Dennis threw a party
That was attended by many a guest
Except Mark and Peter, but we still drank by the liter
Every request was met
Dennis threw a party
There were police, but no arrests
We found common ground, and by all accounts
It was a great success
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Across the Strait
The Palladium Mall is a twenty-minute walk from our apartment and has six floors.
The Primary School English Department workroom.
From the workroom, you can walk out onto a balcony and see the amphitheater built to stage school plays. However, five years after its construction, it has yet to be used. Sad. Ben and I agree that it should either be renovated or turned into walls of hanging gardens.
The entrance to the Istanbul Modern.
Patrick telling Denis his fortune from his coffee grounds at the Istanbul Modern Cafe'.
Smoking Nargile, drinking Banana Tea, and eating Donors. You know, teacher stuff.
View of the Blue Mosque from its courtyard. We're taking a tour of it tomorrow.
The kids dressed as kings will be getting circumcised today. They're so excited to 'become men' and have no idea what's in store for them this evening.
Eating at the historic Sultanahmet Koftecisi restaurant (est. 1920).
We finished just as the last prayer of the day was about to be called. The line to get in was at least a block long.
A special line of stalls celebrating Ramadan were erected at the site of the Hippodrome . They had small rides for kids and reminded me of midway at the State Fair.
Picnic tables crammed with people fill the site of what was once the Hippodrome. This was taken during the last prayer of the day. The sun has set and everyone can stuff their faces!
Eating mussels. This kid was a pro. For one Lira (.56 cents), you can get four small mussels, two medium-size mussels, or one really large mussel.
You can't get your passports photos at Walgreens in Istanbul. The photo center we went to goes all-out. They even Photoshop out your ugly places (which may or may not be legal on passport photos). We each got 24 photos for a total of 70 Lira.
A panorama of the Great Horn (Haghia Sophia and Blue Mosque are visible) from the Istanbul Modern Cafe'.
Friday, August 19, 2011
I updated the layout!
I just spent the last hour updating the layout. Hooray! I also downloaded an excellent panorama stitcher so here is a 360 view of a very busy roundabout in front of one of our local grocery stores, Migros... Enjoy!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Bored at home alone...
The school scheduled a tour of the city today for the new English teachers... and the Kindergarten scheduled a trainer to come from England to teach us about IPC, so Sam is out right now having fun and I am at home by myself because I had to go to stupid training. Insert sad face here.
It's not all bad. There are two other new Kindergarten English teachers that get to share my pain and one of them was nice enough to meet me for dinner! (Hello Tercel, if you are reading this!) She also dragged along her boyfriend, Memo. Tercel is not only super nice and knows her shit, but she also grew up in Lewisville and graduated from my rival high school... Small world, eh?
The combination of jet lag, getting thrown right into a brand new job and having to get used to walking everywhere (again... my fat hurts) has made us very tired by the end of the day and has also turned me into a lazy blogger. So I'll use my alone time to catch you all up with what has been happening on this side of the world.
Sam and I got into Istanbul with very little trouble. We flew from Dallas to Chicago, where we had an hour and twenty minute layover and then we proceeded directly to Istanbul. My dad was worried when he dropped us off at the airport that we would have to go through security again once we got to Chicago and the guy who checked us in at the airport assured us we would not have to... but it turns out that guy is a giant liar. We had to run from our arrival terminal over to a train, stand in line to get through security again, and then get directly on our plane to Istanbul. It wasn't THAT much trouble but it was annoying because we were both really hungry and it did not leave us time to get a Chicago dog or an Italian dipped beef sandwich.
We got into the airport Saturday around 4:30 p.m., picked up our bags and met the schools HR superstar, Tuba, and a few of the guys who work at the school in a little cafe inside of the airport. We were so happy to have someone who we have talked to before pick us up at the airport in a friendly manner (unlike Korea!) and help us exchange some money. They also helped us move bags, loaded us into their cars and drove us to our new apartment! Tuba gave us a mini tour of our apartment and all of it's essentials and then we were left to pass out in a traveling-for-twenty-four-hours coma.
Sam gives a tour of our new apartment
Sunday we spent most of the day sleeping, unpacking, and walking around our new neighborhood. We found the grocery store, a little bowling ally, a few cute little restaurants and a little shopping mall all outside of our apartment complex. We also got an e-mail saying that the expected dress for the next days school orientation was business formal. After googling what the hell business formal was, Sam and I came to the conclusion that we may not be fancy enough for this school because neither of us owned a suit. We decided we would put on our best business casual clothes and hope that they would not be too offended.
The shuttle picked us up the next morning at 8 a.m.-ish, and I must say we were looking pretty snazzy (except Sam told me later that day that he didn't like my dress because it was "too bright." What a bitch).
