A few more photos...

There are a lot of pedestrian underpasses in Istanbul to allow people to cross the busiest streets. Being the commercial freakland that this is, all of these underpasses become shopping centers of a sort. Also, Istanbul has a sort of shop genre ghetto set up - Mark and I live in the pharmacy/lighting fixture district, meaning that almost every shop sells either drugs or lights. The underpasses are the same way. The one in Karakoy that I go through on the way to the ferry every morning on my commute is the electronics/gun underpass. That's right, guns. Now, I have heard all sorts of conflicting reports as to whether these are real guns or just air guns, but there are certainly a lot of them. And I can't imagine the market for airguns would be strong enough to support such a supply. A little bit scary...




Speaking of scary, I went with Martin and Michelle to a place called Miniaturk. All the monuments of Turkey...in miniature. It's supposed to be a pseudo-dignified tourist attraction, even a sort-of museum, but really it's just feels like a wildly intricate putt-putt course. Very high rank on the scale of glorious ironic entertainment.

The great thing was that they also had this giant chess set. I'd say that, according to the scale of the rest of the place, the king is representatively 200 feet tall. Oh, and that's Michelle, playing with her pawn.

Me, Galata, and Michelle.
There is also the Victory Museum, a sort of panoramic display of 10-inch people comprising the Turkish military kicking ass and taking names to protect the wholesome Anatolian villagers on the other side of the room. This exhibit is complete with the sound effects of explosions and artillary fire, though there are no voices, unfortunately.
Miniaturk also includes some relics of what they call "Ottoman History", including the Dome on the Mount in Jeuruselam. What the Turks won't try to take credit for...

Here I am conquering Istanbul's city walls.

There is a park in Taksim. It's not a beautiful park and it's not very big, but it's alright, and it has benches and a playground and a fountain (and plenty of litter). The highlight? Some of the benches, like a good many benches around the major commercial districts of the city, look like books. Famous authors on the back/outside cover, and you sit on an open page and lean back against the text of their most famous work. This is one thing I can really love about Istanbul.

T-Minus 3 Days - We'll probably be home before anybody reads this...

So, because I always forget about this part of the blogger system, this post goes backward in chronology. Oh well. I'm really just trying to put a lot of this stuff up here so that we can start deleting everything from the computer, since we're selling it to Mark's boss.

This will probably be my last post before we leave. Well, I'll probably add another photo post, but this will be my last text, I suppose. I wish I had some profound words, but we're trying to pack and trying to hang out with all of our friends before we go, and thinking about very practical things at this point. But, I guess I can try for posterity's sake.

It's very strange to be leaving. I am relieved to be going home, but it's a bit unfortunate to have really just started to have friends (having moved past the "making friends" phase) and now to be going. Of course, we're thrilled to be going home to our old friends, and I am definitely ready to leave Turkey. There has been increasing political unrest recently, and last week a center of WSI (the school for which Mark and I have been working) in Izmit got raided by the police and all their not-so-legal foreign teachers were taken to jail. Now, this was not in Istanbul, but in a much smaller city where the police don't have so much to do - it's a bit akin to Petoskey police expending huge efforts to break up high school parties. However, it doesn't exactly make me more comfortable.

So, I think it's been worthwhile, and I think we've rather accomplished something just by riding it out, but I know that I'm ready to go home.

Meanwhile, here's some images as we're winding down.

The Galata Tower dog pack, curled up in a sort of formation outside the Dia supermarket near our house. It's like they planned the cuteness, and I'll say that it worked. Mark and I bought them food.
This is the Turkish Mackinac Island. It's called Buyukada, or "Big Island," and it's part of the Islands, or Prince's Islands as they used to be called. It's a fresh-air paradise after being in Istanbul (the smog has been getting worse the last two weeks or so). There are no cars - they use horses, just like Mackinac, and you can rent bikes, though we chose to play it cheap and walk. There are also a bunch of touristy camera/sunscreen/postcard shops, and ice cream stores galore. This street actually looks a lot like Charlevoix, eh?
Mark and I, coming down from the giant hill we hiked on Buyukada.


