Interesting two days

Well, a  lot has happened in the last two days.  We both met with our employers late yesterday.  The private school is beautiful. Kindergarten through 10th grade. It has a full sports facility including swimming pool and every modern thing you can think of.  It’s only been open for two years.  We are the first American teachers they have hired.  There are several Turkish English teachers but they wanted native English  speakers. We will have a driver pick us up at our apartment at 8:00 and drop us off after 4:30 Monday through Friday.  School doesn’t start until Sept 20th but we will be in planning meetings with other English teachers starting Sept 1st.  (There’s a four day holiday in there and we’re trying to figure out where to go)  They were surprised that we needed work visas so we thought that might be a deal breaker but they got on the phone and figured out how to do it.  Fortunately we knew to bring our original college diplomas and TEFL certificates which they needed to begin the work on our permits. After our meeting yesterday we were invited to a dinner for local dignitaries at the school.  We felt very honored to be included.  There were about 35 people and some of them had studied in the states and we were able to communicate.  One of the owners of the school had spent his honeymoon in Las Vegas in 2005.

So, we now have two Turkish phones and a beautiful three bedroom apartment overlooking the river right in the central part of town for the next year.  We are describing it as a mini version of Paris.  We haven’t taken any pictures yet but we will soon.  Our apartment is on the 6th floor (yes it has an elevator),partly furnished so we have to buy the basics but wait until you read the best part!!  The whole three bedroom including a balcony and utilities is about 750 Turkish lira a month.  That includes internet and the rest of the essentials.  It’s being painted so we can’t move in until Sept 1st but we have a  very nice hotel in the meantime.  We were hoping for a two bedroom but never expected 3.  To put everything in perspective we will be paid Turkish lira each a month.  So far everything we’ve seen has been very reasonable at best.  There are dozens of cafes within a block or two.  Our contact has a network of everyone we will need for just about everything you can think of. A load of laundry is 6 lira,   washed, dried and folded.  Most of the American movies are here and we’re big movie fans so there are two theaters with about 16 screens.  Some of the movies have dubed but most are in English with Turkish subtitles.

The downside and I’m sure there will be  some but we can’t think of too many right now is we really really need to learn some Turkish.  Without our contact we will be very challenged.  Getting around will be easy but most of the menus are in Turkish.

Enough rambling for now.