Oooooooooh! Have lovely new chatty chatty chatty Pre-Int class who all have opinions! Woooooooooo!. Looks like it's going to be fun. I pretty much said Ok, start talking, and after about half an hour I was like... hmmmm... you should possibly stop now. Apart from a couple of older motherly-types who look a bit disapproving at young-girl-in-crocheted-top-with-holes-in-and-tights-that-somehow-got-laddered-on-the-way-to-school-not-to-mention-the-short-skirt teaching them, they've decided I've had a very action packed life so they're not going to hold it against me. They all seem to have had action packed lives as well. Joy!

The Ex-Eles (but we'll still be friends, right?!) came and threw themselves on me at successive breaktimes so I've had my hug fix for the day... apparently I'm appearing in the dreams of one of them! My dreams are far less exciting, I dreamt last night that Bagdat Cad. got carpet bombed by B-52s with no sense of direction and they destroyed Marks and Spencers and I was highly annoyed because I wanted to go and see a film there, plus I thought it would scare the students away from my lessons!

Then we had an economics meeting with Bora. I will never understand what inflation is (and I am perfectly happy to remain vague on the whole issue...) and the whole speculative business is beyond me, but the upshot seems to be that due to all the kerfuffle at the start of this month, and then again at the end of this month, nothing is going to change which is A Good Thing. That much at least I understood!

* posted by nat 2:04 PM

Sunday, March 30, 2003

Woo! It's still sunny.... might be time to clean the fake snow off the windows! Come to think of it our windows need a good clean anyway... we're a disgrace to the neighbourhood, so we are!

The Late-Ints tell me they'll bang on the wall next week if there are any problems! Meanwhile my kids tell me that boys just don't do the washing-up "Light man, teacher! Light man!" (which seems to be how one translates 'wimp') - so therefore they can't possibly mime doing it either. "In England boys do the washing-up," I told them. "Liar!" they said. So we had a staring competition and I won. So now they at least mime doing it!

* posted by nat 3:08 PM

Saturday, March 29, 2003

Wooo! The sun is out and I'm down to wearing two layers. Hurrah! I've bought myself a horrifically impossible jigsaw puzzle which I'm trying to do inbetween watching the ice-skating and sorting out class handovers and still trying to get out in the sun! So life has been pretty busy.

I met Fife's students today, who are going to be my new weekend class - late Ele. "You're quick Natalie!" they said, at which I went "Eh?" So they explained "You talk very fast!" I told them they'd just have to get used to it... Fife has also told them I pull strange faces ...I think she's scared the poor things! Meanwhile my Late-Ints are in full-blown snivel mode. "We'll miiiiiiiiiiisss you!" "But I'll only be in the next classroom," I said. So they calmed down a bit.

* posted by nat 11:53 AM

Monday, March 24, 2003

Yasmin is back from England, with white chocolate oranges, salt and vinegar crisps and - best of all - lots of nice pink pills for me! Hurrah! So I am feeling altogether less achey, but on the other hand I am also getting more and more sinasy and I have gone a nice shade of green again so it looks like I am due for yet another little round of being ill.

Joy. I think twice in three months is a bit much, really. Sulk. I printed out DV12 so I can read it at home to cheer myself up except somehow I couldn't set the printer up right so I got 50 pages of it on new paper instead of the old scrap paper. So I'm not too popular right now. Whoops. But timetables should be changing next week and it looks like I am going to lose the Nestlé gang so no travelling. Woo! And the highest level I'll be teaching is mid Pre-Int?! Oh. My. God. I shall lose the ability to speak English... no fun.

Oh, and it's STILL bloody snowing. Snow is so very dull. Apparently it's all warm in England. That's just wrong!

* posted by nat 12:59 PM

Saturday, March 22, 2003

A car backfired this morning and half of the students jumped. "Was it a bomb? Was it a bomb?" The UK and US consulates have closed - bad luck if your passport was in there for processing, bad luck if you happen to need a Visa. Then again the UK consulate certainly hates any and all things Turkish, so obviously any excuse to leave...

