was more like 40 minutes. The walk did me good though, after all those hours cooped up in the bus seat. So I got to the centre of Sofia and started looking for an internet cafe. I think it would probably be a good idea to take a look online and see what there is to do here.
There's something about walking through a city in the wee hours of the morning, just before sunrise. It's like seeing a beautiful woman in the morning before she puts on her makeup. I kind of got an idea of the potential the city had, and what it might look like in the full light of day, but there was something fresh and raw about it as well. Pretty cool.
So I found this place. After walking for about an hour and asking at a bunch of different places (with no helpful answers) I saw this sign, and was able to read the word "internet" despite the unfamiliar characters in it. It helps that the place is called [SITE] as well. Then I followed the signs down a narrow alley past a tattoo and piercing place, into an old building, up to the first floor and in a big steel door. What I found was a sweet old woman and her teenage son in this place with funky music, wooden floorboards, and multicoloured walls. It's obviously a 3-bedroom apartment that has been converted into a nice, airy internet cafe with flat screen monitors, cameras and the works. Very nice.
One of the reasons I wanted to live in Europe was that there is access to so many places. There are a lot of different cities and countries within a few hours' bus ride. So here I am, in Sofia, waiting for the world to wake up and join me here :)

Racing Garbage Cart Men

You may remember a few months ago I posted a blog about garbage cart men. I would put a link here, but that's too much work and I don't feel like it. Check the archives if you really want to read it. My friend Dustin, a fellow teacher, also blogged recently about the eskicis and recylcle-cis that wander around trawling the dumpsters for various items.
I alos mentioned that one group of men (dubbed "recycle-cis" by me and pronounced "recycle-jeez" in English) have dolly-like trolleys with huge canvas one-ton sugar bags that they fill with either cardboard, plastic, cans or glass by going therough the dumpsters. Istanbulites (is that the word? Istanbullians, Istanbullers....? Istanbullies!!!!)  don't have any individual recycling programme, where you put your garbage in separate bags. However, one cannot say that Istanbul doesn't recycle. Judging by the number of these guys one can see in any given neighbourhood on any given day, I would guess that Istanbul probably recycles more stuff than any city I've ever lived in. I'm pretty sure almost every piece of glass, plastic, metal and paper that can be recycled is enthusiastically collected by these guys. They all seem to know the schedule for garbage collection (if one actually exists) or maybe they set it! I guarantee that within minutes of the recycle-cis leaving your neighbourhood, the garbage truck will show up. They're magical!
Anyway, what really inspired me to write this blog was that the other night while walking home along Hasanpasha street, two recycle-cis ran past at lightning speed with theur trolleys in tow. It looked like some kind of old-fashioned night-time chariot race... It was so hilarious! But maybe you had to be there....

It's still Ramazan.

First Day of Ramazan

Today was the first day of Ramazan (known in many other places as Ramadan), the Muslim month of fasting. As you may know, Turkey is known for not being a Shi'ih Muslim country. The population here is is 98% Sunni Muslim, and the majority of them aren't really practicing. Among the many changes Ataturk made (including changing the script from Arabic to Latin in one fell swoop), the secularisation of the country was among the biggest. This means that Islam is the religion of the majority, yes, but it is not technically an Islamic country, in that there is a separation of religion and government.
After having spent 3 Ramadans in Israel (and 2 Pesachs as well), and having my favourite Arab-Muslim run felafel stands and hummus places closed for a month during ramadan, and not being able to buy bread, pasta and various other non-kosher-for-pesach products for a month, I got used to the idea of the various fasts not only being carried out by the adherents of the religion, but spilling out onto other people as well. It was kinda nice, I thought. I think most of my sympathy for the plight of fasting restaurant workers comes from the fact that in March, during the Baha'i Fast, while I was growing up, I was one of maybe 2 or 3 students in my school of 500 who were fasting at that time, and had to sit there in the lunch quadrangle at the lunch bench with all my friends and fellow students while they ate. I wasn't allowed to not be around the food. I guess it's not hard enough for a 15-year old to not be eating from sunrise to sundown - the added test of sitting there while one's friends try to tempt you into breaking the Fast by waving food in front of your face builds character, I guess.
Anyway, back to Istanbul. So because of the large Muslim population, in theory, the whole city is on the whole Ramazan thing. However, because so many of the people here are not practicing, in reality, all the restaurants are still open, everything is still available, people still smoke absolutely everywhere and it seems to be a lot of Ramazan lip-service... kind of an excuse to have a BIG dinner at sunset....
I met Sema to go to the hotel to check out the sound system and to make sure we would have everyhting we needed for the wedding on Saturday. After our hotel visit, we went for something to eat at a restaurant. The hotel was on a street that was barricaded off and closed to vehicular traffic and marked with a huge arch-shaped sign at the entrance with a name that translates loosely as "Istanbul Ramazan Village". On this street there are lots of shops and restaurants. At 6 p.m., about 50 minutes before sunset, we sat out on the sidewalk in Ramazan village and had a bowl of lentil soup. It seemed a bit weird to me.... but apparently it wasn't.
After that, I was feeling a little bit down about the whole Istanbul Ramazan situation - I mean, shouldn't people be at least trying to support the people who are fasting, and make life easier for them?
So I got on my bus at 6:30 and headed home, feeling a bit disappointed with the first day of Ramazan. While we sat in traffic with the regular irate Istanbul drivers, the call to prayer sounded. The ticket-collecting guy (a strange, redundant job, since right next to him sits the automatic ticket machine that takes your tickets for you - but that will be in another blog) got up and walked around with a package of dates offering one to everyone on the bus. Some took them, some politely declined, me included, because I'm not fasting. But it brought a smile to my face. As I looked around in the bumper to bumper traffic, I saw people in service buses (the private shuttles that take commuters to and from work all over Istanbul) being offered tea, fruit, and sometimes sandwiches. On other city buses, passengers were being offered a variety of things. It made me smile. There's Ramazan! The ticket guy got off the bus a few minutes later with his pack of cigarettes to go get his nicotine fix. The traffic was bad enough that he was able to smoke and walk alongside the bus without a problem, and a couple of other passengers joined him - others who had taken dates.
Anyway, there it was. The first day of Ramazan in Istanbul.

Teaching English

Wow. I just came from my last class with my elementary students. It is amazing how well they are doing! I am so proud of them. Something about teaching ESL makes all of us feel almost maternal towards our students. There's something even more special about teaching a group from beginner. They walked in 5 months ago not being able to express simple concepts in English. This afternoon I had them doing a conversation exercise and they were saying things like, "Murat's not here. He's gone to work." Dude!!!! So cool! Next week they have their final exam and in 2 weeks they will be pre-intermediate. Fortunately, I will continue teaching them through the next level. I know the day will come when I will no longer be teaching them. In fact after having them for 3 levels, the policy is that someone else has to teach them. It reminds me a lot of working in the greenhouse. You go out and collect all these cuttings of plants and they're there with no roots. You give them the stuff they need and then one day you look and they have roots! It's not like you gave them roots, they grew them on their own, but you helped them do it, and it's really cool to see them go out into the garden and grow there......

Google Earth Freak

I haven't blogged for months ... well weeks. A long time anyway. Part of the blame should be assumed by Google for putting out Google Earth. Between Wikipedia.com and earth.google.com (download Google Earth for free and have your world completely reshaped for you!) I find myself in a neverending quest for further knowledge about everything. During breaks, I come down to the teacher's room, and open google earth. I randomly pick a spot and start zooming. I found the pyramids the other day. I have marked almost every house I have ever lived in, I have gotten familiar with my environs here in Istanbul, and finally figured out why two streets that seem parallel always spit me out in the same place! Basically, Google Earth rocks. The coolest new thing I've seen is here http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/illuminated-continent.html It's a wonderful article about how they have linked google earth with national geographic articles about places in Africa. What drew me to it was the title "The Illuminated Continent" - something about that warms the cockles of my heart!

