Shopping...

So I've been doing a lot of shopping lately and I want to tell you about my experiences.  As I go to different malls and look around to see what is there I get oddly excited about the things that are in China.   As in I found a Watsons and a Decathlon, these were basically my two favorite stores in China, so I was very excited to find them here I have also found a Carrefour.

So I have been pretty excited about my China finds it makes it feel more like home, then of course one day I was wandering around the mall (this is the mall that has Decathlon and Watsons) And suddenly I found a GAP.  Sadly I was not as excited about the GAP as I was about Decathlon, but ya know I guess that happens when you live in China for two years.

So I have been buying all sorts of things trying to make my apartment more of a home.  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll be able to post some pictures and you will see how much nicer it looks now.

This weekend is Halloween and I am planning on giving out candy to kids tomorrow night, I am going to try to decorate my door a bit before they come.  I'll have to see how creative I can be...

Happy Halloween!

A NEW Experience

Ok so I feel like I have a lot to blog about so I will try to update a few times over the next few days.

Last saturday I went out with the English department at my school we went to a restaurant.  This restaurant really had a Mediterranean feel to it for me.  Basically the way it works was you pay 65 TRL and you get unlimited amount of drinks, wine, beer, and Raki (crazy alcohol drink, tastes like licorice) You also get unlimited amount of food.  They keep bringing dishes out to your table AND entertainment.

There were three different bands that night.  The first one was a guitarist and an accordion player.  Then there was the band with two guitarists and a singer.  And the last band was a full brass band.  It was such a neat experience.  The band was playing and everyone was Turkish dancing to the music.  Trust me when I tell you there is a difference.

I wish I had pictures for you but you will have to trust my explanation, because my camera is too bit to put in my pocket.  The table next to us was a wedding party, so that made the night even better to watch the Bride and Groom and all their friends so excited.  It was also an older woman's 88th birthday. It was such a great night we were there from 8pm till 1:30am It was just a really neat cultural experience, I'm glad I got to go.

A Rainy Day

Today it rained all day long, first time since I’ve been here.  I’m not normally a fan of rainy days but it’s just so dry here that I’m welcoming the rain J I’m not really sure what to update with so I need some suggestions of what you would like to hear about.

This week has been a busy week at work, still getting the swing of things and getting used to teaching all day and planning all night, oh the life of a full time teacher.  Starting next week I will be helping my department coordinator plan our curriculum.  I’m excited for the opportunity and it will be a good add on to what I am doing since I find that I am pretty organized and have some extra time. 

Very suddenly we are now experiencing fall weather.  I compare a lot of my experience here to my time in China.  So I must say heating here is crazy.  In China you had to wait till “the day” when the heat got turned on.  It was a certain day for the entire city.  And it was usually the beginning of November.  Now it’s only October, the beginning of October.  It got a little chilly on Monday and our heat is ON full blast! CRAZY! Today we all discovered that our new school has floor heating.  We were all complaining about how hot it was in the school turning on the air conditioners and leaving the door open, when we sat down on the floor for our morning circle we realized the floor heating is at full blast.  Now this is the same as China for me, last year my preschool in HuangDao had floor heating and the floor sure does get REALLY hot.  I try not to have the kids sit on it, I’m hoping they will be able to turn it down a bit.

I am finding that my asthma has been acting up especially with the dramatic change between hot and cold between the classroom and the hallway. 

This weekend I’m looking forward to hanging out with some of the English staff outside of school.  We will be going to a dinner place, I’m not really sure what to expect but I’m sure it will be fun.  I will try to remember to take pictures and post them for you.

But for now Gürüşürüz (good bye)

Toast!

Today I got a toaster!  Don't believe me, check the pictures!

A Pretty Normal Week

Merhaba!

I always want to update with a witty exciting entry that will show you all how much traveling and living in Turkey is the neatest experience EVER...but...some weeks are just pretty normal...so here are the highlights of my week...

**We got our last teacher, so things are finally the way they are supposed to

**I got asked to take on some more responsibilities at work

**I have learned all the names of my students in one of my classes

**I got paid and was able to afford a cutting board, life is good

**Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll be the proud owner of a new Turkish cell phone!

**I feel like I'm starting to understand a bit of Turkish, and am able to speak some!

So there's my update for the week, no new pictures, sorry, I'll try to take some this weekend.

Görüşürüz!

School

So I typed a full post and then accidentally deleted it, so we will see if i can re-create it.

So this week was my first week of teaching here in Ankara.  I have really enjoyed it so far.  This week was not easy by any means but it was successful.

So I teach two classes.  I am the primary English teacher for the Green class.  The Green class is a pre-K class of 22 5-yr olds.  I teach them 16 blocks a week.  Each block is 40 minutes long.  The first two blocks of the day I work with the Turkish teachers to teach sports and then do stations.  Every day we do two Turkish stations and two English stations.  Then I teach 6 other English lessons a week.

I also work with another English teacher to teach the Purple class.  The Purple class is a K class of 22 6-yr olds.  I teach them 8 blocks a week.  I teach everything from sports to drama to reading to writing to math.  We have an integrated curriculum so the students learn everything in English.

This week has been full of planning and preparing for all of my classes.  So far the most challenging part is filling up a 40 min block with sports, but I know that eventually this will be easy too.  I am really looking forward to tomorrow being Friday, it is my easiest schedule of the week.  I will hopefully be able to get a lot of planning done tomorrow in order to have a more relaxing weekend.