The monastery on top of the hill. Not particularly exciting or historically important, but kinda pretty.
The view from the top of the hill. Really, it was just great to be in some real outdoors again, and to be pseudo-hiking in some pleasurable scenery.
There is also a strange Beverly Hills/Bay Harbor-type atmosphere on Buyukada, the whole place covered in giant mansions like this one for the rich of Turkey and the Middle East who require summer homes that they may or may not visit for a week every year. The season hasn't really started yet, so it was really just an exceptionally decadent ghost town.

One of the horse carriage taxis.

The ferry pier on Buyukada.

And now on to a bit about my work place. I didn't manage to get any pictures of my co-workers, because it was all busy on my last day, and everybody forgot I was leaving and they kinda went home. Sigh. Oh well. After work, my friend Jeff and I and my replacement, Kris, went up on the roof and drank a couple of beers. Anticlimatic, maybe, but alright, I guess.

These are a good example of the cards we use for exercises in our "Encounter" classes. The students a "unit" for a week or so, and then they meet with the teachers to practice and to be evaluated on whether they should move on or keep working on that unit using these exercises.
Each Encounter has it's own folder, of which there are a total of 68. Notice the snazzy graphic that our shelf space has made a little less exciting.
This is our office, which I spent two days cleaning last week. It used to be a disaster. No surprise, since I was the first female "native" teacher they've had in 4 years. At least I've left one tangible improvement in my wake.
This is the que for the dolmus in Kadikoy, the shared taxi, which I took to Caddebostan for work every day.
View of the Galata Bridge and Eminonu from the ferry before departing Karakoy.
A typical Sunday morning on Galata Bridge - a TON of people fishing, though hopefully they won't eat what they catch.
Michelle (the Yank) and Helen (the Kiwi) with some Kadikoy municipal building and the Sea of Marmara in the background.
A Turkish Navy battleship on the Bosphorus.

We want MOOOOORE protests!

Another interesting day in Istanbul. Today I tried to cross on the ferry to have coffee with Michelle, only to find that the city was crawling with police and that all public transit had been shut down. At about 11:15 this morning, apparently there was a big violent clash between protesters and police in Taksim square.

Mark and I were out at 9:30 this morning and saw nothing, then, after I abandoned my attempt to get across the city this afternoon, we went down Istiklal again at 3 which leads to the square. We saw a bunch of closed shops, a ton of men just sitting along the street, and about 1000 police all along the street in riot gear, and a few tanks. We breathed some residual tear gas from this morning (not the most pleasant experience), but otherwise Mark and I haven't been affected directly.

The deaths being commemorated by the protest (which was also directed against the government) happened right outside Mark's school, where I'm writing this email. I can see the carnations the article mentions on the sidewalk from this very window. Very surreal.

And this is all after a major protest by what some sources say was a million people of the government on Sunday that Mark and I only knew was happening because of the thousands of people with flags EVERYWHERE. This is what happens when you don't watch TV and can't understand the proverbial Word on the Street - it's a little unnerving to be uninformed when things like this go down.

But, anyway, Mark and I are totally fine, if deprived of an afternoon of shopping. We'll keep you posted.

My 2 YKR (which is only about 1.5 cents)

So, it seems Kate called me out on playing computer games. She neglected to mention that when looking at the games, when I couldn't decide between two, she said 'Mark, why don't you just get both.' What a girlfriend, I tell ya.

So, anyway, I don't want to make this Jerry Springer's closing thoughts, but I will burden you with my own lists, just a few things.

