Road Trip/Kidnapping

On Sunday I went on the "picnic" with my students. We ended up near the Bulgaian border, I was attacked by a horse, and I got home 7.5 hours after we left.

Actually, they were very nice. They bought me a massive Turkish breakfast at some roadside joint overlooking a forest which was incredible. Then someone decided to just keep driving. It was bizarre. Actually, I felt a little stressed by the end of it, but I'm glad I went. I have photos of shanty towns and nothingness, and a couple of the horse that attacked me. I was actually headbutted by it as I ran away.

While on the picnic, I tried explaining St Patrick's Day to my students. Suffice it to say, once I mentioned St Patrick was a Catholic saint, they couldn't get passed the idea that it was just a religious holiday. I tried mentioning drinking and the color green, but they just looked confused. Also, when I tried explaining that St Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, they didn't believe me, because they took the word 'drove' literally and the word for mosquito in Turkish sounds like 'snake' so I think they had a mental image of some good samaritan Christian driving with all the mosquitos in Ireland in his car. Nevermind.

The day started out with a wonderful breakfast overlooking a forest...

The Turkish countryside was beautiful. It reminded me of Ireland, so I launched into my explanation of St Patrick's Day...

Then we drove through this town, and I started to fear we were on our way to Svilengrad...

Stuff

Amer's party last night was lots of fun--we had dinner at Gani Gani, followed by drinks at our local, and then karaoke. Lars, Antoin, and I sang Bohemian Rhapsody. Today I found myself wondering what rhapsody means, because I think every time I've heard it used, it's been in the title of a song or piece of music. Turns out, rhapsody means "an effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic expression of feeling." So now I know and I can start thinking of ways to use it in conversation. I should add, before someone comments on my limited definition of rhapsody, that it also does mean a free instrumental composition in one extended movement, or it can also refer to an epic poem, or a part of one, of a suitable length for recitation at one time.

Back to stuff, the title of my blog entry. Today I watched the Story of Stuff. If you haven't seen it, you certainly should (head on over to www.storyofstuff.org). I have started getting rid of some of my stuff-- over the course of nearly two years I seemed to have acquired an awful lot of it. Some decisions have been easy (t-shirts I bought in markets here that now have holes from moths which secretly lived somewhere in our old flat are a prime example), but I know that as moving day approaches it will become more difficult as I am determined to travel as light as possible!

In other news, I have a little trip coming up to renew my visa for the very last time. I would happily sell my right arm (it's the bad one, anyway) not to go to Bulgaria again, especially after the trip to Svilengrad (see earlier entry entitled 'Svilengrad' and you'll see what I mean). So right now, I'm trying to plan a trip with Erin and we're leaning towards either Romania or Georgia. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Alright, I'm going to head back to my room to do more sorting and listen to some newly downloaded podcasts. As well as my favorites, "This American Life" and "Fresh Air" I have also started downloading "Grammar Girl," "One Minute Irish," and "One Minute Russian" (could be useful if we go to Georgia). I'll let you know what I think... Slainte agus tainte!

Big News

I didn't realize that it had been over a month since I last updated. February was indeed busy-- I turned 25, went ice skating, had a nice Valentine's Day, enjoyed some unusual snow, worked, slept, etc. My big news, though, is that I am going to move back to the USA at the end of April. By then, I will have spent 23 months in Turkey. I have so many mixed feelings about leaving, but I am really excited to come home and see what happens next.

February!!

I can't believe it's February. I just accepted a volunteer position/internship at Amnesty International Turkey, which I start on Monday. I'll be working there three days a week helping with fund-raising and their International Criminal Court campaign. I'm excited.

Now I'm looking for more teaching hours so that I can still live well here-- I have an interview with a language school on Tuesday and I am emailing back and forth with another one at the moment so hopefully one of them will come through. I'm really looking forward to getting settled into my new routine, whatever it may be.

In the meantime, I've been discovering just how cheaply a person CAN live in Istanbul. A loaf of bread is about $0.35, a bag of pasta $0.55, beer at the cheapest bar I've found is $1.85 for 33cl. So...I'm being as savvy as possible. Eating lots of pasta, eggs, and tuna melts.

More pictures soon, I promise! I took a lovely one the other day of the view of the Bosphorus Bridge from the top of the stairs that lead down to my street. :)