Last weekend was a money spending one. On Saturday we did a trip to IkeA which is part of a shopping center containing a Media Markt and a Real (sort of a Kmart plus food, including some very nice looking fish)
Periodically a group of RC folks get together to rent a small bus to take us to Ikea et al. It costs about 7 bucks a person and you can buy the heavy stuff and have it delivered to your door.
So Sim and I got: a small table for our patio, a tv, a stand for the tv, a DVD player, and lots of odds and ends like canisters, more lamps, some folding chairs, a stool.
Saturday was our anniversary (28) and we went to a restaurant in our little village of Arnavutkoy, which was recommended by our friend Felicia. The woman who owns it and who waited on us is Greek. They do fresh, organic, homegrown stuff. Many of their mezes (starters) are unusual and we enjoyed it greatly. We got full on mezes and a salad so we have to go back for their entrees and desserts.
Sunday was an annual event at RC: the rug sale. The wonderful firm of Adnan and Hasan who sell carpets in the Grand Bazaar brought about 400 of them to the lawn outside John and Tania's house. There were refreshments and then a brief seminar on rug buying. Then the carpets were displayed and the buying began. Again I went with no intention of buying but we came away with 2 more to combat the beigeness, one of which I am sitting on right now. Things are getting homier all the time.
I enjoy my classes immensely. For the most part the kids are smart, enthusiastic and a lot of fun. Trying to explain the nuances of English vocabulary to second language speakers is a blast... The difference between a dork and an egghead, for instance...and that's on the simple side. And they're helping me distinguish between the Turkish back vowels and the front
vowels.
We have travel plans...Ephesus for a long weekend at the end of this month and now Athens and Aegina and seeing our friend Danae in November.
Oh, and our ship came in. I signed papers for customs today and it appears our stuff will be delivered in the next few days. Sim will be busy with unpacking.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
School Daze
I haven't written since classes began over a week ago. It's been an incredibly busy 10 days, both work and socially.
First on the social side: The gatherings continue apace. Before classes began, but with all faculty back, there was an opening "dinner" for faculty, staff and families. Once again on the Konak Terrace overlooking the Bosphorus. (I'll put a picture of the fabulous view up soon.) I put dinner in quotes because though it was billed as dinner the "dinner" consisted of finger food. There was plenty of wine and beer, though. Which meant many folks were a bit under the weather the following day and blaming it on false advertising.
A few nights later there was another pot luck barbecue on the Terrace. Over the seker bayram (candy holiday) which marks the end of Ramazan, we had another cookout hosted by Graham and Metin who live side by side in Blue House, which has a garden, also with a great Bosphorous view. The 2 bachelors have invested heavily in barbeque: a gas grill and a Weber kettle. This party also had plenty of alcohol but there was a ton of great food to go with it. Sim and I were ready to go when we were pressed to stay by Maura. She really likes Sim and is interested in stories of our hippie past. When we got home, Cecile and Cengiz were on their terrace drinking wine and pressed us to join them. Luckily, the next day was a holiday
The middle of last week the new people and a few others had another dish to pass at Metin's place, then 2 days later on Friday was the English department party on the spectacular terrace of the spectacular apartment of Maria Orhon, the academic dean. Sim and I left that gathering to go downstairs to Maura's where we talked books with Maura and Felicia, the wife of another English dept. person and one of our new best friends.
Saturday night we had drinks at Andy and Felicia's (where we discovered their guestroom is heavily decorated in Yankee stuff, thus he and Sim are simpactico), then took the bus to Taksim, quite the scene on any night of the week. We had dinner at a very cheap, very Turkish place. Kind of like a Brazilian steak house. They've got lamb, chicken and liver grilled on skewers. Ordering involves letting them know if you want one, two or all three. (We skipped the liver, though later a friend of F's said it's great) They bring a pile of something resembling tortillas, something like salsa, grilled veggies and you pig out. With water our bill was 18 lira each, 12 bucks and it was delicious.
