Teaching here, there and everywhere!

'Tis the Season

2011-12-31T07:58:00.002-05:00

I know what you're thinking: "My isn't this post a little late? Christmas has come and gone... silly girl." But you are thinking of a different sort of season than I am. You are thinking of the holiday season and I'm thinking of... duh, duh, duh (cue the suspenseful music) RECRUITING season.
Yes, now that the new year is upon us, the recruiting season is in full swing for international school teachers. It's this time of year that we spiffy up our C.V.s and get all our references sorted (truth be told I did most of that a couple of months ago as the recruiting season seems to be earlier each year) and, if our contracts are up for renewal we begin to ask what's next? And sometimes that is easier answered than others. Sometimes the teacher in question is happy with their school and vice versa so the answer is nothing... I'm staying right here. Or sometimes there is discord and the teacher and/or school knows it's time to move on, to sever the relationship as it were. And then there are times where the choice is difficult. Where there is no clear cut answer and there is a lot of thinking to do (typically before the winter break comes and that can be fairly stressful).
However, once the choice is made to go recruiting, the season starts in full swing. I have chosen to go recruiting this year. I don't HATE my school or the place I live, I just feel like a better fit might be out there for me and I'd like to see if it is, so I'm going to check that out. Now, I've chosen to use the help of a recruiting agency. I've signed on to a group called Search Associates and for a fee from me and a lot of my professional documents, they will alert me to jobs etc that match my desires and also help facilitate an opportunity for me to interview with several schools in a matter of days: a job fair.
So the recruiting season has begun and it's stressful and fun and exciting all at the same time. I personally love networking and meeting new people, so the whole job fair process is a thrill for my extroverted self. I also love looking over the specs of a number of schools and day-dreaming about what it might be like to work and live there. Sure, it seems early as the school year doesn't end until June but it sure is nice to have job security in knowing where your next job will be several months in advance.
So blow the horns, let loose the hounds (as it were) and let the season begin! To all my teacher friends in the hunt, good luck and stay confident! To all my administrator friends in the hunt, good luck and may you find the best fits possible for your schools!!

Pompeii

2011-12-24T09:11:00.004-05:00

Today's adventure was to hop the Circumvesuviana train and head out to Pompeii. I didn't know what would be out there or what the crowds might be like since it was Christmas Eve and all. So I packed some water, an apple and some delicious Neopolitan cookies that my sweet little Italian Grandpa gave me (if you are a facebook friend you know all about him already, but if you aren't here's the back story: The other night I popped into a store to buy some water andthe little man behind the counter kept calling me bella and gave me a cookie to try. It was amazing, so I bought one to go. A couple of nights later, I popped in for more water and another one of these cookies when he decided that I really should try them all. So I bought one of each and he gave me one to eat right away... um... these people make GOOD cookies!!).

Off I went, hopped the train and was away! When I got to the station (Scavi Pompeii), I hopped off and out into the street where there were signs pointing me to the excavation site. Pompeii is still an active archeological site and some of the streets are closed from time to time as things are dug up or restored so that tourists can safely walk through. Below are a few of the pictures that I took on my wanderings in the nearly empty site (winter is a great time to be in the region as there are few tourists and the sun is out... felt more like spring or fall than winter).

Pompeii is beautiful... the whole area is and I highly recommend seeing it. It was a treat to do that on a warm and sunny day and to have the whole site nearly to myself until the last 10 minutes when a couple of large Japanese tour groups arrived.

SPARTACUS!!!

2011-12-23T11:07:00.004-05:00

It's almost like you could hear the cry echo in the anfiteatro in Santa Maria Capua Vetere. Almost... or maybe it was the delirium of excitement at having finally FOUND the place.

The adventure begins in trying to figure out how one gets a Metro Nord'Ouest ticket at the Stazione Centrale in Napoli. I must have wandered around for about 30 minutes before locating the appropriate office (which was literally right in front of my face at least 3 times) with the help of a lady who worked in another office. What I was looking for was the official artecard office because this little gem of a card gets you into a certain number of historical sites or museums included in the price and gets you free public transport (trains, ferries, subway, buses etc) and some great (as in 50%) discounts on the other historical venues. So once I sorted out which card I would need and chatted with the saleslady about how to make best use (she told me all the museums are open and FREE on Christmas Day and that Pompeii was included in my card... guess who's going to Pompeii tomorrow?) of the card, I went to find my train. And this is what I found:

So CUTE!! It just has 2 cars and runs around the area. Very handy, very quick, very clean and comfortable. Once I finally (45 minutes) got to Santa Maria Capua Vetere (this is where ancient Capua was), I thought I'd pop off the train and right into the city centre, full of signage etc like Sorrento was... WRONG!! Not so many tourists make it out here and there is NO signage when you first get off the train and wander into the street. So let me help you avoid the extra 45 minutes or so of wandering the random streets of S. Maria Capua V. like I did. Once you come out from the station, follow the road to the T and then GO LEFT! You will follow that road up a curve and on your right will be a brown sign for the museum (which I would avoid going to, it's literally 2 rooms of stones behind glass... we have BETTER artifacts from the same period in Turkey). Keep going, going, going (you may want to ask for directions and most Italians are sweet enough to point you in the right direction). Finding the museum will help orient you for sure. The museum should be on your left... walk past it to a roundabout, take the left and keep walking until you see the anfiteatro on your right. It's hard to miss with the big open square and men playing afternoon games of Bocce Ball. And that's it. It's not spectacular or anything but if you are a history fan and a fan of Spartacus, then you might like to see it. The anfiteatro costs 2 Euro 50 to get in, so it's really cheap and the walking is easy, just over crazy uneven pavement (the paving stones of old are still in use on most streets). While, I'm exhausted from all the walking and wandering, I'm really glad I saw it. The walk was good for me and invigorating actually, and the site is just cool...

When in Rome...

2011-12-23T10:36:00.005-05:00

So when I found out that Rome was just 2 hours by train from Naples, I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go there. So began to research the feasibility of a day trip. I know that a day is not long enough to see all that Rome has to offer, but when you find out that there is just one thing that I've been desperate for YEARS to see and it's in Rome (actually its in Vatican City, no not the Pope), you'll understand my crazed efforts to run up there and back. Not to mention that I had already booked my hotel here in Napoli and had no intentions of canceling the booking in order to re-book for a few days here and a few days there. I had PLANNED a trip to Napoli and was more than content with just that... well, until I found out that Rome is SO CLOSE!!

Anyway, I began to research by getting in touch with my friend Google. I asked how to get from Naples to Rome and a whole bunch of sites came up but the one that was useful was the Italylogue site as it had links to the things I needed to know and got me online with the train system here in Italy. I booked my train tickets and that was easy. Then I decided to book a tour for the Vatican since I had been told that lines are astronomical, even in winter and more so because it was the Christmas season. So I went to a website that books tours etc for you. And they were great! They were able to get me 2 tours for decent prices and that fit inside the time constraints that I had. I love the Internet sometimes!!

Anyway, I hopped my train at 7am (and just so you know, no cat calling that early... all the cool guys are sleeping and it was a fairly peaceful walk to the train station) and was off and running. Taking the train in Italy is really easy. I had booked online, so I didn't need a ticket, just my confirmation number (it gives me a seat and car too, so no jostling around for a seat). Anyway, once on the train, I was absorbed in watching daylight come to the GORGEOUS Italian countryside and 2 hours zipped by.

Rome was FREEZING! So much colder than Naples and I was not aware so I had my winter coat and boots, scarf and hat, but NO gloves! And I was taking an open air, hop-on/hop-off tour bus first!! ACK! My fingers nearly fell off several times but I got some fantastic shots of the city. I didn't get off at any of the stops until the Vatican. I simply didn't have time and it wasn't part of the plan. Part of the life plan is to go back though. What a gorgeous city.

At the Vatican, I found a cafe, had some lunch and wrote a couple of postcards. I wanted them posted from the actual Vatican so, I had to do it there. I was also fortunate enough to swat away an adorable waiter who thought I should spend Christmas having coffee with him and maybe dinner. Too cute! He was crestfallen when I told him that my plans were to be in Napoli.

Next came my tour of the Vatican. And, surprise of surprises, the Vatican was nearly empty that afternoon. Even our guide was shocked. She said that in the summer 25,000 (yes, THOUSAND) people go through there in a DAY. So much so that she cannot point out the mosaics on the floor or spend more than 5 minutes in the Sistine Chapel. That would have annoyed me to have paid and be pushed through. Anyway, I went, I saw and then the ONE thing I was waiting for:

I've loved this sculpture for my whole lifetime it seems. Something in Mary's face breaks my heart in a way I can't describe or even truly understand myself. Something in the gentle folds in her dress leaves me breathless. And this is why I HAD to go to Rome, I had to see it up close. Michelangelo was just 23 when he started creating this. It is the ONLY piece he signed. She was special to him and she is to me too.

After I saw her, gazed at her beauty and soaked in the atmosphere, I was done. I took the bus back to the station, seeing some more gorgeous sites and then rode the train back to Napoli. A day well spent.

It May Have Been the Leopard Print Leggings....

2011-12-21T16:05:00.003-05:00

So tonight I was meant to meet up with my lovely breakfast partners but somehow it didn't happen... this is the traveler's life sometimes... missed connections. Not a big deal, sure I would have enjoyed a dinner laughing with them, but somehow I know we will connect sometime in the future again (they have my blog address and email address: HI LADIES!!!). So I waited in the "lobby" of our B'n'B but it made the owner nervous to have me there with no apparent reason (he's just the sweetest man and wanted to help as much as he could) and then I went downstairs to the entrance way to wait... and that's where it all began....

Yes, I was wearing my new leopard print leggings (listen... I'm on holiday and just cute enough to pull it off... check the picture if you don't believe me - sorry for the shoddy mirror shot, but what's a single traveler to do?! Oh... and I'm wearing knee high, flat black boots that you can't see... so it's not a WHOLE leg of leopard).

I was standing in the doorway, watching the comings and goings of this neighbourhood, which is interesting in and of itself (kind wish I had a beer or a wine to sit and watch all the bizarre pass by) but people were watching me too. I felt a little like a fish in a bowl. But I tried to pay it no mind as the neighbourhood can be sketchy late at night (this was only 8 pm so I wasn't worried) and I'm sure not a lot of chubby chicks stand around in leopard print leggings looking foreign. Anyway, a very handsome YOUNG gentleman passed by 2 or 3 times before pretending to need into the building (the entrance wasn't locked at the time, so the ruse was up as soon as he got in as he had nowhere to go!! hahaha). He began to chatter to me in Italian, to which I responded that I spoke none (in English of course... saying it in Italian would have made me a liar). He then asked where I was from and when I said Canada, he switched into fluent French (guess I can't use that as my code language here, I should have said Turkey!). I understood very little of what he was saying, but just enough to understand that he thought I was beautiful and was trying to get something which is not his to have!! Eventually he left and I decided that meeting my new friends wasn't going to happen. I stepped out into the street to find a little pizzeria (my lunch was my big spend meal today) for dinner and was accosted by "smack, smack, psst, psst" by nearly every man I passed!! YIKES! I mean, every lady wants to feel attractive, but I was beginning to wonder if the leggings led these shady men to think I was a lady of the night or something!!!! I kept walking and avoided any eye contact and did not respond and that worked just find... no man pursued me, spoke to me or touched me (so perhaps they didn't think I was a lady of the night... let's cross our fingers and toes and hope that's the truth of the matter) or was aggressive in any manner.

Later, I found my little ristorante/pizzeria and they were showing the local soccer match between Napoli and Genoa. The waiters were funny and engaging (they kept trying to get me to have another drink and to stay a little longer... the place was full of good energy, I liked it) and the food was delicious (I so need to cleanse when I leave here... at least no gluten for a month or something... I'm getting my fair share and yours too). So I watched the first half and then decided that 10 pm was plenty late for me to try to walk back to my hotel. It was much quieter on the way back and Napoli was winning 4-1 when I left.

So maybe it's that I'm cute (and I AM!!) or maybe it was the leopard print leggings, but today I finally got all the male attention everyone warned me about!!

Sleepy Sorrento

2011-12-21T11:31:00.005-05:00

Today's adventure included taking the train to another location and navigating new streets on my own. And it was surprisingly easy, even with no Italian in my bag of tricks.

This morning, after a great breakfast (made great by the fellow travelers at my B'n'B that share knowledge, stories and laughs), I made my way to the Circumvesuviana train station which is about 3 minutes walking from my hotel. I had heard and read in the guide books that this area is rife with pick-pockets and just plain dangerous... however, there was no danger when I went (I guess that's the benefit of traveling in the off-season). Sure, there were vagrants begging and some less than savoury people standing outside, but no one hassled me or even approached me. I strolled in, right up to the ticket counter and bought my return ticket for 8 Euros total. The train was easy to find, was clean and generally comfortable. I will say that it pays to get there right when the doors open though as it fills up very quickly and generally is standing room only all the way to Pompeii (which is a fair ways away).

The train right was pleasant and it was good to see the little towns and Mt. Vesuvius whizzing by. I loved that the further south it went, the more citrus trees I saw. I was shocked that the lemons, oranges and mandarins were still ripening on the trees.

Upon arrival in Sorrento, it's pretty easy to find the city centre. You exit the train, walk straight and there you are! The streets are incredibly clean (which is a nice change after the piles of garbage in Napoli - I never said Napoli was clean in the last post... the good things far outweighed the bad in my first impressions) and beautifully decorated for the holidays.

I arrived at about 11 am and in Sorrento (as in much of southern Italy from what I am learning) everything pretty much shuts down from noon to 4pm or so. I thought that the markets would be bustling with last minute shopper etc, but no... Sorrento was sleepy. This beautiful seaside town was already shutting doors and locking up when I arrived. Thankfully some of the shops were open in hopes of getting the few tourists to loosen our purse strings (which I dutifully did at the limoncello store, Limonoro). So after wandering and getting a couple of gorgeous shots...

I went for lunch. I'm not always a fan of things like mussels and clams (almost never really) but since I was in a town that is FAMOUS for their seafood, I thought I should at least try. I am SO glad that I did... it was delicious!!!

After that, there was just very little left to do and the sun was already sliding out of the sky, so I headed for the train station and got into the next train headed for Napoli. It was a faster route going back, which was nice and it was basically empty. I popped off at the Piazza Garibaldi stazione this time and was greeted by a really lovely Christmas tree (covered with hand written Christmas letters and wishes... very sweet). As I was walking back, I saw a coffee shop mentioned in my guide book (I like the EyeWitness guide books) as the BEST place to get coffee in Napoli. So naturally, I had to test it out... and it might be the best cappuccino and sfogliatella that I have ever tasted (it was my first sfogliatella to tell the truth). So if you are ever at the Stazione Centrale, hit up Mexico Cafe/Bar... YUM!!! And it was 2.60 Euros... ridiculous!

First Impressions...

2011-12-20T08:33:00.005-05:00

... are important. They leave lasting impressions. So my first impressions of Italy will leave me with lasting impressions of being impressed, amused and a little in love.

Last night when I boarded my plane to Naples from Munich my first impression of Italian people is that they travel like Koreans. They have MULTIPLE shopping bags and carry-ons and jackets and and and.... and they shove it all up into the compartments above or under the seats or under YOUR seat if they need to, but the difference is they are apologetic if they need your space or if they've made you uncomfortable. They smile, they say excuse me and they seem generally happy. So my first impression of the Italian people is that they are sweetly chaotic and I like it.

Once I arrived I got my bag (nearly first off the plane), wandered out onto the street and began to wonder about hailing a taxi. No problem! There is a taxi line and drivers are helping each other to get fares instead of competing to take them from each other. It was fast, efficient and friendly to hop into a taxi and the rates are FIXED. Twenty Euros from airport to hotel door and the driver wanted to be sure I was safe so he walked me to the door, rang the doorbell, explained a new guest had arrived and even offered to pay for my elevator (it costs 10 cents to to use the elevator in the building I am in)!!! Can you imagine?! So my first impression of Italian taxi drivers is that they are gentlemen!

My hotel is a bit more of a bed and breakfast, the rooms are small and simple and CLEAN. It suits my needs perfectly! And the staff speak VERY little English but want to chatter away to you in Italian as the two ladies did this morning at breakfast, asking me in rapid fire about the kind of coffee I wanted. I was overwhelmed but also overjoyed at their friendly sweetness... thank goodness for the two American ladies who were there and had been for a couple of days. They were able to help me get a coffee. :) So my first impressions of Italian ladies is that they are sweet, funny and kind. My first impressions of other travelers in Italy is that they too are sweet, funny and kind.

Today I decided to wander the streets of Napoli (Naples), just looking around and getting a feel for the place. I wanted (hoped I could find, more like it) to see the street where they sell all the presepi (nativity scenes). And, I did! In fact, I stumbled upon it as I just wandered the streets, following the loose directions of one of the hotel workers (he's a lovely and flirty Italian man who greeted me by name this morning... I really do recommend the Sweet Sleep Bed and Breakfast if you come to Naples). I loved wandering the noisy and chaotic streets of Napoli. Cars and scooters and people all swimming together in the channels that are the streets here. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how it flows, but flow it does. And I felt safe... Sure, I took proper precautions with my valuables but I never felt that having a bag on my shoulders made me a target or that I was going to be hit by the scooters careening down the streets. My first impressions of Napoli are much like my first impressions of her people, sweetly chaotic, funny and kind.

Here are some photos that encompass my first impressions of this place:

I love little markets and specialty shops and this place is full of them. It's the way of life here!

Amid all the chaos are these amazing buildings, sculptures and pieces of art... beauty is everywhere!

One of the LARGER streets in the area of my hotel...

Some of the pieces used to make the presepi (nativity scenes)... they aren't all serious and holy, they encompass the comic and the every day... just like Italians in general.

