Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas in Turkey

I never imagined a Christmas without my family, but finding myself in a country that is a 20 hour plane ride away from Canada's East Coast, and with only a long weekend to celebrate Christmas, I had to make Christmas happen in Turkey.

I was planning on going skiing at Turkey's Ilgaz Mountain until an unexpected toe surgery kept me off the slopes.  Stuck in Ankara for Christmas, I decided to make the best of it.  I ended up having a surprisingly great Christmas with my lovely friends, and made a few new ones.

On Thursday night, I went with my friends to the US Embassy for their Happy Hour.  The marine's fraternity-esquenmhb house was festively decorated, and we enjoyed what is probably of the best salsa I've ever tasted.

Friday, Christmas Eve, was my favourite day of the holiday, er, weekend.  I went to Cafe des Cafes, which I have decided is my favourite restaurant in Ankara, with Eilidh for lunch and then went shopping for our baking ingredients.  We bought the ingredients required for a delicious Christmas brunch, kısır, chinese fried rice and chocolate truffles.  Sick of drinking powdered Nescafe coffee mixes, Eilidh and I bought ourselves coffee makers and Starbucks coffee to go with it as a Christmas treat.  To my delight, my Christmas parcel that my mom mailed from Canada arrived just in time!  Unable to wait until Christmas day, I opened up my as soon as I got into my appartment and was elated, as usual, to have new pyjamas, which are my favourite gift to recieve.

My Christmas presents :)  and Mıstık, my little Munchkin

Eliidh and I spent the afternoon making chinese fried rice, kısır and chocolate truffles.  Have a guess for which one actually turned out correctly.  It's not easy to find the ingredients that you need to cook the food you would normally cook in the West.  We found the Toblerone bars needed for the truffles, but the cream cheese proved to be far more difficult. Krem peynir (cream cheese) is available here, but is not the kind we are used to.  Krem peynir is much more liquidy, not as firm as the Philidelphia cream cheese that my truffles recipe requires.  We thought we had found a more firm krem peynir, but it still wasn't firm enough....we did end up with truffles, but they need to be kept frozen so the soft mixture doesn't melt in your fingers.  The chinese fried rice (my favourite dish that my mom makes) didn't really turn out either.  My mom neglected to tell me about the oh-so-important step that is rinsing the rice, to get the starch off...well, Eilidh did tell me I needed to rinse the rice (she used to live in China, after all) but I discovered that I didn't rinse the rice nearly well enough.  By the time I mixed in the other ingredients, my rice was hardly distinguishable from a large, starchy blob.  It did taste alright though.



The too-soft-of consistency truffles

Kate's Christmas Tree

These 5 slices of bacon cost 9 Turkish Lira, that's about 6 Canadian Dollars
Kate, ever the organizer of social events for the holidays, organized a tree decorating evening at her appartment, complete with a skinny Christmas tree, mulled wine and eggnog.  After a few drinks at Kate's, we headed to the Forty-Nine for more drinks, and then off to Manhattan.  The band was great, and we danced all night, not arriving home until around 5am.

For Christmas Day, Eilidh and Colleen came over for breakfast.  We cooked hashbrowns, poached eggs, BACON and pancakes.  For a beverages, we tasted the Turkish winter hot drink salep, a milky, gummy liquid heated and sprinkled with cinnamon, and coffee from my new coffee maker.



Our Christmas Day junk food.  Oreos courtesy of the US Embassy.

Eilidh and I had a lovely Christmas day afternoon of munching junk food, watching movies, sipping mulled wine and rolling too-soft-of-consistency truffles.

All in all, it was a great holiday and even though I wasn't with my own family, my foreign family made Christmas great.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Cat Lady

Turkey is known for beautiful beaches, hospitality, history and delicious food...unfortunately it is not known for being warm and loving towards animals.  This is not to say that Turkish people are cruel towards animals, because they are certainly not, but animals are not really viewed the same way they are back home.  In Canada, it's common that pets are treated like children, and often sit on the couch, wear special clothes and sleep in their owner's beds.  Turkish people, however, are known for keeping beautifully clean, immaculate houses.... because animals are considered dirty, and well, animals, they are generally not kept inside the house.  Animals are treated like animals here...

Me and Mıstık

There are, however, some amazing people here who are constantly advocating for the rights of these animals.  I have been working with İpek, a really lovely Turkish girl who runs a sort of rescue organization for the homeless animals of Ankara.  There is no sort of SPCA here, but İpek is well known amongst the animal lover community and helps place homeless animals in vet clinics (the vets here usually provide temporary homes for homeless animals), foster homes and permanent homes.  I have fostered 3 cats since arriving in Ankara.  The first one was a pretty 5 month old white, female cat whom I named Ayla.  We have been able to find a permanent home for Ayla.

Sleepy Sissie Annie wrapped up in her scarf :)


The second is Sissie, a 2-3 month old grey and white long-ish haired female cat who I instantly fell in love with.  Sissie, or Sissie Annie was hit by a car and found a few days later by a gardner in İpek's neighbourhood.  She has a broken front paw, and the tip of the paw is paralyzed so she'll never walk properly.  I kept her for two weeks but now she's back at the vet's office because she kept removing her cast.  Sissie is staying in a cage there where it will be more difficult for her to remove her cast, and the vet will have easy access to her when her cast needs to be put back on.  I have decided to adopt Sissie, because, besides the fact that I love her, it will be next-to-impossible for Sissie to find a home here in Turkey.  Ity is difficult to find homes for animals who walk properly, let alone one who has a broken leg.  I plan on taking her wherever I go, so she will be coming to Canada with me this summer (unless there is a huge problem with customs...but there shouldn't be, I'm doing the research and getting all of Sissie's documents.)

'Can I has your password for the 'puter pls?' - Sissie Annie

I was afraid that Sissie would be lonely, because I am away during the day and this would be a very boring appartment for a kitty to stay in, so I got another cat.  This one's name is Mıstık, which is a nickname, his real name is Mustafa.  He is a HUGE 5-6 month old cat who looks like he should be on the cover of National Geographic.  He's got all the markings of some type of wild cat, with a big nose and big paws.  That said, Sissie was quick to put him in his place when he first arrived.  She hobbled after him with a cast on one leg while hissing at him, and he ran away and hid behind the couch!


