Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.

There's only one thing better than watching a perfect sunrise in a competely cloudless sky, and that is watching it from up in the air in a hot-air balloon.

It is the most amazing thing ever! We went up and down and inbetween the rocks in the valleys and across the treetops and then up and down and up and down and goodness it was incredible!

Still bouncing! Whee!

* posted by nat 8:30 AM

Sunday, November 23, 2003

If anyone needs me, I am under a rock until next Sunday.

Hurrah!

* posted by nat 1:57 PM

Saturday, November 22, 2003

Oh, I do love the Salad Bazaar Salı Pazarı. I bought: boots (brown, warm and fuzzy on the inside, and delicious), a jersey, a long denim skirt, an (orange) hat, an (orange) pair of gloves, an (orange) backpack, and three films, and that weighed in in total at 75 million. What a shopper! I couldn't even be bothered to bargain.

Also ordered pizza, played tavla and watched Shrek at Yasmin's. Yasmin is multilatudinally pissed off seeing as her friend who was going to come over for Bayram now isn't. We are all annoyed for her, as well. There has been a half hearted attempt at Marks and Spencers across the road to cordon off the parking outside the building with a few traffic cones and a bit of red and white traffic ribbon, which is obviously going to deter hardened terrorists. Although we did theorise that it would be more likely a British person who would want to blow up M&S anyway ("even your underwear is going downhill!")

Also, I have been exhorted so many times now to be careful and take care of myself I feel I shall never be able to cross the road again. Half the BBC appears to be in Istanbul, obviously they are all here to buy turkish delight and otherwise go on holiday, and for five minutes a day film themselves on a busy main road, thus showing dolmuses to the world (they're the yellow minibuses). I'm going on a long road trip on Monday, however, so vast amounts of dying possibilities there.

Today is Teacher's Day and very nice it was too. The Eles brought me flowers but I've given them to Yasmin, as I won't be around to enjoy them. Also, Yasmin has a vase - and I don't.

* posted by nat 3:34 PM

Friday, November 21, 2003

I am still more likely to be run over by a marauding taxi.

Also I had my lesson plan feedbak and it was fab. I feel such an accomplished teacher!

Right, off to do some serious shopping. The weather is just lovely for it.

* posted by nat 10:30 AM

Thursday, November 20, 2003

It was a strange sense of deja-vu this morning, to run out of class at first break and glue ourselves to the television. We heard a big bang right after that, and there's lots of helicopters, ambulances and police going up and down Bagdat Cad., but although there's reports of bombs in Göztepe and Bostancı - a couple of kilometres in either direction down Bagat Cad., nothing's been confirmed yet, only the huge bombs in Taksim (yet again a place where I spend a lot of time, I walk down the road to the British Consulate every time I go to Taksim) and in Levent, both over the other side.

All the students sat in horror and shock and kept wailing "Who is doing this?"

Oh, and my lesson was observed, but frankly I can put down the messes I got into to shock. Not that I wish to, of course, but still - less normal than normal.

eta: Also, I missed my lesson on Monday night because I was sick, I spent most of the weekend in bed - got up briefly on Tuesday to conquer the world and instead got conquered, pretty viciously, and got up on Wednesday night because Danny and Muje came round to dinner and Loni and Jeremy had done vast amounts of cooking. It was a very lovely evening and I really should not have eaten the past the soup. But the nut roast was good. So were the peach dumplings, which were almost like ovocove knedliky. Far, far too good.

And Turkey lost the football. No Euro 2004 for us. Very much gloom and doom.

* posted by nat 11:20 AM

Monday, November 17, 2003

I did phone grandpa to let him know what to worry, but as he hadn't seen the news I think we both confused each other.

The kids made imaginary animals on Sunday. I can't pronounce most of them. And most of them eat people. They are gracing the wall.

And I must plan. Oh dear. Oh yes. Not spend two hours just trying to read my email. I promised myself I'd be off here at 3:30. But that was before I loaded up N_A.

* posted by nat 2:19 PM

Saturday, November 15, 2003

So at just past ten o'clock EVERYONE'S mobile phone goes off and we all wibble for a bit, but it's not until we get upstairs at breaktime and all the classes are just standing there, watching the news, that we really realise what's happened.

