Strawberry Season!!

Strawberry season has just started here in Ankara...they are very cheap and quite sweet and tasty!  I love them!  But, I hate shopping for them...or for any fruit for that matter...

Today, on my way to work, I saw a lovely pile of strawberries at a local fruit market.  I thought I would stop and grab a couple handfuls to snack on while I commuted.  I grabbed a little baggy and started picking the ones that looked the best.  Then I got yelled at by the fruit seller...as in most places, there is a man who bags and weighs your fruit for you so you cannot chose it yourself.  You are at the mercy of the fruit vendor...and with the strawberries, they generally use a big metal scoop (like what you'd see in the bulk foods sections of grocery stores for grains and solid foods) and shovel the fruit into a bag for you.  So you end up with some very squished strawberries...When I saw this method, I changed my mind and kept walking - rather disappointedly...

Most fruit and vegetable sellers here are the same whether at the weekly pazar or at the fruit markets.  They display their wares in big, bright piles - putting the most succulent and healthy examples at the front, and then they chose for you from the back of the pile.  While you still get good fruit, you often end up with some duds in your bag.  The big chain grocery stores are like ours at home - you can chose and bag your own fruit but the quality of the fruit isn't as good as the local fruit market...another catch 22...

In other news - most fruit and vegetables here are ridiculously cheap!  And because of the temperate climate in the southern part of the country, you can get fresh local fruit all year round!  Bananas, mangos, and kiwis are pretty expensive though.  Bananas are twice the price as Canada!  So we only buy these fruits on special occasions (like pay day!).

Also, the way fruit and vegetables are eaten here is a little different.  At home, I like fruit with my breakfast - maybe banana or strawberry with my cereal or something - but here fruit is only for evenings after dinner.  At a hotel breakfast buffet, you can find tomatos and cucumbers (a Turkish breakfast staple) but no fruit!  Another example for you - one day, my boyfriend came home with a bunch of fresh radishes!  They looked so delicious!  He asked if I would prepare them for our lunch so I did - in the normal Canadian manner I cut off the green parts, washed the bright red bulbs and put them in a bowl for us to enjoy!  I brought out the bowl and my boyfriend's face just fell.  I asked what the problem was and he asked me what I did to his lovely radishes.  I looked at the bowl and wondered what on earth he was talking about - the radishes were right in front of him.  He asked what I did with the green parts.  I explained that I cut them off and threw them out like I normally do.  And he laughed and said something about cultural differences...turns out here, the green part is more desirable than the red part - they cut it up like lettuce and season it with olive oil, salt, and oregano and eat it like that.  Who knew?!  I apologized profusely and ate the red bits myself...

Also, this morning, at the grocery store, I had my first look at Turkish celery.  I had no idea what it was!  In Turkey, they generally eat the bulb of the celery root and cut of the green stalks that we typically eat as celery back home.  It was so strange to see a known vegetable that I couldn't recognize...

Fortunes

On October 10 I had my forture told. 

It started out like any other Monday.  I don't generally work on Mondays so that day I had made plans to meet one of my new students for lunch with her mother and friend.  We met at the English school and taxied over to her place.  So far, just an ordinary day in my life...I arrived, and after some initial awkwardness (her mother was extremely nervous to have an English speaking teacher in her home!) every one was chatting and eating and having a good old time.  In the middle of our lunch (which was home made manti and börek - yummy!!) my student received a phone call and after some speedy Turkish talking informed me that her neighbor would be coming over for Turkish coffee. 

Traditionally, after you drink Turkish coffee, you flip over your tiny coffee cup (think espresso cups here) and someone looks at the remaining grounds and tells your fortune.  Usually you pay someone for the privilege of having this fortune told.  Not one to disrespect tradition, I didn't refuse when my student's neighbor looked at me and asked if she could tell me my fortune free of charge.

I drained my coffee and flipped my cup over and waited.  Normally, I don't go for these kinds of fortune telling folk - generally, they tell you generic stuff and you read into what you want.  This is what I was prepared for.  What I wasn't prepared for was this stranger who I had just met 20 minutes previously to be so eerily accurate with details about my life.  I had goosebumps as I listened to her - well, to my student because the neighbor didn't speak English and my understanding wasn't enough to make sense of everything myself.

She fortold 7 things about my life and so far 4 of them have come true.

1.  She said my sister was pregnant (she didn't know I had a sister) and that the baby would be a girl (my sister wanted a surprise so chose not to find out the sex of their baby).  She said that my sister must give this little girl our mother's name. -- This turned out to be true.  Despite everyone saying it would be a boy, my sister had a little baby girl on December 19th and she does carry our mother's name.

2.  She said my brother would be having some legal troubles soon.  He will want to get away from home and will be thinking about coming to visit me.  I must let him come whenever he wants and support him as much as I can.

3.  I would have trouble with my present room mate.

4.  In February, I would want to go home because my father would be getting very ill.  It wouldn't be life threatening but I would want to go to be with him.  -- Again, true - my dad was struck with shingles in February and it effected his eyesight.  I did want to go home at that time...

The things she fortold that haven't happened yet:

1.  In three years time I will buy a house in the Çankaya region of Ankara.  I will be married.  I will go home but I will come back here to live because my life is here now.