After dinner we went over to Molly's cafe. A great little spot run by a woman from Toronto that's kind if an ex-pat cafe. She's got a wide variety of music and there are regular readings, some done by RC faculty.
On Sunday Sim and I walked over to Ortakoy with Felicia and she showed us places to buy cat food, the good butcher, the bean place, the best restaurants along the Bosphorous. We bought a rotisserie chicken at the chicken place... about 5 bucks, delicious and enough for 2 meals.
Later Sunday afternoon I did some schoolwork (after doing the Times crossword puzzle online). But it seems like it wasn't enough. Both yesterday and today I've spent hours on planning and getting organized. Haven't yet tackled grading the first papers I collected. I went to bed exhausted at 9:30 last night, planning on getting up early but hit snooze and didn't get up until 7:20. Starting classes at 8:10 again after the shift to 9:00 at IHS has been tough. Today was my busiest day... 6 periods of classes. I also am dealing with new tech stuff that's been time-consuming. But, those struggles aside, the work is very good. The kids are mostly wonderful. To my surprise I'm really loving the 9th graders.
Sim and I are sitting at Cecile's right now. I came home at 7:00 to a note that Sim was across the hall babysitting for Kaya. He's not clear where Cecile is, but Cengiz is supposed to be here soon. We're sitting here drinking their wine. Sim's reading his 4th book in the last week, I think.
First on the social side: The gatherings continue apace. Before classes began, but with all faculty back, there was an opening "dinner" for faculty, staff and families. Once again on the Konak Terrace overlooking the Bosphorus. (I'll put a picture of the fabulous view up soon.) I put dinner in quotes because though it was billed as dinner the "dinner" consisted of finger food. There was plenty of wine and beer, though. Which meant many folks were a bit under the weather the following day and blaming it on false advertising.
A few nights later there was another pot luck barbecue on the Terrace. Over the seker bayram (candy holiday) which marks the end of Ramazan, we had another cookout hosted by Graham and Metin who live side by side in Blue House, which has a garden, also with a great Bosphorous view. The 2 bachelors have invested heavily in barbeque: a gas grill and a Weber kettle. This party also had plenty of alcohol but there was a ton of great food to go with it. Sim and I were ready to go when we were pressed to stay by Maura. She really likes Sim and is interested in stories of our hippie past. When we got home, Cecile and Cengiz were on their terrace drinking wine and pressed us to join them. Luckily, the next day was a holiday
The middle of last week the new people and a few others had another dish to pass at Metin's place, then 2 days later on Friday was the English department party on the spectacular terrace of the spectacular apartment of Maria Orhon, the academic dean. Sim and I left that gathering to go downstairs to Maura's where we talked books with Maura and Felicia, the wife of another English dept. person and one of our new best friends.
Saturday night we had drinks at Andy and Felicia's (where we discovered their guestroom is heavily decorated in Yankee stuff, thus he and Sim are simpactico), then took the bus to Taksim, quite the scene on any night of the week. We had dinner at a very cheap, very Turkish place. Kind of like a Brazilian steak house. They've got lamb, chicken and liver grilled on skewers. Ordering involves letting them know if you want one, two or all three. (We skipped the liver, though later a friend of F's said it's great) They bring a pile of something resembling tortillas, something like salsa, grilled veggies and you pig out. With water our bill was 18 lira each, 12 bucks and it was delicious.
After dinner we went over to Molly's cafe. A great little spot run by a woman from Toronto that's kind if an ex-pat cafe. She's got a wide variety of music and there are regular readings, some done by RC faculty.
On Sunday Sim and I walked over to Ortakoy with Felicia and she showed us places to buy cat food, the good butcher, the bean place, the best restaurants along the Bosphorous. We bought a rotisserie chicken at the chicken place... about 5 bucks, delicious and enough for 2 meals.
