Eight thing we did in eight days
1. We became the type of people who take photos of their food.
Turkish food is exquisite. There is a small family restaurant close to our hotel and that became our regular. Every evening after school we went there and every evening we made a new discovery. Kofte, kebab, pide, pilav, bulgar, beans, salad, meze…mouthwatering. And the sweet stuff…
2. We started teaching.
We now know that there is a whole class of people we owe more respect to. This is not easy. Carina teaches 3, 4 and 5 years old and grade 1 and 2. She sees all of them every day for 30 or 40 minutes. She is sweaty and knackered after every class.
I teach grade 7, 9 and 10 and I am ready to became a grade-9-specific serial killer. Preparation that other teachers do in 10 minutes takes us hours, games that should be fun and educational turns out to be down-right chaotic and instructions that should be clear and easy to follow are stared at blankly or ignored. But we received endless declarations of love too. The Turkish way, they tell us. And we teach in a country where teachers and education are highly regarded. By everyone except a handful of grade 9 students….
3. We met Albanians and Azerbaijanis for the first time ever.
We live in interesting times in an interesting country and an interesting part of the world. What happened yesterday in Ankara has made everyone here sad and edgy. But everyday we meet people who relocated or was displaced from their country of birth and now makes a living here. They contribute and they are welcomed into families and businesses like any Turk would be.
4. We doubled our knowledge of the Turkish language.
It now included words for okay, please, thank you, how are you and enjoy the meal. And it still doesn’t come easily. We have a long way to go…
5. We procured real coffee.
The Turks are tea drinkers. They like the idea of Turkish coffee, but really it is not easy to find and it is not an early morning get-me-ready-for-the-grade-nines type of drink. For that they use tea. Or in some rare cases Nescafe. But after the first morning of going to school without coffee (for Carina) or with only Nescafe to help me, we made a plan. We bought some grounded coffee, we negotiated with the friendly man who takes care of breakfast and on Tuesday we had real mocha pot coffee!
6. We found a place to stay.
We love the neighborhood that we are living in now. It is rather far from the center of the city, has a quirky vibe, friendly shop-owners and the Imam of the Mosque on the square wakes us up every morning. But it does mean 20 plus minute commute every morning on the very dependable but at times confusing public transportation system of suburban Istanbul. Our new little flat is walking distance from the school in a modern apartment block.
7. We received our first dinner invitation.
Everywhere we went the people has been generous, kind and extremely helpful. From the basic things like finding our textbooks and figuring out how the roster works to more complicated things like notarised translations of passports and qualifications, we have been supported and assisted every step of the way. Last night we went to dinner at the house of a funky, friendly colleague from work and her boyfriend. Wonderful food, good conversation, raki and wine. A reminder of why we love this kind of life.
8. And, wait for it… we spotted an Eurasian magpie (several hundred, actually). They are all over the city and quite spectacular.
Vamos a ver 