2.  I will have a very high paying position at a university in Ankara.  A man whose name has an M in it will help me to get this position.  Still waiting to meet Mr. M...

3.  I have an inheritence in my mother's home town.  My relatives are waiting for an appropriate time to give it back to me.  I shouldn't do anything to rush this though.

She also told me that I have a very strong force watching over me.  She asked if I carried my mother's picture with me - I said no.  She said it was very important that I get a photo and put it in my wallet right away because she thinks the force that is watching over me is my mother and having her photo with me will give us a stronger connection.  -- I do keep her photo with me now...I don't know if I feel any strong connection but it does make me feel better knowing that she's so close.

A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Mall...

Do you ever think that strange and random things only happen to you?  Sometimes I feel like this.  The most awkward and bizarre things seem to happen to me all over the world...Since I moved to Turkey, here are a couple of true events:

One of the first days I was here, I decided to go to the mall...no problem.  I found out which buses went there and patiently waited in line (yes, there are bus lines here).  I made it to the mall without incident, did my shopping, and patiently waited in line to come home.  I was one of the last ones to get on the bus that day.  First, let me explain how the buses work here in Ankara.  There are two kinds - EGO buses which work with a ticket type card that you put into a computerized reader, and Halk buses which accept cash only.  The bus I got on that day was an EGO bus, so I dutifully took out my card and stuck it in the reader.  It wouldn't go in properly the first time, so I tried again.  Success! Now, usually, after deducting your bus fare from the card, the reader pops your card right back out again.  Well...this didn't happen.  My card was stuck.  After a few frantic seconds, it popped out.  Then, the entire system shut down.  Yup.  I broke the bus.  Well, not me particularly I think, but my EGO card.  When the reader popped my card out, I couldn't pull it out - it was partially stuck.  So I tugged at it.  Then the bus driver tugged at it.  Then we cursed at it in Turkish and then English.  Finally it came free.  When it came free, the electronic reader turned itself off.  The bus driver explained that he had never seen anything like this in his 10 years of bus driving experience.  Goody for me.  So, he did what any self-respecting bus driver would do - he turned on the 4-way flashers, and turned the bus off then on again.  Theoretically this was a good idea - but with buses, it doesn't work so well.  The bus wouldn't turn back on!!  Meanwhile, I was still stuck standing at the front of bus with the eyes of all the other frustrated passengers on me wondering what the hell I did to the bus!  After some more cursing, and some panicked turning off and on of the bus, it finally started up again.  My card popped out as it originally should have, and I moved to the first available seat with my head down as the bus lurched back on its way...

Another fun moment happened in December while on a little holiday in Harran.  My travel buddy H wanted to have the experience of sleeping in an authentic "bee hive" style dwelling.  Sure, I said - sounds like fun!  I should have known this part of our get away would be cursed when we tried to get a dolmuş (dole-moosh) from Urfa to Harran (a dolmuş is a minibus that is half the cost of a normal coach but also half as reliable and 100% less comfortable).  We got to the bus station where the dolmuş leave from and found where we had to wait.  There was one minibus parked there so we asked what time it would be leaving.  The driver explained he wasn't going to Harran but that the next bus would be leaving in 30 minutes.  Ok, no problem.  We went inside and found some hideously overpriced tea and pastries and waited.  After the requisite amount of time passed, we went back to the same place and saw the same bus and driver - turns out he decided to go to Harran after all.  He said he would be leaving for Harran in 20 minutes.  So - we waited some more.  When we were finally on the road, we started off in the wrong direction.  So I asked, in my halting Turkish, just exactly where we were going.  The driver's brother needed a ride home from work, so first we would do that, then we would go to Harran.  Awesome.  After a bumpy, bone-jarring hour on the road, we finally arrived in Harran and were greeted by our hosts.  He took us in his antique Renault (you could see outside through the bottom of the closed door...) to our "bee-hive" accomodation.  It was dark when we arrived so maybe I couldn't fully appreciate the uniqueness of the bee-hives because when I saw them I just wanted to cry.  Or maybe it was the lack of doors that made me want to cry.  Or maybe it was the sorry state of what passed as the "guest" bathroom.  Or maybe it was the fact that it was December 17th, we were in the middle of a desert where the temperatures get close to freezing at night, and we were being shown to some homemade (but meticulously clean I must admit) mattresses and blankets on the dirt floor of the doorless bee hive house.  Although I didn't speak to H for about an hour, or until the initial shock wore off, we both laughed it off and said it'd make a great story for our friends back home...Indeed.

Hospitals

I apologize for not updating this blog for the last couple days, but I've been ill...stomach flu!  Super.  There are some good points and some bad points about being ill in Turkey so I thought I would share them with you today from my sickbed.  Let's start with the good!

Now, let me preface this by saying that I am generally not ill enough to go to the hospital.  In fact, I hate hospitals!  I hate the smell and the white sterility of them.  I hate the feeling of sickness you get when you walk into them...So you could say I already have a preconceived dislike of hospitals.  On Thursday when I woke up ill, I adamately resisted going.  Finally, after several hours of argument, at 11pm, my boyfriend insisted and off we went to the Akay Özel Hastane Emergency department.