Mıstık playing with the mouse toy Mom sent him for Christmas :) Thanks, Mom! :)

The cats are great company, and in a small way, I'm helping the animals of Ankara, because by taking one cat, I free up a cage in a vet's office so another homeless cat can stay there.  As an added bonus, I get to have two, cuddly warm cats, to curl up and sleep with, on my bed :)

For more information about the homeless animals of Ankara, please check out Ipek's Facebook Group.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

kısır

One of my goals while I'm here is to learn to make delicious Turkish food.  While at my friend Güleyse's house on Saturday night, I had one of my favourite things for dinner: Kısır.  Kısır is a super healthy dish made with bulgar, vegetables and salça (a red pepper purée used as a spicy sauce).  Determined to attempt cooking at least one Turkish recipe a week (or rather, a more realistic goal would be to just COOK once a week), I decided to make kısır to bring to my friend Kate's Sunday dinner.  It went over great, I consider this dish a success, and it's so easy to make.

Bulgar is a great, healthy option for vegetarians.  Combined with lentils, it forms a complete protein (something about Omega 3...that's what Colleen says).

To make the bulgar (Güleyse's recipe):

Ingredients (for 3 people)

3 cups of bulgar and equal amounts of boiling water.
5-6 tomatoes
2-3 cucumbers
1 onion
a handful of parsley
3 tablespoons of salça

Boil water.  While water is boiling, finely chop the vegetables.  Put the bulgar into a large bowl and pour the boiling water on top.  When bulgar has cooked and absorbed the water, stir in the salça.  It should be a pretty red color.  Stir in the veggies.  Pour on a little olive oil  and lemon juice.  Stir and serve.


Teşekkür ederim Güleyse!  Nefiste!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Upper Intermediate, here I come!

The dynamics of schools are always changing, due to factors such as enrollment, graduates and teachers coming and going.  Language schools are even more prone to change.  At my school, we usher students through many course levels each year.  The students with the least amount of English start out as Elementary students, then (hopefully) move up to Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate and then Pre-Faculty, throughout the course of the year (or several years!).  Each course lasts 8 weeks, and if the students pass a cumulative assessment at the end of the course they can move up to the next level.

I taught Elementary students for the last course.  Because most of the students were estimated to pass the course, my Teaching Unit was predicted to be teaching Pre-Intermediate and then Elementary repeater students (those who do not pass a level must sit the course again and again until they pass).  So, everyone in my TU is planning a course for a Pre-Intermediate level...I had the assignment of writing the course map.

Because the number of students fluctuate at each level until all the results of the tests are finalized, teachers can be shifted to other units up until the morning that classes start.  We know that some people could be leaving our lovely, friendly TU, but we don't know who.  So, we're working away until 3:00...when it was announced the 5 members of our TU are leaving.  And I'm one of them.  To say that I liked my TU is an understatement...I LOVED this TU.  Everyone was warm, friendly and helpful, often going out to lunch together.  To illustrate how much of a change this is, I must illustrate how massive this school actually is.  Imagine the whole school as a school district...each TU consists of about 12 teachers and one Head of Teaching Unit, so each TU is actually like a small school.  I literally just got shipped from Croft Elementary school to Miramichi Valley (to put it in Miramichier terms).

I'm in a different building (although, I must admit, it's a MUCH nicer building) in a different office (again, much nicer) teaching a different course (it looks interesting, actually) to different students (they will be very, very competent in English - these are very advanced students).  So, it's actually a pretty good deal, save for the fact that it's change and I'm leaving behind a very lovely, comfortable environment.

I start on Monday with students who I am hoping are just as lovely as my last students...Upper Intermediate...here I come!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Öğretmenler Günü

They really do respect their teachers in Turkey.  November 24 is 'Öğretmenler Günü', which means 'Teacher's Day', in Turkey.  In honor of this occasion, BUSEL, the English School department of my university put on a beautiful lunch for its teachers.  The fancy linens were pulled out, soft jazz music was played and, oh yes, there was wine AND baklava!  While Teacher's Day is not yet a national holiday (and will likely never be one) we did get to have a beautiful lunch and an extended lunch break.  My friend's son's school was being let out early today so that their teachers could go home and get ready for their dinner at the very fancy Bilkent Hotel.  Teachers all around the school were hugging each other and wishing each other a Happy Teacher's Day / İyi Öğretmenler Günü.



Some of my Teaching Unit (plus Eilidh, Colleen and Cynthia) at the teacher's lunch. (Photo by Ray Wiggin)

All of this celebration made me wonder how we celebrate teachers in the other countries that I've taught in...I remember various sweets being brought in from parents to schools I taught at in my hometown in Canada to celebrate the occasion...it seems to me that Teacher's Day is celebrated in the Spring in Canada.  I don't remember any mention on Teacher's Day in England  This is not surprising, considering the utter lack of respect that English people have towards the people who are educating / raising future generations of English people.  I sound bitter, but it's actually the honest truth.  You don't notice it until you see how very respected your profession is in another country and then you think 'Boy, are we ever doing it wrong...'.  Educating children (and adults) is one of the most difficult professions there is out there, but also one of the most rewarding, and the people who dare take up this daunting task should be respected and rewarded for their efforts.  The Turks really do it right here.


Eilidh, Me, Laurel and Colleen celebrating Teacher's Day. (Photo by Ray Wiggin)

In other news, I have been given my task for the next course.  I will be teaching Pre-Intermediate students, so there's a chance that I'll get to teach some of my former, lovely, students again, as they're moving up to Pre-Intermediate level as well!  We have some lovely, hardworking, mature students in this group, so teaching this group again is going to be great.

For all you teachers out there...İyi Öğretmenler Günü!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

sand, sun and goat sacrificing in Side

Dan, Colleen, Eilidh and I wanted to have the ultimate relaxation for our November week long holiday in honor of Bayram.  We had all done the backpacking through capital cities in various countries sort of thing, and this time we wanted to explore another kind of holiday: an all-inclusive resort.  This was my first time at an all inclusive resort, which are popular along Turkey's Mediterranean coast.  Turkey is becoming a popular tourist destination for many Europeans because the Mediterranean coast looks exactly like Greece (and I dare say has more Green ruins than Athens) but is half the price, because of the Turkish Lira currency (I do love a good currency conversion!).  We booked through Thomas Cook and snagged a special offer available only for residents of the UK.  Ask me how much it cost, really.  I can tell you I spent more on two dresses from H&M than I did on this holiday.

