Things have smoothed out a bit around here this week. Ace got paid the wages the school owed him for the last two months, which is pretty exciting, even though I was excited about the prospect of having some weekday-morning movie festival and hangout sessions if he had to strike. We were also able to get all the info on our bills, so were able to do the math and figure out that we do indeed owe the landlady money- $10.33. She is displeased with this information, as she wants us to pay her $200, but we don’t really care. We’ll pay her what we owe her, and plan on pretty much ignoring her unless she comes up with any new info or arguments. So far, so good. Glad that’s sorted, at least for now.
I started with a new evening student yesterday, which I’m excited about. It’s nice to have some more work, and he’s going to be fun to work with. Plus, I can walk to his place, which is much closer than any of my other appointments. Good news. I’m still looking for another student or two, though- my evenings are getting a bit busy, but my mornings are still a little quieter than I’d like. It’s funny, I never thought I’d wish for the 9 to 5, but after two years of not 9-5ing, it’s starting to look really good. In Korea we were working evenings, which was ok, but put us on a really weird schedule. Also, I wake up feeling like being productive, and get antsy and grumpy if I don’t have anything to get me going first thing. Same problem here in Turkey- I certainly can’t complain that I’m working too much, but on weekdays where I don’t have a morning lesson I feel sluggish and end up moping around the house being lonely more often than I should. It’s gotten me wondering what I should do next year- if I should work at a language school or something in the daytime and supplement my income with private lessons, or keep doing what I am now. If I could find an exercise class or volunteering first thing in the mornings, that might do the trick as well. I guess I’ll have to wait and see where we land for next year, anyways.
Other than that, nothing much new here. We’re looking forward to hanging out with some of Ace’s work friends this Saturday, and going to a Picasso exhibit with a Turkish friend and his girlfriend on Sunday. I’m pretty happy about that, as I feel extremely guilty for not taking advantage of all the art and music in this city. It’s nice just knowing it’s there, I suppose, but I’m not benefiting from it much via osmosis.
Oh, and our anniversary weekend was nice! It was a pretty long trip- about two hours from apartment to ferry to bus, then 3 hours on the bus. And Agva (our destination) is still technically part of Istanbul- unbelievable, right? The weather was grey but it didn't rain on us much. We hung out in our tiny little wood bungalow, played with the giant dogs roaming the area, and paddled a little paddleboat on the very muddy river. The hotel provided some really yummy food, we watched some good DVD's, and we played a lot of backgammon and GoStop (the card game we picked up in Korea). Before leaving, we went further up the road and took a peek at the Black Sea. It was nice to get away.
Not much news on the job front for next year, either- Ace is still sending out applications and calling schools, but no particularly promising leads yet. There are some job fairs in the UK and the US in a few months, and he may fly out to one or two of those if nothing comes up before then. That’s really late in the hiring season, though, so we’re hoping he doesn’t have to wait that long to secure something.
Lots of love from us both! Just 3.5 months more- we’re both starting to look forward to home.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Ace and I celebrated the three-year anniversary of our first date this week! We celebrated the day of by going out to a nice Korean restaurant…then leaving immediately when we saw the menu. 30 bucks for a bottle of soju (which is about 75 cents in Korea)! 65 bucks for a meal that cost us 5 when we were there! Ok, yes, we’re not starving students anymore, but still….we went across the street to some yummy Chinese food instead We’re celebrating the weekend by spending it in Agva, which is a Black Sea and river-front little town which is a favorite for Istanbullus who want to get away. It’s three hours away by bus- which is about how long it takes to even make it out of Istanbul. We’re renting a little bungalow in an area that’s not accessible by car- we’ll take a little cable car over the river to the facility. The weather isn’t supposed to be great, but we’re planning on huddling in our bungalow, watching DVD’s, hanging out by the fire in the lodge, and just relaxing. Should be great!
Things are pretty normal other than that- Ace is surviving work, and work is looking up for me. Things have been pretty quiet for me lately- I’d actually been getting a little bored- but I’ve gotten a few messages from people interested in starting soon. Last weekend we hosted our first Couchsurfers, which was great. For those that haven’t heard of it, Couchsurfing is a social network site like Facebook, but for travelers. People who are coming into your area send you a note asking if you’d like to meet up for coffee, hang out, show them your favorite places, and/or let them sleep on your couch. When you go somewhere, people do the same for you- kinda a “pay it forward” sort of hospitality mentality. You can build up a global network of friends in no time. We absolutely loved Kamel and Franck (from France) and hosted them for two nights. They spoiled us by doing our dishes and feeding us massive amounts of imported cheese and chocolate. Tonight we’ll have dinner with them again and saying goodbye, as they’re heading back home tomorrow.