Me... happy... it's a bum shot of myself but I have no one to blame but the photographer!! hehehe But I'm happy.... happy to be here, happy to stay where I am staying and happy to experience new things!!

Hives, Hospitals and Hankerings

2011-12-16T13:30:00.002-05:00

Yup, the three H's of my last week. Let me chronicle for you exactly what happened.

Saturday in the wee hours of the morning (yes, I was returning home from a great night out with friends), I felt my back go into full spasm. I couldn't stand up straight, couldn't walk and couldn't relax. So Saturday I spent most of the day in a horizontal position (nope, not one of the H's yet).

Sunday I began to feel better and dragged myself out of bed and down to the school's brunch/bizarre in support of our CAS Project (I've posted about this recently). I had a great lunch but was feeling a little hot and like another cold was heading my way. I had work to do so after the brunch, I wandered down to Starbucks for a coffee and some work time. I had forgotten a pen and so didn't get all that I needed completed. But never mind, I came home and got right to work, completing my report cards, writing important emails and developing some much needed documents for my school. Great day! Nope, still no H's... yet!

Around 3:30 on Monday morning I woke up with an itch (yes, yes, here come the H's) on my leg. It was like an intense mosquito bite, so I woke up scratching it but thought nothing of it until later when I woke up for real at around 6:30. My leg was itchy all over, both were... they were covered in HIVES. I wasn't too worried though as they weren't anywhere else on my body and I thought I had simply put some unusual cream on my legs or something. The hives then moved to my torso, feet, arms, head and neck. I was scratching like crazy and took some Benadryl to calm it down but it didn't help. So off I went to basketball practice and then to home. I thought I would flush whatever it was out of my system with lots of water etc.

Around 2:30 am on Tuesday I was loading myself in a taxi because now the hives were causing major swelling in my left foot and left forearm. I was in full freak out mode at this point. Off to the HOSPITAL I went... yah! Now, if you know me, you know that I have no love for hospitals in general, never mind where a language barrier could be involved... but I had to go... the first H required the second H because I was HANKERING for some sleep and relief. Once I got there I found a nearly empty emergency room with 3 nurse itching (no pun intended) to help me. One slid an IV in my hand (best one I've ever had... didn't even feel it) and promptly hooked me up to a bag of "anti-allergic" as my doctor said. I was out and back home within an hour... relieved and exhausted.
Later that same day I went back to the hospital to get checked by a doctor to get to the bottom of this allergic reaction mystery (no, no change in foods, lotions or detergents that I had been using previously). I slept off and on for most of the day.

On Wednesday I woke up to find a couple of minor hives on my legs but there was no itch except my feet, hands and ears. However, the hives came back with a vengeance... attacking my legs, arms and torso this time. They were angry and red.

On Thursday, I taught for the first 2 hours of school and them my teaching partner (who is pretty much a goddess) let me go back to the hospital to get checked again. Turns out the first set of tests said I was only mildly allergic to dogs (but since I don't have one in my home, that wasn't the cause this time) and nothing else. My doctor smiled sweetly at my concern, did a little check of the vitals and declared me fine. He then gave me a new drug regimen to help with the hives and sent me home for the rest of the day. Again, I spent most of it sleeping.

Today is Friday and I have been 95% hive free all day and the last of the left me this afternoon. It's been a week of hives, hospitals and hankering to be hive-free! Thank goodness it is over!

Is it an allergic reaction or EVIL EYE?

2011-12-12T13:02:00.002-05:00

This year has been very busy and stressful for me. I'm part of the leadership team in the elementary which also means I'm part of the school-wide curriculum leadership team, I lead a whole elem. staff inservice at the beginning of the year, I coached boys high school volleyball, I'm assisting with girl's basketball, I'm searching for new jobs and I'm the social coordinator for my entire staff. Now, those of you who truly know me know that I THRIVE on being busy and close to the edge of maxed out. But it's been hard this year because I'm also struggling with one illness after another since volleyball ended. So in November, I returned from the volleyball trip to London with a little bit of a cold that after 2 weeks turned into a raging infection and cold. I finally dragged myself to the doctor who immediately put me on anti-biotics to clear up the infection and other meds to deal with the cold symptoms. Great... I began to feel better but then struggled with my back spasming (this I can handle pretty well) and some uncomfortable side-effects to the anti-biotics. Back to the pharmacy I went, got the meds I needed and started feeling better from that when I felt a cough and chest cold coming back. I prescribed myself with rest, relaxation and some Vicks Vapo-rub only to wake up with hives covering my body. Now I think it must be an allergic reaction, but my Turkish teaching partner says it's the Evil Eye.
I'm not entirely convinced but perhaps someone out there is jealous or wishing me ill-will and it's effecting my health. I sure hope not and I also hope that these hives fade into the background as does the cold so I can enjoy my winter break in Italy in a week's time.

One of My Favourite Things About BLIS

2011-12-11T14:13:00.002-05:00

One of my favourite things about my current school (among a few others that are pretty awesome - including the people I work with and my ADORABLE students) is the CAS Project. Today I went to a brunch that our school and parents put on to raise money for the CAS Project. And, no, I can't remember what CAS stands for (something to do with community service though) but I do know what they do and that's what I love. This group (primarily high school students) works to make the world better.

One of their projects that I have participated in is the Sunday visits to the Ankara Center for Rehabilitation. Most of the children at the center aren't from Ankara, but from outlying villages where there is little help for the mental and/or physical difficulties that these children are challenged with. So they come to this center and stay for a prescribed period of time (the mothers come with them to care for them around the clock) to get help during the week. On the weekends they are permitted to stay there, but there is nothing for them to do. So the kids in CAS go out there and spend time with them, playing games, doing simple art projects and just bringing a little brightness to their weeks. I've been, I see the impact it makes and it's huge. I love it. I get way more from it than I give and I know that the kids feel the same.

Another one of the projects is to go to Romania or another country hosting the Habitat for Humanity project. They go there, bring their cheerful selves, build relationships and a house for a family in need. I haven't gone with them but I've seen their pictures and heard their stories and I know that as much help and sunshine as they bring with them, they take so much more away.

Yet another one of their projects (their biggest one) is to help a school in a village in Turkey. They raise the money to have proper bathrooms installed, then they go there and give the school a mild make-over (paint etc), establish a library for the children (sometimes there are none), and to spend a week loving on the kids at that school by sharing activities, smiles and hugs. Again, I haven't gone but I've seen the pictures and heard the stories. It's incredible.

And what I love most about it is that the parents, teachers, staff, students and whole school embraces the CAS project. We use it in my classroom to give the kids a goal of community service to shoot for, and I am sure it's like that in other classrooms too. How wonderful to try to instill these children at every level with the concept of social responsibility and to show them how much better they make the lives of others and themselves through it.

Today was a great reminder of all of that.

Bullying, what are we doing?

2011-12-07T11:41:00.003-05:00

I don't know if you've seen this video from this boy named Jonah or not. I know it went viral and is still floating around cyberspace, causinhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifg a stir. I just saw it today for the first time and was so saddened by what this kid has had to endure. I was abused and bullied as a child and then just bullied as a teen. I never cut myself like Jonah did, I never felt as alone as he does in this video, but I've known that kind of pain and alienation.

Now I'm a teacher and as I watched that video I got to thinking about all my students past and present. How many of them were like Jonah? Did I do enough to make them feel protected and safe, loved and somewhat happy? I've never thought of teaching as just a job or a 9-5 occupation where my only responsibility was to impart practical skills and knowledge to my students. I've always viewed my students as my kids. I love them like they all live with me (thank God they don't, though... that'd be far too many kids for a 2 bedroom apartment!!) and like I am responsible for their happiness. But I know that I didn't connect with EVERY student (I don't think it's possible simply because of personalities being different) and I worry. I worry that they felt sad, that they felt afraid, that they felt alienated, that they felt like there was no one for them to turn to.

This video also makes me ask the question of what were his teacher's doing? What are we ALL doing to lessen bullying in our schools and in our student's lives? Are we working hard to make sure that these kids understand social responsibility? Are we ensuring that they understand the meaning of words like tolerance, acceptance, caring, responsibility and respect? Or are we just taking a hard line, no tolerance kind of attitude (I agree that we can't tolerate bullying, but I don't know if expelling every bully is the solution to the problem... feels like a bizarre kind of Band-Aid) that teaches kids the power of complaint rather than the desire to create solutions. I don't have all the answers, but I sure have a lot of questions about how to handle these kinds of situations. I know that one can't just DEMAND tolerance, kindness, respect, trust, integrity and so on from children. They need to be taught these things by example (and I am, by no means, a perfect example of any of these), with words, with actions, and with care.

To my students of the past and present, I hope you have always felt cared for and safe in the classrooms where I have taught and I hope none of you suffered a Jonah-like experience when I was your teacher. I hope and pray that I will be more vigilant about teaching my students the kind of characteristics it takes to be a truly good and productive citizen of the world and that I will be more aware and mindful of the experiences my students have at school.

And finally, to my fellow professional educators, let's try to find solutions to this bullying situation together. Let's be examples of tolerance and acceptance, kindness and caring to our students on a daily basis. It won't be easy (especially on cold winter Mondays... speaking from my own experience) but it will be worth it if one less child feels the need to cut or consider suicide. It will be worth it if one more child learns to accept that kid who just isn't like all the others. It. Will. Be. Worth. It.

Turkish Doctors, Take 2

2011-11-30T10:04:00.002-05:00

You of the faithful few that read this blog will remember the absolute craziness of the last time I was at the doctors when they tried to give me a topical cream for an internal injury... *sigh* So for the past 2 weeks I've been battling a cold/sinus infection/chest infection/whatever else phlegm-based that could be going on in my body. Today, I finally admitted that I had lost the battle and trudged down to the campus health clinic wondering what could be the diagnosis or how on earth they would decide to treat me... After much fawning over the fabulous purse that Raymond gave me a couple of years ago, they sent me off to see a doctor. His English was great, he asked the right questions, gave the lungs a listen and then proposed some antibiotics to fight the infections and a sinus cold medicine for some more immediate relief. He also took one look at me and said that if I wanted he could write a doctor's note that would excuse me from the next 2 days of school! WOW!! So different from the last experience! YAH!!! Just goes to show... consistency is so not the name of the game in Turkey! ;)

Soho in London... the land of dead Barbies and fun times

2011-11-28T05:46:00.003-05:00

Yup, you read right... the land of dead Barbies and fun times. When I was in London, I was able to have most of my evenings free. This was great because I got to spend some time with family, so good to see Donna and Mike. I also got to hang out with one of my great friends who is a little CRAZY!! He decided that I needed to see the famous Soho of London and off we went for dinner and a couple of drinks. The streets were full of people getting ready to go to dinners, shows and parties. It was alive with energy and life. I loved it. First we went to a great restaurant that I can't remember the name of. After that we headed off to one small pub and then another. The last place was the one that caught my eye. We walked up to the door that was guarded by a very dapper and gorgeous man dressed in a black suit. I was nervous that the place was too posh for me, until I went downstairs that is. Downstairs was dark, the music was bumping and the ceiling was covered with dead Barbies and Troll dolls. You'd think this would be uber disturbing, but on the contrary, it was just plain funny. So, thanks, Taljit, for showing me the land of dead Barbies and fun times. Miss you much, my friend!
The wild and crazy streets of Soho

Yup... dead Barbies lining the ceiling... I took this leaning backwards and upside down... super fun!!

Me and Taljit...

Traveling with Teenage Boys

2011-11-28T04:14:00.003-05:00

It's not the first time and I am sure it won't be the last, but traveling with students presents a special challenge. It's a challenge to get them to meet you at 3:30 am so you can make your early flight. It's a challenge to get them to remember that their passports need to be in their carry-on bags and not left in the seat pocket of the plane you just exited. It's a challenge to get them to stop asking you ridiculous questions. It's a challenge to convince them to sleep on the late night return flight. It's a challenge to get them to walk from one place to the next without complaints. And it's a challenge not to adore them all by the end of the trip!

What's this all about, you ask? Well, a couple of weeks ago I traveled with my boys volleyball team from Ankara to London to participate in a volleyball tournament. It was the first tournament for this team and they ranged in age from 14 to 17. They were nervous and a little scared to be in a big gym with some very established teams, but they sucked it up, went in there and did their best. We didn't win a lot of games but we pushed some of the best teams to perform better and we made a lot of friends along the way. And, they stole my heart. Everyone of those boys did me proud with their play and their teamwork and with the way that they found love for a sport that many started to play just to travel to the tournament.

Here are some pics of our trip and my boys:

Playing their new "brothers" at the German School of London.

Getting ready to let the world know that we are BLIS! A timeout...

Warming up for a game.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

2011-11-14T06:42:00.003-05:00

Not too long ago, I rated my favourite and least favourite airports. Some are ridiculous with the security measures they take (but, hey, at least you have some sense of security, right?), others had nothing to offer outside of the plane right and a nasty bench to wait on. At the top of my least favourite list was London Heathrow. It always seemed disorganized and like a zoo when I had been there. That is until last summer when I sailed through transfers there like never before and the shopping etc had risen to the level of amazing. I cautiously moved it from my least favourite list, but it's BACK! I was traveling with students and tried to do a group check in. The grounds staff seemed a little confused at first but got on board and had a supervisor usher is forward to someone who would "help" us. I guess the forgot to tell her that as she proceeded to tell me that ONE at a TIME was all she was doing. Okay... that's fine. Then she was rude and grumpy with the students when they were fairly polite to her. However, others stepped in and got our kids processed VERY quickly and efficiently and even managed to organize it so that we were sitting together. We breezed through security (these kids are pretty seasoned travelers themselves so it was easy) and split up to spend our 2 hours of free time shopping etc. Sounds fine, right? Well, typical to Heathrow, our gate wasn't listed on our boarding cards. We told the kids to continually check the boards and to give themselves plenty of time to get to the gate. The gate was listed to close at 2:55pm. At said time, the boards still listed our flight as please wait. Also not unusual but we asked an attendant and he informed us we'd be boarding at gate 21. So off we went, hoping it wouldn't change (which it didn't, so that was great). Once we FINALLY boarded the plane (well after our departure time) we found out that the reason for the delay was that Heathrow wasn't fully staffed that day for some reason and couldn't accommodate the volume of traffic (uh... people, millions go through this airport on the regular and have done so for AGES... you'd think you'd know that you need a butt-load of people to make it work). Fail, Heathrow... not epic, but enough to shift you back to the yucky list! ;)

Natural Disasters and the News

2011-10-26T12:21:00.002-04:00

When you live overseas one of the first things that you may notice (I did) was how inaccurate or ego-centric North American media can be.

When I lived in Korea, I got worried emails and calls almost weekly about the riots (I worked directly across from the National Assembly my first year there and the worst their riots ever did was cause me a delay in getting home, no worse than the spring Cherry Blossom Festival) or the constant threat of kidnapping or bombing from North Korea (which was mostly posturing by one side or the other to look meaner than the other). News reports made it seem to most North Americans that Korea was a place of serious unrest and that it was just a matter of time before I died from it all as a lone white face in the crowd (there are multitudes of foreigners living happily and safely in South Korea, by the way).

When I moved to the Middle Eastern country of Oman, I also got regular calls and emails worrying about the imminent invasion or danger (this was right around the time of the second Gulf War... please excuse my ignorance in not knowing which Operation it was... I'm Canadian, not American and not all that interested in the technicalities of battles etc, instead I simply worry about the folks involved and am grateful for their sacrifices) from the anti-air firing of one kind or another. Sure, times were more precarious and I was in the Gulf region, but I was way down in the south of it and my sweet lifestyle wasn't altered a bit. I wasn't treated less for being North American or white... I was respected as a woman and a foreigner and I loved being there (would move back in a heart beat if the opportunity arose). Media in North America planted a seed though that ALL the Middle East was oppressive and dangerous. It just wasn't true and I STILL find myself defending the beautiful people I met there.

Now I live in Turkey and some of the attitudes about the people are similar to that of Middle Eastern people (which Turks are not, by the way. They do not consider themselves Middle Eastern and, in fact, they are much more aligned with Eastern Europe than the Middle East). But that is not the biggest misconception. The biggest so far is that Turkey is a small place. It's not. Turkey is a HUGE country. Just the past Sunday, a massive but shallow earthquake struck the Van region in the east of Turkey (most news agencies led with the headline that a massive and destructive earthquake hit Turkey and my inbox got flooded with concerns. I know, I know... the public is also responsible to educate themselves and should have looked a little more deeply, but it wouldn't hurt the media to at least mention that it was in the far east of the country). Van is more than 1,000 km from where I live and I didn't feel the slightest tremor. I also didn't feel last year's closer earthquake in Sivas (I was in the air on my way to Antalya at the time). Nor did the bombing that happened in Ankara (my actual city) hurt anyone I knew nor was it heard or felt anywhere near me (although, that did shake me up more as it was closer to home for sure).

I guess what I am saying, folks, is that when the news throws some scandalous headline your way, PLEASE read a little deeper, find out a little more before you panic. Also, I'd like you to think about how you can help the victims of the earthquake in Van. Connect to the Turkish Embassy or Consulate in your country and see if you can do something, donate money or find out if international organizations are helping out. Turkey is mobilizing wonderfully, starting blood drives, clothing drives, medical drives, food drives and so on. The area that was affected is very close to the Iranian border and it is VERY cold in the winter. Winter seems to be coming early this year and tens of thousands of people are currently without homes, clothes and basic survival needs. Even my students are pitching in, we are helping to spear-head a drive for basic needs at school with the fifth grade. We need more help than just this country and her loyal foreigners can give. Please send aid if you have the means or the time at all.

