Just in case we gave the impression that everything is perfect I thought I should share our frustration over our apartment heat. I think I mentioned that in Turkey they don’t typically turn the heat on until October 15th and it was pretty cold that week. We bought a space heater and made the best of it and then it warmed up; however, the 15th has come and gone and still no heat. Apparently the heating system in our building is broken. Our emlak (realtor) has been working with us to solve the problem but so far no resolution. The building owner did bring a big space heater over today so right now we are toasty. Everyone here keeps telling us how cold it is going to get so we are anxious for a resolution. We really don’t want to move from our location, it’s a great part of town.
The other issue that could be interesting is that the other woman from England who was the third native speaker at school went back to England unexpectedly. I doubt that she will be back so we don’t know what that means for us. ( Stay posted for the update.) The other Turkish teachers were surprised and I think a little anxious about what that means for them as well. somehow we’ll all have to cover the classes she had.
Back to the good side of our adventure is how much fun it is to run into our students on the street. We’ve also met several parents at school functions and they all want to know if their children speak English to us. Sometimes it’s yes and sometimes we or at least I should speak for myself (Carol here), I’m surprised that the child speaks as much English as they do. Some are shy and sometimes the class size doesn’t allow for much speaking time. My class sizes go all the way from 6 in the 4th grade to 24 in one of my 1st grade classes. I do a lot of coloring exercises in my kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade classes because the activity keeps the kids occupied while I go around the room asking questions about what they are coloring. I love seeing their eyes light up when they say the correct English words and I say “great job” or do a “thumbs up”.
The children get a lot of English classes during the week. I think it’s around 8 class sessions of 40 minutes each. They get much more than the public schools according to the other teachers at our school. I would love to just have 6 in all my classes but that is never going to happen.
Our favorite pizza in Tucson was at Zona 78 and we have now found something almost as good. The restaurant is called Passage (pasage with a short a) and they even have an English menu. The pizza is 8 TL which is about $5.00. Last night we went to the new restaurant down the street that just opened. It’s called the Traveler’s Irish Pub but the only thing Irish about it is the beer. The menu has a great fish fillet but the really nice thing is that the manager who I’ve mentioned in several other blogs requested that the chef make us a vegetable plate. When we ask what we should do when he isn’t there to interpret he told us to just say the American’s are here.
That’s enough for now, the good still outweighs the bad, but next time I’ll tell you about my technology frustrations!!
It's hard to think about being cold. I know that the heat thing can be a problem any time you live in a rented place. Our weather has changed for being cold seems a little more real and I can see how you are starting to worry. Good luck.
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