The mother of the family setting the goat skin out to dry.

We met two lovely women working as Animateurs for the resort at breakfast on our second day.  We asked them about watching a Korban Bayram celebration and they immediately invited us to their family's home for their sacrifice.  Now, I'm the kind of girl, who, when graciously invited to a special religious ceremony, makes every effort to go, despite being unable to eat goat.  So, we take a dolmuş (privately owned mini buses) and then one of the girl's brothers picks us up in their family's van.  We go to the house and when we arrive, the men are already full-on into cutting up a goat.  I think they were cutting the fur away from it's testicles at this point.  So, here we are, full-on foriegners with limited understanding and conversational skills, watching it all go down, in awe, and trying not to giggle about the goat's private parts.  Imagine, if you will, 4 foriegners showing up on your doorstep on Christmas Day saying 'Um hi....we were just wondering about this Christmas thing you do....um, could we watch and document it all on film?  Great.  Thanks.' Because that is essentially exactly what we did.  We were on our best behaviour of course, being perfect guests, and the family was more than happy to share their tradition with us.  Turkish people are famous for hospitality and this family was no exception.

The mother making delicious, stretchy wrap bread.

After tea, we went outside and gathered pine cones and needles to make a fire.  When the coals were hot, they were loaded into a little box where the goat was cooked on a rack.  Paper thin, stretchy bread was set out, among roasted vegetables and Fanta (which the family bought especially for us) and we made wraps with the fresh goat meat.  (I'm sure you will have guessed that I did not eat any goat, being a former vegetarian and long-standing non-red-meat-eater.)  I did manage to sneakily take the goat that was generously offered to me and sneak it over to Dan, who scarfed it down without problem.


This goat was sacrificed in the most loving, humane way possible...wish I could say the same for animals killed on meat farms.

After washing up and stuffing our faces with baklava (fresh from the oven!) we headed back to the resort.  I cannot even describe the hospitality that was shown to four perfect strangers on that day.  We were told that we were now members of a Turkish family, that we have Turkish sisters and brothers and a home to stay at in Side, by people who were kind enough to share their religious celebration with us.

Amazing.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

yirmi beş yaşındayım

Every birthday, when my brother and I were little, my mom used to string streamers and balloons on the ceiling of the dining room so that when we woke up, our birthday morning was special.  I cannot even describe my amazement when we woke up to streamers and balloons on our birthdays.  It was like the most magical thing that ever could have happened, it almost seemed like the decorations sparkled, in all our excitement.  When we got a little older, and the novelty of streamers and balloons wore off, mom cooked us our favourite meal on our birthdays.  It was always usually fish and chips, or chinese food.

There are no streamers, balloons or chinese food when you celebrate your birthday in another country.  It's possible that this sort of occasion could be very lonely, if you don't have any loved ones around.  I'm very lucky that this has never been my experience.

It's not the first time that I've been away from Canada for my birthday.  Last year, I celebrated my birthday in Paris with Greg, Heloise and Heloise's boyfriend Tibault.  This year, I'm in Ankara, Turkey for my birthday, not quite as spectactular as Paris, but still pretty great all the same.  I cannot even begin to describe how very lucky I am to have such amazing friends (and students!) who made my birthday spectacular.

Birthday dinner at Marco Paschas' in Bachelievler


On Saturday, my friends and I went out to Marco Paschas in the Bachelievler neighbourhood.  We went for dinner and drinks and had a fantastic time chatting away.  It was a really nice night.  It was sort of warm, so we sat on the roof top floor for dinner.

On Sunday, I went to Colleen's for a study date.  Ever since Olympos, Colleen and I have been dreaming about this delicious eggplant and garlic yogourt dish we had at our treehouse.  Colleen managed to re-create the recipe and we made it together as a birthday request.  It was easy to make and so delicious.  I am going to try to make one Turkish recipe per week, so watch for a food blog entry coming soon.

On Monday, the day of my birthday, Colleen brought me a warm breakfast square as a birthday breakfast.  It was delicious and I'm definately going to get the recipe from her so I can start having warm breakfast squares on the soon-to-be-coming cold winter days.  Later that evening, Barkın, the lovely Turkish man I am dating, took me out for a nice, traditional Turkish meal.  I don't know what everything was called that we ate, but it was really delicious and we had a really nice evening.

On Tuesday, Barkın came over and Colleen, Eliidh, Laurel and Koray surprised me with a cake and presents.  I got a hamam kit (scrubby cloth, exfoliating mitt, olive oil soap and a scoop!) and baklava (mmmm...baklava).  But that's not all...


My lovely students :)

My lovely students brought in two delicious cakes from Mado for my birthday, this afternoon.  They had closed the door to the classroom and three of them were standing outside the classroom door doing their best to stall me in English.  When I went inside the classroom, the lights were out, everyone shouted 'Happy Birthday' and there were two cakes on the desk.  I was told to cut the cake, and did the best I could using a plastic knife while the students crowded around taking pictures.  I forgot how much teenagers like to pose for the camera and take pictures.  We ate the delicious cake, drank Coke and took tons of pictures, which are now on facebook.

So there were no balloons, streamers or chinese food, but I can honestly say that I feel like a total princess for my birthday week.  I couldn't ask for better friends or students to celebrate my birthday with. I'm a very, very lucky girl :)

Sunday, November 7, 2010

living room oasis

All around Turkey, there are these adorable little 'gazebos' or terraces that you can take your shoes off, go inside and lay up against tons of comfortable pillows.  The tables are low, and you're essentially sitting on the floor on top of pretty Turkish rugs and cushions.  It makes for the perfect venue for catting with friends, eating or smoking nargulay.  I was inspired by these little gazebos to make my flat a little more 'lounge friendly'.  I have an ugly, stiff couch and chair set in my flat, and efforts were made to cover up the ugliness.  But one night, Laurel and I discovered how comfortable our couches can be when they are made into sofa-beds and have tons of pillows piled at the back.  That night, we decided we needed cushions to turn our couches into comfortable day beds.  I was inspired by the pretty blue patterned cushions I saw in Olympos to make my appartment both pretty and comfortable.


Ulus market: Fabric Row.