Struggle to Survive

2011-10-22T08:54:00.003-04:00

That's the title of the first Unit of Inquiry that my students study at BLIS. They learn about needs and wants, how those look different depending on climate and location and how some don't have their needs met equally and what happens as a result. It's a pretty amazing thing for kids to gain a more global understanding of basic needs for survival and to see them grasp it and to become more socially responsible is simply a thrill. Not all the kids get it and not all of them take action, but some do and hopefully more will in the future.
To help the kids understand the consequences of not having our basic needs met, we took them to an animal shelter here in Ankara. It was eye-opening for all of us and left many of the adults heart broken. The shelter we went to see houses over 2,700 (yes, TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED) dogs alone. We weren't able to ascertain if they had a spaying/neutering program but it didn't seem like it as puppies were abundant. These dogs aren't tame and can't be adopted and the government seems to give minimal support as many of the animals looked to be on the brink of starvation. It was sad but it did drive home the point with many of our students about having our basic needs met and helping others meet theirs.
Here are some photos of what we saw:

The cage where some of the cats are kept. One climbed the cage door to try and get the kids to touch her.

The kids carrying the food they brought to give the animals. They were walking through a corridor of cages filled with malnourished nursing moms and puppies.

One of the cages filled with both female and male dogs.

More dogs. And this was the nicest of the cages... most were dirt and row after row of dog houses (thankfully the dogs can get out of the weather somewhat).

The cats...

My Seker (Sugar) Bayram (Holiday)

2011-10-22T07:44:00.007-04:00

*this post is super late... sorry folks*

Here in Turkey, they mark the end of the month of Ramadan with a holiday called Seker Bayram. I got a whole week off from work for the holiday and it translates into Sugar or Sweet Holiday and sweet it was!! I had already planned my week last spring and was ready to hop on the plane whe the time came. I flew from Istanbul to Vienna and overnight-ed there (I love Vienna). Then I hopped on another plane early in the morning, bound for Amsterdam where my lovely aunt and uncle picked me up and whisked me off to Rotterdam. We spent a couple of days together with them showing me great places like Delft, Den Haag and all around Rotterdam. It was their last weekend there as well, so it was a pleasure to spend it with them, even if the weather had no intentions of cooperating.

Me being cheesy in Delft. Everyone needs a shot in the big shoe when in Holland,

The beautiful streets and canals of Delft.

Deflt Blue Porcelain is what people think of when they think of Holland... well, that, the shoes and the tulips. In Delft, they even put it in the sidewalks and streets.

In Den Haag, we saw a procession of police waiting to escort a minister from Turkmenistan or one of the 'stans... it was pretty interesting... especially the cop on the end who was dancing...

The big cathedral in Den Haag. So beautiful.

My savoury Dutch Pancake... so yummy, washed down with a wheat beer... also yummy!

Every train station had a sign for the kiss and ride... so much nicer than the North American drop and ride or park and ride.

The boat we took for our tour around the harbour of Rotterdam. So nice!!

There they are... tulips! And these are wooden ones!

An old street car in Rotterdam.

A building in Den Haag.

After that I took a train to the most beautiful place I'd seen: Brugge, Belgium. It was the most beautiful little town with winding streets and canals everywhere. I really enjoyed wandering around trying to find my hotel on my own (not always that easy, since street signs are few and far between and the locals don't seem to know street names either - they mark a location by the church that is nearest). Once I found my hotel, I was thrilled to find out that I had the top floor where the roof was tilted and the view looked out over this fairytale city. It was simply gorgeous and the beer... well, it was DELICIOUS!! I even tried some of the local food (some of which was way out of my comfort zone: mussels au gratin, rabbit stew) and just loved it all. Not to mention the fantastic chocolate!

The view from my hotel in Brugge. It was beautiful!

The horse carriages were common and popular in Brugge. I didn't take one but I wanted to.

The peaceful cloisters in Brugge where women can live in peace and not be nuns. Very interesting and serene.

Mmmm... more Belgian beer! With over 1,000 varieties to try, I did my best but came no where close.

A Belgian waffle of course!! ;)

A very tasty brewery I found while wandering the streets in Brugge. I did a LOT of walking that day.
One of the first things I saw when entering the town. It was just so beautiful.

The next day, I hopped another train (the train system in Europe is fantastic and not that expensive really) bound for Brussels. I was fortunate enough to have a former colleague and friend who was letting me sleep on an air mattress at her place (and sleep great I did, by the way). She was also willing to be my guide that evening and to tell me the must see stuff in Brussels (she was the one who also suggested Brugge... by far my favourite place on the entire trip). I had some trouble finding her though as Brussels is much like Brugge in that no one knows the names of the streets and very few street signs or maps were around (unlike Paris from my previous spring break... where finding things was super easy). But find her I did and we went out for one of the best salads of my life in one of the prettiest restaurants I've ever seen. We also went to the local farmer's market that turns into a giant street bar! It was a blast and the beer... well, YUMMY!!This was my favourite beer: Raspberry beer!!!
The next day I hopped yet another train bound for Amsterdam and wandered around there for 3 days. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the city. People were friendly and relaxed and it was incredibly easy to get around and see everything. They even have a hop on, hop off canal tour, which I took. The weather finally began to cooperate and it was lovely.

The famous I AMsterdam sign. This is when I wish I had a travel buddy to take a pic of me in front of it.

The bell tower of the church next to the Anne Frank Huis... an amazing experience to visit there.
The view from my hotel on Prinsengracht.
Bicycles everywhere!!
The old Heineken Brewery that is now a museum and Heineken Experience. Very cool!

Just Call Me an International Runner

2011-10-17T12:45:00.002-04:00

So back in the day I was dating a guy who was a runner and it got me into running (I was terrible at it back then and am only marginally better now). I ran my first 5K race in VA when I lived there and hated it, but I refused to give up (the next year I won for my age range in that same race... I may have been one of two people or even the ONLY one in my age range but so what?!?!?!) And I've never looked back. Last spring I did something silly, I got all excited about a race here in Turkey: the Istanbul Marathon 8K race. I decided I would run it and I made sure I would by telling all my friends and signing up as many as I could with me. Well, D-day was this past Sunday. And in the drizzling rain and cold winds, I stood with my super cool running shirt from the race (it's in the picture) on the Asian side of Istanbul and starting running at 9am. I ran over the bridge and into Europe and 8km later (1 hour, 10 minutes, and 32 seconds if you are as slow as me), I completed that race... soaked to the bone, but so happy. Running across that bridge that spans 2 continents was so cool, running past the 5km mark and still feeling like I had more to give was awesome, reaching the finish line in my normal training time and STILL feeling like a could have gone a little longer well... that was priceless for me!!! So, thanks KJ, for being a runner and influencing me to take up the sport... next stop? 10 KM at the Runtalya Race in Antalya, Turkey in March!! ;)

Dancing Fools!

2011-10-17T12:32:00.002-04:00

Okay, they aren't fools, but they are dancers! Sometimes at my school teachers need to cover for one another so that people can go to meetings, professional development or so they can go home and rest from being ill. On a couple of occassions this year I've covered for our Drama/Dance teacher. I know, how cool that we have Drama and Dance at school!! Anyway, I digress. So last week our Drama/Dance teacher needed me to cover for about 15 or 20 minutes and it was the lesson with my students. It was a Salsa lesson. Uh.... WHAT?!?!?! I've done some ballroom before but not really any Salsa. But I said yes and decided to wing it. I started by asking the kids to show me what they knew already and they did great, counting out their steps and showing me the basic step in slow motion. So I thought I'd ask them to partner a little... and they were cool about dancing with partners, even partners of the opposite sex (go Grade One!!). So partner they did (I told them just to touch palms and perhaps this helped to avoid the icky boy/girl germ thing from happening) and then as we were counting steps I turned to see kids partnered like this:

WHAT?!?!?! Too cute!! I love these little dancing fools!!

The Hardest Part...

2011-10-12T08:07:00.002-04:00

The hardest part of being a teacher is when you become incredibly attached to your students and a tragedy befalls them. A couple of years back, that tragedy was the reason I met one of the students that I became incredibly attached to. He was a grade 5 student at the time and was suffering from cancer. I was enlisted to be his homebound teacher. So each week, it was my job to set time with him to teach him the material that his regular class learned during the week. We worked together for 5 hours a week for several weeks. I watched him go through the lows of his chemo treatments and ended up befriending his mom. I love that family with my whole heart and I feel so privileged to have become part of their inner circle. But as a cancer patient, the student had to continually go for check-ups. All of which have been routine and good until this week. This week, a mass was found in his stomach. More tests will tell if the cancer is back, but now I am very far away and cannot stand next to this family like I want to... so I am doing what I can, I am asking all of you to pray. Pray for this family and for those connected to them. Spread the word to all you know who would be willing to pray. The hardest part is this, there is little we can do but pray and people want to fix things and be active.
So thank you in advance for your prayers for this situation!

Back in the Swing of It!!

2011-09-22T14:42:00.002-04:00

That's what it finally feels like. We are nearing the end of the 3rd week of school and I am finally beginning to feel like I am getting back into the swing of it. At my school, there is just a feeling that the year doesn't really settle in and begin until after Curriculum Night with the parents (which was tonight), and I have to agree. After meeting all the parents en mass, it felt like the year was really beginning. Sometimes I wonder if we should move Curriculum Night up so that the start is earlier, but then I think about how much I already know about my kids because I've been with them for the last 3 weeks and I think that I couldn't possibly be as comfortable talking about them with their parents any earlier. And can I just say how wonderful the Turkish parents are?! For the second year in a row, my teaching partner and I were able to deliver our presentation in record time and have parents more than happy with the information we gave. They listened well, asked great questions, laughed at our cheesy jokes and were just KIND, KIND, KIND!! Maybe that's part of feeling like I am finally back in the swing of things... anyway... here we go and let me leave you with another funny from another student as told to me by the mom:

At the end of a presentation, a mom came to me and told me that her child was very happy in our class (I am thrilled to hear this always), but then she told me that the child was thrilled because (get this...) I wasn't preggers!!!! hahaha She said that her child was happy that I wouldn't be leaving part way through the year like the kindergarten teacher did the year before. I guess her child gets pretty attached pretty quickly!!! LOVE IT!!

Another New Year, Another New Class, Another Funny Student

2011-09-16T08:36:00.002-04:00

One of the things I love best about teaching little kids is that they simply speak their minds and have a natural sense of timing when it comes to comedy. Every year that I have taught I have had one or two students that are just better at this than most. This year I have one such student. This child is calm, cool, collected and simply funny. As my teacher friend commented when I told her the story: this kid has a big person's sense of humour in a little body!

Here is what happened today with my little straight-faced comedian:

Kid: Can I ask you something?

Me: Of course.

Kid: CAN you have kids? (this comes DAYS after my class asked me if I had any children of my own)

Me: Sure, I can if I want them and maybe if I have a husband. (Turkish society is a little more conservative)

Kid: Do you WANT a husband?

Me: Sure... that would be nice...

Kid: Well... are you even TRYING to find one?!

Me: uh... HAHAHAHAHA

I couldn't keep it together... this kid cracks me up on the daily, but this one had me in tears... I love my job on days like this!!!!

Vancouver Pride Parade

2011-08-10T22:47:00.003-04:00

This post is a little (okay, a lot) late in it's arrival. But in my defense, I just haven't been blogging as much as I could or should be... wait, that's not much of a defense, is it? Basically, I've been busy being lazy and now I feel like I've missed posting some great things.

Part of the joy of being a teacher is having the summer months off to recuperate, rejuvenate, and re-open your mind to what life has to offer. And because I am international, I get the special joy of coming home and reconnecting with friends and family.

One of the days that I chose to go into the city of Vancouver turned out to be the date for the Vancouver Pride Parade. My friends and I hadn't thought about it in advance when we scheduled to meet downtown on Robson St. for brunch but what a happy coincidence! Myself and one other of my friends had never been to or seen a pride parade before and were more than happy to have window seats along the beginning of the parade route. All I can say is that it was a wonderful celebration of life and whatever your religious leanings or beliefs may be, you just can't deny how much fun these people were having and how much they were loving life!

Here are a few pictures that I got from our restaurant seats... enjoy!!

Made me think of Carnivale time... very cool.

Requisite tighty-whitey dancers...although, those are tighty-purplies... hehehehe

The belle of the ball, so to speak. Lots of fantastic drag going on on those streets.

Lots of great support for HIV/AIDS causes... loved the red feather boas!!

And, yes, there were Trojans... hehehe

All in all, it was a lot of fun and there were apparently over 600,000 people viewing the parade and all crowds were on their best behaviour... the city was electric with a Mardi Gras type atmosphere (they even threw beads). It was great!

Summer Coming to a Close

2011-08-10T15:38:00.002-04:00

Even though it doesn't officially end for a little while, my summer vacation is coming to a close and so, by very definition, summer is coming to a close for me. Today I am doing that final load of laundry with a dryer (I don't have a dryer in Turkey, so the luxury of soft jeans is pretty amazing) as I am packing. I've become genius at fitting a maximum amount of things in a smallish space. I did purchase another bag for the return trip (I bought a ton of classroom things that I missed last year, treats for my teaching team and myself, some clothes, 4 pairs of shoes and I went through some of my stuff in storage and tossed that in too). So far one bag weighs in at about 42 pounds and the other remains to be seen as those last pairs of jeans are getting their dryer time right now.

At this time of year, I am usually stressed with packing and making sure that I am not overweight in my bags (as it is, I will most likely need to pay for the second bag) and that I have what I seem to feel is absolutely necessary for me to be successful in the coming year. Typically this leads to at least one spaz attack and a few tears (depending on the time of the month, of course). However, this year I feel blessed to have more than I thought I could take back in my bags already. I feel relaxed and organized. I'm super pleased with my purchases and with my packing. I am sure that once I get to Turkey I will realize that I've forgotten one of the most important items, but for the moment, I feel like I have it in control.

So that is the first sign that vacation and summer is coming to a close, the second is putting myself on the scale. Five whole pounds have been added to my weight as I gorged myself on all the things I don't typically get while in Turkey (REAL maple syrup, BACON, meat - I tend not to buy a lot of meat- Coffee Crisp, KD!!! and the list goes on). So I know the end is near when those dryer dried jeans feel a little (HA, try A LOT) tighter than they did when I arrived in Canada.

The next sign that summer is coming to a close is that I begin to get excited about the coming year. My brain begins to go crazy thinking of all the things I could be making and prepping for my students and fellow teachers. And I start to get bored with my endless days of reading, sun bathing and chatting with friends. (Don't worry... I am aware of how WEIRD that is.)

With that said, I need to get back to laundry, cleaning and packing... in 48 hours I will be hanging out in Turkey again (takes more than 24 hours to get there... you lose 10 hours with time change alone)! Look for start of the year blog posts coming soon...

Santa? Demre, Turkey

2011-07-24T17:18:00.003-04:00

Demre, Turkey is considered to be the original home of what we now know as Santa Claus. It is part of the area of Myra (see my previous post) and has multiple shops and museums dealing with Saint Nicholas. It's an interesting little town and great because you can stop there for a couple of hours, have lunch and see the museums, sites and shop in the little bizarre. Have a look:

Myra, Turkey

2011-07-24T17:06:00.003-04:00

As we were on our way to one location or another, we decided to take a little detour to see this ancient Lycian site. For more information about the Lycians and the actual site, check out this website. I will say that it is a must see in Turkey. It is simply amazing and worth the crowds and the summer heat. Here is a quick look at what we saw there:

The amazing arena/theatre.

The tombs carved into the cliffs.

An ornate carving that is just sitting on a rock.

Me and antiquity... I LOVE history.

Kaş, Turkey

2011-07-24T16:31:00.003-04:00

Kaş is an amazing location in the south of Turkey. It's on the Mediterranean coast and is about 3 hours or so outside of Antalya. The roads getting there are windy and run along the coastline so you get some pretty amazing views while you drive, but they are narrow roads with little room for passing (especially since there was a lot of road work going on when I drove through). Kaş is also famous for the tombs that are there (some are carved into the cliffs and some are just out in the streets). The market there is small but beautiful and even better at night. Lots of fresh seafood is available and it's a great location to just relax. We only spent a couple of nights there and didn't make use of the tiny cove-like beaches but enjoyed it nonetheless. Here is a look:

The famous house tombs, this one is in the market.

The Lycian tombs that are carved into the dramatic cliff sides.

The view from our hotel room. We were lucky enough to get the top floor (although we weren't lucky enough to have an elevator!!).

The harbour as seen from the end of the breakwater.

hehehe.... this is what we came home to after our first day there. We all cracked up as we found the beds decorated.

Oh... Olympos...