We’ve been having some trouble with our landlady, which has been seriously stressing me out. We made an agreement at the beginning of the year that we’d give her 150 extra and she’d pay our bills. Our bills have been over the last few months, so we told her we’d be happy to pay anything she had to pay out of pocket- i.e. anything over the 150, as long as she could get us the receipts or records for the bills. She’s refusing to get copies of the receipts for us and getting extremely upset that “we don’t trust her”, and saying that we need to pay her any time any of our bills are over what she thinks is normal, no matter what the bill total is. I.E. if she thinks our internet should be $20 and it’s $50, we owe her $30, even if all the bills added together are still under 150. I.E., she wants to make a big profit off of us. None of this is in the contract! I thoroughly despise confrontation, but am also not willing to be taken advantage of. Sigh. I’m getting lots of nasty emails, too. This is one of the disadvantages of living abroad…due to the fact that I’m not familiar with the laws, the language, where to go for help, etc., I feel pretty vulnerable and helpless in these kinds of situations.
Wish me luck getting it sorted out…I’ll need it.
Other than that…not much! The wedding website is officially done, so check it out :)
http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/pwp2/view/MemberPage.aspx?coupleId=7721822499807563
Lots of love to all of you!
Kait
Things are pretty normal other than that- Ace is surviving work, and work is looking up for me. Things have been pretty quiet for me lately- I’d actually been getting a little bored- but I’ve gotten a few messages from people interested in starting soon. Last weekend we hosted our first Couchsurfers, which was great. For those that haven’t heard of it, Couchsurfing is a social network site like Facebook, but for travelers. People who are coming into your area send you a note asking if you’d like to meet up for coffee, hang out, show them your favorite places, and/or let them sleep on your couch. When you go somewhere, people do the same for you- kinda a “pay it forward” sort of hospitality mentality. You can build up a global network of friends in no time. We absolutely loved Kamel and Franck (from France) and hosted them for two nights. They spoiled us by doing our dishes and feeding us massive amounts of imported cheese and chocolate. Tonight we’ll have dinner with them again and saying goodbye, as they’re heading back home tomorrow.
We’ve been having some trouble with our landlady, which has been seriously stressing me out. We made an agreement at the beginning of the year that we’d give her 150 extra and she’d pay our bills. Our bills have been over the last few months, so we told her we’d be happy to pay anything she had to pay out of pocket- i.e. anything over the 150, as long as she could get us the receipts or records for the bills. She’s refusing to get copies of the receipts for us and getting extremely upset that “we don’t trust her”, and saying that we need to pay her any time any of our bills are over what she thinks is normal, no matter what the bill total is. I.E. if she thinks our internet should be $20 and it’s $50, we owe her $30, even if all the bills added together are still under 150. I.E., she wants to make a big profit off of us. None of this is in the contract! I thoroughly despise confrontation, but am also not willing to be taken advantage of. Sigh. I’m getting lots of nasty emails, too. This is one of the disadvantages of living abroad…due to the fact that I’m not familiar with the laws, the language, where to go for help, etc., I feel pretty vulnerable and helpless in these kinds of situations.
Wish me luck getting it sorted out…I’ll need it.
Other than that…not much! The wedding website is officially done, so check it out :)
http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/pwp2/view/MemberPage.aspx?coupleId=7721822499807563
Lots of love to all of you!
Kait
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Two weeks in India
Well, it’s hard to know where to start with the India trip- so much happened!