Laurel, Colleen and I went to the market in Ulus to try to find our cushions.  I must say how much I love Ulus.  It's the oldest part of the city, and it kind of shows.  But, Ulus is where you can get the most delicious börek, lokum and baklave, in addition to very cheap household goods.  The streets are narrow and windy in Ulus, and it's usually quite crowded, with vendors calling out, advertising their goods, people selling simit and corn on the cob (street food, in this area of the world) and plenty of hustle and bustle.  There is a very long street in Ulus that sells mostly clothes and cloth, so we headed there.  I saw pre-made cushions similar to what I saw in Olympos, but we kept looking.  We found giant, thick, patterned pillow cases in a fabric shop.  They were 15 TL each, so Laurel and I each bought 3 and negotiated buying the 3 for 40 TL.  We like to try to work on our bargaining skills whenever possible because it's common to bargain in this country.  Prices are not listed, you must ask a shopkeeper what the price is.  It is possible that the price could be raised, considering we are foreign and do not speak the language, so we do try to bargain with vendors where ever possible.


Ulus Textiles!  Laurel and Colleen with one of the friendly shop keepers.

We got our cases and took them to a lovely store aptly named Ulus Textiles, where the shop owner spoke perfect English and we asked him to make cushions to go inside the cases.  Colleen managed to find pillow inserts, so it was just Laurel and I who needed to have our pillows stuffed.  We negotiated 60 TL for the 6 pillows, down from 70 TL and arranged for our pillows to be ready in an hour.  I also bought thick, navy blue fabric to cover my ugly couch and chairs and go with the blue theme I have going on in my flat.  It was 34 TL for 4 metres and I had more than enough to cover my furniture.


Colleen's pillow doubles as an air bag.  Just a joke :)

We took a taxi home and all began re-arranging our furniture.  I covered my couch and chairs and arranged my pillows.  We ran from appartment to appartment to check out the transformation in everyone's living room.  Voila!  A gorgeous, comfortable lounge bed with pretty Turkish patterned textiles.

Gorgeous, Turkish-style living room :)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

arkadaş

People who have Bachelor of Education degrees and move to another country to teach are generally pretty rad people.  They are usually friendly, outgoing and have a great sense of adventure.  People who move abroad to teach English as a Foreign Language tend to fall into one of two categories:  1) They are really rad people who are friendly, outgoing and have a great sense of adventure, or 2) They are rejects of Western society (to quote my good friend Colleen, who I agree with 100%)

I'm never afraid to move abroad to study or teach, mainly because of Category # 1.  I know I'm bound to meet people, and I'm almost guarenteed that I'm going to have alot of things in common with my new group of friends because we have similar goals:  We are teachers who want to travel.

People from my hometown are always asking, 'Do you have any friends in Turkey/London/Chicoutimi/Brussels/Montreal (insert latest travel idea here) ...?' when I mention moving or travelling to another place and my response is usually no.  But to echo Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, I think to myself 'But I will have friends'.  I'm happy to report that I have had no problem making friends in any of the places I've been to thus far, and Turkey is no exception.

Despite the fact that there is a possibility of a higher proportion of Category # 2 here in Turkey (I am teaching ESL now, not mainstream school) I have managed to find a small group of the lovliest people you'd ever want to meet, and I am so unbelievably grateful for their company.


Google Images:  Olympos beach, Turkey

Together with two of these girls, we booked a trip to Olympos, a beach destination in the Mediterranean part of Turkey where you can stay in cute little treehouses.  We have booked a three bed treehouse for our long weekend (October 29-31).  Olympos is supposed to be great fun, with hot weather, sandy beaches and open-air discos.

Google Images:  Side, Turkey
We have also booked another trip to the Mediterranean Coast of Turkey, this time in Side, which is supposed to have beautiful sandy beaches and plenty of archeological sites if we get bored of the beach (I can promise you, I won't though).  We've booked an all-inclusive resort and plan on taking full advantage of the all-you-can eat and drink aspect of it.

The Mediterranean Coast of Turkey was one of my main reasons for moving here and it hurts my soul to know I've been here for two months and haven't been there yet.  I'm so excited to be on my way to a beach on Thursday night.

Monday, October 18, 2010

at the kuaför

It was well time to get my hair done.  I'd had my highlights done before I left for Turkey and since I'd been here 6 weeks my roots were long showing.  Colleen and I booked an appointment with a reccomended hair salon and got up early on Saturday morning to go.  Before I go on, I must underline the fact that this salon doesn't have ANYONE who can speak English...and well, my Turkish is about as good as their English.  Colleen and I decided our primary strategy for overcoming the language barrier would be visual aids.  As soon as we got into the salon we grabbed some magazines and pored over them for photos of highlights to show our kuaförs.  They nodded in agreement, and so our adventure began.  For my hair, they put in a FULL set of highlights...and I mean FULL.  Almost all of my head was covered, which kind of defeats the purpose of highlights, but I'm rolling with it because he's the kuaför and I don't have the vocab to argue.  (Here's where I stop and expand on the fact that most kuaförs around here are MALE.  Yes, the person painting bleach on my hair and wrapping it in tin foil is indeed very much a man.  This strikes me as funny because I'm only ever had a woman do my hair.  I'm not saying males can't or don't do hair (Tony and Guy, anyone?) but I will say that where I'm from, hairdressing is not exactly a male dominated profession.)

I find out that these men really, really do know what they're doing.  The man washes out my highlights in three increments, starting from the back of my neck so that the highlights on the top are actually lighter, giving my hair great variation.  My cut was fabulous too.  I was initially worried, so I looked through a hairdressing book to find pictures of hairdressing tools and found a picture of a razor.  I pointed to this tool and then to my head.  The kuaför then nodded in agreement and pointed to my developing mullet and made razor sounds.  He knows he needs to razor off my mullet!  Wow.  I'm shocked at how easily it was to communicate what I wanted despite not having even one word in common!  I can easily recall having to spell out what I wanted to hairdressers, who speak the same damn language as I do.

I walk out of the salon with a lot less lira in my wallet (it was pretty expensive, but please don't ask how much, I'm trying to forget about it) and a whole lot blonder.  Barbie has got nothing on me.  I don't think I've ever been this blonde before (except for that one time I tried highlighting my hair myself, fell asleep outside in the sun and my hair was as white as the white side of Cruella Deville's hair...and I spent the summer trying to undo the damage.  Remember that, Mom?).  But THIS time my hair actually looks nice, and I have gotten over the shock of ALL of it being so very blonde.