And Turkish troops are still in North Iraq, but we're steadfastly Not Mentioning that at school, if it does come up, the idea is to start a new, loud conversation over the top and hope it all gets dropped...

* posted by nat 12:53 PM

Friday, March 21, 2003

Lycos is busy doing tech service so this is all going up later, but this (being the VSD of Donald Rumsfeld) is just worryingly accurate! (by Cygnusfap - there are a few other ones on the main LJ...)

* posted by nat 6:22 PM

So I sat in front of the TV last night and watched the bombs fall in Baghdad from start to finish, while I was eating my dinner.

I don't know why I bother; there's obviously very little real news coming through live - you have a nice shot of the flak in the sky instead of the targets on the ground - as why would any sensible Iraqi let you film said targets? - and this morning, we've been treated to five soldiers in a sand pit and a couple of vehicles sitting in the desert, with no real idea of exactly what's going on, and how much of it is going on, until suddenly you get a report that such-and-such-a-division is somewhere right up in the North. And then you never hear it again...

Turkish TV is far more exciting. There are politicians, people, military men, even some anchormen on there absolutely foaming at the mouth - that is not an exaggeration - shouting, screaming, all the rest of it; I have heard ad infinitum that the US should be keeping its nose out of Turkish/Kurdish affairs if the US knows what's good for them - if they choose to start all this war, then who are they to try to play it all their way? So now they're thinking about withdrawing their permission for the US to use their airspace, on the grounds that 'if you are going to tell us what we can't do, we are going to tell you what you can't do, too.'

And then there is gloom and doom, predictions that there will be 5 million to the dollar before all this is over, and earnest discussions on the best day and time to go down to convert your savings into dollars such as I have not heard since I got here...

So Fife, Heather and I went away today to play tourist, we thought we would go and see something bright, cheerful, over the top and happy, so we braved the cold and took the ferry to Besiktas and went to Dolmabahçe Palace, where after a brief fight with the man on the door, we lost and paid full price (teachers are meant to get in cheaper, but it never happens for us...)

Dolmabahçe is a late palace, doesn't seem to know what style it's built in - best described as 'European eclectic' or 'European hopeless mish-mash'. It is full of overly large chandeliers (and I mean OVERLY large, they hang three quarters of the way to the floor sometimes, completely dwarfing the pointlessly small table that has been stuck underneath it), Italian three-dimensional style ceiling paintings, way too many hamams, a couple of dead bears, overdressed ivory tusks, gold tea-sets, opal tea-sets, gold tea-sets with precious stones inlaid, enough sets of furniture that you could sit on a different set every day for several months, inlaid furniture that is more inlay than furniture, some wonderfully over-ornate staircases, and some of the most gorgeous parquet floors I have ever seen.

We are all naturally of the inclination to wander slowly round such places, so we were generally two rooms behind the tour guide who seemed to be trying to break the land speed record for group tours and heard next to nothing of the commentary, however there was a security guard whose job it was to bring up the rear and we occassionally used him to get the odd bit of information. And we saw the place that Atatürk died, and were vaguely frowned upon for being mostly concerned with the length of the bed - in the end I almost laid down next to it in the bedroom to try and work out how long it was, because it really didn't look long enough for anyone to comfortably sleep in - no wonder the man stayed up all night most nights!

So we motored around the Palace for two hours and emerged to find it snowing. And here I was thinking it was the first day of Spring, but no...

* posted by nat 5:52 PM

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Apart from the fact that the British Council has shut down due to "security risks" (What security risks? It takes half an hour just to get in the door!) which I don't understand at all life goes on as normal here, apart from a lot of very sad people on the street and a panicking government in Ankara desperately trying to get something through Parliament that allows them to get some money from the US... So am not living in a war zone, and will not be either. Go and look at a map if you don't believe me!

