Istanbul

This week during my holiday I went with another teacher to Istanbul.  Here are my adventures from the week. Be sure to check out the pictures on Flickr :)

Monday

Monday morning we had bus tickets to head up to Istanbul, it is about a 6 hour bus ride, we got to the bus station early and enjoyed a nice breakfast and then got on our bus at 10:30am.  The bus was pretty comfortable, it had wifi access so I enjoyed using my ipod on it.  The bus did not have a bathroom on it, so We made one pit stop along the way, so that all the women could use the bathroom and all the men could have a cigarette. ;) We then continued on our way and made it to Istanbul around 4:30, 5pm.  When we got off the bus we booked our tickets to come back Thursday night and then proceeded to find the metro.  We made it to the transfer stop on the Metro and was supposed to take the Tramvay, I have never seen a Tramvay in my life, so sadly I couldn't find it, I was looking for another underground metro, but this is an above ground Trolley system, so ya know you live and learn :) We ended up taking a taxi to our hotel and got checked in and then went to go find some dinner.  The first night we found a nice restaurant for dinner.  We then walked around our hotel area and decided to sit down for some drinks at an outdoor restaurant, as the waiter seats us I realize that I know the couple sitting next to us from Bilkent.  So we had a nice chat with them, they had been to Istanbul many times so they gave us some tips.  All in all it was a nice start to the holiday.

Tuesday

This morning we got up bright and early and enjoyed the complimentary all you can eat breakfast.  Then left the hotel by around 9am to head to Hagia Sophia to beat the crowds, but then found out that because of the holiday Hagia Sophia wouldn't be open until 1pm, so we headed to the Blue Mosque.  This Mosque was beautiful, walking up to it was quite a sight and then when you got inside it was even better.  I won't bore you with all the history but if you would like to know more check out Blue Mosque.  From there we wandered around looking for the Grand Bazaar, we eventually asked a man where it was and he told us it was closed until Saturday for the holiday, so I guess I will have to go back to Istanbul to see the Grand Bazaar, and many other things ;) From there we headed to the Basilica Cistern.  What I found really interesting about the cistern was that no one knew it was underground for a long time until locals started cutting holes in their house floors and putting buckets underneath and pulling out fish.  It was quite a neat area.  From there we went and found some lunch and then headed FINALLY to Hagia Sophia.  This building was first built as a church but then converted over to a mosque but because of the different materials they used to build the church they had a hard time converting it to a mosque so there are still crosses and pictures of Jesus on the walls, very interesting.  After our busy morning we headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit and then went back to that area for dinner and found a nice restaurant that overlooked Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.  And of course after dinner we walked around and did some shopping.

Wednesday

On Wednesday we decided to head over to the more modern side of Istanbul.  Istanbul is the 5th largest city in the world, and it has all these sections.  There is the Asian side and the European side and then on the European side there is the old section and the more modern section.  It is a very interesting city.  Our hotel was on the European side in the old district, very close to all the historical sights.  But one day we decided to cross a bridge over to the modern side.  We crossed the Golden Horn and found a lot of fishermen over the bridge they were there all day fishing for these tiny fish.  The bridge we crossed had all of these restaurants under it.  It was pretty neat.  We then walked around a bit and found Taksim Square, the center square of the modern part.  A few weeks ago there was a suicide bomb on the square, so it was very interesting to walk there.  Everything was safe, there were no problems, I'm fine, don't worry.  But it was still neat to see a section of town that was just in the papers.  After a LONG walk around that area we found our way back to the bridge and ate a late lunch under the bridge, it was a great lunch of fish with an amazing view!  Then we headed back to the hotel because we decided to go on a dinner cruise for the evening so we wanted to rest up before that late evening.  The dinner cruise picked us up at our hotel at 7:30 and then took us to the boat and then we went up and down the Bosphorus Strait.  The cruise provided dinner and entertainment, I got to see my frist live belly dancer, she was amazing! and some other Turkish dancing.  We sat at a table full of people from the middle east.  A couple from Iran, one from Egypt and one from Jordan.  They mostly spoke Arabic but it was really neat  to be around so many different people from so many different countries.