I was having visions of Canadian clinics and emerg centres, visions of 6 hour waits and overworked doctors who give cursory exams and scribbled off prescriptions...I was quite pleasantly surprised however - there was absolutely no wait!  We walked in, were greeted by the receptionist and told to go straight away to a little cubicle.  A nurse came right away and did all the normal tests, took my medical history and then called the doctor. When the doctor came he reconfirmed my history and my symptoms and then did more tests.  I had some xrays done and then received my prescription.  All of this was efficiently and pleasantly done.  I was pretty shocked at just how quickly we were in and out!  Also, I want to point out that the hospital was modern and bright (not white and sterile) and had a lemony fresh smell.  There wasn't the smell of sickness in the air when we walked in.  A refreshing surprise indeed!  Maybe I should also point out that there are hospitals on most every street corner - think of them as the Tim Horten's of health care!

On Friday night, when I went for the second time, it was about 7pm and I was expecting a busy after-work rush in Emergency. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a repeat of the first night - there was no wait again!  It was great!  I was quite feverish (40C) when we arrived so they started an IV and gave me some fever reducers right away.  I had one doctor and one nurse checking on my every 10 minutes.  My wonderfully attentive doctor was from Iran and was rather funny - he put me at ease with his bedside manner, joking with me every time he came by to check on me.  

These two hospital experiences have kind of swayed my opinion of hospitals...kind of!!  I almost don't dread having to go again here...

Today, I am feeling marginally better - no fever!  Yay!  And I was just lying here reflecting on the difference between our health care systems...Here in Turkey, every service you receive you must pay for.  Luckily, I am provided with health care through my work place so I didn't have to pay for these visits.  But for those who are not so lucky - health care is expensive!  If I added up all the services I had over the two nights I was in hospital, I would have had to pay about 1000tl.  That's alot of money when the average Turk makes only about 1200-1800tl per month.  Unfortunately, there is no public health care here.  If you have no private insurance, you're stuck with the bill...and that could get pricey.  Which is the bad part about health care here.

So, if you're lucky enough to have private insurance, and pretty much every English school and most other educational institutions do provide their teachers with insurance, then the health care is top notch!  If you're one of the unlucky ones who have no insurance, at least you don't have multiple hour waits in clinics and emergency rooms...catch 22?? 

Kids...

Yesterday I talked a bit about my niece...it made me think about the differences in how children are viewed in each country. 

Back home - every one "oohs" and "aahhhs" over babies and makes the standard fuss when a new baby comes along.  Passers-by may stop and smile and say "What a cutie!" with a little wave to the baby - however, new mothers are generally hesitant to hand their children to complete strangers, say at the mall or on the bus or subway, to coddle and coo over.  Some new mothers are even hesitant to give their babies to family member to hold!  As toddlers, we are taught not to speak to strangers and of course, never to go anywhere with a stranger.   We are taught a healthy respect for strangers from a very young age.

However, here in Turkey things are a bit different.  Babies are handed over to random people to cuddle and play with without even a second thought.  Mothers often actually seem relieved to have a break!  Toddlers fearlessly approach strangers and strike up conversations, telling them about their families and their lives without thinking while mothers look on, smiling their approval.  The other day, I saw a grandfatherly old man offer his lap to a little girl of about 4 or 5 on the city bus.  Without even blinking the mother handed over the child.  The child proceeded to tell the grandfatherly old man her name and where she lived and where they were going that day.  I was shocked and then immediately began to wonder what child exploitation rates were like here - would there be a difference if children were treated this differently by strangers?  I couldn't really find too much information about this because the government here really likes to keep negative stats under wraps and pretend that nothing is wrong (can we say denial??) but I did find this one article from 2008:

http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?load=detay&link=144149

You can contrast that with this study done by the Canadian government from 2010 dealing with numbers from 2008:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85f0033m/2010023/part-partie1-eng.htm

Some other observations about children here (please note that these are only my observations and I don't think they reflect the norm for children here - I just get lucky and see all the bad examples!):

-children are spoiled and unruly here which makes me overwhelmingly grateful I do not have to teach them - they have no regard for rules or authority
-parents generally seem to let their children run wild and do as they please and then shrug their shoulders in defeat when they can't control them in public
-children are raised mostly by their mothers or grandmothers with little or no input from the fathers (although my cousin here is a shining example of how some paternal attention can make a child much more well-behaved and rounded!)
-babies are often seen in their mothers laps in the front seat of the car - car seats are not mandatory
-toddlers can be seen standing on or lying across the back seat of the car - seat belts are also not mandatory and some cars don't even have them in the back!
-children are used to sell kleenex packets and flowers on the streets typically during the evening hours (8 to 11pm) to help make some extra income for the family instead of being at home doing homework and sleeping
-it is not unusual to see parents with their children at restaurants at midnight during weekdays
-in a country where education is considered essential, many children, especially girl children, are not required to stay in school until age 16 - often in the smaller Eastern towns boys leave school at age 10 to start working and girls don't even go to school so they can stay home and learn home-making skills
-there does not seem to be such a thing as a single father here (my cousin is the only one I know) - although there are many single mothers (divorced or widowed) - unmarried single mothers are ostracized and generally have no way to support themselves and their children
-abortion abounds here but in secret, kind of like a black market deal

Bittersweet Trade Off

So, the other day my sister and I were chatting on Facebook.  She congratulated me on my blog and said that she eagerly checks every morning to see if I've updated anything so she can read it to her 3 month old daughter...This made me a little bit sad. 

