Finally!

Hello!

Finally I am getting around to writing in my blog. My schedule is different than most - I usually go to work at 1:30pm until 9:30pm, and get home like 10:10ish, then I usually go out to dinner or eat something at Sinan's. So my mornings I sleep in later than I should, and I often lesson plan/lift weights then make lunch for Sinan and I, then get ready to go! Ok so here's what it's like where I work:

I work at Wall Street Institute in Sisli. There are about 8 other centers in Turkey or so, and it's a worldwide company (about 400 centers in 28 countries), and its main office is actually in Baltimore which is funny (where I went to school). Students learn English using Wall Street Institute's "Aquisition Cycle", which replicates the way a child learns his/her native language. First students go to the center to the Speaking Center, where they use computers to first do listening (babies listening to their parents), then repeating (babies mimicing what parents say) and comparing their pronunciation, then reading and reading and repeating, then speaking. There they are also exposed to new grammar and vocab and phrases etc. Once they finish the computer (about 60-90 minutes, and they need to do one lesson per visit, no less, no more), they have workbook exercises to practice writing, and then after doing this 3 times (there are 3 lessons per unit), they meet for an Encounter. So they usually have an Encounter about every 10 days, ideally. Students have an Encounter for every unit they complete. There are 68 units altogether, but I don't think there are too many students who go past 48 or so. There is a continuing story throughout all 68 units, and usually there is a theme each unit, like many the characters are in the airport, or restoring something, or running late (time), or something about cars.

Here is where I come in. Encounters are where students have the opportunity to practice what they learned on the computer. It's usually about 2 people per encounter, sometimes 1, but never more than 5. So I lead the Encounter, a 55 minute class. I don't teach anything, but I elicit the information from the students and then we practice it. For example, point to your watch and shrug to get them to ask the question, "What time is it?" and then act like you are waking up so they ask, what time do you wake up? Or for the present perfect tense in the passive form (something like that), ask, "What do you think this building was before it was before it was Wall Street?" They might answer, "a restaurant". Then you ask, "So what changes have occurred" and you hope and pray they say things like "The walls have been painted" or "Glass has been put up" otherwise you need to think of ways to get them to use that form, but you can't just tell them! Once they get the form, they will put it to use - like doing an activity where they look at a picture of an old, run-down house, and a picture of the same house that has been restored and they'll make sentences about the changes (the door has been replaced). So there are usually like 6 or 7 activities like this - me creating the context/getting the target language, then they practice it. Because they have already been exposed to the language in the Speaking Center, they SHOULD be able to do it, but there are often students who didn't study it well or enough or who just don't get it.

Here's the bad part of my job. I have to decide who can go onto the next unit, and who has to repeat it. It's hard because you don't want to "fail" people because they have to do allllll 3 lessons again and they get really sad and take it personally, but you don't want to move people ahead who aren't ready. I've heard some people in the upper levels and I'm astounded by how poor their language is.

The best part about my job, and I think any teachers reading this will agree, is that the lessons are completely planned out and all of the materials are ready to go. Maybe I have to make a few copies of one thing. But when I go home, my job it over, no stressing over how to teach a tense or what activities to design or homework to assign. It's hard right now because I need to learn the lessons, but after about 1 month I can just pick up one of the lessons and go to the classroom and do it. Right now I'm shaky and doing things exactly by the book (which some of the things are so silly) but in a few weeks I'll learn how to adapt it and improve and modify it.

Ok wow I've been talking so much. I could keep going but this is certainly enough for now! It's a good place to work, although a bit scary now because I need to learn all these lessons and sometimes I get hard questions and I'm on the spot, but really, it's a perfect way to teach English. Ok ok I'll blabber more in a few days. Thanks for reading!

Work

Today will be my 4th day of work! I don't have much time but I just wanted to let you know I'm surviving and so far it has been good. I have mostly just been observing other teachers, and today I will co-teach one of the complementary classes. I think I will really like the place, and the other teachers seem to be happy there, and we all agree it is a great place to start teaching English. Ok I will definitely write more later but I just wanted to let you know it's been fine, so far nothing embarrassing has happened. I didn't wear pantyhose yesterday and no one commented, we'll see if I can pull that off again. Phew being a grownup is tough.

Update

Hi everyone,

Today is my last day before I start work tomorrow! Tomorrow at 2:30 I will start my training at Wall Street Institute, the place I was planning on working. I am SO happy that I will be working on the European side, not too far away. I will start out part-time because that is the only position they have open, and once a full time opens up I will move to that. So everything is working out well! I think starting part time will be good for me, so I can get used to the "working world". I'm quite nervous about starting a "real" and "professional" job but it has to start sometime and I think this is a good place for me to begin. I think my schedule will be different than I am used to - because it is a language school I will probably do more teaching at night so students can work during the day and then take classes at night. I think it will be okay because I like leisurely mornings. I just wonder when I will see Sinan because I am sure I will work weekends and then in the mornings he is sleeping. Hmm we'll see!

