It’s been another good week-
Saturday my friend Erin and I hit the hammam (bath house)- my first in Turkey What probably would have been a pretty big shock a few years ago felt like old hat after my time in the crowded, all-naked, all-day baths in Korea. Overall it was a nice, relaxing experience, though we made the mistake of going to a pricey touristic one. We paid in a front, unisex area, then went into the women’s area. We were given little locking changing rooms for putting on the wooden sandals and towel, though I’m not sure why they bother, as the door was unfrosted glass. We were able to lock our stuff in there while we lay cooking on a giant, elevated, very hot stone under a beautiful domed ceiling and chandelier. After we’d cooked for what they deemed long enough (about half an hour) some very good-natured, voluptuous, panties-only-clad women came in to dump buckets-full of water over us and scrub all our dead skin off. The scrubbing was nice, though not nearly as tough as the ones I experienced in Korea- which may be a good thing. I’ve had moles scrubbed off my arms in Korean baths! After the scrub, the women took what looked like pillowcases with bars of soap in them, filled them with air, and somehow managed to produce giant heaps of soap bubbles which they mounded on us and rubbed in with a nice massage. The massage was great, though I think Erin had a pretty hard time keeping in the giggles in…sitting upright, with a large topless woman massaging your shoulders heartily while standing in front of you…you get the picture. We got a thorough rinsing, then were left to cook for a while longer on the giant stone. We grabbed our towels and headed out once we were ready.
The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful- Ace and I spent all day Sunday inside, getting started on looking for a job for Ace for next year. It’s that time- Erin has decided to stay, and is enjoying being courted (sometimes literally) by all of the principals of different English-speaking high schools in town, and Ace has decided to get cracking on applications for next year before the applications from the big international job fairs in the U.S start pouring in. We’ve decided on somewhere in South or Central America, but hadn’t narrowed it down much more than that, except for no to Panama and Venezuela- for obvious reasons. Ace has gotten five different applications in now- in Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, and…somewhere else. I can’t remember.
While researching schools, we came to the extremely unfortunate discovery that almost every international/American/Canadian school in South and Central America starts in early to mid-August- i.e., before the wedding. This is a problem. We did find two in Ecuador that start in September, so that’s a possibility- also, we’re hoping that there’s a chance that one of the others will be willing to hire him, then give him a week off to fly home and get married. If he applies to a million, in the 7 or so countries that we’re considering, someone has to be willing to do that, right?? Right? Oh lordy, I hope so. I’m trying not to freak out about it too much, but I’m a worrier. Sigh.
My work life is going pretty well- I started conversation sessions with a really fun new student, so that has been great. I’ve been a little frustrated with the super inconsistent hours and constant cancellations with students at one agency, and am considering taking on a new student on my own and reducing my hours with them. It’s a great place, but if a student cancels 30 minutes before the lesson, (which he often does), it just sucks for me. I hate to not be available when they decide they DO want me around a lot, but you really have to look out for yourself here. Things are in such a constant state of change.
That’s about it for now, I think. We’re getting ready for India- paying the landlady, doing laundry, researching the best beaches, etc. Only two days left! We’ll be in Kerala, Goa and Gokarna, and Hampi, in case you want to check them out. I’ll be sure to post pictures and a blog all about it when we get back in two weeks!
(oh, and Ace has been posting photos from our Turkey vacation last month on our site, in case you want to check those out, too)
XOXO
Kait
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Kait's quiet mid-week projects
Due to a few cancelled and rescheduled classes, the last two days have been quiet ones for me; just one class (two hours) per day. It’s been nice- I’ve been left with lots of free time to do stuff I love. Yesterday I hopped on my usual 7:30 bus out to the Asian side, where a student picks me up at 8:45 for our 9-11 lesson. It’s a long bus ride, but I usually don’t mind: the scenery is mostly nice, I always get a seat on the bus, and I get to sit, listen to music or an audiobook, or snooze for a good chunk of time. We had a good lesson, and then I caught the bus back to Taksim, walked the 10 minutes home, and was done with my workday by 12:30
I was feeling Betty Crocker-ish, probably due to the lovely audiobook I was blasting from my i-Pod (Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”), so I ended up cleaning the whole apartment, doing three loads of laundry in our tiny washing machine and hanging them up to dry in front of the space heater, and undertaking a bunch of cooking projects. We had a bunch of potatoes and the gravy packets I’d brought from home, which amazingly survived the holidays, so I made baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and salad. I also made my first ever batch of homemade applesauce, and it will definitely not be my last! I’ve been missing applesauce for two years…if I had only known that a handful of apples, some water, a bit of sugar and a pinch of cinnamon could somehow turn into one of the best things I’ve ever tasted! Seriously, it’s better than apple pie a la mode. Mmmmm. Bliss.