Why? 

Well, because I haven't actually met my niece yet.  When I left for this little adventure, my sister was about 5 or 6 months pregnant.  I found out about her birth the good old fashioned way - on Facebook!  It was December 19th..I was sitting in a kebapçı on a busy street corner in Şanlıurfa (in South Eastern Turkey) with my travelling buddy H - we were having a snack before we had to catch a bus to the airport for our flight back to Ankara.  I was idly looking at fb on my cell while waiting for H to finish his kebap...and I noticed a photo and update from my sister...I had a new niece! 

It was a bittersweet kind of moment - one that I was expecting but it caught me off guard nonetheless.  I knew it was coming.  And I knew I wouldn't be home to see the baby when it was born.  But finding out the way that I did was more unsettling than I expected.  I'm not sure if I thought that life back home would stop and wait for my return before continuing on it's merry way or what...but clearly that wasn't happening.  The most unsettling part for me was coming to the realization that life was going to continue on without me.  I would be missing births, birthdays, holidays, special moments, family dinners, ball hockey games, movie dates with C, card nights, hangover Gonga's and matinees with my bestie, concerts, and the day to day monotonies of my old life that I kind of took for granted and that I miss so much now.  However, had I not come here, I would not have found this out about myself.  I would not have met my "uzumcim", I would not have met the wonderful new people I have in my life, I would not have the satisfaction of helping people learn a new skill, I would not have had the experience of learning about my connection to this country and its people.

So, while it's difficult to only see my niece once every couple of weeks on Skype (when we can get a good enough connection!!!) and have her learn about me via these stories and my photo albums, it's also rewarding to be here at this point in my life.  It's my bittersweet trade off I guess...

Ten Things to Know About Turkey

In no particular order:

1.  Istanbul is NOT the capital city of Turkey.  Ankara has been the capital since 1924.

2.  Simits are delicious thin round bagel-type things coated with sesame seeds.  You can usually buy 3 for 1TL (about $0.80CAD).  Couple that with a freshly squeezed orange juice for 2TL from your local street vendor and you have a healthy and delicious breakfast or snack!

3.  When stuck 4 cars back in a traffic jam, repeatedly honk your horn at the people in front of you so that they know you are more frustrated than they are to be stuck there.  When stuck 5 cars back, repeatedly honk your horn and make rude hand gestures to show the 4th car back that you are even more frustrated than he is.  Etc, etc, etc.

4.  Pepsi is very difficult to find.  So if you want to move here and you love Pepsi, start conditioning yourself to the taste of Coke.  Then you won't be as disappointed as I was when I arrived.

5.  If you are addicted to Tim Hortens, don't come here.  The coffee here is thick, black and strong.  If you are addicted to Starbucks, come on down!  There is a Starbucks on every street corner!  If you like tea, you will be most welcome!

6.  Dido chocolate bars are the same as KitKat bars but instead of 4 breaks, you get 5.

7.  Turkish gum is horrible.  If you want European or American gum be prepared to pay for it or better yet, bring a large supply from home!

8.  When calling the bank, don't be surprised when you "Press 9 for English" and you get a non-English speaking person.  Also don't be surprised when that non-English speaking person puts you in the never ending phone loop of being connected to other non-English speaking people at "Press 9 for English".

9.   When you ask someone if they want something and they respond with "Thank you", this mean "No".  When you ask someone how they are and they respond "Thank you", this mean "Fine, thanks". 

10.  Milk is not bought in the cooler section of the grocery store.  It is stocked on a regular shelf and has a Best-By date of 3 months.  This was really freaky for me to see.  Kaymak is the pure cream skimmed from the top when making milk.  It is extremely delicious when paired with sour cherry jam on top of fresh white bread.

I Miss My Car...

When I made the decision to move half way around the world, I figured that the hardest part would be that I am, in fact, half way around the world from my friends and family and my cat.  And yes, it has been hard...I've been here for 8 months and this month has been most difficult for me in terms of home sickness.  But the one constant ache, the one thing I really didn't expect, was the loss of my car.

In my previous life I was fortunate enough to be provided with a company car so I didn't really have a chance to develop an emotional attachment to any of the hundreds that I drove over the years...but when I left, I bought a little sports car from a friend and colleague who was taking advantage of the same company car program and I immediately formed a bond on my first test drive...she's not fancy, she's not luxurious, (she's definitely not quiet!!!) but she's mine.  I drove her for exactly 4 months before moving away and now she's parked in my dad's driveway.  Alone.  Without me.  And I miss her.  At the beginning I missed her more than my family (sorry family!).  I keep a photo of my car on my desktop - that's how much I miss her...

When I talk to my dad, I always ask about my car.  How she's doing, if he's cleared the snow off of her, if she's parked in the sun (she has a little car cozy that is supposed to protect the paint and such but you can't be too careful), if he's been driving her, etc.  My dad says that since I've been gone, she's been acting up a little.  For example, lately, the battery won't hold a charge.  So whenever he goes out to start her up, he has to give her a little boost.  I think she misses me too...

