The first few weeks in Izmir

The first few weeks here in Izmir have been a blur! They have gone by very very quickly.

I arrived and celebrated new years with Ebru, Cagin, and Hakan... sorry for any misspellings, I also do not have any of the extra keys that Turkish keyboards have. Anyways, one new tradition I learned is that in Turkey it is good luck to wear red underwear on New Years eve! haha. So luckily my friends were nice enough to have bought me a pair for that day! I have one year of good luck coming my way!

Pretty quickly after I got here i began my job search. I am mostly looking for jobs with English teaching schools... they generally work with young adults, seems like the average is 25-40 years old. There seem to be too many of them here but at least it gives me some options. I have had good response from two. Address and British Culture. I did some observations with Address so far and they were fairly enjoyable... kinda boring. I also talked with one high school about teaching a literature class. For those of you who know me, you know reading is not my favorite thing in the world, so it might be a bad fit... its my last ditch idea. So now I am going to do a few observations at British Culture, see what they both offer me, and make my decision. I hopefully also can find some private lessons... they pay goooooooood.

So non work related life, I have found some guys to play soccer with which is pretty awesome, unfortunately the field we play on is a AstroTurf field which is built on a concrete base, so the ground is like a rock! not good for a goalie to have to dive on. It is also inlaid with small rubber particles that tear your skin up... but at least I'm playing! I am also going to the studio to play music with some guys I met here, nothing serious, just playing some awesome classic rock with some really talented guys... to bad none of us can sing or we would be famous! haha.

I have been living with Ebru's family since I got here, but just moved into a flat today. My roommate is a Turkish guy who works at the University teaching beginners English. Staying with Ebru's family really provided me with some interesting challenges. For starters, i do not speak Turkish and they do not speak English. This can be overcome with lots and lots of pointing and confusion. I now understand how to say breakfast (kavalte) and tea (chay). Her mom makes me a great Turkish breakfast every morning, which is definitely a very lucky thing for me. Turkish breakfast usually consists of a few kinds of cheese, pretty strong salty cheese; a beef sausage called sucuk, some bread which can vary from just a regular loaf of bread, to simit (a donut shaped bread with sesami seeds) or something called boyos, which you can only get in Izmir! tomatoes, cucumber, black and green olives, and some various jams, jellies, and honey. Breakfast here takes usually at least one hour to eat because you sit, take a bite, then talk for a while. You drink a few cups of tea, then after the meal, you make Turkish coffee. This is served in a small cup, like and espresso cup, and is made with a grainy coffee ground. You end up with a thick but of coffee and grain at the bottom of your cup. Its a great tradition, but very time consuming to go through this every day.

I am starting to get used to hearing the call to prayer five times a day every day now, but it still seems very exotic to me. It is really beautiful to see all the mosques along the hillsides here. At dusk when the sun is going down over the mountains and you see all the silhouettes it is a really awesome view. I am lucky to be surrounded by mountains and right on the Aegean all at once.

From Ebru's house it takes me an hour to get most anywhere, in fact, it seems like no matter where you go in this city, regardless of where you started, everything takes an hour. I do not think that has any logic, but I am pretty sure its true!

I will get more into culture here and talk more about my city in my next post, but hope this was a good start for everyone! I miss everyone and of course, you are all welcome here!