2011-07-24T15:51:00.002-04:00

Go to Olympos, go to Olympos... stay in the tree houses, you'll love it. This was the consistent answer I got when asking about where to take my friend and her daughter when they came to Turkey to visit. People talked to me as if Olympos would be the summer mecca of beach, ruins and awesome location. My friend (from Canada) heard the same from those she spoke to that had been to Turkey before. So we made sure to put it on our list and booked into the recommended tree house pension (hostel) and made our way there. As we drove down the incredibly windy road, my friend began to hum the song from Deliverance... you know, the one with the banjo. We kept driving and it didn't get much better. The road was narrow and had loads of pensions on either side. We found ours near the bottom, parked and then checked in. Thankfully we had booked into a bungalow (they had their own bathrooms and air conditioning, which in 45 degree heat was a must), although 3 single beds in a room big enough for just one double bed was a tight squeeze. Then we went to look at the ruins and the beach (we were eager to cool down in the beautiful Mediterranean sea and to lay out and relax on what we thought would be a sandy beach). So off we went, down the dirt road to the area with the ruins and the beach. We paid for our entrance (it's a protected historical area so you have to pay a small fee to get in), walked through the ruins which were super cool and onto a VERY rocky beach. It wasn't like the pictures but we tried to make the best of it and just enjoy our time out there. After a couple of hours, we were done with rocks being imbedded in our skin and wandered back to our room. Our pension offered half board, so you got breakfast and dinner, which was brilliant. The food there was excellent and they had oodles of back gammon games to play while you killed time, which was pretty much what we did all the time. There was no pool or anything else to do there. One day we took a short drive down to a neighbouring village (Andrasan) just to see what it was like and it was GORGEOUS! They had beautiful boutique hotels (that were CHEAPER than our HOSTEL) that had pools and were across the street from a beautiful, sandy beach. Much more my style!
Olympos is beautiful but it's more for the backpackers and backpacker, I am NOT. When we were leaving I had a conversation with one of the workers:
Him: Leaving? Already?
Me: Yes, we've been here for 3 days, time to get to the next location
Him: Ah... will you come back again?
Me: Probably not (this was at 6:15 am because we'd been up since about 4 am with roosters crowing)
Him: what?! why?
Me: well... this is kind of a backpacker kind of place (he nods) and I'm kind of a resort kind of girl.
We both laughed. So if you are looking for a GREAT backpacker experience with lots of late teen and early twenty-somethings that party late and roosters that start at 4 am, then go to Olympos... but if you are a little more like me, then head to Andrasan but go to Olympos for a day to see the gorgeous ruins.

Çeşme

2011-07-16T17:31:00.003-04:00

Çeşme is another coastal town near Izmir. It's cute but, truth be told, it was not nearly as charming and beautiful as I hoped. The bizarre was small and cute but I think I was expecting more after the early places we had been. Although the castle/fortifications there were pretty cool as they were right on the water front. Here is what Çeşme looked like (by the way, it was 2 and 3 times more expensive than Kusadasi, so I am not sure that it's worth staying there):

The castle on the waterfront.

Near the waterfront.

The main street of the bizarre. It was very quiet here.

Alaçatı

2011-07-16T16:52:00.003-04:00

Alaçatı is a beautiful town along the coast in the Izmir region of Turkey. It's known as a windsurfer's haven and really only has a 2-3 month busy season. It is by far the most charming place I have seen in Turkey so far. The merchants that live and work in the region (some only live there in the summers) told us that their low season with good weather is in May and September when the prices drop significantly. Here is how it looks:

Me... chilling in the streets. It was gorgeous and made me want to live there.

Most of the restaurants, cafes and hotels had outdoor seating like this. So relaxed and chill.

And this is one of the beaches near the town where the windsurfing is paramount. It's worth the visit for sure!!

Kuşadası

2011-07-16T16:17:00.003-04:00

Kuşadası is a beautiful port town in southern Turkey, about an hour outside of Izmir. It's just 18km away from Ephesus and Meryamana (the fabled final home of Mary, mother of Jesus). The town is nestled into the hillside and enjoys an amazing port that hosts cruise ships on a daily basis throughout the summer cruising season. The bizarre there is amazing, huge and clean. The shop owners are charming, kind and willing to negotiate a good deal. There are oodles of restaurants and bars and pubs. The location is great, the people are great and the atmosphere is fantastic. Check out my pictures for a little taste of what it's all about:

The library at Ephesus. I suggest going to Ephesus right at the time of opening or later in the day or early evening. The the height of the day it is extremely hot and overrun with all the tourists coming off the cruise ships. It costs about 20 TL to get in and it's well worth the price. I also suggest taking the horse carriages at the bottom gate to the top gate and then walking back down. It's nice to ride in the carriages and they take you to the Tomb of the Seven Sleepers. I think it cost at total of 40 TL to take the carriages and you can fit 4 people in, so it's not a bad deal and it's a nice way to see the gorgeous countryside.

As I said before, the area is stunning and a haven for cruise ships, but it's so beautiful that your sunset shots could literally be their own post cards.

This is a shot of one of the bizarre streets. It was typically quiet in the early hours of the day but picked up as the day went on and most shops didn't even think about closing until eleven pm or midnight.

This was the view from our budget hotel room. For my friend and I, it cost a total of 406 TL for 5 nights. The hotel was comfortable, clean but very basic but it suited our needs just fine. A great place to look for hotels is at booking.com.

This is the fabled site of Mary's final home: Meryamana. The house is not the original, but is continually rebuilt on the foundations of the original. The atmosphere here was amazing, serene and full of respect and reverence.

Renting Cars Internationally

2011-07-16T13:02:00.002-04:00

Renting a car isn't always easy when you live in a foreign country. You may not be getting the best price because you don't speak the language or know which local company offers reliable cars for a decent price. And it's kind of a hassle to constantly be seeking help from your local friends. It puts pressure on them to get your stuff done in your timing and not theirs (and can be a strain on your friendship) and it removes some of your independence. Well, with all my summer travels (numerous entries coming soon), I found a way to regain my independence and leave my lovely Turkish friends alone. There is a website called Argus Rentals that is global and helps you to find the car you need at just about any price point you can imagine. They scan about 500 car companies world wide to help you find what you want. I was able to find cars to rent at great prices and it was super easy. I highly recommend this site, no matter where you are in the world if you need or want to rent a car!

Coming Soon

2011-07-06T02:50:00.001-04:00

It's not easy to blog on the road when you are staying in little hotels and pensions that do not have the best internet connections and when you want to be out in the sun... but be on the lookout for a series of blogs from my summer travels: Izmir, Kusadasi, Alacati, Cesme, Marmaris, Kas, Demre, Olympos, Goreme, and Istanbul... should be a good group of posts... let's hope I remember all the stories to share!

School's Out For Summer!!!!!!

2011-06-22T02:22:00.002-04:00

Can you believe it?! Another school year has come and gone (for those of you in this business, you would have understood if I said another year has come and gone, but we gotta spell it out for the non-schoolies...).

At the beginning of each year, I am excited about what will come and I have forgotten how hard those first 6-8 weeks can be to get to know kids, to find out what their needs will be, to set up routines, to create a safe, learning environment and to scale back my expectations (based on what my last class could do at the end). I forget that I will be frustrated and working overly hard to get things rolling the way I want and need them to go. I am simply thrilled at the prospect of a new group of kids and then the work begins.

About mid way through the year, I'm feeling exhausted but some measure of success in what the kids can do and what I've done to help get them there. I feel like the kids will get to where I need them to go and every year I feel like this class is better than the last (with the exception of a few super star classes I've had in the past - ICS grade 1 you know who you are!!). I have lost the beginning of the year excitement and am just getting bogged down in the work and the paperwork that piles up with teaching. It's at this point in the year when summer seems farthest away and like we might never get there for all the weeks of teaching without a break.

Close to the spring, I'm beyond exhausted and worried about the few kids who aren't pulling up their socks and getting to where I need to go and I'm putting in extra hours at home researching or designing ways to help meet them where they are at and reach their potential. I'm now aching for a break and we get a week in the spring which is welcome but seemingly not enough. Also, at this point in the year, summer seems all too close and there is just too much to do still. Too much content left to teach, too many reports left to write, too many kids to help, too many little ceremonies and other things that come out of nowhere to try and fit in the already over-busy schedule.

After spring break comes and goes, it dawns on me that there is just no time left. We are now in full emergency teaching mode, we have to get all the kids ready for the next grade academically and behaviourly. It becomes a high pressure cooker full of expectations, worries, love and care. By now, I am far too attached to each of the little munchkins that walk into my classroom everyday and I'm even attached to their parents.

As the end of the year approaches, I panic! I know you would think that this would be the slow release of the kids but it's not. I panic to make sure that I've done enough to prepare them, in fact, to over prepare them in case there is some regression of language and understanding over the summer break. I'm stressed and worried about who will teach them the next year (we have FABULOUS teachers at every grade level here and I love the second grade team). I worry that they won't understand the quirks of this boy or the seemingly annoying habits of that girl. I worry that they won't be patient enough with my babies or that they won't love them as much or as fiercely as I do (again, let me tell you how GREAT our second grade team is and how hard they work... I know this in my head but my heart just can't absorb it for some reason, no matter the school or the teachers in the next grade). And so I try to squeeze learning and loving into every last second of the day. My goal isn't just to academically and behaviourly prepare them anymore... it's to send them off into the summer so full of knowledge and LOVE that they are eager to come back in the fall.

And then in the blink of an eye, the year is OVER. One minute the kids are chattering in your ear, annoying you with silly questions and goofy answers, making you double over in laughter with their antics and squeezing the life out of you in a bear hug and the next... the classroom is empty and the only sound is you clacking away on your keyboard trying to complete your paperwork or you putting things in boxes or you taking down the wall decorations etc. You go from ear-splitting noise to relative silence in a heartbeat and it feels wonderful and horrible at the same time. Wonderful that you are getting the break you desperately need to recharge and do it all over again in the fall and horrible because the little people you've poured your life into for the past 9 months are just gone.

So there... teachers out there... I hope I haven't misrepresented what we do in any way... this is how I see it and this is the first time I'm able to sit and reflect on it this way. And for those of you who don't teach or know a teacher well, I hope this gives you a little insight to what we do and how it feels for us when school's out for summer!!

Appreciate the educators in your life!

The Case of the Turkish Cat Burglar

2011-06-20T02:11:00.002-04:00

Okay... so there really wasn't a robbery, but it sure felt like it this weekend. On Saturday I came home from a day out in town to find my balcony door (which was shut when I left) wide open. I thought it was odd, but assume the wind had blown it open as it was a little gusty at times.

Then last night (or really this morning at 3:47 exactly) I woke to the sound of thumps and bumps INSIDE my apartment. I got up (which always makes me think of the time in the horror movies when the girls go to see what's causing the noises and then die... I'm the one who screams at them to stop being stupid) and looked around my apartment to find my front door and balcony door wide open. I then checked my apartment over and nothing was missing. So I closed and locked both doors (Turkish doors can't be opened from the outside without a key whether you lock it or not, so I usually don't bother when I am home), went into my bedroom, kept the light on and pretended to sleep.

Then when I got up for work, I heard a meow outside my door. A little black cat wanted to come back out the way she came in... hm... Needless to say, I did NOT let her back through... So even though none of my belongings were stolen, my sleep was!

Anıtkabir

2011-06-19T10:58:00.004-04:00

Anıtkabir is a stunning place in Ankara. It is the place that houses the final resting place and masoleum for the father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

It is a sight to behold and a wonderful place to spend a couple of hours. I highly recommend it if you ever come to Ankara. There is more to see in this city than it's wonderful airport (as suggested by some guide books as the only thing to see here). Here are some images taken there at the end of May when I went for the first time with visiting family:

There are a few of these stone reliefs... stunning.

A huge promenade is lined by these tigers.

Large statues are seen everywhere on the grounds.

Ataturk's final resting place.

The changing of the guard is truly something to be seen. It was mesmerizing.

Guards stand at just about every entrance. They rarely move and don't speak unless they are changing the guard...

The tomb as seen from the entrance where you come up into the masoleum space. It is so huge, so beautiful and FREE to go and see!!

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!!

2011-06-19T10:50:00.003-04:00

Spring is a rainy affair in Ankara, which is a semi-arid desert. The summers are hot and DRY and there is little rain in the fall and winter... but spring makes up for it. This spring has been especially bad, or so I am told. It has rained at some point just about every day since April and it's crazy. The huge claps of thunder, the lightning, the downpours and the hail. It's wild and fun to watch, that is unless you are stuck in a restaurant that has a river of rain water coming in the front doors. That's what happened at the end of May when my two aunts and two uncles dropped by for a weekend visit. Here is what it looked like through the lens of my camera:

By the time the rain stopped, it was well up past the door wells of all the cars. It was incredible.

Too Young to Dance?!

2011-06-19T10:33:00.003-04:00

So when was your first school dance? I think mine was a class dance party in grade 5. And then the first real dance came in Junior High. I remember worrying about what to wear, how to act, who would be going, who might or might not ask me to dance. I remember it being anti-climactic because I'd had just a little TOO much anticipation about what might or might not happen.

Well here in Turkey, school dances can begin as early as PRE-KINDERGARTEN!! Yup.... you read right... At the school I work out, the student council wanted to have a "Disco" to help raise funds for future projects. They planned it with the help of the adults, advertised it and sold tickets. Some of us teachers volunteered to chaperone (who doesn't want to see their students boogie down?!?!), and it was a go. I volunteered to watch the grade 1-3 hour and here is a little of what it looked like:

Yup... that's right, you do see a smoke machine, balloons and a professional DJ! The kids were coiffed (one even wore his rayban shades inside) and ready to party! And they made the most of the hour they had. The sang, danced, ate pizza and screamed when there was a song they liked.

Best part? The song selection. Being that this is NOT an English speaking country, lots of people here don't speak, read or understand English but they love the sound of English pop music for dancing. So amongst the great Turkish songs were things like: "Sex on the Beach" "I Kissed a Girl" "S&M" and a whole host of other songs that were crazy for little kids to listen too... but the kids didn't notice and just us stick-in-the-mud responsible adults did... no harm done!

Gorgeous Antalya

2011-06-19T10:32:00.000-04:00

Turkey is full of wonderful places to visit and loads of things to see. I've been here a year and traveled to a few of these places but the more I see, the more I want to see. And the best part is that when you live here, it is AFFORDABLE!! One of the greatest places is Antalya. It's right on the Mediterranean Sea and is beyond beautiful! Below are some pictures of my time there. I highly recommend it as a place to relax!!

This is part of the old bazaar in the area that winds up from the harbour all the way up to the top. It's beautiful, perhaps one of the nicest bazaars I've seen so far.

There was a man repairing carpets outside his shop in the bazaar. I love the thought of how the old things are revered and cared for here.

When you come out of the top of the bazaar you are next to the mosque or camii in the heart of the city, or the old city at least. It's beautiful and the grounds surrounding it are lovely as well.
From near the mosque, if you look out towards the water, this is what you see... a hillside, crammed full of shops, houses, hotels, restaurants and cafes. It's actually quite beautiful.

A little further along is the harbour. I walked all the way down there (there are steps and a road). It was beautiful.

At the harbour there are oodles of little restaurants, cafes and these boats. They are all eager to have you join their tours for various prices and lengths of time. And just like everything (or almost) in Turkey, the price is negotiable. The boat that I took was supposed to be out for a 45 minute tour of the harbour area (that was all I wanted to see) and the price started at 70 Euros. I ended up paying 30 Turkish Lira and got my drink for free and I am SURE that more bargin savvy people could get a better deal than I did. The down side is that they wait until they have a good number of people on the boat. Some bigger boats fill up faster but at the same time, this was not crowded and very nice.

Here I am... waiting for my boat to go out... it was a good chance to work on my tan... bring SUNSCREEN... the sun here is POWERFUL!!

On the way, you will see little coves like this, waterfalls and even hotels and restaurants built into the cliffs. AMAZING!

And one of my favourite parts of the trip was seeing this guy... *sigh* happiness!!

So go... go to Turkey and go to Antalya... it's worth it!!

Turkish Women and PAIN!

2011-05-17T03:27:00.002-04:00

This is just an observation: Turkish women have a high pain threshold.

How did I come to this observation? Well... some remember my previous post about making a waxing appointment. It has a lot to do with that. I've had waxing and laser hair removal treatments before so I am familiar with the pain of it but Turkish women take it a step further. Many of my female Turkish friends get EVERYTHING waxed and I'm not just talking about the bikini. They get arms, armpits, bikini, full legs, eyebrows and upper lips (if need be) all done on the same day!!! I can't even begin to imagine! And they don't seem phased by it at all, like it is the most natural kind of pain that there is. So, that's how I've come to the conclusion/observation that Turkish women have a high pain threshold. So next time you complain about that half-leg wax or regular bikini wax... think about the Turkish woman and what she endures to look great, be clean and hygienic. It will make you thank your lucky stars that you aren't compelled to wax your entire body.

Eskişehir

2011-05-15T12:09:00.003-04:00

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited to go to the city of Eskişehir with a group of new friends. Eskişehir means "old town" in Turkish but I didn't find anything about it old. It was a beautiful city that is easily accessible from Ankara by the high speed train (takes approximately 90 minutes and is 16 TL each direction). The city is FULL of college students and when we were there there was a basketball tournament (actually the catalyst to us going there, GO HACETEPPE!!!) and a dragon boat race going on. The city was teeming with people and the streets were crowded with young people. Most people we bumped into or that worked at restaurants and bars spoke English well enough that we could have gotten by. When you are there, you HAVE to go to the riverside, eat some çiğbörek which the city is famous for. You should also try to go to Traveller's Cafe... the food is excellent, the service was great and the decor was just fun and international. And if nightlife is your thing, then Club 222 is where it is at!! There is nothing in Ankara that even comes close to the kind of place it is... amazing. Below are a few pictures from our time in the city to wet your appetites for going... I highly recommend it!!

It might look a little like Venice, but I assure you, it's Turkey!

Me... the statue... making friends in the glorious sunshine!!

The big open streets and promenades alongside the river were simply amazing... it was a VERY European feeling place.

Telephone Translations...

2011-05-11T14:54:00.002-04:00

Living in a foreign country is often hard and mostly amusing. It's made even more so when there isn't a shared language or culture. To illustrate just how funny it can be, I am going to give you the phone conversation I had yesterday in making an appointment for a waxing:

Me: Hello?
Spa: Hello.
Me: I'd like to make an appointment.
Spa: English no!
Me: Is there anyone who speaks English?
Spa: Bir Daka (one minute)
Spa: Hello?
Me: Hi... I'd like to make an appointment.
Spa: What?
Me: Can I make appointment? (I am now beginning to drop any unnecessary words)
Spa: Yes, you can do that.
Me: Thank you. Is Saturday okay?
Spa: Yes, um... hm... yes, Saturday okay. What you have to do?
Me: I need to get a wax.
Spa: Wax? What is wax?
Me: Hair removal... I need to take out hair.
Spa: Laser?
Me: No, waxing.
Spa: You must define this waxing, I don't know what you mean.
Me: Is this the spa?
Spa: Yes, it is spa, I don't understand you waxing. What means waxing?
Me: Um... (trying desperately not to crack up) well, you put hot wax on the body and then rip it off and all the hair comes too.
Spa: AH!! Waxing! Okay... what time?

hahahaha really? I couldn't keep it straight. I lost it at that point but was able to book a time for my waxing. Gotta love when things get lost over the phone.