We got to the school and luckily met up with some of the new English teachers... three of them being my fellow cohorts in Kindergarten and we instantly created a "we don't know how to speak Turkish" clique. And how glad I was! The school served Turkish tea and coffee as we sat out in the sun getting to know our new coworkers.
After the speech they split us into our different departments. I headed over to the Kindergarten building and Sam headed over to the primary building. We got to meet the heads of our departments and take mini tours of our buildings. Basically shoot the shit for a couple of hours... and then there was lunch! I wasn't even hungry yet because breakfast was so big... but there were so many new things to try.
After lunch they took us on a giant tour of the entire school! The school is GIANT. It is also beautiful. They seem to have a ton of resources and relatively qualified personnel. My only problem so far is that the Kindergarten seems to not be very organized with their meetings... but after the bullshit they put is through at the English camp on Jeju I am really not going to complain about it. It's nine-thousand times better than Korea and everything is beautiful!
It's not all bad. There are two other new Kindergarten English teachers that get to share my pain and one of them was nice enough to meet me for dinner! (Hello Tercel, if you are reading this!) She also dragged along her boyfriend, Memo. Tercel is not only super nice and knows her shit, but she also grew up in Lewisville and graduated from my rival high school... Small world, eh?
The combination of jet lag, getting thrown right into a brand new job and having to get used to walking everywhere (again... my fat hurts) has made us very tired by the end of the day and has also turned me into a lazy blogger. So I'll use my alone time to catch you all up with what has been happening on this side of the world.
I was bored in the airport so I made this on my iTouch :)
Sam and I got into Istanbul with very little trouble. We flew from Dallas to Chicago, where we had an hour and twenty minute layover and then we proceeded directly to Istanbul. My dad was worried when he dropped us off at the airport that we would have to go through security again once we got to Chicago and the guy who checked us in at the airport assured us we would not have to... but it turns out that guy is a giant liar. We had to run from our arrival terminal over to a train, stand in line to get through security again, and then get directly on our plane to Istanbul. It wasn't THAT much trouble but it was annoying because we were both really hungry and it did not leave us time to get a Chicago dog or an Italian dipped beef sandwich.
We got into the airport Saturday around 4:30 p.m., picked up our bags and met the schools HR superstar, Tuba, and a few of the guys who work at the school in a little cafe inside of the airport. We were so happy to have someone who we have talked to before pick us up at the airport in a friendly manner (unlike Korea!) and help us exchange some money. They also helped us move bags, loaded us into their cars and drove us to our new apartment! Tuba gave us a mini tour of our apartment and all of it's essentials and then we were left to pass out in a traveling-for-twenty-four-hours coma.
Sam gives a tour of our new apartment
Sunday we spent most of the day sleeping, unpacking, and walking around our new neighborhood. We found the grocery store, a little bowling ally, a few cute little restaurants and a little shopping mall all outside of our apartment complex. We also got an e-mail saying that the expected dress for the next days school orientation was business formal. After googling what the hell business formal was, Sam and I came to the conclusion that we may not be fancy enough for this school because neither of us owned a suit. We decided we would put on our best business casual clothes and hope that they would not be too offended.The shuttle picked us up the next morning at 8 a.m.-ish, and I must say we were looking pretty snazzy (except Sam told me later that day that he didn't like my dress because it was "too bright." What a bitch).
We got to the school and luckily met up with some of the new English teachers... three of them being my fellow cohorts in Kindergarten and we instantly created a "we don't know how to speak Turkish" clique. And how glad I was! The school served Turkish tea and coffee as we sat out in the sun getting to know our new coworkers.
Breakfast outside... You can't do that in Texas!
Breakfast was amazing. Turkish breakfast is: Cheese, salami, tomatoes, cucumber, and several different types of pastries that I could not tell you the name of. YUM. I've always said that I could live entirely off of cheese and bread and I think I've come to the right place to make this dream come true.
After breakfast they took us into the auditorium for a "welcome to the school" speech from some heads of the
school and let's-embarrass-the-new-people introduce yourself time. All of the heads spoke only Turkish so they gave the English speakers funny little headphones and had someone translate the gist of what the speaker was saying.
Awkward headphones face!
After the speech they split us into our different departments. I headed over to the Kindergarten building and Sam headed over to the primary building. We got to meet the heads of our departments and take mini tours of our buildings. Basically shoot the shit for a couple of hours... and then there was lunch! I wasn't even hungry yet because breakfast was so big... but there were so many new things to try.
Lunch #1... Lamb, rice, dolmas, tomato-y soup, yogurt,
tomatoes, cucumbers, and baklava. Oh my!