I have driven a car exactly once since I've been here - a tiny 4 cyl Hyundai Eos or something (a model we don't have in Canada but that seemed smaller than the Accent)...but it was exhilirating!  I felt so free and powerful!  Because, you see, here I walk or take the bus everywhere.  It sucks.  And it's dangerous.  Anyone ever played Frogger??  That's what being a pedestrian in Turkey is like.  You take your life in your hands every time you step off the sidewalk!  Pedestrians walk across the busy roads dodging between moving vehicles like they are pesky flies impeding their progress across the road. It's amazing to watch.  And after a few months of doing it, I am just as blasé about the whole thing as the natives are.  Who'd have thought??  

However, as dangerous as walking is, it's safer than driving here.  There seems to be an inherent disregard for any traffic related rule across the board in this country.  Cars squeeze together 4 abreast on a 2 lane street...red light? Doesn't mean anything.  One way street?  Doesn't apply to me...No stop signs at intersections, no pedestrian rights!  Paint is scraped, mirrors are lost, bumpers pulled off, doors dented and feet are run over on a daily basis...makes me glad that my little baby is safe at home under her car cozy waiting for my return...

** Safety warning:  For those of you not familiar with Frogger and who plan to come to Turkey, please click on this link:
http://www.frogger.net/

Snow?? In the desert??

Yesterday I briefly mentioned that the weather was mild and beautiful.  This is what most people expect to hear.  Most people (myself included) think that Turkey is a very arid, dry, hot country.  And for the most part this is true.  Along the southern part of the country, it is always temerpate (think Vancouver...) and there is very little snow.  In the summer, the temperatures can get up to the very high 40s (that's in Celsius for my American friends...).  In central Anatolia, where I presently live, we actually get snow!  I think the reason I haven't been as homesick as I thought I would be is that the climate and temperatures so far have been very much like back home...In the north eastern parts of the country, the climate is just like Ontario - cold winters (-20s) and luke warm summers.

The temperature this winter was rather mild - generally about -10C.  There is typically no windchill.  We had a few days where it dipped down past -15C and everyone thought the city would freeze over....I should say that this winter was unusually cold though - the norm is around -5C to 0C.  We had lots and lots of fluffy white snow in contrast to the Ontario winter where I believe most cities were treated to a green Christmas!  In fact, one of my favorite memories so far is one night after work when my boyfriend walked over to my place to pick me up.  All we did was walk up the high street and back to his apartment, but by the time we got home we were both soaking wet from throwing snowballs!  I felt like a 5 year old again!  And I was so happy to share my love of the sticky white snow with a Turkish person!  Other pedestrians were laughing at us we dodged between parked cars and pelted each other with hard packed balls of snow!  It was quite exhilirating!

I should also mention that when it snows like this the city shuts down completely.  There is absolutely no infrastructure for dealing with snow!  No snow plows, no snow shovels, no snow brushes for cars, no salt on the roads...it was quite incredible to see!  Ankara is made of up of a lot of hilly areas - when these hills are greased up with the tiniest layer of snow, they are virtually impassable!  Taxis actively tell you "No!" when they find out you live in a hilly area during the winter months (I found this out the hard way).  There were many times I had to walk up hill in the snow because buses, taxis and cars couldn't make it up.  I kept waiting to wake up one morning and hear a repeat of Toronto's infamous snowy day 1998 when Mayor Mel called in the Canadian Armed Forces to help deal with the snow.  However, it turns out that the Turkish military have no shovels either...

My New Home Town...

So, I now live in Ankara.  Most people think that İstanbul is the capital city of Turkey (much like most people think that Toronto is the capital of Canada - but most people are wrong...Ankara is the capital of Turkey.

It is a large metropolitan centrally located within the country.  The landscape mostly consists of brown, dry, rolling hills and it has the driest climate in the region.  The population is over 4 million people making it the second largest city in Turkey after İstanbul.  For the cat lovers out there - Ankara is known for the breed of cat known as the Angora Cat.  Goat lovers know that Ankara is the home of the Angora goat and rabbit lovers will know that the Angora rabbit originated here.  Notice a trend yet??  Ankara is mostly known for the unique type of wool which comes from the goat and rabbit and is called Mohair.

While Ankara is one of the most important historical places in Turkey (due to its' strategic location along the trade routes) there are very little actual historical places here.  The history of the city goes back to 1000BC and the Phyrgians.  Then Lydians, Persians, Greeks, Celts, Romans and Ottomans all had a hand in its expansion and history.  Finally in 1924 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared that this "small town of no importance" would once again become an important centre of commerce and politics and decreed that Ankara would replace İstanbul as the capital of the country.  After this event, Ankara experienced a tremendous period of growth.  Today it is the home of the Turkish government and a massive monument dedicated to Atatürk called Anitkabir.  There are also remnants of Ankara Castle on top of the central hill in Ulus.  Here, you can walk along the tops of the castle walls and look down 100ft to the new pavement below and wonder why no one thought to build a safety wall!!  (Actually I found out from a student later on that there are no safety barriers because there is a law forbidding the agumentation of any historical structures even for something as trifling as tourist safety...

