Bittersweet

As most of you regular readers (yes, all 12 of you) know, I have just completed my contract and my time in Turkey and have chosen not to renew with Bilkent Laboratory and International School, but to seek a new adventure instead.  While it's exciting to have a new adventure, it's sad to leave the old one behind. 

Turkey has been a wonderful experience for me on so many personal levels.  I've met some of the best people that I will ever know, I've taught some of the loveliest students (who will forever have a piece of my heart), and seen places most of us just read of in our school history books.  I can't begin to count the ways in which I've grown as a person during the last two years and how bitter it is for me to walk away from all of that.  However, it's also sweet because there is a real opportunity for a little more balance in my life in my new adventure in Singapore.

One of the things that I am always in search of in the places that I look to live is a place that offers me balance.  I want to live and work somewhere where I LOVE the school life (which I've been lucky to do in almost all my different situations), I LOVE the social life, and I LOVE the professional and personal opportunities for growth above and beyond what just the school can offer me.  While Turkey has given me some measure of that, it simply wasn't enough to keep me put.  Well, that and all the crazy changes currently taking place in the educational system there.

So cheers to the wonderful experiences I've been fortunate enough to have in Turkey and to the INCREDIBLE people I've been fortunate enough to know during my two year stint there... and cheers to the wide open adventure of Singapore that lays before me!!!

The Not-So-Black Black Sea

This time last week I was in pure awe of the wonderful beauty of the Black Sea region of Turkey.  More specifically, my friends and I were in Trabzon.  Now, if you've been reading my blog, you know that I've traveled at lot in Turkey and I've seen most of the major regions.  I've visited the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Bosphorus, the south east, and central Anatolia.  I've found most of the landscape to be similar in one way or another.  Perhaps similar is the right word, familiar seems a better fit.  However, when our plane landed in Trabzon, my draw dropped. Everywhere I looked was the greens of my west coast Canadian homeland, the skies were the clear bright blue of places like Montana and the Black Sea was the turquoise of the Aegean or the Caribbean, but there were still the familiar signs, mosques, sounds and smells of the rest of Turkey.  It was breath-taking to say the least.

The view of the city and the sea from the Aya Sofya.

Our first day, we were whisked off to see the Aya Sofya (not like the one in Istanbul, this one is much
smaller and from what we could tell the entire interior was all frescoes at one point). It was simply beautiful and the setting of it overlooking the Black Sea was gorgeous.

The Aya Sofya.

We then lunched on the seaside.  Eating super fresh seafood and the kofte (meatballs) that Trabzon is known for.  The mezzes were beyond delicious and the famous Trabzon bread was unreal!

The restaurant where we had lunch.

After lunch we hopped back into our van and headed out to the fabled Sümela Monastery in the Pontic Mountains. The roads up are twisting and narrow. You can ride in a car nearly to the actual entrance of the monastery but not quite.  You will have to walk on some narrow and not altogether safe trails for about 15 minutes.  Generally the trails are okay but there are a couple of spots that aren't for the faint of heart in the sense that they are slick and with nothing to stop you from tumbling down the very steep hill on one side.  The crazy, narrow road, the crossing of wet river roads, the multitude of stairs and the trails are all worth it in the end.  The monastery was simply stunning inside with more frescoes than I'd ever seen in any location.  And knowing that you are standing on a structure built into a cliff side centuries before has a mystical quality to it.  Never mind that you can hear the roar of the river raging over the rocks far below and everywhere you look is green, beautiful trees.  There is something about being at the top of a mountain, in a place that is so reverent towards nature and the Creator.

the mountain views on our way to the monastery

nearly at the entrance

once we got inside, this is what we saw

I was so happy to have made it inside!

some of the frescoes on the exterior of the church

one of the many frescoes on the interior.  As long as no flash was used, pictures were allowed.

The raging river that ran through the gorge below.

The exterior of the monastery as seen from the road below.

Afterwards we stopped for dinner at a restaurant that overlooked the sea and parts of the city.  It was stunning and the food was delicious.

The view from our dinner spot.

The famous cheese/corn meal dish of the region. Delicious!

After dinner we left to stay at a friend's family home high in the hills surrounding Trabzon. We didn't know what to expect but when we woke in the morning, this is what we saw:

Our breakfast view.

I never got tired of looking at this!

It was simply gorgeous and we were spoiled with a breakfast of farm fresh veggies, homemade yogurt, homemade cheese, fruits and tasty savoury pancakes and potatoes. It was amazing.

The tea farms on our way to the lake.

Our last stop for the weekend was to go out to  Uzungöl, which translates to mean long lake.  Now I'm sure we didn't see all of it, but it really wasn't a long lake at all. It was however beautiful to see this little lake surrounded by huge green mountains.  For some reason it make me think of Switzerland, so I began to call the area Turkey's Switzerland.  It was stunning.  We had a walk and some tasty lunch (the best soup I've ever had in Turkey) before rushing back to the airport to catch our afternoon flight back to Ankara.

Yup... didn't feel like Turkey at all, except for the mosque.

I loved this area!

My traveling companions and our caretakers at the house and our guide. 