The only downfall with having blonde hair here is that it is so very rare, so it attracts attention.  Most Turkish people have fabulous olive complexions and shiny dark hair, so it's a bit rare to spot a pale complected blonde girl.  I do get looked at, and occasionally stared at.  It's not a huge problem, and I must admit that sometimes I feel like a bit of a celebrity...that said, there are certain times with I go celebrity incognito (hat and sunglasses) to blend in with the crowd...it's amazing what a difference it makes.

Do we stand out?

Monday, October 4, 2010

Nefiste!

Gozleme: Imagine a Turkish quesadilla made with feta-like cheese....om nom nom.
'Nefiste' was one of the first Turkish phrases I learned, right after learning how to say 'My name is Kirbie, nice to meet you.'  It means 'It was delicious!' and you'd be surprised how many times a day I say this one simple phrase.

The reason I'm raving on about the food, in foreign language, is that the food here is insanely delicious.  I'm not sure I've been to a country where the food has been so delicious (except maybe Italy, because frankly, you can't beat a good slice of crispy crust, oozy cheese pizza).

Traditional Turkish breakfast is a simple plate of olives, cheese, tomatoes and cucumber.  While I don't eat this throughout the week, I'll sometimes linger over a plate of this while reading on my balcony on the weekends.  I make Turkish çay (tea) to go with it.


Tavuk Siş: Chicken on a skewer :)

Lunch and supper can be a combination of bulger and seasoning, spiced chicken or vegetables and yogurt.  Pide (Turkish flatbread) and lahmacun (Turkish pizza) also popular here, but tend to be laden with a mixture of ground beef and lamb, so they're not usually an option for me.  Turkey is not a very vegetarian-friendly country, but non-meat eaters can get by on sides and starters.  I found a very beautiful restaurant called Cafe des Cafes on Tunalı that serves delicious veggie burgers.

The bread here is also 'nefis'.  I'm particulary partial to the round rings of bread covered in sesame seeds called 'simit'.  You can buy simit in the streets, it's sold out of a noticable little red cart, and you can usually get 3 for 1 TL.  I've heard that in the early mornings in the city, men sell simit by piling them on top of a sort of hat-like carrying device on the heads and call out 'simit!'  I desperately want to be up early in the morning in the city so I can get my hands on this hat-bread.  Ramadan bread is also delicious, and I ate as much of this as I possibly could during Ramadan.  I can't describe this bread, but it's white bread with a unique flavouring...almost sweet.

So then there's Turkish ice cream...intensely flavoured (like lemon, chocolate and vanilla) and stretchy (they pull it out of a container on a stick, and stretch is like BREAD DOUGH!  I don't know how this is possible, but this ice cream actually STRETCHES when you try to eat it.  You try to lick it and it just gets pushed around with your tongue.  You try to pull a bit off with your lips and it stretches.  It doesn't melt easily in the heat, so it's perfect for those 30 degree days when you'd prefer not to wear your ice cream on your shirt.  But seriously?  Stretchy ice cream?  Willy Wonka would be proud.

What really gets me though are the desserts.  First and foremost are what I'm going to call honey cakes.  They may have been one of the reasons I moved here.  I first ate these at the Bilkent cafeteria on East Campus and my heart has belonged to them ever since.  The cakes/cookie like pastry is heavy and is made of what I think is almond paste.  The cake is baked into an almond shape and then....soaked in a honey-like syrup.  When you eat it it's heavy and sticky and I practically drool trying to get it into my mouth.  I think these honey cakes are actually called 'lokma', but I'm not sure.  I get so excited when I see them I don't even bother trying to find out the name, I just plunk this sucker on my tray as fast as I can.  Next up is baklava.  Ohhhh dear me, baklava.  This is a delicious little sweet that involves philo pastry and a honey-like syrup (do you see a pattern here?).  These little desserts are so unbelievable sweet you can almost feel your teeth aching as you're cramming it down your throat.

On Sunday, we discovered this great little dessert shop conviently across from the grocery store where I sometimes ship.  Eilidh was brave enough to ask (in our limited Turkish) for 200 grams (it's sold by weight) of this delicious Baklava and I managed to choke out the word 'bende' (which means 'the same').  We walked away happily with our pretty little dessert boxes filled with sweet tasting baklava, for a steal of only 5 TL!

I can honestly say that I'm probably not going to lose any weight here, but I think I'll take the advice one of my students told me when I said I shouldn't be eating so much:  'No problem.  Eat simit.' 

Don't mind if I do.

PS.  I have some gorgeous pictures of all this food I've been eating but I'm unable to upload them right now.  Will try again later.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Ayla the cat

Homeless animals are a huge problem in Turkey.  Similar to other countries, irresponsible people who no longer want their pets simply dispose of them on the street.  As a result, it's difficult to walk down a street here without seeing a stray cat or dog begging for food or lying around in the heat.  If you are eating out on the terrace of a restaurant, it's common for a stray cat to brush against your legs and cry for food.  The waiters shoo them away by throwing water at them.

Seeing how animals are treated here makes me realise how great of a job our local SPCA's are doing, and it also makes me want to help the situation here.  I'm lucky to live in a two bedroom appartment in a building that allows animals.  I also happen to work in a Teacher's Unit with a few animal lovers and animal right's activists.  One girl in particular is well known in our school for finding strays, bringing them to a local veteranarian who keeps the animals in empty cages until she can find homes for them.  But there are not nearly enough empty cages to house all of the street animals.  So, foster homes are desperately needed until homes can be found.  I decided to volunteer as a foster 'mom' for a cat.  On Saturday, I got a little, all-white, green-eyed kitten.  She is about 4 months old, and VERY active.  Because she spent a couple months of her short life in a cage in a vet's office, she is starved for attention.  She runs to me the minute I put the key in the door, and for about the first 15 minutes I am home, I can't get her off of me.  She likes to cuddle into my neck, and at the moment she is standing on my shoulder, purring in my ear, occasionally licking or chewing on my ear.  I have chosen the Turkish name Ayla for her, which means moonlight.