So if the city is located in the middle of a desert in the driest part of the Anatolian region and there's not much of historical significance to see, why are there 4+ million people here?  Well, for the shopping of course!!  Ankara is home to literally hundreds of shopping centres.  You can find any brand in the world here!  And let me tell you, Turkish people loooove shopping!!  When I ask my students about their hobbies, inevitably they all say "shopping"!  There are more things to do here as well, don't get me wrong!  There are thousands of outdoor cafés that are open year round.  There are bars, clubs, lakes, parks, theatres, picnic areas, museums, fantastic restaurants, fortune tellers, festivals, and bazaars.  Every day there is something different to do! 

For instance, tonight the weather here was mild and spring like!  It was lovely.  After work, I rode the metro (yes - we have a subway system here!!  It's small...but the cars were buılt in Thunder Bay, Ontario!!!) to the city centre, Kızılay, and met with my room mate K and another fellow teacher to grab a latté at Starbucks.  Lattés in hand we waited for my boyfriend to pick us up and take us home.  Rather than wasting the beautiful weather by going home and going to bed, we ended up walking along Tunali, the high street in Ankara and quite convienently in our neighborhood.  We stopped off at Lo and Loud for an ice cream cone - I opted for Amerikali Sakiz (or as we like to say Bubblegum) while everyone else went with portakal and çikolata (orange and chocolate).  We continued our walk along the high street, pausing to window shop at Benetton, Nine West, Marks and Spencers, Mango and Paşabahçe (an amazing glass store).  We could smell roasting chestnuts and coffee mingling with the scent of the local street meat called kokoreç (I won't even begin to tell you what its made of - come and try it for yourself!!!).  We could hear restauranteurs calling us in to their establishments and the ever present sound of honking car horns.  As we walked, ice creams in hand, I thought about how lucky I was to call this place home...

Living Arrangements

Alrighty - so now that you have a job in Turkey, where do you live??  Great question...

I was very fortunate in that WSI put me up in a hotel for the first week of my stay.  Despite the lack of training, there was actually quite a bit of support in helping me find accomodations.  Depending on where you want to live in Ankara, rent can be very cheap or very expensive!  Generally though, cost of living is pretty reasonable here.  Finding a furnished place to live can be difficult so going through word of mouth and any other connection you can find yourself is your best bet.  Turkish people are very welcoming to foreigners (especially teachers) so making connections will be easy! 

Anyway, back to me! 

After about 3 days of looking at crappy apartments (yes, you can find a lot of crappy apartments even on this side of the world!!) I was getting disheartened...I didn't want to live in a hotel forever!!  Then I found out, quite by accident, that WSI has a 3 bedroom teacher's apartment that had two rooms vacant!  Why hadn't anyone told me about this sooner??  Simple - the present occupant of the apartment didn't know if we would get along and was somewhat hesitant to offer me a room.  I should tell you here that it was not this person's choice who was permitted to live here as the apartment belongs to the school and not this particular individual.  However, since this person had lived there for a rather long time, they felt like it was their own place.  And, since my manager was on his way out and couldn't really be bothered to help out, he "forgot" to tell me...These actions should have set warning bells off in my head!!  However, I was so blinded by the opportunity of a room that was not a hotel room that I jumped at the chance and moved in that very night!  The apartment was quite nice!  It was recently renovated, clean and had a very large living room area!  The bedrooms were kinda tiny but I had one all to myself!  It certainly was a change from my extra large master bedroom at home with walk-in closet and queen-sized bed, but it would do!

Let me tell you here about Turkish homes...a home is really an apartment for about 95% of the population.  There are very few single family homes in the major cities.  You can see apartment complexes as far as the eye can see in the big cities...They are described like this: 2+1 or 3+1, etc - the first number indicates how many bedrooms and the second indicates how many living areas.  They don't typically count bathrooms like we would in North America...And the biggest difference I've found is that generally there are no built in closets as we know them.  Closets are wardrobes and are typically small...some lucky (rich) people have big, North American, walk-in closets...but alas, I am not one of those lucky (rich) people...in my room I had a crappy built in closet that had been painted so many times that the doors didn't quite close properly.  But I could hang up my clothes and put away my socks and stick up all my photos and cards from Canadian friends and family - and at that point, that was enough for me!!

Also as a disclaimer, I no longer live in the WSI apartment...a better opportunity presented itself just before Christmas and early in the new year I moved out.  Now I live with a different fellow teacher from Australia through whom I can vicariously relive my youth!

Also, I want to add here that Turkey has all the modern convienences of home!  I only say this because during a recent phone call, my step-mother was amazed to learn that we had a microwave oven - "Really??  You have those there too!  Wow, it's just like home then, isn't it?"...I kid you not, this is a real quote...  So yes, for all those people who think that Turkey is a desert with no electricity and no modern efficiencies and only camels for transportation, you are WRONG!  We have washers, dryers, dishwashers, electric and gas stoves, ovens, blenders, toasters, grills, BBQs, mix masters, LED and LCD televisions, Blueray players, Wiis, and any other electronic device you can think of!  Yes, some of the citizens may look old-fashioned and very Mid-Eastern, but looks can be deceiving!!  (Like the 50 something year old covered woman who was sitting which her traditionally dressed husband at a tea house in a small Eastern town whose iPhone rang to the tune of "I'm a Barbie Girl"...yeah, you heard that right...)

You? A Teacher??

