Unemployed

Hello!

What a great week. I have finally gotten to do nothing! But I've been busy doing little things - cleaning up the house, washing my sheets, cooking, reading, watching funny TV shows (I really recommend "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"), and most importantly, applying for places! It's been quite grim, I only have one interview next week with one place, and I actually already talked to this institute when I was out here in November. I am truly hoping they have a position open close by, last I heard they were only open in different cities or on the Asian side. What is great about this institution is that you don't really make lesson plans or teach, but students work on lessons on the computer, and then you have a group of 3 that you go over what they have worked on. Sounds like a good way to get my feet wet in the ESL world, but we'll see. So yeah, places just aren't hiring now, even though I qualify for many of the language schools because of this certificate.

As far as the visa situation goes, I'm just kind of putting it on the backburner and hoping I'll get a job where they help me with it. I still have 3 weeks so as long as I have a day I can just hop on a bus to Bulgaria (that makes it sound easier than it is...).

I've been working on my potato borek. Here's a quick recipe. Cook potatoes, mash them, add them to some cooked onions. Add parsley, red pepper, salt and pepper. Roll it up in phillo dough, cover it with egg yolk and milk, and put a little black cumin on it. It's tedious and I could buy it for so cheap, but it is fun and really good. Of course, eat it with tea.

Weird it's not letting me post photos. I will finish this post and then try it with Internet Explorer.

The only other new thing is that I sort of tutored my roommate's sister, Burcu Kara, who is a soap opera actress and kind of a star in Turkey. She wants to improve her English and me not knowing Turkish will force her to speak it. We met at a Starbucks and just kind of chatted for a couple of hours, we must have been a funny couple - I just got my hair cut so I have curls bouncing all over my un-made face and she is this glamorous straightened hair, well made-up star, and our conversation is clearly not natural. She is very sweet and while watching TV at breakfast yesterday with the roommates (again, hopefully pictures to come) we saw her picture come up as one of the "well-dressed" stars.

I was about to go exploring today because yesterday was such a nice, sunny day but then it started to rain! There are a lot of places I want to go check out, and I think today I might start with Cukurcuma, an neighborhood known for its funky antique shops. I was going to go on a farther away expedition but with the weather I don't want to be wet and lost because that is not a good combination.

Ok hopefully I have some pictures and stories to share!