Phase 1: Nearing completion, ready photon torpedos

So we’ve been living as expatriates for 26 days now, and I would have to say we’ve been doing it rather successfully. So far we have survived three weeks of what we could safely say is quite intensive – this week we had 50 hours of class time and about 15-20 hours of homework. This week we had 4 teaching practice lessons, and we have one more on Monday, along with another private lesson and a big ol’ exam that covers all this grammar crap that completely screws with our minds because we’re learning rules we’ve never even heard applied in life (apparently it’s horribly grammatically incorrect to say “I’m going to have a baby,” or “She’s having a baby,” because the function of the future tense meaning is to indicate a future fact, not a prediction, and therefore you must say “I will have a baby,” or “They will have a baby.” I think that sometimes the books can just be wrong, because how stupid does that sound?). Oh, and since we’re supposed to teach “British” English, when we analyze things phonetically on the exam, we can’t write the phonetic symbols according to what we actually hear what we say, but what an English person would say, so it’s virtually impossible. So, one thing we’re learning is that you can’t learn everything you need to teach in a course, and that everything you learn in a course you don’t necessarily need to teach… or something. But there’s one week left, and then we’re free.

I can say “free” because we’ve essentially landed jobs already. One school has given us a 99% yes, we just have to get the actual figures for the salary (1400-1500 YTL/month, which is very reasonable, since our rent will only be 400 YTL for the both of us) and sign the contracts, which we’ll probably do Friday (not to jinx it or anything). We’ve already been offered and turned down another job, because, well, we didn’t really like the school. We’re holding out on making anything final until we’ve heard from two other schools for whom we still have to meet the big bosses and/or teach demo lessons, but we’ve all but been hired at those places as well. Turns out we’re pretty marketable, since we’re native speakers and likeable, and those are really the biggest qualifications you need to teach English here.

We also have found two possible places to live, so that’s essentially taken care of. Our classmate/colleague Sasha has a wonderful flat in Galatasaray, which is on the European side and on the top of a hill, so there’s a gorgeous view of almost the whole Bosphorus and out to the sea (her building is a block and a half from Istiklal Street and Taksim, the most famous street in the city), and she has sort-of offered to let us move in with her and her other flatmate (we have to say “flat” and “flatmate” even here – the long arm of British English…). They had originally asked another friend to move in, but she said no until she heard they had other prospects and so is reconsidering. Reminds me of home, really. And Sasha’s great. And she has two cats in her flat, so our pet craving will hopefully be sated. She’s from Queensland, and we actually have a lot in common; we watched Singin’ in the Rain – which she owns, along with The Hours and Chronicles of Narnia, among others - last night after going out to the bar and I rejoiced to hear her say things like “Oh, I love this scene, it’s just such a gorgeous dance number.” You can imagine how we would get along. She and Mark and I go out to lunch almost everyday, and though it’s rather a fast friendship, I think it’s actually based on more than a common linguistic background, which is nice. Also it’s good to have some chick friendship. Now we need to find some dudes for Mark to hang out with. Ramin has become rather annoying in a lot of little and bigger ways that I won’t take the time to explain, but as Sasha puts it, “I’ve met so many Iranian guys who are so crazy and awesome, so it’s really very disappointed that Ramin is really only crazy.” Let’s just say he’s not exactly our best friend lately, so our guy-friend factor is low. I’m sure we’ll persevere somehow.

But, speaking of guys, if we can’t move in there…no, first I should tell you about Richard. This is a man who does all the hiring for an English school called Wall Street Institute. We went to meet him for an interview in front of the Burger King in Taksim Square yesterday – take note of the many things that are funny about this story, like the fact that there’s a Burger King in Taksim Square. He isn’t thrilled with our having to leave in May, and I think this will probably prevent us from working for that school, but I’m just glad we met this guy. We do the interview, that otherwise went very very well, and mention that we’re looking for a place to stay. He knows Sasha, so we told him we were thinking of staying there, and he says that if that doesn’t work out, we can sublet his place because he’s going back to Australia for at least a couple of months, and maybe forever (funny, we haven’t met any Americans yet, and only two Brits, but three Australians and a New Zealander). So after the very laidback meeting, we go over to his flat to check it out, which is really quite posh, and which we could only afford because he’d be paying half of the rent. So, after this, we start heading out and the person he was supposed to meet for drinks is going to be late. So, we end up having two beers with Richard and spend most of the time discovering that he is going to be my new best friend: he’s done some TV acting and has all sorts of friends who write for TV and movies, he loves shows like Dawson’s Creek, the OC, 90210 and the like, and the best night of his entire life was the London premiere of Crossroads. I should mention now that he’s 33 and straight, just a little unusual and hilarious. It’s too bad about the 6000 mile distance, because I know a certain red-headed Oakland girl who would love him…