We are currently looking for a home for my little Ayla.  I love having her at my appartment, but the best thing for Ayla would be a nice home, maybe with some nice children to play with (because she is so active), where she can live permanently.  Until then, she'll be cuddled up beside me :)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Ben ingilizce hoca!

Yesterday was my first day of school.  I ambled into the office at about quarter to nine and made myself a coffee.  We had the morning to plan and students were to arrive for afternoon classes.  Because I am new to the university, I was assumed to be a 'support' teacher, meaning I am not responsible for a 'homeroom', but just to teach the subjects.  'Main' teachers are responsible for teaching the students for the majority of their lessons and serve as their 'homeroom' teacher.  Support teachers were not responsible for teaching on the first day of school, so I was ready for another day of hanging out at my desk, getting my lessons ready.  As a wandered into class, coffee in hand, I discover that I have been promoted to main teacher, I have my own class, and um, by the way, I'm teaching THIS AFTERNOON.  Um....wow.  Ok.  Super.  I am used to running my own classroom, and micro-managing the lives for 19 ten-year-olds, so having extra responsibility is not a big deal.  I guess I just wasn't really ready.  Ashamedly, I wasn't even dressed nicely for the first day of school.  That's right, I'm actually wearing 'slacker pants' (jeans) and a nice top, which is actually considered fine in the university's dress code, but STILL, I would have put a little more effort forth had I have known I was meeting my students for the first day.

This was these guys FIRST day of university and it's in their second language...a language that's necessary to continue their studies at this super-prestigeous university.  Can you imagine how excited/nervous/scared and possibly terrified they might be?  One of my co-workers told me that when my students met me, it was the first time they'd have ever met a foreigner (Turkish people generaly don't get around much) aside from seeing them on tv (I was wondering if they watch Friends re-runs, too).  So, in steps a blonde haired, green eyed, pale skinned foriegn girl from Canada who only speaks English.  I can only imagine their fear.  Did I mention that my students are what we call 'elementary' in the ESL world?  They are beginners who have had a little exposure.  They seem to know basic chunks of language, such as 'Where are you from?', 'I am from Ankara'.

My 'getting to know you' activities kind of fail, but we made it though.  I discover that one of my students went to high school in France, so he speaks fluent French.  Score!  I can now have a conversation with one of my students.  When there is MAJOR confusion, we can communicate in French and he can translate to Turkish for my students.  I try not to abuse this brilliant coincidence, however, because they are here to study English.  However, for mass confusion on the first couple days, Turkish explanations are acceptable.

I have 19 lovely, smart, mature students.  They do not talk out of turn, they do not spit on each other, they do not throw pencils or chairs, they do not run away down the fire escape and I somehow doubt that my restraint training (that I had to know for my Emotional Behavioral Disordered children in England) will come in handy here.  Nope, I doubt very much I'll need to pin one of these guys to the floor.  My students speak to me with respect, they wait patiently, they listen to each other and they don't whine.

What was I doing in England? 

Why haven't I come here sooner?

Monday, September 13, 2010

rockin' the cradle of civilization

You're looking out onto rock formations from the beginning of time!  And please, check out the color of the sky :)  I still get excited everyday when I go for weeks without seeing so much as a cloud.  Let those foolios live in England, I like the sun!
Turkish people celebrate the end of Ramadan with Seker Bayram (Festival of Sugar), which means an extra long weekend where Turks go on holiday or spend time with their family and eat lots of chocolate.  We had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off work, so new foreign teachers went to Cappadocia on holiday.

We left on Thursday morning and arrived in Cappadocia in early afternoon.  After lunch at a pretty park we walked through a little village (if you could call one dusty hill full of shacks a village) to a church built into a rock that remained from the 11th century.  This particular church was not even protected or being restored by the government, we could just walk right and and touch the ancient frescos.  I briefly though about chisling out the last supper fresco for my living room, since I am redecorating, but thought better of it.

Next up, we went to an underground city.  Inhabitants of Cappadocia from the Bronze age built these underground cities to escape volcanoes and wild animals, and the cities were also used by Christians to escape from Roman soldiers in times of war.  Sometimes people lived underground for 9 months at a time, but don't worry they made their own wine so I imagine they passed the time pretty easily.

Cave houses.  Yup, someone actually carved this out using a spoon.
After supper at our hotel we went into a little town where we had drinks on the roof of a cave bar, and Laurel and I bought some pretty pashminas from a little shop.

The next day we went on a very long hike through these 11 century ruins.  There were tons of caves that housed pigeons.  I'm not sure why people in the 11th century bothered to carve holes out of massive pieces of rock, likely using spoons as their only tools, so that pigeons had a place to hang out.  I must have dazed off when the guide was speaking.  I think they used pigeon poop for something.  As fertilizer, perhaps?

Women painting the pottery with unbelievable precision
We went for lunch then to this really cool pottery place where pottery is made in house and then hand painted by local women.  They make replicas of designs that date back to the Hittites (who I should know more about, but honestly, I must have dazed off during Medieval Europe history class as well).  I bought a couple of Hittite bowls and a couple of pretty little blue Turkish design bowls as well.

Think long and hard, Laurel.  This could be you.
After visiting a local winery called Tursan (Laurel and I bought a bottle of chardonnay - It was cheaper than room service.  We're saving money!) we headed back to our hotel for a chill out and to get ready for Turkish Night.  Turkish night is a party for tourists where local dancers and musicians perform traditional dances from all over Turkey (each city has their own dance).  They also performed the dances from the traditional henna party (something like a bachelorette?) where the Turkish bride is covered in a red sequined veil and her bridesmaids paint her with henna and her husband to be shows off for her by doing tricks.  At first, I thought this was pretty fun (I enjoy belly dancing) and begged Laurel (who may be marrying a Turk in the future) to let me be her bridesmaid.  After a while though, I began to change my mind 'Ummm....Laurel, I don't know about this, it's all a little bit...ummm....'  Well, see the photo for yourself...the girl can't see from under the veil for goodness sakes!  And her hands are covered in mittens!   One bonus to Turkish Night was that it was all-you-can-drink, so I had no problem busting out a few belly dancing moves after a few sips of Rakı (pronouned Rack-uh) a supposed 80% alcohol content liquour that possesses the revolting taste of black licorice.

