Update from the ‘bul-

As far as day-to-day stuff goes, things are moving along well for us! I’ve been teaching the owner of a business on the Asian side, as well as one of his employees, 8-10 hours a week. Now his nephew (another employee) wants 8 hours on top of that! I’m pretty thrilled with my schedule now, as they’re all right after one another, and in the mornings. Double the hours at the business definitely makes the transportation time and costs less icky, too! They’re all great guys, too, really rewarding to work with. It has been so cool for me to get the opportunity to start working with absolute beginners and watch them grow. I know that everything they learned, they learned from me-a very cool feeling.

Ace is hanging in there with work- he’s been seeing some major improvements in his students’ classroom behavior, which is a definite triumph for him, even though they’ve still got a long way to go. He’s definitely on the countdown now, though, as his last week of teaching real classes is the last week in May. The three weeks after that are mostly testing and helping the students are behind.

The job hunt has gone through some major changes- the contract that Ace was working on in Honduras fell through, but we’re both perfectly happy with that. It’s definitely a blessing in disguise, as we were pretty worried about quality of life in San Pedro Sula as well as discipline and management problems in the school. Now he’s applying to one school in the capital of Costa Rica which is miraculously still hiring, which would be fantastic. We’re pretty excited about plans if he doesn’t find a school, either, though. If we don’t have any definite plans come the end of summer, we’ll take some more time at home, have more time to relax (or frantically prepare) as the wedding approaches, time to enjoy our little honeymoon, write thank-you’s together….all things we wouldn’t be able to do if he had to rush off to a school in August and fly home for the wedding. Then we’ll head off to do the travelling around South America that I’ve always wanted to do- a combination of backpacking and WOOFing. WOOF stands for Worldwide Organization of Organic Farming, and it’s a worldwide program that hooks small organic farmers up with travelers who are willing to work the farms for a few days or more in exchange for meals and a place to stay. Ace is really excited about the possibility of getting to learn some farming techniques, and we’re both really interested in the off-the-beaten-track experience of South America that we could get this way. After we got tired of being on the move (or start getting short on cash) we would either pick a good place to stop and find ESL jobs or Ace would accept a position with this organization that finds emergency International School teachers for schools that lose a teacher mid-year. We could end up anywhere through them, which could definitely be interesting! I’m hoping we’ll find a way to stay in South America, though, for the sake of our Spanish. If he does find a steady position this summer, though, these plans will just have to be scooted back till next summer.

Istanbul has finally decided to accept spring, and we’re really enjoying the sunshine and longer days. Tulips are blooming, the birds are muttering as usual (ok, we only have pigeons), and the neighborhood kids are graffiti-ing local buildings with chalk sunshines and dragging each other around on cardboard pulled from the trash piles until 11:00 at night. Last weekend was a three-day weekend, and we managed to get in a beautiful walk along the Bosphorous, hang-out time with several different friends, and walk with our professor friend and his students as they visited and discussed different statues around the city. We also discovered a park that’s pretty nearby that we didn’t even know existed- pretty excited about that, as my only problem with living in the middle of the city is the major lack of green. We’re excited to check that out again soon. Ace posted some spring in Istanbul pictures a few weeks ago, so check them out on our photo site if you haven’t yet!
Much love,
Kait

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted! I’ve been keeping really busy with work lately. All of the students studying in England and such are home for spring break, so there is lots of test prep to be done.
Last weekend I took a long weekend with two girlfriends and went to Plovdiv, Bulgaria (again). We did pretty much all the same things as last time. We stocked up on stuff at the grocery store that you can’t get in Istanbul (Easter goodies, different cheeses, cheap oatmeal, good beer), roamed around the pleasantly empty streets (there are twice as many people in Istanbul as there are in the entire country of Bulgaria), visited the local monastery (very crowded with people lighting candles for Easter), and enjoyed just roaming the cobblestone streets and munching on Bulgarian food. It was cool to be there for Easter- church bells were ringing and hundreds of loaves of sweet bread hung out in the central areas, waiting to be given out courtesy of some political party. As the only place you could buy return train tickets was closed for a 5 day vacation, we were a bit worried about getting back. We ended up getting tickets on an overnight bus, though, which was really good considering what it was. Reclining seats, personal TV’s, a bathroom…pretty much just like a plane. We all returned sleepily but safely with shiny new stamps in our passports.
Other than that, not much new…we’re still trying to figure out what we’ll be doing next year (ugh), I’m taking my weekly Turkish lessons and inching along, and we’re getting wedding stuff slowly checked off the list. I recently found shoes for myself and the bridesmaid’s dresses, and we’ve been working on our vows! Fun.
The weather has just turned nice, and the city is an entirely new place. Tulips are popping up everywhere, there are boxes of kittens all over the place, and Ace and I actually have a desire to leave the apartment! We’re excited to go check out the palace that we still haven’t made it to this weekend. Erin also has friends visiting, so hopefully we’ll get to take over guide duties some and have excuses to get out and about our beautiful city.

Much love,
Kait