Bombs in Istanbul really do have a shock effect on the Turks. Even rumours of one go down badly, and they were all very quiet for the rest of the morning.

I know where the Neve Shalom is; I've walked past it countless times when I go to Taksim. So I'm a bit quiet too.

Tom came to observe my kids class to pick up hints. They were all total stars. Tom sat there most fo the time with his mouth open. ("How do you keep them all in their seats?!" "Err - I say sit down.") When, when he'd gone, we all pretended to be monkeys. And ducks. And crocodiles.

* posted by nat 3:07 PM

Friday, November 14, 2003

Well, that was a spectacular Friday of inachievement, even compared to my usual Fridays.

But I have made a whole set of transport flashcards, and took myself off to a walk to Göztepe and back when I wanted to scream. So that's all right then.

Week and a half to go. Bring it on.

* posted by nat 4:27 PM

Thursday, November 13, 2003

Gosh! It's a meme! Because I felt like it.

OCTOBER:
Loves to chat. Loves those who loves them. Loves to take things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn't pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care what others think. Emotional. Decisive. Strong clairvoyance. Loves to travel, the arts and literature. Touchy and easily jealous. Concerned. Loves outdoors. Just and fair. Spendthrift. Easily influenced. Easily loses confidence. Loves children.

* posted by nat 2:52 PM

I really have to learn about turning my phone off, because last night it was El who called at 3am (!) to tell me that she was sorry she'd been out on the piss and she couldn't quite get into her hotel room and she was sorry and why the hell was my phone on anyway and she thought I was two hours behind, not two hours ahead, and she was sorry and anyway how was I?

"Awake."

Bless her. Good to hear her anyway, even if I had my insides doing somersaults for about ten seconds. Not the way to wake up.

-

The kids. Sunday. I clean forgot about this until I was telling everyone in the pub on Tuesday, after repeat pirates and lots of gözleme and then irmik helvası yum yum yum.

On Sunday, after I had convinced them that cats had whiskers not whisky, we had five minutes left so I was teaching them to play acrostics, and we did it with 'elephant' and Efe submitted that P should be for 'peace'.

So I asked him what 'peace' meant, and he said 'Barıs' which is quite correct. So the kid in my class whose name is Barıs looked up at that point, but he didn't quite get it, so I said, "Barıs in English is peace." Half the class by this point had moved onto thinking of something that begins with H, the other half went 'aha', and Yigit* looked at me, stuck his hand right up in the air, rested it on the back wall, thought about it for two seconds and then said in Turkish, "But Efe said it."

"Huh?" said half of the class.

"Efe** said peace, Barıs didn't say it."

Six nine year olds turned on him to say, very loudly, that Barıs means peace not that Barıs said peace, and DUH.

At that point Hazar's*** head hit the light switch again and the lights went off, so I got to laugh.

*courageous young man
**local hero
***Caspian
(I also teach, amongs, a child named 'ear of wheat', one called 'waters of the Nile' and one 'solitary moon'. I've come to the conclusion that I shall have to stop translating Turkish names as they all sound far too New Age.)

-

I stayed very firmly in on Wednesday and made tabbouleh burgers with black bulgar (not that it's black, it's brown, but hey) which were so excessively good. Jeremy and I conquered part of the world before we had to stop for dinner (on Tuesday night we played Monopoly, which we discovered lurking in a drawer in our house, wonderful!) and then later I started playing Zoo tycoon which is wierd, but fun, because Giraffe 3 is just not happy - and I have nearly finished my jigsaw puzzle.

We also watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail and made sure to sing along to all the songs.

* posted by nat 2:32 PM

Monday, November 10, 2003

I. Am. Going. To. Kill. The. Idiot. - And I think I will be helped, too, by lots of us.

I will probably also kill Oguz for phoning me at midnight, but then again that serves me right for not turning my phone off. The first two minutes of conversation we had consisted of him going 'Are you all right?' And me going "No, yes. No. No. NO. Um, yes.' 'Ok,' he said. 'Are you all right?' and off it went again. Then he said 'I think you kill me' and I said, 'Got it in one' and he said 'How about Wednesday,' and I said 'Hmm, maybe.' Probably will not go, just for that.