Unfortunately I have a good old fashioned cold now. It's the worst I've had in a while, but I have been pretty lucky the last few years of my life. But, it means I get to spend my last day in bed guilt free reading and watching TV shows. Hopefully I won't go to work tomorrow looking like Rudolf.

I guess I haven't really given you a general update on Life in Turkey. So far, so good. I'm frustrated by my lack of language skills, although I see improvement. I have so much trouble speaking it, I can't even have a conversation yet in my lessons, or even say simple sentences while out and about because I get so flustered. My living situation is still great, but I think I will move in June to a less expensive and a place more more air circulation and less cave-like. I really like it here though - a great kitchen and bathroom and roommates. I still don't really have any friends but I am continuing to meet people through various things I do, and I think once work starts that will help. I'm not lonely, but it would be nice to have a different circle from Sinan. And things with Sinan are doing just fine - I know my lack of writing about him is making some think he is out of the picture, but I assure you he is there and so far me moving here hasn't been an issue. We've found a good balance of together-time and alone time. I'm hoping he wakes up soon so he can bring me soup and company...

This is off topic, but one thing I love about the Turkish language and culture is they have little expressions for so many things. Two of my favorite that I have gotten used to are "Afiyet olsun" which is said around a meal time - I've heard Sinan say it to a security guard eating lunch, roommates say it to each other when eating dinner, I've heard it on TV, and also a response when complimenting someone on their cooking when you are eating it. It's like our "Bon Appettite" but much much more common. The other is when entering a house or shop the person in there will say "Hos geldiniz", which is like welcome. I've gotten so used to it it feels weird to enter a place and not hear it. There are things to say for taking a shower, things to say after sneezing, for when you buy a new product, for leaving places, for when you interrupt or leave someone who is doing work ("go easy"), oh man many more but I can't think of them. Anyway, I just think it is neat that they have specific things to say for so many activities.

Emirgan Park

A nauseating video of my home

Success!

I successfully got my visa, and it was more of an adventure and more fun than I was expecting too!

This time, Sinan and I decided rather than going all the way to Sofia, that I should instead just go as close to the border as possible, and get back as quickly as possible. We got a ticket for Haskova, and using the same bus company and route that I used on Friday, so it would be familiar and easy for me. Also I wouldn't have to sleep on the bus - just leave here at 7:30am, get to Haskova at 2ish, take a 4 o'clock bus back and probably get back here at 11pmish.

Again, 2 service buses to get to the real bus, and on the way there a girl in front of me heard me talking to a guy next to me, who spoke English and helped me find the service. She needed to renew her visa as well, but instead of going all the way to a city in Bulgaria, she was going to hop off the bus once getting past the gates/check point in Turkey and Bulgaria (exit gate for Turkey, entrance for Bulgaria), cross to the other side of the road, flag a bus down and go back through the gates and then Istanbul. I heard of people doing this but definately didn't have to the nerve to do it on my own, and hadn't actually talked to anyone who had done it. She said she had a female friend who had done it many times. So, I decided to team up with her and jump that border! Alina, as I later learned her name, was a German who had been in Turkey for 3.5 years getting her Masters at Bogazici, the university that I live near and went to last year. Thus she spoke Turkish which was also a plus.

Once on the main bus she talked to the hostess, who said it was possible to do this. I was a little nervous about finding a bus, whether we would actually be able to buy tickets on the bus, and where the bus would take us in Istanbul. And standing on the road in Bulgaria seemed a little uncomfortable too. My blue eyes and curly hair and Alinas blond blond blond hair and blue eyes screamed : FOREIGNER! But while stopped at the Turkish checkpoint, we found a Spanish guy on the bus who was going to do the same thing! He was living in Bursa, about 4 hours away from Istanbul, and was doing translating (didn't fully catch the story) so his Turkish was quite good as well. Suddenly the hostess gathered the 3 of us up and rushed us through the Bulgarian checkpoint because there was a bus of the same company about to go through the Bulgarian border going back to Istanbul! So we ran over, stood in line, and then no man's land again. Before entering Turkey a guy comes on the bus to check our visa situation, and I and Mario, the Spanish guy, asked about the visa. Hooray. We had to get off, go somewhere else to buy it, then meet the others and wait for almost 45 minutes until our bus can go through customs. Finally we made it through and we were on the way home by 3:15!

The whole border crossing thing is confusing and tedious, especially doing it back to back like I did today. Your passport is constantly being collected and stamped and looked at and you are getting on and off the bus to stand in line or get your bags looked at. My passport is so funny looking because of all the stamps from Friday and Sunday, and even weirder but I entered and exited the countries the same day. Luckily no questions were asked, but I am sure the authorities have seen this before. So now I can stay in Turkey 3 more months, but hopefully I will be able to get my residence permit this month.