Later Sunday afternoon I did some schoolwork (after doing the Times crossword puzzle online). But it seems like it wasn't enough. Both yesterday and today I've spent hours on planning and getting organized. Haven't yet tackled grading the first papers I collected. I went to bed exhausted at 9:30 last night, planning on getting up early but hit snooze and didn't get up until 7:20. Starting classes at 8:10 again after the shift to 9:00 at IHS has been tough. Today was my busiest day... 6 periods of classes. I also am dealing with new tech stuff that's been time-consuming. But, those struggles aside, the work is very good. The kids are mostly wonderful. To my surprise I'm really loving the 9th graders.
Sim and I are sitting at Cecile's right now. I came home at 7:00 to a note that Sim was across the hall babysitting for Kaya. He's not clear where Cecile is, but Cengiz is supposed to be here soon. We're sitting here drinking their wine. Sim's reading his 4th book in the last week, I think.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
For teachers
I said earlier, I think this may the best high school on the planet. So why do I say that? There|'s the campus, 65 acres with lots of woods and plantings, 19th century stone buildings, a faculty lounge that's an elegant Victorian parlor where we're served coffee and tea each schoolday during a 20 minute all school break at 9:40. Each classroom equipped with a sound and projection system that you plug your laptop into, two multimedia rooms which are like screening rooms, which, like the library and computer labs, a teacher can sign up for online. Good food, including a salad bar, served efficiently in the cafeteria, free for teachers.
The students are the top one half of one percent in Turkey and they love the school. In curriculum, there's a lot of collaboration with impressive colleagues, but also a lot of freedom.
I teach 4 classes, 3 different preps, each meets 5 periods (40 minutes) a week. The schedule changes everyday, which I think I'll like, with the classes meeting at different times each day, one of which is a double period. For me this results in a schedule like this: 3 classes on Monday and Thursday; 6 on Tuesday and 4 on Wednesday and Friday. On Monday and Wednesday, I have no class after 12:10. Three days a week I start at 8:10 with a double period, and on Thursday my first class is at 10:00. Four days a week I'm done at 2:30. Now some of this is luck of the draw. I have one period of lunch duty a week. Those who live on campus do an hour of study hall for residential students once every 3 weeks.
One downside: We don't have our own classrooms. I teach in 5 different ones, but only twice a week do I switch rooms between back to back classes and all my classes are in the same building (three different floors,though). I share an office with 3 other people; the department chair is in the inner office and I share the outer one with Maura Kelly (pronunciation confusion abounds), the assistant chair, and Ambrose Lovely. We've got a table and a fridge and sink. My desk faces a large window with a wooded hillside view.
The students are the top one half of one percent in Turkey and they love the school. In curriculum, there's a lot of collaboration with impressive colleagues, but also a lot of freedom.
I teach 4 classes, 3 different preps, each meets 5 periods (40 minutes) a week. The schedule changes everyday, which I think I'll like, with the classes meeting at different times each day, one of which is a double period. For me this results in a schedule like this: 3 classes on Monday and Thursday; 6 on Tuesday and 4 on Wednesday and Friday. On Monday and Wednesday, I have no class after 12:10. Three days a week I start at 8:10 with a double period, and on Thursday my first class is at 10:00. Four days a week I'm done at 2:30. Now some of this is luck of the draw. I have one period of lunch duty a week. Those who live on campus do an hour of study hall for residential students once every 3 weeks.
One downside: We don't have our own classrooms. I teach in 5 different ones, but only twice a week do I switch rooms between back to back classes and all my classes are in the same building (three different floors,though). I share an office with 3 other people; the department chair is in the inner office and I share the outer one with Maura Kelly (pronunciation confusion abounds), the assistant chair, and Ambrose Lovely. We've got a table and a fridge and sink. My desk faces a large window with a wooded hillside view.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Sim on the terrace of the Sakip Sabanci Museum. Yesterday we took a long walk north on the Bosphorous to this museum. (Longer than I intended. I estimated 30 minutes based on the map. It took more like an hour and ten. But it was a beautiful day.) The museum is in a mansion and has an exhibit on the history of Istanbul. We took the bus back and had a nice balik (fish) dinner waterside. Great sea bass.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Welcome to the Semi-Working Week
Monday, Victory Day, pm. Cecile and Cengiz helped me figure out the washer, which turns out to be a combination washer and dryer. I've never heard of such a thing. The 3 of us were trying to interpret icons and then we found the manual. It was in multiple languages... Romanian, Bulgarian, Russian, and Portuguese, the last being the closest to any language I know. But it was in Turkish too, so we managed to use our collective knowledge (mine being the language of laundry, so I understood things like "extra rinse")
After soaking my feet, I decided to walk up to Ulus and I made it to Akmerkez, the big shopping center that's maybe a 15 minute walk away.