Well, I guess we can start by saying we were unbelievably lucky- things almost never go so smoothly in travel as they did for us on our two week vacation in Southern India. People were kind, lodging was decent and cheap, nothing was lost or stolen, transport was time-consuming but not too painful… really, I’d say our biggest inconvenience were buses and trains being an hour or our and a half late. No big deal. Plus we had a blast together
Overall impressions- I had heard so much about what an incredibly challenging country India can be- the overwhelming crush of humanity, the poverty, the scams, the chaos, the insane public transit- that I’d really prepared myself for the worst. Fortunately, none of our experiences were anywhere near as overwhelming or exhausting as we’d expected- actually, not overwhelming or exhausting at all. Part of this might have to do with the places we picked- the south is generally known for being more laid-back and relaxing than the traditional tourist routes in the big cities and north-west.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire time- not a cloud in the sky. The people were very accommodating, with the only even moderately bad experiences being with snippy auto-rickshaw drivers and hordes of kids (mostly in the rural areas) whose only English words involved asking for money. The kids saw us as walking wallets, for obvious reasons in a country where the minimum wage is about $2 a day. It was irritating after the 50th time in a row, but most of the kids cracked huge smiles and forgave us our stinginess when we offered to take a picture of them. We got lots of great pictures, as it seemed like every person we met asked for us to take photos of or with them.
The landscape in the areas that we visited was mostly very green and tropical. One of the biggest things that we realized on our trip is that we have to come back. India is such an enormous country, in size and cultural and geographical diversity, and we were only able to get a tiny taste of a few little dots on the map. Many of the lucky travelers that we met were in India for a month or several.
We started out in Cochin, a town in Kerala. The area is famous for its laid-back attitude, lush green landscape, and criss-crossing waters. We spent a night there recovering from the trip, eating amazing meals at local restaurants (we could both eat extremely well for $2 in the right places) and trying to get a feel for things. Then we took a local bus south about an hour and a half to Alleppey, right in the middle of the backwaters, where we stayed in a homestay on a tiny coconut and rice farming island and walked around, getting a feel for local life. We then took a super luxurious overnight trip around the backwaters in our own personal houseboat, with our own personal cook and driver. Amazing!
We then took an overnight train to Gokarna, a tiny off-the-beaten track town with stunning beaches. There was just enough tourist development for us to be able to eat well, use the internet and stay in a fun hostel- no more. The gorgeous Om beach was quiet and tranquil, and we spend one lovely day hiking between beaches and watching cows strut their stuff in the surf. We cut our stay in Gokarna a bit short to move an hour north to Goa, one of India’s bigger tourist areas. It’s known for stunning beaches, but most parts are more developed and touristy than Ace and I like. We headed up there because I was determined to be able to hit a market, which we did, and it was well worth it. I had a great time browsing bed covers , funky sandals, patchwork sari wall hangings and cushion covers. It was well worth the stop, but the next day we decided to move on to Hampi a day earlier than expected.
We booked an overnight bus, which turned out to be quite the experience- we shared a little sectioned off mattress in the back of a big bus. Our spot was just big enough for both of us to sit up and look out the window or lay down and try to sleep- as long as nobody tried to roll over. Most of India’s roads are in pretty bad shape, so we found ourselves suspended completely in midair, then slammed back down on the mat repeatedly on the 13-ish hour trip. Fortunately, we’re pretty great at sleeping, and we both felt surprisingly decent when we arrived in Hampi.
Hampi was our favorite- there’s really no way to describe the landscape- you’ll just have to look at pics on our photosite http://kateandace.shutterfly.com/ We spent a lovely three days, two nights here, scooting around between gorgeous ruined Hindu temples, exploring the amazing landscape, visiting monkeys, and getting blessed by the temple elephant. We then took another overnight train to Bengalore for our flight out. What we saw of Bengalore was pretty nasty- overall, a very dirty, charmless, noisy city- but that was expected. We managed to pass a really nice day there, though, as we’d booked a cooking class. We learned how to cook our favorites in the home of a lovely woman, then went to the grocery store to stock up on spices to bring back. We also watched half of a Bollywood movie in the theatre, something I’d really been wanting to do. We left halfway through, as the movie wasn’t in English and there were no subtitles, but I still got my fix of song-and-dance numbers.
On the trips to and from India, we had 16 hour layovers in Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates. They actually turned out great- we had a lovely day exploring Sharjah on our way to India. Our overall impression was of a very clean, organized, quiet town. Everyone was super polite and the roads seemed extremely wide, quiet and empty after Turkey. On the way back we were able to take a short busride into Dubai, where we hopped on a bus tour and got to see the sights. We were pretty exhausted, but still really enjoyed getting to see the gigantic malls and hotels and wander around on The Palm.
A great trip- we can’t wait to go back and see more of this super interesting country.