Tomorrow's mission is to buy plastic sheets for pretend double glazing because I have got a cold again, and it's never going to stop raining. Danny knows a place; what a hero! Also there's the Salı Pazarı to visit; and I think a re-viewing of the Pirates is very necessary, and if we can get a 4th person there will be Okey. There will. Must - click - tiles.

I did a vocab story-substitution lesson this morning, and remembered how much I loved teaching them. It was fun!

In other good news, the Monday night before Bayram is a half day; school finishes at 4pm, so we're free to get in the car and go at 1, so hopefully we can get down to Kapadokya before midnight. Woo!

Okay, here comes iftar. Pide geliyooooooooooooooor!

* posted by nat 2:52 PM

Sunday, November 09, 2003

So Luba and I are there at lunchtime, rambling away in my very rusty and thus bad Czech-Slovak (me, that is, Luba's Slovak is perfectly good), when all of a sudden up comes Danny and starts talking. In Czech. And then it turns out he went to SSEES (well, SOAS, but he did some courses at SSEES), and was there when I was there, but as he did not frequent the Hammer and Sickle, we do not remember each other. And then it turns out he used to live in Prague. And. Crikey.

This world is too small!

* posted by nat 2:57 PM

Friday, November 07, 2003

I know I'm going on about this a bit, but hot bread burns your fingers and I don't care! *stuffs face with hot bread and burns mouth, too*

* posted by nat 3:26 PM

Thursday, November 06, 2003

Have just had most annoying Turkish lesson ever. The kind of lesson where there is much wailing, gnashing of teeth, and banging of head on desk wailing "Sorun var, sorun var, hiç bir sey anlamadım!" Hate the evil nesne (what Turkish does instead of having articles). Come to that, hate articles too.

Actually hate a lot of things right now. Because I can. (Thus positivising my negative thoughts. I really am too good at this.)

A thought: this probably means I am not consuming enough chocolate.

AHA! AN EXCUSE! *exits, stage right*

*renenters, thinks*

Drat, have to wait for the azan. I might go and queue for hot bread, instead.

Spekaing of hot bread, I love my oven. Hot sesame bread for breakfast with olives and a bit of feta. Oh yes.

* posted by nat 2:17 PM

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

I did say I was bored of the daisies.

* posted by nat 4:46 PM

Tuesday was fantasic! I watched all six hours of The Far Pavilions (yum! yum!) in almost one fell swoop - had a quick run to the shop for blackcurrant sorbet inbetween DVDs - and then in the evening the Gang of Four went off to a beautiful (and slightly expensive but not too much so) Italian restaurant up past Acıbadem, and I had salmon linguine and it was thoroughly delicious, and we giggled at each other a lot. So it was good.

Today I went to Carrefour and bought an oven. Rah. Well, a mini oven, but it's good enough. So I really should go home and start cooking stuff in it. Also, the Muppet Show is on, so that's another good reason to go, too.

Jeremy's SimGangsta Demo (for example: choices for day: Muggin'. Who do you want to mug? a) little old ladies b) students c) business types d) other muggers. Choices for day: Drug Abuse Etc. etc. Day goes through, at end you tot up the amount of cash you have gained and it says things like: How do you sleep at night?)has unfortunately run out of demo time. So the constant cash regiset sounds that reverberated through the house have died away, and it's back to more normal pursits!

* posted by nat 4:33 PM

Sunday, November 02, 2003

ARGH! One of my ten year olds is fasting and his parents didn't actually bother to tell me. So the poor thing has just had to sit through a whole Hallowe'en party composed of rather a lot of food (apple bobbing, yay!), and he couldn't have any of it.

I am so livid I don't even know where to start with this. *storms off to Have Words With Reception*

*then storms off home to carry on being ill*

* posted by nat 3:06 PM

Saturday, November 01, 2003

I am getting bored of marigold-y type flowers.

Hmm. Need to upload! Where's Fatih? Maybe tomorrow...

The kids were so excited that I was back! I was excited too! So saaaad...

Oooh, iftar! Ramazan pidesi sıcak sıcak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also: I HAVE SEEN THE PIRATES! (Finally!) In Marks and Spencers. Glug. Glug. Glug. I did almost kill myself laughing. You shouldn't laugh when you have a chestful of snot. Really you shouldn't.

* posted by nat 3:15 PM