But that's not the only reason I haven't been blogging. The other reason is that I haven't felt like it. When I don't feel like it, I don't blog. It's not like the blog police are out there waiting for me. Istanbul is just amazing as it was almost 6 months ago when I arrived. Each week I am happier with my choice to come here, and each paycheck I'm a tad bit closer to my goal of debt-free by my next birthday. I have many reasons to be happy to be here.

Nesim Sisan is getting married in 2 weeks. She met a really nice Australian guy named Sohrab and they are getting married on October 8th. I'm really happy for them. About 5 or 6 months later Nesim will be moving to Australia.... I'm going to miss her. I'm working on a song with her cousin Sema and a Baha'i guitarist named Murat. Doing music stuff again reminds me of Insight and Haifa.... I really really miss that, and I'm looking forward to getting some equipment to be able to record and work together with McSkinney again...

I have a new flatmate. I don't know if I blogged her before. She's been here almost a month... Her name's Rebecca. If I had been given a form to fill in depicting my ideal flatmate, I think Rebecca's name would have been top of the list of results. She's from Oxford and she also recently became an English teacher .She came to Istanbul because she was here before and fell in love with it. She's sooooo easy to live with, and we get along really well. We have a lot of fun together, whether it's while lying on our couches in the living room watching CSI:Miami and laughing at the cheesy lines, or hanging out in Kadikoy watching Istanbul go by. We're similar enough to understand each other, while different enough to not be irritating, and we're both pretty independent and outspoken so there's really no problems. It's great.

My classes are going great. My weekend class which I started with from Beginner way back in May is about to do their final exam in Elementary and then they will go on to Pre-Intermediate. A couple of them have left the class because of other time commitments, but most of them are still together and there are a few newbies. We have a wonderful time together, often going out for dinner after class as well. They're advancing really well and I am so pleased when I hear them speaking together in English and explaining things and having real conversations, knowing that when they started a few months ago I had to teach them "Hello, my name is...." and the alphabet and the numbers. It's so cool! Rebecca and I were saying that it's classes like these that make you feel like a real teacher. Some of the classes you get have students with a really negative attitude, or who are there because their parents or their boss sent them. It's tough then... they don't want to talk, don't want to do homework, don't want to learn, and it sometimes spreads to the other students. Also when you have your own group from the beginning, they get used to your style of teaching and that's cool too. They know what to expect and the class runs really smoothly. Yesterday when I got to class, I was a bit hoarse from practicing the songs all weekend with Sema. My students were so concerned! They all really helped out and made sure I didn't have to talk much. It was so cool. Instead of me calling on students, they took over, and started this thing where after answering one question, they would call on another student to answer the next. It was not only nice that they did it, but that they did it out of concern for me using my voice and hurting my throat, and they organised themselves to do this in English! So cool!

Apparently students in all of my classes have commented on my teaching. The manager mentioned it in a meeting and I was really touched that they cared enough to mention to the manager that they liked me teaching them. It makes me want to do even better! I remember in CELTA, Ian, one of our tutors, told us that every teacher wants to be loved by his or her students, and that's so true. No matter what the people in the class are like, it's really cool when they tell you that you are a good teacher and that they want you for the next level.

Anyway, I'm going now. Google Earth calls!

Oh, and check out my mom's pics on Flickr!!!! They are amazing!

Modern Technology

I haven't blogged in a long time... I've had stuff to blog and no time
to blog it. There has been something that I've recently found that is
definitely blog-worthy. Have you seen Google Earth yet? Download it.
Run it. It will change how you view the world, literally! It's
basically a souped-up virtual globe... using satellite pictures of the
places all around the world. We downloaded it in the teachers' room
and now instead of us coming in to check e-mail, we come in to look at
google earth. We've all put little push pins in our houses. I found
both houses where I grew up in Bermuda, the house I stayed at in
Spain, my flat in Istanbul.... It's so cool! Unfortunately Barbados is
at a very low resolution so I can't find my parents. Yesterday I took
a look at the pyramids and the sphynx. We checked out some rooftops in
Tokyo... Oh it's crazy!!!! I got a new flatmate. So that she knows
where she is and can find places, I'm printing a google earth map for
her showing the area where we live, the school where we work, etc.
It's so much better than a regular map because each building is there,
everything is so perfect!!!

The other thing that is pretty blog-worthy, but it's been around much
longer, is Wikipedia. It's so cool! As Josh put it, "I go online and
spend like AN HOUR just reading the ENCYCLOPEDIA! And when there's not
much information on something, it makes me want to go and find out
more so I can post it! I'm READING an ENCYCLOPEDIA!"
I think that's pretty cool, moern technology that makes people want to
read the encyclopedia, and not feel like a freak for doing so.

www.wikipedia.org
http://earth.google.com

I used to have a map of the world shower curtain. I used to read the
encyclopedia. If I had grown up 25 years later, this stuff would have
been cool!

Breeze-a-Phobia

It's midsummer and the temperature is in the 30s every day. As many of
you know, I hate the heat. I hated it during the summer months when I
lived in Bermuda and submerged myself in the Atlantic ocean as often
as possible to excape it. I hated it when I was living in the
Caribbean and it was all year round, either a dry, dusty, fly-ridden
heat, or a wet, muggy, mosquito-laden heat - but heat, every day of
every month. In Israel I convinced myself that it was all worth it
because I was in the proximity of the holiest places on earth, but the
heat there for much of the year was unbearable as well. I managed to
survive by dousing myself with cold water every 15 minutes or so while
I was at work in the greenhouse, and the rest of the time trying to be
in as many air-conditioned places as possible. Now I'm in Istanbul.
Fortunately, all the classrooms and the offices and the teachers' room
are air-conditioned. Unfortunately, the air-conditioner in the
teachers' room has given up and blows smelly lukewarm air (from
lord-knows-where) around the room. The school is in the middle of the
city, so it's not like there's a lot of open space and breeze. The
windows that do open, open out over the noisy street, or into a weird
closed shaft between our building and the next (the bathroom windows
also open out into that shaft, and the air-conditioners vent their hot
air into it making it not such a good idea to open those windows).
It's not really a problem though, beacause I go into the classroom
with my handy remote control, and set it up to cool me down. Then the
students arrive. Invariably, someone will walk into the room and make
a signal as though they have arrived at the north pole in February
wearing a bikini. In my quest to be an effective English teacher, I
don't accept the little charades as acceptable communication and make
them express their thoughts in English. Responses range from "Here
very cold" to "Can you turn off the air conditioner please" and
everything in between. At first, as an inexperienced teacher, trying
to please my students, I used to capitulate and let one of them be the
air-conditioner remote controller. In one class it got ridiculous,
when the person with the remote would turn it on, someone would
complain, they would turn it off, someone else would complain, or I
would start sweating, and they'd turn it back on... this continued at
a frequency of about 7 or 8 times an hour. And the air conditioner
makes a beeping sound whenever you press the remote. That system
lasted a day.
Anyway, at some point I realised that the problem isn't just the a/c.
Turks don't like anything blowing. It's as if moving air is something
to be avoided at all costs. Hence, the same problem occurs in a
crowded minibus. You sit down and a million people crowd in, and the 2
windows that can open on the whole bus are only opened to about 2
inches. If we go onto the highway, they are closed completely. It's
crazy! Taxi drivers also express their displeasure when I open the
window, but in that case I can just pretend I don't understand....
So it's hot. I'm hot. Luckily my flat is cool and breezy. I can't
invite my students over on a hot day though, they'll probably go
around closing the windows and saying that they will get sick. Dude,
what would they do if they knew that I sleep with a fan on me on high!
When it gets really unbearable, I dampen a sarong and wring it out,
then drape it over me. Breeze and water - enough to kill a Turk!

it's been a while!