At the air balloon airport.  Getting ready for take off.
By far, my favourite part of the trip was the hot air balloon ride we took at sunrise over the ancient ruins of Cappadocia.  I was literally hugging Eilidh and we were jumping up and down 'We're going in a balloon!  We're going in a balloon!'


Cappadocia at sunrise.  Breathtaking.

It was somewhere over the magnificient ancient ruins bathed in the glow of the Turkish sunrise that I realized that I am a pretty lucky girl.  I have had the opportunities to do so many incredible things in my (admittedly short) life.  I must admit that having the ability to live out both my passions, teaching and travelling is pretty amazing.  I had a fantastic time in Cappadocia, and it was a really worthwhile trip to a really important place in civilization.  I must admit, however, that what accompanies travelling is the travelling bug...once you come back to your normal life, it's hard not to want to do it all again.  Lucky for me, I have plenty of holidays, so there are plans in the works to go to Cyprus for November term break.  That said, there are also plans to hit the gym before I hit the beach ;)
Ballon ride over Cappadocia.  The colors here are stunning and the photos don't actually do justice.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Turkish Lessons

So, I was lucky enough to have three sessions of Survival Turkish lessons, provided by Bilkent University's School of English Language (BUSEL).  I learned how to introduce myself, order food in a restaurant, call a taksi, and use a dormuş (communal taksi).  I must admit that I can only actually remember how to introduce myself (Benim adım Kirbie, memnum oldum - My name is Kirbie, how are you?) and how to say something is delicious.  (Lokum nefis!  Simit nefis!  Peynir nefis!  Zeytin nefis! - Turkish delights, simit bread, cheese and olives are delicious!)  I can count to 30 (otuz) in Turkish as well, which I practiced countless times during the 7 (yedi) hours I spent invigilating exams.

Depsite all this in depth knowledge of the language, I still find it difficult to communicate with Turkish people.  While all students and faculty at Bilkent speak English, most people in Ankara (and the rest of Turkey for that matter) do not speak English.  I can usually manage just fine by myself (I can competently order a half kilo of olives from the deli at my local supermarket) I find I lack a great deal of basic phrases that would help me make myself better understood.  So, I'll be glad when Turkish lessons begin next week, after the Bayram (religious holiday that marks the end of Ramazan).  In the mean time, I'm studying like it's my job.  I bought a Turkish-English dictionary (in addition to my phrase book) and some index cards so I can make flash cards.  I desperately want to understand the people around me, and be understood.  I just changed the language of my facebook from English to Turkish in attempt to surround myself with the language.  One of the professors at Bilkent told me that language learners can learn 9 new words a day.  I'm looking up phrases and copying them over for practice. I'll let you know how it goes.

If anyone out there is looking to learn Turkish, I can reccomend these great online dictionaries:

http://www.tureng.com/
http://www.zargan.com/

Görüşüruz! - Goodbye!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

i've never been so clean!

Today was the ultimate girls day for Colleen, Stephanie, Eilidh and I.  We hopped the super-posh Bilkent bus into Sihhiye, where we found this adorable little restaurant that had a gorgeous waterfall as a backdrop, which conviently provided mist for us during our brunch.  We all ordered a delicious traditional Turkish breakfast plate, which consisted of two types of cheese (one being Bayir Penir, which is incredible), olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, salami, little sausages, bread, jam and honey.  Yum-O, as Rachel Ray would say.  I'm getting the impression that Turkish food is very fresh and simple, and I like that.


We caught a cab to the Tarihi Sengul Hamam, in the conservative (and slightly poorer) area of Ulus.  The hamam was a very interesting experience for us Western chicks.  While I consider myself to be a pretty liberal woman, there's just something about walking around topless in a room full of women that unnerves me.  So, we change into our bikinis and go into the bathing area, a gorgeous, square, marble room in the middle of which is a huge heated slab where women are lying and being scrubbed down by other women.  Around the perimeter of the room are a bunch of marble sinks and taps.  The idea is, you bring your own soap and shampoo, sit by this sink give yourself a little soaping (friends soap each other) and rinse yourself with a little bowl from the water in the sink.  Now, we have no idea whats going on, really.  A kind Turkish women who spoke a little English ordered our services for us at the front desk and told the host lady what we were getting.  So we left it up to the Turkish hamam ladies to lead us around.  I was first led to a massage table where I was instructed in Turkish to lay down and this women pulls off my bikini top.  Ok.  She takes this cloth mitt and start vigorously rubbing at my body.  This is meant to get all of the dead (and not quite so dead) skin off your body.  Well, let me tell you it worked.  I have never seen such gross dead skin all over my body, and I actually exfoliate at home!  I felt like a grubby little kid - I have never felt so clean in all my life, and my mother can attest to the fact that I spent many hours in the bathtub as a teenager.  Nothing compared to this.  After my scrub, I was lead to the hot marble slab in the middle of the room where a woman scrubbed me down with soap.  This treatment was lovely, and even better was what followed.  I had the most dedicant Turkish coffee massage, where coffee grinds were massaged into my body.  It smelled heavenly, and even left my skin with a nice tan tint.  Once us Westerners got over our initial shock of taking off our tops, we relaxed and had a great time.  I will definately be returning to this hamam, and I'm hoping to go at least once a month.


After the hamam, we walked through Ulus and bought real Turkish delights (honestly, they are nothing like what he have in Canada).  These Turkish delights (actually called lokum) are soft, gummy, sugary and coated in powdered sugar.  The guy who we bought them from was so nice, and the man from the shop across the street gave us pretty keychains that had the Turkish symbol on them.  It was really sweet.  The girls also bought spices and wheat grains from a merchant.

We found our way to the Ulus metro station and hopped a train to Kizilay, where we found a cute restaurant for supper.  I'm actually starting to orient myself in Kizilay, and I'm enjoying shopping and eating there.  We even found a bus that goes to Bilkent!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

i am not a Russian prostitute.

Today we were 'forced' into a scavenger hunt of the great city of Ankara.  In order to get us newbies familliar with the city, we were sent into the city with maps and a list of things to find.  Luckily, Eilidh and Colleen and I had the same opinion regarding scavenger hunts 'Scavenger hunts are for foolios' and so we decided to head into the city but enjoy our day and if we saw a few things on the list on the way, so be it.