Well, I guess we can start by saying we were unbelievably lucky- things almost never go so smoothly in travel as they did for us on our two week vacation in Southern India. People were kind, lodging was decent and cheap, nothing was lost or stolen, transport was time-consuming but not too painful… really, I’d say our biggest inconvenience were buses and trains being an hour or our and a half late. No big deal. Plus we had a blast together
Overall impressions- I had heard so much about what an incredibly challenging country India can be- the overwhelming crush of humanity, the poverty, the scams, the chaos, the insane public transit- that I’d really prepared myself for the worst. Fortunately, none of our experiences were anywhere near as overwhelming or exhausting as we’d expected- actually, not overwhelming or exhausting at all. Part of this might have to do with the places we picked- the south is generally known for being more laid-back and relaxing than the traditional tourist routes in the big cities and north-west.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire time- not a cloud in the sky. The people were very accommodating, with the only even moderately bad experiences being with snippy auto-rickshaw drivers and hordes of kids (mostly in the rural areas) whose only English words involved asking for money. The kids saw us as walking wallets, for obvious reasons in a country where the minimum wage is about $2 a day. It was irritating after the 50th time in a row, but most of the kids cracked huge smiles and forgave us our stinginess when we offered to take a picture of them. We got lots of great pictures, as it seemed like every person we met asked for us to take photos of or with them.
The landscape in the areas that we visited was mostly very green and tropical. One of the biggest things that we realized on our trip is that we have to come back. India is such an enormous country, in size and cultural and geographical diversity, and we were only able to get a tiny taste of a few little dots on the map. Many of the lucky travelers that we met were in India for a month or several.
We started out in Cochin, a town in Kerala. The area is famous for its laid-back attitude, lush green landscape, and criss-crossing waters. We spent a night there recovering from the trip, eating amazing meals at local restaurants (we could both eat extremely well for $2 in the right places) and trying to get a feel for things. Then we took a local bus south about an hour and a half to Alleppey, right in the middle of the backwaters, where we stayed in a homestay on a tiny coconut and rice farming island and walked around, getting a feel for local life. We then took a super luxurious overnight trip around the backwaters in our own personal houseboat, with our own personal cook and driver. Amazing!
We then took an overnight train to Gokarna, a tiny off-the-beaten track town with stunning beaches. There was just enough tourist development for us to be able to eat well, use the internet and stay in a fun hostel- no more. The gorgeous Om beach was quiet and tranquil, and we spend one lovely day hiking between beaches and watching cows strut their stuff in the surf. We cut our stay in Gokarna a bit short to move an hour north to Goa, one of India’s bigger tourist areas. It’s known for stunning beaches, but most parts are more developed and touristy than Ace and I like. We headed up there because I was determined to be able to hit a market, which we did, and it was well worth it. I had a great time browsing bed covers , funky sandals, patchwork sari wall hangings and cushion covers. It was well worth the stop, but the next day we decided to move on to Hampi a day earlier than expected.
We booked an overnight bus, which turned out to be quite the experience- we shared a little sectioned off mattress in the back of a big bus. Our spot was just big enough for both of us to sit up and look out the window or lay down and try to sleep- as long as nobody tried to roll over. Most of India’s roads are in pretty bad shape, so we found ourselves suspended completely in midair, then slammed back down on the mat repeatedly on the 13-ish hour trip. Fortunately, we’re pretty great at sleeping, and we both felt surprisingly decent when we arrived in Hampi.
Hampi was our favorite- there’s really no way to describe the landscape- you’ll just have to look at pics on our photosite http://kateandace.shutterfly.com/ We spent a lovely three days, two nights here, scooting around between gorgeous ruined Hindu temples, exploring the amazing landscape, visiting monkeys, and getting blessed by the temple elephant. We then took another overnight train to Bengalore for our flight out. What we saw of Bengalore was pretty nasty- overall, a very dirty, charmless, noisy city- but that was expected. We managed to pass a really nice day there, though, as we’d booked a cooking class. We learned how to cook our favorites in the home of a lovely woman, then went to the grocery store to stock up on spices to bring back. We also watched half of a Bollywood movie in the theatre, something I’d really been wanting to do. We left halfway through, as the movie wasn’t in English and there were no subtitles, but I still got my fix of song-and-dance numbers.