Things are a touch tense here with the Prime Minister being essentially pushed by the UN to send Turkish troops to Lebanon. The Turks love their troops, and one of my students said the other day that if this happens, people are going to be very unhappy and they’ll show it. There was a protest in our neighborhood the other day – it was rather anti-Israel, and therefore rather anti-American. I looked from afar, but didn’t venture very close. There were more police out that protestors though – they play these things safe here, and I don’t think anyone’s in any sort of danger.

Dad asked me a while ago how things smell here. Well, our street often smells a bit like a litter box because there are so many cats living right here (you’ve seen the kittens). Also if it rains or sometimes for no reason at all, any given area can smell quite strongly of sewage. But we also get fresh sea breezes coming down the main street from the water, which is really nice. There is also a particular smell that seems to be a combination of döner meat, general spices, and tea. This smell is rather pleasant, but it pervades everywhere and serves as the undertone of every other smell. It is indeed a very aromatic place.

I believe that’s all the major happenings this week for us personally. Oh! And we got a phone. But I lost my cell on the plane to London, so if you ever want to talk to us and Mark doesn’t have your phone number, email Mark or me and send us your digits. Hope everyone and everything is well at home. I miss people and things and places a bit right now, but this is starting to feel just a teeny bit like a home already. Things are good.

-Kate


RANDOM PHOTO TIME!!!

Ok, its Mark. Here are some pictures we didn't want to be bothered with writing a lot about. We're busy here. So, for your viewing pleasure, we give you the pretty:



Yup, thar she blows. Thats the most easily recognizable piece of pretty we got, and we're giving it to you, just like in a chintzy postcard. I wish I could tell you how it looked from the inside, but it was 20 dollars and too bloody hot. But we will return later armed with a camera! ps. For you uncultured types, thats the Hagia Sophia. Yeah, I don't remember what it's for either.



If you turn around from the Sophia, this is what you see: the Blue Mosque. We also didn't go in this one on account of not being Muslim. Apparently you can go in as a tourist, but we didn't want to risk messing up and being yelled at in Turkish.





This was our blessed sanctuary from the heat. It's the Basilica Cistern, and it was built by some Roman dude a long time ago. It used to hold a whole lotta water. Now it just holds a whole lotta carp.

Tell us who you are!!! Geez!!

Ok, so, if you comment on the site, be sure to give some clue as to who you are. We know a lot of Katies and Annes and stuff, so maybe give a last initial, or some clue hidden in the form of a limerick or haiku. Help us out here.

Where are the pretties?

So we know that you're wondering, Okay, they're supposedly in Istanbul - where's all the COOL pictures? Don't worry - we've gotten to see a couple of cool things, I just keep forgetting my flashdrive wıth the detaıls and the pıctures on it. Impressive images to come soon.

It turns out teaching is actually hard...

Ahh… a chance to breathe. There have only been a few periods of my life when I was going literally non-stop, and this is one of those times. Luckily, ViaLingua was kind enough to not give much over the weekends, so I am finally getting a chance to relax and do some things for myself. Like correspond with all you wonderful people.