Spring Break: Paris, France!!!

2011-05-08T14:00:00.005-04:00

I know, I know... this post is a LONG time coming... sorry, gang, time just gets away from you sometimes. I also won't be posting ALL the pictures on here because... well... there are just TOO many of them. So here is a tiny taste of what it was like for me...

Everyday was a picnic!! This was the first full day and our host, Nicolas, took Sophia and I out around town and we stopped in this beautiful square (which was the first one ever built in Paris) to enjoy our noon meal... it was wonderful!!! And the park was loaded with people lounging about, eating lunch and soaking up the sun.
This is Nicolas showing us around that first day... so fun and so knowledgeable...

Moulin Rouge!!! hehehe Wish we could have afforded to go to a show there, but they are expensive!!

Self shots aren't always cute... but this one is pretty cute... it's Sophia and I at Versailles... we had such good weather most of the time that we elected to just be outdoors all the time. We only went inside one museum... and that was fine by us for this trip.

See? Why go indoors when you can enjoy this outdoors?!

In front of Versailles palace...

Sophia has a thing for eating FRENCH fries in FRANCE!!! And we both had a thing for enjoying the wine there with most meals... it was chilly this day, but we still sat outside with the heat lamps rather than be indoors...

Yup.... she's gone all Tex-ass on the Eiffel Tower... hehehehe

And this is me going all Asian tourist on it... hahahaha

Our one inside trip was to see L'Orangerie Museum which houses these, the Water Lilies by Monet... my all time favourite paintings.... so that was a must, and LOVE that they let you take flashless photos!!!!

And treat of all treats, I got to see two former students... Olga and Rovie... SO HAPPY to see them... they are beautiful, happy and successful women and it made me so excited to spend an afternoon with them. Blessings!!!

Ah... so NOT Parisian, but it made me SO happy... Dolsot Bimimbap... YUM!!! Korean food is a must for me when I can get it and here I got it and it was PERFECT!! ;)

If you haven't been to Paris yet... GO!! And go in the spring if you can. It really is amazing. It's one of those cities that just blooms and the people are sweet and helpful. At least to us they were... It was also pretty easy to walk around... all roads lead to the Louvre, pretty much and if they don't, just greet a Parisian in French (bonjour, comment ca va?) and then proceed to ask for help. Generally, they are only too happy to lend you a hand. Anyway, I loved it and would encourage anyone to go and see it.

Here an Airport, There an Airport, Everywhere an Airport

2011-04-18T10:08:00.003-04:00

One big part of having an international career is travel. And I believe that makes me a bit of an expert on airports. Generally I don't mind being in an airport. I know some people hate the crowds and the waiting, waiting, waiting... but I don't. I love watching people in airports (even better than WalMart sometimes). I also love that you can shop, have a snack and the occasional adult beverage. Sure, endless security checks aren't a thrill, but it's all part of traveling safely and that's okay with me. Here are some of my favourite and least favourite airports (or cities if I can't remember the name of the airport) and reasons why I like or dislike them:

LAX - this is one of my least favourite airports. It's extremely busy for one thing and poorly marked for another. I can get by in a busy airport but when I can't figure out where I am going because there are no signs, well... that's just another thing!

YVR - Vancouver is my hometown, so I am a little biased there but it's also such a pretty airport! I love arriving there. Leaving is usually fine unless you are connecting through the US. You have to go through US Customs in Canada when you transit through the US from this airport and it sucks! The US Customs often has security breeches or computer issues that cause lines to go out to the ticketing agents... it's crazy.

Seoul-Incheon - LOVE this airport. It's efficient, quick and easy to manoeuver. It's clearly marked, clean and just nice!

Charles De Gualle - I loved this airport for how quickly you can get out (there is no arrival customs... at all!!) but it was confusing and spread out over too many miles. It was huge and the duty free shopping when you leave is pretty much a joke. Boring!

Zurich - Um... perhaps it's the giant beer or the great shops or the clean bathrooms or the yummy sushi or the polite staff talking, but I loved this airport!! It was awesome!!! I loved my layover here.

Tokyo - I actually liked it here. It was so quiet when I got to my gate. Such a surprise. And there were good shops and things to do.

Manila - Oh my... this is one of my least favourites. You have to go through a million security checks and stand in ridiculous lines for nothing. And then once you've made it to the "secure" area there is a shop/restaurant that is about the size of a shoe box with the most limited selection possible. And then you have to go through at least one more security check before you get on the plane. And arrivals aren't much better. It's a gong show to get your luggage. I'm not positive but it seems like there are just 2 or 3 luggage belts for all the arriving flights. Chaos.

London-Heathrow - This airport is huge and clean and beautiful but also one of my least favourites. There is always some dramatic emergency or something happening here (once the air traffic controller caught fire so we couldn't land!!). And when you land for a transfer, you might think you are going to the gate next door (I landed at gate 25 and needed to go to gate 26) but in reality you need to do a giant loop through security that takes 45 minutes to get to the gate that you saw when you arrived. It's just a little too big...

Esenboga - I love this airport... it's easy! It's beautiful and clean and not busy at all. So simple, so easy to do what you need and good security.

Istanbul - Ataturk - This is huge but seems to function fairly well. I found leaving and arriving pretty easy. My only complaint is that when you arrive the lines to get a visa are ridiculously huge... but the duty free shopping is good, loads of things to look at and well marked out.

Okay... that's just a few that I've seen/experienced... I'm interested to hear/read what your airport experiences are.

Traveling from Turkey... the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

2011-04-09T12:25:00.002-04:00

Traveling is one of life’s pleasures and joys for me. I love to go new places, meet new peopl e experience new things. And this life as an expat teacher affords me multiple opportunities to do this thing that I love: travel. I travel to the place I am going to live for the duration of my contract and then I travel around seeing new places, people and cultures in the surrounding area on holidays.

Living in Turkey affords me some of the best travel sites in my new adopted country. I can go to a whole host of interesting and historical sites right here. And I have. I’ve seen Kapadokya, Istanbul, Konya, Aksaray and have an ever growing list of places to see. However, I still like to go outside of the country too. So with my spring break, I am leaving Turkey for the first time this school year for Paris, France. I have lovely friends living there and a very extra special friend coming to meet me from London. I just seemed like the perfect opportunity to get out of town, take a break and see something new.

As I said, this is my first time leaving Turkey since my arrival in August. I haven’t had to exit the country and I’ve certainly never been to Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. But that is where I find myself today. As as the title of this post suggests, there is good, bad and ugly with the whole experience:

The Good: Turkish people (especially the women) love to get their hair done and there are hairdressers EVERYWHERE!! Because of travel arrangements, I got to the airport WAY too early to even check my bags. Unlike other international airports where you can just check your bag, go inside and shop, shop, shop this airport only opens check in gates 2 hours before the flight leaves. And that’s okay… but I had time to kill and some greasy hair (I took the 2am bus from Ankara to Istanbul). Thank God for the Kuafor!! I went in, inquired about a shampoo and style and the next thing I knew, I was agreeing to a haircut and the man searching out each grey hair on my head and dutifully cutting them out. I’d say he did a great job and I loved the feeling of being clean and coiffed!

The coiffed airport me...

The Bad: As I had taken the 2 am bus (which in and of itself was not a bad thing), I arrived feeling a little disheveled and in need of a bathroom. In Turkey, you are often required to pay for your use of the toilets. Usually, this means that the bathroom is sparkly clean and well stocked. Well, not at the Istanbul Otogar (bus station). The 1 TL I paid to be let in went straight to their pockets as it was clean-ish, stinky and lacking in basic materials (yes, squatty potties are a turn off for me at 7 am when I am bursting at the seams to go and am carrying a backpackers pack, a carry on and my purse… never mind that there is no toilet paper). I guess I expected more from the BIG bus station in the most metropolitan city in Turkey. However, at least the airport didn’t disappoint in this matter (and they’re FREE!!),although I was pretty sure my eyeballs were yellow by the time I got here.

The Ugly: So far the only ugly thing has been my greasy, post 2am bus trip hair… it was straight up gross!! But that’s all fixed… maybe the price of coffee could be considered ugly… but that’s airport prices for you… regardless of the city.

Hospitals in Foreign Lands

2011-04-01T03:19:00.002-04:00

I'm not a big fan of going to the doctor in my home and native land (Canada, for those of you who didn't catch that) but going in a foreign country can be scary and hard to navigate. In fact, I try to avoid it altogether, whenever possible. Instead, I rely on WebMD and natural remedies to keep me as healthy as possible. However, sometimes there is no avoiding it. Here are some examples:

In Korea, I had tonsillitis so many times and I, obviously, needed medication, so off to the doctor I went. I had great experiences with my doctors there. They were quick to diagnose and deal with my illness. I even had to have my tonsils removed at 30 years old (scary stuff). But they were great. The hospital (Samsung) had great staff, wonderful doctors, clean rooms and made me as comfortable as possible. They even had volunteers to translate and visit me so that I wasn't lonely or feeling like I couldn't have my needs communicated properly. I'd say it was a good experience.

In the US (and yea, that's foreign to me), it took me a while to locate a doctor who was taking on new patients, but once I did, I was really happy (except for the silly co-pay thing). I was able to get appointments with some ease and he was probably the most thorough doctor I'd had in ages. The clinic that he operated out of was less than inviting or warm, but it was clean and that's a plus, always!!

Here in Turkey, I've suddenly found an odd bruise on my body (and, no, I didn't hit or bump anything... it wasn't there in the morning and then, bam, it was there) and so I felt like I needed to get that checked out. I also had some internal pain... so I called the number for the ladies that help the foreign folk in Ankara and had them book my an appointment. They were lovely, speaking wonderful English and arranging everything in no time. I went to my appointment and my doctor was an internal specialist who spoke limited English. She was really nice, asked all the right questions and then told me that it wasn't related to what I think it is related to and proceeded to give me a topical cream for the bruise and told me that I can't eat salt, sugar, oil or bread... so that leaves me with rice, fruits and veggies. *sigh* She did order a battery of tests on Monday morning.... so that should be interesting. I'm having my first ever ultra-sound (apparently, that's just part of a normal check up here in Turkey... the doctor was beyond shocked that I'd never had one before).

The thing I love about the hospitals here and in Turkey is that when you visit the doctor, you are in the place that can get you booked for all your tests at once. There is no need to go home and call several offices to get the tests you need. They just do it right there. Also, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that they have staff who speak your language and the native language of the country you are in. They walk with you from place to place, making sure your questions are answered and that you understand what is happening. It's awesome!!

Konya, Turkey

2011-03-09T02:26:00.007-05:00

One of the many mosques in Konya

The Seven Advices of Mevlana (Rumi)

1. In generosity and helping others, be like a river.
2. In compassion and grace, be like the sun.
3. In concealing others' faults, be like the night.
4. In anger and fury, be like the dead.
5. In modesty and humility, be like the earth.
6. In tolerance, be like the sea.
7. Either exist as you are or be as you look.

Konya is a city in Turkey that shares it's history with the founding of the whirling dervishes, the sufi denomination (for lack of a better word) of Islam, and the beauty of Rumi's words. I went there in February after reading the novel The Forty Rules of Love, by Elif Shafak. The book was one of those that changes your life. In fact, when I closed the back cover I wept for the beauty of the words. I didn't agree with everything in the book or the characters all the time, but the beauty of the words were overwhelming. Anyway, since the novel takes place in Konya for part of the book, I felt the need to explore.

Al Aladdin Mosque where Rumi is said to have lectured and preached before becoming a poet, mystic and starter of the whirling dervishes.

It's about 3 1/2 hours by bus to get to Konya and costs no more than 20 Turkish Lira to get there. There are a plethora of hotels to stay in that are great and come with decent prices. We stayed in the Pasapark hotel which was lovely, clean and had just about the best breakfast buffet included! The staff there were incredibly helpful and kind and even spoke some English. I think our total cost per person for 2 nights (and we had room service one of those nights) was 148 Turkish Lira each. Not bad!! It was also a ten minute walk from the main attractions in the city: the Mevlana Museum, the city center, the bazaar, and a little further out were the Mevlana Cultural Center and the Al Aleddin Mosque (I'm not sure I am spelling that right, but it's one of the oldest mosques).

Our room at the Pasapark Hotel

Nothing says luxury like a pillow menu, right?

Since reading the novel, I was fascinated by the words of Rumi (the founder of the whirling dervishes alongside Shams of Tabriz and the most famous Turkish poet). So one of our first stops was the old mosque and then the Mevlana Museum. We got caught in a rain storm while walking to the museum but it was still wonderful. The museum houses the remains of Rumi, some of his top followers and his family. When you enter the actual museum, you cannot take pictures as it's also his tomb and a place of reverence. People came there simply to pray near the famed mystic, poet and spiritual leader. The sense of spirit in the place was awe inspiring and beautiful. It left me misty-eyed and feeling like I'd had a profound spiritual experience. The rest of the large grounds are covered with tombstones of women, carvings and epitaphs, beautiful grounds and the requisite museum store (that actually had decent prices). It cost a measly 3 Turkish Lira to enter the grounds and it was worth every minute and every kurus. In nice weather, its said that sometimes the dervishes whirl outside the tomb windows.

Kim and I, sopping wet from the sudden deluge of rain.

The Mevlana Museum after the rain cleared off.

Speaking of whirling dervishes, that was also high on our list of things to see. While shopping, we met a man who had lived on the west coast of Canada for sometime and was now selling carpets in Konya. He took us to his shop for tea, a sales pitch and a verbal/map tour of Konya to help us get settled in what we would see. He was really nice and my friend Kim ended up buying a carpet saddle bag from him for a very good price. He also told us that the dervishes perform their whirling ceremony every Saturday night at 8pm for free at the Cultural Centre.... so we put that on our list before heading out to see the mosque, bazaar and a nap!

Our carpet salesman/guide.

When we went to see the dervishes do their thing, I expected it to be very similar to the show I'd seen in Istanbul. But this was so much MORE!! The Mevlana Cultural Centre is on stunning grounds and has both an outdoor and an indoor ampitheatre. Being that it was still very cold out, our show took place indoors. We sat in very comfortable seats that ringed a large wooden space. There were white sheepskins on the floor around part of the ring to mark the spaces of the dervishes and one red one. I'm not sure if he was meant to symbolize Rumi himself or just the head of this particular sect/group. Either way, when the lights went down and in the domed ceiling the twinkling lights meant to be stars went up, you were transported. There were over 20 whirling dervishes on the floor at a time and two of them were young boys. It was beautiful to watch.

And, of course, when in Konya you need to try the local favourite food. I was told that the etli ekmek here is the best so that is what I had for lunch when we were out and about. It is basically a pide (long, thin crusted bread that has meat, cheeses, eggs etc depending on the type you order, and is baked in a stone/fire oven). It was delicious. My friend had the adana kebap, which is spicier, but still very nice.

Etli Ekmek

Is Konya a must see place in Turkey? YES!! I think it is... it is a wonderfully clean city (they were VACUUMING the streets when we were there) with flat even streets that are easy for anyone to navigate. The locals are friendly, the food is good and the sites are worth seeing for sure!

The vacuum was on it's way up the street.

The beautiful streets of Konya.

Spring cometh... whoops! Maybe not!!

2011-03-08T12:29:00.002-05:00

The other day, this was the site that greeted me as I opened my curtains. Warm sunshine, sunny blue skies and tiny little pink blossoms beginning to open on the tree in front of my balcony. Spring is my favourite season of the year with all it's newness and fresh colours. I love the way warmth creeps back into your cold bones and into your home. I love the way the warming earth smells even. So, needless to say I was excited and I was READY! Winter is my least favourite season... sure, I can appreciate the beauty of fluffy white snow on a crisp sunny day but the cold... I can't appreciate or love the cold. Not ever. I'm Canadian, this is true, but I have always hated to be cold. I'd rather be in a hot environment than a cold one so winter just isn't my cup of tea. But guess what I woke up to this morning? Yup... more winter. Seems that Ankara isn't as ready for the spring as I am. Blizzard like conditions are raging outside and we have no school tomorrow because of it (which I am immensely grateful for because today we did have school and it was cold and the power blinked about 4 times as well). Anyway... for those of you who love winter... enjoy, the forecast is for snow all week!!

2011... so not the year of technology for me

2011-03-05T09:46:00.002-05:00

Yup, that's right. Although, I can't really lay all the blame on 2011... 2010 played it's part too!! Actually, to be honest, I've always had a love/hate relationship with technology.

In late 2010, my laptop began to show signs of imminent heart failure and eventually died. I then took it to my neighbour who assured me he could fix it... then he assured me that it would take a new hard drive and a little more time than he originally thought... then he gave it to me and said it would limp along until summer. I rely on my computer for journaling, writing in general, communication, research, teaching resources and the list can go on and on... so to be without it is not just an inconvenience for me, it literally would cut me off from family and friends.

