Merry Christmas!

I am writing to you from my family's living room in the great old midwest of USA.  Although no snow here, there is a healthy midwest frost on the ground and ice forming on the lake.  Usually Robert College doesn't have a holiday over Christmas, we just get Christmas Day off, so I am lucky that the schedule worked out this way and I got to spend my first Christmas back home with my family.  My time back has been wonderful.  I've been able to spend time with family and friends, relax, and get some missed items to bring back to Turkey.  I've also taken advantage of shopping from home, which is very limited in Turkey and can be heavily tariffed since the items are usually shipped from abroad.  Don't ever take for granted how inexpensive and easy it is to get any kind of item online or at a megastore.  Of course, it sends many jobs overseas where labor is cheap and leaves many Americans unemployed, but let's not bring that up now.  After all, I've done my duty supporting this economy since being home.

A quick update leading up to this point.  Signs of Christmas started popping up all over Istanbul in December, which seemed kind of funny to me seeing that the 99% of Turks are Muslim.  I then learned that it was all for the New Year.  The Turks had ingeniously taken the Christian holiday, secularized it, and called it their New Years.  They have a  New Years Tree (complete with lights and ornaments) and  a Noel Baba with the splitting image of dear Santa who comes New Years Eve to give presents to the kids.

The school had a Christmas celebration for the whole faculty.  They had a wagon ride for the faculty children taking them around campus, a Santa for the kids to go up to to ask for gifts, caroling, and a large Christmas feast.  Turkish staff joined with their kids and enjoyed our traditions.  Actually, I was surprised by the number of Christmas carols they knew, sometimes more than me.  Spiced wine was aflowing, cotton candy, popcorn, candy canes were all passed around.  It was a great time for all.

I spent my weekends leading up to my departure shopping.  I went to the Covered (also called the Grand) Bazaar a few times, some local shops and spice markets.  The big presents I brought back were camel saddle bags, tavla (backgammon) boards, and Turkish towels (which I use and love!).

I flew in Saturday, December 24 and fly out tonight, December 29.  Although it's been a short trip, I have squeezed so much in I feel like it's been longer.  The highlight has been seeing and playing with my little niece Emma who is now 5 months old.  She was only a few weeks old when I left.  It was so great to see how much she has grown and developed her adorable little personality.  It's sure hard to leave her again knowing how much she will change.

I leave tonight excited to go back to my new home.  Istanbul is becoming a home to me.  But I do not look forward to the stressful job, although things are getting easier slowly.  It has also been nice getting a break from the crowds and stress the city and foreign life bring.  What helps is the knowledge that I will have a break soon and my mom will be flying out in less than a month to visit me in Istanbul, then we will take off for Egypt.  I will be sure to keep you updated on those adventures.

Almost four months in...

I must admit there have been some very overwhelming moments since my move here August 15.  My emotions can go up and down like a roller coaster.  When I wonder why that is, all I have to do is look at what I have done in less than four months and it becomes obvious.  Uprooting myself from my family and friends, moving to a foreign country with a completely different language and set of customs, a new and stressful job, all I have to say is well no kidding Lizzy, what did you expect?!  But the highs of this place make it all worth it. I have absolutely no regrets of my decision. 

My daily life goes like this.  I have about a three minute walk to the office.  I am usually there by 7:15am.  I teach 3-5 classes a day.  The schedules are insane and we have to jump around from room to room.  No day of mine is ever the same.  It isn’t unheard of for a teacher to completely miss a class because they looked at the wrong day.  I have yet to do that, but trust me every time a bell rings I study that schedule hard to make sure I am not needing to go anywhere.  Within that day are meetings, time for planning, and parent teacher conferences with of course translators.  On Mondays and Wednesdays after school, I assistant coach the boys soccer team.  Other evenings can involve a walk to town for some needed food or supplies, ordering in some food with a colleague (all restaurants around us deliver, just zip around on their motor scooter), grading and planning, or very rarely a run.  On weekends, I try to have a day of either exploration of the city or big shopping day, and Sunday is always saved for preparing for the work week.  A long run is always somewhere in there.  Sunday night is sacred.  I have met a group of male teachers here who get together for football.  They have been terrific in including me.  The first Sunday game starts at 8pm here and we all gather at the guy’s house with the big screen and the channels of Fox and ESPN America.  It has been a great tradition and really saved me from the Sunday night blues.

There are times I realize how accustomed I’m becoming to things here.  There are other times I am in shock of what I still have not been able to get used to.  For example, things I’ve become accustomed to:

• Um is never said by Turks because it means a female private part (really, think they could have chosen a different word!).  The kids are used to us Americans saying it enough that they don’t giggle, but still won’t say it.  Their um then sounds like shay, which means thing.  I have gotten so used to hearing that word thrown in, even when the kids are talking in English, but still have yet to throw it in my own vocabulary.

• Sick means the f-bomb in Turkish.  The kids then are always ill, not sick.  It was strange hearing that word all the time at first, since really we do not use ill that often in America, but now use it all the time.

• I am not as picky/particular as I used to be.  Ordering food, well, I can forget ever trying to modify a thing.  My only hope is that they understood me enough to get the food item correct.  Getting to a destination in a taksi, well anywhere close is good enough.  Buying cheeses, types of detergents, sauces, I can only guess what I am getting and hope I like it.  Of course, I can bring a dictionary, but no matter what, there are many new things here I wouldn’t have recognized anyway.

• I have gotten used to often times being in doubt.  I can ask a Turk for directions and believe I understood where I am going, but once I follow their directions realize they did not understand my original question.  No longer is that a surprise to me.  I am used to these misunderstandings.  I plan excursions to take much longer because of this.  I also have gotten very good at my miming.  Games like charades not only are great fun, but can teach you some very practical skills!

And things I am still struggling with to get used to:

• Their middle finger is making a fist and putting their thumb between their middle two fingers.  Unfortunately, that’s how I like to run.  I also walk around at times like that.  Don’t ask me why.  Definitely adjustment FAIL on this one from my end.

• This language is hard and I’m making very slow progress now!  A big reason is how busy I am and how it is low on the priority list.  I even think I have lost some Turkish words I had learned in my first few weeks here!  My language acquisition is purely out of necessity.  I can use simple nouns to ask how much, where things are, direct a taxi, read a menu, but not much else.  All my attempts to communicate are single words or very simple phrases.  Really it’s quite sad when you consider the fact I have been here for nearly four months.

I am looking forward to my return to the States in just a few weeks.  Until then, I can get into the spirit her because Santa, trees, and decorations are popping up around the city which is very comforting to see.  Might seem quite crazy to you that a Muslim society has these Christian decorations and you are quite correct.  How do they get away with it?  By calling it the New Year Tree and New Year Santa of course.  These decorations are all used to celebrate the Turkish New Year.  Many Turks have no idea what these things mean to Christians.  Despite this fact, I’m quite happy to see these familiar objects around me.