5 o'clock Tea

Last week a new friend invited Juile and I over to her house for tea. Turkish people are so friendly and hospitable, so we should have know it was going to more than just tea! We arrived at her house to find a table set with fine china, beautiful flowers, and a spread of wonderful food. The food was delicious (sorry but I dont remember all the names) and the conversation was even better. She had invited several of her friends over as well, a guy from Ireland, and then two ladies - one from Italy and one from Turkey. The two ladies have both lived in the states while studying in New York. Julie and I had brought homemade brownies (homemade is the only option since there are not boxed mixes here!) and they loved them. We then got on this conversation about America and all the instant stuff they have...cake mixes, chocolate chip cookies, fast food restaurants, drive thru banks, etc. It was really funny and made me realize how silly some things are. After dinner we moved to the den where we talked and ate even more!! It was one of the most fun things I have done since moving here. Very comfortable and just a really great night. I am grateful for my new friendship with these ladies. Oh and I got to practice the little Turkish I know, cause her parents and sister dont speak English. Below is a picture of us all - with her 2 nephews!

Snow Day

Growing up in eastern North Carolina, I rarely saw snow. And so when it did snow it was a BIG deal...school was cancelled, my dad stayed home from work and life in general just stopped. It was wonderful and always so exciting when the weather man called for snow. I remember my senior year of high school looking forward to being up in Raleigh where it snowed more often and having even more snow days. Well in my 4 years of college, it snowed like three times and I think we had like 1 snow day! And now that I live in a part of the world where it is suppose to snow a lot during the winter months....it doesnt! Instead it is snowing in North Carolina, like every other week or something, ha. Typical. BUT last Monday it snowed all day here. Once I got out of the shower and realized it was snowing, I got SO excited and was hoping school might be cancelled. But nope...here they know how to handle the snow and so even though it snowed all day long we still went to school. Oh and I have recess duty on Mondays and even though I wanted to stay inside where it was nice and warm, I knew the kids wouldnt go for that. So out we went! It was beautiful, and as you can see from the pictures, the kids loved it. They all came inside soaking wet though, which meant my kids had their shoes and socks off for most the day.

Highlights

So what have I been up to since I last updated? I don't really even know. One thing fun at school is that we made mosaics...out of tiny paper (instead of glass!) We are studying the Roman Empire, and although I didnt know much about it before we started this unit, I am learning. It's been good for me. I decided like the day before that I wanted to do mosaics, and so I spent every free minute the next day cutting construction paper into a million pieces. But it was so worth it and the kids had a lot of fun making their mosaics. Aren't they beautiful? Oh and last week Julie and I ordered water. I know that doesnt sound very exciting or blog worthy, but believe me it was!! Julie called the number and after repeating "iki tane su istiyorum lutfen" (i want two things of water please) like 5 times they finally understood what we wanted. We were quite pleased with ourselves and went about our evening. Within 30 minutes the door bell rang, and then the madness started. We both started running around looking for money, trying to remember what to say to the man, buzzing him in, etc. He brought us our two containers of water and I asked how much, he told me, I paid, told him thank you, and went to shut the door. THEN he started speaking all this Turkish and pointing at the containers. I finally figured out that he wanted the 2 empty ones in exchange for the new ones. Well we still had a little bit of water in one of them, so I tried to show him that we wanted to keep them. He didnt accept that and kept speaking Turkish to me. We finally found this one container (no telling how old/dirty it was) that we could pour the water into, so we could give him his 2 containers! I was trying disperatly to get the pump off so I could pour the water and also laughing hysterically at the same time. Julie was like "what are you doing? just pump it in there!" So then I started pumping like a crazy woman, as hard and fast I could. We finally got all the water out and gave the man his container! He thanked us and left....we fell on the floor laughing at how ridiculous it was and how dumb that guy must have thought we were...running back and forth from the door to the kitchen, trying to save the water and keep his container. And then the door bell rang again. It was our dear water boy with a brochure about the water, his explanation was of course in Turkish - to which I just kept responding...tamam, tamam (okay, okay). ...even though I had no clue what he was saying. Anyways, we now have good clean water :)

Valentine's Day

My first Valentine's Day overseas has been great! On Monday I got 2 packages full of Valentines goodies - chocolates, gum, PEEPS, heart shaped pillow, etc. Here are some pictures of my wonderful cards - thanks to Elizabeth, Kelly, LaLa, and Mrs. Joyce! And then Tommie sent Julie and I some beautiful flowers. They were delivered on Wednesday while I was in the middle of teaching Science. The kids went crazy and were more excited and surprised than I was!