I'm here having a ten minute break. For each hour of class that we
have, we actually teach for only 50 minutes then have a ten minute
break. So a 3- or 4-hour class that starts on the hour actually
finishes at 10 to. Somehow, by some freak of scheduling, I am now
teaching 3 Pre-Intermediate classes, and one elementary, plus an
intermediate private student. 2 of the pre-int classes are at about
the same polace in the book. At first I thought it would make my life
easier, plan once, teach twice.... however, with my sucky memory I
seem to be forgetting whom I've taught what to. Hehehe I said whom. I
like saying whom. I don't use it with my students though, the pre-ints
and elementaries don't know about that yet. too much at once and they
could self-destruct!

But anyway, I feel like I've always been here. There is no longer
anything unfamiliar about the place. My flat is homey - I'm living
alone right now which is really nice. My neighbours are friendly, the
men in the shops at the corner know me. The mussel-man in the street
said I can pay anytime I want. I haven't taken advantage of his easy
credit system yet, but it's nice to know it's there. I don't have to
keep loose change for mussels if I don't want to. my students are (for
the most part) really sweet and nice, and most of them are good
students as well. The weather is getting hot, but my flat is cool and
breezy all the time. Something to do with the oasis outside the window
I guess, and the uninterrupted plain beyond it. At school the
classrooms are air-conditioned and I've managed to find the exact
setting that pre-empts the shivering motions and requests to turn off
the a.c., while still keeping me cool and collected. Incidentally,
most people don't seem to understand the concept of a thermostat. I
used to have the setting at 23 degrees celsius, that's a good 3
degrees above comfortable room temperature. After a few minutes,
everyone would complain that it was too cold. Geesh. I realise that at
24, it cuts off at just the moment they are about to complain that
it's too cold (in fact, sometimes they try, but by the time I make
them ask me to turn it off politely in proper English, it cuts out :o)
and at the moment when a bead of sweat is forming on my forehead (and
theirs) it cuts in. Turks are breeze-a-phobics. I'll explain this
later.

Midye Dolmasi

I know I've mentioned before that I like Turkish food. There is one thing that I like more than anything else. This food is the cause of much discussion among locals and foreigners alike.

Midye Dolması

Midye - mussels
dolma - stuffed

So I don't know exactly how they do it, but the end result is what looks like a closed mussel. In fact the meat inside has been cooked with spicy seasoned rice. I think they use red hot pepper and cinnamon. There's not a lot of pepper, you can still taste all of the flavours. So when you buy midye dolma, the vendor guy opens the shell, and uses one half of the shell to scrape any rice and mussel that may be stuck to the other side, and squeezes lemon over it. So what you get is a half shell containing a mouthful of rice and seafood. If you think it sounds delicious, you're right! What's more, the price is great. Usually they have a tray with 2 or 3 different sizes for different prices. I've seen the smallest for 200 000 turkish lira (which is 0.20 New Turkish Lira), which is somewhere near15 cents US. There are also some for 250 000, 300 000 and sometimes 400 000 and 500 000 (about 40 cents in US money).The price is right and it's a delicious meal! So what's the fuss about? Well, this isn't something you buy in a restaurant. It's readily available everywhere and it's street food. The guys who sell it appear out of nowhere with a tray. They set up shop, open the midye, serve it to you and collect your money and you eat while standing on the sidewalk with traffic going by. There's a lot of them too. Apparently, in one guide book, they have been referred to as "gastroenteritis time bombs" (although, I'm inclined to believe that might be the Fodor's Guide (a.k.a. the Fogies' Guide, which also tells you where the best bingo halls in any given city are!). So, you may wonder, why I venture to eat street food that could possibly cause gastric upset... well the thing is, I was first introduced to midye dolma by my friend Tolga, back in 1991 when we were at the summer house. We used to spend the day on the beach, and a guy would come by in the afternoon selling midye dolma out of the back of the truck. Everyone and their parents and sister would come running out to buy them and eat their fill. There was never any mention of gastro or any other disease. In fact, the midye dolma truck was more popular than the ice cream truck among the kids! It's one of those flavours you remember forever. for a month I ate large quantities of this stuff daily and never got sick. Neither did anyone I know. In fact I've never known anyone to get sick eating it. So when I came back here and saw them, dude! Dig in! I was here last year with Lyndsay and Aida and Veronica and we had some in Taksim. They all loved it too - oh yeah, there's also deep fried midye, but that's greasy and fattening.
The other teachers who have tried midye dolma are all as addicted to it as I am. we all agree that the flavour and enjoyment one gets from eating them far outweighs the hypothetical risk of gastroenteritis. They're that good. Those who haven't tried it, however, are adamant that the thought of eating them is absolutely disgusting and that they will never in a million years try one.
So that makes me wonder - how do people actually try them? I found out the other night. Josh insisted that he would never try it. He and Mark and I were walking home one night, and we passed my midye guy (yeah, I have a guy I buy from frequently). I was like "who's having one with me?" Josh was about to say yes, but Mark talked him out of it.... It's only a matter of time now! Ha!
The locals have a different problem. Apparently, Muslims don't eat the meat of mensturating female animals. Apparently, according to them, female mussels menstruate. Because one can't tell the difference between a female mussel and a male mussel, there is a chance that the one you eat may have been a menstruating female before being cooked to death, and so people with stronger religious inclinations (not a large portion of the population) don't eat them. I find the idea of a female mussel having a period absolutely fascinating and a bit off the wall. I'm going to check it out now... maybe after I have some midye dolma....

Every now and then...

I haven't blogged for a while. Sometimes it comes down to either living life or blogging it, and recently it's been more about living than blogging. That said, it's also nice to sit down and type a bit now and then as well, otherwise the days fly by and all meld into one. There are so many times when I'm doing something and I think "I should blog that" and all I remember when I'm sitting here in front of the computer is that I've said "I should blog that" about 15 times in the past 2 weeks. Oh well!
The biggest thing and the thing that is occupying all my mental space right now is the fact that Violetta's coming to visit on Sunday. She came to Spain in February at a time when we were both at a bad point for the visit, and although it was nice having her there, it was hard because she was sick most of the time. It didn't help that she couldn't stay with me and I was packing and getting ready for the course in Barcelona, and I lost my wallet and my cellphone and the weather was awful.... Anyway, she arrives on Sunday afternoon and she will be staying at my flat. She will be my second houseguest (Chris Mazloomi got fisrst dibs on his last night in Istanbul). It's so nice to be living somewhere where I don't have to ask permission for houseguests, I have extra keys, everything is mine (well, kinda mine). We're going to Edirne on Monday, and in my free time next week, I'm taking her to my favourite places in Istanbul. While I'm working, she'll be able to visit my non-favourite places that she wants to see. I'm guessing she'll want to see Topkapi Palace and some other historical places. Maybe a museum or two. I'd like to go with her to the Whirling Dervish museum, but I have to find out when they do the actual whirling....
Other things in my life - teaching. I have really settled into it. I'm happy teaching. It has its strange days, like last Thursday when my Pre-Intermediate morning class spent the whole last hour looking at me with blank stares. And then there are the times when people just say things, and they're hilarious! I'm getting used to the different textbooks, personalising the activities, doing different review games, etc. It's really interesting. My flatmate Lydia is gone. I'm expecting a new flatmate at pretty much any moment. That'll be interesting.
One of the things that's really tough on me is that with my schedule, I work almost every night. It means that I don't have the opportunity to take part in any study circles. There is one that I was invited to on Wednesday nights, which was perfect because I had Mondays and Wednesdays off, but now that Lydia's gone, our schedules changed, and I'm working 6-day weeks and they took my Wednesday nights.... Ugh! It's only temporary but still disappointing. Lucky for me, activity starts pretty late at night in the Baha'i community. In order to make sure people show up for feast, they have dinner first. That means that I can usually get there after teaching.
I know I've said this before, but I'm really happy here. I like Turkey much more than Spain. All my Spanish friends will hate me for that comment but it's true. I think I'm better suited to it. I'd love for my family to come visit me, and more friends to come, but that will come as people get used to the fact that I'm here.
My neighbours are fun. There are lots and lots of kids in the neighbourhood, and those who speak any English at all like to try it out on me as I walk to and from home or one of the 2 corner stores. Now it's become commonplace for me to hear a little voice calling out "Kris abla!" and a tiny hand waving from a window or balcony or sidewalk as I walk by. Abla means older sister so that's cool. I feel at home.