The bus ride home was different because it was full of so many nationalities. The previous bus rides were alllll Bulgarians and Turks, but I was sitting next to people from Canada, Spain, Singapore, Germany, Austria, the US, and the Netherlands. It was fun to talk to so many people but I became jealous of how amazing their language abilities are. Everyone's English was so flawless and almost accentless. Alina was trilingual and Mario spoke 4 languages (I am sure there is a word for that) and I am sure the others spoke other languages. Oh well! I've been too busy since Thursday to do anything Turkish, but hopefully tonight I can get back into the swing of things.

Ok, that's my adventure! I'm home safe and sound.

Bulgaria!

This is long but the punchline is oh so worth it:

I decided to go to Bulgaria to renew my tourist visa, which will expire in 2 weeks. I don't think I can get it on my own in time, and if I start work (still no word, but I emailed the place last night...) it won't be ready in time either. So I decided to make a journey to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. While it is far from Istanbul, it sounds like a neat city to spend a few hours, and Sinan has been there before so he could give me some details and hints. He needs to get a visa to go to Bulgaria which costs like $80 and also takes time and documents, so I went on my own.

I took a night bus from the main bus station in Istanbul. To get there from where I live, I needed to take 2 shuttles which worried me a little, but luckily I found a guy going there who spoke English and he was a great help. Sinan also talked to the first bus driver and he kept an eye on me as well. After a few hours on the first bus, we got to the Turkey/Bulgarian border, and it takes about 1.5 hours to get through because of the guard places at both countries. We need exit stamps, and for them to entry stamp it. It was 3:30am by the time we left. I was in the front row, near the driver and hostess, which is good because it is safer (not giving men the "back of the movie theater idea") but there is a HUGE window which means I see everything, like us swerving around or the narrow roads, and also see the bus driver driving with his knees and also getting to breathe his smoke. I managed to sleep a couple of hours when we arrived in Sofia at 8amish and I got to catch a quick glimpse of some really neat architecture. The plan was to stay a few hours, then catch a 12 bus back and get back to Istanbul at about 9pm

Once getting to the bus station (a really nice one, not dark and sketchy) I went to the Information desk to ask about getting into town. Please correct me if I am wrong for thinking this, but when arriving in a country that is part of the EU, in a capital city, in an international bus station (buses to Turkey, Greece, Austria etc), with a desk that says Information (about the only English word in the whole place), but I assumed they would speak English! I asked and I got the rudest sounding "No" I've ever heard in my life. Quote from my parents: It's not what you say, but how you say it. Fortunatly I didn't need them because there was no 12 bus, so I decided to take the 9am bus rather than the 17:00 bus so I could get back to Istanbul while it is still light. So my one hour in Sofia was spent outside for 10 minutes to get fresh air, looking at the train to the city center imagining I was going there, and then trying to spend 9.5leve because I needed .5 for the bathroom.

The bus ride back was nice because it was light out, and I got to see the scenary. While Sofia was pretty run down and full of cement apartment complexes, the country side was quite lovely and a great change from the hustle and bustle of Istanbul. We later picked up some more people and the lady next to me was a Turk who lived in Bulgaria, and we managed to make some conversation with my Turkish!


This is my only picture of Sofia because I thought when leaving we would go back through the center but we didn't, sadly.







Ok if you are still reading here is where it gets good. Going back into Turkey through the border gate house place is where I was expecting to buy my new visa, which is just a $20 sticker in my passport. The official came on the bus, collected our passports, giving mine a long look, which I figured was because I was the only American, and I just exited Bulgaria that same day, and he knew that I was just border jumping which the Turkish government isn't a huge fan of. While they had our passports, we got off the bus for customs so they could look through the bags. Then we got back on the bus, and they handed our passports back. I realized there was no sticker and that I hadn't paid anything or said anything about getting a new visa, because I thought we would go to a desk or something. I tried to get up to go ask the hostesses about it (not that they spoke English so it would have been interesting) but the lady next to me wasn't going to let me by, saying the stamps they gave me were okay for the 3 month thing, and anyway we were leaving, we were finished, etc. So we left, and I realized, I don't have my new visa. My 90 day visa was still good to enter and exit the country (I still had 2 weeks), so why would they think I need a new one? I should have told the guy collecting the passports I needed a new one. So as we left, I knew I would be back. Awesome.
So pretty much, I got to spend 18 hours on a bus, 1 hour in the Sofia bus station, to not get a new visa. But here are the bright sides: I got to practice Turkish. I got 3 little cakes on the bus, and I bought Pringles in the bus station. The scenary was pretty. I got to have a change in environment.

So right now I am looking to go back to Bulgaria, either tonight or tomorrow morning. I'm trying to decide if I want to just go to a city as close to the border as possible, not caring where it is, or make more of a day out of it, like a city on the Black Sea. Maybe I should play it safe and go on the same route that I know, because I know how bad I am at asking questions and being assertive and figuring out transportation and so forth. Hmmm adventure #2!

Check in in a couple of days to see if I am successful! We'll see!