We took the Bilkent bus to ASTI, the major bus station for the city, and hopped on a metro train to Kizilay, a shopping and cafe area of the city.  The first thing on OUR scavenger hunt list?  Delicious food.  We suddenly forgot our instructions to not eat outside of a cafe out of respect for those fasting for Ramadan (bad foreign girls) and parked ourselves at a table outside of a cute restaurant.  Firstly, I must explain that foreign women here are treated REALLY well...and if you're me, with fair skin, short blonde hair and light eyes, you're treated like a celebrity.  All day long, men were nudging one another, looking me up and down, smiling at me and staring.  There were about eight men working at this rather empty restuarant, and we were the only ones eating there.  We navigate our Turkish menu and decide on Tavuk Sis, which is becoming my no-fail favourite, mostly because I can actually pronounce it and I know that what I'll be served is always chicken on a stick and rice.  Perfect.  Our adorable waiter brings over a delicious-looking salad and explains that it's from the chef, who is waving shyly at us.  Tesekurler! (Thank you!).  Meals here always end with complimentary cay, which is Turkish tea, and it's absolutely delicious.  I've learned how sucessfully to make it myself...it's a bit of a process for a very small amount of tea, I must say.

So, off we go, into Kizilay, but not to find the things on my scavenger hunt, but to shop, of course!  We find this fab little shop that sells brand name clothing from last season very cheaply.  I found names from Topshop, Bershka, Abercrombie and Fitch and Zara...there were cute tops for 5 lira!  (That's about 2.5 pounds, and maybe 3.5 canadian dollars).   Most of the clothing is cut so small it wouldn't fit over my left thigh, but still, a pretty cool find, and great for Colleen and Eilidh, who are built like gymnasts and ballerinas, respectively.

So we're wandering down the street, and taking pictures of random things when these three Turkish guys come up to us and ask us to take their picture.  Um, ok.  So we did.  Then they wanted us in the picture, so we took turns posing with these guys, who clearly wanted to document their proof that they spoke to us.  I must pause here and explain to my mother that these guys were completely harmless and that Ankara is a really safe place.  Really.  After taking the pictures, one of the guys comes up to me and asks me if I'm Russian.  I'll pause again to explain that there are alot of Russian women who live in Turkey and unfortunately work as prostitutes, they are known to the locals as 'Natashas'.  Because Russian women often have fair skin and hair, I am constantly mistaken for being a prostitute, because let's face it, I stand out here like a sore thumb.  So I tell the guy that I am not Russian, but from Canada.  No dice.  The guy insists that I am Russian, and proceeds to tell me that he can speak Russian.  Well, good for you buddy, but I'm not Russian.  So he begins speaking in Russian and his friends laugh and I'm like 'Ok, Mister, I don't know what you're saying, but I'm pretty sure it's dirty.  You can't afford me'.  It was a pretty random and hilarious exchange.

All in all, we actually cleaned up at the scavenger hunt, and happened to stumble upon almost all of the things on our list, without even trying.  The only thing we didn't get was 'mc hammer pants', which are super comfortable linen pants that are sold in many market-like stores here.  Maybe tomorrow.  Tomorrow we're heading out to the Turkish Baths which are in Ulus, an area of the city.
My new-found friends who conviently look like they could be in a Turkish boy band.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

oh you sexy plate of olives!

I know I that I've said this about other olives before, but today I ate the best olives I've ever had in my life.  Oh my, I do love my olives.  I'm not kidding when I say Turkish olives had a bit of an influence on my decision to move here.  There is nothing quite like a delicious, salty, meaty, rich olive.  Or, as Greg Lee would say, a 'sexy olive', as he did in Greece when he professed his love to a plate of round, rich, ripe olives drizzled in (what else) but olive oil.

Just to bring you up to speed on how I got my greasy, olive oil slicked fingers on this delicious food, I should recount my first day in Turkey.

I had a really great first day....no rushy, stressy nonsense like my first days in other places I've moved to, but a chilled out, get the essentials done, relaxed kind of day.  I met the other foreign teachers and we went for breakfast at Starbucks and then got ourselves equipped with a Turkish mobile phone.  A lovely Turkish Celta trainer from our language school went with my group, made up of a fellow Canadian girl, a Scottish girl and a bloke from Manchester, England.  After getting set up with an over-priced, well out of date Nokia phone, our group set off in search of cheese and olives in Real, the huge grocery store near campus.  We had a fantastic time navigating the aisles, searching for the essentials and checking out Turkish cuisine.  We stepped up to the deli, salivating over the amazingly wide variety of local cheeses and olives.  The deli man must have saw me wipe my drool away because he offered me a sample of cheese to try.  It was delicious.  It was creamy, rich, salty and crumbly all at the same time.  Don't ask me how thats possible, and any of you cheese experts would definately have a much better way of describing this amazing food.  The nice deli man also gave me several olves to try, but I knew exactly which ones were coming home with me.  Dark, rich and plump, these olives were incredible...and also the most expensive in the deli.  Oh well.  If you're going to do it, to it right.  With the help of one of my new-found friend's guidebooks I managed to order a half a kilo of these beauties, for the bargain price of only ten lira!

Having accomplish our mission, we grabbed a cab back to our appartments and decided to tackle the huge pile of paperwork for us to do.  We decided to do our paperwork together, and so we hung out in my flat, and drank Turkish wine (not bad) on my balcony.

Later on, we changed into slightly nicer clothes and met the rest of the school staff for dinner.  We had a fabulous night chatting with the friendly Turkish teachers.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

this blog...

The purpose of this blog is to track my journey of teaching, travelling and living in Turkey.  While my efforts at blogging in the past have been less than successful, I really do want to make an effort to do this for two reasons:  Firstly, I want a way to remember all of the amazing things I'm going to experience this year and secondly, I'm hoping this will be a convienent way to keep contact with all of my friends and family back in Canada.

I encourage people to ask questions and make comments on this blog, which will hopefully make it more interactive than just a diary.  It also might encourage me to update more frequently.

The flight to Turkey (and this is a long one) is from Moncton to Montreal to Munich to Ankara, all of which I've done before, just not strung together in so many hours.  I leave from Moncton at 4pm and will arrive in Ankara at 3pm (their time, which is 6 hours ahead of NB).  I'm just about finished packing my two bags and backpacks filled with clothes, shoes and a year's supply of tampons and getting ready to say goodbye to friends and family for nearly a whole year.

It's not long now...