Thursday

This morning we got up and went to breakfast and then checked out of our hotel room and left our luggage with the hotel.  Then we went to Topkapı Palace, on the way to the Palace we found some museums so we went to the Istanbul Archaeology Museums In this complex there were three museums.  My favorited was the Tiled Kiosk it was the third and final museum we went to.  It is the oldest non - religious building in Turkey.  It had the most amazing tiles on the walls I loved the patterns it made.  After we walked around the museums we went over to Topkapı Palace.  I don't have a lot of pictures from inside the Palace because a lot of the sections they ask you not to take pictures in.  But the view from the Palace was amazing and I have a lot of pictures from there.  The highlights of the palace were the treasury which had all of these amazing jewels.  Also the harem was really neat.  This was the royal's family living quarters and the entire palace was pretty plain I didn't notice the walls at all until we went into the harem.  The walls were all tiled and out the windows was an amazing view of the city.  I'm not sure if I would have minded being part of the harem.  After we were done looking through the palace.  We found a nice restaurant to eat lunch then we found a coffee shop to rest for a bit.  After that we walked around and window shopped then we ate dinner at a restaurant that over looked the Golden Horn and then window shopped a bit more because our bus didn't leave until midnight, so around 10pm we went back to the hotel and got our bags and then took the Tramvey to the Metro and found the bus station and got on the bus at midnight and slept all the way back to Ankara.  I got back home around 8am Friday morning.

Since then I have been resting and cleaning and doing laundry, now I need to work on planning for school this week.

**Side note, when looking at my pictures it may make more sense if you go into the set from Istanbul and look at them in order**

This is a map of the European Side of Istanbul I hope it helps you visualize my descriptions a bit more

This might be kind of long..

So this is a pretty long overdue update.  I have been really busy at work lately, so I haven't updated in awhile, but now I have a vacation for a week, :) So I have a little bit more time.

Halloween

The night of halloween I had about 30 kids show up to my door to get candy, it was fun to hand out candy to all of them and see their costumes.  Since I live in a country that doesn't really celebrate halloween kids have to get creative with their costumes you can't just go to the local Halloween Store and pick up a costume, it was fun to see what they came up with.  Even one of my students came to my door, he doesn't really like to speak English much, so I told him I wasn't going to give him candy until he said trick or treat, so he said it, talk about positive reinforcement :)  I also decorated my door and have put up pictures of that so don't forget to check out Flickr.

Birthday

So this week it was my birthday.  I had a nice birthday, on Sunday a group that I have been meeting with in the mornings had a cake for me and another girl who was born the same day as me just 2 years earlier :) so they sang happy birthday and gave us each a present.  It was very nice I even got to take home a piece of cake so I would have some on my actual birthday.  On my birthday I worked all day and at our staff meeting in the afternoon they had a cake for me.  It was chocolate banana cake, I have noticed that a lot of cakes here have banana in them, not sure why but they do.  I actually really like the chocolate banana cake it's pretty yummy :)  When I got home from work I was able to talk to most of my family and friends :) and then my upstairs neighbor invited me up to her house for some ice cream :) So I brought my left over cake and she had the ice cream.  It was a pretty nice birthday :)

This Week

This week was crazy at work, I have had so much paperwork to do and I was observed twice this week, so that was a bit extra, both observations went well, but now I have a week vacation.  This week is called Kurban Bayramı I have been told that in Turkey during Ramadan they spend the month fasting and so 48 days after Ramadan is over the Turks will get together with their families to celebrate that they completed the fast.  So this is more of a food holiday, I guess you are supposed to eat a lot.  Also most families will sacrifice an animal and enjoy it together, they will also give some of the food to the poor.  No one goes hungry during this time.  And supposedly it has some connection to Abraham sacrificing Isaac on the altar.  

As for my plans for the week I cleaned my apartment and made some cookies, I also took some pictures of what my apartment looks like now, be sure to check those out.  Also on Monday I am headed to Istanbul with another teacher, we are going to do some sight seeing so I'm sure I'll have to post about that when I get back.  I will be coming back to Ankara on Thursday night, That way I have next weekend to sleep and get ready to go back to school :)

Sorry this post was so long, but I hope everyone has a nice Kurban Bayramı :)

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...