Friday Night - Cuma Akşam

I went to dinner with Josh and some of his Elementary students on Friday night. I promised them I would post the pictures here, so here they are! Click on this pic and you can see the rest of them on Flickr.



Resimler burda! Resime tıkla ötekileri görebilirsin.

Rubbish Cart Men

I just asked the people in the teachers' room "What's interesting
about being in Turkey?" First answer was the rubbish cart men. What
are the rubbish cart men? These are random guys, who walk around the
city going through the dumpsters and collecting stuff. I know, most
cities have the equivalent, but here it's a bit different. Upon
further discussion, we've determined that there are actually two
types. There's the old junk man, who collects literally anything -
pieces of wood, wire, metal, old light switches, and other random
stuff. His cart is more like a table with big wheels, and it appears
that all his stuff is for resale. He also walks down the street
shouting "ESKIJI!", somehow managing to make that word into 6 or 7
syllables. I guess at that point people would go outside with their
old stuff and give (sell?) it to him. Eskici (pronounced es-kee-jee)
means "old-stuff man" literally. In Turkish you add ci (jee) to the
end of stuff to mean "the person who sells/makes", So "dondurma" is
ice cream, and you go to a dondurmaci to buy it. Ekmek is bread and
the ekmekci sells it. Those of us here who speak English, quickly
adopt this convention and we start talking about people like the
juice-ci who sells fresh squeezed orange juice, and the telephone-ci
who will help you with a sim card for your cellphone....
Anyway the other rubbish cart men are the ones who go through the
dumpsters removing recyclables. Ok, so in most places you sort the
trash BEFORE you put it in the dumpster. Here there are guys with huge
bags, like the kind they use at sugar factories that hold a metric ton
of sugar (which we used in Israel for the equvalent amount of potting
mix), somehow attached to a dolly so it can be pushed around. I think
there are different categories, one guy who collects cardboard,
another plastic bottles, another glass. They are all over the place. I
think if the separate dumpsters concept were introduced here, a lot of
recycle-cis would be out of work!

The grainiest photo ever.

At the end of the beginner course, one of the students took some pics.
I was surprised to see a camera that had film! It's been a while. Even
more startling was that it needed to be wound after each pic. When was
the last time I have seen one of those!!! Geesh. The result, the
grainiest photo ever! I won't bother to name the people, you can't see
them anyway. I'm the black one! ;o)

Changing Schedule

My schedule changed this week. One of the teachers had a death in the
family and had to return to the US. Two new teachers joined us,
another put in her notice. Sum total of all this change is that my
schedule is completely different. OK, not completely. Fortunately, I
still have my weekend afternoon Elementary class, my favourites. Did I
mention that they all passed their end of beginner exam with flying
colours? Only 2 students (of 13 who took the exam) got under 85%, and
the majority got over 95%. Impressive? I think so. I was so proud of
them!!!

So now, I still have Mondays and Wednesdays off. Tuesdays I teach for
only 2 hours! That means that in 3 days, I only teach a total of 2
hours. I like that! I'm considering Tuesday as my planning day, so I
can plan my classes for the week and get ready. Because I teach so few
hours in 3 days, it means that all the other 25 or so hours are
condensed into 4 days. Pretty hectic. But cool. I have 2 company
classes now. So I take a minibus to the company and teach them. They
are both in a place called Umraniye, about 30 minutes away from the
school. One company is a communications network company. They have a
couple of months a year when they don't work (although I don't know
why this is) and instead they do English classes every morning. I'm
sharing this class with another teacher, Eda. I had them for the first
time today, and they seem really nice. Since the job is paying for the
class, and they have nothing else to do during that time, their
attendance is really good, and they really work hard. That's nice to
deal with. The other company does something else, I'm not sure what, I
believe it's something to do with medical equipment. Maybe as a
speaking exercise I can get them to tell me what the company does!
They are also really nice and Intermediate students. So that's cool
because I can plan once, and since one company is a couple of weeks
behind the other in the material, I can use the same lesson plan for
the other in a couple of weeks. I also have an Intermediate private
student on weekend mornings. I will meet her on Saturday for the first
time.

The other class I have is a PreIntermediate class on Friday evenings.
I taught them their first 2 classes, while my flatmate, Lydia, was out
sick. Apparently, one of the students (rather tactlessly) suggested to
Lydia that she teach my class (at the time I had 2 private advanced
students) and I teach hers. Oops. I think they like me a lot. Lydia
was kind of upset about that for a while, and it didn't help to find
out that she would be teaching them Mondays and Wednesdays and I have
them on Fridays!

On the home front things are going well. Lydia and I have settled into
our new flat. I'm getting to know the neighbourhood. There is a small
group of boys who play in the street every day. They like talking to
me and have started calling me "abla" which means big sister. One
asked me yesterday what my name is and I told him Kris, so now when I
leave home they all say "Hello Kris Abla! How are you?" In Turkish of
course! It's so cute. They're between about 7 and 10 years old. The
man in the shop on the corner is also very friendly, as are the
neighbours. I make sure and say hello to everyone. There is one old
lady who gets on my nerves though, every time she sees me, she calls
to the kids in the next lane to come and look at me. As if I don't get
stared at enough already! geesh! She means well though, and told me
the other day that I was very cute and had a nice smile - maybe
because I was purposely not smiling at the time? hmmm.

I've been exploring the neighbourhood. We live on a small road
parallel to the main road. There are about 4 apartment buildings on
each side of the street, and thw two roads at each end intersect ours
perpendicularly, forming and H shape, with our street being the short
cross line. At each end of the street we have a small grocery store,
and since we are just about in the middle, they are both about 25
seconds' walk away. Very convenient! At the top of the road on the
left, there is a university, high school and primary school. Because
of the university, there are also a lot of cafes and restaurants. But
to get there, it's a short walk up a very steep hill. At the bottom of
said hill there is a mosque. From the living room balcony there's a
great view of its only minaret. Luckily the volume on the loudspeaker
system is not overly loud, like many I've heard, so the call to prayer
is more pleasant than disruptive. However, I've noticed that all the
dogs in the neighbourhood howl during the prayers. It's kind of like
they are singing along. Kind of funny in a very irreverent way! It
freaks Lydia out a bit....

The weather is warming up. I've never been one who is anxious for
summer to come, though so this isn't huge news for me. I wish it could
stay like it is now, about 24 or so during the day, dropping to the
mid to upper teens at night. Is there anywhere that is like that all
year round? Nothing compares to Hamsin in Haifa though! Dude! I don't
miss that at all!

We've Moved!!!

