I'm back!

I apologize for the lack of updates but I find myself now with more free time than I've had in quite awhile, so expect more. Also, I'm making it part of my New Year's resolutions to update my blog more often.

I'm back in Istanbul after a 12-day holiday home for Christmas. Actually, I just got back yesterday, and this morning had to teach my epic 5-hour English class, which started bright and early at 9am (or 2am New York time). Needless to say, after updating and eating, I may take a nap.

So tomorrow's New Year's Eve! Hurrah! I'm going to a party at Amer's house. Actually, we have fewer options as the public New Year's festivities here have been cancelled from Taksim to Kadikoy amid increasing security concerns. So no fireworks tomorrow night, but that's okay. We'll just have to watch them on television from other cities around the world as we party with style inside.

Speaking of Amer, last night he gave me his boss' card saying that there may be a position open teaching American culture to refugees at the International Catholic Migration Commission. It's good to have another job lead. After Jan 1, I am going to start seriously looking, which, frighteningly, is only two days away.
Happy New Year!
Mutlu Yillar!

New Things

Since Lars is back, I thought I'd publish a recent picture of us. Anyway, he's started his new job as head teacher at ET, and I have a new part time job teaching adults at Bilge Adam on the weekends starting the 24th! So we're both doing well (though I'm mildly apprehensive about working seven days a week). Also, Rachel and I have moved in to our new apartment (pictures coming soon!). I really like it. I feel like I'm super busy, though that all the updating I can think of right now. I'm still recovering from Svilengrad.

Svilengrad

On Thursday I went to Svilengrad, Bulgaria. I am usually a glass half-full type of person, I enjoy seeing new places, I am reading a good book.

I was dropped off on the highway, the only thing I could see was an abadoned post-Soviet factory, and a cat that had been run over by an 18-wheeler, or else several cars. I was so panicked I started to laugh. I walked 5 km into the town to find people with no teeth, no English, bad hair, past starving donkeys, piles of scrap metal, waste, deranged cows. The supermarket didn't take my credit card, the people laughed at me when I asked where and when the bus back to Istanbul was (hehehe, nyet, nyet). I found a pizza place and placed my order by drawing on a piece of scrap paper (above, bacon and mushroom). A bottle of beer (Tuborg) at the pizza place was 2 Bulgarian whatevers, which is less than 2 ytl. This was good.

I walked back the 5km past the starving cows, flattened cat, rubbish piles and saw a bus going by on the highway with Turkish on the side. I started running, flailing my arms, screaming "Don't leave me in Svilengrad!!!!" The bus let me on, though they asked if I was a gypsy.

Svilengrad is how I picture what Romania was like when my brother went there in 1989. I could have been in Chechnya, possibly. Actually, I want to go back there, out of some perverse desire to get photograpic evidence of Svilengrad (I had forgotten my camera). It was so badly run down, things were almost contrived-- old women with bizarrely drawn on eyebrows, orange hair, few teeth, indescribable clothes (maybe of the variety that could be purchased at the Tarlabasi Bazaar). I think Svilengrad must be like Brigadoon, a disappearing town stuck in time. Unlike in the musical, I did not fall in love, unless you count the pork section of the supermarket, where I indulged when I finally managed to find a working cash machine.

On the way home the bus past a new development, maybe 30 miles outside Istanbul called "Florida Sunshine Village." It was probably the most surreal day I've had, ever.

Republic Day

Monday was Republic Day in Turkey which celebrates the founding of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923. At night, we went to watch the biggest fireworks display ever staged in Istanbul. The fireworks had been shipped from Australia, and the show was choreographed by Australians as well (the same people who do the New Years shows on Sydney Harbor). It included eight firing barges along the Bosphorus and an 800 meter waterfall of fireworks. It lasted for a good 15 minutes, though it seemed longer, and was probably the most amazing fireworks display I've ever seen. The picture above does it no justice, but it's one of the best I've got (nice view of Bosphorus Bridge in the background).

