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!