Saturday was such a busy day, that I kept forgetting it was Valentines' Day. First I had a two hour language class from 10-12. Although not my favorite thing in the world I am glad to get back in the swing of langague. Due to the school holiday and then my tutor being out of town it had been like 2 weeks since we had met and what little language I know was getting rusty! After that Julie and I fixed a quick lunch and then headed to a friends apartment for a Valentine's Tea. It was such a nice party and great to meet some other ladies in the city. AND yummy food...pastries, brownies, strawberries dipped in chocolate, and more! I kept refilling my plate :) We headed straight from the tea to the school I teach at for a Valentines Hoedown. The senior class was sponsoring it for the High School. I had the opportunity to teach a couple line dances and had so much fun dancing and hanging out. It was almost like being back in college and going dancing! Hope your Valentine's Day was great and full of LOVE. How grateful I am that my Father is the definition of love.

Last Week

Last week brought a lot of changes! Joan - my roommate for the last 3 weeks - went back to Scotland. Julie and I were so sad to see her go. She was one of the reasons our transition has been so smooth and easy. She cooked for us, cleaned, helped with laundry, showed us how to do all sorts of things, listened to us, gave us advice, and the list goes on and on. We miss her very much!! Here is a picture of us out to eat the night before she left!

I also started teaching this week. It is so fun and I really loving it. It's hard getting up at 6:30am everyday, but I am starting to get used to it. Here are some pictures of my classroom...notice my make shift calendar :)

random thoughts

they dont have ranch dressing here and so last night i used one of my ranch packets i brought from the states to make some ranch. all you do is mix it with some sour cream (they dont have sour cream here either - but you can make it with yogurt and something like cream cheese)! i was so excited when i got home this afternoon that i cut up all these veggies and starting dipping them in ranch. then i decided to make some potatoes and dipped them in ranch. then i fixed a salad and poured ranch all over it. and tomorrow i plan to have chicken nuggets with - you guessed it - RANCH. oh the comfort of yummy food!

and i just spent about 45 minutes on skype with a dell representative. my DVD player has been messed up since i got here so i wanted to call and see if it was even possible to get it fixed while i am over here. well it is possible!! and they are going to send the parts right to my apartment. when he asked what my address was i just laughed.,because i dont really know turkish yet so i cant pronounce the words correctly. i had to spelled each word like this A as in apple, L as in lemon, E as in elephant, M as in man, D as in dog, A as in apple, G as in girl - for the word Alemdag...i dont even know what that is!! haha anyways it was funny and the guy was so patient and nice. i should have my package in about 4 weeks hopefully! we shall see.

julie and i finally starting cooking this past week. we have made chicken fahitas, chicken quesadillas, and even poppyseed chicken. and i have eaten lots of yummy dishes at friend's houses, so i am looking forward to trying them all soon. it is so easy to get fresh fruit and veggies, which is really nice.

First Day of School

well i survived my first day of teaching. it was so fun and i know this is exactly what i am suppose to be doing. i have a great group of kids, 16 to be exact. it is a very diverse group: several Americans, Koreans, a Turkish American, a Singaporean, and a South African. this morning i actually felt rested when i woke up at 6:30am - i took a dramamine last night to make sure i would be able to sleep.

school starts at 8:30, and at 8:35 one of the little girls in my class threw up all over the floor. it made for a very nice "welcome to teaching" gift. the kids were going crazy...and i had no idea what to do. thankfully the 2nd grade teacher told me who to call and offered for my class to join hers until specials started at 8:45. i spent my planning period trying to get the smell out of my classroom as well as printing off activites for the day. i am still getting used to not having a printer at my apartment - i have to email everything to myself and print it off at school.

i just did some basic things with them today...going over procedures, rules, getting to know them, etc. it's nice because so many things have already been implemented...i am just reinforceing them. i am still trying to figure out how i am going to get them to behave in the hallway - it is madness and they are so loud, i HAVE GOT to get that under control soon. i started reading Frindle to them, one of my favorites (thanks to my literacy professor in college). AND probably the most exciting thing was passing out their pen pal letters from Miss Wilson's 3rd grade class in Raleigh, NC. they were thrilled and cannot wait to write back :) oh and i spent about an hour after school making a calendar for the bulletin board. and if you know anything about me you know i am not very creative or crafty - so its hilarious to me that i had to make a calendar - but i guess thats what you do when you are in a foreign country and their arent teaching supply stores around!