I think I have mentioned at some point that we were moved from the As
Hotel about a month ago to a tiny little flat 10 minutes' walk from
school. Since that fateful day, Lydia and I have been dreading the end
of the teaching day when we had to return to the flat. It was tiny,
and I really mean miniscule. The kitchen could not fir 2 people at the
same time - not like small kitchens where if there are 2 people in
them they are constantly bumping into each other and trying to get
past one another. This is a different category of small. There was not
enough floor space in the kitchen for 2 people to stand in it at the
same time!!! The refrigerator was out on the balcony. Someone trying
to cook in the miniscule kitchen would have to walk past the oversized
dining table (as in, if you put the chairs at the table, you couldn't
walk by), through the cluttered living area (a couch, a love seat, 2
armchairs in a 3 square metre area) open the balcony door (the word
"balcony" being used here because I don't know if there is a word for
the 1 by 2 metre space enclosed on 2 sides by windows overlooking the
neighbours' balconies), go out onto the balcony (because the
refrigerator door opened towards the living room and so you had to go
out onto the balcony itself to open it) and get their stuff from the
fridge. This wasn't a long walk, as the apartment was tiny, however,
the various obstructions of the furniturial kind made it quite a feat.
The kitchen and the layout of the flat were paltry problems when
compared to the bedroom situation. As you may know, I was sharing the
flat with another teacher, Lydia, a delightful Irish lass. We get
along well, which is a very good thing, since our "bedrooms" were
separated by a window that runs the length of the room. The window had
3 ill-fitting glass panels, the middle one supposedly sliding on a
poorly-designed wooden track if you wanted it open. The result was
that because of the poor alignment of the glass and the badly warped
wood, the glass pieces didn't actually touch each other, except to
rattle annoyingly whenever anyone in the building opened or closed a
door, and more so whenever a door in the flat was opened or closed.
The window was high off the floor, and we're both about 5'3" so
fortunately we couldn't see into one another's rooms, but volume-wise
it was as if we were sharing a room.
Why did my bedroom have a window to the next bedroom? What was the
reason for this bizarre design? Ventilation. That window was the only
window in my room. There was no light from anywhere else. If you
managed to slide open the window without cutting your hand on the
glass, there was a one square foot space through which air could enter
the room. Not fresh air from outside. Not a breeze. But if you waved
the bedroom door in and out, you could get the air in the room moving.
That window was also the only source of natural light. My room was a
windowless, airless box.
The other bedroom was not designed as a bedroom. It was a sort of
sunroom. In fact it was so not a bedroom that it didn't have a bed. An
uncomfortable folding couch, yes, bed no. It also had no place to
unpack and store anything. When we arrived, it was a small sitting
room, with the couch, an armchair from the living room, 2 dining room
chairs, a round living room table, a set of 3 small square tables, and
a huge display cabinet filled with dishes. If this sounds like a lot
of furniture for one small room, it is. We moved out the chairs,
squeezing the armchair into the already crowded living area, stacking
the dining chairs out on the balcony next to the fridge, moving the
round table (along with the other 2 that were in the other bedroom
making it impossible to move) to a storage area above the bedroom
window, and putting the small tables to use elsewhere in the flat. It
was insane. What was left was a sofa bed, and the cabinet with plates
and stuff in it. The room had a lot of light (as opposed to the box
next door), but nowhere to put anything. No clothes could be unpacked
or hung up. Basically, the person in that room had to live out of a
suitcase.
I'm not going to describe the bathroom. The apartment was a hellish
experience and to go talk about the worst part of it would just take
me back there. It was bad.
So anyway, sometime last month not long after moving in, after
explaining to the manager that our accomodation was unsuitable and a
long, involved discussion about what exactly qualified as suitable,
and also a few thoughts on what I thought about the fact that he put
us in this place, we were told that we would be moving out and that
they would use that flat for a couple.
The couple just moved in yesterday, and we moved out. The apartment
we've been moved to is WAY better. It's definitely up to standard and
is about what I expected when we first moved. Comfortable, airy,
bright, spacious - it's great! There's also 2 sofa beds for guests!
The sofa beds are double beds. So all you potential houseguests, Lydia
and I have agreed that houseguests are a good thing :o) Let me know
when you're coming!
We also have a balcony that overlooks a garden. It looks like all the
people on the ground floor of the buildings in the vicinity have
access to backyard space that they've used to grow flowers and things.
In addition, there seems to be an empty plot that someone is using to
grow vegetables and things. The flat is on a bit of a rise and we are
on the top floor, so we have a view over the neighbours' buildings to
distant areas and in the distance we can see mountains! There's a
mosque at the bottom of the street, a really cheap grocery store at
the end of the road, and a bus stop about a minute from the house.
It's a 25-minute walk to school (or a 7-minute bus ride or a $2.50
taxi ride if we're really late).
It's very nice.
We're happy :o)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way Home From the Baklavaci...

Many nights I finish work late. Classes finish at 10 p.m. and then I
walk home. Of course, in Spain, 10 p.m. wasn't late, but Istanbul is
kinda normal in that respect. My way home is very safe, well-populated
and well-lit, so don't worry mom! About 75% of the walk is through a
pedestrian street with lots of shops and restaurants at closing time.
Along the same street is a baklavaci, a dessert shop (And again mom,
don't worry, I'm not pigging out on baklava either). This place also
sells "chee kofte" which is a Turkish specialty that a lot of
unsuspecting foreigners have tried (and enjoyed) before finding out
that it is actually raw meat ground finely and heavily seasoned, then
shaped by hand into little lumpy things roughly the size of a large
meatball but then squeezed in the hand so that it is elongated and has
the imprints of the fingers in it... kinda bizarre. More bizarre is
the fact that it is often sold in the same place as desserts and
sweets... raw meat and baklava please!
So anyway, the baklava place is one of the few places in the street
that is not closing up when I pass at about 10:20. As a result, the
guys who work there are usually hanging out watching people go by, me
included. So over the past few weeks they've invited me in a few times
for tea and chat. This is not out of the ordinary, in fact it's a
normal turkish thing.
Last night I was walking by and decided to get some tulumba for my
flatmate and I. I was in the shop chatting with the guy, and he was
asking about what I do. He is kinda new so didn't know all the
details. So I told him I'm an English teacher and he asked me if I
know Ryan. There's no Ryan at Interlang so I asked him where Ryan
teachers. He points out the window in the direction of an English
school that was about a block away. As he points and I look, a guy
walks past the window. The baklava guy says "Hey! Ryan!" and invites
him in. Coincidentally, the very second that baklava guy was asking me
if i know this guy (whom I didn't know), the very same guy walked by
the shop! Baklava guy bustles us in, hands us little pieces of
complimentary baklava, bustles us to one of the 2 tables in the place
(it's tiny) and sits us down to chat with each other while he went to
serve customers that had just come in. It was hilarious! We were like
"I guess we're supposed to meet and make conversation now!" Ryan from
Toronto, and his friend Dallas, who is visiting from Montreal were
really nice. Dallas went to McGill - how cool is that :o) She's
thinking of coming here in September to teach.
As it turns out, Ryan and I live about 5 or 6 buildings away from each
other! We exchanged phone numbers and plan to keep in touch.
What's really funny, is that I just told Josh and Kris this story in
the staff room and when I said that the baklava guy asked if I know
Ryan, Kris said, I know Ryan. It turns out him and Dallas have visited
Kris's flat, because Ryan's a good friend of Kris's flatmate.
Geesh. Small world!

