An addict's frustration

Some of you may know that I have a little problem with books. Meaning I like to buy them. And I know that I shouldn't be buying many books here, but a girl's got to read, and they don't really have English libraries. I'm also trying to research a project, and this customarily requires books.

Here's the thing - I tried to buy a book for said research, only to find out it would cost me a day's wages (and I make a decent amount of money). Even just a 200 pg. novel by John Updike would have cost me about 25 YTL (stupid GBP, being SO expensive...) All just because they're in English. So, I actually haven't bought a single book almost three months now. I think this is a record. I was beginning to wonder if I would make it.

However, come payday, all will be well, because I found me a used bookstore, with a whole WALL of English books for under 15 YTL. Phew. But still, I know I I must severely limit my indulgences because I won't be able to take home all I would want to buy. It's sad.

So books are too expensive, but cigarrettes are dirt cheap. Fie. I should've been a smoker...

Mark and Kate in Istanbul are still just Mark and Kate

Sorry for not posting anything thrilling lately, but unless you want to hear about ALL our furniture acquiring escapades, there's nothing really to post. We've reached the point where living here is exactly that - living here. Of course, it's all still an adventure, because everything's a bit on the edge when you can't quite manage to ask your waiter if your köfte (meatballs) have been cooked properly (don't worry, they were) or when you don't quite know where this bus is going to take you. But now, we're at the point when we're no longer getting here, we're being here, if that makes sense. We walk down Istiklal Cadessi to Taksim Square - the most famous place in the country, really - every day. We've hit the main tourist spots of the city (except for Topkopı Palace, because every time we say we're going to go there, some important piece of furniture breaks in the middle of the night - it's very weird), and now we're just kinda working and hanging out. Granted my daily commute involves a ferry ride with views of the whole Bosphorus and all its water-side beauty, and it's really quite glorious. But as far as really exciting things to report, there aren't a lot. I suppose it's a bit of an excitement curve - everything's worth noting in the beginning, because everything is strange and exciting. But now you all know all that stuff, so there's not a whole lot to tell that you'd care to read.

Our days tend to consist of some reading, some work with our Turkish books or flashcards, commutes, eating, teaching, and sometimes relaxing playing Magic or watching Sex and the City. Pretty much a lot of the lame stuff we did at home. But really, did you expect Mark and I to become party-animal city folk just because we left the country? We're still kinda...socially lazy, maybe? Anyway, maybe things will/should liven up a bit when Sasha, who does like to go out and live it up, gets back from Australia. Or maybe when we finally get paid - that'd probably help our going-out drive, too.

We do have photos of our apartment, our neighborhood, and our kitties, and as soon as we get some of our flatmates, I will supply a virtual tour of our place. I also forgot my flashdrive when we left for the internet cafe...again. So, I suppose that's, for now. Iyi günler!

Right, so ıt turns out some things are really hard here...

Like buying a bed. Today, Mark and I spent 7.5 hours total in getting furniture for our new room and the rest of our apartment. If you've ever been to IKEA, you know that the experience can be a bit overwhelming. Now try to imagine using a public transit system to get there in which you're never really sure where you're going to end up and you haven't really figured out how to ask anyone where you are or where you're going, and the megolith of a store is in a distant part of a very large city in a neighborhood where you've never been before. And then you have to shop at IKEA and get your furniture delivered, again without speaking the language. Today was pretty exhausting, to say the least.

Five of those 7.5 hours were spent walking, ferrying, busing, taxi-ing, and domuş-ing to the foreign area of Umraniye and back (over the course of the journey I managed to take every mode of public transportation available in Istanbul). IKEA itself actually wasn't that bad, since we found three different people who spoke English and helped us get what we needed and get it where we needed it.

Other things are hard, here, too. Ordering food we've more or less figured out, though it usually involves a bit of gesturing, but the other day we had to buy the little runner thing that you mount on the ceiling and slide curtains on it. See, I can't even describe it in English. But we managed that - we are so fortunate to have so much help from Sasha, Ayçe, and our Turkish-Australian neighbor downstairs, Ilke. But a few weeks ago we tried to independently buy a cellphone, which means we paid more than we intended to for a pretty crappy phone, but we were so frustrated with not being able to find what we wanted that we just took it. And it's not just because we don't speak the language. It took Ilke (who is quite bilingual and utterly competent in his Turkish) an hour to order a pizza the other night (which you can kind-of do here, but it costs you an arm and a leg) because people were just being difficult. So it's not just the language barrier. Some things here are just really difficult.

A few things have been going really smoothly, though. I just signed my 8-month contract with They Who Must Not Be Named (apparently it's against our contract to use the school's name online, which I found out three weeks after I posted it), and I start teaching a couple of classes next Thursday. I'm really excited about this whole teaching thing, and depending on how this year goes...well, I'll spare you all another of my wildly enthusiastic life plans, but let's just say that I think I could get used to the idea. And as far as I know, Mark has also signed his contract this evening (I'm at school now, and so is he, so perhaps he can update later on his details). But, speaking of school, the "bell" just wrang (it's the MOST annoying sound - a really bad digital Fur Elise that plays VERY loudly and always only the first 2.7 bars, then it sharply/mercifully cuts out), and now I must go observe more classes to prepare myself for the ventures ahead.

I apologize for not being more eloquent/witty, but somehow I'm just feeling a bit factual. Oh, and I am now finishing this post after having watched the above mentioned lesson, and I certainly learned something (which I really already knew): it's not really a good idea anywhere, let alone in Turkey, and certainly not on the first day of class, to have your language-learning students who don't know each other very well debate gay marriage. Just a tip.

Asia was totally last week ...

Hey folks

Just a quick little post to update you. We have succussfully moved from Asia to Europe, which I always enjoy saying. Our place is quite nice, though our bedroom has only a small single bed, and, since we do not yet have a curtain, is really kinda a hallway from the kitchen to the upstairs. Sooner or later Kate and I will have to tromp over to Ikea and pick us up some cheap furnishings, but for now we are living out of suitcases and sleeping very close together on our single bed.

Kate has begun observing classes at English Time. I believe she's signing a contract as I'm typing. I'm going in for my first day at Wall Street tomorrow, so I will have more to say about that later. For now, internet is kinda far away, so communication may be a bit down until we get settled into our workplaces.

More later (I swear)

Mark