Everyone back home came to terms quite quickly with my decision to leave the country.  But it took many people a long time to get around the fact that I wanted to be a teacher.  "You don't have the patience to teach" was the common refrain.  And, in fact, I was very worried about this problem as well...could I be a teacher??  Only time would tell, and with my "you only live once" mentality, I ventured over here to try.

So, after that first week where I was basically thrown into the pool and told to swim, I got the routine of teaching at WSI down pat.  I wish I could say that teaching came naturally to me.  In some ways it has, but I definitely have a lot to learn - the fact that I'm really enjoying it tells me that I have a long time to perfect this new venture of mine!  And let me tell you, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing the look on a student's face when they finally understand something! 

Let's talk about WSI for a minute - Wall Street Institute is not an average school.  It is not a grammar drill and classroom based school.  It focuses on natural language acquisition through conversation and listening.  I am not required to stand in front of a classroom of 30 kids and teach.  I am not even required to prepare classes or mark tests or anything.  All that is expected of us as teachers is that we show up a half hour before our first class, that we make sure the day's students are up to date on their self-studying, and that the class folders have enough materials for each student in that particular class.  Our classes are very small - one to five students for Encounter classes and 12 to 14 for Social Classes.  Our students are university aged and older - mostly professionals - with a need to learn English.  So, they are already interested and willing to learn.  I was a bit apprehensive having to face unruly children and dissinterested teens - but I don't have to deal with any of that!!  In fact, its quite an easy gig which suits me just fine after my stressful sales job back home!! 

This gig was so easy that when an opportunity to manage my own centre was presented, I took it just to have some stress in my life again.  It seems stress is addictive to some people...like caffeine...I thrive on stressful and high paced competitive environments.  WARNING:  Turkey has no stressful, high paced, or competitive teaching environments that I've come across...if you're looking to relax, talk some English and pick up a regular pay cheque, this is the country for you!!  There is no real rush to get anywhere here and time has no real value.  Living here has really changed me from a "rush rush rush" kind of person to a more laid back "don't worry, be happy" person.  So much so that my best friend C, during one of our marathon Skype chats, once commented that she'd never seen me more happy and relaxed.  I guess that's a good thing!

Arrivals

My arrival at Atatürk Airport in İstanbul was uneventful...

Which was a relief because this is what my trip looked like: 4 hour drive to Pearson International Airport, 11 hour flight to İstanbul, to be followed by a 6 hour bus ride to Ankara, followed in turn by a taxi to my hotel...add in waiting times and a 7 hour time change and you're looking at a 24+ hour odyssey...

Anyway, I found a taxi to the bus depot from Atatürk Airport and got on the next bus departing to my new home.  One of the great things about living in Turkey is that there is no need to book bus or train travel in advance!  Prices are usually always the same and if one bus is full, there is another bus 10 minutes later!  Public transportation systems are government funded here which means they are obscenely cheap to use!  A one way ticket to Ankara (a 6 hour bus ride) cost me less than $20 CAD!  Compare that with Greyhound in Canada for a similar length trip!  A short 10 minute taxi ride later, I was passed out on my bed wondering how I would be up the next morning so I wouldn't be late for my first day of work!!!

Through the wonderful people at the TEFL Institute I was able to secure my first teaching position at one of the largest English language institutions in the world - Wall Street Institute.  Feeling excited and nervous, I set out that first Tuesday morning to find my new work place.  I arrived at precisely 10am as instructed.  And the place was empty...well, okay, I wasn't expecting a marching band or fanfare to welcome me on my first day, but I was expecting a person.  Just one!  Anyone!!  I eventually found a janitor.  It turns out that janitors of English schools don't necessarily speak English.  So, I sat.  And sat.  And sat.  At 1pm, the manager of the centre finally showed up.  He hadn't known that I was supposed to be there that day and so looked somewhat put out to see me.  I tried not to let his blasé attitude interfere with my shiny new job excitement.  Let me interrupt for a moment and let you know that this particular manager was on his way out and his last week coincided with my first week which accounted for his attitude - lucky me.  It's a good thing that I had so much positive energy that day because this experience would have turned the "old" me completely off and I would have left.  But I couldn't help wondering what working here was going to be like.  Was everyone going to be like this??  Was there no regard for customer service in this country??  And my biggest worry - What the heck have I gotten myself into??

The Big Question

I guess one big question on everyone's mind is "Why on earth did you choose to move to Turkey??"...Not only my friends and family ask me this - it seems, recently, that everyone here is asking me this too...I wish I could give a good answer....

My best guess is that I needed a change in my life.  But when I saw this, and even as I write it, I feel like a spoiled child who is tired of one play thing and wants to find another more interesting play thing...so maybe this isn't a good guess after all...

My second best guess is that I felt a strong connection and need to experience more about Turkey when I came here last May.

To clarify - I had a good job and a good life in Canada.  Good friends, wonderful family, my own house and car, and a cat who has been my constant companion for the last 10 years...despite all this, I always felt like something was missing...I felt like I only had half a life.  My father's family is so close knit and amazing and I have a great network of close friends that are like family to me as well...I know alot about the history of my father's family and where they come from.  And I even know alot about my step-mother and her family!  But this is only one half of me...and I have always had a desire to learn more about the other half. 