Being Different

Istanbul is different. It's different from any place I've ever been in
and everyone else who I've spoken to about it agrees. Turkey was a
place very similar in culture and customs to most of the Middle East.
Then Mustafa Kemal Ataturk came along and changed everything. The
script, the laws, the way people dress, the way women are treated....
Everything. A top-down revolution. So what does that mean? Probably a
lot of stuff, and people much more capable than me have probably
analysed it to death. But the things that I've noticed have a lot to
do with this, I think. Turkey's uniqueness stems from the fact that
the culture is based in Islam(Sunni though, not Shi'ih), but the
country is technically secular. Ataturk changed the script from the
Arabic script to the Roman script (thus making it easy for foreigners
to come here and be able to read things like street signs and stuff).
If I understand correctly, the women's dress normally associated with
arab cultures was banned. So women were not allowed to wear the full
head to toe covering gear. Although, you still see them occasionally
(when I was here as an exchange student, we irreverently referred to
them as "Ninja women" and considered it good luck to see one). Women
who feel particularly religious wear colourful scarves on their heads
and long skirts.
Where am I going with this train of thought? I dunno.
Istanbul was described by one of my students as "very cosmopolitan
because it has people from all parts of Turkey". Hmmmmm... This is
what is considered diversity here, that explains a lot. 15 years ago I
quickly got used to people staring at me constantly everywhere I went.
Most people had never seen a black person except on t.v. I was here
again visiting last year and the year before and people stared, they
had seen black people in real life, but it was still a rare event.
Some of the other teachers have a big problem with being stared at by
Turks (who don't necessarily consider it impolite), but they all agree
that the staring that they get because of their blond hair or fair
skin (or one teacher who is Indian, who gets stared at because of her
dark skin) is nothing compared to what I get as a black person walking
around here with dark brown skin and crazy hair.
However, as I noticed 15 years ago and still notice today, the staring
and the comments that I get do not feel like a negative racist thing.
It is pure curiosity. I don't feel like when I walk into a store
people are staring at me because they think I will pick up something
and run out of the store with it. Very often, the stares are
accompanied by smiles. People encourage their children and little
toddlers to look at me, and I smile back at them and most of the time
the parents are more excited than the kids! I decided a long time ago
that if this is going to be people's only exposure to a black person,
then I had better make it a pleasant experience! My flatmate Lydia
thinks that it's a crazy idea. She hates being looked at, and with her
fair Irish skin, dark hair and blue eyes, people tell her that she
looks a lot like someone from the Black Sea region. People generally
don't pay her too much attention here, but the few that do really irk
her. She was amazed at how many people look at me as I walk down the
street, and for fun, she sometimes walks a few paces behind to
observe. It's really funny, I wish I could see things from that
perspective, the way people walk by and pretend not to look, then pass
me and stop to turn around and stare. She said people sometimes trip
and bump into other people as well.
The other thing that I noticed is that people think I'm beautiful.
This never happens anywhere else. I remember last year when I was here
with Lyndsay and Aida and Veronica, they were saying that Turkey does
wonders for your self esteem, because people, men and women, young and
old, are constantly telling you how beautiful they think you are. It's
true, they do. I realise that their exposure is really limited. They
see Turks constantly. Anyone who looks even a little different is
exotic and beautiful. It's very flattering and you have to not let it
go to your head :o)
It's a nice place to be though, when "different" is a good thing!

Ishikawas in Istanbul (and other things)

On Monday night I had a call from Shingo, he was here with his wife
Amelia, and their 5-month old foetus for a visit. Lucky for me, I had
the day off on Wednesday, so I arranged to meet them and go to the
Grand Bazaar.

We met, wandered and a good time was had by all. Bargaining,
sightseeing, and just being tourists. Thanks to Shingo we found a nice
little tea garden, a nice respite amidst the noise and bustle of the
bazaar, and with the tea being only 35 YTK, which is the equivalent of
about $0.25, it was all good!

We then met up with Suzan and her husband, whose name evades me right
now, although when I think it might be Gokhan, it feels kinda right.
We had dinner at Hala, the favoured restaurant when I was in Turkey on
my 2 trips from Haifa. Well, not really dinner, Shingo and I had
appetizers. Then we went to chicheck pasaji. The Turkish spelling of
that would kill my blog if I try to type it here, but that's the
pronounciation. It's known for the seafood restaurants that vie for
your presence as you walk along. I've only eaten there once, about 15
years ago, however, at the entrance there's a place where you can get
deep fried mussels on a stick for 1 YTL which is something like 60
cents in euros, and stuffed mussels, for about a third of that price.
When I took Vero, Lyndsay and Aida there last year, we stood there and
had dinner and it came to like $2.50 each, and we were stuffed with
mussels ourselves! On Wednesday night I had my fair share. Shingo will
probably have the pics. Here's one of the 2 pregnant couples!

I seem to be one of the few non-Turks who eat the stuffed mussels in
the street. Okay, so the idea of having seafood being sold by a street
vendor is sketchy at best, and scary at worst, but I realise now that
when I was here as an exchange student, I was led around by the
locals, and did the things the locals do. Turks walk up to street
vendors and buy mussels, prepared with seasoned rice and stuffed back
into the shell. They squeeze some lemon on it and there you are. It's
absolutely delicious and a great snack. Eat enough and you can call it
dinner... really cheap. I didn't think twice about it when I was with
my host family or my school friends and we all stopped and ate them. I
never got sick then, and I probably won't get sick now. In case I do
though, I've found out the name of the active ingredient in Immodium
(that story is for another blog), and my flatmate has a supply, so I'm
good to go!

Despite my love for Turkish food, and my recent reintroduction to all
my favourites, I've lost some weight since I've been here. I've been
sticking to the Spanish meal schedule (also popular in Barbados, but
all meals about 4 hours earlier!). It works perfectly with my teaching
schedule, and it's much cheaper. Light breakfast, lunch main meal,
light late dinner. S'all good

I haven't shared the story of The Flat yet. It's still a continuing
saga and I don't really want to get into it until it's resolved. But
in a nutshell, the flat that Lydia and I were moved to is absolutely
tiny, has no privacy, and has a choice of rooms that are very loosely
termed bedrooms. One is a bedroom with a wardrobe and double bed and
nothing else, no room for anything else. No windows either, except a
sliding window to the other room which is actually a sunroom. Plenty
of windows, no bed except a very uncomfortable sofa bed, and no
wardrobe or anywhere to put your things. The kitchen is miniscule, the
fridge is out on the balcony, on the other side of the flat from the
fridge, the bathroom, I won't even get into. Suffice it to say, that
we looked at it in horror and let the school know that if they
expected us to stay there, they needed to think again. They're working
on finding us a better place, so it should be a matter of days, a week
at most.

The teaching is going really well. I really love my classes. I went to
lunch today with some of my upper intermediate students, and i love my
weekend students, as I may have mentioned one or two (or 10) times
before. so I'm really looking forward t otomorrow. For the past 4
lessons, the pair of private students that I've had have been not
coming, alternately, so basically for 4 lessons I've had to prepare 2,
which is fun!

Demonstration!!!

So I haven't blogged for a while, will update soon. But today is Labour Day, or the Turkish equivalent thereof. This doesn't mean a day off and a barbecue on the beach, as it does in many places I've been. It actually means demonstrations of all the major political, and other groups. In Istanbul, there is only one area where such demonstrations are allowed - Kadikoy. Incidentally, the school I am working in is in Kadikoy. How convenient! There was a little nervousness among the teachers about the fact that the school would be open today and that we would be expected to come, in the middle of the demonstrations. However, the students assured us that they would be here, and yesterday my students promised me that there wouldn't be a problem. Just in case, though, I stayed at Nesim's house last night, and came up from the ferry instead of down from my flat. I figured if the place felt at all iffy when I got off the ferry, I could turn around and go back across.
So I disembarked, and as the ferry was pulling in, the cheers and singing and speeches over the loudspeakers greeted us. Of course all the streets are closed. They were anticipating 100 000 demonstrators, but I won't be surprised if that number turns out to be a huge underestimate. They were walking peacefully with their banners and stuff. There were spaces between the groups, and it was vaguely reminiscent of the 24th of May parade in Bermuda, gombeys and
majorettes and a mack truck of speakers wouldn't have been out of place.
So, since the crowd was peaceful and the general air was not horde-like or rowdy, and I felt quite confortable, I crossed the street and headed up to the school. part way up (it's only a 5 minute walk) there was a gang (team? pack? oh wait I remember the collective noun...
Posse!) of riot police on the left.