On the trips to and from India, we had 16 hour layovers in Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates. They actually turned out great- we had a lovely day exploring Sharjah on our way to India. Our overall impression was of a very clean, organized, quiet town. Everyone was super polite and the roads seemed extremely wide, quiet and empty after Turkey. On the way back we were able to take a short busride into Dubai, where we hopped on a bus tour and got to see the sights. We were pretty exhausted, but still really enjoyed getting to see the gigantic malls and hotels and wander around on The Palm.
A great trip- we can’t wait to go back and see more of this super interesting country.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Looking Ahead
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
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 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!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
An Average Weekend in Istanbul
Has it really been six months since I’ve written up here?
Oh well, let’s just pretend like I never stopped, and we’ll just pick up with this weekend. Catching up is too big of a task to contemplate, so I hope that through my ramblings about our everyday life 2.5 months into our Turkish adventure, you can get a bit of an idea about what our lives here are like.
This weekend was a fairly mellow one- the lovely Istanbul fall and winter, which has so far been clear and pleasantly cool, turned rainy on us. Friday evening I had taken an epic bus journey (over TWO HOURS on a bus just to get to a business on the Asian side- that’s Friday night Istanbul traffic for you) to meet with some businessmen that were looking to learn English. The chat went well, and one of them gave me a ride back to the shore so I could catch a (much quicker) ferry back to the European side. The night was cool, but not so cold that I couldn’t huddle out on the benches in the open air, listening to some music on my i-pod and watching the lights of the European side approaching. Once there, I caught a cab to a party at a friend’s apartment- I got to spend the evening with about 20 of the lovely teachers I met at MEF, the International School I spent two weeks at. My friend had visited Russia for Bayram, the sacrifice holiday last week, so a vodka and borscht party was had It was a great group of people- Columbians, Americans, Canadians, Turks, New Zealanders… after the party, I split a cab home with three really fun Macedonians that are here working for a music booking company. Ace, meanwhile, was home recouping from another week of 12 hour days. Poor kid.
Saturday morning I took off for another meeting at a local Starbucks (sacrilegious, I know, but it’s my favorite place to study!) while Ace slept in. When I got back, we spent a pleasant afternoon lazing around the apartment- Ace graded papers and relaxed while I cooked a white bean and veggie soup. With no microwave, our quick foods are limited- which is probably a great thing, as it means pretty much no processed foods, and I’ve become a soup-cooking master- cheap, yummy, and healthy. Veggies are so gloriously cheap here that it’s hard to not to be inspired to cook with them. On that note, we’re also living without a dryer (normal for Turkey, and every other country I’ve travelled to), without a T.V. (we had one, but it was taking up the space where we wanted to put in the oven we bought, so it went into the closet- this is not normal for Turkey), but the dryer is the only thing I miss. Oh man, I will never stop missing clothes dryers. The rest of the world is missing out, I tell you. Saturday evening our good friend Erin came in. She’s the English Lit teacher at Ace’s high school, and she lives in the teacher housing waaayyy out in the suburbs, by the school. Her commute is much shorter than Ace’s, but our place is a lot more fun for the weekends, so she often comes out to hang out with us and crash on our futon on Saturday nights. We took her out to a late-birthday dinner at our favorite local restaurant, then we got a cheap beer - our apartment is only about 5 to ten minutes from the main restaurant, bar, and shopping area of Istanbul! We then bought some gorgeous Turkish rice pudding to go, came back to our apartment , smoked our hookah, savored our pudding, and watched the m ost depressing movie ever. “Disgrace”, with John Malkovich. Don’t watch it.
Sunday morning Erin headed out on her hour plus trip home, and Ace and I hit the market. Another great thing about our location is the Sunday market that invades the street across from ours every Sunday morning- it’s a ritual for us to load up on armfuls of gorgeous veggies and fruits. I bought 2 kilos of perfect tomatoes for two lira- about $1.50. Awesome. We then caught a ferry back across the Bosphorous to the Asian side- there’s a really nice district over there with lots of good restaurants, cute shops, and a used academic text market that we were wanting to check out. It was freezing, but we had a pleasant day roaming the streets, browsing through stacks of books in a shopping-mall-sized collection of bookstores, and eating yummy food and a fancy lokanta, one of my favorite kinds of places to eat here. We came back with some treasures, including a beginner’s Turkish textbook, a Barbara Kingsolver novel, some e.e.cummings poetry, and something in French for Ace. We were pretty chilled by mid-afternoon, so we took the ferry back, got some food on the way, and came home to drink tea, catch up on emails, and study Turkish together by the heater.
