Every kind of ham, except one actually made from a pig

So I am a bit more settled in these days. I finally have my flat all settled down. I have a new bed, it’s just on the floor with a carpet under it, but I really feel cozy at home. You can buy these cool wardrobes that are just a frame and some cloth over them very cheap, so I got one for myself and am finally moved out of my suitcases!!! I live in a part of town called Bornova now, it is a very student oriented part of town, where a big university called Ege University (where Ebru graduated:) that creates the student atmosphere here. I am really lucky that my good friend Oktay lives right across the road from me, and I have a bus back to Buca, where Ebru lives, and a bus to the area I work, Alsancak!

So Indeed I have started work. I work at a very cool place called British Culture. I am teaching what they call lower intermediate English to approximately four to nine students. I am only working 12 hours on the weekends right now, but it should increase. My students range from 15 years old up to 41 years old, which is difficult to cater to, but provides a great variety of stories, thoughts and abilities. They all seem like they want to learn and are having a good time with me in class; I am having a great time with them! The view from my classroom is really wonderful; you can see the sea and all around the city. On the days we are lucky we can go through the classroom beside us onto the balcony on the roof and spend our break enjoying the view!

The animals around here are really great. There are stray dogs and cats absolutely everywhere, as I may have mentioned before. They are all super friendly, at least the dogs anyways, and are always happy to have a quick scratch behind the ears or a stomach rub. There is one puppy who lives near Ebru's house which I like to think of as my adopted puppy! He is always excited to see me and me him. Even some of the cats here are nice! usually they hate everyone. If you sit near them, they will jump into your lap and curl up.

I am starting to find some favorite places around town, which include a restaurant named Mandolin Cafe, which is right on the sea and serves the best roast beef sandwich I have ever had! There is a waiter there who speaks really good English and always has time to come talk for a few minutes with me when I am there. Ebru and I spent a very nice valentine’s day there last night having some wonderful Turkish wine and food.

Unfortunately my Turkish has not improved very much so far. I am always with people who speak both English and Turkish so I am rarely forced to speak Turkish. One fun experience I had recently was searching out real pork in Izmir. We searched all over and finally found some salami and deli sliced ham.... unfortunately it cost 125 lira for one kilo! That translates to approximately 70 cents per slice! The reason I decided to put "every kind of ham, except one actually made from a pig" is that you can buy turkey pork, beef pork, chicken pork, and anything else you can think of, just not pork pork! It is pretty amusing. After when we went to buy bread we found bacon! We all went back to Oktay's house and I cooked the bacon up and made some turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese sandwiches. They really loved them! There first experience with bacon was a good one. Maybe next time I will make bacon egg and cheese biscuits for them!

Ebru's family, and especially Ebru have taken really good care of me here. I have an open invitation at their house for any meals, and a place to stay any night I want. I taught them how to play dominoes, which is a favorite of my family back in the US. Her mom is a great player. She will pick up a tile, if it is too high of a number, she will show you and say something like "too much" in Turkish, put it back, and pick something else up! haha.

Ebru took me to a really cool hotel where they have a big, heated, outdoor pool where you can go at night a pay around 6 dollars and swim as long as you want! It’s a really relaxing place where you can spend a few hours under the stars in a nice warm pool. You have to go through a crazy "car wash" when you leave the changing rooms. It is just a small passage way with a bunch of water sprayers in every direction that you have to walk through to get to the pool. It really feels like u are walking through a car wash! I think we will go again tomorrow night!

I have found a new bakery that I can spend less than 1 lira on breakfast and have some really amazing pastries. My favorite is called pogaca, filled with cheese. It is relatively sweet bread with cheese of other fillings and it is really amazing when it is hot!

My favorite Turkish food here is still Manti, it is similar to a tortellini, but filled with meet. You cover it with a plain yogurt (essentially something like sour cream) and a tomatoes sauce. It is really really delicious.

One thing that is very odd is that in a tree on my way to Kucuk park (the street with all the cafes) there are around 12 bright green parakeets. I do not think they are native to turkey, or are natural, so I am curious where they came from. I thought they could have escaped from a house close to there, but that many? They have a home in the tree and live there. Maybe I can research and find out from Google if they are native. They are too far away for a picture as of now, so maybe I can add one next time.

I took a trip to a city called Didim with the lovely Ebru, and our friends Cagin and Hakan. Hakan’s parents live there now in a nice little town home. We stopped in some beautiful beach and port towns along the way to take pictures, and buy some fish for dinner. We ended up with an entire sword fish and an octopus. We got to Didim and walked along the beach, then went to prepare dinner. We had a huge dinner of the fish, an octopus salad (Ebru's favorite) and some vegetables. It was a nice meal. His parents smoked more than any other people I have met in my life though! Didim is a beautiful city, with beautiful beaches and some great historical places, sadly it was pouring down rain the next day and we could not really do anything but drive home. I think we will return in the summer when we can see more. I already knew Didim from house hunters international when my mom, dad, and I watched that episode before I came.

The weather here is warming up a little bit already and Spring is on the horizon. My next post I will update everyone on my trip to Antalya with Ebru and our adventures there(including awesome pictures)!

I still miss everyone back home alot and hope you will come for a visit!