They had the body armour, shields, machine guns, and whatever else one needs to quell an angry mob. They were just chilling there, though, while the Turkish Communist Party
had its rally across the street. It was kinda surreal actually. On the left the riot police, numbering about 150 or 200, with a couple of busloads more parked nearby, 3 tanks with the metal guards in the front and instead of a gun some kind of hose, ready to spray water or
tear gas (or whatever one sprays in these situations) parked on the road to the right, 2 rows of metal barricades forming a street in the street, for easy access to trouble spots if the need arises.... But it was all peaceful. The crowd was pretty calm, some of the police were
drinking tea....
So I got to school, thinking, hmmm, if I could take a picture, that would be cool.
So I recruited Alex, after asking some of the local staff if they thought it would be alright. I decided that I would ask someone first before whipping out my camera. And we headed off.

As you can see, our quest was successful. They were quite happy to have their pictures taken, and one of the policemen gave me his email address so that he can have copies of the pictures. He's the one on the left below, in the pic on the left. The one in the picture on the right asked me for my number, however, I didn't have my cellphone with me and I couldn't remember it.

They were all very nice and friendly and thought it was great that we wanted pics. As we
were taking them, one of the TKP (Turkish Communist Party) supporters walked by and suggested that we would both want to be in the picture, and so took one for us... he was a bit shaky though, so the pic is blurred. Nervous maybe?
Anyway, as you know, the news tends to overreact to things so if you happen to hear anything about demonstrations in Istanbul, no need to worry about me! :o)
More later....

2 weeks

I've been here for 2 weeks already! Time is flying.

I'm still living in a hotel, however our new flat will be ready for us
on Tuesday!!! Yayyyy!!!!!!!
All my classes are going really well. I am getting ready to teach my
beginner class this afternoon, and they are my favourites. During
their conversation activity, my intermediate class told Lydia that
they really like me, and last night, one of my two private advanced
students said that they had been talking about me, and they've had a
lot of teachers so far, and I'm definitely one of the best they've
had. In addition to being liked, I think I'm also managing to teach
them English, which is the real success!
I worked 25 hours my first week, 29 my second and I'm going into my
3rd with a schedule for 31. It's a lot for a new teacher, but since
the classes are 3 and 4 hours long, it doesn't take as much planning
as, say 30 hours of one hour classes. Planning 4 hours is the same as
planning 1 hour!
I've got more pics to upload, possibly later. I have just switched
with Alex for conversation practice with the upper intermediates, so I
have to go get ready.
Oh yeah, and Happy Ridvan!

Schedule

I keep missing people's phone calls because they are calling while I
am in class.

Here's my schedule as it stands right now, but subject to change...

Monday and Wednesday off.
Tuesday and Thursday: 9:30 - 13:20, 13:30 - 14:20 and 19:15 - 22:00
Friday: 19:15 - 22:00
Saturday and Sunday: 13:30 - 14:20 and 14:30 - 18:20

Please don't call me during those times. I won't get your call.

First weekend

I've been here a week today.
I've taught 17 hours of classes.
I've spent 7 nights in the As Hotel.
I'm remembering about 75% of my Turkish.
I've made friends with the other teachers in the school and some of
the students.

I really like it here. I was talking to another teacher yesterday,
she's also new, and we were discussing our first week of teaching. How
rewarding it is, and how easy and quickly the time passes while
teaching. I thought that teaching 3- and 4-hour classes would be
hellish. Our longest class during teacher training was an hour and
planning that one took forever. Planning a 4 hour class is not any
more difficult than planning a 1-hour class, and it's much easier to
execute. There's time to deal with any problems that come up, play
games, and just chat with the students. It's really nice. I think
after teaching these classes it would be difficult to step down to 1
and a half or 2 hour classes!

On a completely different note, I saw a sign the other day and checked
the internet to confirm, and Yes, it is true. IKEA is opening a store
in Istanbul on May 5!!! Am I excited! YES!!!!

Clear skies

It rained last night so the pollution and dust in the air got cleaned
out. This morning I had a nice view of the Blue Mosque and the
Ayasofia Mosque across the Bosphorus. I said a nice view, not a nice
picture...
Another good morning of teaching. The intermediate class seems to like
me, so that's nice.
Yesterday evening I went across to the European side and had dinner
with Nesim and her mom. It was nice catching up and chatting with
Nesim. There really is a kinship with ex-BWC staff! It's nice.

lunch time by the sea

On my lunch break today, which wasn't really a lunch break, since I
didn't have t owork today, but anyway, I went with Alex and Julia and
one of their students, Little Can (pronounced little john - the c in
turkish makes a j sound). We went and sat by the water and hung out
for a bit.

Here are some pics. Click on the pic for the big version on Flickr.

...and the sister hotel...

around the corner from the As Hotel is the sister hotel the Grand As Hotel.

No more ass jokes. I'm going for a walk this morning to take pictures
of real things in istanbul :o)

ok, so not quite 5 stars...

here's a view of the entrance to the ass.... My hotel here in Istanbul, the As Hotel, is on a side street in Kadikoy. As you can see, it's not the epitome of luxury accomodation, but there's a double bed, my own bathroom, a t.v., a free breakfast, and my room gets cleaned every day. Oh and I found a couple of t.v. stations in English! The downside is that my room is lit by a 15 watt bulb! Yikes.
If you want to know what it's like to have a room lit by a 15 watt bulb, try this: Light a candle. Blow it out. The glow that is left for a few second on the wick is about the brightness of the bulb in my room. Apparently the wiring is old and can't support anything more than that. It's only temporary so I don't mind.

Tibidabo Randomness

Refer to my blog of a March 29 of our day trip to Tibidabo.
This first picture is of the old church with the new church sitting on top.

I've posted the other pics as March 30th...

Let the Teaching Begin!

I taught my first lesson this morning. It was a 4 hour class with a
group of Intermediate students. For the past 2 days I've been worrying
and fretting and planning and replanning this class in my head. It was
totally unnecessary. The class went really well! The students were
really nice and pleasant, fun to work with, agreeable... absolutely no
problems! I think I could get used to this teacher thing!

My next class is in an hour and a bit. I have 2 Advanced students for
3 hours. This may be a bit more of a challenge, because they are
advanced, but on the other hand, I will be able to have normal
conversations with them. The challenge is making them feel
challenged.... We'll see how it goes.

So far so good!

after a day

So I went for a walk this afternoon, to get acquainted with the area. It's hard to believe how much things are exactly as I remember them from when I was living here. The people, the place, everything! I love it!

My brain is still adjusting to Turkish. I understand everything perfectly, much to the surprise of the Turkish staff at the school, but when I try to speak, Spanish comes out! It's so funny! It's all coming back though, and after just a day, I am doing much better.

I'm so glad I came here. The people here at the school are wonderful. The school facilities are great. I haven't started teaching yet, so I reserve the right to change my opinion at any time!

All is well though.

In Turkey!!!!

