How it all started

This whole process of deciding and planning to spend the upcoming school year in Istanbul began last summer. In talking about what we were going to do after we graduated, we somehow arrived at the conclusion that we wanted to go somewhere far away and exciting. Mark believes firmly (and I have since been convinced) that one cannot fully appreciate a place unless one is there for at least six months or so, and so we started looking at things we could do abroad that would be fairly self-sustaining (i.e., working either as paid employees or supported volunteers) and fairly long-term. Thus began countless hours online looking for opportunities in interesting places, such as saving sea turtles in Greece. Eventually, though, we determined that getting a job, rather than volunteering or paying to volunteer, would be the only way we could afford this endeavor. And so, we decided we would try to get jobs teaching English. I first suggested Brazil. Mark's first notion was Japan. Therefore, we settled on Prague (the city somewhere in the middle that really caught our eye, and to which I had some close ancestral roots).

However, through much investigating of online forums and other conversations, we were convinced that it would be quite difficult for us to obtain legal jobs, sanctioned by the Czech government and all that, as non-EU citizens. So, Prague was out, despite the fact that we'd been accepted to a TEFL training program (the 4-week intensive certification we would require to be qualified to Teach English as a Foreign Language). Then I stumbled across a program in Russia for which the training would be free and our jobs guaranteed before we left. We interviewed on the phone and started planning for Siberia (where they had two open positions together), but they decided not to take us because of the constraints on the time we were willing to stay - we said we had to be back at least by mid-June so Mark could start school, and preferably before May 27 for Brian and Cadi's wedding.

Our short search for places outside of the EU led us to Turkey and Istanbul, though I'm not sure by exactly what means. Perhaps it was just a link that popped up on teachabroad.com - I don't remember. And so some strange providence led us to Via Lingua in Istanbul. We mulled over it much, as there were concerns about not receiving a CELTA certificate (which is the most widely-heralded accredidation for a TEFL certification), specifically the benefit to Mark's future teaching career. But Via Lingua is backed by Kent University, another well-respected if lesser-known British TEFL provider, and Gary and Dorinda (Mark's parents) happened to encounter someone who had done this exact program, and spoke very highly of it. And so, with all the pros and cons weighed, we decided this was the thing for us. We applied, were accepted, bought plane tickets to depart on July 31, and that was that.

All that was a few months ago, now, and at this point we are busy utilizing the invaluable help of all four of our parents trying to get all the things taken care of that we didn't think about when we concocted this idea almost a year ago, inculding travel insurance and immunizations. We always knew there would be some language barrier issues, and thus far we have been very bad about pursuing any sort of Turkish skills (I've only learned the alphabet and "what is this?" so far), but hopefully we'll start to pick it up quickly while we're there. Hopefully...

Now, as we think about actually leaving rather soon and being very far away from home, we have turned our focus to include how we'll keep in touch with everyone. Thus the creation of this blog. Not sure how often we'll have a chance to update it, but hopefully we'll have many adventures to share, and Mark recently acquired a digital camera, and there will certainly be many images of our travels to send home as well.

T-minus 43 days.