After lunch they took us on a giant tour of the entire school! The school is GIANT. It is also beautiful. They seem to have a ton of resources and relatively qualified personnel. My only problem so far is that the Kindergarten seems to not be very organized with their meetings... but after the bullshit they put is through at the English camp on Jeju I am really not going to complain about it. It's nine-thousand times better than Korea and everything is beautiful!
The Primary school building where Sam is working.
Walking through the campus.
Huge villas overlooking the gyms.
I think Sam mentioned before that the school is nestled between a bunch of hills in a really rich area. There's lots of beautiful trees and huge houses overlooking the school. The surroundings make it a kind of surreal place. The downside of this is that all of the houses look the same and Sam has been singing the theme song to Weeds (the video he posted earlier this week) so he has been singing, "Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky! Little boxes on the hillside and they all look just the same," non-stop for the past four days. Someone kill me, someone kill me now.
Damn you little houses... DAMN YOU!
At least there is a nice waterfall in the courtyard!
The hill in front of the school... So many trees!
All-in-all we are very happy with our experience in Istanbul so far. I am delighted, actually. Everything is turning out much better than expected. So well, in fact, that I am convinced something catastrophic is going to happen because good things never happen to me this much. If the world explodes within the next few days you can blame it on me.
Monday, August 15, 2011
bir, iki, üç...
We have an address! E-mail me at Sabran321@gmail.com for the number of our residency.
Apparently, there are old town shops 5 km one direction and a new mall 5 km the other direction. A nice swimming pool is directly outside our living room and many more apartment towers surround us. Reminds us of a mixed Mexico + Korea setting. It's also much more hilly/mountainous than we suspected. The 3-building school is nestled between hills with expensive villas overlooking the campus. The area and school itself are very nice and everyone there has been extremely welcoming and friendly so far. This year, all teachers in the primary school get Smartboards in their classrooms (just like we had around the Dallas metroplex) and all teachers get laptops they can take home. They seem much more organized than Jeju Camp and have many more resources. I'll be teaching 2nd/3rd grade English and Katie will be Pre-K/K but we're not sure how the class schedules will be organized yet.
Jetlag hasn't been as big of a problem as we had anticipated. We both slept for a few hours on the plane, so our internal clocks are only an hour or two off at the moment. I'm sure that being forced to wake up everyday at 6:45-7 everyday will set it back on track fairly quickly. The bus picks us up around 8 (along with 15ish other teachers who live about our area). It's about a 30 minutes ride to the school, so we can work, talk, read, or sleep (the seats are rather comfortable) on the way up. The view of the landscape through the bus windows can be describe as such:
We went grocery shopping yesterday at Carrefour (partially French owned) yesterday and spent about $50 on basic foods and home goods. I'd post a picture of the receipt but it's faded, in Turkish, and probably wouldn't be worth the effort. Instead, here are some prices I jotted down from a different grocery store we stopped by today:
5 Red Bell Peppers - $6.47
Tomatoes - $0.25 /lb.
Potatoes - $0.48 /lb.
Boxed Whole Milk - $0.78
Boxed Organic Soy Chocolate Milk - $5.02
100g Instant coffee - $5.59
Mentos - $0.62
Blue Cheese - $15.17 /lb.
21 oz. Canned Sweet Corn - $2.44
160g Canned Tuna - $2.80
5 Hotdogs - $2.80
Whole Chicken - $5.47/kg or $9.76 for a small whole one
Regular Eggs - $1.99/dozen
Organic Eggs - $3.51/for 10
Pre-Made Chicken Salad Sandwich - $2.80
500g Margarine - $2.22
6 Mini Dannon Yogurts - $1.06
300g box of 10 Frozen Chicken Fingers - $4.21
Monopoly (Turkey Edition) - $28.01
Flip Flops - $2.80
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Hardcover Book) - $9.26
Mach 3 Razor - $11.76
4 Mach 3 blades - $14.31
2.5 liter Coca-Cola - $1.45
120g Ruffles Chips - $1.12
Can of Pringles Chips - $2.53
1 bottle of Heineken - $2.47
8 liters of Drinking Water - $1.06
1 liter Orange Juice - $0.81
Twix Bar - $0.56
1 liter Olive Oil - $4.46
Volcano Chocolate Cake Mix (4 servings) - $2.78
500g Pasta - $0.56
750ml Dish Washing Soap - $1.07
Note: We did not buy any of these products. I just wrote them down to blog about it. And yes, I converted prices to dollars and pounds.
The majority of the prices seem relatively close to those in the United States, if not only slightly more expensive. Heavy items in glass containers and odd shaped bulky items definitely cost more. There are about 3 small grocery shops within walking distance, so going to buy food isn't such a chore as it was in Korea. The school said they would organize trips to IKEA and around to tourist spots within the next couple of weeks so that new teachers could get acquainted with the city. Also, we should be getting our residency permits and transportation cards through the school soon as well.