So I made it... I'm tired, and still not in my place yet. I arrived at2, and I'm now at the school. I'll be working in the Kadikoy branch, and living on the Asian side. It's pretty cool here in this area. There's no flat available for me yet, so I'll be living in a hotel for a few weeks. I've just met some of the teachers here and they arereally nice. They-ve told me that the hotel is nice but it has arather peculiar name.... It's basically the Turkish for the "Ace Hotel" but it is "As Hotel" in Turkish... (continued from yesterday...I started this blog saturday, yesterday, and now it's Sunday) pronounced like "Ass Hotel" in English. As you can well imagine, there are lots of jokes among the english teachers here about staying in the ass etc... It's not bad at all though, and it's only temporary.

So it's Sunday now. I came in this morning to observe some classes, so I will have a clue when I start teaching. Speaking to the teachers, seeing the school, meeting the students, has got me looking forward to teaching. I've just found out that I'll be doing a private class for 2a dvanced students 3 days a week. The classes here are hardcore... 4 hours at a time. I thought it would be tough, because in training theclasses were 2 hours, and we only ever had to prepare an hour at most. But after observing this morning, I feel much better, there's a lot less pressure when teaching a 4 hour class. You don't have to worry that students will leave and be clueless at the end of it. There's time to address al the problems that come up, and do all sorts ofrelated activities. I will also be teaching a beginner class onweekends, saturday and sunday afternoons. 4 hours at a time. That's also exciting, there will be 12 people in that class to start with, although it may increase to up to 16 by then. 16 is the maximum class size here.

I'm in Turkey again. It's so wonderful! I woke up this morning and it's glass-enclosed and has a view of the Bosphorus, so I can see the Blue mosque and Ayasofia Mosque across the sea. Oh yeah, I thought Iwould be at the new school that they are opening in Taksim, which is in the centre of the new city on the european side. I'm actually inKadikoy, which is on the Asian side. It's a nice area though. I've never lived on the Asian side before, but when I was an exchangestudent, we used to come over here a lot by ferry or seabus, and hangout. The main street on the Asian side looks more like a European city than any part of Istanbul! But I'm not on that street. I'm in an area near the seabus and ferry terminal (about a 4 minute walk). The school is on a main street, and the streets around are chock full of stores, restaurants, cafes, internet cafes, language schools and random otherstuff. There's a huge mall about 3 blocks away, and that other streetI was talking about starts about 3 blocks in another direction. There are cinemas, and all the movies are in the original language, but withTurkish subtitles, as opposed to dubbed like in Spain. The Kadikoy market is also nearby, with fresh fruits and vegetables, a meatmarket, a fish and seafood market and all sorts of stuff.

So as I was saying, I woke up and went to the terrace cafe and had aturkish breakfast. It's served every morning in the hotel. Chay -Turkish tea, Orange juice, and a plate with beyaz peynir - 'whitecheese' similar in texture to feta, but nicer, kahsar peynir - a cheese similar to a mild cheddar or maybe gouda, a boiled egg, olives,jam and butter, and a basket of fresh ekmek - the delicious turkishbread that i've missed all these years.
Anyway I have to go (someone else has to use the computer).
Later! :0)
);
//-->
went up to the terrace cafe on the roof of the hotel for breakfast.It's glass-enclosed and has a view of the Bosphorus, so I can see theBlue mosque and Ayasofia Mosque across the sea. Oh yeah, I thought Iwould be at the new school that they are opening in Taksim, which isin the centre of the new city on the european side. I'm actually inKadikoy, which is on the Asian side. It's a nice area though. I'venever lived on the Asian side before, but when I was an exchangestudent, we used to come over here a lot by ferry or seabus, and hangout. The main street on the Asian side looks more like a European citythan any part of Istanbul! But I'm not on that street. I'm in an areanear the seabus and ferry terminal (about a 4 minute walk). The schoolis on a main street, and the streets around are chock full of stores,restaurants, cafes, internet cafes, language schools and random otherstuff. There's a huge mall about 3 blocks away, and that other streetI was talking about starts about 3 blocks in another direction. Thereare cinemas, and all the movies are in the original language, but withTurkish subtitles, as opposed to dubbed like in Spain. The Kadikoymarket is also nearby, with fresh fruits and vegetables, a meatmarket, a fish and seafood market and all sorts of stuff.

So as I was saying, I woke up and went to the terrace cafe and had aturkish breakfast. It's served every morning in the hotel. Chay -Turkish tea, Orange juice, and a plate with beyaz peynir - 'whitecheese' similar in texture to feta, but nicer, kahsar peynir - acheese similar to a mild cheddar or maybe gouda, a boiled egg, olives,jam and butter, and a basket of fresh ekmek - the delicious turkishbread that i've missed all these years.

Big Changes!

Okay so last July I moved to Spain. The plan was to get a job and work until it was time to do the Cafe thing. Since last September I've been living in Bilbao, looking for a job. To no avail. Last month I went to Barcelona and did the CELTA course to become an English teacher. I got a pass B and started the job hunt again. In addition to there being a few jobs available in Spain, and even one or 2 in Northern Spain, there were jobs available online all over the world. Out of curiosity, I sent for more details on a job in Istanbul, since I lived there before, love the city, speak Turkish etc.... Well, to make a long story short, it's now 2 and a half weeks later, I've been offered a contract in Istanbul, for a job that pays well and includes accomodation. Incidentally, I also got one of the jobs in Northern Spain, but the problem is it is for a week at a time. The contract is only for a week, if they like you they give you opportunities to work more weeks. It's a good deal, moneywise, but not very stable. They can decide at any moment to ask someone else. Not really what I need at this time!
So anyway, I leave for Istanbul on Saturday. Friday is my birthday, and it looks like I'll be spending it in Barcelona, since that's where I have to be on Saturday morning at 4:30 a.m. for check in. Why not hang out for my birthday then go? :o)
So for the next year, I will be in Istanbul. The original contract was for 9 months, but the extra 3 months is worth it for the bonus, plus, 1 year's experience teaching English is much better than 9 months!

In case it slipped by you, Friday April 8 is my birthday :o) It may be hard to get a gift to me, but if you want to send cash, I'm a PayPal user and will gladly accept :o)

Happy my-Birthday everyone!

Hang guy!

So in Barcelona, among the many odd street performers (see future blog
about chinese balancing man), we found a guy playing a strange
instrument that looked like a cross between a flying saucer and a
steel pan. Captivated by the beautiful, meditative sound coming from
the instrument, and it's similarities to the ever-popular Trinidadian
steel pan, I moved in for a closer look and listen. Jen got a picture
(thanks Jen!). I got to talk to him when he finished playing, and it
turns out, this instrument is called a "Hang" - pronounced "hung". The
guy in the picture (from then on referred to by all of us present as
"hung guy") went on to explain that this is a new instrument,
developed in Switzerland. It is a derivative of the steel pan, and is
played with the fingers, by hitting the spots on it. It's really cool.
Has a beautiful sound. Haunting and melodic. I found a website that
talks a bit about it and has a sound clip as well...
http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om16250.html
It comes in a variety of different scales. The one that Hung Guy had
was in F Minor. In his little demonstration of how it worked, he also
turned it over, and used a cupped hand to bang percussively on the
opening, creating an eerie drumming sound. Very cool.

Lame amusement park...

... falling off the edge of the mountain. We found out later that the
cool rides are down below and around the corner. We also decided that
this place (the church pictures and the amusement park pictures are
taken from exactly the same viewing point) would be a perfect location
for a horror movie. The weather helped that impression too!

Tibidabo 3

If you look closely, you see the Christ statue up in the clouds....

Tibidabo 2

This one is the thing next to the church. I can't remember what it's
called... Oh well...