Autumn in Izmir

     November 2009
          Autumn snuck up on Izmir, hitting it with it's sharp light and long shadows, but it couldn't take it by surprise. The cold air sparks the coal furnace and the air begins to thicken with black smoke. The lights  glow dim now and sometimes they can't be seen from across the bay. Some evenings when the pressure is low, the air is so think in the streets, it is difficult to breath. - "get used to it" is the expression. So we sit cozy warm in the apartment and hope for the winds to blow out the exhaust by morning. But, It does make beautiful sunsets every night!

     Rena is in the groove of school and getting more accustom to the Turkish curriculum. The Ministry sets the curriculum, with little room for creative educational exploration. It's the way it is and she is accepting this role in this educational system. Other than that - kids are kids -and it seems not too different from the states; good days, bad days, loving and amazing kids and little stinkers. Some days she's home by 4:30, other days, maybe be a  meetings, or works late etc. but never past 6.pm. Which means dinner is on the table and we enjoy the evenings together. A great change from our Seattle life, when a week would go by and we would only see each other for  "good night" and "good morning".  It's been nice spending our lives together. Oh, and she loves her commute-a few minute walk or 1&1/2 song in her ipod !

       I am finding my groove here as well. I visit my new one year old friend, Gulse, 3 times a week, for an hour. She is adorable. We look at books, roll balls around, discover little things like tape, and open/close, up/ down ...that sort of thing. It is a blast and the girl is hilarious.  I often feel like a sports commentator giving an English play by play to Gulse's play. After we finish our hour of early childhood developmental English education. The family serves me breakfast. Over beautiful food we talk, trading stories and language. This one hour session usually takes most of the morning due to breakfast, tea and conversations. They are wonderful folks and enjoy the mornings with the family.
 

After that I have the day. Often stop at my new pal Veysi's Tatlilar (dessert shop) and we sit for more tea and trade language. It's sort of a barbershop setting. Familiar faces usually stop in for a hello, tea, and they share the news of the day over some bakliva or börek (layered pastry w/cheese/egg). Yesterday was interesting. It was the before the holiday(Bayram) and a lot of people coming to order.  I sat with 2 other guys and put small boxes together for the bayram orders. We must have put 100 packets together for orders that were ringing off the hook and we talked about religion, local strike, family and football. It was good to be working and I gained the nickname Kutulı Bey (box man)

Other days I have errands to run, books to read, journals to write or whatever. I started writing a story or I 'll work on drawings or get lost on the internet. All I know is time moves at different paces and soon I'm in the kitchen chopping something and exploring the Turkish kitchen cuisines getting ready for an evening with Rena.

     We had a day trip to the last Nazer (evil eye) factory near Izmir. You can get there buy a city bus. It was a new route for us, with lots to see on the hour ride. We arrive at the end of the line in a tiny rural town of Görece and start to walk around hoping to find the big factory. We couldn' find the place and after gathering enough nerve, we asked a local about the factory. He looked a bit confused, but when in  here's a tip: When in Turkey-just ask! People here are so nice they'll help. The owner of a shop pointed us in the right direction, of course the road forked a few times, and we wandered with photo opportunities of a locals,  horse, cool chicken coops and cows. We turn a corner and we saw a hand painted blue eye. "That's it"! We walked up and to our surprise it was someones home. I think that was the confused look of "factory" with the shop owner.  It was a house with nazars hanging all around and one in sight, but in the back, we found the "factory".  It was  a "garage" and inside  a clay furnace/kiln for fabricating the eyes. Amazing.  Soon someone appeared from the house to say merhaba and we supported the local artist by filing our bags with eyes to ward off the evil.

 

Now we are safe!
      Our next adventure starts with a visitor! Cuz'n Patty won the first visiter's award- Free unlimited stay in Turkey w/ bus pass. Congrats Pats- it was so great to see you!
                       Next blog:  Cuzn'Vistit................... stay tuned.