My mother's family was always a kind of mystery.  After her death, there was no communication from them - whether or not this was due to a conscious attempt or just a lack of effort is unclear.  Whatever the reason, it seemed as though, after that point, I had only half a life.  Don't get me wrong - my father's family stepped into the breach in full force so I had no time to realize that something was missing until much later.

Flash forward to last May and my trip to Turkey with my sister.  For her it was an exciting adventure and a chance to see some family we hadn't seen in 20 years...for me, it was an eye-opening experience that teased me with the possibility of having the chance to change my life in a big way while exploring the connection I felt to a country I had no idea about.  The emotional connection I felt when I arrived was so alien to me.  It was the same feeling I would get when I would arrive in my father's driveway after the tedious 6 hour drive from Ottawa...a feeling of home and welcoming and comfort.  Why would I have that same feeling in a strange country half way around the world?  This feeling is the biggest reason I wanted to come here.  This was my missing half...

And how do you explain that to the Turkish people who live here and are desperately looking for a way to move to a more democratic and free country?  It's not easy let me tell you...

Leaving Home

I mentioned previously that I had moved around alot for my job...but this was the first time I was leaving my home, my family, my friends and my country for such an extended period of time.  Emotional is not enough to describe how I felt...

Let me preface this by saying that my family is quite close.  We enjoy having large family gatherings several times a year.  I normally see my family at least every 6 to 8 weeks in some capacity.  The third week of August is traditionally when all of the first and second cousins (plus an aunt or uncle or two for supervision!) come together for a weekend of fun at the family camp on Manitoulin Island.  Unfortunately for me, this special weekend coincided with my flight to Turkey.  I was really bummed about missing it this year...However, unbeknownst to me, my sister and cousins plotted a surprise going away party in place of our annual camping get-together!  It was great to see everyone all together one last time before my big move!  I am not a crier, but I couldn't hold back the tears when I walked into the back yard of cousin S's house and saw the effort that had been spent making my last night at home special.  My cousin has a large, beautiful back yard that had been transformed with balloons, streamers, and hand made "We'll Miss You" and "Good Luck" signs.  There was a bonfire, cake, food, drinks, and tons of well wishes.  Who wouldn't be moved??

The next morning was so surreal.  I knew I was leaving, but the reality of it hadn't really sunk in...I brought my bags upstairs and prepared for the arrival of my best friend C and her then boyfriend K who would be my escorts for the 4 hour trek to Pearson International and my flight to my new life.  We had breakfast like we normally would and carried on as we normally would...then, the doorbell rang... they were here!  More tears as I gave my dad, step-mom and sister hugs good bye.  Even my dad, who is normally so strong and stoic, was crying which made me even more emotional.  I'm getting teary just thinking about it now and it's been over 7 months....One of the hardest things I have ever done is walk out that door that day - my dad didn't want to let go of me and I didn't want to let go of him!  Home has been my safety blanket for my entire life and now I was about to walk out and start a new life alone in a new country. 

So now you know me...

So....you've decided to move to Turkey? Now what??  Well, first things first, you need a job.  What kind of work can you do if you barely speak the native languge of the country you want to move to?  Good question.  Turns out that those of us that only speak English are in high demand here!  As in Canada, where a knowledge of French can open doors, knowing English as a Turkish citizen can get you a better, higher paying position.  So, with plan in hand, I hit the internet to find a way to become an English teacher!  

TEFL Institute, based in Chicago, was my first and only choice.  It was recommended to me by a friend and former TEFLer and I would recommend it to anyone looking to get certified.  The course was interesting and straightforward and the instructors were very helpful.  Two months after I started the course, I had a job, a one-way plane ticket, and a certificate to teach English!  Now what??

Let me tell you that I hate packing and moving...in my previous life (before teaching) I moved yearly for my job.  I have lived in big cities, small cities, northern cities, and military towns.  Packing and moving was a skill I had down to an art...but I had never tried to pack all my worldy possessions into a 23kg weight allowance...After months of indecision and repacking, and a last minute unpack the day before I got on the plane, I was finally ready to get on my way.

First Things First...

So, this is my first attempt at blogging.  An unoriginal intro, I know...I guess the best thing would be to start with who I am and how exactly I got here (here being Ankara, Turkey).

I am a thirty-something adventurous spirit from Ontario, Canada with an addiction to shoes and Sweet Tarts.  I have your average dysfunctional blended Italian family complete with black sheep and do-gooders.  But the defining moment of my life was when I lost my mother at the age of 12.  It was from this point on that I started to view life differently.  I started to do things more impulsively because you never know when your time will be up. 

I had a fairly normal life growing up...but I always felt there was more to see or do than what I was able to experience. 

About a year ago, I decided to leave my job with a large international company and see where life would take me.  As you can imagine, my friends and family were somewhat shocked at the suddeness but not really surprised by my decision.  For the first few days I vegetated...well, after I returned from my spontaneous visit to the Canadian Rockies for some skiing...and reflected about what I wanted to do.  I knew that above all I wanted to travel more, so I did.  For about 3 months - alternating between short visits around my home province and longer visits to other parts of Canada, the US and Europe. 

I was fortunate enough to be in Turkey (my mother's birthplace) for Mother's Day with my younger sister.  I felt such a connection to the country that when my cousin jokingly suggested that I move to Turkey, a small seed of an idea immediately started growing in my mind...maybe I could do this??