Let me outline a typical day from the last week. I get up at around 7 and frantically finish my lesson plan that I didn’t finish last night because the apartment was too hot to be awake in. I get to school at around 9 and have all my materials ready to be printed/photocopied/etc.. Crap, the printer/photocopier is broken/the power is out for a few hours. Damn. I run around frantically writing, cutting, pasting, drawing, getting ready. Then, I teach people who don’t know English English while speaking in English. I’m not exactly sure who’s brilliant idea that was, but astonishingly enough it seems to work. Sometimes they stare at me blankly, sometimes they participate and we have fun, like the lesson where we all gave one sentence of a story in simple past (ie, we walked to the disco). After that, the teachers would tell us what to do better and sent us out for lunch. (Just an aside, you could not believe how cheap good food is here. There is a place that sells mini-pizzas and stuffed pitas that are quite tasty and filling. Kate’s and my bill came out 3.50 YTL, which is a little over $2.00). We go back to school for 3 hours of teaching methodology and grammar points, then we lesson plan for another hour and a half. Then we can leave, but I usually stick around to print stuff, draw stuff, check e-mail, etc. Then Kate and I head home to cook dinner. After we eat, we try to write reports (we have to write 2 reports a day, one on the lesson we taught and another on the one we observed), but its usually too hot (its much cooler in the mornings, it doesn’t cool off in the apartment until around 4 or so) and I fall asleep. I feel I am learning a lot, but I don’t have much time to do things like get a phone or get travelers checks cashed.

We did have a little time to go around and drop of resumes and talk to potential employers, from which there are some choice tidbits of stories. The second school we went to was painted olive green. We waited a while and were greeted by a 20-something British man with a scraggly beard and a “I’m with stupid ” T-shirt, (We learned later that he was the Director of Studies). It turns out the school was only founded 8 months ago and was created by a bunch of teachers that were fed up with the crap from other schools and started their own school. We really liked the renegade school, it had a great feel.

The other school we went to, English Time, is like the McDonalds of Istanbul language schools. There are around 8 or 9 in the city. The woman we talked to, however, was quite sweet and gave us a lot of advice about working in the city, such as how to find an apartment, how to get a bank account, etc.. There was also another person who was observing the interview who is the new head teacher of another English Time school, she was about our age and from New Zealand, (if you have never heard a New Zealand accent, I recommend you ring one up immediately and chat for a while. Some words sound just like a Midwestern accent, but then she’ll drop into a weird British/Irish accent, and you’ll think to yourself “who is this person). She was also really sweet and funny. After the interview, she asked us, out of the blue, “Do you two ever play role-playing games?” We gave a hesitatant yes, I thought she meant like role-playing activities in English class, but we asked her to clarify. She said “Well, I have a friend that wants to start a Wheel of Time game.” So she really meant good old pen and paper dice-chucking role-playing games. We asked her why she asked and she responded, “You kinda look the same type as my friend who plays.” So we obviously can’t fool anyone into thinking we are actually cool and totally normal, maybe its something in our pheromones. Damn smells always giving us away. Anyway, she said she’ll e-mail us later.

Other news, we actually have a phone number! The bad part is it won’t work on the cell phone I bought from home, so we need to buy a Turkish cell phone. When we have that up and running, we’ll e-mail the pertinent parties.

That’s all for now, I will leave you with our cute kittens outside our house.

Pictures!!!

Hey all, just wanted to let you know that we got pictures up, both of the rest of our apartment and from Kate's post about us in İstanbul. Check it out!!!

Also, I think there is some confusion about comments. I have to approve comments, so if they don't show up right away, don't post 20 comments. They will show up, don't worry.

p.s. Pictures of Ramin still to come....

Post Script to SKOOL!

That post was from yesterday. I didn't actually sleep all that well last night, due to the fight between what sounded like a cat and a large goose in our backyard, and the fact that Mark got the comfortable bed (we've been rotating). Today was alright, too - more class all day and the realization that when we start to learn grammar tomorrow, it'll really be the first time we've learned English tenses. We'll probably be the worst ones in the class, oddly enough. Oh well.

We did find out from our teacher that she offers private Turkish lessons, though, so hopefully we will have the budget for that once we get jobs and get paid and such. That was exciting. We also found a place where you can get chicken and rice for 2.50ytl. Almost frighteningly cheap, but I'm not sick...yet...

But now I think I'll go, because this guy in the internet cafe keeps looking at me, and I'm hungry, anyway. So, that's all for now. Again, keep a look out for the pictures - when we finally figure it out, you could very possibly still give a damn.

SKOOL!

First day of school! I was going to put here a whole description of our new flatmate, Ramin, but since I can't get to the picture, it's just not as good. So we'll save that for later. Damn confusing interenet/computers that don't work right.

