Spring Break

One of the benefits of being is teacher is the breaks from school! Last week I was on Spring Break and it was amazing. I really enjoyed my time away from the normal routine of school, language, and waking up early! I welcomed the much needed break. Monday and Tuesday were cold and rainy, so I decided to spend those 2 days doing school work - grading papers, planning for the 4th quarter, working on report cards, etc AND watching movies. It was great.

The rest of the week was beautiful weather and I enjoyed being out and about in the city. Wednesday I went with my friend Selma to pick up my residence visa...I am officially a resident of Turkey now. Then we got lunch and I enjoyed my afternoon down by the water...reading! (something I rarely get to do!) Thursday I went with another teacher and friend, Bess, to these islands that are just out from the city....only a 30 minute boat ride away. It was amazing and so refreshing to be out of the city and away from all the honking and pollution and concrete!! We took a carriage ride, ate lunch at the top of the island, and laid on a blanket is a park. It was a beautiful and warm day; I cant wait to go back and visit one of the beaches there this summer. I also got to hang out with some of my Turkish friends which was also really fun. They are so kind and helpful and I love spending time with them. I have posted some pictures of us at a cafe down by the water.

Eating in a Foreign Country

People back home ask me ALL the time, "What is the food like?" Well that depends on what exactly you are asking. Are you asking what is Turkish food like? Or are you asking what is the food that I eat like? The answers to these questions are very different. Turkish food is good, but I cannot and do not eat it every day. It consists of a lot of bread and cheese and meat! I like all this but do get tired of it. I havent discovered a lot of variety, but some of my favorites are lahmacun, tavuk sis durum, tavuk doner, iskender, and borek. I normally eat Turkish about 3-4 times weekly. The rest of the time I eat American food :) whether I go out to eat or cook it in my apartment. This past week I have done a lot of both. On Monday, school was cancelled due to local elections so a few teachers went out to Chili's for dinner. It just opened here like a month ago and so it is still very American and very good. Drinks with ice, bottomless chips and salsa, quesadilla explosion salad, and free refills on the drinks. It was AMAZING. On Wednesday, I had to go to the Emniyet to apply for my visa. I had gotten a sub for the whole day, because normally it is an all day process. BUT I was out of there by 10am, so I spent the rest of the day playing around the city. Another teacher and I went to the mall that had an Arby's in it. Now I love Arby's...even in the states it is one of my favorite fast food restaurants. So that was a very special treat, and once again very good! mmmm yummy curly fries! Friday night, Julie and I decided we wanted to go to the movies, so we headed to a mall near school after work. Before the movie (we saw Marley and Me and it was a wonderful movie) we ate dinner at a burger place called Num Num's. Nothing like a good cheeseburger and fries.

Cooking a very American dinner. Chicken Chimichangas (made with Yufka - a turkish pastry like thing). And the best part was THE CHEESE DIP. They dont have tortilla chips here or velvetta, or rotel tomatoes. So when Julie's parents came to visit they brought us some...along with many other goodies. This morning for breakfast we had bacon and bisquick biscuits!

The joys of American food....it makes me happy :)

Weekend Get Away!

So this past weekend I went on a trip down south with Julie's family! It was amazing to get out of the city and see some of this beautiful country I live in. And it was fun just to be American tourists for a weekend. We took many modes of transportation…plane, van, bus, ferry, and car. It was a fun and eventful weekend that felt like a week. We did a lot in 36 hours!
We flew out early Saturday morning to Izmir, where our wonderful tour guide met us. He had a car waiting and drove us to Efes (Ephesus). He talked the entire 45 minute drive, asking us a million questions and then answering them before we could. I ended up falling asleep since I had been up since 5am. Anyways he gave us a wonderful tour around the town of Ephesus, full of funny stories and interesting facts. The whole time I was there I kept picturing Paul walking the streets, talking to people, sharing life and truth with them. It was just so neat to me to see that it was a real place. That people actually lived life there many years ago, serving the same one that I serve.

After the tour we were taken to a Turkish Carpet shop where we ate lunch and were given a presentation about Turkish rugs. It was interesting to learn how they are made, what they are made of, etc. but of course the whole point was that afterwards we would purchase one! Unfortunately I don’t have 10 grand to spend on a carpet right now. Maybe one day!
Next we went to see Artemis’ Temple. The whole time the tour guide was talking, Julie and I were looking around trying to find what he was talking about. Finally I just asked, “Where is the temple?” He stared at me and said, “Can’t you see…it’s the ruins, see that column right there, and those stones!” As you can see from the picture below there is not much left! But at least I can say I have been there. The temple of the Virgin Mary was next on our stop. It is believed that John took Mary here after the crucifixion and that she died outside of Efes. Ill post more pictures on facebook sometime this week :)

Leather Store

I really enjoyed being town in Selcuk this weekend. But there are about 4 things to do there...visit the ancient town of Ephesus, see the ruins of Artemis' Temple, go to the Virgin Mary's House and attend a carpet presentation. After we had done all of this, we still had about 2 hours before our bus left. SO our tour guide asked, "maybe you would like to visit a leather shop?" We shrugged and said SURE!

We arrived at the Leather Store and were greeted with a glass of apple tea and shown to a room filled with about 50 chairs and a stage. A man then came out and welcomed us to "a fashion show of all the fine leather i sell right here in my store. please sit back and enjoy". Next thing I know the lights go off and the show starts. When I saw the first model walk out on stage I lost it, and seriously laughed for the next ten minutes. There were so many things that were out of control...like the models making eye contact with us, making Julie go up on stage, the music, and the fact that they put on this entire production (music, lights, wardrobe, etc) for us. HAHA it was seriously so funny. I have posted a video that doesnt do the experience justice, but shows you a little bit of what it was like.

After the talent show the we went into the Leather showroom. It was huge and full of leather jackets, pants, shirts, wallets, purses, etc...you name it...it was there, in leather! I dont really wear leather and everything was way out of my price range, but I thought I would at least browse around. I made my way over to the purse section and found a really cute purse (I actually need another purse here). BUT it was 250 euros, which is over $300 (aka not even an option). The man saw me looking at it and told me he would give it to me for $250. I told him I was just looking. About five minutes later he came over and told me he could make a deal, and give it to me for $175. I just shook my head and told him it was too much. He asked what I would pay and I told him I couldn't spend more than $100 dollars. He laughed, told me I was crazy, and walked away. I was okay with that...I did like it but didnt have to have it AND I cannot justify spending more than $100 on an accessory. By this time the Jantz' had finished shopping and so we made our way out to the car. As I was stepping into the car I heard the man calling, "Lady, Lady...$100 US dollars." I look at him, and think to myself "why not?". And so I bought the purse. When I got back in the car, the tour guide asked how I became such a good barginer. I guess my summer in China taught me more than I realize :) It was a spontaneous buy, but I am really pleased with myself and love my new purse.

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 :)