Today I'm going to make pancakes and then Lars and I are off to Sultanahmet and at some point will fit in a balik ekmek before coming home to get ready for our Halloween party tonight.

Happy Halloween!

Sunday Adventure

I need accessories for my new toaster oven-- an oven safe pan, a cookie tray, a springform pan, pot holders, etc. And I want to get them as cheaply as possible because this month I'm moving, so I'm pinching pennies (or kurus) at the moment. Today I amassed a small entourage (Jordan, Rachel, and Cem) and we wandered to the Tarlabasi Bazaar. I had been told to keep my bag close and to watch my back, but Tarlabasi Blvd. itself was closed to cars today because of the annual Istanbul road race so the bazaar was less crowded than maybe it usually is.

No one in my circle of friends had been before but we managed to find it with little difficulty. It's a different world there even though it's maybe only a fifteen minute walk from where I live-- we saw some sheep being herded around, laundry hung between high up windows across streets reminiscent of the ghettos here... the market sold some hard to find produce (broccoli, avacados, fresh basil, and much more), kitchenware, clothes, sheets and towels, and everything was SO cheap. I bought a lot of stuff-- hazelnuts, peanuts, cinnamon sticks, whole nutmeg, corn kernels to pop the old fashioned way, turkish delight, baking powder, cocoa, and more for 11ytl. I bought a Pasabahce (Turkish Crate and Barrel) glass brownie pan for 6ytl. A bag of freshly cut up pumpkin was 2ytl. Even avacados, which are usually between 4-6ytl for one, were 1.50! So it was a good discovery.

There's a very worthwhile article called Istanbul's Tarlabasi Under Constant Transformation if you have a minute, on NPR.org. After reading the article, check out the audio slideshow which really gives a good impression of what the neighborhood looks like.

I'm off to make some brownies and then I may try something else!

Halloween at school

Yay vacation! Today was hectic-- Halloween costumes are just as bad as snowsuits when children need the bathroom. I survived-- and look at how cute my class is. I love them, but it really will be wonderful having a week off. :)

I'm off for a well-deserved nap.

Almost There

Tomorrow is Friday! I have finished my developmental reports so all I have to do is show up, take pictures of the children in their Halloween costumes, have a Halloween party, pick up my pay check, and I'm on vacation!

Today was somehow stressful, though. I got home and tried out my new toater oven, couldn't for the life of me get it to work, and spent awhile composing a text message in Turkish to the man I bought it from. He kindly offered to have someone stop by this evening and fix it, though after taking a nap I somehow came to my senses and it works fine, so I had to text him back in Turkish explaining that I'm just a stupid foreigner and silly me, oops, it works fine. So I still have a weekend of baking to look forward to. :)

Then I went to pick up my laundry and anything remotely white had turned purple, which actually sort of looks nice on my pillowcase but less nice on my favorite towel. I felt a bit lost in translation today.

At least I managed to pull everything together and tonight my reports are done, I have fresh sheets on my bed, and now I can look up recipes online until I go to bed.

A Fresh Start

It seems as though my old blog will be indefinitely blocked by the Turkish government, so after growing frustrated at using the same proxy servers that high school students use to access myspace from school, I decided it was time to move on. So here I am at blogspot.

Things have been busy-- my parents came for a wonderful visit last week which coincided with Seker Bayram, which meant that I had time to devote to showing them around the city. We covered lots of ground-- a Bosphorus cruise, Kariye Museum and a trip up the Golden Horn to Pierre Loti, a visit to the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum and much much more including great meals at 360, Asitane, Cicek Pasaji, and Leb-i-Derya.

This week for me has been all about countdowns. Right now, as it stands, I have 3 days left of work until vacation, and 5 days until Lars comes back from three months of travel. If only I could hibernate and wake up with a paycheck in my hand on vacation with him here.

So today with growing frustrations I needed retail therapy and success! I bought a toaster oven that was just delivered to our apartment. I am already looking to a weekend full of baking cookies, cupcakes, tuna melts, toast. Hurrah!