Today we had our first day of classes at Kent English, and it turns out this course is going to be pretty intense. Mark having been away from classes for 8 months and myself for 3, it was a bit of a shock to get back into the mode. It was good, though, to have something to really do for the day, 9:30-6. It’s unfortunate that we’ll have so much less time for exploring now, but one can only do so much wandering before it becomes a little bit more like drifting. Anyway, it seems that it will be plenty of work and tons of learning on our feet, but for me it’s almost like being at home just to be in school again, even if it’s a very different kind of school. We have four instructors: Bengü, who is also the course coordinator; Mehtap; Işmael, the Big Cheese, as it were; and John (whom we have yet to meet because he lives and teaches in İzmit – which is about an hour bus ride from İstanbul - though we’re going to have class with him there next Thursday, so that’ll be nice to get to see even more of the country (don’t worry, you parent-types, it’s still very west and safe and all that). They all seem to be very knowledgeable and good teachers, after one day’s assessment. This would seem key, since they’re teaching us how to be good teachers, so it’s a two-fold necessity for them to be teach well…or something.

Oh, and it’s amazing how much we don’t know about English grammar. Oy.

Our four classmates seem great, too. Ercan and Işun are both Istanbullus, and so can help us with our Turkish as well and to understand the learners we’ll be dealing with and Turks in general. Sasha is Australian, and she’s been teaching English in Istanbul for the last two years without any formal credentials and is doing the course so as to get a formal working visa, so she knows a lot about the TEFL market in the city and about they way Turks (especially kids) respond to English teaching. So, it seems everyone has something super helpful to bring to the table for the others (Mark and I can really only offer our American pronunciation, but I guess that’s something). It really seems like the most ideal situation we could’ve asked for. Well, so far…

So I’m finally starting to feel a little bit settled, now that we’ve got a base of something to do and some wonderful associates. All classes are, obviously, in English, so we’re not furthering our Turkish there at all, but it is really nice to be able to just use English and communicate with other people to socialize and share ideas. I’m feeling much more comfortable, more at home.

Yes, I think I shall sleep well tonight, indeed.

Some actual things about Istanbul (proof that we're really here...kinda)

Since we're still experiencing technical difficulties (read: miscommunications between Mark and me as to where the photos were saved and my unwillingness to leave the internet cafe and come back again), we'll have to forego the pictures for this moment and allow me to continue our story without further elaboration yet on the physical state of our flat. I'm leaving in the bits that annotate where a picture ought to be, because we'll post them later and most of this consists of captions to said photos. It's merely a ploy to keep the suspense and keep y'all coming back for more. Or to spoil it for you when the pictures are really there. Either way, I win.

This was written two days ago, but I'm just getting to post it now...

So here we are, sweltering in our flat at 7:45 on our third day in Kadiköy (our neighborhood, which doesn’t actually show up on the average map of İstanbul – it’s south of the main action on the Asian side). All in all, I’d say things are going swimmingly, but I’m sure y’all want juicier details than that.

London

Not a whole lot to tell. We rather impressively rampaged the main tourist attractions in the 48 hours we had: Globe Theatre, British Museum, ParliamentBig Ben (it was a bit funny that they were showing V for Vendetta on the plane to London), Buckingham, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden/West End, and a generally walking tour of Pimlico, where our awesome hostel was.

Arriving in İstanbul

Unfortunately, we didn’t take really any pictures until today, because we’ve been kinda busy trying to, you know, survive. But I’ll start from the beginning. The airport was mostly a breeze. Visa: check – Passport: check – Customs: nobody even looked our way. It was getting out of the airport that posed some problems. We were told to take a taksi from the airport to the school, where someone would meet us there to pay the driver. The man at tourist information seemed to think this was an awful idea because no driver would know where the address we needed would be, and that we should take a bus across the Boğazı (Bosphorus), and then find a cab there. However, we couldn’t quite figure out where this bus would be taking us. We met a girl who spoke a bit of English (everyone here seems to know at least a few words, a bit like Americans and Spanish, I guess), but she’d never been to the airport before and was a bit confused herself. So, after much deliberation between Mark and me, we decided to take a cab. The man directing the taksis knew English, and explained the situation to the driver, who ended up being most pleasant and communicating rather well with must his hands, and the drive was rather nice, despite the ridiculous rush-hour traffic. [An interesting side-note: we saw a wedding caravan, which consisted of the bridal car decorated with flowers and a bunch of cars behind it, all with their flashers on and towels tied around their driver’s side mirrors]. Now we know that it really does take 2 hours to get from one side of the city to the other, even with the most deft (and death-defying) of drivers.