So I've been using my laptop that limps along for about 6 weeks now and have been thrilled with it. This morning I left it on (with a cooling fan underneath it) while I went to curl up in bed with my nook (don't even get me started on the tech drama that thing has caused me) to read for a little while. Then I came back out to check on something to find my computer sending strange messages about how it aborted life and all that good jazz. I shut it down, turned it back on and the same thing was appearing. I tried doing all the little diagnostics it asked me to but to no avail... it was simply... DEAD!!! *sigh* Such is life sometimes. So I shed a tear (it's been with me for 5 long years of ups and downs), unplugged it and then hustled down to Real (a shopping place near my house) to see what they had on offer. I knew I was going to be buying a new computer this summer and wanted to save up and get something fabulous but I just can't lug the sub-par laptop that the school gives us back and forth to school every day for the next 5 1/2 months. Just can't do it. So... I went, I looked, I even compared it with a tech shop nearby and came away with an Acer Netbook for about $324 taxes all included and it's all in English, with the exception of the keyboard. *sigh* I wasn't ready for this step, but I am so glad I took it. Love this little joby...

Recycling Center in Ankara

2011-02-18T03:53:00.005-05:00

Turkey is one of those countries that is working hard to make great strides forward in a short time. In their effort to gain a space in the European Union, they are making a lot of changes to things here. One of those changes is to bring the country up to speed on environmental issues. Modern Turkey has only been a country since the 20s and so they've been running while most other countries have been walking. It's hard but they are making efforts and hopefully it will catch on country-wide soon.
Yesterday, our grade one students got to go to one of the recycling centers in Ankara to look at how it is done here. It's a far cry from the modern plants in other countries, but they are trying and they are recycling. Our students at BLIS are going to be the ones who make the changes to this country to bring it to an equal standing with some of it's European neighbours so taking them there and having them see it was wonderful and educational for all. Here are some photos of the recycling plant:
These huge bales of paper ready to go off to a recycling center were everywhere... there were bales of bottles, tin, plastic, tetra pack boxes and so on. These was more of a sorting depot.

Some of the hand sorting that was done on the ground level.

One of the workers explaining how they operate at this center to our students and teachers.

Above where the yellow section is is a conveyor belt where ladies stand and sweep materials down the correct holes to go into these caged bins. It seems disorganized but was working pretty well from what we could see.

More sorting cages.

We noticed this little puppy sleeping on top of a pile of non-recyclables... street dogs are common here in Turkey and are often fed scraps from workers etc. but it was sure cold out there. Poor puppy!!

Ballin'

2011-02-18T03:41:00.003-05:00

One of my favourite parts of my job is being able to coach students. Teaching is incredibly special, but coaching takes you to a different level with students. And what I love is that I am working with an entirely different age group of students and am able to impact more students differently. A couple of weeks ago, our girl's basketball team played some very gracious members of our female staff and one member of our Parent Teacher Association. I am so grateful for these ladies coming out and helping our girls learn how to better play the game. I promised not to post any crazy pictures (and there were some) but I couldn't let this great moment pass without some recognition!!

The grown ups getting some pointers from my co-coach. I think she may have been telling to just make a big mess of things for our girls. I know I told them to do that!!

Working that ball around in passes.

I'm pretty sure that shot went in, but they were there for the rebound just in case.

Our girls bringing the ball down the court.

Our lovely spectators/score keepers/photographers! Thanks for taking the shots and keeping score. The BLIS ladies beat the teachers by 10 points and it was a great game. Can't wait until the next one, I'm playing for sure! <3

Surprises

2011-02-16T01:44:00.002-05:00

Living life in another language and culture is always full of surprises. Like the surprise when you go to a market and one of the stall keepers hands you some free produce. Like the surprise when you go to a restaurant and you get a free cup of tea or coffee or a little chocolate with your coffee because they are excited to have a foreigner in their place of business. Like the surprise when a taxi won't stop for you because of the colour of your skin. Like the surprise of being pushed or bumped. Like the surprise of not being able to find what you need or want.

Or, like the surprise I woke up with this morning. I woke up to -6 degree Celsius temperatures in and outside of my apartment. I didn't think too much about it because coming out of a warm, cozy bed the morning air always feels less than nice. But when I went into my shower and realized that the water was refusing to warm up, I knew I was in for a surprise. Originally I thought it was just my building but once I got to school I realized that there was no heat here either. Later I found out the cause of my surprise, apparently a gas leak on the main campus caused the guard house to blow up in the middle of the night. The guard was injured quite badly from what I hear and the entire campus that supports thousands of people is without heat, hot water or gas. The real surprise here is that classes and schools weren't shut for the day in order to fix the problem like it would be at home in Canada.

Life overseas is full of surprises, not all good ones but not all bad either. I guess that's the exciting part of life lived in the expat way, everyday has the opportunity to surprise you!!!

Students Reaching Out

2011-02-13T10:54:00.002-05:00

Today I finally pulled up my socks and did something that I've wanted to do since getting here and just made a million excuses not to do... today I joined the small group of high school students who go weekly to a rehabilitation centre for poorer families. These families aren't all from the Ankara region, in fact many come from smaller villiages farther away. Their children have suffered some kind of mental or physical injury or illness and are in need of medical attention and a place where they can go to learn skills and ways to cope. The mothers come with their children and live there for up to 3 months at a time, often leaving behind other children and a husband at home. It's difficult to split the families, but for the love of their children in a society that doesn't recognize a need for special education in mainstream schools. I applaud their efforts and it was wonderful to go into this centre and spend some time with the high school students and these lovely Turkish children. More than one of them tugged at my heart strings with their gorgeous smiles and giggles. It felt good to go and give back to a part of my host country. I hope that others will find the time to do the same. The children really benefit from the one-on-one attention, and so do the mothers as they can take a small rest and watch their children smile and laugh. Anyway, I felt honoured to be a part of it and I can't wait to do it again. I also felt really proud to teach in a school that encourages the kids to do this kind of thing... giving back is a far better educational experience than sitting in any classroom!

Sick Days

2011-02-07T08:14:00.002-05:00

Sick days are different when you teach internationally. Sometimes you are lucky and your school can provide a substitute for you (this is usually done when a school employs a full-time sub or two, but with only one or two subs for an entire k-12 school, it gets a little dicey). More often than not, you being out sick means extra work for your colleagues. My teaching partner was out for an entire week earlier in the year and I had to cover some of the lessons she would normally do, and I had to arrange for others to cover the lessons I simply couldn't (my Turkish just isn't that good yet). Everyone is kind and offers to help and pick up lessons for you, but no doubt about it, it is a strain. So today when I woke up with some kind of kink in my back, I opted to suck it up and tough it out by going to school. I don't know how the kink came about as I woke up in the night and felt fine and then when morning came I couldn't hold up my own head. Once my teaching partner saw me, she sent me home. I love her for that as the pain is beyond my control, and the help of 2 muscle relaxants. But as I sit at home, bored out of my mind and in more pain than I have known in a long time I worry. Most teachers worry what the sub is doing to their class, but I worry about those having to take over my lessons and duties when they are busy themselves and desperately need the prep times that they have and the breaks in the day. I know that they know I'd do it for them and it eases some of the burden, but international schools just aren't the same. We are colleagues, friends and pseudo families for each other, so I worry about overstepping boundaries or annoying others by taking the time off. So there you go... another peak into the life of international teachers.

Exciting Expat Life

2011-02-01T03:00:00.004-05:00

Just in case you thought that all us foreign expats are out there running around doing exciting and exotic things all the time, I thought I'd post this:

This was how I spent the better part of my evening on Monday night. Yes, that's right, I defrosted my little teeny freezer. Not all fridges in Turkey are like this anymore but those of us blessed with a slightly older model are also blessed with this chore. So this was what it looked like when I first started... I'd done a little scrapping and work with my hairdryer so it was a little worse than this.

This is what it looks like now... well, with a bottle of Grey Goose and a box of fish in there. Sounds lame, I know, but it was exciting to get this done. It was pretty quick too. I followed the sage advice of my mother and kept putting boiling pots of water in there to steam and melt the ice. It took about 2 hours of changing pots and the occasional pulling off of ice and blasting with the hair dryer to get it done, but it was pretty easy.

So the next time you envy your expat friends who are off living some grand adventure in your minds, revisit this post... it's not all adventures and exotic locations with crazy interesting things happening all the time. Sometimes it's just doing laundry, cooking dinner, cleaning the dishes and defrosting freezers.

Groceries... delivered!!!

2011-01-22T05:39:00.002-05:00

I've come to view Turkey as the place of great deliveries. There is a website that allows you to order from just about every restaurant in the city and it organizes that it is delivered to your door. And it is in English too and VERY efficient and helpful (especially on the nights you just can't be bothered to cook). And then a colleague introduced me to online grocery shopping! And, guess what? It's in English too. You have to sign up, but it's fairly simple and once you sign in and shop, you can pick a delivery date and window of time that works best for you. Since it was my first time, I chose a Saturday morning (allowing me to sleep in a little, get some cleaning done and read). They arrived right in the window of time (just about smack dab in the middle of it) and the man carried all the bags up to my door. There were a few items not in stock, but that's okay, they take it off your bill if that is the case. And they let you pay by bank card at the door!! Oh! And there is no delivery fee... just like with the restaurants. In fact, there are often better deals and discounts online. Um... LOVE IT! So, if you live in Turkey and want your groceries delivered... leave me a comment and I'll email you the details. It's an awesome service.
Now I gotta go and load my fridge with all my new, yummy goodies (I even ordered produce and they brought some amazingly good selections!).

Very Excited!!!

2011-01-21T06:23:00.002-05:00

One of the very best parts of being an international teacher is that we have all those teacher holidays (and we do deserve them... we often put in more than 8 hours a day) and that we can travel!!!! I've been pretty slim on the cash and haven't been able to do too much of foreign travel while being here in Turkey, but that is about to change!! This spring, I am going to Paris, France for the first time ever! I booked my ticket today and I am thrilled at the opportunity to see another culture and place. Life is good in the international teaching world!

Lost in Translation and Other Giggles...

2011-01-19T11:06:00.002-05:00

I love living overseas, it's where I am most comfortable. I know that seems strange, people expect you to be most comfortable in a place you easily understand, can easily get around and in a culture where you know what is going on. But, not so for me. I am far more comfortable where I don't know all the ins and outs, where I am learning the culture and the language. But, even so, there are times where I have to throw back my head and laugh out loud because it's not always comfortable and lots of times the translation just goes haywire. It helps that I teach six year olds and they just say the best of things. Below are some little excerpts of the life I lead in Turkey... please feel free to add any of your own funny lost in translation moments in the comments section.

1. One of my students has perpetual issues getting her coat zipped and unzipped. She is also very new to the English language and so when she formulates the question for help this is how it comes out:
May me you help? or the occassional variation: May I help me?
Hey, at least she knows to use the word may, which is more than I can say for a lot of grade one students, regardless of language issues!! ;)

2. Another one of my students has lately become very interested in London. I don't know if their family is planning a visit or what the deal is, but the other day he approached me with this:
Miss Angela? In London, they speak English?
*sigh* I had a good giggle over that.

3. Just today I went to the housing office to get my apartment inventory checked and sign off on it. After completing the inventory, I asked about getting a clothes drying rack for my apartment. It was listed on the original inventory emailed to me, but I've never had one. After some humming and hawing, they agreed to see if they had one around that could be delivered to me... they did and a phone call was made to one of the workers to deliver it to my door. After I got home the doorbell rang and I, very excitedly, answered it (don't laugh at my excitement... you have no idea what it's like to hang your clothes all over your apartment in order to dry them each week... or maybe you do!). When I opened the door, what do I see? A man and 3 plastic coat hangers. I suppressed a giggle and asked for a drying rack and he said, "Ah... buyuk" Which means big. I gave a nod (not trusting my voice) and he smiled, nodded and walked away. I closed the door to hear him on the phone laughing and laughed out loud myself. He then brought me a proper drying rack.

4. I've recently signed on to online grocery shopping and delivery... I love this country. They LOVE to deliver... as I was perusing the aisles (so to speak) for a soy milk that I've found and liked, I began to notice the English translations under some of the items.... under the milk for babies it said "feed bag." Um... okay, I guess!

Okay, there are some of the more recent ones. I keep telling myself that I need to write this stuff down and I really must start. So enjoy and please do add your own tales in the comments section!

Report Cards...

2011-01-15T03:26:00.002-05:00

Do you hear the scary music in the background?! I do... it's like the theme song to Jaws or some other action/horror flick. I hear it every time that the word report cards are mentioned! haha Actually, I enjoy writing reports. I enjoy finding ways to tell parents about their children's successes and challenges. I like sharing about what my students are good and capable of in my classroom and social observations. I am that teacher, the one who loves parent/teacher conferences and who loves to write report cards...

Well, until this year that is. You see, I am used to working in Microsoft Office and am super familiar with the programs and formatting etc. But my school does not use Microsoft products (unless you are at the administrative level, and then they don't even all have it). The teachers and students use a free office program called Open Office and it comes through a program called UBUNTU (I know, fun to say... one of my friends confesses to having a secret crush on the name of the program and in my incredible frustration I disagreed... but if I am honest, I do too). I understand that schools pay a HUGE amount of money for licensing fees with companies like Microsoft and it can be a crippling factor to budgets etc, but I am here to tell you that UBUNTU is not the answer! The two programs are not compatible, even though they look fairly similar in the word processing document stage. Their formatting is different and it can be very difficult to get a word document to print out properly once you've opened it with open office.

Why am I giving you all this background? Well... it's report card time (there goes the music again) and I have been typing like a mad woman into our report card templates. It works out to about 14 paragraphs per student and I have just 16 students (thank goodness for small class sizes here). Here is where it gets "interesting." The report card template created by the administration (and I can't even blame them for this because if I had Word, I'd use it too... it's better) was created in Microsoft Office Word. And it is a lovely template and straight forward to use, until you have to use it in Open Office from UBUNTU (which I have to do). Every time I save one of my gloriously written reports some strange merging of cells takes place and ruins the whole document. Yesterday the tech guys at school had a look and were as confused and frustrated as I (although, perhaps not because they hadn't written all this work and reworked the documents a minimum of 3 times each to try and solve the issues). So what it comes down to is this: I have to create a new document for each student and cut and paste all the text from the reports into the new template. *sigh* That's a lot of extra, meaningless, busy and frustrating work when if we all had Microsoft it would have been fine... or if the admin used UBUNTU like the rest of us...

Ah.... İstanbul!

2011-01-02T04:40:00.005-05:00

So this past two weeks saw me playing tour guide to my friends who blessed me with their presence for the holiday. I LOVED it!! I think my favourite time though was in Istanbul. We just had such fun seeing such amazing places. That city is beyond wonderful and magical. Please enjoy the photos and small explanations. I am hoping to make more entries about Istanbul and our other adventures soon, but gotta wet your appetites first!!

One of the places that we visited that I liked the most was the Basilica Cistern. It was built around the 6th Century as an underground water source. It's simple beautiful when you go. It costs about 10 Turkish Lira to get in but it is well worth the price and you don't even need to stay all that long. Morning time is best, it opens around 9. That way you miss the hordes and the school groups. It rains in there and there is a ton to see. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't do so well in dark places, so you just have the shot above and the one below to get your imagination going.

This is one of the Medusa heads that help hold the cistern up. They say it was placed on it's side on purpose and the other one is upside-down. They also think that they may have come from another location and were brought to Istanbul.

Raymond and I eating at our favourite restaurant, Pasha. It's just on the main street and it's wonderful... best coffee (although that was expensive... the other items were reasonably priced and it was the best seat in town for watching people).

Inside the Grand Bazaar... oh my... the shopping to be had here, but like the guide books tell you, shoot for paying 1/2 of what they first quote you. I don't think we paid more than half of their asking price for just about anything we got. You gotta be prepared to wheel and deal in there!!
The crowds entering the Grand Bazaar... one shop keeper told us that there are 4,000 stalls in there and about 25,000 workers in total. YIKES!!!

One of the mosaics inside the Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia). It was remarkable how well maintained they are. They were stunning and will remain to be stunning if more tourists would heed the signs NOT to use flash photography. I was shocked at how many people ignored it and used their flashes... angry, angry on the inside was I...

More of the frescoes inside... and even though my old, decrepit camera really needs the flash to make it clear, I didn't use it... so deal with the blur! ;)

Looking down from the second floor. The Aya Sofya was built in the 6th Century also as a church. They say it was the greatest seat of Christendom at the time and that no building anywhere else in Europe (yes, this is on the European side of Istanbul) could rival it. I believe it. Once the Ottomans came into power, they converted it to a mosque (camii) and covered many of the paintings and mosaics with plaster. It was Atatürk who then converted it to a museum when he came to power and now the place is under constant restoration. It costs 20 TL to get in, but it is worth it.

More mosaics inside... simply stunning.

Aya Sofya from the outside. Best to hit this in the morning if you can too, it opens at 9 and is fairly empty for the first hour or so.

Inside the Blue Mosque. Here you can't wander all around like you can in Aya Sofya, but it is worth a visit and it is FREE!! Bear in mind though, that it is a working mosque and people are praying and worshiping there. So come dressed respectfully and don't take pictures of those praying... that's a no-no.

The Blue Mosque from the outside.

Sorry it's sideways... but I am sure you need to stretch your neck to the side right now anyway!! ;) This is part of the Hippodrome. There are only columns left and this Egyptian import was brought at the time of Alexander the Great, I think... my memory for these little facts is disappearing. There were other columns to see, but this was the best one... and I love the fact that the minaret is right behind it!

Cat man... just near the Hippodrome there was a little park and this man had a bag of cat food and was putting out food for the street kitties. They are everywhere in Turkey and they are well loved and cared for by locals and tourists alike.

My first picture of the beautiful city... I highly recommend the place and winter isn't a bad time to see it. There are still crowds, but less of them and it's easy to get around.
Look for more posts to come... I haven't even started with the Spice Bazaar, the trip up the Bosphorus and the food... yum!