Ace made it home by six, and we had dinner and then I practiced my guitar (for the second time ever). I’m now able to fumble my way through three chords, and I’ve developed these weird, numb feeling spots on the tips of my middle fingers on my left hand from awkwardly pressing the strings so hard. It’s not unpleasant- it reminds me of music every time my fingers tingle. I found an amazing website, JustinGuitar.com, which has the most helpful video lessons- from “how to tune your guitar” and “how to hold your pick” all the way up to stuff so fancy I don’t even know what it means. It’s wonderful, and I’m so glad I have a (free!) teacher to keep me on track, even if he doesn’t know I exist.
Last night I dragged myself out of the house (it’s so hard for me to get out on icky winter’s nights, even when it’s unseasonably warm like it is here) to go to a Spanish Conversation session. It was great- a bunch of people that met through Couchsurfing, a travel and cultural exchange website I belong to, that meet up weekly to chat and drink tea. There were people of all levels there, from non-speakers to natives, and it reminded me both how much I know and how much I still have to learn. There were lots of good laughs, and I guess they usually go out for drinks (of the alcoholic kind, not the caffeinated kind) afterwards, though I left early. Hopefully I’ll be able to go again soon. While we’re on the Spanish subject- I also became a member of the local Spanish Cultural Center’s library, which I’ve been meaning to do forever. I now have access to tons of movies and books in Spanish, and I’ve been enjoying having something to read, especially as it’s so expensive to buy English (or Spanish) books from bookstores here. I’m inching my way through an autobiography right now, Memorias Prematuras, and while there are loads of words I don’t understand, I’m getting the gist of it. I think.
This morning I didn’t have any classes, so I allowed myself the luxury of lounging in bed till 7:30. I put my audiobook on and cooked up a massive batch of fresh tomato spaghetti sauce to freeze, wrote in my journal, and practiced some guitar again (that makes 3 times! I’m practically a pro now, right?) I daydreamed about stuff to put on the registry we’re starting to put together (mostly food-related), then finally headed out of the house. I finished the time-intensive task of figuring out a rough game plan for India and buying domestic flights and train tickets last week, but we still needed some medications for the intestinal afflictions that are almost sure to keep us debilitated for our two weeks in India.
I walked by “cat square”, the creative moniker I’ve given the open lot near our apartment where about 30 strays eat, play, and have their adorable little kittens. The “cat angel” was there, the guy that I always see pouring food and water, shooing dogs, and occasionally giving eye drops. I assume he’s also the one that built the plywood shelters the kitties love so much. He knows me by now, and nodded at me as I pet my favorite kitten. I want to ask how to help, but the language barrier is too great- I really should figure out some way to get around it, though.
I hit the pharmacy, where I said something eloquent like “I go India” and pointed at the appropriate vocab in my dictionary. Here, if you have a minor problem, you can skip the doctors visit and go straight to the pharmacist, tell him what’s up, and get your prescriptions from him. I left with two packs of medication for about $3.50. It’s kinda sad that I’m more afraid of getting sick in the U.S. with health insurance than I am of getting sick in Turkey without. It’s amazing how cheap medication has been in Korea and Turkey, and it really makes it real to me how obscene the profits that companies in the U.S. are making off our sick people.
I moved on to the gym, where I had a nice workout, then came home for dinner and a blog before the conversation class I’ll lead this evening. I’ve got it good.
I was feeling Betty Crocker-ish, probably due to the lovely audiobook I was blasting from my i-Pod (Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”), so I ended up cleaning the whole apartment, doing three loads of laundry in our tiny washing machine and hanging them up to dry in front of the space heater, and undertaking a bunch of cooking projects. We had a bunch of potatoes and the gravy packets I’d brought from home, which amazingly survived the holidays, so I made baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and salad. I also made my first ever batch of homemade applesauce, and it will definitely not be my last! I’ve been missing applesauce for two years…if I had only known that a handful of apples, some water, a bit of sugar and a pinch of cinnamon could somehow turn into one of the best things I’ve ever tasted! Seriously, it’s better than apple pie a la mode. Mmmmm. Bliss.
Ace made it home by six, and we had dinner and then I practiced my guitar (for the second time ever). I’m now able to fumble my way through three chords, and I’ve developed these weird, numb feeling spots on the tips of my middle fingers on my left hand from awkwardly pressing the strings so hard. It’s not unpleasant- it reminds me of music every time my fingers tingle. I found an amazing website, JustinGuitar.com, which has the most helpful video lessons- from “how to tune your guitar” and “how to hold your pick” all the way up to stuff so fancy I don’t even know what it means. It’s wonderful, and I’m so glad I have a (free!) teacher to keep me on track, even if he doesn’t know I exist.