That’s it for now- I’ve resolved to start writing weekly, so stay tuned if I haven’t bored you too much yet!
Oh well, let’s just pretend like I never stopped, and we’ll just pick up with this weekend. Catching up is too big of a task to contemplate, so I hope that through my ramblings about our everyday life 2.5 months into our Turkish adventure, you can get a bit of an idea about what our lives here are like.
This weekend was a fairly mellow one- the lovely Istanbul fall and winter, which has so far been clear and pleasantly cool, turned rainy on us. Friday evening I had taken an epic bus journey (over TWO HOURS on a bus just to get to a business on the Asian side- that’s Friday night Istanbul traffic for you) to meet with some businessmen that were looking to learn English. The chat went well, and one of them gave me a ride back to the shore so I could catch a (much quicker) ferry back to the European side. The night was cool, but not so cold that I couldn’t huddle out on the benches in the open air, listening to some music on my i-pod and watching the lights of the European side approaching. Once there, I caught a cab to a party at a friend’s apartment- I got to spend the evening with about 20 of the lovely teachers I met at MEF, the International School I spent two weeks at. My friend had visited Russia for Bayram, the sacrifice holiday last week, so a vodka and borscht party was had It was a great group of people- Columbians, Americans, Canadians, Turks, New Zealanders… after the party, I split a cab home with three really fun Macedonians that are here working for a music booking company. Ace, meanwhile, was home recouping from another week of 12 hour days. Poor kid.
Saturday morning I took off for another meeting at a local Starbucks (sacrilegious, I know, but it’s my favorite place to study!) while Ace slept in. When I got back, we spent a pleasant afternoon lazing around the apartment- Ace graded papers and relaxed while I cooked a white bean and veggie soup. With no microwave, our quick foods are limited- which is probably a great thing, as it means pretty much no processed foods, and I’ve become a soup-cooking master- cheap, yummy, and healthy. Veggies are so gloriously cheap here that it’s hard to not to be inspired to cook with them. On that note, we’re also living without a dryer (normal for Turkey, and every other country I’ve travelled to), without a T.V. (we had one, but it was taking up the space where we wanted to put in the oven we bought, so it went into the closet- this is not normal for Turkey), but the dryer is the only thing I miss. Oh man, I will never stop missing clothes dryers. The rest of the world is missing out, I tell you. Saturday evening our good friend Erin came in. She’s the English Lit teacher at Ace’s high school, and she lives in the teacher housing waaayyy out in the suburbs, by the school. Her commute is much shorter than Ace’s, but our place is a lot more fun for the weekends, so she often comes out to hang out with us and crash on our futon on Saturday nights. We took her out to a late-birthday dinner at our favorite local restaurant, then we got a cheap beer - our apartment is only about 5 to ten minutes from the main restaurant, bar, and shopping area of Istanbul! We then bought some gorgeous Turkish rice pudding to go, came back to our apartment , smoked our hookah, savored our pudding, and watched the m ost depressing movie ever. “Disgrace”, with John Malkovich. Don’t watch it.
Sunday morning Erin headed out on her hour plus trip home, and Ace and I hit the market. Another great thing about our location is the Sunday market that invades the street across from ours every Sunday morning- it’s a ritual for us to load up on armfuls of gorgeous veggies and fruits. I bought 2 kilos of perfect tomatoes for two lira- about $1.50. Awesome. We then caught a ferry back across the Bosphorous to the Asian side- there’s a really nice district over there with lots of good restaurants, cute shops, and a used academic text market that we were wanting to check out. It was freezing, but we had a pleasant day roaming the streets, browsing through stacks of books in a shopping-mall-sized collection of bookstores, and eating yummy food and a fancy lokanta, one of my favorite kinds of places to eat here. We came back with some treasures, including a beginner’s Turkish textbook, a Barbara Kingsolver novel, some e.e.cummings poetry, and something in French for Ace. We were pretty chilled by mid-afternoon, so we took the ferry back, got some food on the way, and came home to drink tea, catch up on emails, and study Turkish together by the heater.
That’s it for now- I’ve resolved to start writing weekly, so stay tuned if I haven’t bored you too much yet!
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