Santa Lucia

2010-12-17T08:37:00.003-05:00

Santa Lucia is the saint who brings light and food to the poor. She is celebrated on December 13th in Sweden, but we celebrated her today and taught the other students in our school about her. It was really sweet. Check out the pics!!

School Spirit

2010-12-16T12:57:00.002-05:00

I think that is the first international school that I have worked at where a sense of community and school spirit is lacking. It's not lacking between staff, but between the students and the connections between students and staff... and not all the way around either, I hate to make that grand of a generalization, but there you go, I have! Anyway, myself and the other girl's basketball coach had our team over for dinner tonight. It was a blast and the girls are simply wonderful!! We ate, we laughed, we shared and what they shared was and overwhelming sense of no school spirit. They want it but are looking to the staff and administration for some direction. I know that the staff and admin have it, but somehow we aren't connecting to the kids. What can we do? I felt like today was a nice first step, but there has to be more and I know several staff and making inroads and outreaches to the kids, but we have to do more, we have to build the fire, start the spark and fan the flames. The school wants to be more international and struggles to produce and environment that appeals to international students and parents and I think this is a big part of that...
Anyway, just some random ramblings... any thoughts or suggestions or past success stories at other such schools would be SO appreciated!!!

You know you are overseas when...

2010-12-16T06:01:00.003-05:00

... that packet you get in the mail has one of life's essentials in it: deodorant! It's not that you can't get it here at all, it's just that it's not the brand that I like or am used to. So when my Christmas packet arrived yesterday and there were 2 clinical strength deodorants in it, I just about cried for joy!! Also, there was a book that I can't get here because it isn't as popular mainstream as some of the NY Times bestsellers, a vest that my mother made by hand and a card that was so full of love that it brought tears to my eyes.
In all my years overseas people often ask what I miss most and there isn't a lot generally, but when I get a package like that from home that has things that take me back there and help me to be comfortable here, well, that's what I miss. Most other things I can get or find a suitable substitute for... So what are your "you know you are overseas when... " moments?

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!

2010-12-13T03:51:00.002-05:00

This is the sites that greeted me just after 7 this morning (December 13th) as I walked to school. It was beautiful but pretty icy!! The weather is calling for more snow this week and the temperature is currently -5 C out there!! So it looks like winter is finally set in and here for the long haul!
Enjoy the beautiful scenery....

The Weather Outside is Frightful

2010-12-11T05:42:00.003-05:00

But the radiator is so delightful... I know it should be fire, but let's be real here... there is no fireplace in my lojman, so I am working with what I have. The radiator... and it's pumping out some good warmth and I will take that for sure!!
So there is one more week of school left before the holidays and the kids were so excited because the weatherman said it would snow today, Saturday. All the foreign teachers held onto some hope that it would, but our western ideas of how often weathermen lie had us skeptical at best... and then guess what happened?! It SNOWED!!! So maybe Turkish weathermen are just better... Or maybe the belief of loads of little children helped bring it on, I don't know.
Generally, I am not a snow loving person, but when I came home last night, I was in love with it. It's a pretty heavy snow and so it weighs the branches down (several have broken off the weeping willow near my lojman... scary) and so they look a little magical.

This is the view from my window in my living room... yup... all tree, all snow... all pretty!! ;)

It's beginning to look a lot like New Years around here...

2010-12-08T01:48:00.002-05:00

In Turkey, they don't celebrate Christmas (with this being a Muslim country and all), but it sure looks like they do. Turks do celebrate the coming of the New Year in a big way. They put up trees, they decorate them like crazy and they have lights and all manner of other Christmas like decorations, complete with Santa and wreaths. Gift giving is also big, but saved for the New Year. It's wonderful for those of us that celebrate the Christian holiday because it's easy to get the decorations, spices, mulling spices for wine and all the other stuff that we like to use to make merry for the holiday season. And they are even expecting SNOW!!!! For those of you who know me, you will know that even though the white stuff is pretty, I am just not a fan!! hahaha

Ulus, Ankara

2010-12-05T07:56:00.005-05:00

So yesterday it was time to get my shop on (I have people coming to visit me and some VIPs at home to send things too-that's right family... you are the VIPs) and so the girls, one of the boys and I hit up the older section of the city called Ulus. If you remember my post about Roman Ankara, it is the same general vicinity and there are some pretty cool museums over there too. However, yesterday was not about seeing the sights, but about purchasing a few goodies for the people I know and love. Even though I wasn't playing tourist, there were just some great photo ops and I wanted to share them with you... you know, just in case you ever wanted to come out this way but thought there wasn't much to see in Ankara as opposed to Istanbul or one of the more famous touristy areas. So enjoy the photos and my little commentary on a day of shopping in what is becoming my favourite area of the city:

This was taken near the end of the day, but I love the view that the Ulus area offers of the rest of the city.

Some of the gorgeous lanterns that they sell. There were tons more and I loved them all.

I am not sure what this is exactly, but looks like some pretty nasty dog collars to me. Just seemed so out of place with the other shops around it. Ulus sells lots of artsy stuff, lots of antiques and traditional wares, but they also have all your basic household stuff covered too.

Looking up the street. I love the cobblestoned streets in this area. Actually, lots of the smaller streets in different areas of town are still cobblestone. Also, this is a well traveled two way street for cars... It's a zoo!!

A nice way to recycle that old shoe!!

Simit!!! This man was carrying warm, bagel like bread treats on his head, through the streets and was kind enough to let us all take a picture. He was so sweet and so we bought some of the simit from him. They are so tasty!!

Looking down one of the streets that is filled with shops.

This street is on the way up to the citadel/castle. It has some really need little shops that I really liked.

This is a typical store in the area. Loved it, but this particular one was quite expensive.

My Own Personal Concert

2010-12-03T03:27:00.002-05:00

The weather has been really mild so far. We've had a couple of rainy and stormy days, but overall, it's still light jacket weather in this, the first week of December. I am LOVING it but not just for the weather. This kind of weather keeps all the little birds around and while I think birds as pets is just a bad thing (don't get me started with all the dust, the poop, the noise etc, my mom has birds so I know!!), I love birds in the wild. I love the sounds of them chirping and making music in the mornings as I am getting ready for work. I love that their sweet songs accompany me on my walk to work and I love that when I pass by an evergreen shrub it seems to take flight as a multitude of birds begin shrieking and flapping away. It's like poetry in the mornings right now and it makes me glad to get up and go to work early in the mornings... it's just me and my personal concert of birds everyday.

Turkish Families

2010-11-28T10:37:00.003-05:00

I've been in Turkey for such a short time but there are things I've observed that have helped me to connect to this place and this culture. One of those things is the family relationships. Turks are such loving and kind people. They are so affectionate with their family and their close friends. It makes me feel like I can easily connect to them too. One such friend is my teaching partner, Nilay. She was gracious enough to welcome me into her family home and introduce me to her closest friends in her hometown for one weekend. I felt warmly welcomed and like I was not just a visiting stranger, but some long lost, foreign language speaking cousin or family member. I loved seeing the affection and love in their family. The were all genuinely happy to see us arrive and genuinely saddened to see us walk out the door on our last day. It helped me to feel like I wasn't so far away from my own family.
Today, I am deeply saddened to report that my good friend's father passed away from a heart attack. It was such a shock. I can't and won't erase the last image I have of him. This man who pretended to be annoyed with his middle daughter's most exuberant of hugs when all the while his eyes twinkled with mirth, love and a beautiful pride for the beautiful daughter in his arms. I love that image, I love the way that this man with all his daughters so embraced and cared for them. I love the way Nilay spoke of him as the gentlest of men with the kindest of hearts and the openest of minds. My heart breaks for my friend, for her mother, her two sisters and her young niece. My heart breaks that this tragedy has happened to one of the sweetest families I've known here. My prayers go out to them for today and the days, months and years to come. This blog post is dedicated to Nilay, her father and her family. May they find strength and comfort in each other and in knowing that their special family impacted and touched the lives of many.

Soccer in Turkey (Türkiye'de futbol)

2010-11-23T11:14:00.003-05:00

The other day a couple who I work with were going to attend a soccer game here in Ankara, they happen pretty regularly and they are CHEAP to attend, and they invited anyone who would like to to come along. So along I went. I enjoy sports a lot and have a love of soccer ever since I coached my first boys varsity team in Korea at ICS (now YISS) way back in 2000. Those boys taught me all about the game and why it is worth loving (thanks, guys!). So when the opportunity arises, I like to go and see games. Anyway, I went to this game and it was nothing like I had ever been to before. It was 99.8% men in attendance at the game and their cheering was deafening. But it wasn't just random cheers or jeers, but organized chants and movements. It was highly distracting for me because I was fascinated and thrilled to watch the crowd. The soccer on the field was pretty great too. I have pictures on my phone, but can't work out the password to this computer in order to bluetooth them over... sorry gang, you will just have to take my word for it. The stands were full of zealous fans who shouted, clapped and made high pitched whistles in unison. Some chants also involved running up and down the stands etc. It was overwhelming, but in the best way possible.
As a woman in the crowd, I didn't feel unsafe at all. In fact, when one of the chants required the mob to run to the left and then to the right, the crowd saw that a group of foreigners (mostly female) were there and simply went around us. Now, I don't know if I'd go to a game alone, but with a group, for SURE!
So if you are in Ankara and really want to have a great cultural experience of modern day Turkey, let me recommend that you spend 5 Turkish Lira and get yourself in the stands! It's awesome!

Here is the smallest taste I could find of what it was like to be there, and we didn't sit in this crowded of an area:

Beypazarı, Türkiye

2010-11-19T05:31:00.004-05:00

Beypazarı is a small, Ottoman styled town that is just outside of Ankara. It can be a quick day trip of looking, shopping and eating or you can extend it for a couple of days. I did it in a day, enjoy the pics:

This is me and my travel buddy, Kim. We were both saving money this holiday so that the next one can be more extravagant. It's just 6 TL each direction to get the bus to this little spot and it takes about 1 1/2 hours to get there. We are standing in front of a dried goods store. The long strips hanging down are intestines... ew!! hahaha I had to ask, right?

The whole town is pretty much these Ottoman houses. They are OLD!! And I liked this picture because you can see how they were constructed. They look beautiful when they are finished because you can't see that they seem to be made out of twigs. But here you can... interesting.

More Ottoman houses... beautiful, right?

The museum of culture and history. It was just an Ottoman house that had been restored.

One of the mosques in the town. It was just nestled into the neigbourhood.

A typical Turkish scene, men sitting down to drink tea and a woman making gözleme. Both are delicious, by the way.

This is the same dried goods store from the earlier picture. You can see the owner standing there. He was really helpful and nice.

Apparently this town is the carrot capital, as evidenced by the giant carrot I am pointing to! haha And I had the carrot juice, tasted exactly like a fresh carrot. Yummy... and they sell it on the streets everywhere for just 1 TL.

A bakery that we passed on our way from the bus to the square, I asked if I could take his picture, he nodded and proceeded to ignore me, guess I wasn't the first foreigner to ask! haha. He was making simit, a bagel-like breakfast food here that is beyond yummy!

This is right when we got off the bus... from this picture, the town looks like all the others, not special in any way... but don't let that fool you, across the road and up the street is like a time machine, you end up going back in time. This place is a MUST see if you come to Turkey!!

Safety First

2010-11-16T13:55:00.002-05:00

As an expat (one who lives and works overseas) there are just some things you have to know. You have to know what are the requirements to getting into the country, you have to know what little unspoken things you need to try and avoid so as not to draw too much attention to yourself or insult the local people, and you need to know what to do in case of an emergency. I'm lucky because I am not just traveling here in Turkey, I am living and working here with an organization who handles matters of health insurance, life insurance and the like. I'm in good hands, but it's not like that for all workers and it is most definitely not like that for travelers. Sure, when you travel you are told to make sure to have traveler's insurance and to keep your wits about you. But those warnings aren't enough. Do you know what to do in case of a medical emergency? Do you know what your local embassy will and will not do? The reason this has come to my attention recently is because some former student's of mine had a relative who had a terrible accident while traveling abroad. He had travel insurance but the insurance company wants to blame the hotel, the hotel is throwing up their hands at the whole thing and as of yet, the local embassy hasn't been much help. Now, I've never come across any issues with the embassies while I've been overseas (and that has been for 12 years), but I've also never had a major medical issue to contend with. So I looked up some stuff online with my embassy to see what I need to do to safe guard myself. I found out that while the embassy can help with evacuations etc, they will not and cannot pay for it... so you have to have that money ready or an insurance company who is willing to pay. That's pretty intense. Makes me think that I need to get busy saving for a rainy day!! They will also help you find medical care if you need them to do that, they will contact your family and friends at home on your behalf, and they will help arrange for funds to be transfered from home to the local medical facility if you need that. Sure, seems like they can really help, but what if your situation falls outside of those neat little norms? Then what?
Please watch the attached video and let me know what you think... the family is understandably angered, upset and distraught. The local embassy does give the impression of not lending a hand, but I am not sure what course of action they can take considering that it falls outside of their simple little norms of what to do in an emergency. It's left me feeling sad for that family, outraged that more isn't being done (particularly by the insurance company that has already taken this man's money), and a little interested in making more sure that my own situation is more secure.

Global News

Marine Balls

2010-11-15T02:27:00.002-05:00

Every year the United States Marine Corps has a huge celebration for their birthday. This year was the 235th birthday. Marines all over the world throw a party for this day. When I lived in Korea, these parties were pretty exclusively military personnel and their wives or girlfriends, or dignitaries from the US Embassy, other embassies and the local people. So I never got to go to one. However, here in Ankara, there is such a small detachment, that they open the invitation to the international community and a large group from my school went. We listened to speeches (one of the speakers was really good), watched videos (one of which turned me into a sappy, teary-eyed person) and we ate a gorgeous meal and then danced the night away. It was a blast and I'm glad I got to go and have that experience. So, happy birthday Marines (sorry I am posting this about a week late) and thanks for the great party!

Remembrance Day

2010-11-13T07:58:00.003-05:00

Last year at this time I wrote a simple post about November 11. It really didn't say a lot. It gave the simplest of explanations about what the day means to me and to most Canadians that I know. But this year, it's different. Remembrance Day is more than just wearing a poppy and taking a moment of silence. It should be a day of celebrating the people who served and continue to serve, those who protected and continue to protect, those that take the biggest of risks and continue to do so. Canada may not have a large military, but it is a proud one that has a rich history of stepping up when others won't. I am proud to be a Canadian and I am prouder still of my own military history (no, I didn't serve, but I have relatives that did and one lost his life and a famous and tragic plane crash) and I am most proud of my friends who are serving right now. Without these people (whether you agree with war or not) we simply couldn't have the freedom that we have or enjoy the lifestyles that we do. So this past Remembrance Day I wore the red poppy that the Canadian Embassy donated to Canadians and other Commonwealth members at my school and I taught my students that it's not just a flower; it is a history, a sacrifice and a reminder. One of my little girls piped up saying that she knew why the poppy was red, when I asked her what she meant, she said it was red because all those people died and their blood left their bodies and coloured the flowers so that we would remember. I don't know if I could have understood it so well at 6 years old.
So, thank you Canadian service members and service members around the world for what you did in the past and what you continue to do.

This is the original site of the plane crash that took my great-grandfather's life in war time. His marker is there.
This is my great-grandfather who served and lost his life tragically in service. I am proud of him and his contribution.

What's a Canadian?!

2010-11-07T11:58:00.002-05:00

As Remembrance Day draws nearer, I begin to feel more and more Canadian. I've always been and felt proud to be Canadian but when you live and work in the global arena, sometimes where you are from becomes less important than where you are and who you are. Canadian is a HUGE part of who I am but sometimes the labels ceases to be important. Okay, I hope that makes sense, because I am not sure to be honest. Anyway, this time of year always brings it home and reinforces where I am from and why it's such a great place to be from. So I want to share a little www.youtube.com video with you so that you can see what makes Canadians who we are and why it's such a great place:

Enjoy and remember to be proud of who you are and where you are from no matter where you are in the world. A new November 11 post will surface during the week sometime, of this I am sure... be on the lookout for it. ;)

TARKAN!!!!!

2010-11-07T03:09:00.003-05:00

So, one of the benefits of being in a foreign country is learning about their culture and about their popular culture. In Korea I really got into the popular music scene and I still play the music whenever I can, I just love it. I've only been in Turkey for a few months but last night I got to go to a concert here. It was really fun and the singer is the most popular one and is popular all over Europe and the Middle East too. Here is one of his most popular songs at the moment:

And here are a couple of shots from the concert last night:

The man puts on a great show... and just for those of you who want to hear him in English, here you go:

UN Day

2010-10-24T10:09:00.004-04:00

Today was UN Day all around the world and our school decided a little bit last minute to put together an event. And even though it wasn't long in the planning, it was really good. We had a flag parade, rooms representing different countries (including Canada), food from different places, and a ton of performances. It was really great (even if I had to be at work on a Sunday!!). Below are some pictures of the event. Enjoy!!

That's right... see that BEAUTIFUL red and white? *sigh* Love the maple leaf!!

The flags all gathering to hear a speech.

Part of the student orchestra performing some Mozart.

Another school on campus sent over students trained in traditional Turkish dance... very cool.

Our director helping to represent Nigeria, next to one of our teachers who is from Nigeria... the drums were AWESOME!!

That's right... Betsy Ross was there too... check out that flag!! hehehe There was also a sheriff, Susan B. Anthony and Mr. Barrack Obama made an appearance too! ;) The US room was pretty cool.

Kids performing a Japanese song "Ame, Ame" in the Far East Asia room! They were a little quiet, but super cute!!

I think that next year it'll be amazing! We had a great turnout from parents and some good support from the embassies... Fun times!!

It's a Jungle Out There!!