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to see this part of Turkey.  It is just so different from all the other spots and is such a special place.

100 Metres

A basic map of the area.

A few weeks ago a couple of friends and I hopped a very late plane (2 1/2 hours delayed) to the Hatay region of Turkey.  It's near the Syrian border but was safe for travel and we felt that it was a must see before jetting out of Turkey forever.  It was meant to be a very fast weekend trip, arriving around mid-night on Friday night and leaving at 7 am on Sunday.  With the delays etc, we didn't get into the city of Antakya until about 3 am on Saturday morning.  With little backpacks, we wandered the deserted streets looking for our small hotel.  A man popped out of another hotel and directed us back the way we came saying it was 100 meters straight on.  So back we went when we came to a fork in the road... which was was straight?  Another man popped out of a closed restaurant and told us to go to the left for 100 meters and we would find our hotel.  Off we trundled and we did find our hotel, which was locked!  Thankfully the night desk man heard our knocks and plaintive sighs and let us in and sent us to our room. 

The river that runs through the city.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny and the sounds of a quiet city waking woke us (well, that and our neighbour arguing on his phone at 8 am might have had something to do with it).  Downstairs we went just before the breakfast finished to eat yet another lovely Turkish breakfast (these people really do do an amazing breakfast), and out into the sunshine we ventured.  We had been given a map but we couldn't seem to find any street names so the map seemed useless, so we wandered taking in the sights of a river that ran through the centre of town and a beautiful park.  Eventually, we wandered upon the museum we'd hoped to see and got to look at huge amounts of beautiful mosaics.  In Turkish museums, they allow you to take photos without flash and you can get fairly close to the artifacts, even touching those that aren't cordoned off, it's amazing.  The museum was gorgeous and small.  We had a blast looking around and then the sunshine beckoned us back outside.

The park

About 100 metres down the road was a little ice cream place and so we stopped to get a sweet treat before following the brown (I think it's universal that all cultural and historically significant sites are given brown signs) signs towards the church of St. Peter.  We walked, we walked and we walked some more before stopping in a hotel to seek help.  The man spoke Turkish and Russian only (and my Russian was TOO rusty to actually ask) so he called a fluent English speaking friend to help us.  They told us that the church was outside of the city and that we needed to catch a taxi.  The taxi stand was about 100 metres up the road. Easily found and our driver may have been the sweetest man alive.  He took us to the church for 10 TL, waited there for us and then took us back for 10 TL.  When we asked him for the BEST restaurant with Antakyan food, he knew just where to take us (it too was supposedly just 100 metres from the taxi stand). 

Inside the museum

One of the many mosaics

Charity, blending in with the artifacts

Me... connecting with my inner goddess

The church itself was breath-taking.  The entrance and several bits of the interior were constructed at the time of the Crusades and the church itself was a cave church thought to have been founded by Luke, even though historians etc believe that Peter and Paul may have preached there.  It's name comes from when Peter was there.  It's currently under the care of an order of Capuchin monks that still operate in the Antakya region.  In fact several different denominations still maintain churches in the area and there seems to be peace and harmony between Christians and Muslims in the area.  It was a thing of beauty to see.

The view from St. Peter's

The entrance

Me, at the entrance.

The interior

Looking back to the entrance

looking out to the hills to the side of St. Peter's

After viewing the church and museum, having a lovely lunch, wandering through the bazaar and streets, we headed back to the hotel for a little break before grabbing some dinner at the same restaurant where the man popped out to help us hours earlier.  We also booked our bus to go back to the airport for the early morning.  Our dinner was delicious and then we thought we'd take a walk to find the exact spot the bus was meant to pick us up (it was supposed to be about 100 metres from our hotel, near a coffee shop).  We went there and a man told us it was on the other side of the shop, so we went there and there were no signs, so we walked the round-about looking for the signs for the bus (we had been told that there would be a sign) and found nothing.  We found another person who pointed us in another direction and told us it was 100 metres that way... no sign, so we asked at taxi driver who gave us another location.  Then after we went back to the hotel we double checked with our desk clerks to be told it was really at the original location 100 metres from the hotel (and they were right!!).  Needless to say, we needed sleep because the mere mention of 100 metres made us giggle.

the best restaurant

LUNCH!!

All in all, Antakya is a must see for those interested in the early church, history, archeology, and good food!

Things You Never Want to Hear Your Dentist Say...