Fife and I have been enjoying CNN these past few days - it's often good for amusement, especially the weather report that followed the prevailing winds across the Med and then into the middle east, where they lit up the area covered by Iraq bright orange and then, just in case you weren't sure, they wrote IRAQ over it in large letters, and then did a very comprehensive long range weather forecast for the country.

We were also slightly flabbergasted by the report this morning, which involved one reasonably young woman standing on the deck of one of the ships that launched the cruise missiles, bouncing up and down and saying far too cheerfully, "Yeah, fired eight missiles, one of them didn't quite make it and came down in the sea not very far away from here but never mind!" We came to the conclusion she's having far too much fun aboard that ship with all the sailors...

And we went to see The Hours last night. It was like watching a novel - a realy novel, a good novel, I mean. Gorgeously done.

* posted by nat 11:43 AM

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Next week I'll have been here seven months.

Seven months? Already? Time flies, we're getting round to another set of timetable changes: Yasmin and I have requested the same weekends on the ground that married couples simply ought to have the same weekends. We want to do some weekends away!

So hopefully the change and the shake ups and the impending onset of summer will go a long way to dispelling the evils of the 7-9 month bracket, which is easily the worst time to have to get through, as it's about this point that you start to settle down, the protracted holiday feeling is over and all the things that annoy you about the country you're in fall into focus. This is otherwise known as culture shock, and it's much, much worse than those little twinges you get for the first couple of weeks after you arrive somewhere. But I somehow doubt it's going to bother me a huge amount.

I am now up to having scarily freakish political conversations with the little man in the bakkal across the road. I went in today for some bread and eggs and when he gave me my change he asked me, with the hugest grin on his face "Savası ne olacak?"

I blinked at him a few times and then ventured: "Maalesef?" He looked slightly disappointed; maybe he is running some illicit book on when the war's going to start.

* posted by nat 5:04 PM

Monday, March 17, 2003

We spent about half an hour messing round with Cusenaire rods - it was supposed to be useful for 'I like' 'I really like' 'I love' etc. but it actually turned into "Who can build the tallest tower on the carpet, woohoo!" (Who says my classroom is like playgroup?) so then I thought we ought to buckle down, so we did countable and uncountable nouns in twenty minutes flat.

This is why I like teaching kids. You don't have to explain anything to them. It doesn't mater that some things are countable and some things aren't, it doesn't have to have a reason why. You just tell them that's the way the world works and they say "Okay then... how does this translate into a game?" So you give them a picture each and do a chain drill. And then you might play noughts and crosses!

My appraisal is coming up. Ugh. I know it won't be bad, but I still just don't like appraisals...

* posted by nat 2:01 PM

Sunday, March 16, 2003

Have discovered that all Turkish children hate okra. All the more for me, then! I have also earned new respect by correcting their Turkish spelling! (They wrote irenç - it's igrenç - the g is silent. It means 'disgusting' I feel so accomplished!)

We're learning food. I feel a song coming on, but I might have to adapt it a bit, as "Goose-moose-burger" etc. isn't exactly useful language.

* posted by nat 1:56 PM

Thursday, March 13, 2003

For Néa:

Brandy is dandy
but two glasses of brandy
are better. So there.

Haiku never was my strong point...

Off home now, as company class is cancelled. Apparently the Sales Group is having a party. Fine by me!

* posted by nat 2:47 PM

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Oh noooo! Zoran Djindjic was actually doing some good in Serbia! Which is probably why he was assassinated... but that's the Mafia for you.

In other news, I have discovered that the cha-cha and the salsa is fine to dance but I really do not like the tango. Learning the steps was fine, it was just the bit where it's like - ok, pair off, and I backpedalled across the room as fast as ever I could going "Nonono get away from me! Invasion of personal space!" Luckily everyone is used to me and my wierdness by now. But. Generally /EW!/ Did not like it one bit. Made small scene in the middle of the room and eventually was allowed to get my own way and sit out. Mali practiced it with me later. I can cope with dancing with Mali as he manages to do it without actually /touching/ me. Do not like this whole having to be held by dance partner thing.

