Our Place

We have been treated with the highest degree of hospitality. Rena and I were met at the airport and taken to our new apartment. We were overwhelmed with the size, location and the view! Everything is include, dishes, pots, pans, tea set...the school even went as far as to fill our fridge with fruit, cheese, bread, and beer (Efes). Our Apartment building is located on a happening cedessi (ave.) full of groceries with fruit overflowing onto the street. Each shop specializes in there own expertise. Eckmekci, giyimevi, eczane, kasap,sakuteri...bakery, clothing, chemist/pharmacy, butcher, delicatessen..taze,taze,taze(fresh, fresh, fresh!!!). So daily we buy a little fresh food for meals. If we don't feel like cooking there are plenty of inexpensive restaurants. And of course I'll hit a place for tea and sit with the men. I can catch a word or two, but am enjoying watching people, practicing word sounds and observing their mannerisms. The bus system is easy to manage and we can take ferries for the same cost to other parts of the city across the bay.
We have downloaded Skype computer phone network. And it's free to talk computer to computer...give us a jingle...noon today Izmir= 2 am West coast/5 am East....we're in the future! and it's looking good!

Izmir

Izmir is Turkey's third largest city- the ancient Smyrna- it is home to over 2 million people. The city is pretty modern after it was built from scratch after a city wide fire in 1922 (like Seattle kinda). But it has been a pleasure to walk around and discover it's inner beauty. There are many historical sight we have visited and many we hope to still visit. Izmir is built on a horseshoe shaped bay on the Aegean Sea. The bay is not swimming worthy, but beaches are a mere 40 minutes away (post on that after tomorrow). We have visited Pasaport Pier built in 1867, Konak Pier (the old customs buildin) built in 1884, Yali Mosque built in the 18th century, The clock tower built in 1801, Asansor ( The historical elevator) built in 1907, and Kemeralti (the historic bazaar). You can travel by bus, ferry, taxi or subway.

Overall, it is a very laid back city with friendly people. There are different neighborhoods, each witth their own feel. Where we live is called Goztepe. There is a waterfront pathway from our area that goes all the way to downtown. We have walked bits of it. The attached photos are from our walks and ferry rides around the city.

Istanbul

We just returned from a 3 day stay in Istanbul. It is only a 45 minute flight from Izmir. The Turkish Airlines insists on serving you food. As soon as you get your sandwich and tea, they come by collecting your food and then land the plane. We went to Istanbul for new teacher orientation. It took place at one of our sister schools on the Asian side of Istanbul. Our hotel was on the Europe side, and European it was. Istanbul is huge and spread out. There are very few tall buildings due to the number of earthquakes that take place in eastern Turkey. The orientation was dense and included such subjects as economics, politics and art. There were two guest artists showing the art of Oya (Turkish lace dating back to 2000 bc) and Ebru (paper marbling). The first evening, we went out in the area where were staying (Taksim). It is very hip and busy. Tons of cafes and bars and shops. The Turkish tend to spend a lot of time outside in the evenings when it is cooler. People walk the main streets and shop and dine. We drank Efes (a brand of Turkish beer) and made friends with the waiters. Gary exchanged e-mails with them by the end of the night. When you go to a bar/cafe and are only drinking they make sure there is a snack of sorts on the table. This night we had cucumber sticks, nuts and Doritos.

The next day we were able to do some touring around. There are huge mosques everywhere and the minarets can be seen all over the city. We visited Hagia Sophia. It is an extraordinary piece of architecture. It was built in 360 as a church. When the Turks conquered Istanbul in 1453 it was ordered to be converted into a mosque. In 1940 it became a museum. You no longer have to cover your head to enter.

We also went to The Underground Cistern that was built in 532 and was water storage for the grand palace. It used to hold 90 million gallons of water. It is 452 feet long and 213 wide. There are many underground cisterns in Istanbul.

That evening all the new teachers were treated to a dinner cruise along the Bosporus. What an amazing way to see the city. The river is lined with fancy houses, mosques and castles. When it was evening call to prayer we were still on the water and could hear the call from 20 different mosques at once. It was truly amazing.

We didn't have time to go to the Grand Bazaar. Shopping in Istanbul is supposed to be great. I did get a chance to do some mini shopping in the area we were staying in. Lots of scarves, spices and evil eyes.

We look forward to visiting Istanbul again.

Learning Language

Overwhelmed with words. I am starting slow with P's&Q's, numbers and colours. It's a fascinating agglutinating language with vowel harmonies in a subject,object,verb order. For instance: In order to change the "to be" statement into a question the verb ending added to the word is divided and the question identifier is added in the middle turning Guzel(beautiful) to Guzelim (I am beautiful) to Guzel miyim? (am I beautiful?) the extra y is added to extend and seperate the i_i in mi_im......Got it! yeh!
I am a bit lost...but lutfen(please), sog lun(thank you) , ne demek Ingilizce(what does it mean in English) and Tamam(ok) will get me far for now. Serefe! (Cheers)

Homeless

It's official our house is leased. Today I ran some errands on the scooter to get an international drivers permit. Pulled in the driveway, took off my helmet and realized .....I don't live here. If your looking for us-We are at the cuzn's house getting the ducks in order and waiting for a new address in Izmir.