Akmerkez is not as big as Carousel Center, but in some ways it's more impressive. And yet, they tell me it's really on the wane and that there are 2 more that are even more amazing.There are 2 bars in the place, one pretty upscale where one can get 20 lira martinis.There's also another larger branch of Macro Center, the Wegman's-like grocery. One of the features I really like is the electronic directories. You can touch icons and find the ladies' room or a kind of store, including the route to get there from when you are.
Once again I was invited to dinner at my sponsor's home. It was four of us, Jennifer and her husband Michael and Phil, my department chair. A very enjoyable evening.
Tuesday was a full faculty meeting in the morning. We got headsets for the dual translation, which I guess they don't do all the time, but which cuts the meeting time in half. Besides that, it was like many such meetings I've attended, but with a superior level of professionalism and seriousness... though it wasn't all serious. The dean of students got 4 faculty members to illustrate the do's and don't of the dress code, accompanied by disco music.
After a fairly brief department meeting, where once again I was impressed by Phil, who doesn't waste our time and communicates that he trusts us to do the work without scrutiny, I drove out to the airport with a school driver to pick up Sim. It's now Thursday night and we have just returned from dinner along the Bosphorous. We stopped off at the apartment of my friend Layne, a German teacher, to pick up Bebek (means "baby"), an adorable gray tiger kitten, about 3 months old. Layne was prevailed on to take her from another couple who had nursed her back from the brink after she fell out of a tree. Now Layne's allergies are acting up and we agreed to take her for awhile (?) We'll see how that develops.
Pictures of everything, including Bebek, coming soon.
After soaking my feet, I decided to walk up to Ulus and I made it to Akmerkez, the big shopping center that's maybe a 15 minute walk away.
Akmerkez is not as big as Carousel Center, but in some ways it's more impressive. And yet, they tell me it's really on the wane and that there are 2 more that are even more amazing.There are 2 bars in the place, one pretty upscale where one can get 20 lira martinis.There's also another larger branch of Macro Center, the Wegman's-like grocery. One of the features I really like is the electronic directories. You can touch icons and find the ladies' room or a kind of store, including the route to get there from when you are.
Once again I was invited to dinner at my sponsor's home. It was four of us, Jennifer and her husband Michael and Phil, my department chair. A very enjoyable evening.
Tuesday was a full faculty meeting in the morning. We got headsets for the dual translation, which I guess they don't do all the time, but which cuts the meeting time in half. Besides that, it was like many such meetings I've attended, but with a superior level of professionalism and seriousness... though it wasn't all serious. The dean of students got 4 faculty members to illustrate the do's and don't of the dress code, accompanied by disco music.
After a fairly brief department meeting, where once again I was impressed by Phil, who doesn't waste our time and communicates that he trusts us to do the work without scrutiny, I drove out to the airport with a school driver to pick up Sim. It's now Thursday night and we have just returned from dinner along the Bosphorous. We stopped off at the apartment of my friend Layne, a German teacher, to pick up Bebek (means "baby"), an adorable gray tiger kitten, about 3 months old. Layne was prevailed on to take her from another couple who had nursed her back from the brink after she fell out of a tree. Now Layne's allergies are acting up and we agreed to take her for awhile (?) We'll see how that develops.
Pictures of everything, including Bebek, coming soon.
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