And the balcony! The balcony and the sun! Sat outside today in the sun and read! Woo!

* posted by nat 6:22 PM

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

I meant to get up early this morning. It all went rather well for a while, apart from the fact that Fife got to the washing machine about thirty seconds before I did, and I read up to the death of Justinian, had a quick stab at ten words of Turkish, made a cup of tea and had ascertained in thirty seconds that there was, yet again, no new news (apart from the fact that Rauf Denktas is an idiot, but that's not new...) when the phone rang twice and nobody was there and then my mobile rang and it was Mark. Went back to bed for two hours, which was about the duration of the phone call...

Fife and I then went over to Besiktas (I still can't work out how to get the little tails on the 's's, but never mind) and found the Biritish Council. It's a bit difficult to get in if you're not a member as they take your ID from you and give you a little visitors card, but you then have to go upstairs to become a member, at which point they want ID with proof of address. So after standing in a line for half an hour because every person joining has had the same thing happen, so the man has to phone down to reception and check all the details (which are wrong in our Ikamet anyway, it's got the wrong address in) we finally got our cards and ploughed off through the melee of people to find books.

I don't think I have ever been in such a noisy library. But then again it's Turkey, so I should know better by now! So I have a bunch of new reading material - woo! - and a load of pink grapefruit and Amasya apples I bought from the lovely covered fruit-and-veg market at the bottom of the hill by the ferry terminal. Yum.

Off dancing in a minute...

* posted by nat 2:00 PM

Monday, March 10, 2003

I don't know if the kids were being excessively loud or if it was just the whole awfulness of trying to teach a full weekend on chocolate withdrawal, but I had the evilest headache when I got home yesterday, and it still hasn't gone away. For some reason, the kids wanted to know if I'd ever been to Antartica and apparently 'no' was the wrong answer... I think I might have got to the stage where I've taught them too much English; eleven kids all standing up waving their hands yelling "Ask me, teacher, I know the answer!" for about three hours straight does strange things to my brain... but although it was loud, we did get a lot done. Hurrah!

And what other way is there to teach prepositions of place except with a chair and a frog?!

Lo, the sun is out, I feel a shopping trip down Bagdat coming on! (down Bagdat Street, obviously, because going to Bagdat would not be a clever move right now.) Perhaps I should wait; I'm wondering if when they swear Erdogan in as Prime Minister there might not be a little movement on the markets again. Hmmm. *looks at construction of that last sentence* Hmmmmm!

* posted by nat 11:22 AM

Sunday, March 09, 2003

The strangest thing happened in the supermarket yesterday. I went in to buy juice, got to the checkout, put my stuff down and moved to the other end of the till and waited for it to come through. At which point another man walks up with two packets of cigarettes and plonks them down in front of my juice. On the grounds I only had two items and wasn't really up for him pushing in as he was brandishing a card I muttered rude things, said, "Affedersiniz" and pulled my stuff back in front. At which point the cashier put the cigarettes and the juice through together and the man paid for everything on his card. Both he and the cashier ignored me the entire time! Then the man walked out and the cashier turned to the next person. So I did the sensible thing. I realised I was evidently invisible. And so I legged it.

I'm still feeling very weird about the whole thing. (Yasmin thinks it was a pity I didn't buy anything more expensive...)

Right, off to do I like/I don't like with the kids. After we bemoan the fact that Galatasaray beat Fenerbahçe last night. Ugh.

* posted by nat 11:40 AM

Friday, March 07, 2003

Er, okay. So there I am, talking to Heather, leaning on the filing cabinet, and then what the hell, might as well sit on the filing cabinet, and oh, heavens the chocolate withdrawal, and then there's way too much chatting and an awful lot of laughing and then there's a horrible crunch and oh yes, yours truly really should not sit on filing cabinets.