Arriving in Kadiköy was harried, as both the foot and car traffic continued to be quite stifling (people just walk in front of cars here, and cars just honk and drive through people, especially in the small streets (or sokaks) on which we live – I’m amazed more people don’t get hit). The taksi driver carried half of our luggage and led us up through these tiny market sokaks to the Kent English school. A man named Ismail came to the door and indeed paid the driver willingly, though he seemed to be astonished that it cost 100ytl (good thing we didn’t have to pay – we only had 60ytl on us). And so Ismail took us under his wing. He brought us to our flat, told us how to get to the water and where the supermarket was, and then we were on our own for the night. We unpacked, ate some granola bars, and went to bed.

The next morning we got up early and went exploring. We were also starting to get hungry, so we wandered about looking for a place to eat. Mark wanted to just stop in somewhere, but I was strangely anxious about our first real interaction with these crazy people called Türks, so I made him keep wandering, until finally some guy who mistook us for German and spoke English swooped down on us and sat us down at a place for tea. Mark was reluctant, wisely perhaps, but I was so made at myself for being chicken that I just went for it. So, we had a cup of çay (tea) and chatted with this man, who turned out to be quite pleasant. Then he showed us a place where we could actually eat, and ordered for us. It ended up being an expensive but fabulous meal that was more than filling, and we managed to ask the waiter what had been ordered for us after about half-an-hour: mixed kebap. We still don’t know exactly what we ate, but it was wonderful, even if the spices were a little…er, exotic for our digestive systems. We would find out later that this is one of the favorite places of the locals, so good on us for being lucky when we could’ve been swindled, I suppose.

Ismail had told us to come back to Kent to get a map and some other info from him, so we checked there, but he wasn’t in. The secretaries who spoke some English told us to come back in an hour…three times. This was all fine, though, because we had nowhere really to be, and we just meandered around our little district. There are a million shops on the little streets, selling bread and appliances and cellphones and shoes, and some open markets, and a sort of financial/shopping district on the main drag a few blocks away. It actually feels a bit like the market in Seattle, really, but somehow more authentic and slightly shoddier. Also, our flat seems to be in the particularly bookstore-heavy part of the area, which is wonderfully exciting. There’s a place just down the street from us that sells English and Western classics translated into English (from Austen to Tolstoy) for 6.50ytl (which turns out to be about $4), so we shouldn’t ever run out of reading materials. We also made our first successful venture into the supermarket, Migros – where they do have cereal and pasta and chicken and yogurt, and just about everything else we could want…except, strangely enough, couscous. We also made our first purchases at the open produce markets, which are quite remarkable and CHEAP – we even managed to order in Turkish.

Ah yes, the Turkish. You’ll pick it up much faster when you’re there, everyone said. Well, that’s for sure. Our phrasebooks have already been put through the paces, but we’ve also really started in on the lessons Ian gave us to try to learn the actual fundamentals of the language. It’s not easy, but even just after two days we’re starting to pick it up, I think. It’s clearly going to be awhile before we’re even conversational, but at least now we can get through the formalities of the hi-how-are-yous with some success. I think we’ll be pretty good at this rate. We met a British woman yesterday who has been here since March and said that it’s almost impossible unless you use it all the time, but we decided she just wasn’t trying very hard.

Today we slept in quite a bit (I had been kept awake through the night by the sounds of the neighborhood, especially the gulls, which sound like Michigan gulls on that have finally come out the other side of puberty), and then got up and moseyed down to the water. Here’s some of the view from the ferry port.

It’s rather hazy since it was so hot today (we don’t have a thermometer, but I’d guess it’s about what’s happening at home) and because of the smog, but you can see the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya (Topkapı Palace is just out of sight to the right of the frame and not much to see from this far away). This is a ten minute walk from out flat. Pretty sweet.

This is a railway station that was given to the city as a gift from…guess who? Hmm…Nazi flag…German architecture…Evet! Kaiser Wilhelm! Isn’t it lovely?