Things I Will Miss About Turkey:

The friends we've made
Cheap DVDs
The bosphorus/ferries on the bosphorus
The easiest damn teaching job in the world
The tea
Some of my better students
Being able to throw down a basket in the morning and get breakfast that way
Conversing and learning about this different culture
Açma, an awesome pastry thingie
Ordering food from a website

Things That I'm Glad Will Be Left Far Behind Across A Large Ocean:

Ayran

Things Turkish People Do That Annoy Me:

Hassle me to buy their carpets
Hassle me to eat at their restaurant
Hassle me to come to their bar
Hassle me to shine my shoes
Hassle me to come and 'meet' their 'friends' who are girls

Things That Will Be Strange When I Come Home

Waiters actually waiting on you
People blowing their nose in public
Big grassy areas
Being able to understand everyone I meet
Being able to say 'college' and 'apartment' and 'movies'
Cooking for myself again
Hearing people not use present perfect correctly and not correcting them

and more, but if you want to hear more about it, ask me when you see me at home later.

Post a la Pic, part deux!

Two serpent monsters in a dream scene in the Karagoz show that Mark and I saw.
Galata Tower as seen from the ferry crossing from Karakoy to Kadikoy.
Haydarpasa Train Station, given to the Ottomans by one of the Wilhelms, but I'm not sure which one (thus the very Germanic architecture - it looks really funny in its context)
The much more Ottoman-looking quay at the Haydarpasa Station.
The seaside of the Marmara in Bostanci, near where I work.
Children from...some other country during a parade Mark and I stumbled across on Istiklal for the first International Children's Day.
Dolmabahce Caddesi decked out in it's Children's Day best.
The Tophane Mosque, behind which there is a long continuous row of nargile cafes (where people smoke flavored tobacco from hookas and play backgammon).
Oh, and we also finally made it to the Istanbul Modern, which I must say is one of the most modern buildings and things in Istanbul. I had my doubts before we saw it.
Oh, the beautiful ferry on a beautiful day. The best thing in this city.
The wonderful translation job on the directions for a claw machine at the arcade in Kadikoy.
Alethea, Aaron and Mark at the arcade. Of course, being the photographer, I tend not to show up in these things.
An adorable child in military band uniform singing very patriotic Turkish songs at the stationary parade for Children's Day in the Kadikoy center square.

Post a la Pic!

Just a standard Sunday afternoon riot police drill on Istiklal. We couldn't get the other batallion and the tank in the photo without looking too suspicious. Jason was freaking out anyway, as he saw this as a violation of the Prime Directive: Don't go to Turkish prison. Not to worry, though. Mostly they just stand around with those big guns and pick their teeth.
Unfortunately, my camera didn't seem to come out until after Ian left, so we have none of all of us together. I do like this picture, though. "Cam" means glass, and apparently somebody was trying to warn the world about the dangers of invisible solid surfaces.
Putting the Wilsons on the bus. It was sad to see everybody go, but now we'll be home to see everyboyd again so soon!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Mark and I also finally made it to Topkapi Palace. A nice American tourist took this picture for us.

This is the Kariye Muzesi, with all the gorgeous mosaics inside. The exterior is pretty interesting, too. But don't ask me to tell you how to get to this place - it's pretty well hidden.
A painting inside the Muzesi. That's Jesus in the middle, but I'm not sure what the rest of the picture is.
An awesome interpretation of Jesus pulling Adam and Eve out of Hell. All in a Judgement Day's work...
Mark climbing the precarious city walls. And, like all good climbs, coming down was even more interesting.
Me and Mark and Istanbul. If you look closely, you can see the Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque just over Mark's head on the horizon.
Here's my school! I always feel like I'm in Florida when I walk there, because I have been trained to believe that, where there are palm trees, there is Florida.
Bagdat (pronounced BAH-dat, though it does mean Bagdad in Turkish) Caddesi - the posh street where my school is located. This street is also home to Marks & Spencer, Burburry, Duncan Donuts (a VERY primo place here in Istanbul - absolutely no truckers or cops), TGIFridays, KFC, PizzaHut, Mango, 5 Starbucks all on the same side of the street, and even Claire's! In Istanbul, Foreign IS Fashion.

The Tulip Festival in Taksim square. Like most public events we've seen so far, not very exciting. There were, indeed, plenty of tulips, though.