Rolled around on the floor and laughed for a bit, then went and confessed to Ben (once hysterics were over with), which instantly meant that four or five of us had to get down and look under the cabinet to make varying 'hahahaha' noises.

And now poor Çetin has to mend it. Whoops.

* posted by nat 3:55 PM

Errr, ok. So Okan and Luba and I got in the back of the car, and Çetin was in the front and then Mehmet squeezed in the front as well, so it was rather squashed. Luba got out at Minibus Yolu but the three men just stayed in the front... Okan and I sat in the back and laughed.

Nestle was fun, Mustafa has now started rounding up the troops so they arrive on time (!), and at breaktime we spent a vast amount of time doing a bit of a jigsaw puzzle which happens to be of Nestle Headquarters in Vevey. Not particularly prepossessing, but we did it anyway!

Today Tülay, Hatice and I have just been up to a very famous Karadeniz pide salon in Ümraniye and we stuffed ourselves silly. Yum. (I have actually given up dairy for Lent, but I decided that not socialising would not help make me a better person and if I have to eat cheese to do it, well... *ahem*) so now I'm here being pleasantly stuffed and trying to calm down Yasmin, who is teaching small children very very soon...

* posted by nat 12:48 PM

Thursday, March 06, 2003

Oh, Hüseyin is here. Heigh ho and off to Nestle then. Where's Okan gone?!

(New jumper and new boots universally adored. Go me!)

* posted by nat 2:18 PM

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Pancakes were ditched in favour of cinema! Wahey! Fife and I went to see The Pianist, and very lovely it was too. It was a lot better than I'd been expecting it was going to be, given how much I loved the book. Although I was a bit sad the way they missed out the bit where Szpilman asks Hosenfeld if he's German and he gets this angry little anti-German spiel. Maybe it just didn't work in filming. We felt all uplifted afterwards, and it's probably the first time ever a Turkish cinema has actually played the credits all the way through!

Today we sat around and watched the lira come down again, then ran out and changed money... it's right back to where it was a week ago. A whole lot of kerfuffle about nothing, yet again!

I have finally got my boots! Woohoo! I'm very very tall now, and I think I might be getting a few blisters as I settle into them... they're a size 35, and they're a lovely snug fit, but as ever my heels are rubbing around in them. Never fear, I have plasters at the ready! They'll be very useful for walking through huge puddles, which there are a lot of at the moment, as it's been raining all day...

* posted by nat 5:06 PM

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Yasmin and I got out to Karga last night - woo, a bar that's more than a minute away from school! - all the way to Kadıköy, even! And had a few beers. Just as we'd decided to go home Mustafa appeared, so we got a free ride home, with a stop-off at the headscarf shop...

Today is Pancake Day, so Fife, Yasmin and I are off to see if we can remember/work out how to make pancakes. Stocks of lemon juice, brown sugar, jam, spinach, cheese and mushrooms are being laid in - we're going for it!

* posted by nat 11:26 AM

Monday, March 03, 2003

One of the fun things about living in Turkey is that some days, you can sit down and watch the dollar going up by 5% against the lira in the time that it takes you to eat your breakfast. Like this morning, for instance! 1.58 million at 8:30; 1.68 million by 8:45.

Why does it always do this right at the start of the month when I have money to change? Grrrr. Then it sparks off mutterings at school and joy, joy joy. Not.

Apparently if war breaks out the British Council is sending all its teachers home!!! Just because the US might be using air bases in Istanbul (which has nothing to do with letting troops in, which they probably will do eventually, who knows what's going on... noone knows what's going on! We do know we're just all bored of it.) Or then again, it could be something to do with the economic mess that will probably result.

* posted by nat 12:31 PM

Saturday, March 01, 2003

I have just cleared out my locker! I realised it needed it when I couldn't find the stuff I needed anywhere! That and the door to it hasn't shut for weeks... and now we are off to fici to celebrate the fact that the door closes again! Just trying to persuade Luba to come with us... yay! Right.... alcohol, woo!

* posted by nat 3:32 PM