I consider this week successful for a number of reasons but two bigs ones are that in my Pre-K class we sing this hello song everyday and it is a pretty catchy song, well while I am in the classroom sometimes I catch the kids singing it while they are playing with other toys, it brings a smile to my face.  And in my K class my students have started to call me by my name :) I'm so excited they remember me haha.  It's so nice to hear Miss. Mandy again :) Although I must admit sometimes I start to refer to myself as Teacher Mandy as apposed to Miss. Mandy (I guess thats what two years in China does)

Well sorry if this post is a little choppy I'm pretty tired, it's been a long week, and I had to type it twice.  But I did put up a few photos of one of my classes.  Hope you enjoy.  This weekend I'll try to take more pictures of the city.

Today I went for a walk...

This week has been crazy busy.  My days have been spent at school and my nights have been trying to find food and sleeping.  Then Friday evening I had my first Turkish class.  My new teacher taught us how to take a taxi, not that I really remember half of what she taught, I need to study, but I do remember how to say "How much does it cost?" I think this will come in handy :)

So now its the weekend and I am trying to get organized to teach on Monday and get some sleep and clean up my apartment, you know all those weekend activities.  Well today after an excursion to town to try to get some passport photos, I decided to take a walk near my apartment.  One of the other new foreign teachers informed me that across the street from our apartments there are some trails that you can walk on.  So I decided to go explore.

I took my camera with me and the results can be found on my flickr page...ENJOY!

I'm Alive...

I made it to Turkey! After a long two day journey I made it to Turkey on Monday around 3.  After I got into Ankara I went to go get my luggage and found I only had one :) So I went over to the Lufthansa office and filled our the necessary paperwork (I have since gotten my other suitcase, and found out that it was lost in Chicago, stop number 1) then I exchanged some money and then left the airport and found a driver that was waiting for me.  I preceded to apologize to him that it took me so long but I was missing my luggage and he told me "No English" (I'm pretty sure this is a sign of things to come)  Well this driver drove me to the school and took me to the High School Principal.  He welcomed me to the school and explained to me in English that the driver was going to take me up to my apartment and then he would pick me back up at 8:30 the next morning to take me to the Primary school.  

So the driver took me up to my apartment showed me which keys to use in which doors, and then said goodbye.  So I got to my apartment at about 5 and I unpacked and took a shower and found some food, which the school so nicely put in my fridge for me. They also had blankets on the bed, towels for me to take a shower, dishes and cookware.  Life was good!  So I did some things and then went to bed by 7. 

I was up by 4:30 the next morning :) I got ready for the day and the driver came for me at 8:30 he drove me down to the school and brought me to the primary school principal.  She met me and said oh have you been to the English office yet, and I said no so she took me there, where I met some really nice grade 1 teachers, who then took me down to my department.  I was able to meet the staff I will be working with and get right into things.  

For the last two days I have been thrown into the middle of things.  I have been attending meetings and trying to understand what it is I will be teaching, no one else really seems to know either, so I'm not that behind.  I also have been meeting staff and figuring out the new surroundings I am in.  I also found out that I am not the last one here, we are still waiting on another teacher.

Today the kids started school, but they are not there a full day yet.  Lots of tears this morning as they had to leave their parents for the first time.  I will explain more of my role in the school in a later entry.  But today all I had to do was get to know the kids and spend some time with them.  Since I don't know any Turkish and these kids don't know any English it was quite an experience.  I did remember though that love has no language barrier and so if you show love, and some fun expressions, all will work out :)

So since this is the latest I have stayed up all week 7:35pm right now, I am going to end this post and I will write more another time.  But before I sign off, some things that surprise me about Turkey...

1. I blend in!  This is a good and bad thing, everyone here looks the same you can't tell if someone is Turkish or not, this is bad because everyone expects that I speak Turkish and I just don't.

2. The Sky is BLUE! This is a GREAT thing and it makes me happy as I gaze out the windows at school trying really hard not to fall asleep.

Look for some pictures on flickr :) till next time....

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane...

I got my flight today! YEAH I am leaving Sunday at 12:30 flying to Chicago and then from Chicago to Munich and from Munich to Ankara :) I will arrive in Ankara at 3:00pm on Monday (Ankara time) I am very excited to get to Ankara and start my new job but my mind is going crazy with all the things I have to do before Sunday! I can't believe just yesterday I was sitting around doing nothing and now today I have more things to do then I can think of!

I am working on an email to send out with some more contact information, if you don't already receive my emails send me an email to mandyteachesoverseas@gmail.com and I will add you to my list.

A Visa In My Hand...

Today I finally got my visa. I'll include a picture so you can see, for more of my pictures from this summer check out my flickr account next to the post ;) I have emailed my contact in Turkey and as long as they still want me as a teacher they will be purchasing my airline ticket in the next day or two and then I will be off to Ankara, Turkey!  Stay tuned for more details...

It's Really Happening...

So I finally received my visa from Turkey :-D YEAH! I now have to wait for the visa itself and then get my airline tickets.  The school will be paying for them so they will get the tickets for me as soon as I get my visa.  So i'm leaving for Turkey in like a week! AHH crazy!  Ready or not Turkey here I come!

Brand New Blog!

Hello Everyone!

As I journey on to my next adventure where the Internet is more open I am starting this blog up again in order to stay in contact with all of you.  I have included some fun new features.  There is an about me section, in case you don't know me and a way to get in contact with me as well.  Also along the side is a link to my new flickr page.  I will be posting all my pictures to that page and then using this blog to tell you stories.

If you don't know I am headed to Ankara, Turkey to teach English at a private primary school on the Bilkent University campus.  Right now I am waiting for my visa, hopefully I will have it within the next week and then will know my flight details.  Stay tuned for more...