Last night I dragged myself out of the house (it’s so hard for me to get out on icky winter’s nights, even when it’s unseasonably warm like it is here) to go to a Spanish Conversation session. It was great- a bunch of people that met through Couchsurfing, a travel and cultural exchange website I belong to, that meet up weekly to chat and drink tea. There were people of all levels there, from non-speakers to natives, and it reminded me both how much I know and how much I still have to learn. There were lots of good laughs, and I guess they usually go out for drinks (of the alcoholic kind, not the caffeinated kind) afterwards, though I left early. Hopefully I’ll be able to go again soon. While we’re on the Spanish subject- I also became a member of the local Spanish Cultural Center’s library, which I’ve been meaning to do forever. I now have access to tons of movies and books in Spanish, and I’ve been enjoying having something to read, especially as it’s so expensive to buy English (or Spanish) books from bookstores here. I’m inching my way through an autobiography right now, Memorias Prematuras, and while there are loads of words I don’t understand, I’m getting the gist of it. I think.
This morning I didn’t have any classes, so I allowed myself the luxury of lounging in bed till 7:30. I put my audiobook on and cooked up a massive batch of fresh tomato spaghetti sauce to freeze, wrote in my journal, and practiced some guitar again (that makes 3 times! I’m practically a pro now, right?) I daydreamed about stuff to put on the registry we’re starting to put together (mostly food-related), then finally headed out of the house. I finished the time-intensive task of figuring out a rough game plan for India and buying domestic flights and train tickets last week, but we still needed some medications for the intestinal afflictions that are almost sure to keep us debilitated for our two weeks in India.
I walked by “cat square”, the creative moniker I’ve given the open lot near our apartment where about 30 strays eat, play, and have their adorable little kittens. The “cat angel” was there, the guy that I always see pouring food and water, shooing dogs, and occasionally giving eye drops. I assume he’s also the one that built the plywood shelters the kitties love so much. He knows me by now, and nodded at me as I pet my favorite kitten. I want to ask how to help, but the language barrier is too great- I really should figure out some way to get around it, though.
I hit the pharmacy, where I said something eloquent like “I go India” and pointed at the appropriate vocab in my dictionary. Here, if you have a minor problem, you can skip the doctors visit and go straight to the pharmacist, tell him what’s up, and get your prescriptions from him. I left with two packs of medication for about $3.50. It’s kinda sad that I’m more afraid of getting sick in the U.S. with health insurance than I am of getting sick in Turkey without. It’s amazing how cheap medication has been in Korea and Turkey, and it really makes it real to me how obscene the profits that companies in the U.S. are making off our sick people.
I moved on to the gym, where I had a nice workout, then came home for dinner and a blog before the conversation class I’ll lead this evening. I’ve got it good.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Back from vacation!
Ace and I just got home from a week-long Christmas/New Year’s vacation, which we spent traveling around to a bunch of different cities in Turkey. We’d originally planned to visit a few cities in the middle of the western coast and then work our way around to the southwestern area along the Mediterranean, but once we discovered it would be much easier to get our tourist visas for our India trip in Antalya (the capital city, more or less in the middle of the country) we changed our plans a bit.
We flew from Istanbul to Izmir on Christmas morning, then bussed straight down to Selcuk and Ephesus to visit the amazing ruins there They’re definitely the best I’ve seen in a long time- I’d say they rivaled the beauties I saw in Tunisia! We had a great Christmas dinner with a bunch of other travelers at our cozy hostel. We also bought our first kilim (beautiful flat-weaved Turkish carpet) at a neighboring shop. I’m afraid I may be feeling an addiction coming on…I’m already wondering where in Istanbul I might be able to find a good deal on some smaller ones. Uh-oh. The following morning, we bussed 3 hours east to the gorgeous mountainside covered with hot springs and a pure white, rock-solid coating of calcium (Pamukkale). It was pretty cool to climb up barefoot through the pools and what looked exactly like a bank of snow. It was another pretty big attraction, so we were able to find a nice hostel and plenty of transportation, even though it was the off season. Two of the nicest things about travelling in the off season- being able to bargain hotels down, and people-free pictures of places that are usually swarming
The next morning we bussed back to Izmir and caught a cheap domestic flight to Ankara, where we went straight to the Indian embassy with our paperwork and applied for our tourist visas. We weren’t able to pick them up until Thursday evening, so we had to stay in Central Anatolia for the week- no Mediterranean for us! While there aren’t a ton of attractions in the area, and there isn’t much tourist infrastructure in high season, let alone low season, it was really interesting to see some new parts of Turkey. We did manage to find a few really lovely museums, a cute village, more ruins, and we got to visit the Rumi’s tomb in Konya, which was really cool for me. However, by the time we picked up our visas in Ankara (success!!) we were pretty tired of buses- we were travelling at least 3 hours a day. We’d caught up on sleep enough for months, as it got dark pretty early and there wasn’t a ton to do at night- after our millionth game of backgammon we usually ended up giving up and going to bed at 9. So after our visit to Konya we decided to change our flight and come back a day early (Saturday). We’re both pretty happy to be home with tourist visas and India tickets secured!