2010-10-23T11:18:00.005-04:00

Hehehe... I couldn't help it! Thanks to my friend, Sophia, my students got to have a pseudo rain forest in their classroom to help get them in the mood for their Unit of Inquiry projects. It was fun to make it and I think we just might keep it up for the next unit which is about plants!! ;) Check out the pictures... all things were made by either me or Sophia...well, there are some shots of the stuff the kids made too!!

Yup... thems is vines coming down from my ceiling!! hehe

A parrot... the kids want another one and a lizard... I promised so, there will be animal additions in the coming week!!

A monkey for my little monkeys!!

The toucan makes me think of my students... they are so loud!! hahaha And you know kids, they repeat what they hear!

The ghetto trees that I am beginning to LOVE.

My student's interpretation of a rain forest dwelling... notice the thatching on the roof!?

Ah yes... rain forest food!! Love it... these kids are so talented, smart and FUN!!

Oktoberfest!!

2010-10-13T11:35:00.003-04:00

But of course... why wouldn't you celebrate Oktoberfest in Turkey?! Hahahaha The German Embassy here has quite extensive grounds (they even have live horses, a huge garden and a cafe on the premises) and they have make it a tradition to celebrate Oktoberfest every year. This year I was lucky enough to get a ticket (they sell out VERY fast) and go. It was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone in Turkey (even if you don't drink... the food was fab, they had great music, a great crowd and lots of non alcoholic drinks). Here are some pics:

The band, working the crowd.

The table I was with... so great!

And to kick it all off, the band marched around the room in traditional garb.... super fun!!

Kapadokya (Cappadocia for all you English only people)

2010-10-04T11:44:00.007-04:00

Okay, arkadaşlar (friends), prepare yourself for a LONG entry and a LOT of pictures. This past weekend I had the awesome pleasure of going to Cappadocia (which is Kapadokya in Turkish) with a great group of new friends. I have more than 100 pictures and I am SO not posting them all here, just a few to wet your appetite and make you want to get on a place and come see me. If you are a facebook friend of mine, there will be a HUGE album there, but this is where you will get the journey in chronological order and perhaps with a story or two. My Chronically Single blog will also have an entry because my single self had some very amusing moments and I just can't let that not show up. :)

This was our lovely coach. We had the best driver, even when he was swerving and bouncing all over the road. The bus was really comfy and we were the only ones since we chartered it.

Brennan was our server... I think he just liked be up and about instead of sitting...

The sunset as we left the city and approached the Salt Lake.

My camera is a bit odd with the twilight setting (time for a new camera if you feel like buying it for me!! hehe). We were walking on a salt lake. Because it was the end of summer, the water had almost completely evaporated, leaving HUGE crystals of salt everywhere. It was pretty cool.

These were my roomies: Brennan and Edmund. We all ended up sharing a really huge and cool cave room. I got the caviest part of the room... thanks, guys!! ;)

A few on our tour got to go up in a balloon at sunrise. I was a little on the poor side, but after hearing their stories and seeing some of the pics, I am so going back and doing that!!! Wanna come?
Hahaha, I love this pic. This is Mehmet, our guide. He spoke flawless English and some Spanish as well. He was really good at sharing the history and some interesting stories with us as well.

This me, parked in the entrance of a cave home from back in the day. Apparently the area was originally settled by Hittites... each cave was carved out by hand, including the room at my hotel. So cool!!!

We climbed up a great big hill and this was our reward... look at that. Some of these places date back to BC times and some are from the 1st and 2nd century.... amazing!!

This was a church that had been carved into a wall. There had been a lot of damage done due to erosion and the fact that Kapadokya wasn't a UNESCO protected area until 1980... children and teens used to play and do goodness knows what in the caves and ancient churches. Some of them date as far back as the 4th century. For those of you interested in Biblical history, Kapadokya and Turkey is the PLACE to be!!

Another one of the old churches. Some of them had fresco paintings inside and others had wall paintings like this picture. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the frescoes because of the damage the flash would do to the paint that remains. Some of the frescoes were ruined when there was a population exchange (which happened more than once, apparently). So when Greeks and early Christians left the area, they took apart frescoes in order to have a relic etc. Many of these were retouched or painted later. Some still went missing during the Crusades etc because of people believing that these New Testament times pictures having power etc. Many of the eyes were scraped off because people believed that drinking a tea made with the paint from the saints eyes could heal mental illnesses etc. Very interesting!!

Me again... see, had to prove that I really went. This is me standing at the Open Air Museum where some of the oldest churches and monasteries are housed. The place was simply incredible and SUPER busy with people!!

Evil Eyes are super popular in Turkey and meant to ward off jealousy and bad things happening to the good things in your life. They are also just really beautiful. There was a vendor selling a huge table of them, must have been hundreds of thousands of them there.

CAMEL!!! Hahaha, at several places there were camels for you to sit on and have your picture taken with. This guy was nice enough to let me take a couple of pictures free of charge... one of the other vendors gave me the "this-is-a-business" speech.

The Fairy Chimneys. They are completely naturally formed from a couple of volcanic erruptions and wind/water erosion. They are pretty amazing to see and they blanket the area in several valleys.

The lamps... I loved these, but didn't pick any up this trip. But just you wait... gonna get me some, someday... SOON!!

This valley was called the Valley of Imagination because several of the fairy chimneys seem to take on shapes of animals etc. There is a very famous giant camel one (not pictured here) and the bird... can you see the bird?

On the Saturday night, we went to a dinner show... it was pretty good, even though the performance left something to be desired... the food and drink and company did not!!

On Sunday morning, we were taken to a carpet dealer's for brunch and some viewing of carpets and a little education. Brennan is suffering in the fore ground there... up a little too late, drinking a little too much with the locals!! haha Ali, the carpet dealer, is standing. He was phenomenal and if you are buying a carpet in Turkey, he is the MAN to see!!!

They die all the wool and silk and cotton for the carpets with natural pigments. Ali showed us the process. It was really interesting.

There is Ali, showing us how they use the loom to make the carpets. He told us what to look for in quality, style, materials and so on. He was really informative and entertaining. He joked a lot and loved to laugh at his own jokes!!

The floor was covered with carpets. There were about 4 or 5 different styles and about 4 or 5 different types of materials. It was amazing. They would unroll them, throw them in the air to catch the light and all the while, they told us jokes and kept us laughing and entertained. It was a great experience and I left the proud owner of a carpet (they even let me use a payment plan over the next couple of months).

So in short my friends, Kapadokya rocked the house and is a place to put on your traveling radar.

Going Away... In Turkey

2010-09-30T06:32:00.003-04:00

So I am going away for the weekend in Turkey. I will go with a group of other teachers to the area known as Cappadocia. I haven't gone yet, but I am eager to go and see it as I was there as a small child. It's a place of fairy chimneys and cave dwellings. It has a unique history, landscape and importance in the culture of Turkey. Oh... and I get to stay HERE!!

The Settling In Process

2010-09-29T12:52:00.002-04:00

Now that I've been in Turkey for 6 weeks, I am finally beginning to really settle in. Sure, I was settling in before too, but it was more about settling my belongings into their spaces in my new apartment, settling my clothes into the closet, settling the money into a budget, settling the newly discovered foods etc into my diet etc. It was a physical settling, if you will. But now that I have most of my routine set and I am focused on how to BE here in the physical sense, I am beginning to allow myself to settle in the more emotional and psychological sense. I am making friends (and I have loved sitting back and allowing the personalities unfold... there are really GOOD people here), I am finding my way around the city and the beginnings of the culture (the tip of the cultural iceberg, to quote my administrator), I am allowing myself to unfold. I know from my past experiences in other cultures and countries, that this can often take a year (sometimes less, sometimes more... but generally a year), and it feels good. I feel some of the old parts of me (that I thought died in my last experience... not because of the place, but because of me), parts that I really liked and missed, are awakening. Sure, the bloom is furled a little tighter in some ways than it was when living internationally was my only norm... but, it's undoing... I'm blooming again into the person I was becoming a few years back before I allowed myself to get side-tracked and shut down. This settling in process will be so much more sweet than bitter and it's good to know that it's happening.

Night Skys... No words necessary

2010-09-28T13:13:00.002-04:00

All I want to say, is this is what it looked like tonight as I walked home... just beautiful.

The Language of Exercise

2010-09-27T12:13:00.002-04:00

So when you move to a foreign country where you don't speak the language it can be a challenge to figure out the things you'd like to do. Here at Bilkent University, we are offered a plethora of things to do for free or little cost because we are university employees. We even get regular emails from the university in both English and Turkish. This makes the decision process very helpful.
One of the great things that we can take advantage of while here is the sport facilities for free and a ton of classes for the same rates that the students pay, which is pretty little. So... to make a long story short (is it too late for that? maybe), a bunch of ladies that I work with and I decided that we wanted to sign up for a class in the gym closest to us called Aeromix Pilates. The description for the course was something like: a combined class of aerobic activities and pilates with interesting teaching techniques. Not knowing what to expect, we decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a whirl.
Today was the first day of class. I was the first of the foreigners there and I laid down mats for my friends and waited as it filled with Turkish female students and my friends... and we waited... and we waited. It started about 10 minutes late (no biggie... this is Turkey, it runs on it's own time it seems). The instructor breezed into the room... a male instructor and he got right to work explaining how things go... ALL IN TURKISH!! Hahaha. The rest of us had a good laugh because we couldn't do anything until we saw someone do it. But it's great! The workout is awesome and just 50 minutes long and I was hurting by the end for sure. I think the instructor gathered that we didn't quite follow because he took more time and really demonstrated stuff. See, exercise is like a language of it's own. It was like that in Korea when we (three other friends and I) took Tae Kwon Do... those lessons were all in Korean and we still ended up with black belts!! I don't think there is a black belt in pilates... I am sure that black belt worthy abs are in store for me!! That and learning some more Turkish... oh, and, did I mention that the instructor was hot? Fun times... ;)

The Beauty of Bilingual Education

2010-09-22T06:09:00.002-04:00

So... my new school is a bilingual school. The students immerse in English for pre-school and kindergarten. Then in grade one they focus on evening out their educational experiences with a push to develop all academic and social skills in both Turkish and English. There is also language support for their mother tongue if it isn't one of those languages... Can you imagine?! Of course in the first grade, this can lead to a lot of confusion and a stilted start with some things as some kids are naturally stronger in one of the main languages. However, as my students were playing some math games to strengthen their understanding of numbers today, it was a beautiful thing to be in a bilingual system. My partner teacher and I shared the instructional time and the idea of the games. We taught the students in both languages so that they had full understanding and then we enjoyed watching and listening to them as they swapped languages to play. Even though all of our class is ethnically Turkish, they used English and Turkish as they communicated together. I LOVE INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION and I am falling madly in love with bilingual education too!!

Bones, Bones, Dem Bones!!

2010-09-18T14:45:00.003-04:00

So every once in a while my friend Charity and I meet up and go for a walk. It's a great chance to wander the campus, get some exercise and just talk. I really enjoy her company and it's good to get off my duff and just get outside. So the other day we took a new route and just wandered this big loop, which was really cool. As we were making the return part of the loop we noticed a little something odd... bones. Yep, bones! They were huge bones like the one in the picture and they were strewn about the area. This isn't the first time I've seen bones like this... I also saw the remnants of a ribcage of what can only be a cow or animal of that size. Now, don't get all freaked out people. There are packs of wild dogs in the area and we can only assume that they killed some animal and then took it in parts to different areas to eat them. No, the wild dogs aren't scary or a problem. We have one who lives on east campus with us. He's called Lira and people often feed him. He's really sweet and runs off all the other wild dogs in the area.... so he keeps it safe for his people here. He's also captured once a year and vaccinated (his ears are tagged so that they know he's been vaccinated and when). Some of the other dogs have been vaccinated the same way too...
Anyway... just thought I'd share one of the more random moments here in Turkey with you!!

Global Responsibility

2010-09-18T04:59:00.002-04:00

If there is one thing I have learned from all my years overseas, it's that the world is indeed a small place and we are blessed to share it with one another. The more I travel, the more I feel aware of this and how much of a responsibility we all share in caring for the planet and for each other. Regardless of our race/religion/creed/ethnicity or whatever else, it all boils down to this: we are humans, we bleed the same and have the same basic needs for survival (yes, I am aware that those needs can look different based on where we are). One thing that has made be really aware of this is all the disasters that have been happening. Sometimes it becomes overwhelming to think of all the suffering and being so far away from those places, I often wonder what I can do to help out. Well... the answer came from a good friend of mine. Sherilyn is doing her part to help by shopping! WHAT?!?! Yes, that's right. She is shopping in such a way that proceeds go to places where the need is great, you can even purchase aid for the people in those far reaching places. So this year, when you think of what to get friends and family for different celebrations, think about visiting these sites:

Made By Survivors

The Hunger Site

Ten Thousand Villages

Thanks Sherilyn for posting these sites and for helping me be MORE aware of my responsibility to my fellow humans and as someone who shares this earth!

The TOWER

2010-09-13T10:36:00.002-04:00

No, no... not like THAT tower!! Hahaha. You know that several cities all over the world have great big towers. Well, Ankara is no different and the other day, my friend Merve took me there to get a great view of the city and to just hang out. It was AWESOME and we had a great time. Check out the pics of the tower itself and the view from the top:

Bayram Bus Adventures

2010-09-09T14:34:00.002-04:00

Today is the first real day of Bayram here in Turkey. It's the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramazan here and it's a time for feasting, seeing family and generally having a good time. While I am a little on the impoverished side of things, I did want to get out into the city a little and my good friend Christina invited me over for breakfast/brunch or whatever you want to call it. I decided that after being here since the middle of August, it was high time that I gained some independence (Christina did offer to come all the way out to my place and escort me on the buses so I wouldn't get lost) and made my own way out there. She lives in an area called Umitkoy (there are two dots over the u and the o in Turkish) and it's not that far from me. I just have to transfer buses once ad it seemed straightforward and easy. Take the free university bus to Cepa mall, cross the street and then take the 163 to her area. Got it... no problems. I even have a little ride pass card called an EGO with 4 rides left on me (thanks for the free rides, BLIS!!). So with confidence, I stepped out of my house, down the street, across the busy road to the bus stop. Like cake... easy. I waited for the bus but the 111 city bus came first and I knew it went to Cepa mall too, so I thought I'd hop on that. I hop on, pull out my handy little card and the driver looks at me and says, "Hayir! (this means NO!)" I stop and think it must be one of the cash only buses and I have to cash so I tell him "Tamam (which means okay)" and try to get off. This sparks more shouting from the driver and complete confusion from me. I tell him that I don't speak Turkish yet and that I'll just wait for the university bus. I step off the bus and suddenly another passenger is off with me, telling me to get on the bus, "today no card, me no card, you no card" I guess if I can use Turklish, so can the locals. So I get back on the bus, completely confused when the Turklish speaking man tells me that because of the bayram holiday all city buses are free for the next 4 days! HOW SWEET IS THAT?!?!?! So, thanks Ankara for being a really great city with free buses for the holidays, thanks BLIS for the ride card, and thanks Turklish speaker for the great info!! Iyi Bayramlar (Happy Bayram)!!!

Ramazan

2010-09-06T12:38:00.002-04:00

Here in Turkey, the Muslim time of fasting is called Ramazan instead of Ramadan. The concept is much the same though. You fast from sunrise to sunset and then eat etc after the sun goes down. One thing that I notice that is different here in Ankara is that not everyone fasts. In Oman, pretty much all Omanis were fasting. Here, it's not quite like that. Just goes to show that you can't lump all people of a particular religion into a box. It's good to learn that lesson time and again!

Students

2010-09-06T12:33:00.002-04:00

Here is a non-descript shot of my students. They are listening to my partner teacher in Turkish at the moment. What I can tell you is that they have a TON of energy and smarts. They ask good questions, have great ideas and are willing to share those ideas. They are adorable and we are learning all about each other... they aren't just my students, as always, they are my teachers. I am learning more patience from them, how to be more positive, how to be more gentle, how to be more giving and understanding and how to speak Turkish. It's going to be a great year!!!

Food, Fun and Coffee

2010-09-03T16:51:00.002-04:00

I love this city.... okay, I love almost every city!! I think there is just something to be said about the energy and anonymity of busy city streets where people are going about their business. Today my friends invited me to go to dinner with them and even though money is a little tight at the moment (my own fault of not budgeting properly... but I am learning), I decided to go. I'm so glad that I did. We went to Tunali. It's a bustling neighbourhood of shops, restaurants, pubs, clubs and cafes... just what I LOVE in a city. So we ate, we wandered, we shopped (no, I was a good girl and kept the purchases to the barest of minimums) and we drank Turkish coffee... mmmm!!!!

The Classroom

2010-09-03T03:23:00.003-04:00

So I am sure that many of you are wondering what it's like in my school. I've been busy and without internet for a couple of days at home, so I've been a bit lazy about posting. Sorry for that, but can I use the excuse that I've been busy soaking up the experience? Would that satisfy? Below are some pictures of my classroom without the kids in it. I do have pictures of their sweet selves in it too, but I need to check on how okay it is to post those before I do.

This is from the student area looking towards the carpet and teacher desks.

This is the corner stone of what we do. We teach these kids to exhibit all these characteristics so that they become more internationally minded people.

In the student desk area looking towards the board and my slightly crooked word wall.

In the student area looking towards our bilingual Unit of Inquiry board where the kids put up all the stuff they are learning. It's awesome!!

From the carpet/teacher area looking towards the student area.

Our room is one of the smallest in the school but it's just right for my teaching partner, Nilay, and I. It's cozy and easy to monitor the students. There is a wonderful amount of light and open space for the kids and for us. Some of the rooms are huge and really lovely, all have loads of windows and lots of natural light. And some even have balconies!! It's a great place to be... so come and visit me!!! ;)