Apparently, there are old town shops 5 km one direction and a new mall 5 km the other direction. A nice swimming pool is directly outside our living room and many more apartment towers surround us. Reminds us of a mixed Mexico + Korea setting. It's also much more hilly/mountainous than we suspected. The 3-building school is nestled between hills with expensive villas overlooking the campus. The area and school itself are very nice and everyone there has been extremely welcoming and friendly so far. This year, all teachers in the primary school get Smartboards in their classrooms (just like we had around the Dallas metroplex) and all teachers get laptops they can take home. They seem much more organized than Jeju Camp and have many more resources. I'll be teaching 2nd/3rd grade English and Katie will be Pre-K/K but we're not sure how the class schedules will be organized yet.
Jetlag hasn't been as big of a problem as we had anticipated. We both slept for a few hours on the plane, so our internal clocks are only an hour or two off at the moment. I'm sure that being forced to wake up everyday at 6:45-7 everyday will set it back on track fairly quickly. The bus picks us up around 8 (along with 15ish other teachers who live about our area). It's about a 30 minutes ride to the school, so we can work, talk, read, or sleep (the seats are rather comfortable) on the way up. The view of the landscape through the bus windows can be describe as such:
5 Red Bell Peppers - $6.47
Tomatoes - $0.25 /lb.
Potatoes - $0.48 /lb.
Boxed Whole Milk - $0.78
Boxed Organic Soy Chocolate Milk - $5.02
100g Instant coffee - $5.59
Mentos - $0.62
Blue Cheese - $15.17 /lb.
21 oz. Canned Sweet Corn - $2.44
160g Canned Tuna - $2.80
5 Hotdogs - $2.80
Whole Chicken - $5.47/kg or $9.76 for a small whole one
Regular Eggs - $1.99/dozen
Organic Eggs - $3.51/for 10
Pre-Made Chicken Salad Sandwich - $2.80
500g Margarine - $2.22
6 Mini Dannon Yogurts - $1.06
300g box of 10 Frozen Chicken Fingers - $4.21
Monopoly (Turkey Edition) - $28.01
Flip Flops - $2.80
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Hardcover Book) - $9.26
Mach 3 Razor - $11.76
4 Mach 3 blades - $14.31
2.5 liter Coca-Cola - $1.45
120g Ruffles Chips - $1.12
Can of Pringles Chips - $2.53
1 bottle of Heineken - $2.47
8 liters of Drinking Water - $1.06
1 liter Orange Juice - $0.81
Twix Bar - $0.56
1 liter Olive Oil - $4.46
Volcano Chocolate Cake Mix (4 servings) - $2.78
500g Pasta - $0.56
750ml Dish Washing Soap - $1.07
Note: We did not buy any of these products. I just wrote them down to blog about it. And yes, I converted prices to dollars and pounds.
The majority of the prices seem relatively close to those in the United States, if not only slightly more expensive. Heavy items in glass containers and odd shaped bulky items definitely cost more. There are about 3 small grocery shops within walking distance, so going to buy food isn't such a chore as it was in Korea. The school said they would organize trips to IKEA and around to tourist spots within the next couple of weeks so that new teachers could get acquainted with the city. Also, we should be getting our residency permits and transportation cards through the school soon as well.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Five more days!
Just a few more days left in Texas until we depart for Istanbul. I'm so excited! We're still waiting for our passports to come in the mail which is distressing, but I am going to call them this afternoon to make sure they're actually in the mail. Worse case scenario (I HOPE) is that Sam will stop by the consulate tomorrow while he's dropping Nick off at school.
Sam was looking up words that sounded cool in Turkish to name our blog and he decided on "tea lights," which in Turkish is "çay ışıklar." It's basically just the word for tea and the word for lights... which is not actually a real thing in Turkish. So he asked Gokçen what the word would be and he texted me "piriltilar" so I had to figure out which I to use (i or ı). "Pırıltilar" means glitters, but I accidentally typed in "pırı tırlar" which means, "achieved cult status among truckers."
It's obvious which one had to be picked for the blog name.
Sam was looking up words that sounded cool in Turkish to name our blog and he decided on "tea lights," which in Turkish is "çay ışıklar." It's basically just the word for tea and the word for lights... which is not actually a real thing in Turkish. So he asked Gokçen what the word would be and he texted me "piriltilar" so I had to figure out which I to use (i or ı). "Pırıltilar" means glitters, but I accidentally typed in "pırı tırlar" which means, "achieved cult status among truckers."
It's obvious which one had to be picked for the blog name.
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