It’s looking like a pretty average week for us- the high school is keeping Ace plenty busy, and he’s trying to get in a few workouts a week after work, too. I’m tutoring an average of 4 hours a day, but with travelling to and from the businesses, homes, and schools, I stay busy enough. It’s a good life Between tutoring and prepping, I’m attempting to keep up on my personal stuff- journaling, working out, and my rather feeble attempts to blog and study Turkish regularly. I’m also starting to plan for India- reserving overnight train tickets and hostels- as well as doing some wedding planning. We’ve gotten most of the big stuff done, and the next project is the registry- fun! We’re going to start up some Turkish lessons again on Thursday, I’ve been hitting up a really nice Cuban Salsa class when I have the time and energy, and I also have the guitar Ace bought me for Christmas waiting dejectedly for me to come and learn a chord on it. I’m sitting in Starbucks now, sipping a tea and enjoying some quiet time- my journal and India plans are calling, though, so that’s all for now. Love and peace to all our family and friends- and Happy New Year!
We flew from Istanbul to Izmir on Christmas morning, then bussed straight down to Selcuk and Ephesus to visit the amazing ruins there They’re definitely the best I’ve seen in a long time- I’d say they rivaled the beauties I saw in Tunisia! We had a great Christmas dinner with a bunch of other travelers at our cozy hostel. We also bought our first kilim (beautiful flat-weaved Turkish carpet) at a neighboring shop. I’m afraid I may be feeling an addiction coming on…I’m already wondering where in Istanbul I might be able to find a good deal on some smaller ones. Uh-oh. The following morning, we bussed 3 hours east to the gorgeous mountainside covered with hot springs and a pure white, rock-solid coating of calcium (Pamukkale). It was pretty cool to climb up barefoot through the pools and what looked exactly like a bank of snow. It was another pretty big attraction, so we were able to find a nice hostel and plenty of transportation, even though it was the off season. Two of the nicest things about travelling in the off season- being able to bargain hotels down, and people-free pictures of places that are usually swarming
The next morning we bussed back to Izmir and caught a cheap domestic flight to Ankara, where we went straight to the Indian embassy with our paperwork and applied for our tourist visas. We weren’t able to pick them up until Thursday evening, so we had to stay in Central Anatolia for the week- no Mediterranean for us! While there aren’t a ton of attractions in the area, and there isn’t much tourist infrastructure in high season, let alone low season, it was really interesting to see some new parts of Turkey. We did manage to find a few really lovely museums, a cute village, more ruins, and we got to visit the Rumi’s tomb in Konya, which was really cool for me. However, by the time we picked up our visas in Ankara (success!!) we were pretty tired of buses- we were travelling at least 3 hours a day. We’d caught up on sleep enough for months, as it got dark pretty early and there wasn’t a ton to do at night- after our millionth game of backgammon we usually ended up giving up and going to bed at 9. So after our visit to Konya we decided to change our flight and come back a day early (Saturday). We’re both pretty happy to be home with tourist visas and India tickets secured!
It’s looking like a pretty average week for us- the high school is keeping Ace plenty busy, and he’s trying to get in a few workouts a week after work, too. I’m tutoring an average of 4 hours a day, but with travelling to and from the businesses, homes, and schools, I stay busy enough. It’s a good life Between tutoring and prepping, I’m attempting to keep up on my personal stuff- journaling, working out, and my rather feeble attempts to blog and study Turkish regularly. I’m also starting to plan for India- reserving overnight train tickets and hostels- as well as doing some wedding planning. We’ve gotten most of the big stuff done, and the next project is the registry- fun! We’re going to start up some Turkish lessons again on Thursday, I’ve been hitting up a really nice Cuban Salsa class when I have the time and energy, and I also have the guitar Ace bought me for Christmas waiting dejectedly for me to come and learn a chord on it. I’m sitting in Starbucks now, sipping a tea and enjoying some quiet time- my journal and India plans are calling, though, so that’s all for now. Love and peace to all our family and friends- and Happy New Year!
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