I actually really like this monument, because it represents one of my favorite things in the history of the Republic of Turkey. Basically, we’re seeing Atatürk reinventing the Turkish, eliminating the Arabic script and any Arabic/Persian vocabulary in favor of the Latinate alphabet and a pure Turkish language. It was a top-down linguistic revolution, essentially, which worked because only 7% of the population was literate…anyway, I’ll spare you the details. It’s fascinating, though. Notice that the people to the left are full-grown adults, and yet remarkably smaller than Atatürk in all ways. The great leader was only about 5’5”, I believe.

The sounds are the most striking things. We can very easily hear the call to prayer from the nearby mosque, though it sounds strangely amplified (because it is) and a little tinny. Last night there was a boy playing a melancholy flute in the streets. Later this afternoon, in the flat, I was listening to the family in our back courtyard jabbering away and someone playing the cello in one of the adjacent buildings. Cats get into fights (the cats here are as prevalent as squirrels in A2, though less intimidating, and often sleep on top of cars, which is quite cute), and the door to our building is right next to our flat door, so it always sounds like someone’s breaking in.

Phew. I think that’s been about it for our adventure so far. I’m not sure if I’ll ever have that much to write again, but just thought we’d get our initial impressions out there.

Technical diffıculties

Ok, so I can´t complete my post because the pictures won't show up. Anyone know ıf blogger has a max pıcture lımıt? (Jason, I'm lookıng ın your dırectıon) I'll get this sorted out (hopefully) and I'll post the rest of ıt soon.

Read the one below this first

(blogger was giving me issues with pictures, so I had to split the post)

The nice part of our bedroom are the closets, to your left.



The wood is 500 year oak polished to that fine finish you see before you. I am told that it took the legendary Turkish woodworker Migro half his life to create these two pieces, and then died afterward. I, for one, appreciate his sacrifice.



This is the view through the window about our bed. It looks pretty much how I imagined it would.


There are two other bedrooms for the other two people that were going to stay with us. One has since dropped the course and so we’ll have one flat mate that we have yet to meet. I assume he’s super cool.

That’s about it for inside the apartment, so follow me outside and you can meet the neighbors we’ve met so far.




We have a family of kittens living right outside our front door. It is possibly the cutest thing I could have ever imagined. Words do these kittens no justice, so I will have to leave you with these pictures.






That’s about it for our place. When Kate wakes up she can tell you about the adventure of our first few days in Turkey. Bye for now.

Welcome to our home!

Hello everyone, and welcome to our apartment in Istanbul! Kate thought it would be nice to give everyone a tour to get them acquainted with our place, so she told me to do it while she took a nap. So follow me into the living room and I’ll start our tour.
This was the first view we saw when we came into the apartment, and, as I can see from your faces, we were as impressed as you are. We expected some dingy one room apartment with no furniture, (like Jason’s and Judy’s place, minus the swanky furniture.) Instead we got nice chairs, a sophisticated cupboard to hold all our fine china, and, last but not least…

a TV! Its super posh, with only the best in Turkish television. We get 15 fuzzy channels, 1 semi-fuzzy Spanish channel (some things never change) and another semi-fuzzy news channel. That’s about all for the living room, so turn around and look into the kitchen.

This is our kitchen, which is also kinda our dining room, which doubles as our laundry room. We do have a fridge, even though you can’t see it, and that is a gas stove you see. However, there is no oven, so Kate’s hopes of baking baklava have been crushed. We’ve had two successful meals to date, which is a big accomplishment as far as I’m concerned.
That’s about it for the kitchen, so let me just get by and I’ll take you to the …

bathroom. This is where we poop.

We’ll have to be a bit quiet in here, cause Kate is sleeping, as you can see in the bottom left of your picture. As you can see, we used our empty luggage to good effect by making bookcases, which Kate cleverly decorated with her sarong. The fan on the floor I hauled 6000 mıles from Ann Arbor, where it kept our bunny cool, only to unpack it broken. Good. The nice part of our bedroom are the closets, to your left.

(post continued next)

In London!

Hey all, Kate and I are in London, having a blast! Internet time is costly, so I can't write long, but more to come when we get set up in Turkey and have internet access.

Mark