So lately I've been undergoing some medical treatments here in Turkey.  I had minor knee surgery a few weeks back (almost all normal now... yah!!) and just as that healing process was beginning, I found that I needed to have a root canal on one of my bottom teeth.  Now, I'm not a fan of dentists on the best of days (sorry dentist friends) but generally I can suck it up and deal with it.  However the pain in my mouth was atrocious and a root canal is not a pleasant experience (so I had been told).  But since the pain was so bad, I knew I could no longer avoid testing the dental system here in Turkey.
I went to the main campus health centre dentist (I'm working at a school that is part of a university here in Ankara) on the recommendation of a co-worker (both for price and for good work).  I was nervous on the first visit and the pain was beyond belief... in fact, for the first time in my life I all out cried in the dentist chair (I gave the dentist fair warning that it might happen).  I also didn't know that there would be multiple appointments for this procedure (today was the 4th of possibly 5 if I'm lucky... please cross fingers, toes and whatever you can that I am lucky).
Long story short, it's been a lengthy process and the pain was excruciating at the beginning.  The last two appointments have been better and better but today I heard him say something I'm pretty sure I NEVER want to hear a dentist say as my mouth is wide open and he is digging around in my tooth: "What's that?  What's that little creature?"  UH..... WHAT?!?!?!?!?! CREATURE?!?!?!?!?!  I nearly bolted out of the chair!  He smiled and said there was a little bug and showed it to me... I nearly flipped out and asked where it came from and he said it was on my sweater and it flew to the dentist tray... so no, not out of my mouth, THANK GOD!!  But he then proceeded to tell me that once when he was in the army he had to check a soldier's tooth and was trying to clean out the cavity when he struggled to get something out of it... that later turned out to be a SPIDER!!!!!!!  Yes, you read correctly, the man had a spider in his tooth!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!! Worst nightmare ever, can you imagine!??! 
Anyway, you can add that phrase: "What's that? What's that little creature?" to the list of things you'd never want  to hear your dentist say to you...

Canim Annem... Mother's Day

Just like in a multitude of countries, Turkey celebrates their mothers with a special day and it just happens to be the same day as Canada and the US.  It's the second Sunday in May.  I always try to send my mom flowers or a little something on the day or as close to the day as possible so that I can be sure she knows how much love and appreciate her impact on my life and the gift that she is to me.  This year I got to send flowers to my grandmother as well as she is visiting my parents house for a few weeks. 
One thing that makes this year different for me is that I was recognized.  I'm single, unmarried and without any children of my own.  Sure, I have a classroom full of babies (that's what I call my classes) that I love like they were my own, but it's just not quite the same and I've never even thought about it before.  Until this year when a few of my students gave me gifts with tags and cards that said, "Happy Mother's Day!"  One of the parents even brought it in and said that they appreciated that my teaching partner and I were like parents while their child was at school.  It sure felt nice.
It also got me to thinking (well, that and what my mom said in response to my facebook post about it) that Mother's Day isn't just about the woman who gave birth to you physically.  It's about all the women who helped to give birth to the person you are right now.  And I'm so humbled to know that I've had a lot of lovely people in my life who have made me into the woman I am now and I'm so grateful for each and everyone of them (most of all to my mother who did more than give me physical life, she gave me a strength that few have and more gifts than I can begin to share in just a few words).  So thank you, ladies who have helped to form me and Happy Mother's Day canim annemler (Turkish for dear mothers).

I Survived Knee Surgery!

Yup!  I sure did.  One of the scariest thing for an expat is needing surgery or to be hospitalized in their host country.  Usually it means dealing with doctors who may or may not be at the standards you are used to from home, language barriers and all kinds of issues.  But I'm happy to say that my experience in Turkey was awesome.  My doctor actually picked me up from home, drove me to the hospital, helped me check in, came and checked on me pre-surgery and post and then came back at the end of the day to help me check out and drove me home!!!! And the anesthesiologist spoke great English, gave me all my options and helped me make the best choice for me... it was also the first time I didn't wake up groggy and dizzy from a surgery.  My nurse spoke little English but she tried hard and was very sweet and caring.  The hospital is also staffed with people equipped to deal with foreigners in several languages.  There are two ladies who speak English and walked through the whole process with me... checking me in, taking me to my lovely private room, helping to translate my family history, helping me to deal with my fears and helping me to leave at the end of the day.  I love those ladies with my whole heart!  They make a trip to the hospital less of a frightening thing and a little more like being with family when you clearly aren't. So I had minor knee surgery in Turkey and I couldn't be happier with the results.  My pain is VERY minimal... really just a little soreness at the end of the day, I am walking around with the only issue being that I can't bend it properly and I feel like I was well taken care of.  Chalk up a point for Turkey and their medical system and workers... especially at TOBB hospital (Hastanesi) in Ankara... they do a great job!!

Children's Day in Turkey

April 23rd is Children's Day in Turkey.  This holiday started 92 years ago when the national assembly was formed and Ataturk declared that the future belonged to the children.  So, today, children all over Turkey are performing in ceremonies and enjoying a day of being treasured and important (which for many children in Turkey is just a normal day.... kids are well loved here).
In my school, we celebrate with a short ceremony that highlights the importance of the day and celebrates the unique qualities of children.

We also plant trees that will grow and help heal the land just like the children will grow and become the leaders of tomorrow.  It's also really helpful that it was Earth Day on Saturday and the planting of trees goes hand in hand with that.

This year we also added a fundraising event where students would bring in money to help support a local rehabilitation center for children and also to egg their teachers into cutting their hair or shaving their heads (the hair will be donated to A Matter of Trust and be made into mats to help with oil spills). Basically it was a great day where fun was had, people were celebrated and most of all, people were helped!!

These are the staff that bravely cut or shaved their hair off.  3 of them were women who went bald for the cause and they all looked BEAUTIFUL!!