Full day number one!
I awoke this morning to the call to prayer. I remembered this from when I was here last time but this time it gave me the chills. The singing over the loudspeakers made me think that I had joined some cult. It freaked me out a little bit. I think one of the good things about where I am staying is that they arent practicing muslims so the prayer call doesn’t affect our household. The reality of being in a strange place finally came alive when I was laying there.
I didn’t understand the email I got from my head teacher today so I just went to check in. Serhat gave me directions on how to get there and got me on my way. It wasn’t hard to find my school as it in the main strip of taksim. I met with my head teacher for a few minutes and then her assistant gave me a tour of the school and introduced me to some people.
I met a fellow teacher who went to school in Madison that kind of put me at ease right away. Then I met a bit longer with my head teacher. I asked her about some adapting tips and general inquiries about phones and what to eat and not eat etc. She walked to me a place with free wifi so I could get caught up. However, it was just like in Firenze where you had to have a Turkish number. Luckily the baristas were nice to give me their phone number and log on for me. Not having wifi is annoying. I would love to skype with lots of people or even face book chat but my schedule isn’t very permitting. Maybe I’ll have to make friends with someone with wifi.
After doing some shopping, buying things I needed, I went to observe some classes. I met a bunch more teachers and there was one girl who really made me feel at home. I really needed that as most of the teachers barely looked at me when they walked in. The first class I observed was interesting… they watched family guy. That was it. The students did get to question me at first, here is how it went “whats your name, where are you from, do you have a boyfriend”
Second class I go to.. “whats your name, where are you from, are you married?” This teacher was really great and it seemed like I was back in my TEFL class, which makes me believe I’ll be a good teacher. Or at least survive. The students were all very entertaining.
Earlier in the day I was in a bookstore looking at some maps when I tourist was tryign to figure out if the maps were free. I was trying to figure out the same thing so I went to go ask. I started talking to her and she introduced me to who I think was her husband. He was Turkish and they lived in California. They were really excited about my plans in turkey and he suggested some activities for me to do. They were talking about surviving and basically said. All you need to do is get a Turkish boyfriend. Then the lady was like oh just get multiple, one for the asian side and one for here. She was really fun and they were both very inspiring.
Overall, there seems to be a theme in my day…hahah not going to happen.. Well I say that now.
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